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Who Wins Between Notre Dame and Penn State? (Hour 3)

Zach Gelb Show / Zach Gelb
The Truth Network Radio
January 9, 2025 6:31 pm

Who Wins Between Notre Dame and Penn State? (Hour 3)

Zach Gelb Show / Zach Gelb

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January 9, 2025 6:31 pm

Notre Dame vs. Penn State I Non-playoff teams that can win a Super Bowl draft I Ewers future

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That's what I'm talking about, our number three of our radio program. Stu, you ready? The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are 60, and I mean 60 minutes of football time away from punching their ticket to the national championship game. And the only team that's standing in their way is Big Bad Penn State. And you know what, I think there's a lot of people out there right now that are very confident in the Penn State Nittany Lions. With Drew Aller, we'll see how healthy Abdul Carter is tonight, Tyler Warren, and I think there's a lot of people that could be disrespecting Notre Dame heading into this game.

And I don't know about you, Stu. In terms of confidence, I'm picking Notre Dame 23 to 20. But if we get into the studio tomorrow and Penn State beats Notre Dame, I obviously would not be stunned. But there is an arrogance that I sense from the Penn State fan. And when I say the Penn State fan, Hickey, and then also if you think Hickey is bad, I have a buddy, Barry Eisman, who is Penn State number one sycophant. And he went out of his way to make it clear today that he is dangerously confident with Penn State. And he thinks Penn State not gonna win. He thinks Penn State gonna win big.

And to me, I just say to the cult, I wouldn't start celebrating before you walk off the field with the victory. Because when Hickey joined us yesterday, Stu, I don't know what was alarming to you, but this is what was alarming to me. He was right away the first one to point out how great the Penn State defense is. The Penn State defense is very good. But not give any credit to how good the Notre Dame defense is and how Xavier Watts is one of the best defensive players in the country.

Hickey was also so quick to point out how, oh, Jeremiah Love is walking around wounded and how that leg is all banged up and he's limping. But no mention of the Abdul Carter injury. And we don't know how healthy Abdul Carter is gonna be for this game on the defense side of the ball for Penn State.

And Abdul Carter, he should be a top five pick in the draft. So I think it's interesting the flaws that the Penn State fan is willing to point out with Notre Dame, but they're not mentioning any concerns that they could have with their own team. Ultimately, I think these teams are very even. I do. You know, I know this doesn't make for the best radio in the world because people want to, you know, hear opinions, oh, this team's gonna win, they're gonna win by 40.

All right? Yeah, this is a toss-up game. I think it's 23 to 20. I don't feel great with the prediction. I'm taking Notre Dame. I'm not gonna pick Penn State.

That just ain't happening. But if you tell me tomorrow we're sitting here praising Drew Aller, and we're talking about Tyler Warren being a stud, and Abdul Carter playing and playing well enough, it wouldn't surprise me whatsoever. But I look at Notre Dame. I think Riley Leonard is gonna be enormous tonight. And I'm not saying Riley Leonard needs to be 330 passing yards, Riley Leonard. Just can't make the mistakes. He's got to manage the game, which he's been doing ever since the Northern Illinois game.

And if they load the box, you've got to be aggressive. Like, I look at early on with Boise State. Boise State early on knew that the Penn State game plan was going to be take away Ashton Gente and load the box and force Maddox Matson to throw.

I didn't think Boise State early on was aggressive enough with vertical shots down the field. And you know who could be a big player tonight? Jordan Faison.

He could be a big player tonight who in their first game led the team in receptions in their playoff victory up against Indiana. A guy like that, lacrosse player. Oh, and that would really, that would hurt the Penn State fans. We had Chris Hogan's, our guy, the lacrosse player. Faison, national champion in lacrosse. And lastly, won the Sun Bowl MVP last year.

That's a big award, right? But then this year has been really good for Notre Dame. I think that's a, that's an X factor in the game tonight for Notre Dame. So I look at this game. I can't sit here and say, I want Notre Dame to win. I am not going to hide this here, Stu. I want you to be happy.

I work with you now. I want Notre Dame to win the game. But both these programs, they really do mirror one another. Where for years, the perception about Notre Dame is, oh, when Brian Kelly was there, they win games, right? They're in a lot of big games, but how many of those games that are big do they win?

Not a lot. Like they have been stuck on the good, very good standard. We view their brand as elite, but they don't carry the same clout and gravitas as an Alabama, Clemson when Dabo had them humming, Georgia with Kirby Smart, Ohio State with Urban Meyer, right? Like those are teams you knew could win a national championship and were expected to win a national championship. When you look at Notre Dame, it's always, all right, you get there. But then when they get to the big game, they become Notre shame.

Penn State, same storyline, especially the last three, four years. They win all these games. They play Michigan. They urinate down their leg. They play Ohio State. They urinate down their leg.

They urinate down their leg. And what is interesting here is I do believe that the monkey is off the back of Notre Dame. Where Notre Dame heading into this one, if I look at who's under more pressure tonight and hey, everyone's under pressure.

You're 60 minutes away from going to a national championship game. But if I say it, there's more pressure on Penn State. I believe that because Notre Dame the other week beat Georgia and say what you want with Gunnar Stockton being the quarterback.

Say what you want. Oh, that's a vulnerable Georgia team. Notre Dame beat Georgia.

That's still a big boy, big bad program. Even when they're down, there's a lot of programs that would like 98% of them would still love to be Georgia. So Notre Dame last week got that monkey off their back. Penn State, no disrespect to SMU, no disrespect to Boise State. Penn State still hasn't got that monkey off their back. And that's something I want to see tonight in a program that's very similar to them, right? Notre Dame, Penn State, very similar.

Good defenses. We've seen the special team play for Notre Dame, which has been unbelievable so far in the playoff. Knock on wood, knock on wood, not Jon Gruden, knock on wood if you're with me, but knock on wood there. And then offensively, yes, on paper, I trust the Penn State offense more than I do trust the Notre Dame offense. But if Jeremiah Love is healthy, that's as good of a running back as there is in college football. And I think next year Jeremiah Love could be a Heisman Trophy candidate.

So those are my thoughts on the game. Defense special teams, I feel good with Notre Dame. And then it's what is Riley Leonard going to do if his running backs get taken, taken out in terms of how productive they could be.

But coaching wise, I give the slight edge to Marcus Freeman over James Franklin because Marcus Freeman in a short amount of time, and yes, I get it. There was a loss to Stanford. Yes, I get it. There was a loss to Marshall.

Yes, I get it. There was a loss to Northern Illinois. But he won a big game last week. He beat Georgia. If James Franklin's going up against Georgia last week, is Penn State here?

I don't know. I can't sit here confidently and say that because you look back at Penn State and Boise State and you also look back at Arizona State and Texas. And the reason why I'm bringing up Arizona State and Texas is I thought on that Tuesday night, because it was New Year's Eve, I thought on New Year's Eve, you saw Penn State get out to that good start and then they could have slammed. They could have slammed Boise State, but they kept on leaving Boise State around and Boise State just didn't have the punch to capitalize. Then the following day on New Year's Day, Texas and Arizona State, Texas got out to that big start and Texas is a better team for most of the game, but they left the door open for Arizona State. And for a while, not only did Arizona State punch back, they got that game into overtime. So I'm curious with that being said, is Penn State going to have that killer instinct right out of the gate? Because you saw what happened with Notre Dame, not that they got off to this great startup against Georgia. It was a little sloppy, if we're being honest, but at the end of the half, that game changed. And then to start the half when they're sitting up there, I think it was 20 to three after the kick return. That's like, all right, Notre Dame did their job.

Not that you were coasting in the second half, but you felt really good. Can Penn State deliver that punch tonight where Notre Dame sitting there and saying, oh, we got to get away from what we want to do. We got to throw, throw, throw, throw, throw. And can Penn State not only deliver that punch early, but then capitalize off of it and then run Notre Dame off the field, which they couldn't do up against Boise State for a little bit.

So that's what I'm kind of looking for here. But I think these teams are very similar and I believe it's coming down to a field goal. So I'll go Notre Dame, Stu, for you, 23 to 20.

I appreciate that. Yeah, I think it's a toss up as well. I think Notre Dame will win, but it'll be a point or two in the low 20s. This is a sweat it out game.

Very much so. See, we've seen a lot of blots in the college football playoff. The first round stunk. The second round, outside of Arizona State and Texas, there was nothing. There was really no good game there because Notre Dame and Georgia ended up being a bore. Obviously, Penn State, Boise State ended up being a bore. And I thought Ohio State, Oregon was going to be a classic. Thanks for showing up, Oregon.

Quack, quack. We're getting rid of you. We're going to make you look like the Ducks at Sankey Peaking Duck House in Philadelphia that hang in the window. And that was ugly, absolutely ugly with the Oregon Ducks. So we're due.

We are due. And we got a little bit Texas, Arizona State, but that game was a bore for three quarters, if I'm being honest. And then the final seven minutes of the fourth quarter, it ended up being good. I hope we get a wire to wire, down to the wire type of game where it's just back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, even if it's not the prettiest thing on the field, because I think this is going to be a little sloppy tonight, I do.

Yeah, I would say my biggest concern from the Notre Dame perspective would be if Penn State were to score early on and then you already have trouble moving the ball. I just do not, I like Riley Leonard, but I do not have confidence in him playing from behind by 7, 10, 13 points. You liked Sam Hartman more last year.

Yeah. That's why I did struggle, even though I picked Notre Dame to get to the championship game before the start of the playoff. Don't ask me who I picked him to go up against. I'll tell you anyway, it was Oregon that didn't work. But I look at when Riley Leonard went there, I remember saying Sam Hartman was the better quarterback. And that's why I didn't understand why everyone was slobbering or Pat Boyle was slobbering over Notre Dame before the start of the season. And then that did, they had a good game up against A&M and then week two, they did not have a good game up against Northern Illinois. But since then, that's the team that responded to adversity. And it's, it's kind of nuts that throughout this entire season, Penn State is 60 minutes away from going to a national championship game. And who have they beat? You know, who have they beat in their two biggest games of the season so far?

And it's a format, it's a format, you get there, you get there. Like if James Franklin wins tonight, I can't say any negative word about him for the rest of the season, unless in the national championship game, they're going blow for blow, and he just makes a boneheaded decision. You know, that's the only out. But if Penn State gets the national championship game tonight, I do believe a lot of that public pressure, which I have been leading the charge on with James Franklin, trust me, I do think a lot of it fades away. Because this would be the big boy victory tonight. But this year, their two biggest games of the season, Ohio State, and their, and all sort of the game up against Oregon, they didn't win either of them.

So their best performance I thought so far this season was the second half up against USA. So this is a huge spot tonight for Penn State. So that's a wrap right now. Did you figure out what you're doing for food, by the way? I'm lame tonight. I'm telling you that right now.

What did you end up doing? I am taking your advice from yesterday and I'm going to do the pizza, pizza and wings from the same place. Good.

So Stu's going to be packing in the pizza, packing in the wings. Blue cheese, right? Your blue cheese guy? No, we've been over this. Oh yeah, you're a ranch, ranch, ranching cat guy. Hey, ranching cat guy. Come on.

What do you do? Take talks of Taylor Swift as well? There's nothing wrong with that.

In my algorithm, I'll say that. Yeah. So when Thurman Thomas joined us yesterday and looked mortified when I asked him, ranch or blue cheese, because he was so disgusted that I would even throw a ranch in front of him, you were saying, not a big fan of Thurman Thomas anymore.

I love Thurman Thomas. I just don't like blue cheese. Yeah, I don't get the appeal. Your girlfriend though likes blue cheese, right? She does.

Okay. Yeah, she's definitely blue cheese over ranch. You know what I just, oh, so this is what I'm doing tonight. This is, it's lame. This is not guy food, football food.

I am dropping the ball on this and you should say practice what you preach because I got on Stu yesterday for wanting to basically have no plan here. I have chicken sausage. I'm throwing that in the air fryer. I am making rice with chicken sausage with some onion and what else did I, oh, and some green beans.

So I'm just making like a healthy rice dish pretty much is what I'm doing. But tomorrow or this weekend, I'm sure there's something big planned. Yeah, yeah, of course.

Of course, of course, of course. Sunday I'm going to Philadelphia for the Eagles and Packers game and I will have to stop off at the Amoroso roll tailgate and I will get a nice cheese steak. But really the press box in Philadelphia, elite, elite. They had steak last time. They have some really good cookies. They have chicken fingers and I see our guy John Kincaid. We sit down and we're just like feasting, feasting in the press box. So yeah, Sunday is going to be a fat day, but you know where I'm going Saturday? Oh, this is going to be the fattest day. You know, they have fat Tuesday in New Orleans. This is the Zach Gelb fat Tuesday coming up on a Saturday. My family and my dad's friends.

So I got, you know, family friends like 25, 30 of us wild card weekend the last two years. Oh, three years now we go to Harold's in Edison, New Jersey and Harold's delicatessen and Edison, New Jersey. You order an omelet. It's like an 18 egg omelet. You order pastrami. The pastrami is like chest up on six foot four Zach Gelb.

A pancake is the size of this studio. So we're going to Harold's Saturday. First wild card game is the Texans, of course, against the Chargers at 4 30 on Saturday. So I will be needing a wheelbarrow to get me back into our trolley to get me back into the city to park my ass on the couch to go watch the game.

So that's what I'm doing. And by the way, just to get serious here for a second, obviously I've seen what's been going on in in L.A. with the wildfires. And man, my heart just goes out to everyone that's affected by this. And I saw a video of it was a local newscast and they were talking to a guy who was 90, 91 years old and his entire house unfortunately got burnt to the ground from the wildfires. And he's he said, you know, he was crying, obviously. And he was like, I'm tough.

He's like, even though I'm 90, 91 years old, ever old, he was escaping my memory right now. But in that range, he goes, but we're going to build everything back up. So obviously we have a lot of listeners on the West Coast. I hope everyone is OK.

I have a buddy of mine who had to evacuate who lives in in Los Angeles. So just absolutely horrible with what's going on. And we wanted to send our best wishes to you right now. It is a Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. All right, Zach Gelb show Infinity Sports Network. So I'm fascinated to see if Brian Flores is going to get hired in this coaching cycle.

This was the other day. Ryan Fitzpatrick on his own fits and wit podcast with Andrew Whitworth. He blasts Brian Flores his tenure in Miami. That's the headline. Let's see if he actually blasted the tenure of Brian Flores in Miami.

Go ahead. Which version of Brian Flores are we getting? And in year one with Miami, he was likable. He was relatable.

He demanded a lot out of the players, but he was also able to get the best version of his players. But as his tenure went on in Miami, he kind of became unrecognizable. I think in the interviews, he'll be likable. He'll be relatable.

But when people say, OK, give me somebody from Miami that coached under you as a reference so we can talk to them. I think he burned a lot of bridges there. I think he alienated himself from the entire staff. I think by the end of his time there, he became a dictator.

He ruined a lot of those relationships and his ego grew so big that there wasn't any room for anyone else. So I think it's a fair critique. Now, I could say, right, guys, when you get a second chance could be better. We've seen coaches before, right? Pete Carroll, Bill Belichick, their first go rounds at it being head coach weren't good. I know for Pete Carroll it ended up being his third go round where he started to succeed as a head coach in the NFL. For Belichick, it wasn't, even though he won a playoff game, wasn't wonderful in Cleveland and then became one of the greatest coaches of all time.

So those things happen where you're better on the second job. Now, with that being said, for every time you do get a second opportunity, look at Josh McDaniels, right? Broncos disaster, Raiders, even worse than the Broncos, you could argue. Adam Gase made the playoffs actually once with the Dolphins, then got another opportunity with the Jets and was an unmitigated disaster. So I do think there's some pause with Flores, but I at least want to see it because even with the way that Brian Flores is portrayed in the NFL. And I would think his biggest problem when he was with the Dolphins is that he just was never able to connect with the quarterback and he could not stand to a tongue of a low.

And that relationship got ugly. Now, Brian Flores, he was around Tom Brady and Brian Flores viewed to a tongue of a low as someone that wasn't going to win him a Superbowl. Now is to a good quarterback. Yes. So I think he's great. No, but you could do a lot of but you could do a lot worse than to a tongue of a low.

You know, Stu, if I told you that the Raiders could have to a tongue of a low right now, you would do it. Yes. Even though to a tongue of a low, you're not getting a top five quarterback in the league, but he's solid. He's good. Yeah. So I look at Flores.

Here's the thing, too. It's easy for people to say, hey, the guy was 24 and 25 as a head coach, but they were five and 11 that first year. They were supposed to be the worst team in the league. They ended up picking fifth in the draft and they ended up getting to or fifth or sixth in the draft.

So they won some games there with not a lot of talent. Remember, everyone was like tank for two, a tank for two, and then Joe Burrow merged and Joe Burrow ended up being the first quarterback. And then in 2020, Brian Flores was ten and six. Now, after that, they were nine and eight. I'm not saying ten and six and nine and eight would be, you know, unbelievable. But for a guy that did not have a lot to work with the Miami, that's not that bad.

Five and eleven, ten and six, nine and eight. Now, the question is, do you trust him or not? Depending on where he goes to get on the same page with the quarterback, like I look at the six open destinations right now. Do you trust Brian Flores with the young Drake man? Well, who's your offensive coordinator? Because they were they were not able to find an offensive coordinator.

Brian Flores, his time with Miami, I think they had a new offensive coordinator each and every year. You look at the Bears, do you trust Brian Flores with Caleb Williams? Like you look at Caleb Williams body language, it wasn't good this year.

If Brian Flores is in your face, tough coaching, is that going to work? You look at the Jaguars or Trevor Lawrence, Trevor Lawrence's career. You know, I know he got the contract, but us perceiving that he could be a good quarterback is on life support. The Jets don't have a quarterback. The Raiders right now don't have a quarterback and Saints don't have a quarterback. So if you're one of those three teams, like at least the Pats could say, we got Drake May, we're hopeful. Bears, at least we got Caleb Williams, we're hopeful. The Jaguars, we still believe in Trevor Lawrence. He just hasn't been healthy the last two years. If you're the Jets, Raiders and Saints and assuming that Rodgers doesn't come back, or even if he does, do you trust whenever you try to go find that long term quarterback for Brian Flores, Jets, Raiders and Saints, that he's going to be he's going to be the right guy to bring in the right offensive coordinator and develop that quarterback and have a good relationship. So maybe he did learn from what happened. You know, I think Brian Flores is a good guy.

I do. Also, I think what Brian Flores has done the last two years in Minnesota is very impressive. But is Brian Flores just a good defensive coordinator or can he be a good head coach? And the problem is with Belichick guys. So people confuse Vrabel as a Belichick guy. He played under Belichick. He didn't coach under Belichick.

You look at whether it's Charlie Weiss, Romeo Cornell, Bill O'Brien, Josh McDaniels, Joe Judge, Brian Deball, Brian Flores. I'm not saying all these guys have done this, but a lot of these guys, they think they're Belichick. And right, if Belichick comes into a locker room and says, you know, I'm Bill, kiss the rings.

I'm the hoodie. You know, we're going to do things my way or the highway. You know, we're on to Kansas City and Cincinnati and all those places. You know, that's Bill. If Bill wants to be my way or the highway, he's six times football champion. Now, these guys have won championships before, but not as a head coach. So I'm not saying you change who you are completely, but the Belichick guy is usually not a player's coach and is not a doormat.

And how many times I say on this show, you could be a player's coach, but don't be a doormat. So I'm not saying that the Belichick guy has to be a player coach and you don't want to be a doormat, but you can't sit there and be a disciplinarian dictator. And that's what a lot of times, like Josh McDaniel struggle with it. And Brian Flores, even though the teams were doing fine in Miami, ruined that relationship with the quarterback. You know, this nine times out of 10, the quarterback's going to win over the head coach in this league in terms of who they're going to keep and then who they're going to get out.

So I look at Flores, I'm intrigued because I think he could be a good head coach, but can he be a good head coach? That means he has to get a good relationship with the quarterback. And I thought, Stu, I don't know how you felt about me originally, but when they hired Josh McDaniels, I said, Josh has been around now a long time. Maybe he learned from Denver and maybe he could correct his wrongs and right his wrongs.

And obviously he did not do that. He was the same Josh McDaniels in Denver. When he gets away from milking off the teat, that is Bill Belichick. He thinks he's Bill and he ain't Bill. So that's my concern with Flores. I want to see him. I want to see if he changed, actually. So let's do this right now. Fire up the music here, Stu. And do we have the Micah Parsons comment from the other day?

This is Micah Parsons on his podcast. For the people that kept believing, because we're not done yet. We are not done yet. And I hope that y'all don't think we're done yet. It's going to be an amazing, amazing, amazing thing to see next year when we're holding the trophy. Yes, it's big goals, but I'm telling y'all right now it's holding the trophy. I'm saying my prayers out loud. I'm saying my goals out loud so y'all can hear him. You know, we're going to be holding a trophy up next year.

Point blank period. Do you think it's the same trophy that Jerry Jones once tried to hold up in Oxnard when he was simulating holding up a Lombardi trophy in the preseason all those years ago? Because I don't think the Cowboys are coming anywhere near the Super Bowl this time next year. But Stu, let's do a little draft here. Four teams each, just four.

Teams that did not make the playoffs this year that you could envision or put some money down to go win the Super Bowl next year. I'll let you start. I'll let you go first here, Stu.

Thank you. It's the day of Stu. It's the show of Stu talking about the Raiders and also the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. All right, I will go with the team I think definitely would have the best chance and that is the Bengals with all the talent.

Burrow, Jamar Chase, Hendrickson on defense. I just think it was a bad year for them where they lost a lot of close games. I think next year they could easily be back in that conversation. So I do think that that's the first choice. That would have been my preeminent choice.

So I take a look now around. I'm thinking 49ers. I know they're going to be one of my picks. And yeah, you got to go with the San Francisco 49ers here. So I will take the Niners. They're my first pick. Now, this is a snake draft.

So let me find a way to make my second selection here. Teams that did not make the playoffs that could win the Super Bowl next year. You know what? I think it's going to surprise some people. You think I'm going AFC or NFC?

Just wonder. I think you're going NFC. I'm going NFC and I'm doubling down.

So I don't know. Maybe Matthew Stafford retires at the end of this year with the Rams, right? And the Rams aren't as good next year.

I don't believe in the Cardinals. So I take the 49ers. If the Seahawks move off of Geno Smith and find their next quarterback, they got pretty damn good roster in Seattle. So I will take the Seahawks. OK, with my pick, I will go with the Dolphins assuming health from Tua.

That's obviously a key. They would need him to be healthy. I would say that they would need Tyreek Hill to stay and be a leader, be more of a leader, if you will. I just think there's a lot of talent there now.

Can they go into cold weather places and win games? That's tough. But with the remaining teams, I would say the Dolphins would be probably at the top of the list for me.

Your next pick? After the Dolphins. It gets tough after. It does get tough. It got tough after the Bengals and the 49ers, if I'm being honest.

Yeah. We could have just stopped this at three, but let's go for it. I have a few teams in mind, so I'll go with the Jaguars. I know they were a mess this year, but let's say to get the right coach, the right coach that fixes Trevor Lawrence, you're in the kind of easy division.

Maybe there's a way. I was really high in the Jaguars this year. I think if you have the right coach and add a few pieces, they could be a team that gets back into the mix.

Okay. I'm going to tap back into the well of the NFC. And I'm going to pick a team here that they're on the naughty list.

They're on the Zach Gelb S-list. It's the Atlanta Falcons. And I don't like that organization right now. I thought they should have hired Bill Belichick.

They let too many people get into the ear of Arthur Blank that were selfish and not focusing on what's best for the organization. And Kirk Cousins, I guess, is going to be there. I don't think anyone actually believes that when they're talking about having a $40 million backup today.

But that's just Michael Pennock spanking on him being a star. So the next team that I'm going to go with, and this is my last selection. The Jets are staring you in the face. But the problem with the Jets is I don't think Rogers is coming back.

And even Rogers does come on back. Am I picking the Jets without knowing who their GM or their coach is right now? That's tough. Cats, no. Raiders, no. Cleveland. Shador Sanders.

He's their quarterback. Man. You know what?

I don't like doing this. But you get into the bottom of the barrel. Give me the Bears. Take the Bears. Tough division. Got a solid roster. They get the right head coach.

Caleb Williams starts playing like a superstar. I'll take the Bears. I hate that selection. I hate every... After the 49er... Honestly, I hate the 49er selection too. The only team I would have liked here is the Bengals. And a little bit of the Seahawks. Because they have a solid spot for the Seahawks.

Outside of that, all these teams. Yuck. Yuck. Disgusting. Final pick.

All right. Final pick. I don't like this pick either. I will go with the Cowboys. Oh, you're taking the Cowboys? I didn't think of the Cowboys. I will go with the Cowboys.

It's a go. I didn't even think of them. Other teams considered Cardinals. I threw the Micah Parsons. I didn't even think of them. Yeah. Cardinals yesterday only are teams I really considered here.

I just think it'd be too early for the Patriots as good as Drake May is. Look, if you get a healthy DAC, maybe they catch lightning in a bottle. I don't feel good about it, but... You know what this segment is? This segment's like, what disease do you want? What terrible thing do you want to have happen to you in life right now? Go ahead.

Pick which one. So, Stu. Teams that didn't make the playoffs that we could see winning the Super Bowl next year.

What a stupid way of doing this. Bengals, Dolphins, Jaguars, Cowboys, Stu. I had the 49ers, Seahawks, Falcons, and Bears. Stu, I think you beat me pretty good on this exercise. I think just having the Bengals helps a lot.

I thought you would take the Niners. Really? Did you? Yeah.

I don't know why. 8-5-5, 2-1-2, 42-27. 8-5-5, 2-1-2, 42-27. Let me quickly squeeze in Rob in Connecticut. Rob, go ahead.

Hey, you're the snow segment. What's up, Jack? Doing good, Rob. What's happening? Not much. Hey, I just wanted to bounce some things off the oven.

Listening to this show since three. First off, I like Notre Dame tonight. Great call.

Definitely rooting for the Golden Dome heads tonight. And also, I had to tell you, you had me in stitches. You got to keep doing the Belichick impression. That's awesome. Awesome. Thank you. I appreciate that.

Unbelievable. And also, hey, if you need a hype man like somebody to do like dancing on your show, I'll be more than welcome to come in there and bust out the Flavor Flav dance for you, you know, anytime. So, Rob, do you have like a big clock? Just wondering that you walk around and wear that big clock that Flavor Flav has?

Well, I can come down to New York City and pick one up. And then I'll be at the studio. Are you a big social media guy? Just wonder, are you on social media?

I would love to be in social media. I used to be a DJ at a strip joint, so I always was told I had a great voice. Wow. I wonder who was saying that to you. Hey, don't let JR know that. He'll be calling me up.

I don't know what you mean by that. One more thing I wanted to end with, as far as the coaching, not that I would like to see Joe Brady go, but Joe Brady would look nice down in New Orleans. He's got that connection down in the Louisiana thing. Yeah, I don't think that would be a bad hire.

I don't think the Saints have much going for them, but they are one of 32 jobs, so we'll see. So, Rob, you know, if you want to drop us, appreciate the phone call. Social media video of you dancing, we could put our advanced scouting team on there to see if he wants you to come in the studio. So, there is Rob in Connecticut. I didn't get the JR line. Well, there's good strip clubs in Atlanta, maybe that Magic City. Was that a Lemon Pepper Lou reference or something like that with those wings at Magic City?

Maybe, but yeah, I was like, what are we doing here? I've been out with JR, nice guy for dinner, all that stuff. I'm not envisioning, unless if JR is talking about going to the strip club on his show all the time.

I'm not envisioning JR in the strip club anymore, but maybe Rob has something in Connecticut about JR that I don't really know about. Alrighty, it's one of those things you open up Pandora's box to the callers, they say something interesting and it's one of those awkward moments in radio that we're here right now. So, what we'll do is we'll send it over to Rich Ackerman with the latest Infinity Sports Network, not Strip Flash, but Sports Flash. So, there was a report that I saw earlier today where, let me tell you something, Penn State don't win tonight. I'm going to have fun tomorrow on the radio. If I could have one wish for 2025, it's early, but if a genie came down and said to me, it's not only three wishes, you just get one wish, Penn State lose tonight. Because let me tell you something, Hickey, you're off Thursday, you may as well be off on Friday too because we will be bringing Hickey on the show at some point, I would imagine.

Maybe actually we just let him marinate, marinate until he joins us then on Wednesday. But it would be really, really fun if Penn State loses tonight because here's why. And I know if you're a Penn State fan, I apologize in advance, right? Because if I got into the car and heard a radio host say, oh, I hope my team loses, you know, that team loses, I'd be annoyed and be tweeting him and saying, you're a loser, you know, you suck, you're terrible, get a new job, right?

I'd be doing that. So Penn State, the road, the easy peasy road, SMU, Boise State, and now I think I know why Hickey's not working for JR tonight. And I think I know why Hickey is off. I think yesterday, I think yesterday he flew down to the Orange Bowl and started coughing and sneezing and hocking up loogies all over the Notre Dame locker room and the Notre Dame hotel. Because Notre Dame is reportedly going through many players having the flu right now. Now they've been saying it's a lot of backups, I believe, but Stu, we got the Notre Dame flu right now. So let's hope this is the Notre Dame flu game where all these guys are sick, contaminated, you know, if this was a few years ago, the game would have got canceled or moved back. So now Notre Dame is going to have to be playing under the weather tonight. So if Penn State, let's just say Penn State loses, James Franklin lost another big game where the other team was sick.

Now, can I give you the spin already, Stu? Penn State wins. Oh, it beat a bunch of sick, you know, a team that's sick. Bunch of sick kids. So the Notre Dame flu, does it concern you?

Are you concerned here? Based off of what I read, it was like, like you said, a lot of backups and special teamers. So I would say no. Special teams have been good though for Notre Dame. It's true. You get a kick return. Could be bad.

Could be bad. On short rest too. Don't forget that. Don't forget that part.

Yeah, yeah, that's true. Short rest for Notre Dame. I can't wait for this game tonight. The next few days for football are awesome. You get Notre Dame tonight going up against Penn State. Tomorrow, we have Texas, Ohio State. Saturday, you got the wild card games. So you have the Chargers and the Texans, Steelers, Ravens on Saturday night. Sunday, you have Buffalo and Denver. Then you have Philadelphia and Green Bay.

You have the Washington Commanders and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And then on Monday, we are supposed to have the LA Rams up against the Minnesota Vikings. There's a chance because of wildfires in LA that that game, I saw the contingency plan is to move it to Arizona and in Glendale.

What is it? State Farm Stadium, something like that. State Farm Arena.

I forget what it is. In Glendale, Arizona, the football stadium that's had so many big games. There was the one game I tried to erase it from my memory was the David Tyree catch that was there.

But then you also did have the great interception at the goal line by Malcolm Butler where the Butler did it. So we got Penn State Notre Dame tonight. We have Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, football, football, football, and more football. Does that mess up your plans at all this weekend still? No, no, not really.

Not at all. No, I don't have, I don't think I have any singular thing I have planned this weekend other than watching football. Yeah, I had something planned on Friday night, Friday night.

But the person I'm going out with is understanding that the game needs to be on somewhere in some capacity to where we're going to. So that was the only, it was only a rough thing on Friday night, you know, when I made these plans and didn't really look at the schedule and forgot that there was a college football playoff game. But Saturday, wide open. Sunday, wide open. Thursday, wide open. Monday, wide open. All for the football, football, football.

All right, let's hear Quinn Ewers, Texas quarterback. Is he thinking about the NFL draft or potentially returning with the decision that he still has to make? Not looking too far ahead because I'll trip on what's right in front of me. So again, I just, that's, that's too selfish of thinking for me to even be thinking about what's next for me. Are you at least aware that there's a lot of speculation out there that people are going to throw huge numbers at you to go in the portal this season and that kind of stuff? I mean, right now I'm just, I'm just not worried about all that stuff.

I mean, people can say all they want to say, but you know, I'm just focused on, focused on Friday at this point in time. What happens on Thursday for potentially the national championship? I have no idea. That's a great question.

So there's a lot there. I truly don't think that he knows right now because I don't know what the grade is on Quinn Ewers. Shadore Sanders and Cam Ward are the two best quarterbacks. The third spot is right up there for grabs. So if you win a national championship, your draft stock may be as high as ever, especially if you play well these next two games and you go to the pros. But if you want, imagine he wins a national championship and says, I want to come back to Texas. What does Texas do? If you win a national championship and he wants to come back to Texas, what does Texas do? The guy just won you a national championship. I know you have arch man and waiting in the wings.

It's an interesting one. Now, if he doesn't win the national championship and wants to come back to Texas, I still think, I think either way, arch man needs to be the quarterback next year. But if he wants to go somewhere else in college, a lot of people thought maybe it could be Miami. Well, now supposedly Carson Beck is going back to college and the Cavender, one of the Cavender twins is his girlfriend. She's out of eligibility after this year anyway, but she's at Miami.

Both the twins are at Miami right now. So you could have Carson Beck at Miami. But I think that's a fascinating domino to fall where we have truly no clue what the answer is because he could go pro. I think if he tries to go back to Texas, I think the only leverage he could have is if he won a national championship. But if he wants to come back to college, yeah, you go get a bag of cash somewhere. You already get a bag of cash right now.

You got a big old bag of cash though. If you're a national champion winning quarterback in Texas and you want to go elsewhere and Texas wants to go with arch man, it'd be interesting. Ultimately, I think he goes to the pros. I would like to see him another year college football, but ultimately I think he goes to the pros. All right, that will do it for the Zach Yelp show on the infinity sports network. We are Notre Dame, Notre Dame 23 to 20.

I don't feel confident about it whatsoever. Stu, thank you, Samp. Thank you. Big thanks to each and everybody for tuning in to act. Thank you as well.

All the coaching carousel guests. Thank you. We will talk manana everybody at 3 p.m. Eastern noon Pacific time. We have to recap this big game tonight between Penn State and Notre Dame and also get you set for a weekend wildcard weekend in the NFL. We out. Bye-bye. Peace.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-09 20:39:28 / 2025-01-09 20:57:15 / 18

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