Florida State Is College Football's BIGGEST Disappointment (Hour 3)

Alrighty, hour number three of our radio program.

That's right, it is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. So we were just talking a little bit about Billy Napier. You know what's crazy? If I had to ask you at the end of September, when we would be in November, would Billy Napier be one of the five most disappointing storylines in college football?

I would have absolutely said yes, but you know what's nuts about that? He's not even into my top five most disappointing storylines. And not only that, there is another program in Florida that I view as obviously more disappointing.

There is no doubt about it. There are some things that we could discuss. But I think the most disappointing storyline in college football is not only the regression from the Florida State Seminoles, but now the questions about Mike Norvell and how D.J. Huiongola couldn't even get to the Clemson game to kind of have a redemption moment up against Clemson. Like when I was evaluating the college football schedule before the season did commence, I remember saying this multiple times over the summer.

One game that I'm really excited about was on October 5th when Florida State was going to play Clemson. And we didn't even get to have that moment. So you look at Florida State right now, like it's one thing to have a disappointing year with all the talent that they lost. Keon Coleman, you know, their quarterback. You also lost Jared Verst and Braden Fisk.

And we could go on and on and on and on. But for them to be 1-8, that could be like one of the biggest duds we have ever seen in college football. And I'm not saying that Florida State was viewed to be this powerhouse going into this football season. You know, I picked against them to win the ACC. But I thought there was a chance that they could compete for a college football playoff spot. But to see this team lose to Georgia Tech and Boston College to start the season and then after that, their only win is up against Cal.

It's disgraceful. Memphis, SMU, I know SMU's having a heck of a season. Clemson, Duke, Miami, North Carolina. Like how they have not been able to win one of those games outside of Cal is just nuts to me. And Stu, Florida State plays Notre Dame this weekend. And that's at South Bend, you know, for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, so it's a home game. Now when you look at Notre Dame this year, they beat A&M, wonderful victory to start the season. And then they lost to Northern Illinois. Since then, Notre Dame, Purdue, Miami, Ohio, good victory up against Louisville.

They beat Stanford, they beat Georgia Tech, and they smacked Navy. And they've had an extra week, right, to prepare for this game. Because you went to that game two weeks ago, correct Amundah?

Yes, two weeks ago. Yep, they were off last week. So you were off last week, and you had an extra week to prepare for this game.

Is there any thought? Because Notre Dame has restored their season. They have a very good chance of making the college football playoff. Their next four games, Florida State, Virginia. They play armies in the top 25, but I think Notre Dame should beat Army. And they play USC at the end of the year, where that could be like Lincoln Riley's national championship, for crying out loud.

So you can't afford to lose another game. But is there any thought for this weekend with how just dreadful, and I mean dreadful, Florida State has looked. Is there any thought, hmm, maybe we have overrated Notre Dame a little bit, and this is just one of those clunker of the games that they have, like Northern Illinois. And Florida State, who can't beat anybody outside of Cal this year, gets their second victory on the season. Like, you being a paranoid Notre Dame fan, has your mind at all gone to that spot? No, it's more concerned about, I think this would be third on the list in terms of toughest games left.

They stink. Yeah, it might even be the fourth of the four, but I would be more concerned about Army and USC than Florida State. I just can't imagine losing to this Florida State team. So, Florida State stinks. Like, hey, we know that they're one and eight, but I would say they're the biggest disappointment of college football this year.

Now, when we get to other disappointing storylines in college football this year, I'll give you five of them. Michigan's quarterback situation. Michigan has the potential to see four defensive players go in the first round of the draft. They could have four defensive players drafted in the first round. You know, you look at obviously Will Johnson and Mason Graham, they're going to be in the top ten. You could maybe have two in the top five, but it's going to be two in the top ten. And you see Grant and you see Stewart are the other two that could go in the first round as well.

Now, I know that defense hasn't been as great as what we thought it was going to be, but it's tough to be as great as you thought it was going to be when the offense stinks. And Donovan Edwards. See, his career is going to be complicated when you look back at it, because Donovan Edwards is a Michigan legend.

And it's not period stop. There's a buck there. Like I predicted he was going to have a monster national championship game and he broke off two enormous runs. So he's a Michigan legend. But where he was the year when Blake Coram got hurt and then last year up until the Natty having a down season and this year he needed to be a stud and he wasn't. It's weird when you look back at that legacy because he's never been dominant for a consistent period of time at Michigan. And Kalil Mullins has been the better running back by far. And he used to be a linebacker. So I'm not saying that it's just a quarterback, but when you are Michigan and all we heard was Alex orgy this Alex orgy that this offseason. And then when I'm in Vegas before the start of the season, I see big John Jansen and he goes to me.

Hey, I don't even think it's going to be orgy. He was adamant it was going to be Davis Warren and it ended up being Davis Warren. He stinks. You know, he had the other quarterback unfortunately get hurt. He retires and then you have Alex orgy who he can't throw the football.

How Michigan in the transfer portal era. And the name image in like this era wasn't able to get a better quarterback or didn't know what they had in their room is just alarming. And I know Portnoy is now saying he's going to throw multiple millions of dollars at a quarterback through NIL.

There's all these rumors out there who they're going to get for next year. But even if it wasn't a big name, like I know Kyle McCord had one of the biggest thinkers we've seen this college football season at Syracuse. He's been really good this year at Syracuse, but that one game up against Pitt where he had five interceptions and had three pick sixes just in the first half.

And how fun would that have been? Like if they would have got Kyle McCord at Michigan this year. And I know McCord's not a big time quarterback, but the storyline with the Ohio State giving up on him, just from that it would be fun. But he would be like looking like Joe Montana compared to the quarterbacks that they have in that locker room this year at Michigan. So Michigan's quarterback situation has been extremely disappointing.

I shouldn't be surprised by this one, but I am just because of the fact that it happened again. Cam Rising is such a tough player. He's been through so much. Last year, I remember talking to Kyle Whittingham and he was practicing Cam Rising, but he didn't play yet. And I said to Kyle Whittingham, do you kind of feel like the young kid on Christmas Eve where you know what you're getting for Christmas, but mom and dad said you can't unwrap the present, but the presents under the tree getting ready to get unwrapped. And he's like, hey, I've been asked about this a lot.

It's the best way someone's asked me about it. Of course, we feel like he's getting close. And he never came back last year. And then this year in and out of the lineup and now he's done for the season. I know he has another year of eligibility that he could get, but like why at this point? Like this should be it for Cam Rising in college. But it was so disappointing that we didn't really get to see him play for the majority of the season this year. And it just stinks. And there's always like a mysterious feel around Cam Rising when you go back to last year. I've also been significantly disappointed in Oklahoma State. Now, I don't know about used to.

And there are some times he's done some questionable things in the past. But I always think most of us have really enjoyed Mike Gundy because you go back to I'm a man. I'm 40. You know, one of the great rants of all time. The only other college football rant that I think I enjoyed more than I'm a man. I'm 40 is Dan Hawkins, where he's like, go play intramurals, brother. Go play intramurals.

You get two weeks off in the summer, like whatever it was, it was just a great rant. But Mike Gundy this year, he acted like a jackass in the offseason and the other day he was a jackass, too. And that football team is three and six. And they have one of the more talented running backs in the country in Ollie Gordon. And Ollie Gordon got off to a miserable start. I know he had one hundred and twenty six yards right out of the gate.

But then forty nine against Arkansas, forty one against Tulsa, forty two against Utah, seventy six up against Kansas State, fifty against West Virginia, one hundred and seven against BYU, seventy seven against Baylor and then twenty five against Arizona State. You know, this has just been a year where you thought Ollie Gordon was going to have just like what Ashen Genti is doing. You thought Ollie Gordon could do that because last year he had seventeen hundred and thirty two rushing yards, twenty one rushing touchdowns and also had an additional receiving touchdown with three hundred and thirty receiving yards. You thought that this guy was just going to be out of this world as a college football player this year.

But so far this year, Ollie Gordon has one hundred and twenty eight receiving yards and one receiving touchdown and five hundred and ninety three rushing yards and nine rushing touchdowns. But the disappointment is with Mike Gundy because Ollie right had a bad off the field issue right with the DUI. And then when they went to Big 12 media days, he tried to when Ollie answered the questions right, still went, still did go. He handled it the right way. But Mike Gundy tried to poke fun at drinking and driving and he was like, oh, what he did wasn't really that bad. It was just stupid. And then the other day he's doing his coach's show and he's like, oh, the fans that are giving me criticism, like basically talk about their financial status and how they don't have a lot of money. And he had to apologize for that. Like, you want to look at some of the biggest clowns in college football this year.

And I usually like Mike Gundy. But what he said at Big 12 media day and what he said the other week, this dude isn't in the running for like biggest sports clown of the year. You know, I'm not like big and doing those award shows. Right.

Like at the end, oh, you're in a review. Let's give out awards. But if we were given biggest clown coach of the year. If we were giving out Gelby's, that's how you would do that dumb radio bit or are you getting a Gelby this year? All right.

Welcome in. It's the award show. This is the Gelby's, the first annual Gelby's for clown of the year. When it comes in the coaching world, Mike Gundy, you look back at Mike Gundy. He poked fun at drinking and driving, you know, trying to say that it wasn't that serious. And then told all of his fans that basically you don't make any money.

So how dare you be criticizing me as I sit on all my millions and just laugh in your face? Well, Mike Gundy won the first ever Gelby for clown coach of the year. And then you get the music. But this guy's a clown. He really is a clown this year. So my five biggest disappointments this year in college football, Florida State, the Michigan QB situation, Coach Gundy, Cam Rising and then the final one.

And it's it's funny, I'm not disappointed in it because I've never really believed that this guy is as great as what people make him out to be. But I look at Lincoln Riley at USC. That's got to be there because I know people were a little bit starting to get out on Lincoln Riley because of what happened with Caleb Williams. You had in there two years. You couldn't make the college football playoff. Yes, he won a Heisman Trophy. But last year was just a disaster for USC. And the bar was not incredibly high at all for USC. But you win that first game up against LSU. Miller Moss looks like he's going to be some stud. Then you lose to Michigan in a game that you should have won.

All right. You bounce back with the victory up against Wisconsin. But since that, you know, they started out the year three and one with the loss to Michigan, which was a bad loss. They have lost four out of the last five games with their lone victory up against Rutgers. So they lost to Minnesota. They lost an overtime to Penn State where that game, you know, one of those coaches in a big spot was going to find a way to urinate down their leg at first.

It looked like it was James Franklin. And then in the second half, Lincoln Riley, the management of the clock at the end of that game and regulation was one of the dumbest things I've ever seen a coach do. And then you lose to Maryland by a point in heartbreaking fashion. You beat Rutgers. The game was like 11-2.

They were trying to get some of that World Series audience. And then you just lost to Washington. And now Miller Moss is benched and you're going to Nebraska next weekend. Huh?

That's terrible. And you know why I really dislike Lincoln Riley? Stu. And I saw Lincoln Riley coach at when he was at East Carolina. I remember Lincoln Riley when no one knew who Lincoln Riley was. I think Shane Cardin was his quarterback at East Carolina, if memory serves me right. But you look at Lincoln Riley, it has nothing to do with me always feeling like he was slightly overrated because he never won a playoff game at Oklahoma.

It has nothing to do with not taking care of business the last two years at USC. But do you have any idea, Stu, why Lincoln Riley just rubs me the wrong way and why I'm more critical than most for years about Lincoln Riley? Any clue? Not sure.

Not sure. I think it's one fundamental simple thing about me. The word accountability. Lincoln Riley, he's more accomplished than James Franklin. But he is in that school with James Franklin of when he loses. He may say he puts it on himself, but it's always some backward way of him putting it on himself. And then also he tries to make the loss not as bad as what it seems.

And he always issues some lame excuse or attacks the media and makes a big deal with the media and makes it out like the media was on the field when they're asking legitimate questions. Lincoln Riley is not a man of accountability. So I put Lincoln Riley as one of my five disappointing storylines this year in college football. The Lincoln Riley cam rising, Oklahoma State with Mike Gundy, the Michigan quarterback situation, and just the terrible fall of Florida State this year.

What are you most disappointed in with this past season so far of college football? At Zach Gelb on Twitter and Instagram, C-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Make sure you give me a follow there and also give us a call. 855-212-4227.

855-212-4227. We'll take a break. We'll update you to some of the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio when we come on back with the news brief next. It's funny whenever we now do Paper Shredder Thursday on the Zach Gelb show because I always do a test shred just to make sure that the machine is still working because you never know around here.

So every time I always go to the news brief sheet and I always rip off a little part of it and then throw it in the paper shredder and now I look as if my dog kind of ate my homework and I'm trying to hand in the homework that had a little chew at it from Scruffy the dog or something like that. Let's start off with Adam Schefter. We played this earlier and I said with how Ben Johnson, who's a brilliant offensive coordinator, approached last year and how it seems like he's approaching this year, I'm starting to get annoyed with the search of Ben Johnson. It's like, dude, just take a job already as a head coach.

We can't do it right now and already having this stuff out there, I'm just rolling my eyes about it and there's been times where we all think a guy's going to be a phenomenal head coach as a hotshot coordinator and it doesn't turn out this way. But this is Adam Schefter on everyone assuming Ben Johnson is destined for the Bears. Ben Johnson is going to be very, very selective about the place that he chooses to go if he decides even to leave Detroit.

He's going to be very careful. I don't know that he desires to leave that division, to head in the division, to go to a place that you're talking about the dysfunction that has existed within that organization. And let's just say eight teams have him on their wish list doesn't mean he's going to be interviewing with eight teams. I think if Ben Johnson is interviewing with anybody this year, he's interviewing with the intent that he's going to take that job. So that was one part.

Now, maybe Schefter knows something that we don't know, okay? Here's Adam Rank from the Sick Podcast with Adam Rank. Is it the Stick Podcast or the Sick Podcast? It's listed here as the Sick Podcast with Adam Rank. Oh, that's an interesting name for a podcast, the Sick Podcast. Like, I guess it depends how you say it. If you're like, oh, it's the Sick Podcast. Like, okay, I get it. But if you're like, it's the Sick Podcast?

Like, you go one of two ways. So here is Adam Rank on Matt Eberfluse's future with the Bears. I talked to some people within NFL circles, people who are close to Ryan Polls, and they indicated to me that regardless of what happens at all, Matt Eberfluse is coming back regardless. That they're not going to be in a situation where they just put him in the same spot that they put Justin Fields and Mitch Trubisky and Rex Grossman and everybody else.

They're not going to do that. So I'm like, yeah, why not make this misery last longer? Stu, you're an expert on incompetent football franchises. You're a fan of the Raiders. On a scale of one to Raider, how would that be if the Bears elect to bring back Matt Eberluse as their head football coach? It's pretty bad.

I'd say like an eight and a half. Yeah, at least I'll give you guys credit. When you know you don't have the coach, you usually fire them rather quickly. Yeah. Midseason sometimes. Yeah.

PowerPoint presentations and all. Leave them on the wrong one. Yeah, that's brutal.

You know what? The Bears deserve for Caleb Williams to be a bust if they end up bringing back Matt Eberfluse next year. Like I would be rooting for the Bears to be a bleep show and be an unmitigated disaster if they bring that dude back as the head coach. Like you have a quarterback who's supposed to prove things, but this is supposed to be the crown jewel. And you can mess him up, but you can't mess him up if you know what I'm saying. And if you bring back Matt Eberluse, you are going to be messing him up. You just cannot bring him back. And if you do, shame on you. You deserve to never have a franchise quarterback.

You deserve to never win a Super Bowl, and you deserve to be in the pit of misery forever. That's crazy that Adam Rank is hearing that Matt Eberfluse is going to be back either way next year. How can you do that? I don't want to believe that. I know Adam's very good at what he does. I do not want to believe that. I refuse to believe that. You can't bring back Matt Eberfluse.

You just can't do it. Malachi Corley. Remember him? He dropped the ball at the one-yard line, right before the goal line.

Jets Texans. Well, he had a chance to speak to the media, and this is what he had to say about it. Yeah, absolutely. You know, I just scored 200-plus touchdowns in my career, you know, and never once dropped the ball in the end zone, you know, so there's not too many coaching points to take away from that other than just holding another six inches, you know. How do you make that not be the moment that defines you as a player? Oh, yeah, it's not a defining moment for me because imagine if I broke three tackles, you know, juked the guy, and then I dropped the ball one yard in front of the end zone. Still, you still did that same play, you know what I mean, but holding the ball one more yard is not a coaching point for anything, and if they gave me the ball, I mean, you know, I'd do the same thing over and over. Was that embarrassing for you at the time?

No, not at all. You know, you just take things for granted. So you don't play the game for a long time. You've seen a lot more or less embarrassing things happen on the field. So for me, it was just a learning experience overall, you know, still extremely excited to run across the end zone line to be able to jet around the field and do all that type of stuff. So it was fun overall. That could be the dumbest response I've ever heard from a player. It wasn't embarrassing. It's a learning experience. I still got to run around and jet around, like, fly as if you're a jet and do all that.

But it's not embarrassing because you got to celebrate, but you were celebrating something that didn't happen because of you just being reckless. Stu, that's stupid. Like, I am disgusted what I just heard from Alec Ticorale.

That has to be AI. There is no way he got up in front of the media and actually said those things. And you know what the problem is, Stu? There's no accountability in the Jets organization. Zero. None.

I understand having a player-friendly environment, but you need to have a coach. And I know Olbrich's the interim, but someone needs to pull this. Like, this was it. This happened on Thursday. He spoke. This was yesterday.

You had Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and early Wednesday morning to figure out what you were going to say. And that's what you said? There is no hope for that guy in the league.

No hope. Because, Stu, it's one thing when you do something embarrassing, but then when you can't admit that you were in the wrong and you were embarrassing, you're just delusional. Or you just don't get it. That, to me, Stu, I'm serious.

I don't think he could have handled that any worse. I'm dumbfounded right now. I don't even know how to continue. I could tell. I could tell by the way you're talking.

I'm incredulous. It took you a couple seconds to process what he said. And I listened to it before we played it. I was the one who sent this in the Slack because it was so stupid.

But then hearing it again, it's even dumber than what I thought the first time. Do me a favor. You be a member of the media.

Ask me about the play. I'll tell you what he should have said. I'll give him free advice.

I want to lend a helping hand here. Go ahead. All right. What did you make of the fumble dropping the ball before the goal line? Yeah, it was embarrassing. It was an egregious decision on my part.

And I vow that that will never happen again. I got to be better. Period. Stop. No one's been ripping you.

Instead, you sounded like a clown. Let's go to Kelly Stafford on TMZ. I saw this headline and I chose not to listen to it because I'm like, there's no way it could actually meet with the actual like what she said the way it was quoted with then actually listening to it. So Kelly Stafford complains about the Taylor Swift coverage. That wasn't the headline.

But I've been seeing the way that it's been put online. Let's listen up to the audio. I feel like there's just this, I don't know, cloud hanging over with this Taylor Swift thing. I kind of got tired of like the Chiefs coverage of it, actually the NFL's coverage of this budding relationship last year. Can she do anything about that?

No, she can't. You know, it was a good business decision for the NFL, but I almost felt like it was outshining the games. And that, I think that's what bothered me. I was like a little jealous of the fact that like they were getting all this attention all of a sudden the football game was the sideshow.

So, yeah, maybe I let jealousy get the best of me. So the way that I saw it is that Kelly Stafford says it's unfair that Taylor Swift gets attention to NFL games when her husband Matthew Stafford plays. And she basically said part of that in that answer. But can we just be honest about Kelly Stafford?

It's not about that it's taking away attention from the players. She's just annoyed that the attention is not on her. She's jealous of Taylor Swift because Kelly Stafford is a very successful podcast. But she's not like hot taking the day.

She is not Taylor Swift. And like she wants when she walks into a stadium, all the cameras following her until someone boos her like they did in Detroit and she's like, how dare those Lions fans, they're animals. That is like just and she even said, hey, maybe it's me being jealous.

No, it is you being jealous. That's insufferable. Debo Samuel, my best friend. He has this to say about the 49ers.

We turked out here that week. Got Christian back, got JJ back. Two of our main guys are going to come back and, you know, it's all hands on deck right now.

Tell me someone who's trying to say something convincing and just does not sound convincing saying it. That is Debo Samuel. Hey, there's reasons to doubt the 49ers, but they always get the benefit of the doubt.

Now we'll see what they could do the rest of the way after what's been an up and down season so far. Here's Sean Merriman. He was on Bussin' with the Boys on Barstool. He had a good story about Philip Rivers.

I love everything about Phil. The thing is, I hated him when he was at NC State because I was at Maryland. And dude, I hated his guts, bro. Like I every time I saw and like I said, I want to do something to him every time I saw him. Yeah.

Because you see him on a film and he's just chirping. I was like, dude, I'm going to kick his ass, right? His last play his senior year and I hit Phil in the back of the end zone and I kind of push up off of him, right? As I'm walking away, he ankle locks me, grabs my ankle and start to twist it. I couldn't believe it that he was somebody, a quarterback was doing this.

Yeah. He walked right up on me. He was about to, we were about to fight in the back of the end zone. And at that moment, man, he got my respect. I was like, man, this dude is tough.

I think I could say this on the radio. Philip Rivers is like a sick mofo. He really is. He really is.

Sean Merriman, he's been in studio with us. When he sits down, his biceps basically, you feel them like rubbing up against your arm and there's like five feet in between us. That's how large his biceps are. And Philip Rivers just has a crazy mentality.

And he's not afraid of anybody. You know, Philip Rivers is one of the great competitors we've ever seen. Here is a joke that Jim Harbaugh elected to tell in the middle of his press conference. The middle of the season is always critical that way. Like Bill Belichick talks about the middle eight in a football game. I mean, there's a middle eight in a season too.

You could break it down that way. You know, six, seven, eight, nine. I mean, those are important games. You know, the only joke I know is why were six afraid of seven? Because seven, eight, nine.

Six, seven, eight, nine. Those are big games. Every time I see Jim Harbaugh now, and I saw it last year, and I love Jim, but I can't get it out of my mind. Just when he speaks and the way that he looks, he reminds me of my Uncle Gary. And my cousin and I, my cousin Ryan, whenever we go out for dinner and my Uncle Gary is there, he'll always tell like the lame dad joke at the table to the waitress or the waiter.

And we like just cringe, just absolutely cringe. And that was like an Uncle Gary moment for Jim Harbaugh. Here is Doug Peterson. This was fascinating on Sam Darnall's breakout season. Sam Darnall seeming to click finally this season. You know, first time in his career, first round pick. Why?

Like why is this the time frame? Justin Jefferson. Because you're thinking it. If we had to compare Doug Peterson to one of our colleagues around here, who would it be? I think there's one colleague that we could compare Doug Peterson to. And the one colleague is actually Ryan hot take-hickey.

And here's why. Like Doug's going to see the reaction to that and Doug's going to be, what's the big deal about it? Like I was just making a joke, you know, I was just being honest. Like there's a naiveness to Doug Peterson like there is to hickey. Where hickey will throw something out there and be like, I can't believe like people are like actually, you know, freaking out to this take that I gave. So I will compare Doug Peterson to Ryan hickey. All right, let's listen up to curvy smart.

This was just weird. Listen up. Coach, I hope you can have, you know, kind of have fun with this because it is such a big week football wise. You're a visor guy and you're pretty rough on the visors, especially during the games. I'm sure you are in practice too. How many of those you go through?

Obviously, your white one matches very well with your white sleeves and black today. You pick them out. What's the process if you could just shed a little light on that?

No process. It's whatever they give me. So for the game, they put one down there and I wear it and then I take it off after the game. The next game, there's another one there. There's two or three sitting in my office and I just get one before I go to practice. I don't waste a lot of energy on things like that.

I'm sorry. Weird question and just a coach that's in no mood in curvy smart to have any fun. All right, let's get to J.J. Redick. So there was two parts to this. Here's the first part, why D'Angelo Russell only played 21 minutes last night. Level of compete, attention to detail, you know, some of the things we, you know, I've talked with him about for a couple weeks and at times he's been really good with that stuff and other times, you know, it's just reverting back to certain habits. But it wasn't like a punishment. It just felt like, you know, for us to have a chance to win this game, that was the route we wanted to take. So, Stu, that's the first time I can remember you watch every Lakers game. So maybe, you know, you've seen more. That's the first time J.J.'s really gone after a player it feels like this year and threw him under the bus.

I would agree. And then like, oh, it's not a punishment. I'm just trying to win a game.

You just drag the guy and then you say that at the end, oh, no, I'm just trying to win a game. Then afterwards, this is J.J. Redick calling out his team's effort before storming off the podium. LeBron was fantastic tonight. I mean, the biggest thing that stood out, I mean, I had no idea he had 39 until, I'm not looking at the box scores during the game, but, you know, he played hard, you know, almost 40 years old, played the hardest on our team.

It says a lot about him. J.J., you're talking a lot about two out of the three, two or three guys getting them to put in the effort. You talked a lot about wanting to play hard and LeBron being the guy that played hard in tonight's game. How do you address that with the team?

What's your philosophy for approaching that? I just did. Stu, did you see the whole press conference last night, just wondering? I didn't watch the full thing, but I saw a lot of the clips on Twitter. So we condensed that for audio's sake. Like, that first part, like, happened three minutes before than the final part. But, like, it was just a reporter following up and he just, like, walked away. He snapped, yeah.

It was bizarre. And let me tell you something, J.J., you know, I didn't feel bad for you in that moment. That was the first time he's, he always has, like, a sour look on his face.

He always seems miserable because he always is miserable, it feels like, and he doesn't smile. Hey, he seemed really annoyed last night. Was that the first breaking point moment for J.J. Redick? Yeah, I would say so.

The other games, like, Detroit the other night, I don't think he was happy, but it wasn't up to this level. No, alrighty. Take a time out, we'll come on back, we'll preview the Thursday Night Football game tonight. Here's Zach. Alrighty, this is the Zach Gelb Show on the Infinity Sports Network. Let me take a call here and then I'll get to two takes that could emerge from tonight's game between the Bengals and the Ravens. Let's go to Mike in Abilene, Texas. Mike, what's happening? The man, the myth, the legend, Zach Gelb, ladies and gentlemen.

Best on the radio, thanks for taking my call, brother. I just wanted to ask in the glory that is this 12-team playoff and the transfer portal that has created real parity. As a Buckeye fan, we are no longer able to just out-talent people. We saw that with Oregon, people are matching talents. This is the greatest thing that college football could ever have seen.

Yes, there's probably some things we can tweak, but I am just so excited. You know, people that thought, we all said, well, with the 12-team playoff, teams like Ohio State and Alabama, they'll never miss. And look at this, Alabama, if they lose another game, they might be out.

If we lose another game, we might be out. Like, it's just absolute madness, absolute craziness, and it's all just glorious to behold. And I just thought I wanted to share that with you, and I wanted to ask one specific question. If you have not even a dark horse, who's your favorite after what we've seen so far from... Well, Mike, I didn't cut you off there. I think your line just dropped, but I could get the general nature of your question.

I appreciate the phone call and the nice words. Yeah, you know, I will say I wasn't a fan of going to 12. I still don't think it should be 12, but it's going to work because you could do anything to college football. And as long as college football is still going to be played, we're going to watch and we're going to love it. And the first round matchups, the way that they were projected the other night, do look pretty damn awesome.

I think only three teams could still win it. And it's Oregon, it's Ohio State, it's Georgia, maybe Texas. I would still say, even though I don't love their quarterback situation, and they could lose this weekend, that it would still be Georgia. If you put a gun to my head on who's the favorite, I would still say George, even though I ranked them three the other week. In Ohio State, they showed some toughness.

I love landing, and they could definitely win a championship this year, and Gabriel's like a rock star. But I would still say it's Georgia. And then in terms of a dark horse, geez.

So I would say that Oregon, Ohio State, Georgia, and Texas would be in the group of favorites. I wouldn't consider Miami a dark horse. That's a great question.

That's a phenomenal answer and a phenomenal question. Oh, a dark horse. See, you know, I have never even thought about this, too, because I still only think three or four teams could win it.

That's why I'm like, OK, if you want to expand, go to like six or go to eight. If I had to pick a dark horse now and they're ranked seventh in the in the college football rankings, I don't feel good about this. Let me be clear, but I would say it's Tennessee because their defense played really well. If they get Nikoli Maliava playing like he did earlier in the season, then I would say that that it would be Tennessee. But a dark horse to maybe make the playoffs, if you want to give a different conversation. You know, we talked about this the other day, like SMU, they're not a dark horse. They could win the ACC.

They're at 13. I think whoever survives this weekend, LSU and Ole Miss, they could then find themselves back into making the college football playoff. But if Iowa State lose one more game, they're not out. They only lost one game on the season. Alabama loses one more game. Yeah, they're definitely out because then they would have their third loss on the year.

All right. Let me give you two takes that could happen from this game. So let's do it if the Ravens win. If the Ravens win, I think a lot of people tomorrow will be saying great job by the Baltimore Ravens in terms of nailing the coffin shut on the Cincinnati Bengals.

Now, let me be crystal clear about this. Even though I have been kind of pounding the drum saying the Bengals got to prove it to me, even at four and six, there's no reason to believe the Bengals turn it around. But with where their schedule is the rest of the way, Chargers solid, Steelers solid, Cowboys underwhelming, Tennessee no good, Cleveland no good, Denver fine, Pittsburgh solid. It's like even if they get to six losses, they could still be a 10-7, 9-8 team and still be in the hopper. But I do feel like the national sentiment would be, hey, the Ravens picked up their second victory up against the Bengals.

So then you kind of look at that. They would then have, if they ever got to a tiebreaker scenario, they would more than have the advantage, even though the Steelers are still in front of them. But I do feel like the national narrative tomorrow, if the Ravens win, oh, they slam the coffin shut on the Bengals season.

I don't know if that necessarily is true, though. If the Bengals win, I think there's multiple takes that come from it. Seasons saved, they're 5-5, Super Bowl push back on, and you know what I could start to see emanate a little bit from this Bengals victory? The push for Joe Burr to win an MVP. I'm not saying he's going to win it, but right now it feels like the national conversation is Lamar or Josh Allen. And I've said before, I give the slight edge to Josh Allen right now to win the MVP.

He was my pick in the summer, so I'm going to continue to rock and roll with that. But Joe Burrow right now is fifth in passing yards, he's tied second for touchdowns, and he is second in QBR in the league. He wins this game, and let's say at 5-5, they go on to maybe win the division if the Ravens fall back and the Steelers come back down to earth. You're going to have a big-time MVP push for Joe Burrow.

So this tonight could be the start of the MVP push for one Joe Burrow. That's what I think the takes are coming out of this game tonight. Now in terms of who I like in the game, the spread is Baltimore minus 6-1.5. I'm going against every bone in my body right now. Because when I see a spread that says Baltimore 6-1.5, that's Vegas begging me, begging me to take the points with the Bengals.

And when usually Vegas is begging me to do something, I then will just go the other way. So I don't like that spread tonight, but this will be an outlier moment for me. I would plus the 6-1.5 points on the Bengals. I like the Bengals to win the game tonight, and I know how overpowering Lamar and Derek Henry are. And this Bengals defense outside of Hendrickson has not been good.

But we saw what happened last time, right? He threw five touchdowns, Burrow. And you'd think the Ravens defense would be better. Bengals just got to be serviceable tonight.

You got to have a pulse. But I think this game means more to Cincinnati. Give me the Bengals tonight, plus the 6-1.5 points I'd like them to win the game outright. Good show today. Big thanks to Shane Beamer for joining us. Big thanks to each and every one of you. We'll be back tomorrow to Big Football Friday. We out. Bye-bye. Talk to you at 3 p.m. Eastern. Peace.