How To Remember Belichick's Legacy (Hour 1)

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No long-term commitments or contracts. That's Stamps.com code program. Live from the police show yet not overly ostentatious, studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City, sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to a crazy Thursday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all the great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates. Get Sirius XM, Channel 158, the free Odyssey app, and of course streaming on YouTube, YouTube.com slash CBS Sports Radio, 855-212-4CBS is the number to jump on in, 855-212-4227.

And you could always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good ol' cesspool of Twitter, at Zach Gelb, that's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Got Moist Mike, Stuart Kovacs, rockin' and rollin' with me all the way up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. Christian Fourier, former Patriot tight end, current WEEI midday host, gonna stop by 20 minutes from now.

And then at the top of the hour, we'll be joined by former Alabama quarterback, SEC Network analyst, superstar, and Greg McElroy. As you thought yesterday was crazy, where we found out about an hour before the show that Pete Carroll was basically getting let go as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. And then right in the final hour of the show, I thought Samter saw a ghost. I either thought something terrible happened in Samter's personal life or there was something crazy, like someone died in the sports world. And then Samter told us on the air that Nick Saban was retiring from Alabama.

And that kind of sparked a Kobe White type of reaction from me. Wow, wow, wow. That's crazy, bro.

Wow. And then I did wake up this morning and I can't say I'm stunned by this announcement. I did not believe that it was a matter of if Bill Belichick was going to get fired or they were going to part ways, however they want to call it, amicably parting ways. Or it was just a matter of when it was going to happen.

And today was the day. And you saw Mr. Mumbles, the legendary Bill Belichick, get in front of the podium, give about a two or three minute statement. Then Robert Kraft gave a two minute statement and they both walked off together.

And there was no smoochy smoochy action because reportedly, according to Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick was feeling a little bit under the weather. But let's start with Bill Belichick and then we'll circle back into Saban and the future at Alabama. Dan Lanning, I guess, turned down the job because he made it clear that he's going to be staying at Oregon. And it was clear from yesterday's press conference that Pete Carroll still wants to coach.

And we'll find out maybe this year or next year where Pete Carroll is going to land next. But as you guys know, I don't think there's anyone better than me in the national media today to talk about Bill Belichick because I'm a Patriot fan. And my entire life, I've seen Bill Belichick be the coach of the Patriots.

So today is a sad day, but it was a day that needed to happen. And I don't think there has been a bigger supporter, but then also in the same breath, a bigger critic the last two years of Bill Belichick than me. And the last two years, things got away from him. And I know it's easy for people to say, oh, that's what happens when you don't have Tom Brady. Now Bill Belichick is so such a bum. Like I vehemently disagree with that. The last two years, what you've seen with legendary coaches, whether it's in college or whether it's in the pros, when you are at the top of your profession and you reach a king or a godlike status in the sports world, you don't think you need to adapt.

You don't think you need to change. And I'm not saying in terms of adapting with adjustments made in-game. Bill Belichick is still a really good head coach. And that talent, that roster this year has been absolutely abysmal.

And they haven't been blown out of a game since week five up against the Saints where they got smacked like 34 to nothing. So Belichick will land somewhere and Belichick will be a good coach. I'm not sitting here and saying he's going to win a Super Bowl again. But when he gets more talent, if he goes to a place like Dallas, if he goes to a place like Atlanta or Los Angeles, whoever it may be and wherever it may be, all of a sudden you're going to see Bill Belichick have a bunch more wins on his resume and people are going to go, oh, wow, I guess we were doing a lot of revisionist history last two years and probably issuing a mea culpa. And when you look at the legacy of Bill Belichick, he is going to go down as one of, if not the greatest football minds that this game has ever seen. In my opinion, I believe in a salary cap era, which is extremely tough to navigate. And other coaches didn't have to do this. When you look at the annals of NFL history, when you look at the all time great coaches, I do believe in the toughest era ever, which is a salary cap era where you're constantly losing players left and right.

And you have to make sure everyone's under the salary cap and you have free agency and all that. I do believe that Bill Belichick is the greatest head coach of all time. Now, when you get into Belichick's legacy, let me make this abundantly clear. I have said for the duration of Tom Brady's career, and even Belichick would say this, players win championships. It's all about the players.

It's all about the players. That's what Belichick says every time the Patriots win a Super Bowl. So when Brady and Belichick had their divorce and they had their split back in after the 2019 season going into January of 2020, I sat there and I said, Tom Brady is the most responsible person for the Patriots success. And he's the most important part of that dynasty. And if you just put it between Brady and Belichick, I thought the Patriots success was 60% Tom Brady and 40% Bill Belichick.

Because players win championships. I do believe Bill's biggest downfall in the last two to three years, number one, was trusting a friend of his and Matt Patricia, who isn't an offensive minded coach to coach up the offense. That was stupid. I said that was an imbecile move from the start, and it made no sense.

And I was vehemently against it. That's what I turned on Bill Belichick. But when you also look at Belichick and you see the last two years, he never found a way to get a great number one option at the wide receiving position. When you have a young quarterback, and I'm not telling you, Mac Jones is this super duper successful quarterback, but they did win 10 games with him his rookie season and everyone forgets this.

They did go to the playoffs with a roster that wasn't good. So this guy could still coach and Bill Belichick. But when you have Tom Brady, you could use players at the wide receiving position that aren't marquee names, that aren't household names, that aren't great names. And you could still find a way to win because you have the greatest quarterback of all time. But when you get rid of Brady, you needed to bring in bonafide superstar wide receivers.

You have to like look at Tua Tunga Vailoa. He did not take off in the NFL until he got Tyreek Hill. Look at Jalen Hurts. He didn't have a successful year in the NFL and turned into a top five quarterback in the league until he got AJ Brown. And also Devante Smith.

And Tua also got Jalen Waddle. And look at Josh Allen. Josh Allen didn't take off and soar until he got Stefan Diggs.

So that's the biggest problem with Bill is it was almost as if he always thought he still had Tom Brady. But you had Mac Jones. And look at Alabama when Mac Jones was there. He had a multitude of great college wide receivers. And when you're going into a season with guys like Juju Smith-Schuster and Kendrick Bourne and, you know, Pop Douglas, like these guys.

What are we doing? That wasn't good a set up for success. And that's what did Bill in. Because look at the defensive side of the ball, which is Bill's bread and butter. Can you even name five Patriots on the defensive side of the ball? And before you say Matthew Judon, he was out for the year. Before you say Christian Gonzalez, he was out for the year.

Maybe Barrymore, the big defensive tackle at Alabama, is the only one you could really name. And that defense this year was lights out. Even in a four win season, that was a really good defense that we saw this season. But the offense was pathetic. The offense was a joke. The offense was losing football. Mac Jones, Bailey Zappi, Kendrick Bourne, Juju Smith-Schuster, bunch of injuries. Ramondre Stevenson, because he didn't have an offensive line, took a step back. Like who the heck were some of these linemen? Heck, you want to know how bad it is? Trent Brown, who dogs like every other season, he's actually now talking smack about the Patriots lack of talent.

Like who the heck are you, big fella, to talk smack? But that's what the Patriots have become. They were still good defensively. That's a product of Bill Belichick. But offensively, he had no guidance.

He had no way. And they had no one that actually sparked fear in the opposition. So everyone could pile on Bill the last two years, because most of that is rooted in jealousy and most of that is rooted in hatred, because for the majority of his 24 years in New England, he kicked your ass and he won championships. But let's not forget that without Bill Belichick, you don't have the success of the New England Patriots. And that's coming from someone who says Brady mattered more than Belichick. 60% Brady, 40% Belichick.

But the start of that dynasty was Bill. Who drafted Tom Brady? Bill. Who started Tom Brady? Overdrew Bledsoe when Bledsoe was ready to return healthy.

And Bledsoe, by the way, was $100 million player at the time. Bill. Who had one of the greatest game plans ever in Super Bowl 36? Bill. Who had a great defensive performance and led a great defensive performance of the good game plan up against the Eagles in Super Bowl 39? Bill. The last Super Bowl the Patriots won, where Sean McVay had this great high octane offense, like this unbelievable offense. Who held him to three points?

Whose defense did that? Bill. This is not me crapping on Tom Brady. Tom Brady's my favorite football player of all time. I hate this debate. I hate this argument.

It drives me nuts. But even as someone that tells you Brady is more important than Belichick, it doesn't mean Belichick is some bum. Like you bozos make this revisionist history out to be in the last two years because it didn't go Bill's way and Bill was stubborn and Bill was selfish and Bill didn't adapt to realizing I don't have Brady anymore.

So now I need to go get some great wide receivers to put Mac Jones in a position to succeed. But ultimately it was time. Bill's still a good coach. But this is 24 years. Like there are some teams that fire coaches every two to three years. Heck, the Carolina Panthers have just fired coaches in back-to-back seasons. The Cleveland Browns have had 3,000 coaches in the last like 15 years. So this run that you got to see is the greatest dynasty you'll ever see in the NFL. In an era of free agency, in an era of player empowerment, salary cap, all that stuff.

Contracts just going out the wazoo. But Bill Belichick, up until the last two years, always gave his team a chance. Bill Belichick always had great game plans up against Mahomes, Rogers, Pater Manning, you name the great quarterbacks. And even before Belichick got to doing one and Belichick became a head coach, he won two championships on the defensive staff as defensive coordinator for the New York Football Giants under the legendary Bill Parcells. You know, he did win 11 games without Tom Brady in 2008. When he was in Cleveland, and Tom Brady, no one knew who he was, right? Tom Brady was even close to being in the league. He was coaching the Browns. He played the Patriots, coached by Bill Parcells.

Who won that playoff game? Bill Belichick. So study up, do some homework, and respect Bill Belichick's name. And for people, and I know we're in a reactionary society and we're a prisoner of the moment, but for people the last two years to make it out to be like Bill Belichick is this terrible coach, you would dream to have 8% of the success that Bill Belichick has in his pinky.

Alright? So stop with this nonsense. Stop with this just ridiculous talk that Bill Belichick is this crappy football coach. He'll get hired again. Even Robert Kraft basically said it today, it's going to pain him when he's on the sideline in that cutoff hoodie with another team, but Bill Belichick will land somewhere else. He'll break Don Shula's record, and he'll have the most wins that we've ever seen in the history of the NFL. Thank you, Bill Belichick.

24 years. You have just been excellent. You've won six championships, and I wish you nothing but the best. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We'll take a time out. We'll get a reaction on Bill Belichick being let go in New England. Who could coach the Patriots next with former Patriot player, won a few championships with the Pats, and now hosts Sports Radio WEI in Boston on their midday show.

Christian Fourier joins us on the Zach Gelb show when we return in five minutes. Around New Year's, we get a little obsessed with changing ourselves and forgetting the things we're already doing right. Like taking our supplements every morning, or scheduling me time into our day. Therapy helps you recognize those victories and keep up the good work in the new year without changing everything. BetterHelp offers affordable online therapy so you can try new year same you with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash grow today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp.

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Let's head out to the guest line right now. I guess I could do the cheesy radio play right there. Ship up to Boston with the music playing right now. Welcome in a former New England Patriot, played under Bill Belichick. And now does a great job on mid-days on Sports Radio WEI. That of course is Christian Fourier joining us right now.

Christian, appreciate the time as always. How are you? I'm good. How are you guys doing? Well, I'm doing fantastic. So today is a bizarre day. Like we all expected this would be the outcome, but when it finally hit the fan today, what was your reaction that your coach Bill Belichick after 24 years is no longer going to be coaching the Patriots?

Yeah. Well, I didn't know that was going to be the outcome. I was still kind of kind of wavering to be honest with you. But then, you know, reality struck and and then once you saw Pete Carroll go down and he saw Nick Saban go down. You're like, oh, Bill's got to be next. So for the most part, I think it was the right move because you know, the proof is just look at the last four years and you know, regardless of how much goodwill equity Bill has built up over the last 24 years. I just don't think the crowd's were willing to kind of give him one more year to kind of fix it. And quite frankly, sometimes I don't know if Bill was even, you know, down for doing it one more time.

So, you know, they keep talking about, you know, mutually separating ways and all that stuff and it's all amicable and who knows if that's really true or not, but they did the photo shoot that did the handshake and now each side is going to go and try to make their fortune on their own. Would you agree with this assessment? Like I think Bill is still a good coach, but the last few years, he just did a bad job assembling a good roster post Tom Brady and just never really got great wide receivers there and it almost felt like he still thought with some of his actions that Brady was still a quarterback for his team in a bizarre way. Well, I would say he's not just a good coach. He's still a great coach.

The dude is not lost a fastball at all in my opinion, but and even he said it and this is just the real reality of it. If you don't have good players, you're not going to win. I don't care how good your coaches. I mean Bill is proof of that and you can look at any other situation, you know, like for a guy not to have the quarterback and listen a lot of like his demise is by his own hand. Yeah point in a way where you know, even if you just go back the last year what a debacle that was not hire a coordinator get given is a former defensive coordinators former head coach Matt Patricia the range to run his offense or to run a semblance of an offense and actually looking back at this year. I mean, he actually is a better job than they did this year. But again, I think it was just time for everybody to just to kind of admit that it wasn't working and you can go talent.

You can go attitude. You can go bad draft picks or you can go bad free agent acquisitions. The reality is there were some other teams out there in the NFL that dealt with massive issues major injuries multiple quarterback being started in look at the Steelers alone or on their third guy. So I still think they look at it as like, you know, what somebody else needs to speak for the organization and somebody will use bill to speak for theirs Christian Fourier here with us, you know, I'm annoyed today Christian not because of the decision but just some of the people that just spew nonsense on television and radio when talking about Belichick, you know because of what happened the last two years people make him out to be like, he's some bum when he's the greatest coach of all time and and I love Tom Brady's my favorite football player of all time, but as great as Brady is and I think Brady was more important to the dynasty than Belichick. It wasn't like a hundred percent Tom Brady and Belichick gets no credit the conversation drives me crazy, you know, it's low-hanging fruit and I've been in those locker rooms. I've had great teams with crappy coaches. I've had great coaches with crappy personnel. I'm not even willing to entertain the nonsense.

That was who is more valuable. I just it drives me crazy. Now Brady going out there and winning a Super Bowl with another coach who a year and a half later decided to hang them up is intriguing and I would think that the best it looked it really to be honest with the only way Bill kind of kills this noise is if he goes out he coaches another team and they win it and they win a Super Bowl. I mean it is it is as lame as that sounds that's kind of what he has to do because then anyone who does kind of feel that way and maybe they just don't like Bill they don't like what he stands for. They don't like the way he talks. They don't like well, you know how much he won how grumpy he could be. Oh, they just hate winners. That's just nuts. But but I don't know like that. That's just part of the narrative now and I don't think they can escape it at all period.

It's just not going to go anywhere. It's just you know, just blame everything on Brady. Let's just do that your favorite player bring everything up Brady. You know, he's probably like just give me some heat.

I'm good. Well, it's just so funny because like even in that first season when both were away from one another there'd be one weekers like up Brady needs Bill then up Bill needs Brady and obviously Brady ended it with the Super Bowl. But then the following season after that it's like everyone out says how bad of a quarterback Mac Jones is like this people forget that that crappy quarterback that Bill Belichick won 10 games of them made the playoffs, you know, it's amazing what people forget so quickly. Yeah, and listen, we all know it's hard to win in this league.

It just really is hard and and some of it is about timing and a little bit is with luck. You can just look at all the quarterbacks and Mac Jones is class and I don't know if any of them are great. I mean some of them got traded some of them are playing and this is a crapshoot to find a guy and we used to we used to up and up in Boston. We used to mock and tease and just kill the Buffalo Bills the New York Jets the Miami Dolphins and all the other teams throughout the NFL Football League because they just kept missing and then they would draft one guy in the first round three years. They drop another guy and then that wouldn't work. They dropped another guy like you just have to keep doing it till you get it right unless you find some journeyman Joe Flacco type guy or a guy like, you know, Kirk Cousins even there you're not winning it.

I mean, they'll keep your head above water, but they're not the difference makers and they're not a long-term answer. So that's to me is like it's going to be the tough part for the Patriots alone is how do they start all over again and who they start all over again with? I think the first phone call for a head coach got to be to Mike Rabel and and I think they already had that conversation because I've never seen a head coach get inducted into another team's Hall of Fame right for what he did as a player then go during his bye week to that other team Stadium and sit in the luxury box with the owner.

I you know, I don't want to accuse anyone of tampering any of that but I'm assuming craft and brave already had that conversation. Yeah, I don't even know if they need to though to be honest with you at that point in time when Mike was inducted in the Hall of Fame. I'm not sure it was as bad. It was going to I don't think anyone thought it was going to get as bad as it ended up getting with the Patriots only won four games.

They still were in a decent position. Not a great position and a lot of people up here are assuming that it's just naturally going to be, you know, pseudo defensive coordinator former first-round draft pick and linebacker for the Patriots Jerrod Mayo. That's who they think it's going to be which I think it's a mistake because if you told me that I can have a guy like Mike Rabel who is who's already kind of cut his teeth has already figured it out was a coach of the year went to the playoffs four times with coach to the AFC Championship game. I would say that's the guy I want and still has ties to the organization like bravel is where Jerrod Mayo hopes. He will be in 10 years.

That's why I would cut it, you know, not nothing against Rod male fine, dude, but Mike is so much more prepared for this job than Jerrod Mayo is now. He's a former teammate of yours. Have you talked to me got any inside scoop for us? No, I never played with them.

I was done by the time he came in but I know well and no I have not talked to him. I'm talking about Vrabel. Oh bravel. Oh, oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, not about this. Yeah, not about this. No. Yeah. No, not about this and the last time I saw him was at the induction ceremony and and we just hand it up like it was no big deal. Like you just reminisce and telling stories and you know bragging about what you used to do and I will used to take all my touchdown passes because Britain and Bill kept putting them in in the game.

I drove me nuts also. Yeah, so it'll listen. There's three guys at least two guys right though three guys right now Harbaugh if he comes out bravel and Bill and there's like what seven or eight jobs open right now. I mean, I think these coaches are going to break the bank right now when it comes to those three guys when it comes to term when it comes to their average annual when it comes to how much money they make it's going to be unprecedented with these guys get two more for Christian for you joins us right now former Patriots.

I did and that is great job on sports radio WEI. Where is Bill going next? What's your take on that? Well, I mean the everyone the the easy answer is seems to be Atlanta.

It seems to be the easy answer lots. So, you know, you got an owner and author blank is 82 years old. Let me I don't think he I think he's tried the offensive coordinator try the defensive coordinator.

I feel like he would want a ready-made product and I would think that you his term limits would be three to four years. It's not like we're not rebuilding here. We're not I don't have any patience but then the allure of having the most important piece to the puzzle out in La La Land the la charge you are basically renting space at SoFi Stadium. They not only do they need like a boost like some sort of validation. They need they just need somebody to come in there and take that town over and give them credibility because they're a second-class citizen in that city and I don't think you know Spanish actually like the fact that people call them cheap and you know other teams take over their state their stadium that happened.

That's a real thing. So I think having Herbert on that team is probably the most important piece and probably most the attractive angle to all these jobs and also I threw this one out there about a month ago when this report came out that maybe Dan Quinn could replace Mike McCarthy in Dallas if Dallas has a short exit. Could you see Jerry Jones and Belichick working together? If let's say the Packers beat the Cowboys and they fire McCarthy after this weekend.

Absolutely. I mean that Jerry Jones is just a guy to do it. I think the personality wise I think he can handle Bill. I mean listen, they he had Jimmy Johnson. He had Bill Parcells.

I think he likes that elite status. I think you know, Jerry Jones is so successful in business, but he hasn't won since, you know, Barry Switzer left the building and you know, so it's been a while he tried with Parcells and that didn't work. But I think if I think that some teams will that are still will even if they kind of like their coach are willing to part ways with them just to have the chance to hire Bill even if they feel like their work. They're going in the right direction because he is undoubtedly an upgrade and he will fast track you regardless of who you have in house.

That's my opinion. And then last thing I'll ask you, you know, we don't even know the GM or the coach is going to be next year, but I'm already thinking about the NFL Draft Christian Fourier. I think the Pats to just stay put at three and a lot of people are going to say oh trade up trade up trade up go get a quarterback like they have like nothing right now on this team.

They don't have a lot. I'm taking the best player available and I think that's going to be Marvin Harrison Jr. At three. What would your thoughts be on that one? Yeah, I know it's hard to kind of pass a guy like that up because you just you know, he probably is the closest thing to a sure thing. And the quarterback is not but I feel like if you don't have a quarterback and if you don't draft one and start all over again, what pile what bargain bin are you buying out of like what where are you shopping like who's available? I mean, I did the one guy that I kept thinking of was Jake Browning as far as like if you want to go ahead and get Marvin Harrison Jr. Go grab a stop kind of reagent guy like Jake Browning like 28 years old going to be a free agent.

I mean, he's not like, you know, Brett Farve or Aaron Rogers, but I think that that's the guy if you put the right pieces around him that he can win for you. So I think they're going to have some options again. The other question is who's going to be picking the groceries like who's going to be the GM over there in Seattle.

I mean in New England. Alrighty. He is Christian for a sports radio. He's a former Patriot tight end Christian always appreciate you would jump on board with us.

Thank you. Hey boys. There you go Christian Fourier joining us on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports radio. Let's take a break Greg McElroy going to join us coming up at the top of the hour who's going to replace Nick Saban at Alabama.

I will give you my answer to that question though when we return in five minutes. We do have a poll question up since it's not going to be Dan Lanning. We floated out four names. You could always find it at Zach Gelb at CBS Sports radio between these four coaches who should replace Nick Saban as the next head coach of Alabama Mike Norvell Kaylin DeBoer Lane Kiffin or Steve Sarkeesian Sarc right now is at twenty two point four percent. You have Lane Kiffin in the lead at forty six point three percent Kaylin DeBoer at seventeen point eight percent and then in last place Mike Norvell at thirteen point five percent latest CBS Sports radio update. Here is the act man Rich Ackerman this portion of the show is sponsored by the new Hyundai Tucson available with complimentary class leading blue link plus.

Now it's easy to use your phone to control your Tucson. Alrighty Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports radio. So the big news from yesterday, which is still big news, but we've had bigger news today with Bill Belichick basically getting fired. You could say they amicably split ways whatever part of ways he got fired as head coach of the New England Patriots. That's the reality of the situation.

We don't need to sugarcoat it. Bill's a big boy, you know, put your big boy pants on it's 24 years that are the greatest 24 years that we've ever seen in the history of the NFL that got them to nine Super Bowls and they won six Lombardi trophies. But yesterday the surprising news was Nick Saban retiring and if I had to to rank Carol Saban and Belichick in terms of most surprising to least surprising I would say Pete Carroll was one because I never thought they were going to fire Pete Carroll as a head coach and that's also another thing like we took we talked about dressing up a story. This guy got fired as the head coach of the team.

He still wanted to coach. He made that abundantly clear yesterday and now they're moving him into a football role upstairs the moment something comes calling off for him a job to be a head coach Pete Carroll is as good as gone. So I was most surprised with Carol then the second was Nick Saban the one I'm least surprised about is Belichick because we talked about this being the expectation for two months, but when the news broke yesterday right in the immediate aftermath, I thought to myself. Okay, who's going to be the next head coach at Alabama and the first two names I gave you number one was Dan Lanning and number two was Kalen DeBoer and then shortly after that you saw this tweet from Pete Thamil with no likely internal replacements at Alabama. Here's a quick projected target list Dan Lanning Kalen DeBoer Dabo Sweeney James Franklin Mike Norvell and Marcus Freeman now, let me just say this right out of the gate James Franklin gets the job at Alabama.

I am so confident that won't happen. Samter, I'm sure you've seen the Dukes Mayo Bowl where they dump Mayo on the winning coach. I will allow you to dump Dukes Mayo all over me in the studio if James Franklin gets the job like it is amazing how every time there's a job that's open in college football James Franklin's name is attached to it. This guy can't win at Penn State. So why would you want him to get a bigger job at USC when it was open last two years ago or now the best real estate in college football in Alabama. So stop with this James Franklin nonsense and I'll really I think there's three names in this decision-making process Lanning who's now out and by the way, let's play you this audio because this is Dan Lanning. I thought for sure like last night there was a report.

He was already in Tuscaloosa then up that report was wrong. And then you see Dan Lanning popping up today on social media and he announces his decision to stay at Oregon this courtesy of his ex-account who has goals and aspirations raise your hand up right? Everybody got goals and aspirations, you know how you get those you be the best where you're at. That's how you reach goals and aspirations.

That's how great things happen. It's not about worrying about the next thing. It's about worrying.

What's it like in front of you six inches right in front of your face will remind you guys what that means, right? But it means something in order to know everybody makes what they are they all may commit this thanks to a lot of stars the world doesn't have a lot of what finishers we're finishing I want to be here in Eugene for as long as Eugene will have me this place has everything and I could possibly ever want is a little bit of a problem in society today with people looking for what's next and where where there's an opportunity and the reality is, you know, the grass is not always greener. In fact, the grass is damn green and Eugene. So let's start off with this announcement of Dan Lanning to say I'm actually a little bit surprised and I know last night because we live in a gotcha society where people care more about likes on social media and taking people's words and twisting them and trying to slam dunk on them when they say one thing and then a few months later something happens when you were talking about A&M and Dan Lanning Dan Lanning who I like and I know he would have been a fool to leave Oregon to go to Texas A&M, but when Alabama opens up I don't give a rat's ass if you said in the past, oh, I'm not going to leave Oregon. This is my last job blah blah blah blah blah. It's Alabama like there's not a lot of spots that I would leave Oregon for and you've seen coaches find that the hard way like Willie Taggart who was at Oregon and leaves FSU and then who even knows what Willie Taggart is right now because he was a horrible coach ever since leaving Oregon. So Dan Lanning if he would have left Oregon for A&M would have been a fool, but if he would have left Oregon for Alabama no one would have faulted him for that. And if you are you're just a troll on social media, but I respect what Dan Lanning did today and it shows his actual commitment to Oregon cuz you don't leave like if you don't leave Oregon for Alabama, what's the job then that you're going to leave unless you don't perform. Well, you see the writing on the wall of maybe you're going to get fired and then you try to go somewhere else because you're a big name but Lanning's nowhere near that and he's been there, you know last two seasons and he's had two really good years and this year, you know, he just couldn't beat Washington and now you're going to see how far he could continue to drive this program. But the last two years he's been a good coach and he was a GA under Nick Saban, a SEC guy, but really what are the conferences mean now in college football?

It's two conferences. It's the SEC and the Big Ten and Oregon is now going to the Big Ten. So I respect that decision by Dan Lanning and now I'm a recruit or I'm a player or you know, I'm a booster. I'm giving more money to the program or on the playing side. I'm committed to Oregon. I know my coach which is rare to do in college football. I know my coach is going to be there for the four or five years on there because if you don't leave Oregon for Alabama, what what when are you going to leave?

You're not you're going to stay at Oregon as long as they want to have you there. Now, where do we go from here? And that's the poll question that I have up at CBS Sports Radio at Zach Gale between these four coaches who should replace Nick Saban as next head coach of Alabama Mike Norvell, Kalen DeBoer, Lane Kiffin or Sark. I think there's three names that they should consider. Started with Lanning. He said no and then the other two names are Sark and Kalen DeBoer.

Now. I don't think Sark is leaving Texas, which is one of those prime real estate jobs in college football for Alabama. I think Sark realizes that he has a good spot.

I would not leave if I'm Sark and quite frankly, I do think Alabama could do better than Sark even though Sark is a really really good coach Alabama after Dan Lanning didn't want to go there should make one phone call and one phone call only and that's the Kalen DeBoer who is a hundred and four and twelve as a head coach and Alabama fans. Don't tell me. Oh, what is three NAIA championships mean at Sioux Falls? Oh, what is a nine and three season mean at Fresno State? He was just at Washington. This is his first big boy job and the last two years he's been sensational and outside the National Championship game before the National Championship game in two years. He lost two games two and they were both by eight points or less and he just took a team that doesn't have more talent than the Alabama team to the college football playoff and won a playoff game, which you guys didn't do this year and then lost to Michigan in the National Championship game. Kalen DeBoer would be a phenomenal hire and if this guy can win a Pac-12 championship at Washington and could take Washington to a National Championship imagine what he could do with the resources at the preeminent job in the country in Alabama and this dude is in phase by the moment because that's another thing. It's tough to be the guy who replaces Nick Saban, but I think Kalen DeBoer is ready.

This dude is a winner and everything he does. He had 520 as a baseball player his senior year at Sioux Falls also programs all-time leading receiver, yards, receptions and receiving touchdowns, then was a coach there 67-3, then goes to Fresno State, has a 9-3 season and the last two years at Washington, he's 25-3. I don't care that this guy doesn't have SEC roots. The game of college football now is transfer portal and name image and likeness and do you need any more of an endorsement than what Kalen DeBoer just did with Michael Penix Jr.? Michael Penix Jr. No one thought this guy was going to be successful when he transferred to Washington. He was synonymous with injuries at Indiana where Kalen DeBoer got to know him. He goes to Washington and Michael Penix Jr. played some of the best football that we've seen the last two years in the sport. So just because it's different just because it's an unknown to the Alabama fan, don't act like the A&M fans, right? Who vetoed the hire of Mark Stoops, trust your administration and be open to it.

And I think it would be a home run. I think it would be a slam dunk hire to get Kalen DeBoer. And let's say you don't hire Kalen DeBoer.

Who are you hiring? You want to tell me Lane Kiffin? Okay, you want to tell me Sarc? Even though I think they're better options than Sarc?

Okay, I can live with Sarc. You want to hire Dabo Sweeney? That dude's not ready to coach in 2024.

He doesn't embrace the transfer portal and he doesn't embrace NIL. He makes fun of it. There's not like this a tough job. It's a great job, but it's a tough job because who you're replacing and you need the right guy and sometimes the right guy is a different guy. And Kalen DeBoer would be sensational.

Sensational. He would keep the program afloat and continue to keep the program sailing in the right direction and winning football games and he would win a championship at Alabama. There's no doubt about it because this guy has won at tough programs to win at and now you would get to go to the creme de la creme job in college football. I don't understand people that would be against and would vehemently oppose Kalen DeBoer as the head coach of Alabama, but the results of the poll question so far. Who do you want to see as the next Alabama head coach with Dan Lanning out, Lane Kiffin 46%, Sark at 22.7%, Kalen DeBoer at 17.7% and then Mike Norvell at 13.6%.

I'm surprised Norvell is so low too. He just restored Florida State and I know right, it's probably a lot of Alabama fans. Oh, he just crapped on our program. He said we didn't belong and it should have been Florida State in the college football playoffs. So maybe it's some of that recency, but that dude embraces NIL and embraces the transfer portal and that's what you need now. It's not the old school style anymore. This is a new era in college football and it's about player relationships and understanding how to develop players, but also embracing NIL and the transfer portal. Greg McElroy will join us next.

We'll find out who he wants as the next Alabama coach, Zach Gelb's show, CBS Sports Radio. Around New Year's, we get a little obsessed with changing ourselves and forgetting the things we're already doing right, like taking our supplements every morning or scheduling me time into our day. Therapy helps you recognize those victories and keep up the good work in the new year without changing everything. BetterHelp offers affordable online therapy so you can try New Year's, same you with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash grow today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp H-E-L-P dot com slash grow.