Zach Gelb Hour 2

What's that sound? That's the sound of Downy Unstoppable's scent beads going into your washing machine and giving your clothes freshness that lasts all day long.

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Get six times longer lasting freshness plus odor protection with Downy Unstoppables in wash scent beads. It's going to join us coming up 20 minutes from now. We'll chat a little bit about Michigan football, the Cleveland Browns. Here we go.

Brownies. Here we go. And also the Miami Dolphins. Big game for the Dolphins this weekend. They're already in the playoffs, but if they win this game, they win the AFC East. If they lose this game, the Buffalo Bills are in the playoffs as AFC East champs. It's crazy. The Bills could be the two seed after this weekend, or they could be out of the playoffs.

And I don't know if you saw this, Sampter. It is expected there's going to be more Bills fans in the stadium in Miami than they're going to be Dolphins fans right now. And we know that the Miami sports fan is kind of like a fickle fan. Like even during the playoffs with the Miami Heat, I always feel as if the fans show up like five minutes into the game. And I'm sure there are passionate, loyal Miami sports fans. But how many times I know the stadium is just ridiculous when it comes to the Hurricanes and the Hurricanes haven't been great in a long time. But you turn on a Hurricanes game and it's absolutely empty. And when you have a passionate fan base like Buffalo, where they live and die by the success or failures of this football team.

And it was last year, right, coming off of Thanksgiving, where they had to stay in Detroit and play a game up against Cleveland, I think it was, in Detroit. And somehow through the snowstorm, Bills fans found their way to Detroit to watch that team play. It's just there's certain fan bases where they overtake opposing team stadiums. Now, there's some other really great fan bases that have great home crowds that even though there will be some Steelers fans and some Packers fans and some Bills fans in attendance, they won't overtake the stadium. Because the team they're playing has a rabid, crazy fan base. That's just not the dolphin fan. And like, commanders fans, because of how bad Daniel Snyder was, you always knew when you got these big brand football teams like the Patriots, like the Steelers, like the Packers playing in Landover, Maryland, that would be a home game for the opposition. You know, SoFi Stadium with the Los Angeles Chargers, home game for the opposition.

So it does not surprise me that that stadium in a win and you're in game for the Buffalo Bills is going to be packed, even though it is the Dolphin Stadium. But anyway, let me just ask you this though, Mike. I don't know how much you've been following this AJ Brown stuff, but I've talked about it a lot, so you have to be paying somewhat of attention to it since I talk about it a decent amount. I wouldn't be the first producer I work with where they're not really listening to what the host says, but with AJ Brown, you can visibly see through his body language that he's just not happy right now. And he's frustrated. And when you are frustrated, it's usually a product of losing. But sometimes you could tell there's frustration with the player. And it's because of what's going on in that locker room.

And a lot of people, including myself has assumed that the problem with the Eagles has been a disconnect with the coaching staff and the players, especially when you've been seeing some of their games and their players yelling at the coaches, because of some of the hot mess and the hot garbage that we're seeing going down on the field. So AJ Brown last week after they lost to the Cardinals did not address reporters. Like reporters were at his locker and he said, guys, I'm just not talking today.

I was raised, if you have nothing nice to say, you don't say it's something along those lines, gave one of those lines. And the media was like, did we do anything wrong? And he went out of his way to say, no, it has nothing to do with you guys. So AJ Brown the other day gave a warning that tomorrow is the day that he's going to talk to reporters. Now, Samter, when you have a wide receiver and there's sometimes a stereotype or perception about wide receivers, right? When you have a wide receiver going out of his way, who already had a messy divorce where I thought Tennessee was wrong, they should have paid him the money. But when you have a wide receiver going out of his way to announce that he's going to be speaking to the media tomorrow, which ended up being yesterday, you would have thought that this would be fireworks.

It would be explosive. And that in all likelihood, the coaching staff is going to get thrown onto the bus, correct? That is a fair judgment to make. Yeah. Well, I was surprised.

And actually, when I heard AJ Brown speak, I was surprised what I heard from him. And it doesn't totally change my opinion about the Eagles. Like I said it after the Seahawks game, the Eagles were done. The Eagles are still in the playoffs, but they're not going to a Super Bowl. And the goal for the Eagles was to get back to the Super Bowl and right the wrong from a year ago with a very talented team. And that was to hoist that Lombardi Trophy at the end of the season, when you had a 10 point lead in last year's Super Bowl up against Kansas City, and you couldn't slam the door shut. But the reason why I'm not going to change it is because there's still a problem in Philly. But the problem wasn't necessarily what A, I either thought it was about, which was a disconnect with the players and the coaching staff, or B, you have AJ Brown who could be annoyed at the coaching staff.

But he did the right thing in trying to defuse the situation. And he took accountability, and he said this is on the players and how much he loves this coaching staff. So you may hear some of the audio will play from AJ Brown in just a second. And you may say okay there's still a cause for concern, because this is a player on player issue. But if it is still a player on coach issue. Everyone who thought AJ Brown, like an AJ Brown has been the guy that has been deemed as the guy that's been the most upset with the coaching staff and the philosophy on offense. He's at least telling you that there isn't a problem with the coaching staff and the players now. You may believe that you may not but I thought AJ Brown was very believable yesterday. Here's AJ Brown defending his head football coach, and Nick Sirianni sound beefing with Nick, I'm, I'm not mad at Nick I know I'm not mad at nobody, like, like, we have a great relationship.

Like I said, I got a ton of respect for me. Like I said he take off for us when, when it'd be us. I said for the for example, like for the Seattle game that was on us like we we messed that up. We improvise and we went on our own and Nick came out and said, Oh, I wanted to try to get a flag or something something crazy like that it's like he really made himself look like a fool for us. I have nothing but respect for him, like, you know what I'm saying because not all coaches do that. We rhyme with Nick.

We rhyme with Brian, we just got to come out, we just got to play ball. And Brian being Brian Johnson the offensive coordinator not to be confused with Ben Johnson the offensive coordinator lines that we've been talking about potentially getting a head coaching job and only Brian Johnson gonna be on many head coaching job list I don't think he's gonna be getting many interviews, especially with the state of the offense but with that being said, last year in Philadelphia Jonathan Gannon was dragged through the mud a lot and he was used as a scapegoat and Jonathan Gannon last time I checked got a head coaching job last hiring cycle it is now the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals who oh yeah by the way just beat. The Philadelphia Eagles in Lincoln financial field as a 12 point underdog they won the game outright. So I want to go back to what AJ Brown just said. He was referencing the end of that Seahawks game. I remember having this conversation after the game when Sirianni got in front of the reporters, and he said, we were trying to get a pass interference call, and everyone's like, man that's pretty stupid to just be banking on a pass interference call when you could have just quickly dink and dunk down the field and got into field goal range to tie the game because you were only down by three points.

That's all you had to do. So, AJ Brown revealing yesterday that Sirianni didn't really feel that way and he was defending his players. I do think it's admirable that Sirianni did that and sometimes as the coach, you have to bite the bullet when players mess up. And you don't want to be the head coach that goes, oh, this was on the players the players did this wrong, I told them to do X, Y and Z, and they just kind of went rogue or they did something they weren't supposed to do, because then you're throwing your players under the bus. So, Santa, I think that respect that AJ Brown revealed, and what he said.

It can go a long way, rather quickly. It may be turning around the Eagles, but it's nice to at least know that in AJ Brown's mind, or at least with what he's saying with his words, the players don't have an issue with the coaching staff, the way that it's being portrayed. Now, it's up to the players in the locker room, whoever is not listening, who's ever not following direction, who's ever not clocking in for a full days of work, and is there mentally, and present mentally, when your body is actually in that building fully to get on the same page. That's still a concern for me with the Eagles, that they could still get on the same page, but it is refreshing to hear that this is an issue with the players, because if it's an issue with the players, talent could still win out in this league, and if you're able to bury whatever issues those are, or at least tolerate those issues, maybe the Eagles could turn around. But if this was an issue between players and coaching staff, that's usually not attainable, that does not get rectified until a coach either gets fired, or you either get rid of the player. And I've seen a lot of people saying, like AJ Brown may have just saved the Eagles season with these comments, if this is all it took, and it took A, AJ Brown this long to save things like this, then that's troubling, but B, to really think that AJ Brown taking a couple bullets and defending his coach is enough to turn around how bad the Eagles have been, I'm not buying it.

There's something deep going on. In a 20 minute press conference where you say all the right things, great for AJ Brown, it was the perfect press conference for what you needed it to be. But to honestly think that the Eagles problems can be fixed by a 15 minute press conference by a wide receiver, not the coach, not a quarterback, but a wide receiver, I don't buy it. The Eagles problems, is there something else going on, and I don't think this press conference or this locker room talk is the solution. It might be the first step, but it's not the solution.

Fair point. And that's why I'm still not fully bought in because there's an issue, we just have been able to eliminate at least what AJ Brown is saying that the issue is not the coaching staff, which is a big step. But, there are some times that there are players that we don't perceive as good leaders, or we don't think are good locker room guys, that then when you talk to their teammates, they're beloved. Like look at Odell Beckham Jr.

When he was in New York, he had a bad reputation, some of it on him, and some of it being mis-portrayed. Like when he did that interview with Josina Anderson and Lil Wayne after he just got the extension, and couldn't even say he was happy in New York and was basically trashing Eli Manning, that was a jerk move by Odell Beckham Jr. But you talk to a lot of those players, they love Odell. Look at Odell now, with the Baltimore Ravens, they love Odell.

Odell with the Rams, I know it was quick, but he played well, they loved Odell. And a guy like AJ Brown is being perceived as unhappy, frustrated, and annoyed in Philadelphia. But, Jordan Milata earlier this week was on Sports Radar 94 WIP and people go, AJ Brown does not get enough credit for the leader that he actually is.

Because whatever's said about him, we don't view him that way in this locker room. And even though we kind of made fun of it yesterday, that escape room to build team chemistry was an AJ Brown idea. So maybe AJ Brown needed to say these things to not necessarily put out the flame with the media, but AJ Brown's voice in the locker room maybe is more important than what we deemed it to be. And if that's the case, and AJ Brown does the, I'll take the bullet press conference and I'll set the tone straight, maybe that's the leadership that the Eagles need. That it can quickly get guys in, after this week you have no margin of error.

You lose after this week, you go home, your season's done. It can quickly reignite that magic that the Eagles had last year, where it's okay, we respect AJ, we love AJ, we now heard AJ set the record and the tone to the locker room. And it could create, in a bad situation, one teammate speaking out where it's like, okay, we could settle all our differences and we could come together as a team because it was AJ who said it.

And the other part also is, it's also about perception, right? Within the locker room, maybe there was a belief that there was an issue with AJ Brown and Sirianni, maybe people thought that AJ Brown was the problem. And that's where they were like, ah, AJ Brown's selfish, AJ Brown has an issue with this, AJ Brown is insubordinate, AJ Brown this. And now hearing AJ Brown taking accountability in front of the media, maybe guys are now saying to themselves, huh, maybe we were wrong about AJ or maybe AJ's starting to realize the problems that he's been causing. So either A, he's a leader who's standing up, or B, maybe he was the problem and he's taking accountability and now the team is saying, okay, you know what, AJ Brown did what he needed to do, we trust him again and now we're good. And also good leaders don't always have to address things publicly. And maybe AJ Brown tried to address these things with everyone privately and he felt like he needed to make a public message to really get this thing back in the right direction.

One more from AJ Brown, his talk of chemistry issues with the Eagles. We human, you know what I'm saying? So like, but like I said, there's highs and lows and you see the glimpses, so that's why I'm like, oh, we right there, we right there, despite everything, despite everybody saying this and saying that, like we right there and we know we are. And that's the only thing that matters is that we know, you know, you can say whatever you want to say, but when it happens, then it's gonna be like, oh, what is going on? Oh, what if it don't happen, then we're gonna try again. That's just what it, that's what it is.

And that's what you, how you have to approach life. I thought AJ Brown was very genuine. I hope he was genuine. It sounded genuine.

I hope it was genuine. Ultimately, we'll see if the Eagles really fixed any problems and that will come on wild card weekend because they're going to be playing wild card weekend all likelihood. They won't win the division and the number one seeds already wrapped up anyway with San Francisco. And then let's see if that team that has championship experience, right? Big game experience, can they go on the road, get the job done, or if they somehow have a home playoff game, take care of business at home as well.

855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4227. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Leroy Hoard will join us next. We'll be right back.

You All righty. This is Zach Gelb show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. The Michigan Wolverines will play for the national championship on Monday evening up against Washington. I'll be in attendance for the game. And then also you will have a little Cleveland Browns football playoff run and we'll see what happens with the dolphins. So we want to talk about all three of those teams who go to one man and one man only and that of course is Leroy Hoard the former Michigan and Cleveland Browns running back and now does a daily talk show mid days on 560 WQ a.m. Leroy, what's going on my man? Well, I'm doing fantastic.

Appreciate you joining us. So first and foremost, take me through your feelings right now with this Michigan football team being a famous former Michigan football player. Now they're 60 minutes away from winning a national championship. I was floored and amazed at how well that defense got after that office it it was something and I promise you there's nobody that thought that that defensive front six would get after Alabama's big offensive line the way they did it was unbelievable to watch. I was floored at I don't know whether it was a great game plan or poor game plan by Alabama because they basically did the same stuff. They brought four to the strong side walk the safety down week and nobody blocked the safety all game. So I don't know if they were matching that up to Alabama's offense and Alabama couldn't adjust to it or Alabama just never adjusted to it the whole game.

And it was amazing date. They ran a lot of games up front Alabama's big big offensive line look like they were lost. And so that portion of the game was incredible now as much as Michigan dominated that game. The fact that Alabama took the lead. I'm like, oh my goodness special teams almost cost Michigan. Right.

And so that's one of the things I've always said about Alabama. I don't care how bad they look man. They're always in the game always.

They don't get blown out. So it was a little bit sketchy at the end there. I was you know what. Nice way of putting it.

I didn't know whether to hit the bottle or take a walk. I didn't know what to do because it's for me being a fan is 10 times worse than being a play it. This is I don't know how fans do it. I mean just sitting there watching there's nothing you can do.

We yell at the TV. Oh my goodness. I almost lost my mind. I want to say for texts that I got from you during the game you text me right as they go to overtime and you just said this bleep is killing me. Yes it's killing me.

It's killing me. I like I didn't like the excitement the up and down the you know and then going into overtime. And I don't know what in the world that last play was but I promise you this Michigan got off the material so much.

he never looked down for you, right? Because even if that was supposed to be a draw, you know the quarterback drops back and acts like he's gonna pass, Monroe didn't even do that. So that time that shrunk on him, affected him with everything that he did in the second half.

Absolutely. And also you could even see it on some of his runs too. Like he would have some big runs and then he would just like fall down because of maybe what he was thinking about what happened early in the game.

But I will say this Leroy, I was watching the final play once again earlier this morning and I was slowing it down. We know there was a bad snap. We talked about Josiah Stewart just pushing the right tackle completely into Monroe. And I do think that Monroe panicked once the snap was low and he went to what he does best.

And that's let's just bulldoze people and run. But a lot of people are saying maybe he should have passed the ball to his left. You talked about it earlier, the way that the secondary just came up and quickly got to the quarterback. I don't think Mikey Sanistrios get enough credit because he was right in that backfield right away. And I think he took away Milro's vision of even potentially making that pass with how quickly he came off the edge.

Right. I just think during the course of that game, the thing I noticed about Milro was his attention went from secondary to linebackers to rush. And once it got on rush, that means that if he didn't have that much time, you didn't have to worry about him throwing it down the field and that's the way it got. And so when he had that bad snap, and it happens to a lot of quarterbacks, but they relax, they calmly take it back, I got time, I got time and then I make a play, he panicked because of, you know, if there hadn't been that pressure earlier in the game, I think he would have taken his time. But knowing that that pressure has been on him so quickly, that's what forced the panic. So this was a game long process that ended up making that last play look the way it did.

And really an all season process. Cause a lot of people that cover Alabama, they've been talking about the center problems all throughout the years and even going back to that game up against Auburn too, you kind of saw it pop up with the bad snap. Talking to Leroy Hoard right now, I was also surprised, and we'll get back to Michigan in just a second, but since we're talking about the ending of that game, Milro gets 15 on the ground to set it up first and goal at the nine. And the next two plays, they give the ball to their running back, who was having a solid game, but clearly the best thing for Alabama all throughout that game was their quarterback running. I was shocked that they didn't run the ball with Milro first and goal at the nine after getting 15 with them on either first or second down. I would have done maybe an RPO or something along those lines to give him an option. But I think one of the reasons why we saw that offense look the way it did was how they felt about the quarterback, right?

Like if you're comfortable with a guy, you'll do stuff like that. If you're not, you just call the play and go with it. Now, with all the twisting that Michigan was doing, right? Because they're smaller than that big offensive line.

So you got to get angles, you got to move around a lot. I was worried that they might get gashed, but the offensive line never ever got any push on that D line, never. And so from that standpoint, that's why it looks so cluttered up is because usually when you see a Alabama offensive line, they're going downhill and they're pushing guys off the ball. You didn't see that with Michigan and they aren't as big, which was kind of baffling, right? You got a group of guys who are, I mean, I want to say Alabama had two linemen who were over 340, right? I don't know whether they were tired. But they made more than I think they said a bunch of offensive NFL lines, that offensive line for Alabama. They said they were broadcast, yeah. And so why wouldn't they just want to play where them guys just are big and just go straight downhill? I don't know.

You know what it is? Sometimes I think coaches, and I know Saban's a legend, but sometimes coaches get too cute in the big game. It was almost as if in the first half, because when Alabama took over the game, it was in the third quarter. But in the first half, I think they were trying to win by making Milro do more than what he was asked to do for most of the season. Because they threw the ball, it felt like more in the first half than I thought they were going to.

Well, yeah, and here's the deal. It didn't cost them. So even with that game plan, they were never out of the game. And usually with coaches, if you're still in the game, there's no need to panic and change. Now coming out the second half, they made some adjustments because, I mean, somebody had to say, guys, why don't we just lean on them a little bit? But kudos to that Michigan defense is that whenever they tried, there was really no substantial games doing that either.

Talking to Leroy Hoard right now. So I think this game, just from my easy football analysis kind of eye looking at this, just doing the bare basics, it comes down to Blake Coram and Donovan Edwards. Because we know how great Michael Penix Jr. is playing. And I know how great the Michigan defense has been playing. But if you could eat up clock and chew clock and just run the ball with Coram and Edwards and go on long drives and score touchdowns, that's how I think Michigan ends up winning this game on Monday night yourself. I wouldn't be too surprised if this looked like the Penn State game.

All right, you're going to have a national championship, your quarterback's going to throw eight passes and everybody's going to go, what a phenomenal game plan. Right? That being said, I look at the same two guys that you do for different reasons. Because if they're getting off, then McCarthy's going to get them.

Right? And now you got a two-way go. And they used Coram in the passing game too, to get that touchdown too.

That was different. You give any offensive unit a two-way go, it's going to be a long day for you defensively. That being said, I'm still going to look at what Penix does, how he throws the ball. Holy smokes, he can throw. And they got some talent outside. So are you going to, in those pivotal moments, be able to get pressured to him before he can get the ball down the field?

I mean, I've seen it, but Mero is a different animal than Penix, right? So that's kind of the, he looks, he exudes cool during a football game. And so from that standpoint, he's not going to panic like Mero did. On a scale of one to 10, Leroy Hoard, one, no confidence in the world, 10, all the confidence in the world. I think this is going to be a great game, but where's your confidence at that Michigan winds up on the victorious side Monday evening?

I'm going to go seven, because I just think the way they have been running the football and how they've played with that defensive front and the way they've gotten after it defensively, I just don't know if anybody could beat him right now. Is this it for Harbaugh? I feel as if he's taken an NFL job just as long as it gets offered to him. Man, I said earlier in the year that he was going to be the coach of the Chargers before they fired their last coach.

It just seems to fit. I wouldn't be surprised, you know who else it fits? I hate to say it, but Bill Belichick. Absolutely.

A quarterback with that defense, right? Now, I don't know if he's going to bring the crew with him because the crew is what's getting him killed, right? So, I hope he doesn't leave for this reason. You've been through everything, man.

You're coming out of the other side of it, right? Like, don't do it Pete Carroll, right? Pete Carroll, Heisman Trophy win, loses to Heisman. School gets put on sanctions and you're coaching for $7 million in Seattle, right? I don't want it to be that because Jim Harbaugh leaving Michigan has a different feel than Pete Carroll leaving USC.

But I kind of understand if he leaves because the NCAA is so petty. It's like, why do you want to put up with all this nonsense? And I get that too. I get that too.

But I just think sometimes like opportunities aren't always better. Like what he's built there and what my thing is is what Jim Harbaugh has been through with the criticism and all the stuff surrounding Michigan. And now you come out of the other side of it, right?

That's perseverance, right? How he's handled all these situations and still been able to come out the other side of it. Now that you do, you don't leave. Now, granted his attitude about it might be different than mine. And I wouldn't be mad at whatever he chooses because God knows the way college football is now, like it's the wild, wild West. And it's easy to be a pro coach now, no doubt about it. Great, so, you know, I think, look, he took San Francisco to the Super Bowl and now he maybe feels or sees an opportunity where I like what they have.

I think I have a chance to go back again, but it's up to him. I wouldn't be mad either way. I'm never when, look, if you bring Michigan a national championship and you decide to leave, mission accomplished, right? Yeah, absolutely. They might already have their new coach on staff.

Yeah, Sharron Moore should get that job. As long as he don't cry. Yeah, well, you had an issue with the crying? I like the crying.

Why can't he show a little emotion? Come on, I thought it was good. Wait, let me tell you why. I spent my whole life looking forward for the opportunity to play in the NFL. When I get to the NFL, I'm not crying. I worked for this my whole life.

I expected to be here. So what are you crying about? Yeah, that's why it took you till your later years in life to be a lovable teddy bear. Back then you were probably a rough, just mean person. Now you're a lovable, nice guy.

I come into town in Miami, you get out of your palatial estate, you come to the studio and you're a nice, genuine, happy guy now. It's because you probably learned how to cry through life. I've always been a happy guy. I've always been happy. There's one thing. Every person, if you ask them this, what could you say about Leroy?

Man, that dude could talk. That's for sure. That's never changed. Never changed.

It hasn't changed. Alrighty, last thing I'll ask you, I'll end you with a two-part question, Leroy Hoard. How far are you willing to go with Cleveland? How far of a run can they get on this year? And then the Dolphins, where's your panic level at with Miami right now after some of the defensive injuries and now having a big game up against Buffalo? My panic level with the Dolphins is at a six, but not because of the defensive woes. I always, I worry that the game plan changes too much when the wrong guys get hurt.

And then you end up sitting back and getting picked apart. That's what I'm worried about about the defense. But my panic level is higher about the offense because there's certain teams that play that defense that clutter up the middle of the field, right?

And it takes a while for Mike McDaniel to make some adjustments, and Tua's pounding that ball in the middle of the field with all the guys in there. So that's the thing that worries me about the Dolphins. Whether they have the ability, sure. Are they going to be hurting a little bit defensively? Absolutely. They basically lost two Pro Bowl rush-ins in Jaylen Phillips and Bradley Chuck. So how are they going to go about that?

I don't know. They do have some guys that can come in and play, but it's the overall scheme of how they're going to put this together. And my thing is, we got here, we got to be all out. So just go for it. Don't sit back and let it, because if you sit back, every time they sit back, they've gotten picked apart.

So hopefully they understand that. As far as Cleveland, man, it's hard. It's hard dealing with that defense. And I don't know what Joe Flacco is on. He's on some get right. That dude has been throwing the ball. Elite.

Unbelievable. He's going to get a week break. So this is going to be his bye week. And it would be pretty amazing if he were able to go to Baltimore and win. That would be something.

Oh, that would be something special. But like, yeah, I think the thing that'll kill Cleveland is Joe Flacco throws the ball to the other team. He'll throw for 350. I hope it's never in a moment where it's costly.

In fairness to him, whenever the game has been on the line, he hasn't done that. So I think if my confidence level right now would be higher with the Browns, because they seem pretty well put as far as their defense, and they're playing at a high level, and you can win games like that versus Miami with their woes on defense, and not really knowing what adjustments they're going to have to the same type of defense that gives them problems, I'm a little more worried about that. But if they get hot, you know, both teams could go pretty far. Leroy Hoard, always great to catch up with you, my friend. Good luck to Michigan on Monday night.

Obviously, you know, I'll be rooting for and keep on kicking ass on 560 WQAM. Thank you. Hey, Zach, thanks for the video. The video, usually we're on the phone now. Welcome to the new wave.

I appreciate that. I'm not going to say anything right there because I've been pushing for video for years. And finally, the bosses said, hey, Zach, we should get you on video some more.

Yeah, they suggest they act like it's new. Absolutely. There he is. Leroy Hoard joining us on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Always love when he joins us. We got to take a break.

We are overdue for one. We'll come on back, update some of the biggest stories of the world of sports with some audio with the news brief. But first up with the latest CBS Sports Radio update, here's the act man, Rich Ackerman. ["The Act Man Theme"] Extra, extra real about it!

Extra, extra real about it! Time for your Daily News Brief. We get you caught up on the rumors, reports, and reconnaissance from the day in sports. Alrighty, news brief time on CBS Sports Radio.

Let's continue the Michigan conversation. This quote went viral yesterday. It was JJ McCarthy on a teleconference for the college football national championship game.

So instead of just reading you the quotes, we figured we'd play it to you. Here is the Michigan quarterback, JJ McCarthy on the sign stealing allegations. You know, it's so unfortunate because, you know, there's probably, I don't want to say a crazy number, but I'd say a good number, 80% of teams in college football steal signs. And, you know, it's just a thing about football.

You know, it's been around for years. We actually had to adapt because in 2020 or 2019, like when Ohio State was stealing our signs, which is legal and they were doing it the legal way, we had to, you know, get up to the level that they were at. And we had to, you know, make it an even playing field. But, you know, I just feel like it sucks just because like Mason said, we do work our butts off. We do watch so much film and look for those little tendencies and, you know, spend like 10, 15 minutes on one clip alone, just looking at all the little details where it's like, okay, you can say it's all sign stealing, but, you know, there's a lot more that goes into play. And, you know, a lot of stuff that gets masked, a lot of work that gets masked just because of the outside perception of what sign stealing is all about. I don't think that quote is actually as bad as the way that it was portrayed yesterday. Like the way that I was seeing it on a lot of sites yesterday was basically him admitting that they were cheating. I kind of got the feeling from J.J. McCarthy that he thinks they were going about it completely the legal way. Now that's a different conversation because everyone admits that sign stealing happens and I've been someone that has defended Michigan.

It's just, did it go about it in a legal way? And Stallion's being at the game on Monday, being two rows off the field, it's like, okay, well, if they did go about it in a legal way, then why did that guy get fired or did he walk away from the program, however you want to say it? Now, J.J. McCarthy, according to Marty Smith, after this was going viral yesterday, walked up to Marty Smith who was at Schembechler Hall and he wanted to clarify his comments. He said, it's about leveling the playing field and how Michigan has forced the skies and camouflage our signs, which he said the team has needed to do during his three years at Michigan, not upping our opportunity to win by stealing other team signs, but by protecting our own. Then Marty Smith asked him if this is a distraction just ahead of the biggest games of their lives. He said, it doesn't bother him at all, but he doesn't want to ensure it's not a distraction to the team. He does want to ensure it's not a distraction to the team. If I'm Michigan at this point, I think you take a page out of Robert Kraft's playbook, where Robert Kraft, when Deflategate happened and they landed in Seattle, they said, we're done talking about Deflategate, we did nothing wrong and we expect ultimately an apology from the NFL when they find out that Tom Brady did nothing wrong. That's what I would do here.

When Michigan lands, I think they land tomorrow in Houston, there's gonna be some media availability. I think you just say, we're done talking about the sign-stealing allegations. We've now been talking about them for a month, two months.

We said everything that we could say. And I think McCarthy's probably tired of talking about it, but then you get asked about it. And if you're not always careful about every word that you say, and you let your guard down for a second, then something like this happens and it's always gonna be a story that is gonna make the rounds and be of interest to many people. But also, people saying this is now gonna be a tainted championship, I think you're just doing things for clicks and I think it's just a ridiculous take. Here is Jim Harbaugh on his thoughts on possibly vacating wins when talking about this conversation that we just did for the last few minutes.

Yeah, as I said, getting ready for this game. One-track mind. I mean, I guess you wanna live in the world of rumor-ville or speculation, but we just don't really have any room to be doing that at this point.

That's not a stunt elsewhere. Harbaugh should really coach the rest of his team because Harbaugh gives you nothing. It's almost Belichickian-like that he gives you nothing when talking about controversy. Like, he'll give you things about football matters, but when it's controversy, he says things and he doesn't give you an answer, but he's talking for like 10 to 15 seconds where it is an answer, but doesn't actually answer your question. That's what his players should be doing in the buildup to this game.

Let's go to Nick Saban. What went wrong in the final play with Jayla Milro? And it wasn't a great snap, which now you don't have your eyes up, so it makes it harder to make those kinds of cuts. You know, that's something that's been a little bit of an issue for us all year long. You know, when you go on a clap and you use that as a noise cadence, they actually did clap on defense. They weren't doing it intentionally. The safety was just trying to get the linebacker's attention. It's a common thing, but it is a penalty. Michigan was not clapping, but our center was thinking that somebody was making a noise that sounded like a clap and he was snapping the ball early sometimes and when we weren't ready for it sometimes. So that's a huge issue for our quarterback.

That's excuse-making. So he said the defense was clapping, but they weren't clapping to try to get the center to snap the ball. They were just clapping to get the attention of their defense. What he was saying is throughout the game, Michigan may have been clapping and it was leading to early snaps and things like that. On that specific play at the end, Michigan wasn't clapping, but I guess the center was a little bit frazzled throughout the game. Now, even if the center heard a clap and he snaps the ball early, the snap should at least be at the proper level. The snap was still low, extremely low. I look back at that play, the left end for Michigan did a great job blowing up the right tackle. Sancho did a great job getting right off into the backfield and also the snap was low and then Milro panicked.

It's as easy as that. Finally, here's Jael Alexander. He's now back for the final game of the season after serving a one-game suspension for the whole coin flip controversy. I think it was definitely something to learn from.

There was definitely things that I could have improved upon during that week to help with the communication and moving forward, you know, that won't happen again. Time for your daily news brief, we get you caught up on the rumors, reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports. All right, a news brief time on CBS Sports Radio.

Let's continue the Michigan conversation. This quote went viral yesterday. It was JJ McCarthy on a teleconference for the college football national championship game.

So instead of just reading you the quotes, we figured we'd play it to you. Here is the Michigan quarterback, JJ McCarthy, on the sign stealing allegations. You know, it's so unfortunate because, you know, there's probably, I don't want to say a crazy number, but I'd say a good number, 80% of teams in college football steal signs and, you know, it's just a thing about football.

You know, it's been around for years. We actually had to adapt because in 2020 or 2019, like when Ohio State was stealing our signs, which is legal and they were doing it the legal way, we had to, you know, get up to the level that they were at and we had to, you know, make it an even playing field. But, you know, I just feel like it sucks just because like Mason said, we do work our butts off. We do watch so much film and look for those little tendencies and, you know, spend like 10, 15 minutes on one clip alone, just looking at all the little details where it's like, okay, you can say it's all sign stealing, but, you know, there's a lot more that goes into play and, you know, a lot of stuff that gets masked, a lot of work that gets masked just because of the outside perception of what sign stealing is all about. I don't think that quote is actually as bad as the way that it was portrayed yesterday. Like the way that I was seeing it on a lot of sites yesterday is basically him admitting that they were cheating. I kind of got the feeling from J.J. McCarthy that he thinks they were going about it completely the legal way. Now that's a different conversation because everyone admits that sign stealing happens and I've been someone that has defended Michigan. It just didn't go about it in a legal way and Stallion's being had to gain on Monday, being two rows off the field.

It's like, okay, well, they did go about it in a legal way, then why did that guy get fired or did he walk away from the program, however you want to say it? Now, J.J. McCarthy, according to Marty Smith, after this was going viral yesterday, walked up to Marty Smith who was at Schembekler Hall and he wanted to clarify his comments. He said, it's about leveling the playing field and how Michigan has forced this guys in camouflage our signs, which he said the team has needed to do during his three years at Michigan, not upping our opportunity to win by stealing other team signs, but by protecting our own. Then Marty Smith asked him if this is a distraction, just ahead of the biggest games of their lives. He said, it doesn't bother him at all, but he doesn't want to ensure it's not a distraction to the team. He does want to ensure it's not a distraction to the team. If I'm Michigan at this point, I think you take a page out of Robert Kraft's playbook where Robert Kraft, when Deflategate happened and they landed in Seattle, they said, we're done talking about Deflategate.

We did nothing wrong. And we expect ultimately an apology from the NFL when they find out that Tom Brady did nothing wrong. That's what I would do here.

When Michigan lands, I think they land tomorrow in Houston, there's going to be some media availability. I think you just say, we're done talking about the sign-stealing allegations. We'd have been talking about them for a month, two months.

We said everything that we could say. And I think like McCarthy's probably tired of talking about, but then you get asked about it. And if you're not always careful about every word that you say and you let your guard down for a second, then something like this happens and it's always going to be a story that is going to make the rounds and be of interest to many people. But also like people saying this is now going to be a tainted championship. I think you're just doing things for clicks. And I think it's just a ridiculous take. Here is Jim Harbaugh on his thoughts on possibly vacating wins when talking about this conversation that we just did for the last few minutes. Yeah, as I said, you know, getting ready for this game, one track mine.

I mean, I guess you're going to live in the room, we're a rumor-ville or speculation, but we just don't really have any room to be doing that at this point. That's a time spent elsewhere. Harbaugh should really coach the rest of his team because Harbaugh gives you nothing. It's almost Belichickian-like that he gives you nothing when talking about controversy. Like he'll give you things about football matters, but when it's controversy, he says things and he doesn't give you an answer, but he's talking for like 10 to 15 seconds where it is an answer, but doesn't actually answer your question. That's what his players should be doing in the buildup to this game.

Let's go to Nick Saban. What went wrong in the final play with Jayla Milro? And it wasn't a great snap, which now you don't have your eyes up.

So it makes it harder to make those kinds of cuts. You know, that's something that's been a little bit of an issue for us all year long. You know, when you go on a clap and you use that as a noise cadence, they actually did clap on defense. They weren't doing it intentionally. The safety was just trying to get the linebacker's attention. It's a common thing, but it is a penalty. Michigan was not clapping, but our center was thinking that somebody was making a noise that sounded like a clap and he was snapping the ball early sometimes and when we weren't ready for it sometimes. So that's a huge issue for our quarterback.

That's excuse-making. So he said the defense was clapping, but they weren't clapping to try to get the center to snap the ball. They were just clapping to get the attention of their defense. What he was saying is throughout the game, Michigan may have been clapping and it was leading to early snaps and things like that. On that specific play at the end, Michigan wasn't clapping, but I guess the center was a little bit frazzled throughout the game. Now, even if the center heard a clap and he snaps the ball early, the snap should at least be at the proper level. The snap was still low, extremely low. I look back at that play, the left end for Michigan did a great job blowing up the right tackle. Sancho did a great job getting right off into the backfield and also the snap was low and then Milro panicked.

It's as easy as that. Finally, here's Jael Alexander. He's now back for the final game of the season after serving a one game suspension for the whole coin flip controversy. I think it was definitely something to learn from. There was definitely things that I could have improved upon. During that week, to help with the communication and moving forward, you know, that won't happen again.