Will Defense Decide the AFC West? (Hour 4)

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Well, Rocket can. Welcome to the party. All righty, week two underway. You know what I was saying in the last segment, how you haven't really had a lot of points. It was three nothing, and we're at the end of the first quarter. Well, to start the second quarter, Justin Herbert threw a passing touchdown to his fullback. That was the first play into the second quarter, and then three minutes later, only took him seven plays to go 75 yards, Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs get a touchdown. Mahomes with a pass to Jerrick McKinnon, and that was for a nine-yard score. So it's the Los Angeles Chargers 10, the Kansas City Chiefs 7, passing touchdown from Herbert, passing touchdown from Mahomes, and also a Chargers field goal. And that's how we get to 10-7 with 11-38 remaining here in the first half. So fasten those seatbelts, buckle on in. Looks like the game that we thought we were going to get with points, points, points, points, points, is going to end up, even though it slowly came to fruition, getting there with the way that the fireworks have been going off here in the first three or four minutes of this second quarter.

And I think once you have one domino fall, you see the next domino fall, I would anticipate that this is then just dominoes falling all left and right. But really, the defenses in the AFC West to me are fascinating. Raiders don't really have much of a defense outside of Chandler Jones and Max Crosby on the edges. The Broncos have a good defense, but they didn't show it on Monday night with the way that Geno Smith was just unbelievable in that first half.

Now, second half, he didn't play all that great. For the Chargers, they made a lot of moves this offseason. You saw Khalil Mack against the Raiders, his old team, the first team he played in the NFL with before getting traded to the Bears. He had three sacks.

You know what Joey Bosa could do? Derwin James. You have JC Jackson making his debut tonight with the Los Angeles Chargers.

He was the top cornerback on the market. And for Kansas City, I think we got lost in the shuffle last week because everyone right away was like, oh wow, look at what they did. Mahomes, five touchdowns in his first game without Tyree kill.

And that was the storyline. And sure, the Arizona Cardinals don't have DeAndre Hopkins in the first six games because of the suspension. You saw an offense for Arizona kind of look dull. And I got to give credit to that chief's defense because you held Kyler Murray in a game that they were trailing 14-0 after one.

So you know they're going to throw, throw, throw, throw, throw. You held Kyler Murray down under 200 yards passing. Kyler Murray only had 193 passing yards and two passing touchdowns. And you kept them in check rushing the football. He only had 29 yards running the football that him as a whole, Arizona. Only had 103 yards on the ground. And for Kansas City, that was probably something that was not talked about enough this offseason is what is the defense going to be this year?

No more Honey Badger. He's not with the Saints. The defense when they won that Super Bowl, they were good. They were serviceable. But then the last two years, they've been a bad defensive team. They've not been up to par of just be serviceable, just be okay. And then with your quarterback, if you go make timely stops, you should be able to win. So the lay of the land here in the AFC West is fascinating to me.

And we keep on talking about offense because offense is what drives the train where it's an offensive league, happy passing quarterbacks and all that. But the defense is in the AFC West is personally what may end up being the tiebreaker to who goes and wins the division. And that's why I went with the Chargers this year to win the AFC West. Because the Chargers to me are the most well rounded team in that division. Now there's expectations. And the Chargers usually don't meet those expectations.

But you look around. Brandon Staley is a defensive minded coach. Brandon Staley got this job because of what he did in multiple stops on defense. So for Brandon Staley, last year, your defense was the Achilles heel. Everyone got caught up in the timeout against the Raiders.

They called the timeout to make an adjustment on defense and then after the timeout still allowed all those yards. They had the worst rushing defense in the league last year. They fine tune that defense this year.

They made alterations. Brandon Staley needs to go back to being the coach that we saw when he was with the Rams for that one year where they were the number one defense in football. He needs to have a top 10 defense this year. And I think the Chargers defense will be a top 10 defense this year. And you add that in, I know Keenan Allen is hurt tonight. But you add that in with the offense of Herbert Eckler, Allen Williams. I think that's your best team in the AFC West.

But there's still that dude number 15 that plays for Kansas City. And that's why this game tonight is fascinating because these are the two best teams in the AFC West. No disrespect to the Broncos, no disrespect to the Raiders. The games inside the AFC West that I'm most excited to see this year, Chargers and Chiefs. And I don't love that this is the week two game. I would like to kind of see middle of the year and then the end of the year when you have these matchups. I don't like that this is week two. It's a little bit early, but it is a big early test. There is no doubt about that when you look at this team when they go up against one another. And I'm just trying to see, when's the next time these two teams do meet up?

Oh, and then you get them in November. Wow. The Chiefs, they play the Chargers on the 20th. And then the 27th, they get the LA Rams.

Wow. Listen to this four game stretch, EJ. This is a tough four game stretch for the Chiefs. Chargers in November 20th into the Rams on the 27th at Cincinnati who you lost to twice last year on the 4th.

And then you're in Denver on the 11th. That's a brutal four game stretch. They got one of the toughest schedules in the league. Yeah. They start the year tough.

Yeah. Well, they won the first game. Arizona looked like a cupcake.

Yeah, they made it look easy. But after this week with the Chargers, you get Indy, you get Tampa, you get the Raiders, you get Buffalo, San Francisco, bi-week Tennessee. And then you get, at least you get Jacksonville coming up in a week 10. You get the Jaguars in week 10. That's good.

And you get the Texans in week 15 and Seattle in week 16. I think they'll be on onto Drew Locke by then would be my guess if you're proud of the Seattle Seahawks, because I'm not this big time believer in Geno Smith, in Geno Smith. Even though Geno Smith, people wrote him off, he just elected not to write back. What'd you make of that comment, by the way? I know Ryan said it didn't make sense.

I don't care. It made sense to me. I thought I think it makes sense. Like I lied. I never heard it said that way.

Neither I. But the way I interpreted this was people wrote him off. And when he says he didn't write back, he just didn't listen.

Right. He didn't care. Now, I think to me also, the way I interpreted it was when people write you off, there's an aspect of you having to accept that.

Yes, you are washed that you stink. And he never accepted that. Well, to be fair, is he a good quarterback? No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying he shouldn't think that.

Sure. So for him, I loved it. Yeah, I thought it was cool moment.

And there was a difference in the second half. He didn't play well, but you win the game. No one cares. Look, he's got a bunch of Seahawks, you know, legends that love him. Right now, he's a made man in that organization. Richard Sherman loves him. I'm sure KJ Wright loves him.

All of them guys. It's wild that Seahawks dynamic now. How how much just jealousy and ego played a role.

And we all know what it was. And KJ Wright even said it. That defense was coached hard by Pete. They didn't see him coach Russell to that same level and kind of made excuses for Russell when they were developing Russ and now we know what Russ is as a quarterback. And that team was viewed as run with Marshawn.

Dominant. I mean, dominant defense now. In that Super Bowl, the LOB did blow a 10 point lead. But we know how everyone remembers that game.

You got the goal line. Russ got intercepted when everyone in America knew the ball should have been in Marshawn Lynch's hand. And that's when KJ Wright was on the show and he said, yeah, that that was the death of that team.

He wasn't wrong because everyone then the defense was like, oh, how do we not give it to our guy Marshawn? And they didn't like Russ to begin with. And now since Russ is no longer a part of that organization and they still love Pete.

It's yeah, we get it. The Broncos are going to be better than the Seahawks this year, but that game meant so much. When you say Seattle was Russ's team, which I think we all agree with, I kind of wonder how much the fact that well, the last few years it was. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But I wonder how much of Marshawn not speaking helped Russ really feel like he was the face and voice of that team. Because if you think about it, you're saying that, yes, to see also our run, run team defense, defense, you want to hear from the running back, see the running back. Yeah.

But Marshawn never wanted to talk. I know. And I'm saying I wonder if when we say it's Russ's team, is that is that a part of that? Well, maybe the national perception. That's because he will find any camera and tell you, let's ride and go Hawks and all the fun stuff and family football and flying the four F's.

He's got like a rock out, guitar, TikTok, all that stuff. But you know, it's great that you just said that because I'm still dissecting our interview with KJ, right? And KJ said something that like Russ got all the credit and that annoyed people paraphrasing. I remember everyone talking about that defense and Marshawn, but in the locker room, maybe you are on to something since Marshawn really wasn't speaking. And when you're a quarterback, you have to speak so much and you get so much coverage. People in the locker room knew our best offensive player at the time was Marshawn Lynch. But since Marshawn wasn't speaking all the articles, all the attention in terms of the media to get an offensive quote, went to the quarterback in Russell Wilson.

Exactly. So you're in that locker room and you know Marshawn doesn't want to speak and he hates the media to begin with. And then that's like the jackass, but then you get annoyed when Russell Wilson is talking and he gets the attention. He's getting all the quotes. He's getting all the sound bites on TV. You see him all the time, but it's not like the LOB didn't get the sound bites. The Richard Sherman remember with Aaron and don't try that sorry ass wide receiver Crabtree on me.

But think about it though, the LOB in Richard Sherman, right? Another voice. He's talking about himself. He's not talking about the team. He's talking about what I'm doing, what my secondary is doing.

Too many egos. And with Russ, he's saying, let's ride. Go Hawks. He's kind of really talking about the franchise. You need alphas to win in this league. No one's going to discredit that.

You have to have alphas. You have to have people that think they're the best of the best because this is a violent sport. But there's a way to be egotistical and not let it be a detriment to the team. The egos on that team became a detriment all around where that was what we all speculated for years. Russ and the defense didn't get along. We're not seeing it play on out since Russ is no longer a part of the Seahawks.

And that's just the way that the cookie crumbles on that one. And it's so weird to me, this whole beef, I guess we want to call it because usually when we think about, you win a Super Bowl, you think when you think of sports team beef, you think of, wow, those guys would have like just put their egos aside. Maybe they would have won more like if the Pacers didn't get into the fight. Yeah, Kobe and well, they won so many, but they could have won seven or whatever.

But seven or whatever. But this team, though, like it just feels to me like they ran their course. I don't think of them and say, well, well, you know, it's wild. Yeah. We talk more about the end. Hey, it's such a controversial play.

Right. But we talk so much about the one they did not win. That the one that they did win never really gets talked about. I think it was a blowout, too. I think people kind of don't even like that's not a memorable game, but they, you know, they Molly walked Denver. It wasn't a good game because it was a blowout, but it was impressive.

Yes. How much they destroyed that offense with all the great names that were on that offense, led by number 18. So that's a reason why you should remember it. The actual game. Yeah, we talk about greatest Super Bowls of all time. No one's going to tell you that's one of the greatest Super Bowls of all time, unless if you're a fan of the 12th man. But when we talk about the team, yeah, they won, but we don't really talk about them winning.

We talk about the one that they didn't win and how it blew up the entire team. So it's just wild. Anyway, 515 to go.

Look at that. Tell you, there's gonna be all these more fireworks coming and dominoes falling. It's still stuck at a 10-7 between the Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs. But overall, getting back into this AFC West conversation.

The offenses are going to be nuts this year. But at the end of the year, I wonder who we're going to view as the best defense in that division. And I do believe that the Chargers are going to have the most well-rounded team, and they're going to win the AFC West. Now, the division's not decided tonight. You send a little bit of a statement, though, if you're the Chargers, if you go get this victory, when you start off the year, taking down not only the Raiders, which is a nice win. Now, I think the Raiders will be a playoff team this year.

Nice win. But you go take Paul Little's Superman's cape tonight in Patrick Mahomes and find a way to beat the Chiefs. Man, that'd be a big, a big week to win. And not a lot of times we usually say there's a big week to win, because you know how it is from week to week. You don't want to get caught up in the hype, but that would be one heck of a start for the Los Angeles Chargers.

It is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio. And we come on back, a huge week for Tua Tunga-Valoa, Mike McDaniel, and also Mario Cristobal, the U. We're going to be talking a little Dolphins and the U as they get set to go up against Texas A&M, which Texas A&M just lost to App State. And I know Appalachian State has the upset alert all the time, and they're always a team that has a knack for causing an upset, and they almost beat UNC, that crazy game to kick off the college football season. It's kind of crazy to me, though, when A&M just lost to App State and Miami's ranked better than them, that Texas A&M is a six-point favorite this weekend. So we'll get into that Jimbo Fisher, Mario Cristobal coaching matchup, and also discuss a little Tua Tunga-Valoa and Mike McDaniel.

They get set to go up against John Harbaugh and Lamar Jackson this weekend. Zach Gelb's show, CBS Sports Radio. This season, for the first time, you can hear every Westwood One NFL broadcast stream live for free Mondays, Thursdays, Sunday nights.

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AutoZone. So Miami against A&M. This upcoming weekend, 9 p.m eastern in College Station, and we know Texas A&M is just coming off that loss to App State as overrated Jimbo Fisher gets set to go up against Mario Cristobal. I love the hire of the U to bring in Mario Cristobal. This is a huge game this weekend for Miami because in year number one of Mario Cristobal, if you could say, even though A&M is not what people maybe thought A&M was gonna be, but if you could say we beat an SEC school in A&M, that's a big step in building the culture back in your program. Not that I'll be proclaiming that day, oh the U is back, the U is back, the U is back, because this A&M offense stinks. And Jimbo Fisher probably should give up the play calling duties at this point. That was discussed this past week, but this is your first legit test of the season.

Like when you play Bethune or Southern Miss, and yeah you took care of business 70 to 13 and 30 to 7, even after a slow startup against Southern Miss, that's not gonna move the needle really. And I like the Miami quarterback Van Dyke a lot, and I do think that Miami's gonna win the game, but they are a six-point underdog on the road, which is kind of nuts that A&M is a six-point favorite. And I did see today, and maybe Vegas knew something, that the really reliable receiver for Miami Xavier Restrepo, he's gonna be out indefinitely with the foot injury. That was per the Miami Herald. So the timing of that, it's not obviously good, we all know that as I just smack my microphone, as if you would think I'm a Miami fan, and now I'm just getting all heated up about this and worked up over. Are you a Miami football fan? Yeah, huge.

Oh really, I didn't know that. I feel like you never see me wearing the, you know, Sean Taylor Miami shirt. I'm gonna take a line from Spike Eskin once, when I was in a similar spot where you were, where Spike found out that I was a Patriot fan. And I said to him, when I was an intern for WIP and I wore my Patriot hat all the time or a t-shirt, you didn't realize that? He goes, yeah, sorry I wasn't really paying attention to the intern wardrobe. So I have not paid attention to your wardrobe, and New Year's Eve dressed very nice. I have not realized you wearing any Miami gear, which if you were, I would usually say, oh you're a Miami fan.

What do you, you know, small conversation, small talk. What do you think about Mario Cristobal? And the use of, so where's your, after the receiver injury, where's your level of confidence?

A&M was a favorite all throughout the week, and then this injury popped up today, and we found that he's out indefinitely. Do you think Vegas knows something that we don't? Because I look at this, and maybe I'm just a sucker, six, I'm getting six points with Miami. I'll take the six points of Miami. Well, number one, Restrepo has 11 catches of a TVD's 33 passes this year. So this is someone that Van Dyke has relied on heavily this year.

He's very much like a slot receiver type of guy as a, you know, a blanket, a security blanket for Van Dyke. Miami in these last few years have struggled in these games out of conference against Power Five schools. They got just mollywhopped by Alabama last year. Well, yeah, because you had that snake Manny Diaz as your head football coach. Well, yeah, but I mean, I think that when you look at Miami in terms of the non-conference games, these bowl games, they lost to Oklahoma State a couple years ago.

They have not ever really performed well, even in the years where they've played okay in the conference play. So I think that there's probably some concern about Miami going on the road, I guess, an SEC team. And I can understand them being an underdog despite what we saw from A&M. But a six point underdog. If you want to tell me A&M was the favorite, I'm not saying Miami should be an overwhelming favorite, even the favorite in this game. But to be a six point underdog? I'm telling you, that's a lot for a team right now in A&M that their offense was, was embarrassing. Like laughable last week up against App State. Their quarterback didn't even break a hundred yards passing. But Miami has one major issue. And Haynes King. I think Miami has one major issue in this matchup, which is the Texas A&M pass rush and the Miami offensive line. The offensive line has been an issue for Miami really for the last two or three years.

And I think that there's. And Cristobal, even though he's done well, he's not been able to really, really work the magic. Right. And he just got there. And building the recruiting trail. Yeah, they have a really good O-line coach. And Cristobal, of course, a former offensive lineman at the U1 national championship. You know, they're still rebuilding on that line. So we take that off the line that is still kind of working the kinks out. Zion Nelson didn't play the first week. He's still kind of getting back.

He could be a first round left tackle. You're not going up against an SEC defensive line. A lot different than Southern Miss, who they had trouble blocking in the first half. They did. I watched the first half of that because I laid the.

Oh, I was throwing stuff in my. Was it twenty four and a half? I think it was. And they lost by twenty. They won by twenty four.

Yeah. So I just got screwed by that last week. The two big bets that I had on like big numbers.

I'm not talking about money wise, just in terms of the numbers last week was Penn State, which covered it was like a huge spread, other twenty seven point spread in Miami as well. I feel like the Miami fan base is hopeful for this week. But I don't I don't think that they're expecting to win regardless of what Texas A.M. did, because we've seen what Miami has been the past. Yeah, I would expect to cover. That's the way that I would put it.

Right. That should be a close game. But for an A&M, this has potential to get really ugly because that was you look at apps. You should have beat App State, you know, going into the season.

No one say no app state. It was a heck of a week for the Sunbelt app state marshal Georgia Southern. It was a heck of a week for that conference. But if A&M loses to Miami. The next week you play Arkansas, who's a better team than you right now, their 10th in the nation, Sam Pittman does a great job.

I like K.J. Jefferson as a quarterback. Then the following week it's at Mississippi State and then you get Alabama. So for A&M, you lose this game. You're probably losing Miami, Arkansas and Alabama. You know, if you do lose to Miami, that would be four losses, potentially four on the season.

And you wouldn't even be midway through October yet. So A&M, you got to see a level. It's weird because they're home. It's A&M. You got to see a level of you'll learn early in this game what type of A&M team you're going to get. Are they still caught up in the just disaster that was last week where their quarterback Haynes King could only have 97 yards passing?

Because if Miami comes out, that's a huge key for Miami. Score first. Get the ball first. March right down the field without your wide receiver. You score a touchdown.

You go up seven nothing. That's when panic starts to set in for Texas A&M because that's a group where you know how it is at an SEC school when Jimbo talked a lot of stuff this offseason and you lose a game like App State, it all starts crumbling down and all starts caving in. So the start of that first quarter is an enormous first quarter for Miami and A&M.

So I can't wait to see the way that it plays out. And then also this weekend, like it's going to sound like we're like a local show in Miami right now. I know we're on WQAM and 790 and we always appreciate them taking us. But for the Dolphins, that's another game that intrigues me because the Dolphins made a statement last week that they are betting the Patriots. They have the Patriots numbers, number the last few years. They're the second best team in the AFC East. We all know the Buffalo Bills are running that division.

It's not even up for debate. The Patriots offense last week was the bigger story to me than the success of Miami's offense. Yes, right before the end of the half, fourth and seven, fourth and seven, boom, waddle, touchdown, waddle like a penguin in the end zone.

It was a great celebration. I can even say that as a Patriot fan. The biggest takeaway though from that game was how sloppy and awful that line was for the New England Patriots. So now for Mike McDaniel and Tua, you have a win. You beat the hoodie in Bill Belichick and now you go to Baltimore and you get Lamar Jackson, John Harbaugh, Ravens now getting healthier. And that's a game that's a big time litmus test to tell me if the Dolphins can be a playoff team this year. And you don't even have to win the game, but that's gotta be like a field goal game with two minutes to go. And I got to see Tua this week step up and make some big time plays. Like waddle, hill, you have all the pieces that are in front of you.

You know what the other dude is capable of. And that Miami defense is really damn good. Anyone that thought that defense could take a step back as Flores isn't there, that defense is really damn good. And you saw them put points on the board last week, the Melvin Ingram signing was very important. But this is a week where I know it's not always quarterback against quarterback, even though that's the way that it's marketed. I want to see if that Dolphins offense could keep up with the Ravens offense that may take a little bit of a step back this week because of the quality defense they're going up against. But I want to see if that Dolphins offense with Tua and yeah, you're going to run the football. Yeah, they improve the offensive line.

I get that. If they could go toe to toe with what we think is an elite offense or a top 10 offense in the NFL in the Baltimore Ravens, because last week the offense they were going up against, it's sloppy with the approach of Patricia, Judge, and whatever they're doing. The Pats have no offensive line.

They don't have speed at the skill position players. Last week, you did your job. You did what was expected of you.

Now, I got to see if you could take it to the next level. And this week you got, it's weird to say in week two, you got some big games. Tonight, you have a big game. That's at halftime. Chargers and Chiefs charges up by three, up against Kansas City at Arrowhead. But this weekend, when you get into that Sunday slate, that game, Ravens hosting the Dolphins, a lot of excitement there.

Two up against Lamar Jackson. This is that Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We'll do the closing bell next. All right, this is that Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. EJ, are you on TikTok? By the way, I know I sound very old when I say, are you on the TikTok? I am on TikTok. Newly on TikTok, but yes, on TikTok.

Have you made any TikToks? Yeah, some of the segments I've done on CBS Sports Radio have been on, as fact, someone on the Zach Gelb show. Really? With Ryan Hickey, but yes. Who?

Ryan Hickey, who's enjoying himself in Alabama. Oh, there was one thing you guys did that I thought was hysterical. Was it the Pizza Hut ordeal? Refresh my memory? Pizza Hut was saying that they were going to be doing no pizza pizzas, and I essentially said Pizza Hut isn't pizza, so therefore... Okay.

That could have been it. If Pizza Hut wants to do an endorsement, yeah, I love Pizza Hut. Oh, not Pizza Hut, I'm sorry. Papa John's. I was going to say Papa John's. No, I like Pizza Hut.

I don't know why I was saying that. Papa John's was doing the... Well, we live in New York, one of the pizza capitals of the world, so the odds of me getting Pizza Hut or Papa John's not going to happen. Right. Papa John's, though, does taste like cardboard. Papa John's is...

It's brutal....frash. Yeah. So you guys had a big, intense debate on Papa John's?

No, we totally agreed. It was that Papa John's was doing these crust-less pizzas. What? You got to have crust on a pizza. Yeah, it was just basically sauce, cheese, and toppings in a bowl.

Yeah. Papa Bowl's was what they were calling them. I know Papa John had an ugly departure and all that, but I remember he was on the record saying, it annoyed me about how the pizza was, and I tried 50 different pizzas. Yeah, he ate 50 pizzas. Come on, dude. Why do you think the pizza is not good? That guy's a mess.

Yeah. He would be at every Super Bowl, every... And he would have... My dad is pretty level-headed. I've never seen my dad more angry or angrier when Papa John would walk into the Super Bowl, Radio Rose Super Bowl week, with an entourage of 40 people. It's Papa fricking John, for crying out loud. And he would have Peyton Manning with him.

The Watt brothers would be with him. It was always big-time people with Papa John. And my dad would look at me, he goes, who gives a flying bleep about that guy?

And he would go, his pizza sucks. So that was my dad. Not many things annoy my father. Bad service at a restaurant, and then Papa John. And traffic. Those are the three things that annoy my dad.

Traffic, bad service at a restaurant, and then Papa John. A man's man there. Yeah. So you're on TikTok. You're on TikTok.

Yes, I'm on TikTok. I don't know if I call him a man's man, Bob Gel. I mean... My father.

I don't know. I like those... I like the three things you told me, though. Man's man may be a little bit too strong for that. Not doing Papa John. I like where we're going here with Mr. Gel. He's a man. I don't know if he's a man's man. I think that means like you're a tough guy.

I don't know if my father's a tough guy. That I will say. But anyway, I know Maggie and Perloff do a bunch of TikToks. I was watching TikTok of them at the vending machine today. I guess they do this Tasty Thursday segment. So I guess that's real scrumptious if you're going to the vending machine. Like we could do better than that. You know, I remember they always have like crazy food in this studio. I guess they must have forgot today, but they ended up going to the vending machine anyway. The reason why I'm talking about TikTok is I'm not on TikTok, but I'm on...

I'm going to sound doltier. The Facebook. And when I'm on the Facebook, I scroll on videos and it shows me TikToks on Facebook or on Instagram. And once I go down that rabbit hole, it's like when I used to go on the YouTube and I would watch like every James Corden carpool karaoke, which he's still doing. And he just did a carpool karaoke with Lizzo. And it was excellent. I can imagine. Oh, she has a great voice.

She's awesome. So that was really fun. But I was scrolling today on the Facebook and when I was on the Facebook, the TikTok popped up and it was a TikTok of Nebraska fans just losing their mind with the current state of the football program. They just lost to Georgia Southern. You had the terrible loss in Ireland when Scott Frost elected to be like a jackass and try an onside kick. And now Scott Frost is out of a job as he was fired.

So this is via the Go Big Ready via TikTok. These are some Nebraska fans that have simply just had enough. Listen up. I mean, look, I'm a three time cancer survivor. Congratulations. Cancers.

Thank you. All three of those cancers were easier to survive than the last four plus seasons of this. I mean, you can bring in all the guys that are talented and all of this and all that. But defense takes a mentality. You know what you need on defense? You need more hunters. These guys go shopping at Hy-Vee for their bacon. I need guys to go out and hunt in the woods and hunt these suckers down with knives.

And they're not even doing any of that because you need a defense that fights with bloody knuckles. The Nebraska fans have lost their mind. You know what they sounded like? I heard a mixture of Todd and Tampa, who called earlier, who was freaking out about Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen. And then I heard a lot of Mike Gundy in there. Oh, the whole. I'm a man.

I'm 40. Those were definitely men's men, men in those calls. Yes. My mother, by the way, texted me.

Oh, she goes. A man's man. Man, my father's taking a beating on this show tonight. But yeah, just a rough time. If you're a Nebraska fan, those are two really weird phone calls. And maybe even weirder to me as a TikTok user, the music choice was also very. Yeah. Because, you know, TikTok is smart to put. It's like upbeat fun.

And you could do, you know, lighter music, but not to that. I mean, those guys are like they were ready to line up and put on the black shirts and play on the defense. Yeah. When I roll over at 930 in the morning earlier today and the first thing I go to my phone, which I hate doing right away, but it just always happens. You can't break that habit. And the first thing I hear is a Nebraska football fan saying I went through three bouts of rounds of cancer. And that was easier than watching this Nebraska football team was like, whoa, this is some heavy stuff to wake up to first thing in the morning. I didn't have a cup of coffee yet.

And that didn't really wake me up anyway. Randy Cross joined us earlier. There's been two names that I've really seen thrown out there for the Nebraska football job. One, Matt Campbell, another Mark Stoops. So I had a little question to Randy Cross about the future of the Nebraska football job. People have been speculating for a little bit now for the last few years about Mark Stoops' next job. Naturally, Nebraska opens up with the Scott Frost firing. Everyone's now talking about Mark Stoops and Matt Campbell. If I'm Stoops, are you leaving for Nebraska now when you've done that good of a job at Kentucky?

Wouldn't you wait for a little bit of a bigger job? Um, you know, I'm not sure if that's a step up, to be honest with you. Old Nebraska was a step up, but, you know, old, old Nebraska's a long time ago and a lot of failure ago. I think you'd be crazy to leave Kentucky. I think you're going to see several coaches get contract bumps and extensions because of this availability. So, you know, not only did it cost Nebraska about $8 million to fire their head coach early, it's going to cost a lot of schools a little bit extra money because they're going to have to give their coaches some extra love. You know, Nebraska's going to be a hard sell, a really hard sell. You know, my old guy, my guy, Brian Jones, BJ, he's of the opinion that a guy like Deion Sanders would be, you know, a good choice for Nebraska.

And I'm not sure if he's not right. I, you know, I, at this point, they need to go out of the box. They need something that'll make a splash, especially in recruiting. Cause there, there's nothing of the old panache, the old zing when it comes to Nebraska, they need somebody that's really going to take them back. So that was Randy Cross of CBS Sports.

A lot of things to unpack there. I think you're a hundred percent right in terms of Mark Stoops. If I'm Mark Stoops, I'm at Kentucky. I've built up Kentucky where I could have enough confidence in my own standing of that university, where I could go after John Calipari and say, how dare you say that we're a basketball school. Look at what the football program's doing. Kentucky's had consistent success the last few years.

It all got really started. Josh Allen remember being a top 10 draft pick. Benny Snell was a heck of a running back there. And then you've seen it now with Will Levis, who's projected to be a first round pick. They're a top 10 team in the country. That is a group. And that is a team where Kentucky has now not only become relevant when it comes in the landscape of college football, but they've been consistent. They have consistently beaten Florida, which is, it's just wild. So if I'm Stoops and you're one of those guys, everyone respects what you do now, Mark Stoops. You come from a great football family.