Rams Should Keep Cooper Kupp (Hour 1)

Live from the play show yet not overly ostentatious studios of the Infinity Sports Network here in beautiful New York City sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on into a Friday edition of the Zach Gilb show across all the great local Infinity Sports Network affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, the free Odyssey app, and of course, streaming live on YouTube. 855212, 4227 is the number to jump on in.

That's 855212, 4227. You could always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter X at Zach Gelb. That is ZACH GELB.

We got Nico Cuda Vides, Iamali Ava Scarlatos here with us today. That is a lot of syllables, if I may say so myself, and also the great Stupak Jr. Stuart Kovacs Jr. Rocking and rolling all the way up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific Time. Rocco Beck, the undefeated quarterback at Iowa State, is going to join us coming up at the top of the hour.

And then at 4.40 p.m. Eastern time, 1.40 p.m. Pacific, the head football coach of the undefeated Pittsburgh Panthers will join us as well in Pat Narduzzi. And I was so excited for that game last night. I like Pitt to win the game, but I thought it was going to be a brawl. I thought it was going to be a close game.

And I saw something last night that I've never seen before. I have never seen a quarterback in Kyle McCord. It's one thing to throw five interceptions, right?

You have a horrendous game. You know, I like McCord. You know, I thought he was treated a little bit unfairly at the end at Ohio State.

It was right to move on. I thought he was a better quarterback than what people were talking about him at the end of the season. Even the last year, I said he was not going to beat Michigan, and I said he was going to throw a big interception in a big spot because he got lucky to win that game up against Notre Dame.

But he must have went to bed on Wednesday evening and saw, like, the boogeyman, Jim Harbaugh, because that performance that he had on Thursday night, I've never seen anything like it. He threw five interceptions. All right, everyone has dreadful games.

Everyone has miserable games. We've even seen all time great quarterbacks throw multiple interceptions or a handful of interceptions and have absolute clunkers. But he had three interceptions that went to the house. Three pick sixes by halftime, halftime.

So think about that. You walk into halftime, you've already thrown four interceptions. Three of them have gone to the other, you know, to the hissy, the house, whatever you want to call it. And you walk into that locker room where you put up 21 points. But the problem was the 21 points were for the other team. I have never, never, ever seen something like that. That may be one of the worst, if not the worst quarterback performance I've ever witnessed. Like, we've sometimes seen guys just be like nine of 30 or something like that. No touchdowns, two picks, horrendous. But to have four interceptions by half, then go get a fifth one in the second half and have three pick sixes at halftime?

Never, ever, ever seen something like that. So congratulations to Pitt. They rolled Syracuse last night.

Pat Narduzzi is going to join us coming up in about an hour forty from now. Also yesterday, I said at the end of the show, we had Stu, we had Manny, and I heard them give their answers and give their reasons on why they thought the Minnesota Vikings were going to win the game. And I'll be honest, I walked into that segment without having an idea which way I was leaning towards. So I heard what Manny had to say. I heard what Stu had to say.

And it was both very similar. You know, the Rams have guys coming back, but there's going to be a lot of rust to knock off. The Vikings are coming off a loss.

It seems like it's a good bounce back spot. You got all these rumors about Matthew Stafford getting traded, Cooper Cup getting traded as well. Zach even had to ask Pukunakua about it earlier in the week to get his response and those two players getting traded. And as I heard, Manny and Stu just talk and talk and talk. Not that any of their analysis was anything foreign or crazy or like, oh my goodness gracious. It's the dumbest thing that I've ever heard.

Like, there's some people around here when they speak and I hear them speak, I'm like, yeah, what that person's saying, it's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. But as I sat there and I heard Manny and Stu pontificate on why Minnesota is going to win the game, I said, that's why I'm taking the Rams on the money line. Because everyone's going to say, hey, the Rams are going to be distracted. The Rams guys are coming back, but they're not going to be 100 percent. And also, I think Minnesota is a good team.

I'm not going to call them great. And when I envision how far Minnesota can go, you know, I know they got a damn good defense of Brian Flores. Sam Donald's been a good redemption story this year.

It's been a good rejuvenation project. You know, Aaron Jones, you got Justin Jefferson, you know, next week it looks like they'll get Hawkinson back. It's like that's a good football team.

But I still don't know what they're going to equal to at the end of the year. Like there's a few teams. If I tell you the Ravens in the Super Bowl, you could believe it. If I tell you the Chiefs are in the Super Bowl, you could believe it. And I tell you the Lions are in the Super Bowl. Lions fans may be like not know what to do with themselves, but I think a lot of us could believe it. When you say Minnesota, I think there will be a contingent of people that say eliminate in the wild card round. And then I think you'll have a contingent of people that say, hey, they could go on a run. And if you tell me Minnesota is going to the Super Bowl this year, I can't tell you that you're definitely wrong.

But I also can't say that you're definitely right. And I think the floor is wild card and the ceiling is like getting to an NFC championship game or maybe even a Super Bowl. But with all that being said, this was a spot that just naturally with all the same generic things, which were fair to say on why Minnesota was going to win the game.

That's why I love the L.A. Rams in this one last night. And I saw our buddy Drunkle Sam in the YouTube chat. He said, Zach cashed on the money line pizza for everyone on this Friday. Two weeks ago, I bought everybody pizza. That was out of the kindness of my heart.

But you know what? I was trying to lead a charge last night. I was saying people come on the Gelb ship for the L.A. Rams, who were my pick before the year started to win the Super Bowl and defeat the Baltimore Ravens in the Super Bowl. And Stu didn't join me and Manny didn't join me. So if you think I am buying pizza today just because I hit on on Rams money line last night.

Yeah, the G.D. mind, Drunkle Sam. All right. This is not a day where we're going to reward everyone with pizza around here. And also, I have a great Italian reservation tonight for Italian dinner at a very fancy schmancy Italian joint here in New York City, where I don't know much about this place, but I talked to four people today about, oh, this is where I'm going for dinner tonight. They're like, how the heck did you get a reservation? That place is impossible to get a reservation for.

So I'm very, very, very excited. I don't even remember the name of the place. It's in my phone. It's texted to me.

So I know where to go at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. And I've had a lot on the plate today, a lot on the plate today. I've had a lot of issues today. I ordered this new bed frame. I ordered this new mattress. The mattress came the other day. The mattress has already been sitting out there for 72 hours.

It's lonely. It's waiting for a bed frame. And I have a bed frame delivering to my apartment. So I scheduled the delivery for Saturday, but I needed to get a certificate of insurance on the moving process. So the lady that I was working with at the store told me, you just got to get that 72 hours in advance. So I did my job. I got it 72 hours in advance.

I even got it before that. And when I called the other day or a few days ago, she's like, oh, I'm off today. We can't deliver this by Saturday. I don't get back into the office until Friday. I'm like, hold on.

You told me Saturday works. You told me to do my job. Now you got to do your job. And I was very polite about it. I wasn't going to be rude to this lady. So she goes, let me see what I could do, but it's going to require me to go into the office.

And it is my off day. I'm like, I don't care. Like, I'm sorry. She told me she only lived five minutes from the place. You go into your office and you take care of it.

So she takes care of it. And as I'm hanging up the phone, I said, hey, I have something for work on Saturday morning. I am unavailable from eight forty five a.m. to nine forty five a.m. Do not have the delivery happen in the eight forty five a.m. eastern time window to the nine forty five a.m. eastern time window. I was as clear and respectful as I could be.

I was told, sir, no problem. The delivery, we can't give you the exact range, but it will come sometime after 10 a.m. eastern time. So I get an alert today.

And this is why I'm very stressed to start the show today. I get an alert. Your delivery is going to come anywhere between eight to 10 a.m. eastern time. So it says, click here for an exact estimation. Which is like.

Don't make any sense, you know, but so I click there for an estimation. Eight fifteen a.m. eastern time and they got to set it up. So I'm like, I call the lady, I go, you told me after 10 a.m. eastern time this was coming.

So I never said like, what? So now I have to run the risk of the mattress people on the bed frame people delivering it. Hopefully later in the time frame, because I got to be back in these studios right across right right down the hall at eight forty five a.m. eastern time tomorrow. And I'll get out of here by nine thirty.

I could be back in my apartment if I need to by nine forty a.m. So just a lot of stress that does occur because I've already have taken apart my old bed frame. I did that today.

I am you know, I was about the mattress, but I didn't throw out the you know, the old mattress. And I'm just like, this has become now a problem. You pay all this money for a service and they tell you what the service is going to be.

And then it's like, surprise, we're going to complicate this entire service. So I'm in a little bit of a mood today to start off this show, but I'll be positive and I'll give you the sports talk because it's a football Friday. You got to be happy on a football Friday. But with that being said, here's the big takeaway from the Rams game last night.

Yes, I was right. Yes, I told you Rams on the money line. But the Los Angeles Rams have survived this slow start to the season when they were one and four. They look cooked. And there was nothing inspiring about beating Stu Stinky Raiders last week, 20 to 15.

But to have a victory in the way that they did up against a good Minnesota team, 30 to 20 last night. And you got Puka back, you got Cooper Cup back, and now you're sitting at three and four. It's a new dawn. It's a new day. It's a new life for the Los Angeles Rams. That's what you have here right now.

And it's kind of funny. And we contributed to this because I asked Puka Nakua about the Rams potentially trading Stafford and potentially trading Cooper Cup. I never thought for a single second that Matthew Stafford was getting traded. But Cooper Cup, I thought, yeah, there's a good chance he's going to get traded. Now the Rams would be fools to trade Cooper Cup.

Football is open this year. We know everyone's chasing the Chiefs and you can make the case that there's other really good teams, maybe even great teams like the Ravens and the Lions are two other teams that stand out. But there is a short list and I mean an extremely short list of Super Bowl contenders. And if the Rams play at the level that they're capable of and if the Rams continue to be healthy, that's a team that could get hot.

That's a team that's trending in the right direction. So no, the Rams aren't trading Matthew Stafford on Election Day, which is also the NFL trade deadline. I do not expect now the Rams to trade Cooper Cup and look at their next five games. How they perform in their next five games.

And it's not against the greatest competition will tell us everything we need to know about the Rams. They play at Seattle. They play in Miami. They play at New England. They play Philadelphia. And then they play at New Orleans like that should be at worst. At worst, you should go three and two in those five games.

You could potentially go four and one. So this Rams team is going to be in the playoff mix. A few weeks ago, we thought they were going to be one of the more disappointing teams in the league. And they wouldn't be in the playoff hunt. You were also in a division where, let's be clear, the Niners right now are struggling. It's tough to believe that the Cardinals are going to be a playoff team, even though Geno Smith is solid. I don't believe the Seahawks are going to go win this division, even though I like McDonald's.

And you got some big, you know, star wide receivers as well. But it's not crazy to say that the Rams could go on and win this division like they're three and four right now. The Cardinals are three and four. The Niners are three and four. And the Seattle Seahawks are sitting there at four and three. So this division is open. The NFC is still open.

Even if you don't win the division, you have a chance to be a wild card team. That doesn't resonate in me saying, OK, now trade Cooper Cup or now trade Matthew Stafford. So that week that just was that it wasn't even a full week where it was Diana Rossini talking about Cooper Cup. Jack settlement from snapback sports talking about potentially the Minnesota Vikings of all teams trading for Matthew Stafford. We could say RIP to those thoughts, RIP to those conversations. And it changes in one game because if the Rams would have lost last night, every Tom, Dick and Harry would have got on the radio today.

And they would have said, hey, blow it up. The Rams, they won a Super Bowl. They got to go get some picks back. You go from them picks to now we need those picks. But now with the Rams winning last night and salvaging what was a terrible start to the season to make you one game under five hundred and having a very manageable schedule. The next five games with cut back with the coup of back with Kyron Williams being a touchdown machine.

Stafford still being a really damn good quarterback. The defense coming alive. When you look at like three of those players on the defensive side of the ball, fiscal could last night.

Jared first look good last night. It's like you look at this team and you see that team. You know, they could be what I thought they were before the start of the season. Like, I'm not telling you that this is a team that definitely gets to a Super Bowl. You know, I'm not telling you this team that's definitely in the NFC championship game, but they are back in that contending type of status in terms of OK.

I could at least if things go the right way in the next five games or, you know, I could look at them and actually take them seriously, is what I'm saying. And Byron Young also had a really good game as well. So it's like they got a good team. They got a solid team. And I don't know how many great teams there are this year in the NFL.

So there could be some good teams that find a way to be playing late into the year. And I don't see any reasons why the Rams can't be one of those teams. And if you disagree with me, then who do you love in the in the NFC? I don't love the Eagles. I love the Niners. You know, the Lions I love. You know, they're really damn good. You know, Minnesota.

Now there's questions about Minnesota. So, you know, the Packers, I think, are going to be, you know, something to take really seriously. But it's not like you have any team in the NFC that you look at and you go, hey, if I'm a team that got off to a slow start. Now, I feel like there's an unbeatable team in the NFC because every team in the NFC, they have flaws and they have warts. Just some teams have fewer warts and pimples on them than others. And some teams you look at and you go, OK, that's pretty damn good team. But there is a large pool of teams that could potentially get to the Super Bowl in the NFC because there's not been many that have really taken that baton and that you look at and you go, OK, it's inconceivable to me for me to see, like, not this team or that team to go to the Super Bowl this year in the NFC. So things change rather quickly in the NFL.

All right. This is Zach Gelb showing the Infinity Sports Network. Rocco Beck will join us at the top of the hour. Pat Narduzzi coming up at 4.40 p.m. Eastern time today when we come on back. Five things to watch for for this weekend in college football.

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Bellabing Calgary has me cracking up on social media at Zach Gelb. Can't you just request a later delivery time? I'm having issues with the delivery people and scheduling the delivery for tomorrow. Well, they put a note on my account. That was the part of the story I didn't tell, since I'm on the air tomorrow from nine to nine thirty on W.F.

and New York, and I could leave my apartment at eight thirty, get to the studio more than enough time, and then leave at nine thirty and be back by nine forty. They said they put a note, but they said they can't guarantee that they won't come before the note that they requested. And then Bellaby and Calgary said, get Rich Ackerman to accept the delivery. He's a nice guy. How do you think that conversation would go still if I hit up Ack to drive into the city, you know, on a weekend to try to help me out and lend a helping hand? I'm going to assume that's like a no for me. You know, not dog, but maybe chief.

Yeah, especially working all those Saturdays throughout the year, those eight, ten hour shows he used to do. I mean, you know quite well. No chance. Yeah, he's not giving up a Saturday for that.

Yeah, no. This portion of the show is brought to you by Sleeper. Just download the Sleeper app today and use code SCORE when signing up. Must be present in certain states. Visit Sleeper dot com for details. Sponsored by Sleeper, a blitz product. Let me give you the name of the restaurant I'm going to tonight, because, you know, someone was asking me about it.

I had to see this is how stupid I am. This is supposedly one of the best Italian restaurants in the city. And I don't even know the damn name of it. It's the first time I'm going and supposedly the reservations impossible to get. It's called Res Dora is where I'm going to tonight.

R-E-Z D-O-R-A. It's a Michelin star restaurant. So supposedly pretty, pretty, pretty good.

I heard the comp was like carbone, which I just went to two weeks ago. So a lot of Italian food these days for your boy. Nico, you're a big Italian food guy, correct Amundo? Yes, sir.

Yeah. What's your favorite Italian dish? It's got to be penne alla vodka.

Okay. You're not rigatoni? You go penne instead of rigatoni? I like rigatoni better than penne. I mean, I'm kind of indifferent when it comes to the type of pasta. I've even had like tortellini with vodka sauce before. It's good.

So, well, yolky, yolky, vodka sauce. Yeah. Okay. So I have already sent out our first Thanksgiving email, which by the way, October 25th, if you had the under on when Zach Gelb would start talking about Thanksgiving, you're going to win right now because people would usually think that would happen in November. It's October 25th. As you know, my family does not do turkey. We used to do turkey for a while on Thanksgiving, but it's overrated.

It's not worth the hassle. My grandmother, who's no longer alive, could make a great turkey, but there are better things available. So I sent out everyone's responsibilities as it's going to be the first Thanksgiving without my grandmother passed away about a month ago.

So we're going to do a Thanksgiving in our honor. And, you know, I told my dad and my sister, you guys are in charge of lasagna. I ordered the cookies because Nabisco discontinued the traditional Nabisco chocolate wafer. So I found the Oreo wafer.

So I put that Amazon order in today to get the Oreo wafer for the icebox cake, which we call a cookie cake. You know, got to assign someone to a focaccia bread to make, got to assign someone to charcuterie board. Hey, you bring shrimp cocktail. So I am the captain of the family when it comes to Thanksgiving. Now, my mother is having a hip replacement done. And like Thanksgiving is the holiday in our house.

And I love my mother. But see, she scheduled the hip replacement for a week and a half before Thanksgiving. So my dad, who is now like Mr. Nervous Nelly still. He goes, we may have to cancel Thanksgiving. I go, what drugs are you on, dad?

I go, you will have to get the National Guard in front of your house to prevent me from having Thanksgiving this year. The show will go on. And my mom calls me up because my dad could be sometimes soft. My mom's like the pit bull. She's tough. She goes, we're not canceling Thanksgiving.

Don't listen to the nonsense of your father. So Thanksgiving is a go. Zach Gelb say Thanksgiving and the show will go on. And if anyone tries to stand in the way of my Thanksgiving this year, I'm going to smack you. All right. I'm going to beat you up. This is going to be the last time you ever go to a Thanksgiving. All right. Let's get to a little college football.

What to watch for for this weekend. So I was talking to Mike Sanford. The that sounds like Mike Samter, but no coach Mike Sanford. And I was talking to him because he listens to this show. And he's been talking about us a lot today on a show in Colorado this week because of the Robert Horry comments.

Also, our interview with Puka Nakua. And I said to him, what do you think about UNLV and Boise State tonight? Which is going to be played in Las Vegas. He thinks either UNLV wins closer. Boise is going to blow him out.

And then I said. What is the lowest expectation UNLV could have in a number where if you're a coach, you would be happy if Ashton Gente only put up this amount of yards because Ashton Gente has just been ridiculous this year. And he's the favorite right now for the Heisman, one hundred and twenty six carries, eighteen total touchdowns, one thousand two hundred and forty eight yards. So let me just give you the individual game log here for Nico and Stu before I get your guess here against Hawaii at two hundred and seventeen rushing yards, Utah State one eighty six, Washington State two fifty nine, Portland State one twenty seven, Oregon one ninety two and Georgia Southern to open up the year. He had two hundred and sixty seven yards. So when you do all that, one, two, three, four, five, six games so far for Boise State, Ashton Gente is averaging per game two hundred and eight rushing yards. Hold on, I got to do that math again, because that just I know it's right. But that just sounds so stupid. Two hundred and eight rushing yards.

So we'll go around the room here, entertain me here. What do you think the number is that coach Mike Sanford said, hey, they got to hold him to this number or less. And if they do so, UNLV will win the game. Nico missed the college football. The guy that's trying to be the next hot take kicky here on the Infinity Sports Network. What is the number that you're going to say that Mike Sanford suggested? One fifty.

OK, Stu. I would say one seventy five. If this was the prices right.

Nico, come on down. One sixty five. One sixty five.

And that's always stupid with the prices, right? Because you just said what number? One seventy five. Yeah.

And Nico said what? One fifty. So you're close. Closer.

Yeah. But you went over. I went over too much. So then you would be done.

You would be done with the prices, right? If you went over, you couldn't win. It could be over by one point. Someone could be be under by 90 points and it doesn't matter. So he said one sixty five or less and UNLV will win. I think this could be a close game.

I think this could be really entertaining. You know, the quarterback that left UNLV. It seems like they're more than fine with him leaving. And they'll be they've been fine ever since.

Luca or whatever the guy's name was. I just can't bet against Ash and Gente right now. I can't. But with that being said, it's like, OK, they lost to Oregon non-conference loss. And we'll just see how they navigate the rest of the way, because the way that college football has been to the first seven, eight weeks, one of the biggest stories in college football has been Ash and Gente.

And it would be really cool to see Boise State at the end of the year, not only have him, you know, bare minimum be a Heisman Trophy finalist, but they could be the highest ranked power conference school that's a conference champion, then it would be pretty damn cool to see Boise State in the college football playoff. Stu, let me ask you this. Are you going tomorrow? Mr. Notre Dame, Stuart Kovacs, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Here come the Irish to the swamps of Jersey at MetLife Stadium. Are you going to see your Notre Dame Fighting Irish up against Navy? I've been monitoring ticket prices. I do not have any plans for Saturday at the moment, so. So you'll be there? I think I'm going to go, yeah. OK. Now, who are you rooting for? Notre Dame. You don't love this country?

You're going to root against Navy? That's exactly what our friend Anthony Gallo said to me. Oh, did he?

Yes. I would say two smart minds think alike. But like, let's be real, Gallo's an idiot. I'm an idiot.

So two idiots are able to get the low hanging fruit to make a good joke. Where's your confidence level? Because when I get to Notre Dame, they overachieved week one. Then they had that embarrassing loss to northern Illinois.

All right. They smashed Purdue. Everyone could smash Purdue. They beat Miami of Ohio. You had the high octane offensive game up against Louisville. You smashed Stanford.

And then you beat Georgia Tech going away. Like the Louisville game was a decent test. You know, Navy, I'm not going to say it's the greatest test in the world, but they are undefeated.

The styles are similar. You know, Navy likes to run, run, run, run, run. They're a top 25 team, so they're no slouch this year. Where's the confidence level in Marcus Freeman? Because if Marcus Freeman, even though it's a top 25 team, if he has another game like this, or you lose to an opponent that you should beat, and they should beat Navy, you know, that seat's already warm for Marcus Freeman, even though I don't think they're going to fire him.

But in terms of the public perception, the seat is warm. How confident are you with your head football coach, too, in Marcus Freeman? One, no confidence in the world. Excuse me, one, yeah, no confidence in the world. Ten, you have a lot of confidence. Where are you at? So we talk about just tomorrow or the rest of the season getting to the playoffs? Let's start, let's start just tomorrow. Tomorrow, I would say it's like probably six and a half. Oh, so you're not really that confident?

No, I don't think it's a guarantee. I think it's going to be a close game. So you kind of think it's a toss-up? Kind of, yeah.

Okay. I think that's fair because Marcus Freeman, A&M was a moment and it's aged well because A&M has really got their act together. But, like, going in, people didn't think A&M was this tremendous win. The USC game last year was a good statement for Notre Dame, but it kind of just showed how incompetent USC was. So I'll be curious, not that this is a moment game, but does Notre Dame win going away or is it one of those, hey, we're going to sweat you out, sweat it out, torture you, and there's a chance you lose or there's a chance that you win?

So that's something to look forward to. Niko, I'll ask you, because I know you're a big college football fan. Alabama has totally done a 180. They were pounding Georgia, second half didn't go their way. They lose to Vanderbilt. Every time I say this, and I know it's probably getting old, folks, but I don't care, I still can't believe they lost to Vanderbilt. Then they barely beat South Carolina, and they lost last week, where they should have been up by more at halftime up against Tennessee, and they were abysmal in the second half, and Jalen Milro had no awareness. Now, it looks like the Missouri quarterback, Cook, is not going to play.

It's not official yet, but he was in the hospital last week, then got out of the hospital, then returned to the game, which is a different story. Alabama, Vegas expects them to bounce back and bounce back in a big way, looking at the spread. It's a double-digit spread. But where's your confidence in Kalen DeBoer and the Alabama Crimson Tide to bounce back this week and try to salvage or start to salvage their season? So I do think that they win tomorrow at home against Missouri, who also hasn't looked good. They barely beat Auburn last week. So I do think Bama wins tomorrow, but for the rest of the year, I'm kind of off the Kalen DeBoer train. I don't think that, I mean, even if they do win tomorrow, they still have to play LSU, which I don't think is a game that they're going to win, and that's three losses right there.

And I don't trust them at all down the stretch. And it's funny you mention LSU, because that's something that I also want to watch for this weekend. LSU against A&M.

I think a lot of people, even though Brian Kelly's a really good coach, they're like kind of rooting for Brian Kelly to fail, and you're kind of rooting for the freakout and the emotional outburst with the fake accent or fake slamming the table from Brian Kelly. I've been tossing and turning on this game all week, but I just want to see if Brian Kelly can deliver. And even though I really want to pick A&M and it's tough to pick against them in their own house, I'm going to begrudgingly take LSU with the Tigers and their family to go win the game. And then finally, I want to see what the first half effort looks like for Texas. I get Vanderbilt beat Alabama.

I get Vanderbilt is in the top 25. But Texas, after what happened to them last week, they got punched in the mouth by a champion in Georgia. They showed a little fight in the second half. Then their fans are throwing trash on the field. They got the call overturned, even though it should have never been called in the first place.

But I didn't like the process, how that got overturned. I'm curious where the mental state of the Texas team is. Like, they'll beat Vanderbilt. I feel like they will.

I feel confident in saying that. But are they still caught up in the emotions and get a hit in the mouth last week? Or are they going to go send a message and just totally eviscerate Vanderbilt right to open that game? So those are five things to look for this weekend and to watch in college football. We'll take a time out. We'll come on back with the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio. We get to a news brief next. Time for your daily news brief. We get you caught up on the rumors, reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports. It's time to ask the pros.

The listener gets asked us a question. It's brought to you by Raleigh Auto Parts. Simply tweet your question at INF Sports Center at Zach Gelb using the hashtag. Ask the pros.

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O O O O Raleigh Auto Parts. All right, Sean McVay, let's start off with you. Your football team's now three and four. You won back to back games.

Starting to turn things around. Let's listen to the coach. I believe in this group, Sam. I believe in the coaches. I believe in the players. I saw a resolve.

I didn't see a flinch. And we still have a long way to go. You know, we've won two games in five days, but it's just two games.

And we've done a good job of getting ourselves back to where we wanted to be. I always chuckle, Stu, when I hear Sean McVay speak. He sounds like John Gruden if he just breathed in a lot of helium.

Like, you know, when you used to go to friendlies as a kid and they give you the balloons and then with your friends, you would suck in the helium and your voice would sound like Mickey Mouse. That's Sean McVay. He tries to be like Gruden, but it's like if Gruden never went through puberty. That's kind of always the thing I hear when I listen to Sean McVay. But, yes, his team has started to turn it around. The stock of the Rams is trending in the right direction. And we'll see what they do in their next five games with a favorable schedule.

Maybe the toughest game being Philadelphia. Let's listen up to Cooper Cupp on how his season has gone so far. Obviously it's been frustrating the last few years just going through stuff that's kind of out of your control. And unfortunately I've had a lot of practice at this, which is just frustrating. But, man, it's so good being back out here playing this game again. And I just love these guys. Going into work each day has been a joy even in these times where I'm not feeling like I'm able to contribute like I was able to a little bit today. But, man, it feels so good to be able to come back out here, do what you love, be with these guys. So there you go.

That, of course, is Cooper Cupp. Let's go to the losing side, Sam Darnold. How about Sam Darnold making it clear that the Vikings have things that they need to fix after losing two games in a row? We just got to do the little things right and, you know, hash out the details. And I feel like if we do that, we're going to be a really good offense and a really good team. And I know we're going to be a really good offense and a really good team. And so, yeah, it's just little things that we can control. So we're just going to, you know, look ourselves in the mirror, watch the tape and get better from it.

By the way, Stu, I'm going to put you on the spot here. It has nothing to do with the Rams or the Vikings, other than this was the commentary on Amazon Prime last night. Were you, like, intently listening to the commentary? Not intently, no.

OK. No, that's fine. So I like that studio crew that they have. Carissa Thompson. You got Andrew Whitworth, who just looks like the most comfortable big fellow around.

Richard Sherman's good. You know, Tony Gonzalez. I'm waiting for one of those cold weather games because he kind of bullied him into not wearing gloves. But last night right here in L.A. and that is like an indoor stadium, but there's also like an outdoor.

It's very weird. I was there. I thought I was in an indoor stadium. But then I read more about it and like, it's not like not totally an indoor stadium.

There's like a little like crevice that makes it a little bit outdoors as well. And then you got Ryan Fitzpatrick, who I just have never got it with Ryan Fitzpatrick. That's like the one guy that just annoys me on that panel. But anyhow, Richard Sherman and the Thursday Night Football crew were talking about Gerard Mayo. Savage Sports says they were taking a massive dump on Gerard Mayo. What do you think the commentary was, Stu, when you hear that they were being very critical of him? Like, how do you think they were being critical of him with everything going on this week? In over his head shouldn't be calling his team soft, basically. So it was said you are a rookie head coach. You don't get to say nothing in regards to the talk about you being a rookie head coach and calling your team soft.

So I disagree with that a little bit. You could say something, but you don't have the credibility, even though you were a good player. Everyone thought you were going to head coaching job, for him to not take any ownership of it at all, and be like, hey, my team's soft and that's a reflection of me, that's a problem I have with it. If you're going to call your team soft, you got to at least acknowledge that you're part of the reason why they are soft as well. Alrighty, let's go to Patrick Mahomes, who's probably going to torment Stu. Patrick Mahomes is excited for the rivalry game up against the Raiders. We know we're going to get their best shot.

I mean, that's kind of how it's been every single week. But obviously, when you play a divisional opponent, like I've said in the past, it's a real rivalry between our two teams and our two organizations. You're going to get their best shot and we're going to go out there and match that. They're going to destroy you, Stu. You know that, right?

Oh, I do. I'm very prepared for that. This is going to be ugly, because you beat them last year.

So I think this is just going to be really ugly. It's Minshew, right? Because O'Connell's hurt? Yeah, O'Connell's out for at least a month. So it is Minshew with, I guess, Desmond Ritter as the backup quarterback.

Oh yeah, I saw they brought him in as well. Yikes, yikes, yikes, yikes, yikes. Yikes is right. Alright, let's listen up. Charles Barkley rips your LMB for not playing the first game of the season inside the NBA on TNT. I don't have any idea what the Sixers are doing. You know, I don't think it's fair. Now listen, I want to get this number right, because this is crazy.

And bless the kid, number one. He just signed for three years, $193 million. Three years, $193 million to play basketball. We're not steel workers. We're not nurses. Like people who got like real jobs and have to work 40 or 50 hours a week. We're playing basketball at the most, four days a week.

Most of the time, three days a week. He has the best backup in the league at Drummond. If they had to say it, and Kenny Shaq know this, they just say I'm going to play 25 minutes on the second night or back to back.

Or during Drummond plays. But to come out and say it in advance was a stupidity by the Sixers, period. You know, I'm so like tired of just getting irate about this. This has been a mess now for five to six years. The NBA regular season product is just garbage.

Let's just call it for what it is. Here's Charles Barkley saying that him and the TNT crew, they joke about potentially getting fired in what is supposedly their final season on Inside the NBA. Yes, 1229. Oh, we out of here by one.

1229 it is. We're walking out of here at one o'clock. And if you don't walk with me. I got you, brother. Okay.

I got you. One o'clock. What are they going to do? What are they going to do? Fire us?

There you go. You get closer and closer to that door. You're going to just unwittingly just cross that line.

What do you mean unwittingly? You've been crossing it all summer. And you know they don't want you to cross a line when they throw the highlights up before you even call for them.

Here we go, San Antonio and Dallas. That's great. That's like shut up, guys. Keep it moving. But that's going to be just comedy all throughout the year.

It's only night two of their coverage, and it's already been two nights of jokes like that. Yeah. Let's go to Nick Saban. He was on the Pat McAfee show today and Tua Tunga by lowest return this weekend. I'm concerned that I want Tua to be safe and healthy and not have a football career that's going to impact him down the road. Agreed.

Number one. Number two is I think organizationally this is a medical decision. This is not an organization decision. People look at him and say, why are they letting him play? I think the doctors make that decision.

It's a medical decision. Then for him it becomes personal then as to I really want to play. I'm a competitor. I love playing. I want to play. So he has to make a decision.

Is the risk reward from a medical standpoint worth it to you? And I think all those things are in play now. If he wants to play, which I've talked to him and I know he wants to play, I know what kind of competitor he is, then I'm happy for him that he's having the opportunity to play. But I also pray for him that he doesn't have any issues. That's Nick Saban saying it in a nice way without saying it. He doesn't think Tua should keep on playing. Like it's his decision. But like if that was my son, I'd probably say don't play because your life could be significantly impacted after football. That's at least the way that I took it.

And, you know, I was back and forth on this from the jump. I have always had the opinion that he should stop playing football. But in terms of will he actually continue to play at first, I was like, no.

Can you tell your mom who wanted to retire a few years ago? No, again. But when you leave it in the hands of the player and it's not a medical decision, it's a Tua decision. That's what this is.

And when you leave it in the hands of the player, the player nine point nine nine nine nine nine times out of ten is going to like to play. And that's what Tua is electing to do. So I may not like it. You know, you may not like it. It's not our decision, though. So to sit here and crush the decision and to freak out about it, about something that is serious.

I understand why people feel that way. This is Tua's life. This is the way that Tua wants to live it. You know, I could sit here and say, I don't think you should play.

And that's the way that I feel. But ultimately, it doesn't matter what I say or what you say or what anybody else says. It matters what Tua says. And Tua says, we're going to find a way to keep on getting back out there on the football field. OK, take a break.

Come on back. A lot of college football in the next hour. Rocco Beck, the Iowa State quarterback, going to join us in five minutes from now. Patton Arduzi after his big victory up against Syracuse last night. Pitt undefeated is going to join us at 4.40 p.m. Eastern time. But first, we'll get to Rocco Beck next.