Marshall Thunders To Victory (Hour 4)

Hour number four of our radio program, moving very quickly on a Monday. Man, I don't feel like I've been here for three hours. Now we get set to kick off hour number four, but we're always coming to you live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios. Whether you're looking to purchase a new home or refinance yours, Rocket Mortgage could help you get there for home loan solutions that fit your life well.

Rocket can. Joining us coming up at 9.20 p.m. Eastern, 6.20 p.m. Pacific, so 20 minutes from now, the head football coach from the Marshall Thundering Herd. Charles Hough is going to stop by as Marshall got a huge victory this weekend up against Notre Dame. Marcus Freeman off to an 0-2 start. If you go back to the bowl game last year when he took over Brian Kelly, 0-3 to start off his Notre Dame career.

That was very impressive. And for Marshall to walk into Notre Dame's house and not be afraid of the Fighting Irish is really, really, really telling about the state of the Notre Dame team right now. And it's Marcus Freeman's first year.

Give him some time to build up things the way that he wants to do. I know he was there last year with Brian Kelly as the defensive coordinator. But you can't lose to Marshall in your game. And you're one.

Even though people say, OK, and you're one, anything could happen. Marcus Freeman thought he was getting a victory. You see with just the fans right before the game.

There's no place I'd rather be to get my first victory of the season this year. And then did not happen. So we'll talk to coach Hough, which is a great story. Was that Vanderbilt with James Franklin. That was at Penn State with James Franklin. Was at Alabama for a few years.

And now in his second year at Marshall. So we will chat with him coming up in a few moments on CBS Sports Radio. But first up, five questions, five answers.

It's not even waste five more seconds. We get the onsides offside. Hit it! Zach's taking on the most polarizing issues in sports. Which side of the line of scrimmage will he end up on? Offside defense number 69. It's onsides offsides with Zach Gelb on CBS Sports Radio.

Alright, what do you got for me today? Zach, the Dallas Cowboys had the worst start to the season imaginable yesterday. The Drama Dallas Chokin' Cowboys.

Let's get it right. The Drama Dallas Chokin' Cowboys got their season off to the wrong start. They lost to the Bucks 19-3. They also lost to Dak Prescott, who now missed a significant amount of time after getting hurt, injuring his thumb late in the second half. The franchise quarterback will require surgery. ESPN is reporting that the timeframe for return is about six to eight weeks. So now another two months of Cooper Rush. Cooper Rush will presumably be the start of moving forward. Onsides or offsides, the Cowboys will trade for Jimmy G. Let me just give you the schedule for the next six to eight games. Bengals, Giants, Commanders, Rams, Eagles, Lions, Bears. You have a bye week, which is a very good time bye week, especially for this injury report. Because then that's only seven games and you give him an extra week and then it would be the Green Bay Packers. If he's backed by that Packers game, you take that as a win for the Cowboys.

Now it's not Murderers Row with the opponents. Bengals are tough. Rams are tough.

Eagles are tough. Detroit's not good. Chicago's not good.

Commanders aren't good. The Giants aren't good. Giants didn't beat Tennessee. Commanders beat the Jaguars. Chicago beat the 49ers.

It's crazy. And Detroit, I guess you could say hung in there with Philadelphia. So it's easy for me to say, yeah, the Cowboys should go trade for Jimmy Garoppolo, but I don't think the 49ers are going to be interested in trading Jimmy Garoppolo right now. I am under the belief that Trey Lance should get the entire season unless there is an injury. I don't know if that's the way that the 49ers process it and how long or short the leash is on Trey Lance. So you say the Cowboys will trade for Jimmy G?

I don't think so. Maybe they go out there and acquire a free agent or something like that, but unless they do that, I think it's going to be Cooper Rush. So the Cowboys will trade for Jimmy G?

I'm thinking offside. More so on the 49ers part that they don't want to get a deal done. And also, if you're Dallas, I'm not giving up a second or third round pick at this point. You get a compensatory third round pick if you're the 49ers if you let them walk at the end of the year for six to eight games when you're not winning a Super Bowl anyway in the NFC this year. If I'm Dallas, I'm not giving up any significant draft capital to go get Jimmy G. Because behind that offensive line, it won't even matter. Imagine you go give a second round pick for Jimmy G and you put it behind that offensive line, he still gets the crap beat out of him and the snot kicked out of him. They will be going up against the lesser defensive lines, which is a positive if you're Jerry and you know him. He lives in a world of positivity. Go ask Cincinnati and Patrick Mahome.

Go ask what he thought of the Cincinnati defense last year in the second half of the title game. Also, I guess Dak Prescott could return earlier than possible in Jerry's world if one plus one equals three. So that means two weeks is really three weeks. Maybe he's back even before the buy and it's like he misses, you know, only like six games out of eight, six to eight weeks.

And Jerry's math turns into one to three weeks. OK, there's a win. So you know what? You're right.

Don't you ever to be back in two weeks? I saw Jamal Adams left the game. Seahawks are up ten three. So no Jamal Adams. Russell Wilson at Seattle returning and he only has three points. That's your Super Bowl pick. That's your league MVP right now. There is seven minutes to go in the first half.

I have a minus six and a half. The Broncos wake up. Let's go. Come on. You got to wake up here. You got to cover.

You got to dominate. I'm not a fan of a moral victory, but if Seattle covers the spread here, that's a moral victory for Seattle. That's a heck of a performance by Seattle if they cover the spread tonight. Denver should blow them out.

And I don't think the Broncos are making the playoffs this year. But let's go. Wake up. They got coffee in Seattle. You didn't drink it today, Denver. Let's go. Let's ride, Mr. Unlimited. Broncos country.

That's right. Let's go from bad to where, Zach? That's so weak, by the way. What's weak? Broncos country. Are you saying my impersonation or the just general?

Russ tries too hard. Well, you think with his mint colored suit? That's a good that's the word I was looking for. Mint green. Yeah.

It was it was interesting to say the least. Maybe you should get a mint suit. I think you could pull it off. You have some swag. I'd wear that. I like that suit. That was a good one. And all the money to afford it. But if he wants to, like, you know, one and done. Hey, I'm trying to give it away.

I'm open. Yeah. What's the peanut butter that you eat again? Jeff. Yeah. My throat when I eat. Here we go.

Looks like the suit that Russell the color of the suit that Russell Wilson is wearing. That's concerning. That is considered if you have mint colored vomit. Maybe I'll call my doctor. Dr. Mintz.

Help me out here. Oh, speak of which, I meant to text you very random, very quick. So Dr. Teal's in Target today.

Oh, did you? I know nobody cares about my fantasy team. I go to sit down to set my fantasy football roster yesterday before I lock myself in the CBS Sports Radio Studios for eight hours on ion football.

And my best friend, one of my best friends, who's a jackass. I go and I'm playing him. You know what his team name is? Dr. Teal's.

Dr. Teal's mean moisturizers. Now I kicked his ass. He didn't even win. I kicked Aaron Donald and that PR person's ass in the interview. That's what I did to my friends who started to name Dr. Teal's as his fantasy football team. Now I did see someone sent this to me because I saw no one defend the publicist. Someone sent me a tweet of someone defending the publicist. It was the publicist's mother. I found out that I didn't go back and forth with publicist's mother.

I wouldn't do that. We didn't go back and forth with the publicist other than I'm going to ask my question. But I saw that the publicist's mother was defended by so proud of my daughter. Look if she handles this talk show host and the talent. I hate to break it to you.

It wasn't a good look for the for the publicist. I'm shocked her mother's on Twitter. I think it was a Facebook post actually. OK. A friend of mine sent it to me. All righty.

Through college football, Zach, after embarrassing. He wanted no part of that conversation going after the publicist's mother. No, absolutely not. I'm sure she's a very nice woman. You're a polite kid. After speaking of not polite, what Georgia Southern did in Nebraska on Saturday was not polite at all. Not for Scott Frost. Clay Helton's squad went in there and got Scott Frost fired. We should get Coach Helton on. He was kind to us.

He was. And now we just got him in to have a job. Hey, Coach, what do you think about USC these days?

How good does it feel to be on the other side of an early season firing, am I right? Well, because Georgia Southern won, Cornhuskers are now one and two in the season. And on Sunday, Nebraska's A.D. Trev Alberts announced that Scott Frost has been fired. They pulled the plug.

They did. Frost did win a national title at the school, also compiled a 13-0 record at UCF. As a player. As a player back in 1997. Let's be clear there. Not as a coach.

Very long time ago. You're right. Not as a coach. He did cause the coach. He would not be getting fired. He claimed to win a national title as a coach at UCF back in 2017 at 13-0.

Nice job. That is not recognized. And he was 16-31. Well, it depends who you ask. That's also true. Outside of Central Florida. If you ask the athletic director at Tennessee or anyone at UCF, they will recognize that. Very, very, very true.

Not recognized anywhere else. Scott Frost did finish his tenure in Nebraska. 16-31 in his five plus or his four plus years at Lincoln.

He's only got three games this year. Onsides are offside. Nebraska, now that they need a new head coach, should hire Urban Meyer to be their next guy. Offside.

Offside. I know Urban Meyer. Everywhere he goes, he wins. With the state of Urban Meyer, I know all it takes is one desperate athletic department. I guess now you can throw Nebraska in that category. But go get a young up and coming coach and try it again and see if they can have success. I don't think Stoops is going to go there. I don't think Campbell is going to go there. But you make a run there.

Yeah. You said Bill O'Brien. I agree with that. I think Bill O'Brien, even though he's not young up and coming, he had success in his short time at Penn State. Goes to Houston as the coach of the Texans. Was a good coach.

Just was not a good general manager. I know you'd be bringing him in as the CEO of the program, but a little bit different in college. I actually think Bill O'Brien, what I think are the realistic options, could be the best one. And good news for Bill O'Brien, you have to trade your best receiver for like a fourth round pick. And an often injured running back. Or a bag of balls.

Or a bag of balls, that's for sure. So in the NFL, week number one is almost in the books. Touchdown Broncos!

As you say almost because there's one game left as we hear. Russ is cooking. He's cooking. Take that Pete Carroll. Was that Jerry Judy? Finally got a touchdown. Jerry Judy got one. 67 yards. Not bad. Now he didn't have a touchdown all last year.

That's correct. Touch downless. Hopefully he kisses that ground.

Inject that six and a half into my veins. Keep it going. There were though, going back to week number one, a bunch of bad losses start the season. Joe Burrow turned the ball over five times. Evan McPherson had his game winning extra point blocked. Then later in overtime missed a game winning 29 yard field goal.

Steelers stole that one out of Cincinnati. They hit a field goal later in the game. The Colts bring in Matt Ryan to kind of bring some stability and consistency. Well they tie the Texans 20 to 20. Aaron Rodgers clearly missed Devonta Adams big time as they lost to the Vikings 23-7. Dallas scored just three points and lost the game and their quarterback Dak Prescott to a thumb injury. Cardinals are thumped by a new look Chiefs offense to the 49ers. Lost to one of, if not the most hapless team in the NFL. That's the Bears.

I talked to Russ Zach. The Bengals suffered the worst loss of week one. I'm going to say no. Because I look at the Cowboys. I know they lost to the Buccaneers. But you could say that their season is already over when you lose Dak Prescott. But I think the two worst losses from this weekend. And technically the Colts were not a loss.

It was a tie. But I would say it's the 49ers losing to the Bears. And then Tennessee losing to the Giants. Especially when they were up 13 to nothing and the 49ers were up 10 to nothing. And they're not insurmountable leads but with the state of both those offenses. Yeah. You would have thought the game was in the bag.

So no. The Bengals loss was bad. Because they looked like they were getting killed. Then they looked like they were going to win the game. And then you lose the game in overtime. It's a bad loss but it's not the worst loss of the weekend. Speaking of worst loss of the weekend. Saturday saw a few big upsets in college football. As Abstate took down number 6 Texas A&M 17-14 in College Station.

The Aggies struggled mightily in offense. I thought you were about to say Nelson Aguilar. I've had enough of him. I've had enough of him his entire career.

Now he's torturing me. No not Nelson Aguilar but instead the Aggies offense compiled just 186 yards of total offense the entire game. Will also turn the ball over twice.

Haynes King only had 97 passing yards. Very bad. That's tough to do. Really bad. When Texas A&M is playing Abstate.

Especially in the last week. Abstate and UNC was a shootout. It was. It was like 50 something points. 60. 63-61.

Yeah. It was wild. That was not the only upset though.

Marshall went into South Bend as 20 and a half point underdogs and beat the Irish straight up 26-21 for arguably their biggest win in program history. Onsides are offside Zach. Jimbo Fisher is the most overrated coach in college football. He's getting close but it's still the man that lives in Happy Valley. James Franklin.

The difference Jimbo Fisher has a national championship albeit with Florida State a bunch of years ago when he had Jameis Winston but for now it's James Franklin. So offsides. Offsides. And finally the revenge game did not go as Baker Mayfield planned as the Browns. He didn't F up anyone.

No. No he did not. The Browns are the ones doing the effing up as they beat the Panthers 26-24 on the back of a Cade York 58 yard field goal. Now Baker struggled mightily early on in this game. At one point his stat line read 6-13 for 27 yards and one interception. At his credit he did rally the Panthers for 17 points in the fourth quarter. He showed a pulse in the second half. He did and the Panthers were up by one with a minute 13 left but the Carolina defense allows you code reset to march down the field to set up that field goal.

Onsides are offside Zach. You were more disappointed in the Panthers than you were impressed by the Browns. Yeah onsides because the Panthers have a good defense and you can't let your code reset beat you and offensively it's embarrassing that it took 30 minutes to get the offense going. And Christian McCaffrey didn't do much in the game and they should be running the football more with him. So yeah I was more disappointed with the Panthers and impressed with the Browns and let me be clear here. I know everyone says oh Zach just defends the Panthers all the time because he knew Matt Ruhle when he was in college.

I love Matt Ruhle. I'm hoping he has success but you have to win this week. This is a must win for Carolina this week. You lose to the Giants. I know the Giants just beat Tennessee but you start your year losing to Jacoby Bressette and Daniel Jones.

That's a miserable way to start off your campaign in year number three. So I'm more disappointed to the Panthers than impressed by the Browns. Take a break talking about disappointment and then being impressed. If you are a fan of Notre Dame you're disappointed but if you're a fan of Marshall you're impressed. Their head football coach Charles Hough will join us on the other side. What a weekend of college football and maybe the best story from the weekend was Marshall going to Notre Dame and taking down the Fighting Irish. Now joining us it's his second year as the head coach at Marshall and he is coach Charles Hough. Coach appreciate the time. Thank you for coming on the Zach Gelb show and congratulations.

No I appreciate you guys having me man. Obviously one heck of a weekend. Guys played really hard. Coaches did a great job getting them ready and got able to get out of there with a win man. So great weekend. Great start to the season and now I'm ready to move on to Bowling Green. Great. Now I know how you coaches work. I knew you were going to say that we're going to get ready to move on to Bowling Green. I really want you to appreciate this moment from Saturday.

Expand a little bit further. How do you put it into words what that win means for your program. Yeah I think anytime you can you know show the players a reward for their hard work and live action.

It's a positive. It helps build your culture. It helps obviously continue to strengthen your brand. You know our guys have been working really hard since January and all through fall camp. And for them to go out and kind of get a reward for everything that we've been you know telling them hey you got to do A, B and C in order to have success. For them to be able to go out and do it on a national stage is great. You know I think it obviously continues to bring light to a great university and great program here at Marshall.

You know I think obviously whenever you can do something on the national scene and bring recognition. The community feels that vibe. The community smiles a little brighter. Everybody kind of picks their chest up a little higher.

So I think it's all around positive. Whenever you have a team going to Notre Dame you wonder if the stage is going to be too big. When did you know that your team was going to be ready for that moment because I didn't sense any fear watching from my couch from your football team. No I think you know I think college football has changed a little bit you know so the intimidation factor of you know having you know big school versus small school is just kind of gone away because of the transfer portal. You know we've got 24 transfers on our team so I mean 24 of our guys have already played in some type of big arenas or big stadiums or quote unquote big games. So you know we've got three guys from Florida State on the team.

We've got you know a guy from Penn State, a guy from Kentucky, a guy from Purdue. So when you start adding those kind of pieces you know those guys have already played in those arenas. So for them that's the norm and I think what happens is they kind of relieve some of the anxiety of you know the guys you know that were on the team before and it may have not played in those arenas.

And you know it's kind of one of those deals with a guy next to you who's got confidence, you have a little more confidence. So I think you know that the time has changed you know with this transfer portal and I think now you're getting more rosters with multiple different levels of experience, multiple different levels of venues, multiple different levels of big game moments and all those things and I think it really helps. So it's one thing to have players from other programs that have big time experience but to be able to get them to gel together so quickly is another tough task.

How did you guys develop that synergy so quickly this early on in the season? Yeah I think it starts in recruiting. You know we don't recruit anybody in our program out of the transfer portal that somebody in this building doesn't have a previous relationship with. Whether that's they recruited them in high school, whether that's you know their high school coach or they were at the university that they were at or transferring from. It's got to be some type of connection because you're right it's hard to bring in new people into a new organization and get everybody to buy in. So we started in recruiting and making sure they fit our program, fit our schemes and then when we get here our culture kind of engulfs them. We challenge our older guys to force everybody to play and operate to a standard.

The process in which we operate from our coaching on the field, off the field, our classroom, our academic demands, you know all forces guys that do right. And then we show them how it creates value for them. You know how doing right creates value for them. How buying into the process is going to create value for them. And I think once you do that and you combine those three things, a previous relationship, you know the locker room kind of engulfing them and then getting them to understand that you know it's going to create value for them. I think you get complete buy in and then obviously it's easier to reinforce when you have success.

So that makes it a little bit easier as well. Charles Huff here with us. His program Marshall in his second season had a huge victory up against Notre Dame this past weekend. Coach, when you're walking off the field and you know you've won the game and I know in the final three minutes it looks like you guys are good but the clock is winding down. When it finally gets to zero, you celebrate with your team.

You're walking off that field. Just what's going through your mind? Just how lazy I was for the players and all the hard work they've put in. You know there's a lot of people that have kind of pulled the rope to get us to this point from administration to boosters to board of governors to professors and supporters and fans and obviously players and coaches. And sometimes as the leader you trust your plan and you trust your process but you know it works but for everybody that's buying into it you need a little bit of reward to show up. And those are the moments that you can really say man we were able to get everybody to buy in and everybody to pull the rope in the same direction and today is kind of like their reward. And as the coach, as the leader, you know you're happy because you know a lot of the players and a lot of people in the organization bought in blindly. They really didn't know if it was going to work and when it works it kind of is a good humbling moment to see your players, your staff, your administration all get to enjoy such a historical moment for this university.

Did it take a while for it to sink in? Like has it felt reality right now that you guys beat Notre Dame? You know as coaching cliches it sounds you know it's kind of you know you prepare, you play hard, you execute, you know successful game, move on to the next. But when you really, when we got back here to Huntington and just to see all the fans that met us at the airport and all the fans that met us at the stadium, you know this win is so monumental to the history of this place. You know you think back to the plane crash, you know and then you think back to the Xavier game which was the first Thundering Herd, you know young Thundering Herd victory after the plane crash. And then you think about us beating Marshall, I mean beating Notre Dame, you know for Marshall those are some monumental moments and there's been a lot of people that have been through the ups and the downs in this place and to see them smile and stick their chest out a little bit higher was really good.

What was the best message that you got after the victory whether it was Tex or someone important calling you? I got a message from a couple of the guys at the young Thundering Herd and they you know they told me you know coach we fought to you know bring this university you know back you know when it was down. And today you know we got our reward watching you guys play and beat Notre Dame and you think about the history of just college football in general when you think back to you know how you know history has transcended this place and to have someone who was a part of that history kind of commend you for creating another historical moment for them was very humbling.

Unbelievable to hear coach Charles Huff here with us from Marshall. I want to give some spotlight to some of your players. Stephen Gilmour we know football is in his bloodline with the way that his brother has played for a long time in the NFL.

Take me through that pick because that was really something. Yeah you know that's that's something we see all the time with Gilmour he's kind of I call I talk to him like you guys say you like the honey badger I mean if there's a tip ball or if there's an under thrown ball or a late ball in practice I mean he's all over it. And I tell him I say well you know you can take your practice habits to the game. But Coach Jackson our DB coach has really been working on those guys the fundamentals of you know three step and what's the line of departure that you take back to the ball and how do you you know hook and swat so that you don't lose the tackle but you can you make a play on the ball. And then just to see him go through you know those fundamentals and technique and perfection and make a probably game closing play or game changing play for sure.

Was really good. You know I've seen it happen in practice probably way too many times for myself to like it. The offensive coach.

But it was good to see somebody else got to have that same feeling I have on the practice field on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. You're running back a little born. We know he's once at Florida State and they said the broadcast last year he was driving Uber at one hundred and sixty three yards and a touchdown. Tell me a little bit more about your running back.

Yeah. You know obviously anytime you have success on the ground it's multiple pieces that go in a lot tight end wide receiver quarterback decisions. But Kaylin has done a phenomenal job that he's got the campus he's probably been one of the most appreciative young men that we have in our program just because of where he comes from. You know he's been through a lot you know went to Florida State had some success got injured you know departed that university went to junior college financially wasn't in position to have success.

So it was driving Uber working in a lumberyard going to practice going home doing his work transferring grade back to Florida State to get his degree. You know battled another injury at the junior college you know fighting to kind of get recognized again to be picked up by another college to give him an opportunity. And luckily we had a situation obviously with the transfer portal we were able to get some more players in and I remembered recruiting him when I was at Penn State and we had a really good relationship. He just reached out and said coach I just want an opportunity.

And at the time we didn't think we were going to take a run back because we had machine not leave we had some seniors coming back and those seniors decided to forego their COVID year. I called him late in the process and said hey man I think we're going to have a scholarship. He said coach I'll be there tomorrow. And he has come in and done everything we've asked him to do. And you know there's players on your team that you can see who people talk about what's their why.

You can see him living out his why every single day. Charles Huff here with us the head football coach at Marshall. You mentioned your time at Penn State. I know you're with James Franklin also at Vanderbilt. How did you hook up with Coach Franklin and what did he mean to your coaching career.

Yeah Coach Franklin has been a huge mentor in my career. You know he and I met I was working camp at the University of Maryland when he was the offensive coordinator there. And an opportunity came open and because of my time working camp there he offered me a G.A.

spot. And you know I was fortunate enough to be able to take it and my career kind of followed him. And he's actually the one who gave me my first opportunity at a power five position job. I mean I was his G.A.

at two plus two spots at Vanderbilt. I left and went to the Buffalo Bills and was at Western Michigan and he got the job at Penn State. He called me and probably you know I was honestly gave me the first opportunity to coach on the main stage or the national stage at Penn State. You know and I'm forever indebted to him because something he saw in me a long time ago gave him the confidence to want me to be a part of his staff at Penn State. You know we were able to recruit some really good players and won the Big Ten championship in 2016.

But none of that would have been possible if he didn't you know give me the opportunity to kind of get my career started. And how'd you link up with Coach Nick Saban and what are your takeaways from obviously the legendary coach? Yeah you know I was at Mississippi State and we had done some really good things on the ground and then recruiting and obviously in that conference you know once you've done some things.

You know people start to look and you know he and I got a call and he and I talked and was able to join the staff and probably doctor level coaching. He's probably had the most impactful you know part of my head coaching career and philosophy of what we do. The consistency and discipline and routine is probably the biggest thing that I picked up from Coach Saban.

Obviously we could talk for another 45 days on the things that I've learned but consistency in your approach and discipline in your routine. And that's why you know you say it's cliche but you know we focused on how we beat Notre Dame not who we beat and how did we beat them. We prepared really well during the week. We played really hard and we executed and that's what we got to do you know moving forward this week. We got to prepare really well for pulling green. We got to play really hard on Saturday and then we got to execute. I know that sounds very cliche or whatever it may be but you know my time with Coach Saban that's the way it was. It didn't matter if we were preparing to play Georgia or preparing to play in the national championship. It was you know the same routine, the same focus, the same attention to detail and the results will come.

Clearly you got a ton of great experience. When you took the job at Marshall you always wonder if it's the right fit. Because there could be a really good coaching prospect but maybe it's just not the right fit. Why was Marshall the right fit for you? Yeah I think you know the history and tradition here at Marshall. The fan enthusiasm and energy and passion behind the place. The brand recognition you know I felt like it was a stable foundation so from a recruiting standpoint the brand is recognizable. They can go into any home and they may not know where Marshall is but they probably trigger Randy Malls, Byron Leftwich, Chad Pennington.

You know so the brand is recognizable. Then again I think the foundation was set here. You know they weren't a losing program. They won just not championships. You know so they were always winning 7, 8, 9, 10 games so they were a respectable team. And then the fan engagement you know you want to be able to get people excited about your program. And I think the fans here are so entrenched with this football team and the university because of the history. That it makes it really easy to recruit and really easy to attract the right young men to Huntington. Because they come here and the fans you know engulf them and love them and show them the community feel. The brand gives them a chance to chase your dreams at the highest level. And then you know when you're recruiting coaches you got to be able to recruit really good coaches and they understand that. So for me it was a really good opportunity. I had a bunch of other opportunities that didn't work out, wasn't the right fit.

But for me and my focus, my vision, my process fit what they were looking for. And they had an unbelievable platform to do it. Also not a bad week for the conference right? No, I mean honestly AppState and Georgia Southern playing phenomenal. Actually it helps us, you know it helps us focus in on this game.

You know because sometimes you know you beat that Power Five school and you think oh well it's going to be easy. It kind of gave us the wake up call. You know it was like wow you know we had a big win but so did App. So did Georgia Southern.

ODU you know a couple weeks ago beating Virginia Tech. And I think what it allows us to do is understand that the process in which we operate in every single week is more important than the opponent. And hopefully we can kind of replicate the right process each week to have success on Saturdays.

Well I loved the game this past weekend. Love your story as well. Really do appreciate the time. Congratulations and good luck the rest of the way coach Charles Huff. Thank you man. I appreciate you having me on man. Tell you listeners this is probably the best radio show in the land.

Oh I appreciate that. We'll definitely be using that as a little marketing advice. Look at that the coach knowing how to get people everyone fired up. Nice job there by Charles Huff joining the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Usually I say you got to come on three times to be a friend of a show when you're saying we're the best radio show in all the land.

Hickey rip up that rule right away. He could be our best friend here on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. Another day is in the books and we're taking stock of the sports world. It's time to find out who's up and who's down. Let's end the day right and hit the closing bell.

Only on the Zach Gelb show. Mark Stoops has done it again. Another big victory up against Florida in the swamp. Heck of a job for Coach Stoops. Look what he's done with this Kentucky program. He continues to be one of the more underrated coaches in the country. Stock up to Mark Stoops. I got to get a little love to my Temple Owls. They get their first victory of the season. Davon Fox.

I've never seen this before, Ryan. He had not one, not two, but three punt blocks in the game. That's unbelievable in one game. One player blocked three punts. Also, Kurt Warner's kid, Elijah Warner. He got into the game and now is QB one for the Owls throwing a touchdown pass early on. Was all excited. And Stan Drayden gets his first victory as the head coach of the Temple Owls.

Give a stock up to them Owls. J.J. McCarthy, I know was up against Hawaii, but he was surgical. And it's about damn time that Jim Harbaugh named him the starting quarterback.

Give a stock up to J.J. McCarthy. It wasn't pretty for Alabama. You thought for a minute they were going to lose. And then arguably the two best players in the country stepped up and made plays. Will Anderson Jr. and Bryce Young give those two stocks up.

Another duo laid the points at the Trojans minus nine and a half. Caleb Williams, 20 out of 27, 341 yards and four touchdowns. And Jordan Addison, seven receptions for 172 yards and two tuddies.

Give a stock up to that dynamic duo. What can't Justin Jefferson do? The dude is just a stud. He starts off the year with that 70 plus yard TD snag. Got another one later in the game at nine catches for 184 yards and two touchdowns.

As the Vikings smack the cheeseheads. Give a stock up to Justin Jefferson. Minka Fitzpatrick scored a touchdown off a pick. Then had the crucial game-setting PAT block.

The dude is just unbelievable. Give a stock up to Minka Fitzpatrick as the Steelers get a victory over the Bengals. The reports of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs demise were greatly exaggerated.

First game of the year up against the Cardinals in the desert. Mahomes, not one, not two, not three, not four, but five passing touchdowns. Give a stock up to Patty Mahomes. Brian Deball put his cajones on the table and it worked. Going for two. Giants get the victory over the Tennessee Titans. Stock up to Brian Deball.

Duh! Bears. I can't believe they beat the 49ers. That's what happens when you get rid of Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace. I don't know how great Eberflus and Pols will be, but one game in and one victory.

Stock up to the Bears. Baylor. You should have beat BYU.

You ever going to throw the football at Blake Chapin? I think they ran the football 50 times in the game. It was unbelievable. And you just knew it was coming.

It was run over and over and over and over again. Stock down to the Baylor Bears. Notre Dame loses to Marshall.

Coach Huff was excellent on this show a few moments ago. Texas A&M, they lose to App State. Stock down to Notre Dame and Texas A&M. Scott Frost, out of a job. His alma mater says buh-bye and that tenure is over. Give a stock down to the former Nebraska head coach. Green Bay Packers.

Woof. What was Aaron Rodgers and the Packers doing? Live receivers stunk. Line was no good.

I know they were missing Bakhtiari and Jenkins. I don't think it's time to press the big fat red panic button because the NFC stinks. But man, an abysmal performance by the Green Bay Packers.

Stock down. The drama Dallas Choking Cowboys. One game in and the season's over. Dak Prescott now out six to eight weeks. You have Hooper Rush as the quarterback and the Bengals next week.

And you're going to have a P.O. Joe Burrow. Stock down to the drama Dallas Choking Cowboys. The Patriots offense.

You're going to get Mac Jones killed. The line stunk. Patricia's a bozo. Judge should be coaching special teams.

Bill, what are we doing here? One game against the Dolphins. That defense looked like the 85 Bears. Give a stock down to the Patriots offense. The Colts. The Colts. They tied the Texans. Hickey, what the heck is your football team doing? Stock down.

Robert Salah. Now this is just a gem. He says the Jets lost to the Ravens. The Ravens didn't beat the Jets.

It's nothing if you drop the football at the goal line. But this game was a blowout. Robert Salah, what are you doing?

Stock down. And I know that this game is far from over. The second half is just underway. But currently, the Seattle Seahawks, with Geno Smith as their starting quarterback, are leading the Broncos 17 to 13. Everyone talks about how great this Broncos defense is. Geno Smith, the last time he was named the starting quarterback for a long period of time, got punched in the jaw, his jaw broke, and then he was no longer the starting quarterback. The Broncos allowed him to go 17 of 18 in the first half for 164 yards and two touchdowns.

Broncos defense, stock down. And that's the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Big thanks to Will Levis, the Kentucky quarterback, for stopping by today.

And also, the head football coach at Marshall in Charles Huff. If you missed any of those interviews, you can go right to my Twitter bio, at Zach Gelb, C-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. When you're there, follow, link in the bio. It gives you all of our segments. And you can always check out our website, cbssportsradio.com. Follow on Twitter and Instagram, at Zach Gelb. Pate Keke, great job, each and every one of you, great job. We'll be back tomorrow on a Tuesday, as we'll recap the Seahawks Broncos game. And also, Kalani Satake from BYU will be stopping by. Talk to you then, JR coming up next on many of the same, CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM Channel 158. And that free Odyssey app, we out, bye bye, Zach Gelb show. Peace.