AFC Trust Issues (Hour 2)

Hey guys, Mike Valene for Cash the Ticket Podcast. If you like sports betting or if you just like sports, it's the podcast for you. We try to cover all the big games and maybe some of the games you didn't even know were important. Give you some angles, pick some winners, have a good time, and hopefully help you meander through college and pro football season. So join us a couple times a week to get all your information you need to bet the games that you watch. It's Cash the Ticket on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Yo, yo, hour number two of our radio program. We're coming to you live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios. Whether you're looking to purchase a new home or refinance yours, Rocket Mortgage can help you get there for home loan solutions that fit your life well.

Rocket can. Alrighty, let's update you on the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio. We call this segment the News Brief. Let's listen up to John Harbaugh and why he decided to go for it on fourth and goal with under five minutes to go in the fourth quarter in a tie football game. It felt like it gave us the best chance to win the game because seven, the worst that happens is if they go down the field and score, and I think we'll get them stopped, but if they go down the field and score a touchdown, the worst thing that can happen is that you're in overtime. But you kick a field goal there, now it's not a three-down game anymore. It's a four-down game.

You're putting them out there. You're putting your defense at a disadvantage because they've got four downs to convert all the way down the field and a chance to, again, score seven, and then you lose the game on a touchdown. So then the worst thing, the other thing, you think you're going to get the ball at the two-yard line. So we're very confident in our defense. Defense has the ability to stop them down there with the ball in the two-yard line.

So we got them backed up. If we don't get it, it didn't turn out that way, unfortunately, and we lost the game. Two things before we talk about the actual decision that I just want to get your thoughts on, Ry. Number one, that does not sound like a guy who throws it, oh yeah, but I have confidence in my defense to get a stop, that he actually has confidence in his defense. Do you agree with that, that he's not actually confident in his defense?

Agreed. And then number two, what is he talking about, where if they hit a field goal there, then it's basically four downs out the rest of the game for the Bills. Even if you get a touch on that spot, regardless of it, Buffalo's trailing in that game at that point. They're going to be going for it on fourth down with their quarterback and Josh Allen almost every time when you're under four minutes to go, and that offense for Buffalo really wasn't doing much throughout the game. They would have been trailing either way, so I didn't get the point on the, oh well, if we go for it, then obviously they're going to go. The whole fourth down explanation made no sense to me. Regardless of what happens, are you still going for it on fourth down if you're Buffalo?

You're right. I guess the only thing is you save 40 yards or, you know, make it harder because field goal, obviously you don't need, you know, you don't have to get that deep. So in theory, you know, if there's like, let's say the 35 yard line or even maybe the 40 yard line, if you're Buffalo compared to obviously getting the end zone, if you need a touchdown. But I would agree whether it's a touchdown you get there or a field goal, they're going for it on fourth down regardless. But the actual decision, this Ravens defense has been brutal. This Ravens defense has been brutal at home with a lead. They're up 35 to 14 against the Dolphins, loss.

Up 20 to 3 against the Buffalo Bills, loss. Now in the first half, it did a nice job defensively up against Josh Allen. And this defense for the Ravens was not horrible yesterday.

You know, it did some nice things. In that spot, when points were not often in that game and in the second half, Baltimore did nothing. After those, those two touchdowns early, they did nothing offensively, really for three quarters. And they were shut out in the second half.

I know it's only two yards. I know there've been situations in the past. Remember, I think it was the Kansas City game last year where they were aggressive. They went for it. It paid off.

And you had that moment between John Harbaugh and Lamar Jackson after the game that everyone was praising and nine times out of ten. The way these things work, if you go for it, you get it. You're a hero. If you go for it, you don't get it. You're a zero.

So I could only tell you I reacted for it in the moment. I thought when your offense did nothing for pretty much the better part of three quarters yesterday, two yards, even though it seemed short, seems really long when you've done nothing for the last three quarters of football offensively. That's why if I was the Baltimore Ravens, I would have kicked the field goal there. I would have gone up 23 to 20 in that contest and then see if your defense could have made a stop.

Now the defense, I get it. They allowed the Buffalo Bills to march 90 yards down the field or 98 yards down the field, and they could have put the ball in the end zone if they wanted to. The Ravens looked like they were trying to let them score. They did not let them score.

There's miscommunication problems left and right. But because of the way that the offense failed to really show up for three quarters, that's why in the moment yesterday, not that it was egregious, not that it was awful, not that I hated it to like a level 100, but I did not like the call by the Baltimore Ravens to go for it yesterday. I think you take the field goal and see if you can survive the final four minutes or so.

Would their offensive struggles almost make you more willing to go for it? Because you need two yards for a touchdown, and let's say you kick the field goal. We saw the Bills right down the field, no problem. But up until that point, the Ravens defense was playing well. Up until that final drive, I mean, Bills came alive in the second half. Just in that third quarter, they moved the ball and scored two touchdowns. They scored one touchdown in the second half. Well, okay, my apologies, but they moved the ball.

It felt pretty good. I mean, they looked a lot better in the second half compared to the first half. And like you mentioned, the fourth quarter, the Ravens defense came to trust in. But remember, the drive before the Ravens defense had Buffalo go three now.

Okay. So your defense, you could maybe carry some momentum there. That Ravens, I can't, this is the interesting part to me, because you would agree the Ravens are one of the top five most respected franchises in the NFL, the way that they're run.

Oh, yeah. Did you see that scene in the sideline yesterday with Marcus Peters and Harbaugh late? And I don't usually freak out about confrontations with coaches and players. But that was a football team, or that was a player Marcus Peters did two things.

One, was annoyed with the communication. Do you let him score? Do you not let him score? Or two, kind of was taking it out on his coach that the coach really didn't show a lot of confidence in that defense. And I know you could tell me all, but he felt confident enough to prevent them from going 98 yards to score, and having the ball inside the two. After the game, we played you the clip, you even said it. It does not sound like John Harbaugh has any confidence in his defense right now.

But I know Shruti though, right? I don't think he's wrong for having doubts with how you see him, what happened against the Dolphins. But yesterday, I can't blame that game on the defense. And Lamar, who has been great, Lamar who is sensational, Lamar who I love, he can't throw a pick in that spot. He can't.

Like if I'm a quarterback, I'm saying, F yeah, let's go, my coach believes in me. You got to deliver in that spot. And he didn't deliver. They had a guy open too.

I mean, like you mentioned, it's a results-driven league. And you had, I forget who the player was, wide open, I think it was DuVernay. Back right corner end zone for like three seconds, wide open. So at late interception. And Porter made a good play.

No, got to get Porter credit too. Let's listen to Aaron Rodgers. He says the Packers won't win many more games if the offense continues to play like the way that they have. This way of winning, I don't think is sustainable because it's just pushed too much pressure on our defense.

And obviously, I got to play better and will play better. But the second half is our kind of football where we're mixing it up, we're throwing the ball outside the numbers. Obviously, we ran the ball, controlled the line of scrimmage really well. There's a lot of teams, and I know Bill Parcells once said, you are what your record says you are. But there's a lot of teams in this league so far through the first four weeks that they don't appear to be what their record says they are. Now you look at the Green Bay Packers, they're three and one.

It kind of feels like they're lucky to be three and one. All right, first week of the season, you get your doors blown off by the Vikings. Cupcake game up against the Bears. Last week against Tampa, Tampa was without Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and Julio Jones. And then the Patriots had to go to Bailey Zappi.

Bailey Zappi! The former Houston Baptist quarterback, and then Western Kentucky quarterback, where yeah, in FBS he has the most single season passing yards and single season passing touchdowns. But that game being in overtime yesterday, and the Patriots, and this is not just me being a Patriot fan saying this, because I had zero confidence going into this game, I thought the Patriots were going to get their doors blown off yesterday. The Patriots aren't a good team, they're one and three.

But the Patriots, they looked like they were the better team yesterday. Through many times throughout that football game. And I had a problem with Belichick.

And you know me, I love Bill. First off, I would have started Bailey Zappi from the jump. I've seen enough of Brian Hoyer. Number two, in overtime, after your defense stops Rogers the first time, when it is third and five, I said this yesterday on football while it was happening. I said, don't be surprised if the Patriots run the football here.

And Jody goes, why would they run it? It's third and five. You got to get a first. I go, because this should be third down, see what happens. Maybe get two, three yards on the ground. Maybe you break one for five yards on the ground and get a first. But if you then make it fourth and short, fourth and two, you go for it.

And either you put the ball in the hands of Bailey Zappi or hand it out to one of their backs and see if he'll get the two yards or so. But I thought for sure on third and five, if you didn't get it on third down, I would have gone for it again, because if you give the ball back to Rogers, and even though that offense was not good for Green Bay yesterday, you give Rogers another opportunity, a second life, he is going to go find a way to win the game, even with the Patriots defense did a really good job up against Aaron Rodgers yesterday, and that's what happened. The Patriots had nothing to lose yesterday. This is not like Baltimore where you're going up against Buffalo and that game may matter at the end of the year for seeding in the AFC. The Patriots are not a good team, the Patriots are not a playoff team this year.

In that spot, you need to go for it, and Bill didn't go for it. And so far, just in that game yesterday, I had three problems with Belichick. Starred in Hoyer, the fact that Matt Patricia is still calling the plays and there's no number one wide receiver on this team, and you don't go for it in that spot on fourth and five, I love Belichick. But we could criticize Belichick fairly, that's a bad coaching job yesterday by Bill Belichick. And we talked to you on Friday, Ryan, about my passionate uncle that loves Patriot football.

He even texted me today, bad coaching by Belichick yesterday. Your thoughts on Belichick's really conservative effort yesterday, even though that was a moral victory for the Patriots, but they lost. That's what my football life has turned into. It's now moral victories with this football team. That's a thing like, I thought for 95% of the game, I'm like, this Patriots, I was impressed. You're on a third-gen quarterback in Lambeau Field against a Packers team that's supposed to be one of, I would agree. No one thought you were going to win. I would agree. Everyone was laying the 10 and a half points with the Packers.

If I wasn't a Patriot fan, I would have laid the 10 and a half points with the Packers. That's what I have a tough time saying, bad coaching job. He coached his ass off. Defensive, fine. Defensively, like I said, decision-making is different. Defensively, wonderful. But that should be a sign that when you're a defensive guy, you don't trust defensive guys running the offense.

That's my biggest gripe with this team. You got Matt Patricia, that bozo, bozo calling the plays. You got Brian Hoyer starting a game. That guy should be holding a clipboard and be thankful that he has a job in the NFL in the year of 2022. So those are my problems with Belichick. I love him. Someone tweeted me today, do you hope Belichick retires?

Heck no. But come on, even in a good performance by Bill yesterday, you do have problems on offense and learn something, right? Isn't this an adjust kind of league?

You have to learn and adjust, learn and adapt. You have the Dolphins getting two number one wide receivers for their young quarterback. You have the Eagles getting two number one wide receivers for their quarterback.

And who do I have? Nelson Aguilar? Devante Parker?

Those aren't number one wide receivers. So next year, I'll say this now. Next year, this is what needs to happen. I don't care when Mac Jones comes back this year.

I think Mac Jones could be a good quarterback. But for next year, you need to get an actual offensive coordinator, Bill, and you need to get a number one wide receiver. I'm fine if the Patriots only win like five games this year.

I know their schedule softens up right now. They get the Lions next week. But I'll take a top ten pick and I know Bill can't draft a wide receiver in the first two rounds. But go get me a playmaker or go trade that pick and go get a wide receiver that's established in this league. So that's where I'm at with the Patriots.

I think you're surprised by my reaction from yesterday. A little bit, just considering how well they play for most of the game. Once again, but it doesn't matter still who the quarterback is.

It's the glaring weaknesses of the approach. Wide receivers, no number one guy, no guy that scares you. And can you be a little aggressive? You got nothing to lose right now. Be aggressive.

He's aggressive in throwing the headset. I like that. I like a little fire from Bill.

Still got it. Bill, you're my guy. I like that.

Alrighty. This is a coach that's a really good coach. Never had a losing season.

And there's a lot of times where coaches do things and I go, you know what, they know more than us. But Mike Tomlin not starting Kenny Pickett from the jump. And going to Mitch Trubusky never made sense.

And yesterday, as predicted, Steelers fans would be chanting, Kenny, Kenny, Kenny. You put Kenny Pickett in the game and they had a little life offensively with his two rushing touchdowns. Mike Tomlin on why he benched Mitch Trubusky for Kenny Pickett. Just thought we needed a spark, man. We didn't do much in the first half.

Not enough offensively and thought he could provide a spark for us. Now, I know that the Steelers lost. I thought Pickett played fine. Now, I know he threw three picks. The first one not his fault.

The third one not his fault as well. But I'll say this. I don't know what Kenny Pickett's going to be. He had one really great year at Pitt.

But at least there's that unknown. We all know what Mitch Trubusky is in this league. There's a reason why we call him Mitch Trubusky. So there was no upside in playing Trubusky.

That's why they should have gone to Pickett from week one. Cooper Rush, starting 4-0 in his career as an NFL starting quarterback. Three this year and then one going back to last year. It's been fun.

I try to enjoy it. The 4-0 is just, I mean, you guys saw the defense and all the breaks we catch. It's just kind of lucky. QB win stats are what they are. It's a team game and it's nice having those defense. The defense have our back like that and some special team plays. And we're doing just enough on offense. Ryan, I can't believe that the Cowboys are 3-0 without Dak.

We talked about Cooper Rush, how their season was going to be over. He can't weather the storm. He's not only weather the storm, he's defeated the storm. He's kicked the storm's ass.

Would I not take anything away? The Bengals' one was impressive. The other two have been against the Giants and the Commanders. Hold on, the Giants are 3-1. Now I'm not ready to go be like our morning show where Mraz's father is saying the Giants aren't losing a game for the rest of the season.

Not going to go there yet? But the Giants are a well-coached team. The Giants have showed you some fight. Not bad, but I think you would agree the Cowboys are, even with their injuries, more talented. Then the Giants, oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

That's a game, even though it's on the road without your starting quarterback, it's a game you should win last week. And the Commanders... We want to talk about the JV quarterback. Sheesh. Yeah.

You know what's a great question? Would you rather Baker Mayfield or Carson Wentz? Baker Mayfield. I've seen enough of Carson. I know it's bad. I've seen enough of Baker. I think I'd rather have Cooper Rush. You know what? Fair.

Take off and see. At least that guy could give you a little bit of a spark. Talking about Carson Wentz, see, the Wentz factor is already in full effect in our nation's capital. Ron Rivera, one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. I love Ron Rivera.

Ron Rivera is now cursing, he's agitated, and he's annoyed. Here's the coach saying he's doing the best he possibly can with the roster he's been given. Listen up. I understand. I respect their frustrations as fans. I get it. You know?

Shoot, I was in Carolina when we showed up there, and they were 2 and 14. I heard the frustration. We worked our butts off to try and get it to where it was.

I got here. I understand everybody's frustration. Especially how proud this organization is. This organization's got five championships.

Are you f***ing kidding me? I get it. I understand how important it is to win.

Okay? But I got to be realistic with what we have and what we're going to do. Here's my problem with Ron Rivera. He said he wanted to build the team then get the quarterback. The commanders, whatever their team name is, they haven't had a quarterback in forever. Then, after they win a division title, and they were what, 7 and 9? He goes, we need to kind of calm the expectations a little bit.

How much more time do you get? You were the one that okayed and improved this Carson Wentz move to swap twos when you get the lesser of the twos and then give up two other third round draft picks where one could become a two if Wentz plays 70% of the snaps. This is just the football team that their defense has regressed. I know Chase Young is out right now, but Jack Doreo needs to be fired. And Tyron McCorn's really good.

Jahan Dotz, I know he's banged up now, but he looks really solid. You're going to get Brian Robinson back. Their roster's not terrible, but you don't have a quarterback. And you haven't had a quarterback in a while. So don't get selective with your quarterback decision, and he seems like he's keep on punting and punting and punting, and then you go all in on Carson Wentz?

Like what? And let's be real. If Dan Snyder was not the owner of that team and everyone wanted to kill Dan Snyder and deservedly so, there'd be a lot more hot seat pressure on Ron Rivera. But at least Ron Rivera's like a good guy, respectable voice. You go, oh, if you get rid of him, who knows that what the heck Dan Snyder's going to do?

But Ron, in the direction that this franchise is moving in, is starting to lose me. That's a news brief. Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports Radio. Hey guys, Mike Valenny for Cash the Ticket podcast. If you like sports betting or if you just like sports, it's the podcast for you. We try to cover all the big games and maybe some of the games you didn't even know were important.

Give you some angles, pick some winners. Have a good time and hopefully help you meander through college and pro football season. So join us a couple of times a week to get all your information you need to bet the games that you watch. It's Cash the Ticket on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.

You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. You can think of auto parts for your car care needs, get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts before we talk about Paul Chris being fired as the head football coach of the Badgers of Wisconsin. Hickey right now, who are the three teams that you trust the most in the AFC? When you look at the landscape of the AFC, it being overrated from where we thought it was in this offseason.

A lot of sloppy play through the first few weeks. The Dolphins who are 3-1, the Bills who are 3-1, the Chiefs who are 3-1, Charge have been disappointing at 2-2, Broncos have been disappointing at 2-2. The entire AFC South, yeah Jaguars have been impressive, they lose to the Eagles yesterday after beating up 14 points.

Tennessee beats the Colts, they always beat the Colts. Baltimore has blown two big leads up against two good teams. Bengals, they found a way to bounce back the last two weeks after starting the year off 0-2. Cleveland, one week we thought they could weather the storm, then they lose to the Atlanta Falcons. You just go around the state of this AFC right now.

It's tough to say who are the three teams that without a doubt you have a lot of confidence in. Now the first two I think are easy, whichever order you want, Kansas City and Buffalo. Everyone gets a mulligan, Buffalo from a yards production, a stats production, it looked like they were going to win the game up against Miami, they didn't. Buffalo though, yesterday down 20-3 to come back against the Ravens, that's impressive, we know how good that roster can be. And Kansas City, other than giving that game away against the Colts, I don't have a single gripe with them this year. And I think the world of a Tom Brady football team, they dominated Tampa last night on Sunday Night Football. So Kansas City and Buffalo, that has to be on everyone's top three list for top three teams in the AFC. Who the heck is the third team?

Right now, I will go with the Miami Dolphins. Even with Tua already being ruled out and Teddy Bridgewater having to start up against the JTS Jets, Jets, Jets, so let's not get carried away, they are a 2-2 football team but I don't think that Jets team is a good football team. Yes, now obviously everyone reacts different to a concussion, what we saw with Tua is very serious. I mean players come back and play pretty well, I'm assuming when he does come back that could be the case. Now let me just say one thing here, that could have been and probably was two concussions from that Sunday to Thursday because you see the independent doctor got fired because the NFLPA wasn't happy with the way that he handled that. Yes.

So that makes me think that the team doctor and the independent doctor just may, may have got it wrong. Potentially, it's not looking good whatsoever, but you look at the rest of the Dolphins team, now again it's one game, Teddy Bridgewater was good enough to give them a chance. He is good enough in what we saw against the Bengals to think they should be the Jets. Now can he keep the ship afloat for three weeks?

No. Also, let me just say this, and I know this is a serious, serious issue with Tua Tonga by law, and I'm not surprised that they've already ruled him out. His last game was Thursday and it was scary what he saw, somehow he was able to fly back with the team, which I still don't get, but I'm not a doctor nor what I'm going to try to pretend to be a doctor. I am a little bit surprised, I never thought he was going to play this week and maybe because of optics, that's why you rule him out right now, because the chances of him playing on Sunday, you can't put him on the field where he probably suffered a concussion on Sunday and then also on Thursday Night Football.

I'm surprised that, just by a little bit, that we got that announcement today on a Monday. I think it's optics, where they just like, you just can't, especially when the independent neurologist is fired, so like you said, that'll lead you to think, oh he probably should have been on the field Sunday, and I just think they just said, you know what, we're just going to kind of, for one week, give ourselves some good press, if you want to even call it that. But he's not getting any good press from this. So eliminate the bad press, we'll say that, eliminate the question and say he's not playing. Yeah, I guess also because you know down deep, he's not going to be able to play, and then if this becomes a story all throughout the week and Mike McDaniel is sitting there stuttering and sitting there just bloviating, oh well we don't know, we haven't made a decision yet, you're doing coaches speak, yeah that's rough optics, really rough optics, when the odds of him even thinking about playing, or potentially being allowed to play on Sunday were pretty much like what, 0.0000001%, you would think, right?

Yeah, and like I said, there's nothing he can really say that would make it good, so just eliminate that. Now, I can't believe I'm going to keep the Dolphins off that third spot, because I have the Bills in the top three, and they beat the Bills, and then I'm going to put another team in the third spot that they've also beat. I'm still putting the Ravens. If you had asked me the three teams from now where I think they're going to be at the end of the year that I trust the most, the Ravens have blown two games that were horrific. To Buffalo, up 20-3, and then two weeks prior, you're up 35-14 against the Dolphins, you gotta win. You just gotta win both those games.

You lose one okay, you lose both, inexcusable. But Lamar Jackson's having a monster year, JK Dobbins now back the last two weeks, this was his coming back party this past weekend, where he played well and they trusted him a lot, Mark Andrews is really good, you don't have a number one wide receiver right now, you gotta see what happens with Bateman, Duvernay, like I don't know who the number one is on this roster. And I gotta think that that defense is going to get better. That was a defense that you did not think was going to play this poorly, especially with these big leads.

Now is there a little friction with Marcus Peters and John Harbaugh, yeah, there is. But I'm going to trust a long term this year in an AFC that is not strong, as we are really having a tough time to say who the third best team is in the AFC, I'll go Baltimore, right? It's just tough with how almost up and down, because even too, the offense for Baltimore, like you mentioned, it's also like, they're also hit or miss, or they're unstoppable for three or four drives in a row, and then it's like three and out three or four drives in a row. When they're clicking, I would agree, they are probably the third best team, but the issue is sometimes it's the offense not clicking, sometimes it's defense, and two out of the four games it's kind of been almost both at the same time in just one half, which is scary. There's a lot of two and two teams in the AFC, and we'll do this later in the week, but just quickly, like Jets I don't believe in at two and two, Browns, long term I don't believe in at two and two, Bengals, if their offensive line could play, that's a damn good team, Ravens, if their defense could hold the lead, that's a damn good team, Titans, they should win the AFC South, but they're not like the strong two and two team, Jacksonville I'm intrigued by, Chargers, I've been a big fan of the Chargers, I'm disappointed, like even yesterday I know they got out to that big lead, second half was no good, and Denver at two and two has been abysmal. The fact that Denver is two and two, like they gotta kiss the floor that they walk on, that you got the Texans and then the 49ers when Trent Williams got hurt and Jimmy G forgot how to play football, but that team, you lose to, Geno Smith is out playing Russell Wilson right now, and then the Raiders couldn't beat anyone, and you give the Raiders their first victory on the year.

So those are the three that I would go, you go Dolphins a three spot, I'll still take the Baltimore Ravens, and that's not me crapping on the Dolphins, I just don't know when Tua Tungovello is gonna be able to come back. We also saw another coach fired in college football, that was Paul Christ of Wisconsin, so now Wisconsin, Nebraska, Georgia Tech, Arizona State and Colorado, the Colorado coach got axed over the weekend too. All those jobs are open up, let's listen up to Wisconsin's AD Chris McIntosh, who announces that Paul Christ has been fired. I'm tasked with making difficult decisions about the future, and of the direction of this program, and I felt at this point in time that a change was needed, I met with Coach Christ this morning, we had a long meeting, we talked about it, and we agreed to move on with this change and this decision. Yeah, you lose to Illinois and Alabama in a little revenge game, that is a bad look for that university, and that was the final straw, but let's hear from the AD himself and why he decided to fire Coach Christ right now. It's not a game by game decision, this is a decision that's based upon where we're at as a program, and I think it's important to make a decision when I feel it's the right time given the circumstances of where we're at as a program right now, so it's a tough time to make a transition, but I felt it was the right time and that's what led me to it. And then finally let's hear from the interim head coach Jim Leonard who discusses his emotions on becoming the Wisconsin interim head coach.

It's a dream for myself coming out of that nightmare, and I want to respect him and his family in all ways. This place means a ton to myself, we want more, we want better, and my goal is to try to help get us in that direction in a unique time, and I'm up to that task, and I'm excited for that journey. And we know Jim played there and he's been on the coaching staff since 2016, there's been a lot of talk that he could be in a head coach somewhere else by now, so now he's gonna get a chance to be the interim head coach.

If I am the Wisconsin AD, the way that I approach this is I give him every opportunity to show to me this year why I should remove the interim tag and make him the head coach, I have to go through the interview process, all that, and then if you don't feel fully sold on Jim, yeah, you obviously could open up the search because out of all these jobs that are available right now in Nebraska, Georgia Tech, Arizona State, Colorado, Wisconsin, Wisconsin is by far and away the best job that is available right now in the moment, so there's gonna be a lot of candidates that are gonna be interested, so you give Jim the opportunity to go prove that he should be the next coach, and if you don't feel fully convinced that he's the guy, then you obviously go through the process of interviewing all the candidates, and there's gonna be a rich pool of candidates that would want to jump around with the Wisconsin Badgers. Hey guys, Mike Valenti for Cash the Ticket podcast. If you like sports betting or if you just like sports, it's the podcast for you. We try to cover all the big games and maybe some of the games you didn't even know were important. Give you some angles, pick some winners, have a good time, and hopefully help you meander through college and pro football season, so join us a couple times a week to get all your information you need to bet the games that you watch. That's Cash the Ticket on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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It will help troubleshoot the likely cause of your light for free. Restrictions apply. Get in the zone, AutoZone. I want to do a quick college football recap. In the last segment, we talked about Paul Chris being fired from Wisconsin from the actual games over the weekend. Hickey, so on Saturday night, I go to a bar here in New York City, sports bar, and there was a lot of Mets fans, as are Mets, pathetic, embarrassing, just a dreadful three-game sweep by the Atlanta Braves as the Mets had Jacob DeGraw, Max Scherzer, and Chris Bassett leads, and all three of those games got swept, have now lost being in the driver's seat. All they needed to do was win one game in that series, they lose now full control of the NLEs, Braves win one more game, Mets are toast from winning the division, and they'll be a wildcard team, even though they're going to have like 100 wins or something like that. But I'm in a bar on Saturday night, and it's a lot of Mets fans, and I'm watching this Georgia-Missouri game, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing, that Missouri was not only giving them a game, but they were in control for the majority of the football game. And I thought eventually Georgia would come back and win, and they did so, because Georgia just has more talent than Missouri, but that was getting ugly, and that was making, when it was getting late, you're thinking, uh-oh, maybe they're not going to come back, because whenever you have a game like that, when you have such a superior team up against an inferior team, you always think the inferior team eventually is going to fold, and eventually they did. But there was a group of 20 dudes that ran into this bar, and it's not a big bar, and I saw one fan wearing a Kansas City Chiefs hat, and the next thing you know, these guys are jumping up and down as if they're the biggest Missouri fans in the world.

Now, two things crossed my mind. One, they all went to Missouri. Or two, they all have an insane amount of money on Missouri. So I turned to one of the guys who was sitting right next to us, and I go, are you guys former students of Missouri? They must have been in their 40s. Were you former students of Missouri, or do you have a lot of money on this game?

And the guy goes, both. Now, I don't know why they were in New York, maybe there was a wedding or something that they had on Sunday, and they were just going out and watching the game on Saturday. I find it tough to believe that 20 guys that went to Missouri are now all living in New York.

So I never really asked them. But I was shocked that that Georgia game was close, and Georgia had to win this game and survive by the hair of their skinny teeth teeth, as one Al Michaels would say. That to me was stunning. And now Georgia has fallen from one, even though they got the victory, from one to two in Alabama, who ended up blowing out Arkansas pig suey, as he had the injury to Bryce Young. Jalen Milro goes into the game, and they still win by 20-something points. I was stunned that that was actually a game between Georgia and Missouri. I know sometimes I guess it's easy to just think these guys are like robots, and especially in college football, that they'll be on their A game every time. This is the first time really outside of the Alabama against the SEC title game in two years that Georgia's actually played a bad game. To their credit, they won the game, and that's what matters. And also in that SEC title game, it wasn't like they were dominated throughout. At one point, Georgia had to lead in that SEC title game. Get off to a good start, right, and then obviously it came, you know, Alabama came rolling back, and also obviously Alabama's a really damn good team, so it's not like that's crazy.

In the words of Ed Orgeron, roll tide, bleep you, just that was Alabama rolling tide and saying bleep you to Georgia that day. But it's almost kind of like crazy that it took this long to get a bad game out of them in two years. Fair.

No, you're not wrong. And like I said, they did what good teams do, they won the game. And I think that's a good regroup, because say what you want afterwards, they just didn't take Missouri seriously.

That's the way that I chalk that up to, and then it's a regroup pay on any given Saturday, we could go down. And then you lose that margin of error if you are the second team in the SEC, that from the SEC that go to the playoffs, and you then lose another game along the way, let's say you lose the SEC championship game, then you have two losses, it's going to be tough to get in, two losses as it's ever been done before in the college football playoffs. So they win, but it wasn't pretty. Clemson. I didn't know that Clemson still had this in them.

Back to back efforts. I was impressed by DJ against Wake Forest, I want to see if he can replicate that again. Against NC State, offensive line still concerning, receivers could still be concerning, but DJ starting to play and show that he could be the quarterback that we once thought he was. And we know that Clemson defense, even though they did not play great up against Wake Forest, they are really good defensive front, questions in the secondary, Clemson's looking like they're still the best team in the ACC. I have a tough time still going back and forth of if this was the most impressive win for the weekend for me, because Clemson look really good. I thought they're going to lose this game to be completely honest, like I said, but given some of the deficiencies of Clemson's team, DJ still looked good and he built off of that Wake Forest game.

I think it's safe to say at this point, he has pretty much put a lock on that position for the rest of this year. Here's why you can't say it's the most impressive win of the weekend. They were expected to win the game.

I know you could have some questions. They are a better team compared to NC State. And if we wanted to talk about, you know, with the big dogs I'm talking, maybe the two most impressive wins of the weekend that I saw, Kansas State blowing out Oklahoma. And then also, I know Baylor's offense doesn't have much. I was really impressed with Oklahoma State. And I know right in the Big 12, you expect to like kind of similar to the Pac-12 and the Pac-12 is very underratedly becoming a heck of a conference this year, right when everyone's ready to have the Pac-12 left for dead. And I know that's a big part because USC and UCLA are now leaving and going to the Big 10. But I was really impressed with Oklahoma State in the Big 12 and their performance against Baylor. And Spencer Sanders could be a Heisman Trophy finalist this year.

That is how well that kid is playing right now. So I would say Oklahoma State and then Kansas State, for me, were the two most impressive wins that I saw this weekend. And I guess you could also even say Alabama. I guess you could say Alabama as well, losing their quarterback.

You don't agree with what I'm saying right here. Well Kansas State was last week against Oklahoma. Sorry. Kansas State, who they beat this week? Oh, Texas Tech, to bounce, they beat Texas Tech, who was coming off a big win as well to make that back to back. Over Texas. Yeah, I was impressed with Kansas State. You're right. Going back to Oklahoma last week. I confused that from two weeks ago. That's my bad on that.

Anyway, moving on to one more thing. What did you make of the Kentucky Ole Miss game? Sloppy, ugly. I thought Ole Miss was going to win a lot easier, to be honest. But the thing with Kentucky, their offense is okay. It's not explosive. It's not like it's...

I like Will Levitz. I was disappointed. I know everyone's talking about the targeting play. I thought he lowered his head.

So it kind of goes both ways. He's a runner at that point. But then you get the ball back and you fumble it again. That to me was the... That was the icing on the cake of the game.

Like you said, you had a second opportunity and couldn't come through. Now I love, by the way, the Ole Miss coaching staff in the press box, jumping up and down. They were jumping up and down basically like you were five dudes watching the game on the couch, except they were in a box calling the game.

To see that reaction, that was pretty damn cool. Also, you know what was impressive victory? I know they've been a good team this year, better than what we expected, Washington UCLA with Dorian Thompson Robinson. There's the one defeated. I thought that was a fun game between Michael Pennix and then also Dorian Thompson Robinson. I'm shocked you haven't mentioned one team yet.

Go ahead. Michigan. I know you were hiring them going to this game than I was. I was so impressed. Yeah, they did a nice job. They controlled that game.

Here's the thing. I've been so optimistic on McCarthy and Coram, and I know that you have Penn State coming up soon in two weeks, but I really would be surprised, especially with how bad Michigan State is too. And I know Harbaugh struggled up against Michigan. If Michigan's not undefeated going into that Ohio State game, if Ohio State and Michigan are both not undefeated going into Thanksgiving weekend, I would be a little bit disappointed.

That would just be me. Because this Big Ten is not that strong this year. Is the Pac-12 after the SEC the second best conference in college football?

I'd say yes. Right? Which is wild.

Really wild to say. Know how to offense next. Hey, guys. Mike Valenny for Cash the Ticket podcast. If you like sports betting or if you just like sports, it's the podcast for you. We try to cover all the big games and maybe some of the games you didn't even know were important. So pick some angles, pick some winners, have a good time, and hopefully help you meander through college and pro football season. So join us a couple times a week to get all your information you need to bet the games that you watch. That's Cash the Ticket on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.