JJ McCarthy Shouldn’t Be Banned From Heisman (Hour 2)

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Find it wherever you buy laundry products. How we doing on a Thursday? This is that Gelb show. Hour number one of the books. We start hour number two right now. Bobby Carpenter, the former NFL and Ohio State linebacker, will stop by in 20 minutes.

And then also at the top of the hour, 60 minutes from now, legendary play-by-play man for CBS Westwood One and Turner Sports, Kevin Harlan will join us. So I was reading an article the other day out of the indie star from Greg Doyle, who's a longtime pundit and writer, and he's also a Heisman Trophy voter. Now, full disclosure, last year I became a Heisman Trophy voter as well. The Heisman Trust, they reached out to me.

They said we have a vote open in your area of New York. Would you like to be a Heisman Trophy voter? We know you've been covering the Heisman and college football and been talking about it for a while.

Said absolutely it would be an honor to vote. Now, the one thing that the Heisman Trust stresses to you in the voting process is to not make your vote public until after the trophy is handed out. Because the ballots come out, I think they come out in a few weeks.

But sometimes you could submit them right when they're out. And sometimes people, and I don't get why people do this, they submit them before the conference championship games are played. But if you have that week after conference championship week leading into the Heisman and you don't reveal your votes, then it becomes intriguing on who wins the Heisman, even though I think for most years you have a good sense of who is actually going to win it. But for example, like last year, it literally came down to the conference championship weekend. Because sometimes there's a guy that has clearly separated himself from the pack. You know his team is going to win the conference championship.

And then from that, you kind of already know where you're going to go. But last year, I really do believe this. And I said this to Sonny Dykes earlier in the season, the head football coach at TCU when I had him on in the summer, I said to him, I really do believe you handed the ball off to Max Duggan at the end of the Big 12 championship game, which they did go on to win TCU, which they lost in the Big 12 championship game, excuse me, to Kansas State.

And then they still went on to the college football playoff. But I really did believe that if they got the ball in the end zone with Max Duggan, Max would have won the award. But since they lost the Big 12 championship game, I think that knocked Max Duggan down at least a few spots. And my ballot last year was Blake Quorum was in at number three. I had Max Duggan as two.

And then Caleb Williams was in at number one. So the Heisman Award is something that we obviously make a big deal about it. It is also something that I do believe it's important that you don't reveal your votes until after the award is handed out.

So I respect that. So Greg Doyle writes this article the other day, and the headline is Doyle not fair, says it's not fair to give JJ McCarthy a Heisman vote if UM coaches cheated before calling plays. So he made it clear in this article, and he said not to identify the three players who will be named on my vote.

Well, how would you know that anyway right now? But to a name one player who will not Michigan quarterback JJ McCarthy. Now I'm not going to sit here and deal in this world of you say something that I don't like, so you need to be canceled. You need your vote taken away. But I do think it's stupid by a fellow voter of mine and Greg Doyle to say right now that he would not vote with the information that he knows JJ McCarthy for the Heisman. Because I would argue that you shouldn't know right now who your top three vote getters are.

Now you could go through this and see who your candidates are. Like Marvin Harrison Junior. If Ohio State wins the Big 10, he should be a finalist.

You take a look at Jordan Travis. He's undefeated. The quarterback of Florida State right now feels like he should be a finalist. Michael Pennix is the favorite right now for the Heisman Trophy. But if Bo Nix beats Michael Pennix in the rematch and then wins that Pac 12 championship in the rematch, there's gonna be a big case to be made for Bo Nix. And you take a look, Georgia doesn't have a Heisman Trophy candidate, I would say.

We'll see what happens if Alabama wins the SEC. And I'm sure I'm missing like a player or two just off the top of my head that are just candidates. But for JJ McCarthy, and I said this back after week one of the season, I think he has a very interesting case and a very good opportunity to win the award. Because you look at Michigan last year, their best player and the player that had the best chance to win the Heisman, I really do believe that he would have won the award if he didn't get hurt, was Blake Coram. Now Blake Coram gets hurt at the end of the season, not available for the biggest game of the year. Not available for the biggest game of the year up against Ohio State. They run through Ohio State anyway like a hot knife through butter.

Donovan Edwards goes off and Blake Coram doesn't win the award and doesn't become a finalist. So going into this year, I looked at the way that Michigan was put together. And the reason why I thought JJ had a good chance is because I believe Michigan's gonna win the Big Ten championship. And that's part of it.

And then you look how loaded they are on offense. In a quarterback award, if you are the best or second best team in the nation, and you are playing the role of point guard this year, and Blake Coram who gets a ton of touches but also has to split carries with a loaded backfield, and you have all these wide receivers, JJ McCarthy, when you look at the Michigan schedule, which is also against a bunch of cupcakes too until Penn State and Ohio State, he's gonna have a good case to make. But right now for Greg Doyle to say, I'm not gonna give JJ McCarthy a Heisman vote, I think it's ridiculous. And he's gonna claim the mission statement of the Heisman Trophy Trust, which is to grow the legacy and preserve the integrity of the Heisman Memorial Trophy, which is and so forth and so on in the statement.

And he says, note the most important words in that sentence and preserve the integrity of the Heisman. Well, this is what I would argue to Greg Doyle. Right now, JJ McCarthy should be a Heisman Trophy candidate.

He has not done enough yet to win the award. But if you're gonna tell me, even though he alludes in this article, that McCarthy individually did nothing wrong, and it was more so his coach and the coaching staff and the adults in the room. But if you tell me with everyone now watching and everyone knowing that Penn State has changed their signs and Ohio State has changed their signs and Michigan can't do what they may have been doing in the past, if McCarthy still balls out and smothers Penn State and smothers Ohio State and the team is undefeated in a Big Ten champion, I'm not saying you have to vote for him. You're allowed to do what you want with your award and your ballot. But how are you gonna make a case when you only have three names to pick from that there's gonna be three names better than JJ McCarthy if McCarthy balls out in victories up against Penn State and Ohio State? So I'm not gonna slam Greg Doyle, even though I think his article is stupid.

I really do. But he's entitled to his article and to his opinion. And I don't think you should get his vote taken away and whatnot.

He votes the way that he wants to vote. And I don't think that opinion of other voters, and you will have some people that take this, I'm not saying I don't take it seriously because I do, but like, oh, this is some big crime and oh, the integrity of the Heisman Trophy is being ruined if you voted for JJ McCarthy. But once again, how is this an unbalanced playing field against Penn State and Ohio State? And that's the thing to me, why I do think this article and the opinion is absurd, because if he goes out and dominates against Penn State and Ohio State, it was on a level playing field and you knew all year McCarthy was going to win the award, it was going to be because of his two performances and Michigan's legitimately only two important games of the regular season.

So that's my case and that's my gripe with the article and the thinking. The problem I have with that, though, is if a guy comes out and has two huge games against the two biggest opponents of his schedule, but then isn't great the rest of the year. But he's played fine this year.

He's been good. Then you don't give him the Heisman. However, with McCarthy, he's played well, but those games in which he played well are in question. So you almost have to if you're going to take the scandal into consideration, you have to say there's questions as to why he was so good in those other eight or nine games. Yes, he may have balled out against Penn State and Ohio State in those last two games, but why was he so good in those first eight games? So the question really is if you consider the quarterback.

Well, because he's a damn good quarterback. That's why it just depends on not just about how and why, but also, like you said, the integrity of the award. If you want to take that clause and make that a significant situation and issue, then could you disqualify a player who as a player and his team benefited from cheating? Then that's your that's your hill to die on, I guess, if you're Greg Doyle or whatever other Heisman voters. But it's a reasonable hill to die on. Oh, I don't think it's reasonable at all. And once again, the reason why I don't think it's reasonable and this is why I think the Big Ten should do nothing right now. And this may not be fair because you could lose the games because it's not like Ohio State, some dog crap team, even though I think they're overrated.

But don't do anything right now, because if Penn State gets blown out by Michigan this weekend and then if Ohio State can't beat Michigan for the third straight year in a row, when everybody knows the playing field is level. Well, that shows you why guys like Sean Merriman, who came into the studio yesterday, a colleague that I know both of us respect and Tiki Barber down the hall. Speak for yourself. I know you. You love Tiki more than anybody. You suck up to him all the time.

Oh, hey, Tiki, how you doing? Oh, great to see. And you guys worked together for like a decade. So there's a different relationship there. But those guys that played the game don't think and a lot of other former athletes, too, on TV. And I think it's the majority than the minority that don't actually think the sign stealing is that much of advantage. And it's that big of a deal. And I know what everyone's going to argue and everyone's going to say. But then why do it?

And I have no answer to that. And I think it's stupid to do it. I really do. But I don't believe the reason why Michigan is this great team this year is because of the sign stealing. And I don't think they needed to steal the signs to defeat ECU, UNLV, Bowling Green, Rutgers, Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana, Michigan State or Purdue. And that's why it goes back to my original point where you knew McCarthy's stats, signs or not, we're going to be good enough going into the final three weeks of the season. And if he wants to win the Heisman, he has to dominate against Penn State and dominate against Ohio State. I just think it's too premature by Greg Doyle to come out and go because of this clause, I won't vote for him.

But you're going to look like a dope if McCarthy lights it up against Penn State and lights it up against Ohio State. And then you don't have them as one of your finalists on the three votes that you get. Because like what happens if let's say Washington stumbles and then Oregon somehow also doesn't win the Pac-12? Like if one of those two schools don't win the Pac-12, you're probably not going to have Michael Pennix and Bo Nix win the Heisman, even with how great of a year they're having.

If Florida State goes down the ACC championship game and they don't get in, Jordan Travis probably not going to win the award. So like there's a case in a year where this is open and like there's like six, seven guys you think have a chance. We see a lot of these guys stumble and sometimes voters just pay attention towards the end of the season, which I don't think is the way to go about this. But when I look at it, the only problem I have is just right now the timing of it, saying he will not be one of the three names on my list.

I think you could have an idea of who you're going to vote for. But to declare someone shouldn't be on the list, he goes out there, throws five touchdowns against Penn State, and then let's say he throws six against Ohio State, you're going to have that same stance to preserve the integrity of the award? Like is anyone going to say if JJ McCarthy gets a Heisman Trophy?

Oh, he shouldn't get that award. He just shut everyone up in the Penn State Ohio State game if he goes about that. Well, the other question also is the Reggie Bush factor. Now listen, Reggie Bush- He should have his Heisman back. He should have his Heisman back a hundred percent. And let me just say this, the Heisman trust is using the NCAA, basically, when you figure out that, then we'll give him the award back. The Heisman trust should just give him back the Heisman Trophy.

It's ridiculous. Absolutely. But that same effect. Now, obviously we go back and we just realize, okay, not a big deal. But that same effect of giving somebody a Heisman and having to take it away, maybe the Heisman voters, maybe the Heisman trust is saying, we don't want to give JJ McCarthy the Heisman and then have to take it away from him if the NCAA comes down hard on Michigan and their players.

So maybe this is almost a preemptive strike saying, okay, you know what? Maybe the cheating scandal wasn't that big of a deal. Maybe JJ McCarthy would still be the best quarterback or the best player in college football this year with or without the cheating and the sign stealing. However, the stain on the Heisman, the potential of having to take away a Heisman from a deserving candidate like we did with Reggie Bush and 20 years later, we're still getting on the NCAA and the Heisman.

Is this ever going to be a JJ McCarthy issue? Like it was for a Reggie Bush issue. That was his individual eligibility. The difference is with Reggie Bush, there was no competitive advantage gained on the field. It was where he was going to go to school, but it didn't actually give him an advantage on the field.

Like a house, like who cares? Right. But like, again, at the end of the day, was it against NCAA regulation at the time? Probably, but it didn't impact how he played on the field.

Stealing signs and having your team get better because of sign stealing actually impacts the play on the field. And once again, if he dominates Penn State and he dominates Ohio State, how do you not put this guy as one of the three names on your ballot, assuming he plays well in those games? That's the question to ask the rest of the Heisman voters, whether or not it's worth the potential decade long stain on the trust and on the award like the Reggie Bush stain has, is it worth it to give it to the guy who might be the most deserving in a close race or just leave him off and not worry about it? And I know we got to take a break, but this just shows how inane and how stupid and the jackassery this is where once the award is handed out or once wins happen on the field, don't try to tell me, oh, that ever never happened or let's erase it.

It's one of the more stupid, petty, petulant things that the NCAA does. All right. This is Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio. We talk some college football with Bobby Carpenter. Next. This portion of the show is brought to you by Wesley Financial.

Stuck in a timeshare and want out, contact Wesley Financial Group now and get a free timeshare exit information kit at wesleyfinancialgroup.com. Let's go out to the hotline right now and welcome in the former NFL linebacker, the national champion at the Ohio State. And that of course is the Bobby Carpenter, kind enough to join us right now on CBS Sports Radio on the Zach Gelb Show. Bobby, I know it's been a minute. How you been? I'm doing well, Zach.

Thank you for having me on. And we're right in the throngs here of college football season in the NFL. So you're not getting a whole lot better than that first week of November right now to about mid January. Yeah. I can't wait.

I actually have tickets this year for Michigan, Ohio State on Thanksgiving weekend. And that game is always juicy, but it gets juicier by the day with all this stuff going on in college football right now. Yeah, absolutely. A lot of times you only have these issues that happen. They always said, you know, they drop breadcrumbs every day, but in this it's almost been like a loaf of bread that's kind of falling out of the sky. And if you work in the media, it just gets kind of weirder or juicier, however you want to look at it.

There's just all different tentacles and things that are kind of a spawning off of this situation up there. And it's, you know, I don't take like a lot of pleasure and delight in it. I want to see this game be played.

I want to make sure that it's on the up and up. I obviously be in a Buckeye alum, would love to see my Buckeyes win, but I don't want to see like Michigan not playing the DFP or not. I want to see them not playing there because they lost it on the field, not because they're being punished in this way. Like if it was before the season, that's a different deal, but we're so far down it now. It's just, I don't know. It feels weird.

So if you were Tony Petitti, would you just punt and do nothing right now? See, that's, I don't know if you can do that because I know, you know, talking to some of the coaches across the Big Ten, that conference call got pretty heated and people were very upset. And this isn't just an Ohio State thing. I mean, there was multiple coaches across this who have suspected it for a while. They've been kind of submitting things. And that's, when people talk about due process, like the evidence has been there and it's been submitted, not just like in the last couple of weeks, like they've been submitting things over the last year and change. Like these schools were the ones that had all the information. So it's not like there's this big investigation, like you just kind of lay out what's before you and say, okay, is this, this, is this, that?

Like, does this look real? We'll submit some allegations. We'll hear what their responses then move forward. I mean, I don't know if you suspend hardball, if you suspend coaches, like a fine. I don't know if that really does this justice. You know, cause to me, this isn't, you know, a recruiting thing or, you know, some other nonsense. Like people, there's people that have diminished like the stealing of signs and listen, sign stealing Zach happens in game all the time. Like going back and forth, you're going to pick stuff up. You're going to understand, Oh, when they do this, they do that.

This is their check. But it's another thing to like, if someone's even recording in game and then like, Oh, we've got someone going back and looking at it and then marrying it to the plays of what happened when you're, when you've been given that, that prison of history to look at things, it makes it a heck of a lot easier. And so that's when I look at this like, and it's not a big deal. I go, dude, if you told me every play in the NFL, if there's a run or a pass, I mean, that that's what experience is for. Like, that's why you study tape.

That's why you do all those things. So it matters a lot. Like if you know what covers the defense is going to be in as a quarterback or coordinator, like that makes your play calling that much easier as far as what you're ultimately going to do.

So, you know, I think there is an element of that where there's obviously competitive advantage. Hopefully that that is gone now and it would be much easier if they just got those stinking transistor radios, which if after someone else tell me it's too expensive or, you know, with the altering of the helmets, I'm like, listen, it is the six guys need them three quarterbacks on offense and three defensive players. And that's what the NFL has. And like they use all different helmets.

It's not like everyone wears a uniform helmet in the NFL. So I, I don't want to hear all that nonsense talking to Bobby Carpenter right now. We were just talking about this before you got on Greg Doyle comes out. I don't know if you're Heisman Trophy voter. I am, but he's a trophy voter as well. And Greg says, I'm not going to vote for JJ McCarthy to preserve the integrity of the Heisman trust award. I argue that if JJ lights it up on the field against Penn State and Ohio State, when it's at a quote unquote level playing field, how are you gonna leave this guy off your ballot? I think that's absurd to keep him off the ballot right now and say from the start, you're not going to vote for it.

Yeah. I don't, I don't know if I'd be giving Jim Harbaugh coach of the year, but as far as like players in this, yeah, I am a Heisman voter. And honestly, as I've been going through this, I haven't really thought of this, like impacting an individual player, whether, you know, you know, let's say, you know, Blake Horn was having a great year, like he did last year prior to the injury or JJ McCarthy, like I wouldn't be punitive or penalize those guys based upon what has happened.

So I, I don't necessarily agree with that. Now it'd be one thing if like you saw JJ, if he was like somehow directly involved and connected or something like that, but this is, this is the coaches. He may have benefited from it some, but I'm not going to penalize him for something that he really had no control over.

And that's why I was just like a fan. I think it's the best move of Petiti does nothing right now because not that you'll get your full answers, but if you line up the football this weekend and everyone knows what's going on, everyone's changed their signs by now, there's no more quote unquote advantage and Michigan smacks Penn state. And then in a few weeks, Michigan takes care of Ohio state for the third straight year in a row.

I'm not saying no punishment should be done, but you kind of get your answers on how effective this whole scheme was. Yeah. And I think there is something to that, but I will say this, like, you know, Michigan, you know, and it's amazing what confidence does in life. And maybe that gave a little bit of confidence. Like they're playing good football. Now I got to tell people like the signs that's not responsible for entirely of what they've done. I feel like it has meant, I think it mattered a lot more in last year's Ohio state game than it did two years ago.

I don't know if it was, if it two years ago, I mean, they, they handled Ohio state up there last year. I go back and look at it and I talked to some of the guys and you know, there's some plays and I always say, tell guys, like sometimes you just pick a bad play to have a bad play and it's timed up perfectly. And like the stars are against you. Well, you know, a lot of times there's always a coincidence. Well, it may have been a little more than the coincidence.

Um, last year with that. And so I just don't know how to handle this. Like it's hardball being on the sidelines versus not, is that, does that make a significant difference? Uh, but I do know that a lot of these big 10 coaches are very upset and to the point where like, if you're not going to do anything about this, why wouldn't we just fly drones over their practice and fill it ourselves? Like, yeah. And that's, I mean, I mean, it's like the kid, it's like, I think I've argued with my kids on this. Like if you're not going to punish him or punish Mike, I've got four kids. So there's always, well, what about their shoes are on or their, their shirts over here?

They didn't put their dishes away. I'm like, yeah, but this is a U issue. We're talking about you right now. And then we're trying to mitigate all that. So I, I wish I had a better answer. I honestly feel for Tony Petiti because he had to clean up the TV contract mess.

And then you get this dumped in your lap, like when everything's going so well. So I don't know if he, he's almost in a no win situation. Zach, when you look at Ohio state this year, Bobby Carpenter, and I've said, I don't think they're the best team in the country. I can understand why the committee puts them at number one, even though it was kind of laughable how much they were hyping up Rutgers the other night on that selection committee show. And I say that as someone that is from New York and has nothing against Rutgers and want to see Rutgers do well. Do you think Ohio state's the best team in the country or do you even look at that number one ranking and go, yeah, they're probably not the best team in the sport this year? Oh, I don't think, I don't think there's a great team in the sport this year. And so by resume, I think you'd probably say Ohio state. They're pretty good. And I will say this you're an East coast guy. This is probably the best Rutgers team. There's been in like 10 since great show. It was probably there the first time they're good, like defensively they're good and they can run the football.

Trust me. I watched the games when like Kyle blood was the coach and then Chris Ash as well. Not nothing against him.

Very nice guy treated me. Well, there were some bad games that I had to watch when I was covering Rutgers. Yeah, they're good. They're a tough team. I mean, they're probably going to win, you know, eight games, go to a bowl.

I mean, great shot. He's a, he's the perfect coach for there. So hopefully they never fire him and hopefully he doesn't leave. Um, again, I think he probably has figured that out, but I don't know Zach who the best team is.

And so by resume, probably default it's, it's Ohio state. Their defense is playing well. They've got some really good talented offensive pieces. Have they been consistent all the time? Maybe not as thorough and you're used to a high powered offense.

Now what's George George's looks pretty good. And then, you know, defensively, they've always been so stout and I think Mrs. Missouri is a good team, but they gave up 151 yards rushing to Missouri, 200 to Auburn. I look at Michigan, you know, they really haven't played anybody of consequence. So it's really tough to get a beat on them. You look at Washington. Yeah. They beat Oregon looks good.

And then like, they just stumble around for a couple of weeks. Oregon, I would say, I think is the best team in the pack 12, except for the fact that Washington beat them. And so I have to say results on the field matter.

Like that's my big thing. So I can't just supersede that, you know, Texas, I think Alabama might be better than them now, but Texas beat Alabama by double digits in Tuscaloosa. So like this year, Zach, it's just going to be like survive and get there.

And I mean, it's, it is the flattest I think it has been. Cause I think there's probably six or seven teams still that I look at and say they could probably win the national championship if they get the right matchup and play well. And I tweeted this out today, like before the year I had, um, Georgia, I had Florida state, Washington, uh, Michigan, and, um, I put conference, I'm forgetting one other conference as the school's still alive to win, uh, the power five conference championships and like the big 10, whoever wins the East, we know is going to win the big 10 championship, but it makes it really intriguing for the sec in the pack 12. Cause if we get Bama and Georgia and we get Oregon and Washington, Alabama and Oregon right now are the two most like alive teams in the country. I'm not saying the best teams, but they're trending in the right direction.

Yeah. They're playing the best, best football right now. They've improved the most. And that's typically what you expect out of Nick Saban team. They look miles better than what they did the first couple of weeks of the season. Heck they look rough against South Florida, you know, who they're playing Buckner and Ty Simpson. And then they go back to Melrose and you're like, all right, they're going to just struggle with him, but they've slowly gotten better every week, you know?

And so you see that there's been a lot of improvement there. Uh, you know, from that Michigan's played pretty well, but Oregon, like you said, like I, I was on Washington at the beginning of the season, but I think Washington does have some flaws defensively. And I don't know if they could run it against the team other than USC. I mean, they seem to just let them rush up and down the field, but, but Oregon I think is good cause they can play a variety of styles. Like they can get you in a scoring contest if they need to, but they can also slow it down, play a defensive game and win that way and like pound the ball on you and run it.

So they, they, when you can play in different styles, it gives you some success. And that, that is the one thing I think that Ohio state has the ability to do this year. We haven't really seen them light it up on offense, but if you look at all the teams this year, the ones that you have confidence in, it's the teams that have good defenses in the era of like score, score, score, score, score. You know, why do you think Oregon's better than Washington? Well, cause they can play defense. Alabama, cause they can play defense.

Like that's, that's a big piece of it now. And so the teams that can get stops, I think are going to matter a lot this season. With all that being said, we know how great the Ohio state defense is this year. We know Marvin Harrison is the best non quarterback in the sport. The big reason why I have skepticism with the Ohio state is their quarterback, Kyle McCord. Where's your confidence in the Ohio state quarterback? You just must not have confidence in him cause his dad went to Rutgers.

That's probably where you're being. He played quarterback there. I honestly think if you, the Notre Dame game showed me a lot and for anybody to put together drives like that, and that goes for any quarterback, especially when you're on the road and when you can put together a final drive, despite what's happened throughout the game and his ankle was bad, there's a lot of adversity around them.

You know, they haven't looked great and I go back and look and there's just, it's been some small things. And so it's, it's really close. It's not very far off from them being able to go out and score 42 to 49 a game. And I think also a little bit of it, Zach is Ryan Day is kind of leaned into the fact that, Hey, we have a really good defense.

It doesn't behoove us to go out there and try to score 50. If in doing that, we may throw another pick or have something happen where maybe it puts our defense in jeopardy and should things not break the right way, then we're in trouble. And so I think he's kind of leaned in to that defensive mentality, which you've seen Nick Saban do this year, some of these other teams.

So I think that it's right. It's okay to have criticism there of Kyle. I mean, he hasn't been CJ shroud, but if CJ shroud is judged off the NFL is looking pretty darn good so far. When you look at Ryan day, only six losses in his career, there are some Ohio state fans that are going to say, well, you lost the last two to Michigan and they put them on the hot seat. What is kind of the tone with the majority of the Ohio state fan base and not just some of the people that are like yelling about Ryan day these days?

Well, I think the majority of it is it's always a vocal minority. Most people look and say, Hey, like this guy is one of the top coaches in the country. Look at what he's done. You know, he's been here for a while. These aren't urban's recruits.

This isn't, you know, urban's team. He's been here. He's been the CFPs.

He's just not, hasn't gotten over that hump. I mean, he's won some big games. Do they beat Clemson? They've gotten down the wire. Heck they, I mean, they were 47 yards away from beating Georgia last year. Like they were right on the precipice of getting it done. So they're not that far.

They just have to find a way to eventually push it over the top and find a way to get it done. And so I think a lot of people realize that they want to beat Michigan. I think this sign, the situation up there has probably taken a little bit of heat off of him, especially from last year.

Cause two years ago, I don't think it mattered. Last year at home, it just seemed like things were going a bit too well. And a little bit in the second half, you know, they called it the meltdown, but all of a sudden it makes a little, maybe a little more sense now.

So I think that's taken some heat off of them, but not for one. I think Ryan is a heck of a football coach. And I always say, if you want to get rid of them, who are you going to hire?

And then like they kind of stumble around and like, exactly. I've been around good coaches. I've been around bad coaches. Ryan is a really good football coach.

Be glad that you have him. You think Urban Meyer will have a return to college coaching? And there's always like those rumors, maybe Michigan State is going to make a run at it. Um, I don't think so. I know people have talked about it. There's been rumors, you know, they've offered him a hundred million dollars and heck maybe they have, you know, I think he's very content now. You know, he tried at Jacksonville.

I honestly think Zach is harder to coach in college now than in the NFL because at least in the NFL guys are under contract in college. Like, Hey dude, you're yelling at me. Uh, I'm gonna go dip and get in the portal. I'm out of here. Like you can't, you can't be as firm. Like you have to have a great relationship with people to be able to coach them hard. And so I think that I think he honestly saw that took a step back and like, all right, I'm good. I'm having fun.

Can watch my son-in-law coach at Ohio State and go see my grandkids. And honestly, Zach, he's like a different person when he's not coaching. Um, he, when he coaches, I mean, he turns into like full on like sociopath locked in singular focus. And then I saw him, you know, a couple of nights, a couple of weeks ago, he's in Columbus, you know, like relax. It's like a different human being.

Like it doesn't even make sense. Last thing I'll ask you, just because I want your defensive mind with what you've watched this year in college football, would you go Caleb Williams or Drake May, if you had the number one overall pick? Yeah, I'm going to be honest, full disclosure. I haven't seen enough of Drake May this year. Last year. I thought he was pretty good. Maybe a little more consistent. I know Caleb Williams can make some unbelievable plays. He does some reckless stuff. My only concern is with Caleb as he developed too many bad habits this year, cause you watch him. Like he tries to be a hero in every play and sometimes it works, but then he's also put himself in harm's way. He's fumbled the ball, he's thrown some picks.

And so I think that you have to make sure that you can eliminate that when you bring him in. Cause that does not work in the NFL by any stretch. Did you have any problem with him crying in the arms of his family? Like after the game, I didn't think that was a big deal, but some did. You know, listen, I'm a very emotional player. I think the one thing I love about football is the level of emotion that it takes to be able to play it. You know, he poured it out in that game.

I mean, I don't know. I never ran up and talked to my parents during or after a game that I was playing in college. I'd wait for, you know, they'd wait after for me after the locker room, but I don't necessarily have a massive issue with that.

Like, would you rather have a guy laugh and not like he doesn't care? Imagine he was eating a hot dog on the sideline, laughing, people be crushing him. You can't win. It's a good point. Exactly. The hot, you go look at the hot dog situation, you know, from, you know, was it Sanchez? Yeah. Well, do you want that?

I mean, because you're going to criticize that as well. So you can't really can't win for losing Bobby Carpenter. Always great to catch up with you and talk a little football with you. You'd be well. Thank you. I appreciate Zach. Thank you.

There you go. Bobby Carpenter, joining us on CBS sports radio. Let's get the latest CBS sports radio updated with the Ackman rich Ackerman. You know, I didn't get any updates, but we had two listeners that wrote in moist Mike to be district attorney. I think in Erie County, did you get any formal notice Santer in regards to if you won this election process for district attorney of Erie County?

I was called by the powers that be in the Pennsylvania state government office. I was told that the race was too close to call. So they had to do a hand recount, which they did under infrared lighting. They actually had a ballot sniffing dogs as well to confirm the authenticity of the votes. And my vote count of, you know, just over, you know, 35,000 actually turned out to not be correct. I actually had two votes and I lost a lot in the actual recount. Do you accept the results of this election?

Cause I do not. Uh, I met the dog, the, the ballot sniffing dogs and they are very good boys. And so I, Give them a treat. Uh, yes, yes.

And they were very, very good, very good dogs. And I trust their nose more than I trust those in charge of the, of the council. Did you see what former quarterback declared victory in the Lackawanna County commissioner race? I mean, of course it has to be Donovan McNabb. No, Matt McGloin, former Penn state quarterback, Matt McGloin declares victory in the Lackawanna County commissioner race. Yeah.

Great. Start a playoff game. Some talks your host would call him a Clotherness and not Matt McGloin. If you go back to some of that audio, um, a Clotherness he's a good quarterback, but Clotherness, uh, for the Raiders. So former Raider and Penn state quarterback, look at the Raiders these days. They can't lose anything. They can't lose games against the giants and their former quarterback quarterbacks can't lose the Lackawanna County commissioner race. So good job on a Matt McGloin.

8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS, 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. Look who's popped up Ryan and Santa Barbara, Ryan, your 49ers have lost three in a row. What happened Thursday from beautiful Santa Barbara, buddy. It's 75 degrees out. I'm I just finished up 18. So I'm chilling at the night on the computer. I did all right.

I shot an 82. That's more than all right. That's pretty damn good, Ryan.

Yeah, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, that's one of my other little hobbies, but it was a nice round with some buddies now hopping on the computer. And of course, enjoying the show, listening to you.

And then, uh, you know, I just had to go back to your take at the start of the show. I love how you're focusing so much on my beautiful 49ers now focusing on you too. Where you been the last two weeks? Haven't heard from you.

49ers lose a few games. You go away. You have your tail in between your legs running away. Ah, no, no, no, no, no. You bougie golfer. Come on. You're golfing on a Thursday in the middle of the afternoon.

You have time. Let's be real. I got, look, I got my hands into all kinds of things.

Yeah. A lot of losing 49er tickets probably in the betting world these days. I just want to tell, I just want to say the Niners might lose maybe one more and they're definitely going to kick the jaguars and that bandana golden locks boy right in the junk. And then I will see the Ravens in the Superbowl and I will meet you in Vegas.

Then after the wind, I'll take you out for martinis and a steak dinner at one of Sinatra's favorite spots. So you still think the 49ers are winning the Superbowl? Oh yeah. I have to ask you, are you on any drugs because you've been golfing during the middle of the day? Now, you know, it's not very convincing right now. You're not very convincing.

I know you, you probably hit a pen when you're on the golf course and do a bunch of other things. There's Ryan and Santa Barbara. I don't need to listen to any more of his 40 whiners propaganda after a three game losing streak. I was even defending the 49ers earlier. I was sitting here and saying that the 49ers, um, are still going to be a force and I just think they're going to come up short, but come on, not only going to lose one more game, the rest of the season, that's a joke, an absolute joke.

And Ryan, he has the same energy all the time. It doesn't matter what happens on the field. The 49ers are still winning the Superbowl in his mind. Let's go to John in South Carolina wants to chime in on Reggie Bush, JJ McCarthy, and all these scandals in college athletics.

John what's happening? Well, our pro buddy X pro basically said it. There's definitely an advantage if you were wondering about it. Hey, and even with Reggie Bush, I'm 70 and I haven't seen a lot of stuff and a lot of people I've worked with. If you've got like zero pressure on you and he got his mother, a house, his siblings are now covered, he's got money in the bank and pocket that can take a lot of pressure off.

You might really affect your entire game. So you think because Reggie Bush got money is why he was one of the more electrifying college football players ever. Not all of it, but some part of it, you know, I mean, it's gotta be an advantage if you have zero pressure on you. You actually believe that, John?

I had, I know for a fact, I've seen enough people crack out of the pressure. How many quarterbacks, how many bad baseball players, football players when it comes to the big games just can't do it. They have a great regular season, but boy put them in the playoffs and boy they dropped the ball five times. So John, so when someone now gets in, so someone gets an NIL deal, which is allowed, what's the difference than what Reggie Bush was getting like 15 years ago or so?

Nothing. And that's the point. That's why they're all going to be bigger and better and faster and stronger because there's a whole lot of less pressure on them. But another thing I, you know, that's, we can debate that mental psychology baloney forever.

I just know some people crack out of the pressure and some people thrive under no pressure. But with Michigan, the real test is going to be, you know, how they're going to play against the next big couple of big boys they play. And the thing about taking them off the ballot, yeah, he shouldn't have taken them off the ballot, but if it turns out you're a team that because of your coaches cheating, you've got, you know, you've got a running back that somehow knows every time because the coach knows where to point them in the right direction. Do you think Michigan's going to lose to Penn State this weekend, just wondering? I'd like to see it.

But do you think it's going to happen? I'm hoping it does to prove the point that, you know, cheaters never prosper, or they just win a lot of money. Did you bet against the Patriots a lot after the Flakgate and Spygate, just wondering?

The Patriots was all Brady. I don't really want to start about that. We're up against it, but come on, like, what are we doing here? You're really going to call a show and say, because Reggie Bush got money that helped him on the football field. That's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. Seriously. It's a stupid point. Now I asked you, what do you think that happened to Michigan and Penn State this weekend?

You talk about cracking under pressure. James Franklin's three and 16 up against top 10 teams during his time at Participation State University. Just letting you know that. And also Manny Diaz, who's a good defensive coordinator. He's doing signals and he's making a joke out of this situation. Manny, you better hope your defense shows up because we know as a head coach, you stink. You're only good defensive coordinator. Let's see if you can help Penn State this weekend.