Face of College Football (Hour 3)

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Instacart for the win. A peanut butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners up get nothing, one retired cop returns... That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter, but you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort, coming soon to a Super Bowl new you. Alrighty, welcome back in hour number three of our radio program. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio.

I was reading EA Sports and that's why I almost called us CA Radio. I don't know why. Anyway, it's a Friday. We're here. Everything's good.

We're getting ready for the big weekend. EA Sports College Football 25 released a trailer and I know that this is getting a lot of people excited because it's the triumphant return of the college football video game. Um, I don't play a lot of video games anymore. With all that being said, the video games I still do play are sports related.

Like, Stu, for some reason, I think you go both ways. I think you will play a ton of sports video games, but then you'll do all that other nonsense as well with video games as well. What's your favorite non-sport video game these days when you're like cursing out Gallo and Horowitz online? It's probably still Call of Duty.

That's the one I gravitate to. That's not sports, but I'm definitely more sports than non-sports. Your favorite sport video game these days is? Uh, it's probably either EAFC, which is a soccer one.

Oh, I was going to say English, please. Or MLB The Show is really good, but the one you're going to mention tops those two. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. So I'm still a Madden guy. I know Madden has taken a dip, but I still enjoy playing Madden the most. Major League Baseball, what is it? The show, right?

Yes, the show. That's a fun game, but it's also to sit there through nine innings is tough. I don't know why. Like four quarters you do the running clock. It's four or five minutes. It goes by quickly. The nine inning baseball game, every pitch, even though it's fun, it does seem like a big time commitment.

But then also, if you're playing video games, I'm assuming that you have a little bit of the time. But there's other things that come into factor where you start a video game and then you get called in to different directions. My favorite video game growing up as a kid was Grand Theft Auto Vice City. I really enjoyed that.

What was the base? Was it Slugfest where they would beat the crap out of each other? Yes, Slugfest was, yes. And then there was a football video game, I want to say, with Bill Romanowski and Lawrence Taylor on the cover. It was Blitz the League. Blitz the League, where they would like, you would get hurt and they would they would pull a Jimmy Garoppolo. They would inject steroids like right into you to get you back on the field. I still remember the old NHL game where like you would knock a guy onto the ice and he'd be bleeding and like his legs twitching on the ice. That didn't age well. And then also ESPN had an underrated, it was 2K, they had football before that just went away, where there was like a crib version of it where you could, I think, create a player.

And then you had your own crib and you would get like advice from Funkmaster Flex, of all people. And I want to say like Carmen Electra was also in the game. There was someone else that was in the game. So that was, those are some fun video game moments as well.

I'm trying to, I always loved NHL, Chell as they called it. That was always fun too. But those are some of the video game history of Zach Gelb growing up as a kid. MLB The Show, years ago, when they did the create the player mode. I don't know if the create the player mode is still good. It's still in it. It's like the same thing as it was 20 years ago. But that always used to take such a commitment.

Yeah. Because you'd have to work your way up in the minor leagues. And when you were younger, you actually went through all that and just didn't simulate it.

But you would work yourself up in the minor league. And I remember I had a PSP, a PlayStation Portable. And I would like, whenever I'd be out for dinner as like a kid, I'd be playing on the PlayStation Portable. And I ended up creating a player and going through with it where I broke the home run record, which was really cool. And then you know what was also fun? Man, we're really going down the rabbit hole here. Backyard baseball, all the backyard sports.

Who is it? Kenny Yamaguchi or something like that. Those were those were some fun moments. I remember growing up as a kid, my sister and I spent an entire day trying to get to a hundred runs, a hundred runs in backyard baseball. And I'll never forget when we actually broke the 100 yard record. And obviously the most legendary backyard baseball player, backyard sports figure ever was Pablo Sanchez.

You always you always wanted to get Pablo Sanchez on your team. But anyway, EA Sports is bringing back the college football video game. The college football video games of old really started to pop back up during the pandemic. I don't remember the last time they created the college football video games, too.

I feel like you would know this. It was NCAA 14, which was in 2013. Was he on the cover for that, Reggie Bush?

No, no. Reggie Bush was oh seven. The last one was Denard Robinson. Oh, yeah, because they always did current or guys that were just right out of college.

Yes. So, yeah, Reggie Bush then would have been well out of college at that point. So those video games came back kind of during the pandemic.

And I even remembered I ordered on Amazon one of the old college football video games, which was tough to find during the pandemic. It was actually like Big Cat from Barstool who brought it back because he created the coaches. And he created the coaches so much that that guy Doug's from Barstool, who's no longer with Barstool. He just created a large, big football coach. He looked like the football coach that Big Cat created. And the next thing you know, this guy had a career of like three, four years being a content creator for Barstool Sports. You know, that was so popular during the pandemic when you had nothing to do.

Absolutely nothing to do that. And I'm not even a big video game player anymore that I ordered one of the NCAA video games because it was fun to create the coach. And you start off at a small school and you work yourself up to a big time program. It was always like awkward when you got fired as well. My most awkward video game moment ever, though, my best friend and I, Alex, we created a player. I want to say it was in Madden or was either in 2K, I forget what it was, but we created a player. And he was just starting to get really good. And he suffered a career ending injury, a career ending injury. How do they make that in a video game where it's not real and you have it programmed to have someone suffer a career ending injury? Oh, when I was in middle school, it's like one of the worst moments of my life.

This player was just getting really good, but we put so much time in it, days and days and days and days, and then boom! Career ending injury suffered in a video game. I don't think I've ever seen the career ending injury.

It was wild! I've heard friends talk about it, but it's never happened to me. I've never actually seen it happen. I've seen the season ending injury in week one.

Career ending! Oh, that's awful. So now, I think this creates a conversation. This is not just eight minutes of us reliving our video game days back in the day. Oh, now I sound old. You know, I know that the topic sometimes... Back in my day!

Yeah, I'm not at that point of life yet. They only had 16-bit video games and you had to blow on the cartridges! You have different voices like Halliburton.

I didn't know you had those voices. And do you remember when you would have an old game and you would go to GameStop? And there would be scratches all over and they'd give you six, seven bucks and you're like, Oh, put that towards the new video game as well.

I think that's how parents tried to get the old video games that were just collecting dust out of the house when you'd only get $6.33 back for your crappy, scratch, four-year-old video game. But there's a reason why I'm bringing this up. And it's not just like, Oh, people are going to say, You have nothing to talk about this time of year.

We have plenty to talk about. But with EA Sports bringing back their college football video game, and now we live in a different era where players could actually profit off their name, image, and likeness legally, I want to just create the conversation of, with Jim Harbaugh going back to the NFL, with Nick Saban retiring from the sport, who is the face of college football? Because you would assume for the video game that they're going to put a player on it. But quite frankly, when I still look at the face of college football, just because guys' career in college only lasts three, four years, I know recently we had some guys that played seven years because of COVID and then redshirt and then all that stuff. But for the most part, in college sports, the coaches are still the face of the sport. And that's changed throughout the years where we just haven't had other coaches that have taken the baton really. Like in college basketball, we've had Jay Wright retire, we've had Roy Williams retire, and obviously we've had Coach K retire as well and walk away. And now in college football, you have Nick Saban and Jim Harbaugh both leave the sport, Harbaugh back to the NFL, Saban, even though he still has an office in Tuscaloosa, and on the Alabama football facility, he has retired for now from college football. So we're looking for a new face in college football.

Samter will give you some players in just a bit, but my faces are still all coaches. And here's my five, because I think to be the face of college football, you either have to be very entertaining or you even need to be sometimes polarizing. So in a number five, I don't like this guy. I think this guy is a crybaby. I think this guy is crying day, as I like to call him, and that's Ryan Day. Ryan Day can be the face of college football if he gets Ohio State back and they start to actually win some things, because he has such a punchable face. And he does this fake tough guy act like after he went after Lou Holtz, like who cares what Lou Holtz says right now and you beat Notre Dame in the moment and you're going to like talk smack to an 80 something year old man. So Ryan Day is very unlikable, but sometimes to be the face of college football, you have to be hated in some capacity and Ryan Day is easy to hate. Number four, this guy has lost his luster because his team is not as great as they once were. And he has avoided embracing NIL and especially the transfer portal, but he's polarizing. And he used to dominate the sport.

That's Davos Sweeney. And even this year, when Clemson was down for a little bit, he still found a way to make headlines because he went after his own fan base saying, oh, maybe we need to lighten up the bandwagon a little bit, which I thought was a bad move. But Davos Sweeney is definitely someone that could still be a face of college football.

Here's one that I don't think we usually part in the conversation. But his program the last few years, they may have limitations. They may never win a national championship. But he's brought a lot of attention, a lot of buzz and a lot of wins in the regular season. Lane Kiffin. I actually think Lane Kiffin may be the most interesting man in college football. Because Lane has zingers. Lane also has a very dry sense of humor where he goes after people and you read the statements and it's like, wow, that's lively. That's a juicy quote. But he delivers it in such like a monotone approach and such a quiet approach as well. And he's never afraid to jump on social media and kind of play into the game of college football and troll people as well.

Number two, Deion Sanders. Now, here's the problem with Coach Prime. He brought so much attention to college football this year. He has brought more attention to Colorado this past year that I think they received the last 15 years combined. The problem with Coach Prime is that when are you going to win and can you win at Colorado? And going into last year, if I would have told you that Colorado would have won four games, you would have said, yeah, that's a pretty damn good job after only winning one the year before and all the roster change. But when you start the year three and oh, and you only win one game down the stretch. And I think it was Stanford that they had that epic choke job to their up like 30 points or something like that.

It was OK. Sure. Colorado exceeded expectations, but expectations change for Colorado after that game against Colorado State, where they had to come from behind and get the game in overtime and win it. And when you start the year off three and oh, you need to go get three more victories and be ball eligible. And Coach Prime wasn't. But from an attention standpoint, you just saw it this year when Colorado has just even a little bit of success. Look how many people, celebrities, media members, TV crews that just flock to Boulder, Colorado, to get in on the Coach Prime stuff. And then number one, I don't think this guy is polarizing through the press.

I don't. But right now he is, I would say, the king of college football. And that's Kirby Smart, who won the back to back national championships this year, lost one game.

And it was the SEC Championship game to Alabama. I don't think Kirby Smart right now is polarizing. I don't think a lot of people have a reaction to Kirby Smart. I don't think it's oh, we love him. Oh, we hate him. Now, maybe you love him. Obviously, if you're a Georgia fan, you definitely love him.

Maybe you hate him. And obviously you hate him if he's in the SEC. But I think to the non-SEC people, I think it's like, oh, we just all say, oh, Kirby Smart is a great football coach. But I don't think nationally, Kirby Smart, one way or another, people go, oh, I love him or oh, I hate him. But when you look at his team, they consistently win. Just naturally, you know what happens when you win.

You end up becoming the villain and then everyone hates you. But right now, I would say he's the king of college football with Nick Saban out and Jim Harbaugh going back to the NFL. So those are my five names who are the faces of college football right now. And quite frankly, I think the list is rather underwhelming.

But that just kind of shows you where the sport is now with all the turnover and all the changes from NIL, the pettiness of the NCAA, and then also the transfer portal in addition to that. And then also some guys being the guy and then falling off a little bit. I'll give two honorable mentions. One guy I believe in what he's doing, the other guy I don't. I believe in Dan Lanning. And I said this to Dan Lanning before on the air. Dan Lanning, when he goes on the football field, that's his sanctuary. And he goes into this like football psycho mode, which I like.

And that's like a positive comment, even though it doesn't sound positive. I think Dan Lanning can be polarizing and Dan Lanning outside and it's a big outside of the two games against Washington. I thought he did a sensational job at Oregon this past year. And now they're getting Dylan Gabriel, who comes into Oregon a better quarterback than when Bo Nix transferred over from Auburn into Oregon.

And then here's the other one. Lincoln Riley. My problem with Lincoln Riley is he should have fired Alex Grinch before the start of the season. We know he coaches an enormous mega brand at USC. But if you couldn't find a way to win the Pac-12 or be in the college football playoff with Caleb Williams, what makes me think and I know they go to 12, so it'll be easier to get in. But what makes me think that you're going to actually have the success that people envisioned when you bolted Oklahoma to go join the USC Trojans?

So Lincoln needs to win more. I do think, though, Lincoln Riley can be unlikable. But he's someone that has the name reputation that he should be on this list. But, man, the last two years, and especially this past year, how bad they were from where people thought they were going to be before the start of the season, that's why I can't put them in the top five now for the faces of college football. All right, Samter, I know that you wanted to throw a few players out there because I'm of the mind that when I think of college football and the faces of college football, I still think coaches before players, but maybe this is a time with even I'm saying that this list is underwhelming and I came up with the list. Maybe there's an opportunity for players to really take the baton and maybe usurp coaches for a short while as the face of college football before they go off to the NFL. And I think maybe also because of NIL, you might have more players in your face doing commercials, marketing, things along those lines. One coach, before I go on to the players that you didn't mention, is Sark.

Just based on going to the SEC and having Quentin Ewers with Archimedes behind him. So Sark could be one of those guys who we're seeing a lot of because if Texas is good this year, which I expect them to be, we'll see what they do in the SEC. But Sark could be one of those guys who could be all over your TV every week. So I understand what you're saying and I know Sark has gone through a lot personally. I don't think Sark, though, is unlikable.

You know, but I see for me to be the face of something. You don't think you have to be unlikable? I think it's the opposite.

I think you have to be likable. I think it has to be 50-50 where there's 50% that say, I hate this guy's guts and there's 50% that I love this guy. Like, for example, Nick Saban. 50% of the people said, I hate this guy's guts because he beat the crap out of your team year in and year out. And then there was 50% of the people that just appreciated greatness or that were Alabama fans or back in the day LSU fans where they just knew what this guy was about and they fell in love with him because if he won.

It's weird. The two coaches that I think I love the most in college sports that a lot of people dislike. Nick Saban in college football and then I know this guy hasn't won enough but he hasn't won a championship. I've always been a fan of John Calipari, too. I've always loved John Calipari and John Calipari, I feel like I'm on an island with that.

He rubs a lot of people the wrong way and you can't call him overrated if that's fair because you only won one championship at Kentucky. But Cal is someone that a lot of people can't stand that I've always just rooted for John Calipari. Patino's one of those guys for me. I love Patino.

Absolutely love Patino. So going to the players, I mentioned them just before with Sark, but Arch Manning is the face of college football. It's just he's going to be a back of quarterback.

Two years in a row. Quinn Ewers also could be a former number one overall recruit. He's been around. You take away the haircut that he had his freshman year.

He's not as visually appealing and fun. Quinn Ewers maybe if they get to the playoffs and they make some noise could be the guy. Arch Manning really is the guy. If Quinn Ewers gets hurt and Arch Manning takes over, he's the face of college football this year. But only if he plays.

If he's a backup, he's not the face. Now we've seen Quinn Ewers get hurt in back to back years. The first year Arch Manning wasn't there. This past year Malik Murphy was QB 2. Now Arch Manning will be QB 2 with Malik Murphy. I think he transferred to Duke if memory serves me right.

That's correct. With my BFF Manny Diaz who's now the head football coach with Duke replacing Mike Elko who went to A&M. But yeah, that's a problem. Like Ewers just had a great season, just went to the college football playoff. There's still always part of me where I don't think he'll ever be the face of the sport because it's always like, okay, I want to see Arch Manning. I've had enough of Quinn Ewers even though he's been very, very good at Texas.

And then the other guys, I mean obviously you mentioned Prime as your number two. Whether it's Shadore Sanders, if he does what he was doing at the beginning of last season, he could be the face because he's also a very outgoing, personable, fun. Great smile. And also he's very demonstrative in the way he speaks and the way he acts on the field. Similar, less immature than Baker may feel but that similar kind of demonstrative behavior. Oh, I don't think Shadore is, I don't think it's immaturity at all.

No, no, I'm saying less immature. He's not immature like Baker. He's demonstrative.

I think he's a lion. He's passionate. I love a player that kicks ass on the field and then throws it in your face. It's kind of very Tom Brady-like. And I know Shadore Sanders and Tom Brady are close. Where Brady would score and if you talk trash to him before he'd run right up to you and talk trash back.

I like that. The only thing is, did you say Travis Hunter? I didn't but he was the next name I was going to throw out there. Again, I mean he's a two-way player but receivers and corners, unless he wins the Heisman, it's a little bit harder to be a face. But talent-wise, he might be the most talented player in college football.

He does something so unique and until he got hurt up against Colorado State, that was one of the biggest, if not the biggest story of the college football season. It just feels inevitable though for him to get hurt again. If you're going to be a two-way player in today's sport, it's impossible to not get hurt. Think about how easy guys get hurt playing one position. You're playing all those snaps. You're playing double the amount of snaps at a prime athletic position like corner and wide receiver.

You're bound to get hurt so that's why I worry about the two-way thing. The only problem with Shadore and Travis being the face of college football, it's kind of similar to what we just talked about with Quinn Ewers. Where it's okay when you see Quinn Ewers, you think of arch right away. When you see Shadore and Travis Hunter, you think of Coach Prime right away. And I don't think Travis and Shadore will ever usurp Coach Prime. And I don't think Quinn Ewers in terms of popularity and curiosity will ever usurp Arch Manning.

Anyone else you got or are you good on that front? The last one, but I don't think it's really going to happen, is DJ U. If Florida State is really, really good again and DJ U takes that next step forward, he came in as a top two or three recruit. Along with Caleb Williams, everyone had high expectations for him and he's been all over the country. He's been in East Coast Clemson, West Coast Oregon State, now he's back down in Florida, Florida State.

This is a guy who's been all over the map, born in California also, so he's got his face everywhere. People know him, people know the name, you know it's a possibility if he plays well. You know what I think is more likely? Norvell. Because Norvell is PO'd right now. He's so PO'd that his team got screwed out of the college football playoff that DJ U just know is there for a year.

They have another great season. I think Norvell, who I love and I've known for a long time, I think he could become very unlikable nationally. Because he'll start to throw it back at everyone's face. See, we got screwed last year if they're able to replicate what they did last year. The only problem with Norvell is if you put Norvell in a lineup with five other guys, I would have no idea who he is.

Well that's a U problem. I think most people, he has just a very generic looking face and you line him up against five other generic looking coaches, no one's going to know who he is. And I do wonder this, I know we have to take a break. I don't know if he has the personality to be the face of college football, but sometimes when you're very soft-spoken and you keep on winning, that could maybe make people hate you even more. If the boar gets Alabama to where Alabama should be and what they have been, and you continue this, I think naturally people will just say, man, we thought we were getting rid of Alabama because Saban was done. If the boar is able to just transition this very easily and seamlessly, even though there's no reason to hate Kalen DeBoer, and I love the dude and his stories, one of the best stories I've ever seen from when he did his baseball player, football player, and all that stuff, I think because he doesn't give the media much, kind of like Belichick, that people will then just naturally start to hate Kalen DeBoer.

But he could become that soft-spoken villain, even though if you know Kalen DeBoer, he's the farthest thing from a villain. He's one of the more genuine dudes in college football. He's the new face of college football, 8-5-5-2-1-2-4 CBS, 8-5-5-2-1-2-42-20.

A peanut butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners-up get nothing, one retired cop returns. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter, but you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort, coming soon to a Super Bowl new you.

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That's Stamps.com Code Program. It's time to answer Ask the Pros' Question of the Day, and it's brought to you by O'Reilly Auto Parts. Christine in Las Vegas says, Zach, with Jimmy Garoppolo about to get released following the PED suspension, who do you think should be the Raiders' quarterback next season? You can submit a question by tweeting at CBS Sports Radio, at Zach Gelb using the hashtag Ask the Pros, think O'Reilly Auto Parts, O'Reilly Car Care needs, get guaranteed low prices, and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts.

Well, here's what I'll say to Christine. Jimmy G was getting released either way. Now he's going to lose some of the money because of the PED suspension, where it's only a two-game suspension, and I think the normal first-time offender is six games, so I don't know how they came across to two games, but that's besides the point. There was no way Jimmy G was going to be the quarterback, the starting quarterback for the Raiders next year. So our poll question today, which you could always interact with at CBS Sports Radio and at Zach Gelb, is who should be the Raiders' starting quarterback next season? Kirk Cousins, Justin Fields, Russell Wilson, or Aiden O'Connell?

The results here I think are very surprising. Justin Fields is at 40%. Now, the people that say Justin Fields, I see why you're saying that, because a lot of the feeling around Fields is that the Bears are more of the problem for him failing than it is Justin Fields, and you have this year, and then you would pick up the fifth-year option, you have the fifth-year option, but he's younger, and you're hoping that the ceiling is high, and then you have your guy for the next ten years. The only problem is the new OC of the Raiders is Luke Getze. He was with Justin Fields last year in Chicago, and you remember in the beginning of the season when the Bears were struggling, Fields basically came out and he trashed the coaching staff, and then he had to walk it back and do another press conference to clarify it or speak right outside of his locker, so I don't know where that relationship is, and I only have indications that the relationship isn't good. But if you had, like, Cliff Kingsbury, who was supposed to be the offensive coordinator there before he bounced to go to the commanders, then I would understand the Fields' part. But I don't know if that relationship can get into a good enough spot where it can be salvage, where you can have those two coexist together in what is a big year for the Raiders, year number one with Antonio Pierce. So, Fields at 40%, Kirk Cousins at 21.3%, Russell Wilson is at 20%, and then Aidan O'Connell is at 18.8%. You want to know how low the stock is right now for Russell Wilson? The separation from Russell Wilson and Aidan O'Connell, 20% to 18.8%.

That's another humbling moment for Mr. Unlimited. I think the best answer here is Kirk Cousins. I don't think it's going to be Kirk Cousins, though, because I think Kirk Cousins is going to be most likely in Atlanta, and if not Atlanta, I think he returns with the Minnesota Vikings.

So, I would answer this question, who should be the Raiders starting quarterback next season? It's Kirk Cousins. So, if it's not Kirk Cousins and he's in Atlanta, then I do kind of feel as if Russell Wilson will wind up with Minnesota. But there's a lot of people now talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers for Justin Fields, too. So, it's going to be intriguing, this QB carousel, especially with those three names, where even Russell Wilson's getting some play in Pittsburgh.

It's like, between those three guys, where does Kirk, Justin Fields, and Russell Wilson land? And Justin Fields will be via trade. You would think Russell Wilson will inevitably get release. So, that will be him being a free agent, and he'll get signed a cheap one-year deal to try to salvage his career.

And then Kirk Cousins, we know, is going to be a free agent. But it feels like, too, that the Raiders are going to try to move up in this draft. But I don't know how likely it is that they're going to be able to move up in this draft.

So, what I'm basically saying is, it's tough. This is tough for Telesco, because I don't envision Kirk, Fields, or Russell Wilson landing there. Out of the three, I think it'd be most likely that Russell lands there, out of those three guys. And I'm not saying it's a bad option, but then draft someone as well. But at the 13th pick, you could be in line for a Bo Nix. You could be in line for a J.J. McCarthy or a Michael Pennix. I don't think any of those guys, I look at them as franchise quarterbacks. McCarthy, I think, should be a second-round pick. He'll probably fall in the first round.

Michael Pennix has just great pinpoint accuracy, but there's been a lot of injuries. I don't believe Bo Nix is a starting, consistent starting caliber quarterback in the NFL. So, this is a Raiders team that they're ready to go get a quarterback. I don't think it should be Aiden O'Connell.

And you have a team that is good enough where if they get the right quarterback, they can contend for the seventh spot last year or a wildcard spot next year. But who it's going to be, it's extremely tough to predict. Like, it should be Kirk. I don't think it will be Kirk. Fields would be a great option, but him and Luke Goetzee don't see eye to eye. So, maybe their best realistic option, which won't be a long-term pay, and it could be a stopgap guy, is Russell Wilson, who you could get on a cheap one-year deal.

And for Russ, maybe get a little personal revenge going up against Sean Payton twice a year. All right. Zach Gilp shows CBS Sports Radio. We'll come on back. We'll end the show out with a segment that we do every Monday and Friday.

It's called Onside, Offside. Sanford's got some questions for me when we return in five minutes. Update time first. Here's the act man, Rich Ackerman. Thanks, my humans. Dana Carvey and David Spade here. You might know our podcast, Fly on the Wall, featuring guests from across the entertainment industry. We decided to do a spinoff called Superfly, and it's fun. It's just two of us riffing on current events, pop culture, catching up, impressions. Joe, Trump's trying to be a dictator. Yeah, he says, you know, bump on the tater tots. Joe, no. Listen to and follow Superfly on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast.

All right. Zach Gilp shows CBS Sports Radio. What a quick week this was. I can't believe we're in Las Vegas all last week. And now there's been a full week that has gone by since then of shows. Just absolutely wild.

But nonetheless, let's send the show out in style today. We do a little onside offside. Stuart Kovacs. Zach's taking on the most polarizing issues in sports. Which side of the line of scrimmage will he end up on?

It's onside offside with Zach Gilp on CBS Sports Radio. When I referred to Stu there by his full name, Stuart Kovacs, I felt like I was a parent talking down to their child and just like lambasting their child. What's your middle name, by the way, Stu? Michael.

And yes, I did get the Stuart Michael Kovacs Jr. when I. Junior. I'm a junior. Yes. So I got the full name whenever I did something wrong as a youngster.

Once you're a junior, I think it's easier to yell at you when when you're the when you're the child. Right. Being the parent because it's Stuart Michael Kovacs Jr. Yes. Just Stuart Michael Kovacs.

It's like, OK, but the junior part, I think, adds an emphasis to it. Samter, what's your middle name? Stuart.

Ironically, it's crazy. Are you serious? Yeah, Michael Stewart.

Wait, really? No, no, no. That would be ridiculous. Although my older brother's name is Stuart.

Why would it be ridiculous? Because he's Stuart Michael and I'm Michael Stewart then. I mean, come on. Yeah.

What are we doing here? My older brother's name is Stuart. My middle name is Paul. Michael Paul Samter.

I don't know why. When Stu just said his middle name was Michael. I never, like, thought about Samter. But when Samter said, oh, my middle name is Stuart, I was like, oh, I thought about Stu. So that was weird how my mind, my mind works. What's your middle name again? Sorry.

My mind went a thousand directions. You know what? You don't deserve it. I mean, after after not being able to associate my name, it is Paul. Paul. Stu, you're on my team here. What's going on? No, no, no.

Stu knows whose team he's on. All right. Michael Paul Samter. Yes, Zachary Aloysius Gelb. No.

Am I close? I'm not Jodie McDonald here. Jodie McDonald here. I'm CBS Sports Radio.

Gonna get you a bunch of Winners of the Ponies. My middle name begins with an L. You'll never be able to guess it. Leslie.

No, not that far off, though. Lindsey. No.

It's my mother's maiden name. I don't know. Zachary Lazarus Gelb. Yeah, I wasn't going Lazarus.

No. I wasn't thinking Bible. But when you started with Leslie, that's not that far off. I mean, I guess. I started thinking of, like, other women's names. I was like, okay, maybe you went from Leslie to Lindsey. Imagine Zachary Lindsey Gelb.

I would tell my parents you should be, like, prevented, banned from naming people. You look like a Lindsey, though. I'll be honest.

That's a little weird, but go ahead. So new Raiders. I mean, I'm sorry.

New Commanders. Offensive coordinator, Cliff Kingsbury. Sorry, Stu.

Met with the media yesterday. I can't tell if that was intentional or not. 100% intentional. It was intentional. Oh, okay.

It's always fun when somebody spurns the Raiders. Jeez, Stu. Be careful.

Santa's gonna stab you in the back one day. Hey, you know what? Stu had a choice to be on my side or your side just now. He chose your side.

So you know what? Gloves are off. Me and Stu were in a fight. I'm not talking to Stu for the rest of the show.

But here's the difference. I'm loyal. I don't bail on my team. Stu judges you by jumping off the Jets bandwagon and joining the Kansas City Chiefs. He looks at you as this loyal guy. That's why he doesn't trust you. Yeah, this comes from the guy who's a Notre Dame, Lakers, Yankees, and Raiders fan.

Yeah, exactly. So I'm talking to Stu here. Me and Stu are in a fight right now. You might be anti or not anti. Yeah, Raiders.

A lot of Super Bowls there. You might be going against Shep. I'm going against Stu. Right now, the battle is on. Well, here's the thing. That's actually a battle.

Me up against Shep is in a battle. It's like when the Patriots played the Jets. All right, you knew the Jets are always losing.

What's going on here? All right, you know what? That tramp stamp from Mike Pannell is not going to happen at this point. You had a Chiefs Super Bowl champion.

The unsung hero of the Super Bowl said the only way you could be a Chiefs fan is if you get the tramp stamp of him. If you and Stu keep teaming up against me, then you know what? Screw you guys. I'm going home. Screw you guys. I'm heading home. I'm killing him.

You know what? We may need to be nicer to Samter. Because then if we're mean to Samter and he leaves us, we could get stuck with Shep.

And that wouldn't be good for anyone. Listen, just don't take any more days off. I mean, I can't handle Shep filling in. Oh, come on.

I'm Belichick. No days off. No days off. No days off. I do have two days off next week and two days off the week after that.

Don't worry. We got J.R. and Bart filling in. All right, we have about 30 seconds left in the segment, so let's actually try to get to onside-offside. Cliff Kingsbury met with the media yesterday and was asked what his ideal quarterback would look like in Washington. What type of quarterback, like the ideal fit, the characteristics, the traits that you want to work with here in Washington? The Chiefs quarterback. That'd help.

No. You've got to be able to make some plays with your feet, move around enough to escape a bad play. That doesn't mean you've got to run like Lamar or Kyler Murray, but you better be able to move a little bit and buy yourself some time because the D-line, the rushes, the defense these days are so good. Seriously. Like, what's the problem with that? I want the Chiefs quarterback. I mean, it's funny.

I didn't find it funny. All right, so obviously he's talking about a guy who can move with his legs like maybe Lamar or Josh Allen. So the Commandos obviously have the second pick to take Drake May or Jayden Daniels if they don't move up for Caleb Williams.

So onside-offside, Kingsbury's answer there makes you believe that the Commanders will draft Daniels number two over Drake May. Now let me just point out, two years ago, Drake May ran for 698 yards. Last year he ran for 449 yards.

Had seven rushing touchdowns, nine rushing touchdowns. That pales in comparison to like the 1,100 yards that Jayden Daniels had on the ground. After hearing that clip, even though it started off in a weird way, I would say onsides, that that sounds like a guy. And I don't want to read too much into it, but when I read into it, it sounds like a guy that would prefer Jayden Daniels over Drake May.

Onsides. He did say, however, he doesn't have to be like a Lamar or Josh Allen or Kyler. So maybe that 400 yards rushing from Drake May is enough of what he's looking for. Just a guy like Patrick Mahomes who can make a few yards on his legs when you need him on third and three.

But when you start off a statement and then you follow up on the back end, I take what you say first rather than what you're saying later on in the segment to keep everyone guessing. Now while you threw out Belichick and Vrabel as possible DC answers for the 49ers, it turns out that now our favorite, former Chargers coach Brandon Staley has emerged as a candidate for the job. While Staley never coached under Kyle Shanahan, he was with Shanahan's friend and former colleague Sean McVay in LA. Onside, offside, Brandon Staley would actually be a good hire for the 49ers as a defensive coordinator. Onsides and here's why. Because then personally, I would despise that coaching staff.

So that's why I would be a good hire. Because it gives me another reason to dislike something with the 49ers. Brandon Staley takes no accountability. Kyle Shanahan, ever since the Super Bowl loss, has basically taken no accountability. They kind of deserve one another.

And they both think they're the smartest person in the room. So from a football standpoint, even though Staley's defense stunk the last few years, it wouldn't make sense, but it would be good because it would be good for the show. So that's a selfish answer I'm giving you onsides. The Seahawks picked up Geno Smith's $12.7 million option for 2024, locking in the back-to-back Pro Bowl quarterback for another year. How many guys said no for Geno to get in?

Geno is now 17-15 in two seasons in Seattle, throwing 50 touchdowns to just 20 interceptions the past two years. Onside, offside, the Seahawks should draft a quarterback in the first or second round this year to groom behind Geno. I think that's a fine answer onsides. They don't have to.

They could wait a year. I don't think, though, that Geno's going to be back either way after this season. So in theory, right, the Kansas City model, a-hi, a-hi, a-hi, would make sense where you have a guy that's not going to be the guy and you go make a run and try to trade up this year. And I would say offside.

I would say onsides on that. That makes some sense if a guy starts the ball. You go swoop in, get him for a year, and then have him play a year from now. Now the Patriots are expected to draft a quarterback third overall unless they move up. And SI's Albert Breuer admitted that he'd be, quote, surprised if Mack Jones remains in New England. To make matters worse, Breuer also revealed that the past QB room was, quote, toxic this year and Mack lost the support in the locker room.

Onside, offside. While we all think that Mack will probably be gone in New England, you do believe that Mack Jones will be a starting quarterback somewhere in 2024? A starting quarterback again, yes.

In 2024, I would go offside on this one. I think Mack kind of needs to restore his image. I think the Patriots failed Mack Jones more than Mack Jones failed the Patriots, but then there's just some throws that you see. And I know it's tough and you have no weapons and no one really believes me in that organization, but there are just some throws and his body language where it was just absolutely terrible.

I think he's got to wait like another year, barring injury, for him to be someone's long-term starting quarterback and get that opportunity. So I would go offside. Offside. Believe it or not, we're going to get some baseball in here. The Yankees made a blockbuster trade this offseason, adding superstar Juan Soto in a deal with the Padres. Soto was on the last year of his contract and will be paid $31 million this year. This week, GM Brian Cashman made an odd admission saying, quote, the odds are this is a one-year situation and, quote, I don't see many things stopping him from reaching free agency. So onside, offside. It is irresponsible for the Yankees to trade for Soto as a one-year rental.

Onsides. If the New York Yankees want to still be the New York Yankees, they have to re-sign Juan Soto. And I know it's difficult, but I don't care because you have the Aaron Judge contract and he's probably going to want a similar contract to Judge if not exceeding it and judges the face of that franchise. But you're the Yankees. Let's stop this minor league baseball bullcrap with the Yankees. You have to, have to extend Juan Soto and give him a new deal. So when you say it's irresponsible for the Yankees to trade for Soto as a one-year rental, uh, yeah, onsides. I think stupid agree, right? Like, would you be livid if Soto's not back next year?

Yes, I would. The one thing I will say, though, is they didn't give up a lot to get him. Fair point.

But you're right. You're the Yankees. You've got to just make it happen.

So give him what he wants. And you know who's going to come calling? Steve Cullen. Team Across the Street. Yeah, exactly.

Because he likes Juan Soto a lot. So let's hope the Yankees continue to be a minor league team. Like, we suck. We're the Mets. But you guys shouldn't be where you guys are at. You guys should have won another world championship, but you didn't. All right. We got anything else here, Samter?

Yeah, we have time for a quick one. For the first time in his career, future Hall of Famer Klay Thompson came off the bench for the Warriors, but seemed to accept his new role. He's got to let the ego go when you think of coming off the bench and all that. So, I mean, I thought about Manu Ginobili. That guy has four rings and gold medal and he came off the bench his whole career. And I don't think anyone looks down on his Hall of Fame candidacy.

He's one of the greats and I thought, I mean, I embraced it. So onside, offside, Klay's legacy will be negatively impacted by his struggles on the court the past couple of years. And he had 35 points last night.

I will say offside, it's unfortunate what happened. Injuries have really prevented his career from continuing at the elite level that he was. But I think he'll always be referred to as the second person on that dynasty. Even though Durant had so many big moments, I think a lot of people still view what Durant did as weak. Whether that's fair or not, that's a different conversation. I think for most Warriors fans, in terms of the importance of that dynasty, even though Durant should be right there after Steph Curry, it would be Steph Curry 1 and Klay Thompson 2 because everyone likes Steph Curry and Klay Thompson.

So when you say Klay's legacy will be impacted by his struggles on the court the past couple of years, I will go offside. We'll see you on Monday, everybody, 3 p.m. Eastern, noon Pacific. Have a great weekend. We out.

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