Top 5 NFL and College Football Teams (Hour 2)

Alrighty, hour number two of our radio program.

It is the Zach Geld Show on the Infinity Sports Network. So, when I took over the 3 to 6 p.m. Eastern Time slot right here on the network, I said to my boss at the time, Spike Eskin, who is now with Sports Radio 94 WIP, I want to bring on someone from the network each and every week. And for a while, we did Winkler Wednesdays. And then I got a text from Bart Winkler, who I love and is a dear friend, in the radio world, hey, my kid now gets home earlier than normal from daycare, so I can't do Winkler Wednesdays anymore.

If we want to move it, I could then do that. And I'm sitting there, I'm like, well, your name is Bart Winkler, so Winkler Tuesdays doesn't sound right. Winkler Thursdays doesn't sound right. And I was thinking about keeping the Bart Winkler imaging, right, that we do, and just put a disclaimer in front of it that was like, this segment was supposed to be on Wednesday, but because Bart has a kid and the kid had to go to daycare and get out of daycare a little bit earlier, now the segment's been moved to a Tuesday. I thought about that. But instead, I said, who else could we bring on?

And we tried for a lot of other people. I'm just kidding. And I thought of my former producer extraordinaire, Hatte Kickey. Who obviously, I have said this numerous times, even though most of his college football takes a wrong, there is no one that watches more college football than him and also has more opinions really about the NFL at this network that is better at doing so. So I have elected on Wednesdays and football seasons, until we fire him eventually, who knows, maybe we won't, to bring on Hatte Kickey, the producer of the JR Sportbrief extravaganza. Ryguy, how you doing?

Hello, Zman. Yeah, I hope I wasn't your first choice. I hope you went down, down, down the list. Because otherwise this show is in trouble. We tried for Rome. Rome said no. Then we tried for Maggie. Maggie said no. Then we tried for Perloff. Perloff said no. JR said, eh, he sees enough of me like twice a year. I tried to get Bart back and say that I pay for his kid's daycare. He said no. I tried for Amy, but Pete the Body Baladi said no.

It can't happen since now Pete's producing Amy. So we tried through everyone. And then Carrington Harrison on the weekends, Sean Levine, Lynell Willingham, but he was probably late to the shift. Like I've tried for a lot of people, a lot of people. And then we eventually got you. Hey, I'll take it. I guess the worst person, there's always one below me.

I'll take it. And who's the other guy on the weekends now? Oh, I used to put him on as a guest on the weekend overnights. The baseball guy, Rich Herrera. He calls himself like the Big Fajita now or something like that. Really?

I did not know that. I love that nickname. So I tried for Rich as well. They all said no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So now we're going with you. I'll take it. Thank you.

Wednesdays in football season. Let's go. And I actually got some tweets about you yesterday. Because I guess I created this character, hot take hickey, where now people religiously follow your pics and they try to make money and they fade your pics. And people like Tom DeCelestino, who works here, has put his kid through daycare just fading you. And I got a lot of tweets yesterday because I feel still there's like a responsibility that I have. And people feel that as well, where whenever you have a zany take, they feel compelled to tweet me because I gave you a pretty open microphone when we were working together. So I did not listen to your take, but you are advocating now and calling for Florida State to fire Mike Norvell?

Yes, that's correct. After Monday night, forget the results. That team on Monday night quit on their coach.

There was no effort in that. Get the big Fajita on. We need to talk to him instead of Dan McKee each and every week. And that was the easiest spot to get up. You lose the first game. But OK, guess what? Twelve team playoff. Your season is very much alive.

National spotlight. You're at home, not on another continent. And you have that zero.

You lay an egg. And in terms of effort, trying to punch Boston College back after they threw the first punch, that to me looked like a team that quit on their coach. Third time in five years now, Florida State 0-2.

Not good. Now you religiously, religiously last year, picked against Florida State. And I don't forget these things. We had Mike Norvell on the show and he was like, tell your producer to keep on picking against me. And if it wasn't for a quarterback injury, they would have been in the college football playoff last year as ACC champs. There is a difference to me in having a bad season where I'm not sugarcoating this. This is a disaster right now for Florida State. But the last two years, he's had double digit win seasons. And also, they just gave Mike Norvell last offseason a few months ago a massive extension. So when I look at does Mike Norvell deserve to get fired, it's not even going to be. Maybe fans will have this conversation, but people actually making the decisions. There is a zero percent chance at the end of the season that Mike Norvell is going to get fired.

Nor should he, because even though this season, if it does continue to go south, he should he earns a chance to redeem himself with what he did the last two years. You look at the entire tenure of five years so far. And what he's done is turn this program into a group of five program where one out of every five years you're competing for a championship.

Hold on. Willy Taggart before him. The professor, the program he took, it wasn't like he was taking Florida State over when when Bobby Bowden was there. But it was also Willy Taggart about two years there.

Like he would his roots were not dug in deep into the program or is this big excavation. Florida State is still a program where you expect to at least compete for national title every single year. And so far in the five years it's they've been in there one time. They've been in the conversation one time.

That is not good enough. And then you watch the play on the field. For me, like it's not even the result that you lose to Boston College to go to 0 and 2. It's how your team didn't respond to anything you said and it didn't respond respond at all to adversity after week number one. That's to me more alarming than just flat out losing to Boston College at home. So they won a BCS national championship back in 2013. In the following season they were 13 and won the Rose Bowl. But at the end of the Jimbo Fisher era, it's basically 10 and 3, 10 and 3, and then the bad five and six season. Norvell had one loss last year when the whole team left and wasn't playing because of the bowl game. And then a year prior to that had 10 wins.

Well, to say they're a group of five school, to say they're a group of five school is ridiculous. Their season is over in September. Like they went out, they got hot late. But by that point, your season is over.

But they got hot at the end of the season. It doesn't matter. And that put them in.

Yes, it did. Because see, here's the problem with you. You think change just happens immediately overnight and right away that these programs go from being bad to great. You need some patience. You need some time. And who's Florida? So here's your genius idea that Florida State's getting rid of Mike Norvell. You want to have this conversation two years from now? Fine.

Right now, it's ridiculous. You're the A.D. of Florida State. Who are you hiring? Who's your first phone call to? I don't have a name right now. You can't say that the guy's going to get fired and not give me a name.

Why not? You got to see who's interested. You got to see who's around. Well, Florida State is this great job. If it's this great job that you're making out to be, you would have a laundry list of people interested.

I got to see who's interested. I mean, you're in an ACC conference that's wide open. That's nobody's taking it. And you are just falling, taking a back seat to everybody else.

That's a problem. Where Norvell screwed up. And it's not that the players didn't respond to him.

Where they screwed up was they showed how desperate they were. And coming out of halftime, you're down eight. Your defense was getting hot before the end of the first half with two, three and outs. You're fourth and five right about midfield. I think it was at the 47. And they elect to go for it. Pump the ball there and play field position.

That's that's what you should do. But it just there has to be something personal with you and Mike Norvell, because there's a lot of coaches that you give a longer leash to. Like Frank Reich, you thought it was absurd when that overrated coach was let go by the Indianapolis Colts. You thought he deserved another season. By the time he got fired, I understood it. Two double digit win seasons the last two years.

This is the life of the transfer portal now. It's gambling. Some nights you win, some nights you lose. Florida State was overrated heading into this year. And they gambled on the wrong players.

Nick Saban said it. You're going to spend money and sometimes you're going to spend money on the wrong players and you're going to be SOL. That's the transfer portal. That's the NIL game.

I agree with you. And that's also part of you can build a team through the transfer portal. I think one of the things that doesn't get talked about last year that Norvell deserves credit for. But people kind of lumped to the transfer portal, transfer portal conversation. A lot of those guys last year were in the program for multiple years.

Jordan Travis, Jared Verse, Johnny Wilson. Like they got some big guys, Ken Coleman, Braden Fisk, that were there for one year. They also had development. You can't just go into the transfer portal every single year, pluck out 15, 20 guys, put them in big positions and expect success.

That I agree with you 100%. He gambled on the wrong guys. They were way, way, way overrated. Probably a little sympathy from the media.

It would be my guess after what happened last year is why they were 10th. Should have been like 19th or 20th. And now you're seeing the results or the fruit of the labor. And by the way, DJ Young go away. Stinks. I'm sick and tired. Don't get me.

You know me. I make no excuses for Dabo, sweetie. And Dabo has his own problems. And that's a man that does not hold himself accountable. And he's not willing to adapt. He's not willing to change, even though he says he is. But DJ Young go away outside of Notre Dame and I get that offense wasn't creative, but he stunk at Clemson.

And you know what? Jonathan Smith deserves some credit for what he did at Oregon State last year with him. And now it's like, OK, you have a quarterback where I think the coaching staff, even though Norvell told me in March on this show, the sky's the limit. I think they knew that they didn't really have as great of a of a person as a quarterback as they thought they were getting when they brought him in. Because in that game one outside of the fourth quarter to his credit, he did make some big plays on his own. They did not trust him because everything was just think and dunk passes and they didn't expand that field vertically. And you see it and Monday night to 21 completions, 21 incompletions. They ran the ball Florida State did for one point six yards per carry. When there's no run game and Oregon State had a run game last year, Damian Martinez would took pressure off. Yeah, DJ, you when it's on his shoulders. Good luck.

It's not going to go well. And also, Boston College beat them at their own game, too. They dominated in the trenches. That was Florida State.

They were a great offensive and defensive trenches team last year. That's that's what happened back. But that can't happen.

That can't happen. Two sixty three on the ground at Boston College. You run for one point six yards per carry at home. Just with the size and the talent. Just effort alone would have mitigated half the rushing yards for Boston College would have given you.

I mean, tenfold what you got on the ground. All right. Let me get to your team, Penn State, because I know you. You're someone that was trying to say, oh, the expectations aren't that great this year.

I'm not going to get fooled again. And then you told me the only had one loss on the schedule. And that was a game up against Ohio State, which let me be fair, I'm usually anti Penn State. I thought that was for the first time in your life, a fair Penn State prediction. When you're running around drunk as a skunk a few years ago, coming out of the Rose Bowl, where no one could even understand a word that you were saying because you were so intoxicated. And you were like, oh, no, no, no, no.

Watch out. I was like, please, you're ridiculous. Penn State, how far now are you willing to go after what you saw up against West Virginia? Because going in, you said they need to make the playoff.

Yes. And going into this season, I was optimistic about Penn State. I said the third best team in the Big Ten, the two teams I had in front of them are Ohio State and Oregon. But now after that blowout, lopsided victory that they displayed up against a good football team in West Virginia, with a loaded backfield and a coach that turned the narrative around a little bit last year in Neil Brown. Where is the hot take kicky prediction on Penn State?

Come on. I don't want like neutered hot take kicky here where it's like, oh, I got burned the last few years. I want drunk as a skunk hot take kicky here, giving me the real Penn State prediction.

I'll give you a little bit of both. National championship game, national championship game, James Franklin. I'll call for Mike Norvell to get fired by James Franklin.

I'll give him a job for 400 more years. And I'll never win a real big game. I will not change my expectation. If they make the playoff, I will still say that's a successful season. I will not say if to win a playoff game or make the final four. But what I will say after Saturday is this. They have the offensive system and the play caller to beat any team in the country. Nicole, the Nicki, Andy, Kotal, Nicki. Now they need to execute.

That's still a question I'm not fully all in on coming from the light poultry. But like that, like the creativity, the explosiveness that you saw, like they could go against Ricky. Anybody was that Ricky, Ronnie?

It was not. Yeah, they're there. A long list, unfortunately, of many guys that did not did not go since Joe Moorhead was there in 2016, 2017, which is the two best years under James Franklin. They don't have not had an explosive creative offense until then. They do right now.

I'm very excited. All right. So you hate Florida State.

We know that you do because you get some every step of the way. No, not not last year. Michigan. That's another school that you hate. And you have I'm not even getting to your ass and I take about, oh, Michigan should have their national championship vacated. That's even low for for Penn State scum like yourself. All right. Let's just be honest.

That's a low, a low, a low thing that you said. Michigan, who I said last year, going to be a great team. Right. I told you, national championship. You picked against the barrel.

Cheating scandal. It was ridiculous. You embarrassed yourself last year for being on. I was right. No, you weren't because they said we don't even need to throw the football against Penn State.

Everyone's watching. Everyone knew that game was clean and they still embarrass you. And they beat Ohio State. They beat Alabama. They set Nick Saban into retirement. And then they also beat Washington. But Michigan defense is great. We know that offensively. Donovan Edwards had a great national championship game. Didn't have a good season last year. And the quarterback.

I always thought it was going to be orgy. But then when I was seeing John Jansen in Vegas, he said it was going to be Davis Warren. Michigan plays Texas this week. I know where you're going to go in this game because you Michigan could have looked like they were the 2007 Patriots against Fresno State.

And Hickey would pick against them. Texas is a seven and a half point favorite. You lay in the number on the big time.

Blah, blah. In the big house. I have no reason outside of two two points to take Michigan plus the points. Number one, you just are you considering it?

Yes. Number one, you just gave me one of blood in the big house. That's because you're picking Texas to blow them out and cover the seven and a half. But number two, it would be so college football.

There's no reason I will even admit this. There is no reason to pick Michigan in this game. I'm not saying Michigan's going to win. But will Johnson and Graham to keep the game close? I know Texas has an explosive offense. It just it would not shock me if there's a backdoor cover there or that game's a little bit closer where Texas wins. But that game's a little bit closer. What what people anticipate.

I don't even know how it gets to that point. Like you said, look, their defense is very good. Their weakness, those are secondary.

Will Johnson best corner college football behind him, though, around him. Not a lot. That's very good.

Do you have a loss as big? That's that stinks. That absolutely. And that's part of it. So you have a one great guy who saved the game last week for him.

But if you have other guys, they're just OK or not at that high of a level. Texas has enough weapons and a really good quarterback just to ignore Will Johnson. Don't even look his way. Throw it everywhere else.

You have success. And like you said, the quarterback's like, how are they going to put points on the board? I have no idea. Will Warren did not give you any sort of confidence passing the ball. They don't want Alex Orji passing the ball. I don't know how that team puts up even more than 14 points.

OK, let me ask you this. Will Warren, you just dropped the Yankees pitcher. Oh, Davis, Warren.

My apologies. Will Warren, Davis, Warren. I mean, they say, you know, he's like nervous.

He's like, oh, Gels, going to be attacking me in this segment. So I'm going to start mentioning Will Warren. Marasch's guys.

I can't throw. Oh, you want to talk about someone that hates Will Warren. Marasch's father.

I was let's just say a few drinks in. And when I was at Marasch's house watching college football, they set a little TV up for Bob, Sean's father. And even before Will Warren threw a pitch, he was like, this bum sucks.

That's what Marasch's dad said. And he got off to a decent start. And then it was a disaster there. OK, Nebraska, Colorado. Where do you who do you like in this one? I like your voice a lot.

I love Dylan Riola. Go Big Red! I showed you last week.

Real deal. And that Nebraska defensive line is one of the best in the country. Colorado showed you last week.

They're the same team from last year. Bad offensive line. Bad secondary. Chador is great.

Travis Hunter is unbelievable. Two guys are not winning this game. Horn's good? Yes, Jimmy Horn. Three guys. You're right. Three guys are good.

No one else is. Great defensive line for Nebraska. Really good quarterback. Riola looked like Mahomes.

Dude, you're right. There's a few throws. I'm like, that is freaky. I know everyone's talking about the bazooka he showed off down the right sideline, but I think the best throw is when he kind of sidarmed the ball. It was awesome. It truly was. If you just took his name and jersey off and just said, who is this, like in a shadow, you could say that was Patrick Mahomes. It looked identical.

It was freaky. OK, let me get your thoughts. Just two NFL things. Who's the team that Hickey is bullish on this year?

Like, I'll give you credit. Last year you were bullish on the Browns. You were bullish on the Bucks. Flying Squirrel found two nuts.

That's what happened right there once in a while. Who's the team that you're bullish on this year that most people aren't? Do the Bears count?

Too many people are bullish on them. I'll take the Colts. Take the Colts. Not a homer.

Not a homer pick here. But like Shane Steichen showed you last year, with Gardner Minshew finishing or playing an all but one game last year, they were a top ten offense. They were one dropped running back pass out of the backfield away from winning the game and winning the division. So now if you have Anthony Richardson, if he could just stay healthy, which I think he will, this offense is going to be explosive. I think the AFC South gets two teams in.

They're not winning the division, but I think they'll be a playoff team. You know who's down on Anthony Richardson? Who's that?

Someone that you respect and like a lot. Oh no, who? So I was walking out of the office yesterday. I was here a little bit late because I work even after the show ends.

They're going on with affiliates, going on with their great friends in Boise on KTIK. Tonight I'm going on at Waco as well. So I was working late. Working late last night.

Worked late tonight as well. And I took an elevator down with Tiki Barber. And I go, Teek, what game you got this weekend? He goes, Colts, Texans.

I go, oh, it's a good game. He goes, you would think so, but you never know with Anthony Richardson. I mean, sure.

Could he get hurt in the first play? I mean, sure he could. Teek. I gotta talk to him. I'll rough him up in the hallway. You know what you say to Tiki? Well, I heard what you once said about Eli Manning.

He went on to go win two Super Bowls, so hopefully that's going to be the case with Anthony Richardson. Tiki's still in good shape. He would kick the crap out of me. Let me go to Chet in Texas real quickly on the Zach Gelb show. Chet, go ahead.

What's up, Zach? I'm doing great, Chet. Chet in Texas. Here's my heart take.

My heart take is Steve Sarkeesian is taking the Longhorn to the Natty. OK, now I know who Chet is. I know who Chet is. Real quickly, Hickey, do you have any clue who this is? No. You have no clue who this is?

I heard a little Boston accent there in Sarkeesian. Come on, use your head. You got a lot of hair on that kabasa. Hopefully it's not blocking the brain of yours.

Oh, I'm terrible on the spot here. Yeehaw! Hook him! You know what? I'm saying horns down to this caller. That was Sully. Oh! 100% Sully, right? Yeah. You hear it at the bottom. That guy's trying to be from the South and he says, Sarkeesian! Come on. Hook your car! Yeehaw!

I don't know if Chet was a regular. Oh, OK. Super Bowl pick? I got to take a break. 49ers over the Chiefs. Rematch.

49ers over the Chiefs. OK, so that means Brandon Aiyuk is going to get hurt this year. Samuel's going to get hurt. Trent Williams is going to retire in the middle of the season. I had the 49ers last year and they were one drive away, so I was knocked on the door.

Oh, one more. Because this is a two-year bit, now a third-year bit. You said Nathaniel Hackett was going to be coach of the year and Russell Wilson was going to win the Super Bowl MVP year one with the Broncos. Last year you said Sean Payton was going to take the Broncos to the playoffs.

Bo Nix and Sean this year, what's the Broncos prediction? Seven wins. I will not go playoffs three years in a row. I thought you were also going to ask Russell Wilson to take the Super Bowl.

I will not go there as well. Good year for the Broncos. Seven wins.

Alrighty, this was fun. Hickey will join us each and every week in football season on Wednesdays. He is Ryan Hot Take Hickey.

I don't know about that Hot Take Hickey. It is the Zach Gelb Show on the Infinity Sports Network coming on back with more after this. Alrighty, this is Zach Gelb Show on the Infinity Sports Network. We will have our first Take 5 Wednesday of the football season.

My top five teams in college football and the NFL in about ten minutes or so from now. Very disappointed with Staphon Diggs. I read a little bit about what he had to say to GQ the other day.

I just thought it was very unnecessary and Staphon Diggs is someone, and I like Staphon Diggs too. Like I met him twice, you know, good dude, good guy, but he has an expiration date everywhere he goes. And that's just the reality and he never thinks he's in the wrong. Like at the end in Minnesota and at the end in Buffalo, he even said, oh those teams still wanted to have me but it was my decision to leave.

Like what are you talking about? The Buffalo Bills clearly chose you over Josh Allen, right? That's a no brainer decision. The Bills knew they had to get through one more season with you and at the end of the season it was if they wanted to trade you. Now you were done with them, but they were done with you too. You know, Staphon Diggs is kind of the guy that didn't want to get broken up with the girl but senses that the girl is going to break up with him and goes, or no, actually when the girl goes to him, hey we're breaking up, he goes, no, no, no, no, no, babe, you're not breaking up with me, I'm breaking up with you. But it was like, hold on Staphon Diggs, the girl just said she's breaking up with you and just because you yelled louder and you were more boisterous and you go, oh no, I'm breaking up with you and you storm out like a petulant child, then okay, you think in your mind that you actually broke up with the girl. Like that's just the reality of the situation. I don't know what happened in Buffalo.

I don't. But now we have a pattern. When it ends with Staphon Diggs, we saw it in Minnesota, it's ugly.

When it ends in Buffalo, it's ugly. And last year you could clearly tell, and I'm not saying Sean McDermott is a choir boy and he's always right, like I'm not saying that. Sean McDermott is, you know, has said some stupid things and that's been well documented. But when Sean McDermott gets in front of the podium last year after whatever happened that led to Diggs leaving the facility that day and he's like, yeah, it's concerning.

And then the next day, try to put the toothpaste back in the tube when the toothpaste is already out of the tube. That told me everything I need to know about the relationship with Staphon Diggs, Josh Allen, Sean McDermott, and also Brandon Bean. Now I get it. A lot of guys in that locker room, they like Staphon Diggs. Staphon Diggs, people like him.

But just because people like you doesn't mean you can't be a pain in the ass. Staphon Diggs is a very good player for the Bills. Him and Josh Allen had a very good connection. And now Staphon Diggs is in Houston and I kind of look, okay, what should I expect out of the Texans this year? I think the Texans are going to be solid. Do I think that Staphon Diggs, even with other weapons around him, like an Eco Collins, like a Tank Dell, is going to be a problem in Houston?

No. But remember, they redid his deal where his deal's done after this year. So I don't really think there's a time period for it to get really ugly with Staphon Diggs.

Because the Texans basically catered to him with the exception that they made in the way that they reworked his contract after trading for him. So, you know, I know that everyone tries to spin it the way that they want to have it. And I'm not telling someone not to do an interview, but it felt very unnecessary with what Staphon Diggs said the other day to GQ. And I understand, right, he talked about some mental health things as well. And I do have sympathy to that, where he talked about how last year was like the worst mental health space that he's been in in his career. But it's like, okay, and I hate to question the validity of someone's mental health, right?

That's not my place to do so. But with that being said, it's were there things actually going on? Or were you upset because you didn't have a touchdown since Thanksgiving weekend? Or you didn't have a 100-yard game since October and there was an offensive coordinator change and there was a difference in philosophy? Were you upset with an issue that we still don't know what happened that you may be in the right on, you may be in the wrong on before the start of the season? It's like sometimes, you know, people use mental health to talk themselves out of a situation where they were in the wrong and use it as an excuse.

And if that's the case, I hope it's not the case, then that's a really bad thing to do. But if there were legitimate issues with Stefan Diggs, then obviously I have sympathy for him. But in the case of this article, to basically puff your chest out and go, oh, no, I said to the Vikings it was over, I said to the Bills it was over, they still wanted to have me and there's still truth that hasn't been told yet, but I'm not going to be the bad guy here.

It's like, what's the point of this? Like, last time I checked, you got traded to a team in Texas, it wasn't the Cowboys, it's the Texans. The Texans three, four years ago, yeah, drama after drama, ridiculous storyline after ridiculous storyline.

You're not in the Cowboys now, where they determine success off how much drama you create. So I think Stefan Diggs is going to have a bounce-back season. I think Stefan Diggs is going to have a solid season. I think the Texans are going to be a good team. You know, AFC South is really damn good.

Jaguars are going to be good, Colts should be good, and the Texans are also solid as well, and they have the quarterback in C.J. Stroud. Like, there's questions about Anthony Richardson. There's questions about Trevor Lawrence.

I don't have many questions about C.J. Stroud, and I appreciate what the Texans did this offseason. They didn't just rest off what they did the year before. Oh, we were so much better than what people expected, so now we're going to stay put.

No. They said we're going to go get the Neil Hunter. They said we're going to go get Stefan Diggs.

We're going to go get Joe Mixon, and they're trying to advance this football team even further than a 10-win regular season they had the year before, winning the AFC South and also finding a way to win a playoff game and be playing on Divisional Round Weekend. It is the Zach Gelb Show on the Infinity Sports Network. I'll give you my top five teams in college football, my top five teams in the NFL. We'll get to a Take 5 Wednesday next. First up, though, with the latest Infinity Sports Network Sports Flash, here he is, the act man, Rich Ackerman.

All right, it is Zach Gelb Show on the Infinity Sports Network. In football season, each and every Wednesday, not only now we'll be talking to Hot Take Hickey, but we also do this great segment called Take 5 Wednesday. It's my top five teams in the NFL and also college football, so with the NFL season starting tomorrow and us already having a week of college football for some teams, two weeks of college football, let's get to my rankings in a Take 5 Wednesday. As the dust settles from last week's games, it's time to look at which teams are rising and which are falling. And there's an interception. Zach ranks his top five NFL and college football teams on this week's edition of Take 5, only on the Zach Gelb Show.

All righty, in at number five, I'm a fair man. I love what I saw out of Penn State. I don't like that I saw it, but if I had to just take my disdain for Penn State out of it, even I was very impressed with Penn State. The offensive coordinator coming over from Kansas was the right hire, and not only that, Drew Aller improves off of it.

You have a good run game. You've got to see a little bit more out of the wide receivers, but defensively, that has not been a problem as of late for Penn State. I know they have Tom Allen now coaching the defensive side of the ball coming over from Indiana with Manny Diaz, my good old friend, Snake Diaz, being the head coach at Duke. Penn State, that was a well-rounded and a great victory, one of the best victories of the weekend, especially going up against the West Virginia team. That was like a dark horse potential pick to go win the Big 12. So I will put Penn State in at number five. I think this team is better than where I'm going to rank them right now, and I do have high expectations for this team. I think they're in the Final Four team standing this year. I didn't love their first half, so that's why I'm not putting them inside the top three, but I do have the Ohio State in at number four. I expect that to only increase. We know the talent on this team, but it just was a little bit of an underwhelming first half up against Akron, even though they did go on to win the game, 52-6.

This is based off what I've seen, also based off reputation. Ohio State deserves to be in the top five, but I'm not going to rank them any higher than number four. Here is a team that I just keep on increasing expectations on, and I actually picked them to get to the national championship game this year where I had them losing to Georgia. And I know it's only Western Kentucky, but Alabama rolled Western Kentucky by a score of 63-0. Let's be real, Alabama is going to crush South Florida. They play Wisconsin. It's a big spot for Luke Fickle. I expect Alabama to win, but it's not a gimme just because of some of the unknown with Alabama.

But the first big test for Alabama is coming up at the end of the month up against Georgia at 7.30 p.m. Eastern time. Jalen Milro is going to have a phenomenal season. He got better as the year did go on last season, and he's going to benefit in a big way by now having Kaitlyn DeBoer as his head coach. Had 200 yards passing over the weekend, the three passing touchdowns, and also was mobile as well, putting 79 yards on the ground for two rushing touchdowns. So he combined four, five touchdowns in the game. You don't want to get delirious because of the opponent, but it was a nice sample size that you got to see on only seven completions and only nine passing attempts. You put up 200 yards, three passing touchdowns, and then you also add in nearly 80 yards on the ground and two rushing touchdowns. I like what I saw out of Jalen Milro. I put Alabama in at three.

All righty. Sully's favorite team. Hook them. Hook them horns.

Horns up, not horns down. I know it's only Colorado State, but they blew them out. They just destroyed them 52 to nothing.

Quinn Ewers was great. You got to see Arch Manning in the game as well. And now this is a big week for Texas because Texas, three things could happen here. You blow out Michigan and you reiterate and justify my ranking of you at the second spot this week. You play a close game and then people go, OK, um, hmm. It was Colorado State week one that you blew out. And then in week two up against Michigan, you showed you're not that great.

And maybe you're just very good. You lose the game. It's an absolute disaster. And I think Michigan could cover this game. Seven and a half points spread. But Texas should win the game. And in at number one, it's the Georgia Bulldogs. They played a B minus game and still smothered a top 15 team in the rankings in Clemson. And that game, even when it was 0-0 at the end of one or six nothing going into halftime, you knew how much better Georgia was than Clemson. So my top five teams after one week, Penn State in at five, Ohio State in at four, Alabama in at three, Texas two and Georgia one.

How about that? Three SEC teams, one, two, three. And then my Big Ten teams are four and five. Stu Kovacs, speak now or forever hold your peace.

All right. What about a team that went into Texas A&M and won by 10? Notre Dame. Notre Dame, tremendous defense, offensively tough environment in Aggieland.

The offense, though, I didn't think was great. And I thought A&M was overrated heading into the season, a huge win for Marcus Freeman. I'm not taking anything away from it, but I think a lot of people just look at the results and go, oh, based off A&M's pass.

Wow. Like, oh, they're beating A&M. That was a big boy victory for the Irish. But I don't think A&M is all that great. New coach in there, Mike Elko. So there'll be a college football playoff team, but I'm not ready to put them in the top five. What about the defending champs Michigan after their 20-point win over Fresno State?

Yikes. Will Johnson holds away late on that touchdown, that pick six. Offensively, though, concerns.

The line has to be better. And usually Michigan's offensive line has been unbelievable. Donovan Edwards needs to be better, needs to be Donovan Edwards from two years ago. Donovan Edwards in the national championship game up against Washington. And the quarterback situation is a big question mark. Michigan's going to win some games this year.

There's no doubt about it. Michigan has a chance to go to the college football playoff this year. But it's going to be close and it's going to be ugly until Sharone Moore figures out how they can get that offense to be competent because it was incompetent after week one. What about a team that a lot of people had in their top five at the beginning of the season, Oregon?

Yeah, and so did I. And I think Oregon is going to be a really good program this year. And I had them in my final four and being a semifinalist team. But with that being said, that offense did not look good up against Idaho. And it's Idaho.

It's sloppy. You don't show everything necessarily week one. I just didn't think they had a performance that screams top five team like Georgia blew out Clemson, Texas, Alabama.

Right. Ohio State, Penn State. They all had blowout victories. Oregon's going to be really damn good this year. But they didn't play like a top five team in week one.

So that's why I left them out. And last one after putting 41 points up against Florida. What about the Miami Hurricanes? It's all about the U. And guess what? Billy Napier is on the chopping block.

So it's a mixture of two things. Tremendous victory for Miami. Give them credit. They annihilated Florida. But with that being said, I think it also speaks what Florida is right now. And that's why it's a very good win for Miami. And hey, they blew out Florida. Unlike Notre Dame who didn't blow out Texas A&M.

I'm not taking anything away from the team and the victory. But I do think Miami's good. Notre Dame's good.

I don't think they're great. And I think the blowout and the decisiveness of the score or the difference in the score kind of speaks more to the team that lost rather than the team that won. So those are my top five teams in college football. Penn State in a five. Ohio State four. Alabama three.

Texas two. Georgia one after week one of the college football season. Now to the NFL. With the season starting tomorrow night. With the Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Let's start in at number five. I don't have this team winning their division, but I'm going to put them as a top five team and leave the team that I have winning the division on the outside looking in. Baltimore Ravens.

I'm starting to warm up to Baltimore, man. That defense is damn good even with the pieces they lost. Lamar Jackson's a two-time MVP. They got Derrick Henry. Mark Andrews a really good tight end when healthy.

Zay Flowers going to have a good season. I like the addition of Derrick Henry. It's starting to make me warm up a little bit to the Ravens. And we know their question is come postseason time can they get the job done, but in the regular season led by John Harbaugh they're really good. The Eagles. There's no excuses for Philly. I don't want to hear about Jason Kelce retiring, Fletcher Cox retiring, maybe some locker room fighting between Jalen Hurts and Nick Sirianni. This team has too much talent.

Too much talent and they have a big test Friday night in Brazil. You got to get the job done up against a very good football team in the Green Bay Packers. But from Jalen Hurts to A.J. Brown to Devontae Smith to Dallas Gottes to Saquon Barkley, just so much talent on this team. I'll put the Eagles in at number four. At three, a team that was in the NFC Championship game with a big lead and they lost the Detroit Lions. There's some concerns about the consistency of that defense.

I like Hutchinson, I like Anzaloni. Offensively, you got Sewell, you got Goff, you got Gibbs, you got St. Brown, you know, Laporta. This Lions team and Lions fans I'm happy for you because you guys were a laughingstock for so long. And now you walk into a season with legitimate, legitimate Super Bowl expectations.

Few years ago, right, there was a big question about Dan Campbell. Got hot late, they had that victory in Green Bay, and then it carried over into last year's excellent season. Now it's about winning a Lombardi Trophy. In at number two, been one of the better teams in the NFL the last few years.

It's crazy that they don't have a Lombardi Trophy. Shannon's a good coach. Lynch a good GM. Brock Purdy continues to soar in this league. You got Williams back now on the contract.

You got Ayuk back now on the contract. Deebo Samuel still running around, and we know his two-way abilities, obviously. Kittles still there, run CMCs, one of the better offensive players in the league. Defense out led by Fred Warner and Bosa, if he could stay healthy. 49ers, once again, Super Bowl or Boston. Number one, they haven't even played their best brands of football in the last two years, and it was still better than the rest. As long as you have Mahomes and Kelsey and Andy Reid on a team, the Kansas City Chiefs not only got to have a chance, they are the team to beat, and they're in the number one spot. So Ravens 5, Eagles 4, Lions 3, 49ers 2, Chiefs 1.

Stu, speak now or forever hold your peace. Had a strong second half behind Jordan Love. What about the Packers? Yeah, I just got to see them put it together for a full season. That team could win the division. I'm picking the Lions.

We'll do the full predictions tomorrow. I love the acquisition of Jacobs and McKinney this offseason. The wide receivers is not a number one, but they got a really good wide receiving unit. And Jordan Love down the stretch, 20 total touchdowns, one interception.

He looks like a star, a star. But they're very good. They took a big step last year. Now can they take the next step?

That's why they're just on the outside looking in. But definitely a contender. Joe Burrow back healthy. What about the Bengals? So I'm picking the Bengals to win the North. But I put the Ravens in at five, so you're going to say, Zach, well how does that make any sense? It's just can they stay healthy and can Joe Burrow stay healthy? And is Jamar Chase's contract going to get taken care of and when will he be on the field? If Jamar Chase is there and Joe Burrow is there, that's the team in the AFC that has the best chance to dethrone the Chiefs.

And they've done it before. Even though they didn't win a Super Bowl, they did beat the Chiefs in an AFC title game. And at one point in a three game win streak up against the Chiefs. And last but not least, Aaron Rodgers and the Jets.

Mine's a concern, even though it's improved. Rodgers coming back from injury. I think he's going to have a big season. The Jets will be a playoff team.

But I'm not putting him in the top five. Rodgers, when he was in the NFC towards the end in Green Bay, had really good teams. Couldn't get to a second Super Bowl. Now in the AFC where it's a tougher conference, even though the NFC is picking up ground. I could see the Jets get into the second round of the playoffs, even if they get to an AFC title game. Heck, then they would be in the top five. But anything more than that, I can't see it. And I look at that line.

Yes, it's improved. Yes, they got some depth on that offensive line. Depth on that offensive line.

But are they going to be able to stay healthy? And if those second guys need to come in because Smith gets hurt or Moses gets hurt, how ready to go are they going to be? Especially the big tackle out of Penn State in Fushano. Alrighty, those are my top five teams. Georgia, Texas, BAM, Ohio State, Penn State, 1-2-3-4-5. And in the NFL, Chiefs, 49ers, Lions, Eagles and Ravens.