Chip Back To Steering The Ship? (Hour 1)

What's up everybody? Guess who's hosting a new podcast? No Mercy with Stephen A. Smith. Listen as I pull back the curtain on everything beyond the world of sports, interviewing influential guests, outspoken celebrities, and thought leaders across the political, financial, and social spectrum.

You know me, I'll give you my unbiased opinion. A No Mercy episode drops every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. No Mercy with Stephen A. Smith, a presentation of Cadence 13th and Odyssey Studio available on the Odyssey app or wherever you listen to your podcast. Live from the police show yet not overly ostentatious, studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City sitting on top of the 10 floor 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to a Thursday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all of our great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, and that free Odyssey app. 855-212-4CBS. I'm going to jump on in.

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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, yes, your life, well, Rocket can. Producing the extravaganza for the next four hours is no other than Hot Take Hickey. He's a dumb producer. Hot Take Hickey. Coming up at the top of the hour, Joshua Perry will join us to preview a monster slate in college football this weekend. Then at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific, Asan Redick from the Philadelphia Eagles.

And in the final hour of the extravaganza at 9.20 p.m. Eastern, 6.20 p.m. Pacific from the Green Bay Packers, Kenny Clark will be stopping by. The thing I have on my mind today, and you got a whole lot going on in the sports world, NFL week seven kicks off tonight. I'm not going to say there's palpable buzz about the Saints and the Cardinals. You got ALCS game number two, Yankees trying to even up this series one game apiece.

Last night in the NLCS, you did see the Padres take game number two. Now that series is all tied up at one apiece, shifting back to Philadelphia for game number three tomorrow, but I'm in a college football mood today. And I look at this matchup that we're having on Saturday at 3.30 p.m. Eastern on Fox, between the ninth team of the nation and the undefeated UCLA Bruins, going to Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, and squaring off against number 10, the Ducks of Oregon.

And I look at both these teams, and I'm compelled by both of them, and I wonder how far each of these teams can take it. Because now in the Pac-12, not that USC totally goes away, they do lose some momentum a bit with their loss last week to Utah when you had Cam Rising go for five touchdowns, Cam Rising go for the two-point conversion, and they win that game 43 to 42. Like the flavor of the Pac-12 through pretty much the first two weeks of the season was USC, USC, USC, oh look at them, Lincoln, Riley, Caleb Williams, Addison, the wide receiver.

And now, not that they go on the back burner, but they do get pushed out of probably the front seat until something else happens. And when you lose in college football, I always say this, it's better to lose early rather than late. Now we're not too late into the season yet, but since USC just lost, that's just by the nature of they get moved down the line a little bit in a Pac-12 that is extremely competitive and better than what anyone could have thought this year. And you see that by evidence of Oregon, where when Oregon just got smashed by Georgia the first game of the season, no one thought that Oregon was going to have a chance to get to the college football playoff. But now with one loss, if they are able to run the table and win the Pac-12 and their only loss being to Georgia, and don't get me wrong, losing 49 to 3 isn't something to be proud about.

If you only lost by 10 points or something like that, maybe it's a different conversation. I'm just curious then what the narrative would be about Oregon if they win out the rest of the way. They beat undefeated UCLA this weekend, they beat Colorado, they beat Washington, then they beat Utah, then they beat Oregon State and then go on to play whoever in the Pac-12 championship. If they run the table and only have one loss and their first loss was in the beginning of the year up against another college football playoff team potentially that we view Georgia as, are we going to put Oregon in the college football playoff? And it depends what other dominoes do fall, because I do believe there is a big belief that out of these three teams, two will get in in Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee.

So two SEC teams get in, you got to think whoever wins the Big Ten, Cough Cough, Michigan, or Ohio State get to get another spot. And then it comes down to, is Clemson undefeated? Who is the champion in the Big 12? How many losses do they have? Who's the champion in the Pac-12? How many losses they have? So Oregon, who has taken care of business the last few weeks, you had that victory over BYU, that crazy back and forth game against Washington State.

Not that they've had these great unbelievable wins, but they have reasserted themselves back into the conversation. And they do have maybe one of the more confusing players or a player that you just can't trust the most in college football in Bo Nix, because there's times where Bo Nix looks great and you're like, oh wow, this is supposed to be the Bo Nix that he was supposed to be at Auburn. And then there's other times where you go, this is the same guy that we have a lot of confidence in, and this is the same guy that is supposed to do wonders for at the time Auburn and now Oregon. So I have conflicting emotions about Oregon.

Ultimately, I don't think Oregon is going to win out, and I don't think Oregon is going to win the Pac-12, because even though Bo Nix has been on a good run, personally, until I see him win this Pac-12 championship, I will have trust issues with Bo Nix and with the Oregon football team. Now, on the other side, I think the bigger statement to be made this weekend is from Chip Kelly, because I know what people are going to say. Chip Kelly is back. Chip Kelly isn't back just quite yet. He's done a good job, a very good job last year, and then this year, he's taking it to the next level with an undefeated UCLA team. But I don't want to go all nuts and all crazy on my maybe effusive praise of Chip Kelly, but Chip Kelly has done a nice job, just like how Oregon did, getting back in the Pac-12 conversation to not only maybe win it, but go to a college football playoff spot. For Chip Kelly, he's doing a nice job in re-establishing his career and redefining his career, because you've got to remember, Chip was a rock star. When Chip was at Oregon and he had Oregon humming, it was one of the top five best storylines each and every year in college football, and Chip Kelly was one of the creme de la creme names, top five coach, people genuflected to Chip Kelly. Then he takes that leap to the NFL, and he did have two 10-win seasons in Philadelphia, but the way that his teams crumbled and the way that he wasn't able to connect with his players and the way that he treated it like a college program quickly made the popular flavor of Chip Kelly in Philadelphia unpopular, and he didn't adjust. He did not adapt, and I was there in Philadelphia towards the end of Chip Kelly, and I remember the goal line play calling. It was the same thing over and over and over again, and in the NFL, that's a league of adjustments. That's a league of change where in college, if you have the better players, if you have the better system, if you have the better coach, you can just recycle that over and over and over and over again, and nine times out of ten, you'll rise to the top. In the NFL, though, these guys are getting paid. These guys are grown men, and it's a battle of how can you throw off the other team and catch them off guard each and every week. So Chip fails out in Philadelphia, and then right away, sometimes it behooves a coach to take a year off, but Chip's a robot, and you know how these coaches are.

They get fired. They want to jump right into another situation, and he goes to San Francisco where he only lasted a year, and I think he had like two wins. They were abysmal.

They were horrible. They were a brutal product when Chip Kelly elected to be the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, and he was quickly run out of town after one season, and then he goes to UCLA. Whenever you bring in Chip Kelly, sure, it's an exciting move.

The Chipster's coming on back to college. Let's see if he can recreate Oregon. Oh, he's in the same conference for now as Oregon's been, and the first few years, you knew it was going to be a tough task, but the first few years, you saw minimal wins, three wins, four wins, three wins, and last year, he takes the jump to eight. Now, it also coincides with having a quarterback and Dorian Thompson Robinson being really damn good, but sometimes you're only as good as your players. Chip, though, now has this team at 6-0, and if it wasn't for the last two weeks, I don't think we're all going gaga, and we're all going crazy about Chip Kelly because they played Bowling Green, Alabama State, South Alabama, Colorado, but when you get Washington, where before the year, I don't think anyone's looking at Washington as a really good team, new coach Kalen DeBoer, you don't know what to expect out of Michael Penix Jr., but then they get off to that really good start, and they're up to 15th in the country. That was a good test for UCLA, and UCLA wins the game. And then, you see them have a date with Utah, and they take care of Utah, and you know the way that Utah was thought of before the season, and you know the ability of Utah, where they just lost to Florida, and then you see them, they lose to UCLA, and last week, Utah finds a way to take down USC.

So, Utah has the ability with Cam Rising, with Dalton Kincaid, with Kyle Whittingham, to be a really good team. And when UCLA gets that victory over Utah two weeks ago, it then increases the attention of the brand again of UCLA, which is on their way, as we know, to the Big Ten along with USC, but now you just wonder, how far can Chip take this? So, I'm not sitting here telling you, for a guy that was on the hot seat, a guy that was maybe interested in going back to Oregon, I'm not telling you that Chip Kelly is going to be able to consistently build a winner at UCLA.

I'm not telling you that the old Chip Kelly is back, but this is a game that we're excited to see what Chip Kelly and his quarterback, Dorian Thompson Robinson, can do, and I don't remember being excited about Chip Kelly really in a long time, because it's been a struggle, it's been ugly, it's been nasty, with when you go back to how it ended in Philadelphia, when you go back to that lone year and that one year with the 49ers, and at UCLA, there's been more losses than wins so far. And now, you had a good season last year, 8-4, and you're building off of that at 6-0, and I'm just fascinated to see in what is a mega matchup this weekend between UCLA and Oregon, who's going to find a way to get the job done in a conference that has been exceptional this year, and a conference that may be the second best conference behind the SEC in the sport this year, because you see the story of it, Utah, UCLA, USC, you see what Oregon is doing as well, and Washington too. So now the Pac-12, and we all thought the Pac-12 was dead, and sure, still, you're going to see UCLA leave, you're going to see USC leave as well and go and join the Big Ten, they've made me intrigued this year. And I can't wait to see how this plays out this weekend in Oregon and UCLA, because the winner of this is going to be viewed as the favorite to win the Pac-12. Now, can USC get right back into the conversation? Absolutely, they have a wonderful quarterback in Caleb Williams, and they have a wonderful head coach in Lincoln Riley. So Ryan, give me your thoughts on this game, because for Oregon, this weekend I want to see if Bo Nix is actually the Bo Nix that we thought he could be for years and years and years, and on the UCLA side, I think they had the better quarterback in Dorian Thompson Robinson compared to Bo Nix, but this could be a Saturday game where Chip Kelly nationally starts to bring his name back and starts to say, college football, I know it's been a long time, I know I failed in the NFL, now I'm starting to get UCLA moving back in the right direction. This is a massive game for UCLA, you have game day there, you have Chip Kelly going back to Oregon, and like you mentioned, this is a great national spotlight opportunity for UCLA to truly kind of get back on the map, they're a top ten team and no one really kind of talks about them like an undefeated top ten team, that's a legitimate college football playoff contender, especially if you win this game against Oregon. And to your point too, what is nice so far, so far from Chip Kelly, what we've seen this year especially that's led to UCLA's success, is what you kind of mentioned, you mentioned the NFL, the reason why he flamed out, couldn't adjust, he ran kind of the same Oregon offense and kind of was very predictable and then that goes downhill quickly. And he's not a good people's person too.

Also very true. And when you're in Philadelphia that's important because when you don't know how to handle the media, and you're not winning games to the rate that you should be or your teams are struggling down the stretch, you make it more of a circus than it needed to be. Absolutely, and that also led to the quick ouster in San Francisco's run, I really expedited his exit for sure. Jeffrey Lurie and the York family said goodbye, get out, go back to college. But you look at what made him successful at Oregon, it was still a lot of the run game, they were still predicated on a run first team, but it was finessed, it was outside, it was like a lot of track stars, like Michael James getting handoffs and just burning with speed.

Michael James, I love that guy. But you look at how they play this year, it's power football. Like they out Utahed Utahed a few weeks ago.

They are physical on both sides of the ball. There's no more finesse with Chip Kelly. And it is one of the things he has adjusted on is, you know what, what I did at Oregon can't work anymore. And to his credit so far he has made the adjustment with a good quarterback and has changed kind of UCLA's tenor to be a very tough physical team.

And it's gotten them to be undefeated so far. What do you think the spread is of this game? If you have to take a guess, I don't know if you saw it or not.

I have not seen it. I would guess UCLA minus two and a half. You are so wrong. Oregon is a six point favorite. At home, Oregon a six point favorite. Vegas is begging me to take UCLA and I don't know how I don't take UCLA.

I get it, right, when usually Vegas tells you to do one thing, you do the other, and you fade what the popular opinion is going to be. But I look at Oregon as a six point favorite where UCLA has the quarterback advantage. And Dan Lanning could be a good coach.

It is his first year, like this is a huge spot for him. I'm going to trust the combination this weekend of Kelly and Dorian Thompson-Robinson over Dan Lanning and Bo Nix. Are you going, I'm assuming if you thought UCLA was going to be two and a half point favorite, you're taking UCLA as well right now.

Yeah, I'll go Zach Charbonnet, physical trench play, UCLA is winning this game. Fade, fade, fade, fade. Alert, alert, alert.

Hammer, hammer, hammer. Oregon minus six. And this is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio. You got some good matchups this weekend. I'm intrigued by Texas, Oklahoma State as well.

The Quinn-Ewers show continues to roll. Alabama, Mississippi State, Bama coming off a loss. Kansas State, TCU, Syracuse, Clemson. You got some good games this weekend.

Last weekend was awesome to get it followed up by another good slate. You got to love this time of the year in college football. When we come on back, what type of response do you need to see from Alabama this week?

And how do we view Texas as Quinn-Ewers is back and trying to get Texas back on the map? It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We'll take a five-minute break and come on back right after these short messages. Welcome to the Odyssey studio, available on the Odyssey app or wherever you listen to your podcast. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. It is Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We have reached that time of the year where everyone starts to say, is this the beginning to the end of the Alabama Crimson Tide dynasty?

Now, I think the conversation, to be clear, is laughable. But they have not played well to their standards. They had to find a way to just get by Texas when Quinn-Ewers got knocked out of the game. They had to find a way to have the incompetence of Jimbo Fisher near the goal line to just advance and survive against Texas A&M. And last week against Tennessee, they were down. They come back.

They're going back and forth. You hit a field goal, you probably win the game. They missed a field goal, and their defense, in the span of 15 seconds, lost them the game. And as many great players that Alabama has, when you look at Bryce Young, when you look at Will Anderson Jr., when you look at Jamir Gibbs, and they got a lot of talent, this is not the most talented Alabama team that we've really ever seen, where in the last few years there's been times where they've had some struggles with their defense. You remember that game? That was a shootout that they won up against Ole Miss a few years back when Lane Kiffin just got to Ole Miss. And that defense got destroyed.

But they usually always find a way to figure it out. So now when you look at Alabama, this was supposed to be one of the great defenses, they were saying, earlier on in the season. Now the defense is struggling. Hendon Hooker pretty much asserted himself as the Heisman favorite last week in that 52-49 victory. Nick Saban's done a great job, but he's struggled finding good kickers at Alabama.

That's pretty much like any coach in college football. And offensively, other than Young and Gibbs, they don't really have much compared to what is the usual Alabama team, where you have three or four first- or second-round wide receivers. So now we have reached the point where everything is still in front of Alabama, where they could still get to the SEC title game, they could still win the SEC championship game, but you know it and I know it, no two-loss team has ever got to the college football playoff in the young existence of the college football playoffs. So if you lose another game, then the demise or the funeral is going to take place for Alabama for this season.

But I love this, and I also hate it because I've seen it so many times throughout the years. I just find it comical, Ryan, where everyone is starting to- When Alabama's struggling, it's never, oh, Alabama's just struggling, let's talk about how they can fix it right now. It's always, Alabama's struggling, and this means maybe the end is near for Nick Saban in the run of dominance with the Alabama Crimson Tide.

It's like, doesn't anyone really learn their lesson ever? It's very stupid, because there's only one way this dynasty is ending. It's when Nick Saban retires. As long as he is there, this team will never sink to even a 9-3 level. We're talking about an Alabama team that you mentioned before. This is one of the least talented, most undisciplined Alabama teams we've ever seen, and midway through the year, they're undefeated and ranked third in the country. And also, if you recall, a lot of people had that similar take of the words that you just said last year, and they found a way to get it right last year and get to a national championship where they did lose the national championship, but they still got there, and that was considered, according to the head coach himself, a rebuilding year for Alabama. Right, so we've seen countless times Alabama bounce back. Now, with that said, this year specifically, this year only, I don't think they are a true national telecontender. Well, I struggle with this, because if you ask me right now, do I think they're going to be in the top four teams at the end of the year?

I would say no. Tennessee is better. Georgia is better. They're both in the SEC, so what you're going to need, and they're in the same division, one of them will be in, you will agree with this, Alabama will still be in the SEC title game, you would think. Correct? Going up against either Georgia or Tennessee.

I can't say it's luck. Who scares you? Mississippi State scares me. This week they play Mississippi State, and I think you'll find out early how motivated and how caught up Alabama is in last week, because if you get off to a slow start against Mississippi State, it's not the easiest team with their offense to turn it up and get back into gear and have that train cruising back in the right direction. They play LSU. LSU, they've been so hot and cold. Like, when LSU loses this year, it's bad, and then there's weeks where they go and impress you. You know, Ole Miss, I like what Lane Kiffin has done. I got to see Ole Miss play someone other than Kentucky, though.

Austin Peay, yeah, not going to scare you. Auburn, Brian Harsin, if he's even going to still be the coach there, that's like your last stand, because the inevitable is already there to go for him to come back for next year. So I think, and I would guess that Alabama is still going to have one loss at the end of the regular season, but when they get into an SEC championship game, can I say I'll be stunned if they find a way to get redemption against Tennessee, or if they beat Georgia at the end of the year?

No. But if I was a betting man right now, I would say Tennessee or Georgia, one of them in the SEC title game, the winner of that, and I do think either Georgia or Tennessee would beat Alabama, they go to the college football playoff, and then the team that did not get to the SEC championship game, whoever that is, Georgia and Tennessee, would have one loss, and then they would get in over a two-loss Alabama team. That means that Alabama would have lost to Tennessee, as you know, and then whoever they do play in the SEC title game. I just can't have confidence even say right now definitively they'll be in Atlanta, because they can't not beat themselves. Well, one guy and one guy only is why I think I could have confidence, and you can say the name with me, Bryce Young. Bryce Young almost put the team on his back, and they should have won that game. I know it's back and forth. I know Tennessee was dominant at the start.

You make a kick. They win the game, and no one's talking about this with Alabama this week. So is there a falloff?

Are they not as sharp as previous years? Yes. But when Alabama just takes a little step down, it's still better than, what, 98, 99 percent of the teams in all college football?

It is. It's part of the reason why Nick Saban's not going anywhere and Alabama's not going anywhere in terms of long-term view. You look at the Tennessee game. They had 17 penalties. You look at the Texas game. They had 15 penalties. And they still won Texas, and they still almost won against Tennessee. Bad turnover, sloppy play. When the offense plays well like they did in Knoxville on Saturday, the defense can't get a stop.

When the defense is playing great like they have against A&M or against Texas, the offense can't get it going. Well, you know what this is? It's ugly right now.

You know what it is, though, the reaction this week? I'm not saying you're doing this because we're in agreement here. And I wouldn't say it's ugly. It's ugly for Alabama standards. Yes, because we expect them to be perfect, perfect, perfect. So they may not be the 10 out of 10 model this year, but, Hickey, if I bring in a 9 out of 10 model, you're still saying, wow, that's a pretty damn attractive model. And like you said, unless you're living in the penthouse, which most fan bases outside of Alabama are not, you're right. Well, I also have some experience with this.

Not the 9s and 10s in the models world. Oh, I thought that's, oh. But the football team that I rooted for for 20 years and still root for, every single time they would lose, you would have idiot after idiot after idiot. Nick Wright, Trent Dilfer, whoever, Rob Parker, who made a career out of this, would get on their TV, would get on the radio. Oh, that's the death of Tom Brady and the Patriots.

That's the death of Bill Belichick and the Patriots. And the same thing happens with Alabama. So I don't know if it's the low hanging fruit, if it is lazy media members, or maybe just people having an animosity for Alabama and for Nick Saban and jealous of their success. Whenever they lose a game or whenever they have a close game, it's here are the signs of the Alabama Crimson Tides dynasty crumbling and coming to an end. Fair or not, their standard each and every year, and you're not going to win it each and every year, is national championship victory or bust.

So am I going to crush them and tell them that it's ugly and it's dreadful? Has there been some uncharacteristic things? Absolutely. The penalties, the turnovers. There's been a lot this year. I'm not ready to write them off for this season. I still think they're going to get to the SEC title game. But I'm not going to tell you, even if I don't think they're making the college football playoff, that next year they wouldn't be right back in the picture because Saban gets the benefit of the doubt. Until we see, I think this is fair, until we see Saban three years in a row not win a national championship with what he's done, then I'll get concerned. Because Nick Saban, he won the national championship in the 2020 year. This past year, you had Georgia win it. And if he goes two more years of not winning a national championship, then it's okay.

Maybe the run is coming to an end. But then in four years from now, if that was the case, would it surprise me if he goes and gets another national title? No, he's Nick Saban. So sure, did recruiting get tougher because Georgia has Kirby Smart and Kirby Smart's been great? Yes. Has Texas A&M done a good job taking away some of the Saban players that he would usually get all of them and only get some of them?

Yes. But you got to think the man that is the king of adjustments and the man that is the king of adapting is going to find a way at one time this year to make you believe in Alabama again. So I'm not writing off the crimson tide in terms of, hey, they're done.

They're dead. It's over. Now, you could say, yeah, I think Tennessee and Georgia are better this year.

And so far, they've proven to be better this year. But to take it to the step of ding dong, the witch is dead and ding dong, Nick Saban is dead is just it's ludicrous. So this game against Mississippi State, Hickey, I'm taking Alabama and I'm not telling you I'm going to go lay whatever the spread is.

Again, that's like 20 something points. But I would think that Alabama wins and they probably win this game by two touchdowns. Your thoughts on the game this weekend, even though you seem a little bit nervous there. I will. I would agree.

I think they'll win. Oh, come on. I'm trying to pick Mississippi State. Pick the let's see the spread here.

It was twenty four and a half. It's something absurd. Very big, which in that case, I will take Mississippi State to cover. I think they'll I think they'll cover this be a close game.

The one thing I am very intrigued to see anyone is a spread. This might not even be the right game for it. But this keeps sticking in mind. The fact that Nick Saban said the guys were nervous last week.

Yeah, that was crazy. That is concerning for this year. And again, Mississippi State is not a team.

That is a reason to make you shaking your boots. Now, when you go down to Ole Miss a few weeks, a different story. Like other than natural nerves, what are you nervous about when you got maybe the best quarterback in the sport or one of the best quarterbacks in the sport?

And on the other side, you got an absolute dominant force in Will Anderson Junior. What are you nervous about? I mean, maybe you can't believe you're not believing that you're as good as people are telling you are. Maybe you're if you're a defensive player, you're nervous about how healthy Bryce Young is.

I think maybe you're nervous about a rat poison. Saban intentionally rat poison his program. Well, the players think, you know, even even I'm down to them a little bit. And then those players get to start to say ethnic safe. And we're going to find a way to prove him wrong. And then Saban benefits from it.

I hope so, because if he's actually telling the truth. That is very un-Alabama like and that is. Yeah. Then the industry is over. Then it's done. That's all I said for the last ten minutes. They are screwed. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. When we come on back, big weekend once again for Texas football.

And also when we stay in the state of Texas, there is one guy that I want to see win the World Series. Is there something really absurd that skeeves you out? Getting a paper cut on my eyeball? A fear you can't shake? I'm going to leak ocular fluid down my cheeks.

It's going to go into my mouth and I will perish. Whatever scares you, I want to talk about it. Join me, Larry Mullins, on my new podcast, Your Weirdest Fears. Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show.

It is Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. You know, Texas has a huge game this weekend as they go to Oklahoma State. Now, it's equally as big of a game, if not bigger, for Oklahoma State, because for Oklahoma State, who lost that Big 12 championship to Baylor last year, literally at the goal line, it looked like Oklahoma State had a very good path. And some even say at times an inside track to getting to the college football playoff if they just didn't drop a game. And Spencer Sanders is someone that looked to have been a finalist for the Heisman. And I don't want to say that it all goes away in one week, but the outlook once again pushes you back a little bit.

And then you need to re-establish yourself. When you were cruising, it didn't even look like that game was going to be all that close against TCU. And then Duggan and company for TCU find a way to get the job done. And they win that game 43 to 40, and Sonny Dyke's squad in his first year as the head coach of the Horn Frogs doesn't have a loss through the first six, seven weeks of the college football season. But, when you look at it from the Texas side, I really wish, Ryan, and maybe I would be more excited about Texas, if they didn't lose that game to Texas Tech. Because you lose to Alabama by one, it's not the end of the world, especially when you lose to Alabama by one, and you were without your best quarterback, and your quarterback, and quit viewers. Now, they lose that game to Texas Tech, and that was a big win for Joey Maguire's squad.

But they dropped that game by three points, and when you get to that two loss category, it basically throws you out of the college football playoff conversation. Not that anyone was looking at Texas as a team before the year that was going to be in the college football playoff. But if they had one loss and it was to Alabama when Ewers got hurt, and they were able to run the table, this would have been a totally different feel on Texas. Now, there still is something to prove for Texas, because you're playing for two things. Number one, Quinn Ewers is playing to keep his job for next year, and even if it doesn't work, then you know that you have Arch Manning coming in to be then the savior of Texas football. Their final five games of the year, though, every Texas game is going to be really fun for the next five games. Oklahoma State, at Kansas State, then they play TCU.

Just those three games, back to back to back, really fun. And I know Kansas has lost their quarterback, but you get Kansas and Baylor to end out the season. There is not an easy game here for Texas the rest of the way, and if they could find a way to win five games in a row, not only does that lock up Arch Manning to be the quarterback next year for Texas, but it really creates buzz around Texas for the first time in a while, where how many times have we kid around, oh, Texas is back.

Remember Sam Ellinger? We're back! And any time someone says Texas is back, they urinate right down the left side of their leg. If they could find a way to win five in a row, well, it would be more than that because they're on a three game winning streak, but they win these final five games, or even take four out of the next five games. It does create a lot of buzz about this Texas program with Sarc entering year number three.

Manning coming in, but knowing Manning may have to wait another year if Quinn Ewers continues to win games and do a good job here at Texas. In order for you to be back, you have to consistently beat teams that are either on your level or worse and obviously start to beat better teams than you. That was the one area Texas, well, actually the two areas Texas can never do is consistency. You can get one nice big win and then fought up by losing to a school you have no business losing to. I mean, they lost to Kansas last year.

For goodness sake, no disrespect to Kansas. They're terrible up until this year. So it's just like one of those things where they can never consistently... That was a good year for Kansas last year under Lance Leipold for Kansas standards. I don't even know what the record was. It was... I think they had two wins. It was bad. It was very bad.

But still, he took over a winless program, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. I mean, Kansas has been bad for 15 years. They just are atrocious. What they've done this year is unprecedented.

Absolutely. It's unbelievable. If you lose to Kansas this year, it's not as bad. But it's just one of those things where they can never just even consistently put one year on top of the next or put two or three good games together. They always kind of either buy their own hype or look ahead to an opponent and lose to someone they shouldn't.

So you're right. These next five games are massive, not just to finish the season strong, but get hype for next year and kind of start to show this is truly different Texas than we have been led to believe or wanted to believe for the last decade. This is a momentum building year. And it's crazy that when you talk about a program like Texas, you need to build momentum. But where they have been recently and how much change there's been recently, this is what you call a momentum moving, momentum building, foundational kind of building year.

That's what it is for them. And you could provide a little bit of hope that maybe the train is getting back on the track and move it in the right direction. And with the quarterback that you have now and the quarterback that you have coming in, this has potential not only to move, but move rather quickly. And you're going to need all the momentum that you can in the world because it's not that far away from that train moving into the Big 12 where they've been struggling to the SEC, which is the biggest and baddest conference in all of college football.

And you're going to need the right coach. And if SARC can really take advantage of these next two years, especially when the Manning era starts, then it does a big time, big time, big time advantage and creates a big time advantage for Texas because now there's actually hope for Texas again. They got to show it though. They got to prove it because how many years have we talked about teams like Nebraska and teams like Miami and teams like Texas where they get one big win and just like when Alabama loses, everyone runs right to the radio, right to the television. Oh, ding dong, Alabama's dead.

All right, that's it. Alabama's done so. When Texas, when a team like Miami, Nebraska that's been down and out for a while shows a little pulse, starts kicking in the tummy, you know, gets one big win. It's all they're back, they're back, they're back. Even look at it this year. Remember earlier in the year, Miami? Even I was going a little bit delirious with, and I like Mario Crystal Ball, with Miami was early in the year and then poof, that goes all right out the window. And not only right out the window, man, it seemed like that was forever ago that there was positive momentum being built around Miami this year.

That's still the nature of the sport. We remember how good these schools once were, now it's can you bring them back. And in these next five games with, yes, the CFP out of reach, but the Big 12 still in play and the Big 12 has been sensational this year. You know, get to a Big 12 championship game if you're Texas.

Now it's going to be a tough road to get there. You only have one loss in the Big 12 right now, that's a Texas Tech, but you don't have an easy game on your schedule and timing is everything in sports when you look at Oklahoma State, Kansas State, TCU, Kansas, and then also Baylor. Out of those five games, Mr. College Football of CBS Sports Radio Hot Take Kicky, if I set the over under at two and a half, you take the over, you take the under. I think I'll take the under. Ooh, I'm going to take the over.

Now, I'm not going to the over at like four or five. I think they're going to take three out of these next five games. I think they'll go three and two in these next five games. And it may have to be that you just take one out of Oklahoma State, Kansas, and TCU and then you beat both Kansas and Baylor. That's what it may have to be. But you're going what, two and three?

Is that what you're going? Two and three. If they go two and three, is Quinn Ewers dealt with the quarterback next year?

Depends on what the issue is. It could be the defense. That's what I'm asking you. Do you think at the end of the year Quinn Ewers is going to basically say, Arch Manning, you're great, everyone loves you, I was once considered great, I still am great. And it will always be a quarterback competition, but you made the answer to the competition before a competition.

So that's what I'll ask you. Do you think you'll know the answer before the competition starts this upcoming offseason between Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning? Will Ewers do enough to take that baton to at least be the starter game one next year? No.

Okay. That's going to be one of the more anticipated, not one of, it's got to be the most anticipated quarterback kind of battle that we may have ever seen in the sport. And I really hope Quinn Ewers balls out these next five games because all it does is increase the intensity and the buzz about this potential QB battle with Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning. By the way, I want to see the Astros win the World Series for one man and one man only, and that is Dusty Baker. Guys, been around baseball forever, has been so close. I am all in on the Astros winning the World Series this year. And yeah, they're labeled as cheaters, but that doesn't really annoy me anymore. They've been in the ALCS each and every year since that scandal.

I think they get the job done for Dusty this year. Is there something really absurd that skeeves you out? Getting a paper cut on my eyeball. A fear you can't shake? I'm going to leak ocular fluid down my cheeks.

It's going to go into my mouth and I will perish. Whatever scares you, I want to talk about it. Join me, Larry Mullins, on my new podcast, Your Weirdest Fears. Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from. No Mercy with Stephen A. Smith, a presentation of Cadence 13 and Odyssey Studio available on the Odyssey app or wherever you listen to your podcast. What's up, everybody? Guess who's hosting a new podcast? No Mercy with Stephen A. Smith. Listen as I pull back the curtain on everything beyond the world of sports. Interviewing influential guests, outspoken celebrities and thought leaders across the political, financial and social spectrum. You know me. I'll give you my unbiased opinion. A No Mercy episode drops every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. No Mercy with Stephen A. Smith, a presentation of Cadence 13 and Odyssey Studio available on the Odyssey app or wherever you listen to your podcast.