Roman Harper, Former Alabama Safety

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Find it wherever you buy laundry products. Alright, and we continue this at the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Forget Tin Tebow. Let's welcome in the real star of the SEC Network. That is the former safety for the New Orleans Saints and the Carolina Panthers.

Won a Super Bowl and played for Alabama. Now doing a dominant job each and every Saturday and all throughout the week on the SEC Network. That is my pal in Roman Harper. Roman, what's happening? Zach, what's up, bro? Good talking to you, man.

I appreciate the shout out. Not too often I'm compared to a star, but I'll take it, though, because I don't sweat a lot. And I was always told you never see a star sweat. Well, I'm sweating a lot today.

The listeners in the YouTube chat, they're actually pointing out that I have pit stains in this sweatshirt that I'm wearing right now. So I thought I was a star, but that's a humbling moment for me right now. I realize that I'm very irrelevant because I'm sweating under the bright lights. It happens, dude. I'm trying to block out this one little light that's in my room because it's like really bothering me. Okay, I'm ready. It's all good, bro.

I mean, sweat stains happen just usually not for me. Yeah. Well, that's because you're an actual star. Roman Harper is here with us. Before we talk some football, I don't know how much you caught in this conversation.

I was going on my yearly rant and then I got to you late. I'm not a big fan of turkey. I think turkey is overrated. My family no longer does turkey on Thanksgiving. Your thoughts on Turkey. So I you got to have Turkey because it's like traditional, but like Turkey is too easy to mess up for me. It's like if it's not cooked just right, like it's not juicy enough. Gets dry.

More complaints. I actually prefer ham. I eat way more ham man than I do turkey.

That's really it. I don't hate on it. I like it, you know, sometimes deep fried. I kind of like the fried turkey that kind of it's kind of good too, but I don't think my wife doesn't do that too often. So I mean, when I get it, I enjoy it. Maybe I like it because I don't get it that often.

Maybe that's what it is, too. But Turkey is traditional. I prefer ham.

It seems like what you're saying is you have it just to have it. You pick at it a little bit and then you go, oh, this is kind of a dry bird. I'll push it to the side. Load me up on that hand.

That's what Roman Harper said. Yeah, I'll take the ham and I'll take some chicken. You know, I'm saying like Turkey's like I take the other two, though. Yeah, it's not in like my top five power rankings of food that I would ever want. Like if you go through the college football rankings and you kind of did that with food, it'd be like 24, 25, maybe even outside of the top 25. It's probably outside the top 25. If I go all food and not just Thanksgiving. I mean, Thanksgiving is going to crack my probably top 12.

But it's not it's not going to make or break me either way. So it would make the expanded version of the playoffs is what you're saying when you go to 12 teams talking to Roman Harper. The 2024 version.

The 2024 version. They'll finally get in. Turkey's kind of like Notre Dame. That's what it is.

They always look like the part. But then when they actually play a big game, they just don't show up already. Let me get to Alabama. So I thought Alabama season was on life support. I was ready to pull the plug when they were at halftime up against Tennessee and then they come out firing in that third quarter. I know you are an Alabama alum, but you do work for the SEC network.

Where is the confidence? Big one this weekend for Alabama hosting LSU with what you saw last week. It's as an Alabama alum, actually, the confidence is pretty high just because Alabama is. But it's this is such a tough game to really talk about and maybe try and decide because LSU wants to turn this into a track meet. That is their way to win this game. This game's got to be high scoring. They wanted up tempo, up pace.

They need to start fast. They need this game in their high 30s 40s. That's a formula for LSU to win this game. They don't mind giving up points because the moment they score their offense gets right back on the field. So I know they mind, but it's not there and it doesn't kill them because their offense is what runs the whole ship anyway. Their defense is just just a way to slow down their offense, obviously. Honestly, it's been kind of atrocious, honestly, as far as LSU's defense is concerned. But Alabama itself is my confidence has grown in this team because I didn't know what to expect earlier in the year. I thought they were going to be this one team that like ran the football and play action passed off that. And they're not like that at all. So that got this team has kind of grown and matured and found their own identity throughout this season.

I think it's a team that was told that they were going to be great all year long or that they were going to be so good. And they believed it. But you still got to go out there and prove it to yourself.

And so and then you finally start to understand who you are. And it's been kind of interesting to see, you know, if I would have thought that they were going to beat Texas A&M, I never thought it was going to be able to say, like, they can't run the ball at all. And Jalen Millrow is going to be able to throw him, throw him a game and win it for him that way.

He did that. I never thought that they would be down 20 to seven versus Tennessee and have a way to come back. But they did that as well. And all of a sudden, they stiffened up on defense. They found a way to be a continue to be explosive on offense. And they came there. So they're winning games that we don't see them winning or like we don't anticipate the way that is going to go.

And they say the best versions are the best teams always find ways to win. And that's who this Alabama team is starting to become. I don't know why, but the defense is playing extremely well, especially the secondary. And now the defensive line is really playing stout and really great against the run. They're getting after the passer, which I think this week is going to be highly dangerous. You've got to keep Jalen, Jayden Daniels in the pocket.

You can't let him escape. So for me, it's going to come down to game plan and execution. How does Alabama's defense, how do they execute the game plan? And for LSU, how do they turn this into a track meet for LSU or Alabama? You know, whoever goes to the SEC title game. Do you view either of those teams having enough this year to take down Georgia in the SEC championship game in a few weeks? With all due respect, I think Alabama is a better matchup because Alabama can at least get some stops on defense. I don't think LSU could score enough versus Georgia. Georgia is too good defense, but you're not going to score every possession on them. They're too sound.

They're too they're way too big up front. They're way too fast on defense. So I think Georgia would be a little bit too much for LSU as far as matchups are concerned.

I would like the matchup of Alabama, not trying to be a homer, but I feel like they have the right balance of really good defense, explosive enough offensively and to be able to stay within the game. But Georgia right now is on a different level than everybody else. They play games that are close, but it's almost like they're just playing with their food. And then whenever they they get challenged enough, they rise up and they just beat you back down. And it doesn't matter. And so every time we think they're going to be challenged, they're never challenged. And so it's going to be really interesting because they got a really big matchup this weekend versus Missouri at Athens, where if we would have said anything was going to play close to Georgia last year, nobody would have guessed Missouri.

And it was. And this year's version of Missouri is way better than it was of last year's version. I think the matchup to look at that, as I talk to more experts that watch it and really pay attention to it even more than me, which I think I'm pretty good, is going to be the D-line of Georgia versus the offensive line of Missouri. Missouri's O-line, they play decent, but I don't know if they're big enough and physical enough to go up against this Georgia defense. That's where this game is going to be won or lost. All right.

Roman Harper here with us. When you look at the first college football playoff rankings, Ohio State was one. I don't think Ohio State's the best team in the country, but I understand why they were ranked one. But then I go through the rest of the rankings like, all right, Washington has a win up against Oregon, who's six.

But Washington wouldn't be in the top four. And then Florida State, I know their wins haven't aged well, necessarily. But Florida State, the committee basically told them, you got to go undefeated or you don't get in. Your biggest takeaway from the playoff committee when it's always confusing was one.

That week one means absolutely nothing, that it usually works itself out at the end of the day. Now, let's talk about the actual rankings. Penn State and Notre Dame are the two teams that are propping all the decision making up. So you always got to find that one outlier that's really helping to build the basis of where the committee is at.

You got to like look deeper than just the numbers. They say that Penn State's a really good team. They haven't played anybody.

They haven't beaten anybody that's really that good. But they're ranked at what? Eleven. Yeah. And then Notre Dame's at twelve or thirteen. So Ohio State's number one because they beat Penn State and Notre Dame. Two top 15 teams. Yeah.

So right there. When you watch those games, like I thought Notre Dame should have defeated Ohio State. They dropped an interception and I'll give them credit for the victory up against Penn State. But James Franklin has turned Penn State into participation State University. We're after the game. He's like, oh, we had a good effort.

Good job. Like give me a break that this is this is what I'm talking about. This is the debate that I have with my friends every week. It's like you can look at the rankings and get mad, but you should really look at the outliers that are basing or propping these other teams up. So that is why Ohio State's number one. I don't know why Georgia's number two. Georgia has only won for two straight years and just completely dominated the college football scene.

But whatever. And also the target moves. It's that, OK, well, this year is strength of schedule. Well, this year it's lack of strength of schedule. It's also quality wins or quality loss.

So all the targets always moving in the CFP talking. Number three is Michigan, which I think this is my biggest tip right now. This whole Michigan scandal is way bigger. And we're going to talk about that.

I'll finish my comment. But and I think Florida State should be much higher. I really appreciate the way Florida State's played. They're kind of rolling through the ACC and add some great quality wins. I think that's a better team than what they're given credit for.

Washington at five. I like them as a Pac-12, but the Pac-12 continues to eat amongst themselves. And and we'll see how they do as they continue to get through the season.

Oregon. I mean, I watched them. I don't think they're better than Texas or Alabama in a one on one matchup.

That's my opinion. And Texas should also be moved down a slot because they told us that injuries matter. So is Texas the seventh best team with Quinn Ewers not playing quarterback?

I don't believe so. But that's what they're telling us. They're also in front of an Oklahoma team that that they lost to. So that's another thing. It's just all weird.

I don't understand it. Ole Miss is another team that could really benefit from a 12 team playoffs because they're a team that could really go in there and wreck a lot of havoc versus non-SEC opponents named Alabama. All right. Let's get to Michigan real quickly. Wrap it up with Roman Harper.

This will be the last thing I ask you. I don't think the Big Ten should step in and do anything before the end of the season. Where are you at with this one? I agree with your statement. This should not be a conference stepping in because they want to get the money at the end of the day. They're trying to get in the playoffs. And if they can get to win, that's what they're going to do.

So they will protect themselves. I totally understand that. I respect that. But the NCAA must step in and do something.

Accountability must be held somewhere, Zach. That's my only problem. I don't look I come from the school of if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying. So I get it. I get it.

I'm trying to get an edge all the time. Right. But it's something to be said to go be sneaking and stealing signs like baseball back in whatever day. And it's just look, you still got to stop the play. But you're Michigan.

You should just be able to line up and beat these teams. You don't need to go out there and cheat to do it. It's and I don't like the accountability piece about it because nobody's being held accountable. You're telling me this little guy that probably makes thirty thousand dollars or forty thousand dollars a year is buying plane tickets and putting buying base best seats in the house to be able to sit up there and steal signs. And then when we ask people above them, they're like, they have no answer. I don't even know. I don't know what you're talking about.

I don't know how he got there. It's just for me, the accountability piece is missing. And that is the disrespect that I really feel for everybody that's involved, because if you're telling me it doesn't give you edge, you're lying. And if you're saying that Ole Miss can still win these games, maybe so.

But by how much? And so when they're blowing everybody else out and they're stealing and cheating and doing it the wrong way, because if everybody could do it, then there's no complaint. But it's clearly said that the coaches make all these rules, Zach, and they know they can't do it. And so it just to me, it's so low blow. It's egregious, honestly, egregious. That's the term I'm using for it. And I want somebody to be held accountable for it and not just some G.A. that's getting thrown out.

And now it's getting more attention than he's ever had in his life. Yeah, I've always said this, that there needs to be a punishment and they did something wrong. But like people that think you need to basically like put an end to the Michigan program over this, that's just that's too far to make. No, I'm not saying you're saying that. I'm talking about other people's reaction. I know that you're not saying that.

No, not at all, man. Look. So, look, I played Alabama. We got put on both suspension. So I get the whole suspense, like you lose scholarships and all that stuff. But I told you, I would feel better if just somebody stood up and said, you know, it was on me.

All right. Have some kind of accountability. And so when I'm watching week after week, more of this stuff is coming out and more is coming out and there's still no accountability piece. That's when I think the NCAA needs to step in and say, you know what, if you're not going to step up and do something yourself and say it's your fault, apologize and like cut it out.

Then you've got to step in. And I'm not saying they don't get to get in the playoffs, but something needs to be done because it's just such an unfair advantage when nobody else can do it. In NFL, everybody can do it. So nobody cares. Right. Yeah. But in college, it's a known fact you can't do it and you shouldn't have to do it.

You're Michigan. That's my other part about it. I just think it's a huge accountability piece that's missing. And if they don't do it, the NCAA needs to step in and smack them down to make sure that they know not to do it again and that the accountability piece is held for somebody. Well, we know the NCAA is going to wait and wait and wait because they're like by mile time.

They move very, very, very, very slowly. It's going to be unfortunate because the season is going to go by. Michigan may get in, they may not, whatever. I don't even care what happens. And then you're going to look up and they're going to try and vacate wins. And I'm like, dude, it already happened.

We know what happened. Yeah, it's a stupid part that the NCAA does. It's a stupid part. They should either not allow them right now, just come in and step in and say you're done.

All right. Nobody would like it, but nobody liked that Jim Harbaugh and his crew went out there and did what they did either. So they kind of earned this one. It's not like, you know, we're not coming out of just anywhere just trying to pick on Michigan. Michigan kind of earned this one. I'm not thinking it's a huge deal because on the field, but in college, like you're just Michigan. And so why are you already going and doing those things like Michigan State?

Like you're already better than them. Like it doesn't make sense. Ohio State, I get it. You know what I mean? But like you're still in town for Michigan State, bro. Like why? Like you don't need to do that. It's just it just really, really bothers me, Zach. I'm sorry.

I'm taking you long on my rant. But this is like something that I feel is such a competitive advantage at this level. You know, at this level, it's such a competitive advantage. And it should be, it should not be allowed. It's not allowed. And I am missing the accountability piece.

I think that's the most disappointing part. He is Roman Harper. Always love when we get to chat with him.

The star of the SEC Network, Tim Tebow. Roman, thanks so much, my friend. Zach, thank you, man. Keep keep telling that. Maybe the word is spread. Thank you. You got it.