Heisman Hopefuls (Hour 3)

Is there something really absurd that skews you out? Getting a paper cut on my eyeball. A fear you can't shake? I'm gonna leak ocular fluid on my cheeks.

It's gonna go into my mouth and I will perish. Whatever scares you, I wanna talk about it. Join me, Larry Mullins, on my new podcast, Your Weirdest Fears. Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on my YouTube channel. on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from. Out of number three of our radio program, we are coming to you live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios.

Need to know what it takes for your home to fit your budget and your family? Well, a rocket can. Poll question today. You can find it at CBS Sports Radio, at Zach Geld. Who wins? Tennessee or Georgia?

Hickey, if you had to take a guess. Percentages. If you had to evaluate our audience, what do you think the percentage is Tennessee? And what do you think the percentage is on Georgia?

Give me the first one, the higher one. I will say 57% Tennessee, 43% Georgia. I'm actually pretty impressed. You don't think that the majority of people would say Georgia based off their past? I think Tennessee is the hot flavor of the month and people are riding the wave. You'd be correct.

Not exactly in the percentages, but Tennessee, 63% Georgia, 37%. Those are the early, early returns to this fine poll question. All right, five questions, five answers. Let's get to it. On sides, offside.

Huh? Zach's taking on the most polarizing issues in sports. Which side of the line of scrimmage will he end up on? On sides, offside, defense number 69. It's on sides, off sides with Zach Gelb on CPS sports radio.

All right, Hixter, what do you offer me? Let's start at the poll question, Zach, because the game of the century in college football this week features number one Tennessee traveling to Athens to take on number three Georgia. It pits strength on strength as Evol's offense is number one in the country in scoring and also number one in the country in total offense, while on the other side, that bulldog defense has been dominant yet again as they are second in scoring offense or scoring defense, I should say, excuse me, and fourth in total yards allowed. In this game, Georgia at home is favored by eight points. On sides or offsides, Georgia will win the game and cover the spread. I think in this one, Georgia is going to win, but it's not going to be by eight and a half points. I think they win by field goal. I think they win by a touchdown at most. Tennessee has a really good chance of winning this game. If I'm sitting here Monday and Tennessee's the victorious team, I wouldn't be surprised whatsoever, but I will plus the points on Tennessee. I do believe though, if I had to pick a side and who wins this game outright, it's going to be Georgia. So you asked me, is Georgia going to win and cover? I think they win.

I don't think they cover. So since there was an end in there offside, the Astros took a commanding three games to two series lead of the Phillies after their three, two winning game five on Thursday night. It was the Jeremy Pena and bullpen show yet again as a rookie shortstop drove in two out of the three runs and the pen allowed just one run and two hits over four innings. The series now flips to Houston for game six and potentially game seven odds odds are offsides.

Astros will win game six and thus win the world series. I'm going on a bachelor party this weekend, a quick little bachelor party to Atlantic city Saturday night, tomorrow night has the makings to be a very good and crazy night or a very bad night. And I don't know where I fall into this conversation. I'm just looking to have a good time. So on this bachelor party, eight people, you have four Phillies fans, three Mets fans.

And then you do have one like in between her, someone that roots for the Yankees, someone that roots for the Mets, one of those like New York baseball fans. So there was a big debate because we got a reservation at this place called Chef Vola. And Chef Vola has some of the best veal Parmesan that I've ever had. And they have unbelievable linguine and clam sauce too. This is kind of like a hickey restaurant.

You would enjoy yourself at this restaurant, although you probably say, sounds good. I don't want this. I don't want that. I'm not going to try this. I'm not going to try that because you eat like a toddler.

But anyway, besides the point, this doesn't need to be a shot at you. There was a big debate and it's changed during the series because when the Phillies were winning, not going to the restaurant on Saturday night, got to watch the game, got to watch the game. Now, the restaurant doesn't have TVs. Everyone is going tomorrow night to the restaurant. We found out that the restaurant, which is like an old school joint, they added wifi for the playoffs and they got a router and everything.

So people could bring an iPad. People could bring a phone and connect to the wifi and watch the playoff games because a lot of people have reservation stuff to get a reservation at this place. And once you're there, it's a great meal and you don't want to miss out on that experience within your teams in the World Series. So eight of us are going to be at dinner when you're going to have the Phillies in the World Series, potentially getting eliminated or advancing to game seven of the World Series.

Now I want to see a seventh game of the World Series. So tomorrow night, yeah, I'm rooting for the Philadelphia Phillies for tomorrow night. But I'm not going to be like sitting there actively cheering and going nuts, but I'm going to be in the restaurant trying to enjoy my veal parmesan, have a few drinks, look over, watch the game, be engaged, college football, I'll probably be more intrigued with college football.

I'm not going to lie, but I think that create for a little bit of an awkward moment in a, let's say classier establishment, where you're going to have some people screaming and going nuts. And since we are in Jersey and you're in South Jersey, there's going to be a big Phillies contingency. I think this could be a very rowdy and raucous meal either way. So that's, that's the situation I'm in for tomorrow night. I'll just say this. Not to be the Debbie Downer.

I'm skeptical you'll be even able to watch them. Why? If they need, if they didn't have wifi up until the playoffs and you're talking about bringing a router in that does not sound reliable. My buddy knows the owner. They said that it, that the guy's a big Phillies fan, the owner, he's had no problem all throughout the playoffs. None. I hope he, I hope this is not the one where everyone from Philly is there on Saturday night. Try to watch the game at the same time.

You guys are. Could you imagine? Maybe that's what I'm rooting for for the wifi not to work. Did you see the look of my, my friend's face or any service?

Like could you get a little LTE action? You know? Yeah.

I'm sure you turn some data. It's not usually great there from what I recall. This was the Mets. Would you go? Who's bachelor party? Is it a Mets fan or Phillies fan? It's the in-betweener. Matt and Yankee fan.

Oh my God. If you were Mets fan and they were, you are, if the weather, the world series scheduled, right? If the Mets were in the world series at the Phillies, what would you do?

Oh, you're saying if it's my batch of party and I get to run this is just rolls reverse. Same guy's bachelor party, but Mets are the world series set of the Phillies for me. Cause you know, easy to say, Oh, I'd do this if it's, you know, but it's not your team.

You're Mets are in it. I call up Lee. Hey, Lee.

Or excuse me. Hey, Lee. Man. I, I think I came down with something. I'm going to go get a COVID test and see if everything's all right.

That's what I think I would do. Well, you duck out of the entire bachelor party. Wow. It's only a two day event. To be fair.

It's very quick that you can duck out of the dinner and have a meet you at wherever you are after the fact. No, no. I'm not sitting at a bar by myself.

What am I you? Well, you said you have friends that are Mets fans. Oh, you mean everyone would then go. The Mets fans would go. Well, I'm assuming so. I mean, even if it is just you, I would definitely leave. I don't know. If my team was in the world series, I do think I'm buying the I'll try to be a good friend and say, I'll be there. Just not in the three hour window. We're going to eat dinner.

Go to the wedding. Give me a gift. But I'll see one for me. The Astros will in game six and win the world series. They're going to win the world series. I think they're going to win in seven though, or that's all he's hoping that we get a game seven in the world series.

So I'm going offside on Sunday. We will see a rematch of a great NFC division around playoff game from last year as the Rams will travel down to Tampa on NBC. That'd be good. We'll sign the hair of their skinny teeth teeth or Thursday night. We have al Michael's read, you know, redeeming right now, Michael's doesn't work for Sunday night football anymore.

It works on Thursday. Yeah. Can we make this a Thursday night football game?

Of course, add extra work to al Michael's and Kirk's play, you know, I'm sure they're not busy or anything. Yeah. All these Al, you know, there's a Fox game, I'm pretty sure.

Fox game. Yeah. So tell Burkhardt, you know, cause he's been at the world series, take one off or whoever's in the broadcast, take one off, get out Michaels to do the game by the hair of their skinny teeth teeth.

Oh yeah. I wonder if he's doing the game. I know Burkhardt's at the MLB play-by-play guy to the studio show.

There's a game seven. I wonder what would happen. I just think you've got to do the studio show. Oh, even as a, just a host, not even the main play-by-play guy.

If you're asking me, yes, if I am Kevin Burkhardt, yes, which one do you pick? I would pick the world series. Rams bucks. Oh, it's a regular season game. You're I'm not trying to demean by any stretch imagination or his role, but a pre and post game host is a little different than play-by-play man on the field, handing out the trophy. No, Joe Davis would do that.

No. Burkhardt would. Burkhardt's done it.

The studio host does it for the, for at least that's a little different. He's giving out the trophy. Maybe. It's definitely Burkhardt. Burkhardt's out of the pass. I can't remember.

Usually I turn this off. I'm telling you, Burkhardt has done it in the past. It comes to the braids and the nets. I don't know. Burkhardt has done it in the past. Okay. That's the case.

Then that's different. I'm trying to see if they, on the announcing call just real quickly. Oh, this is Rams bucks, not a Fox game. CBS. That's right.

I referenced that earlier. Rams bucks. Oh, cause Jim Nance is not going to talk about Brady, you assume that's an NFC NFC battle. It's Fox.

Yeah, you would. I don't think Burkhardt's doing any, I'm looking to see if Burkhardt's doing any game. Oh yes.

Burkhardt's doing Packers and lions. Okay. That's way different than that. It's way different.

One PMECL. No, no disrespect. But see you later. Yeah. Does he? This may be an Andrew Marchand question. What happens if there is a game seven? Well, it's one o'clock. Yeah.

Yeah. Game. I think game six is at eight o'clock at night. That's a long night.

The action is on the world series. I get it. It's a one or two a.m. you fly out to Detroit.

You don't land. You're not digging ditches for a living. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. All right. Go ahead.

It's a long, long, long time. So speaking of this big game Rams and bucks will face off on Sunday. Neither team has gotten off to a hot start as defending Superbowl champs are three and four start the season and have suffered numerous injuries along the offensive line. Well Tampa, they are three and five and in the midst of a three game losing streak on sides or outside Zach, the loser of this game will miss the playoffs. Yeah, I think the Rams are going to lose this game and I think the Rams are going to miss the playoffs.

So on sides. All righty. The Nets they announced on Thursday night that they have suspended Kyrie Irving after his lack of an apology for the movie with anti-Semitic undertones that he did push on social media. Now the suspension does not have a definitive length, but the Nets did announce that it will be for a minimum of at least five games. Now after the suspension came down minutes later Irving did post or hours, I should say Irving did post an apology stating that he is sorry to the Jewish community for causing them pain on sides or offside Zach. The Nets should cut and or trade Kyrie Irving.

See here's here's where I struggle with this one. He got suspended. I don't think Kyrie's ever going to want to play for the Nets again because I don't care what Kyrie now says in the aftermath. I don't buy him for a second.

He showed who he was this week. I'm going to answer this not having to deal with probably the way that you're asking this. I think they should just get rid of him period because he's been such a head case to begin with and it's been such a problem to begin with. So I know you're probably asking this based off the comments, but I'm done with Kyrie Irving just based off even though he's a great player. He's not worth the headache. So yeah, I'm okay with that on sides. Get rid of him. No, that works because I mean in theory he checks all the boxes, he'll be back.

So it's yeah, that's always something with this guy. And finally, in the first batch of the college roll playoff rankings, LSU is the highest ranked two loss team. They sit at number 10. Now the Tigers are coming off a blowout win over number seven Ole Miss at home. That was two weeks ago and now they will get ready to host number six Alabama tied to come to Death Valley on Saturday night. Now the Tigers, their two losses came to Florida State early in the year to kick off the season.

Actually them were smoked by Tennessee to start the month of October. But when it comes to controlling your own destiny, they do do that in terms of winning the SEC. Now in the eight years of the college roll playoff has been, has been going on. There has never been a two loss team to make it on sides or offside. LSU in your mind is still alive to make the college football playoff. My answer is no right out of the gate, but hold off.

I'm playing the sound effect is the way that you're asking this based off the assumption. They run the tables. That means beat Alabama, Arkansas, UAB, and Texas A&M where they win this weekend. That's doable. Then get into the SEC, SEC championship game and then win the SEC championship game. Oh yeah. That's the only way that that's possible.

I never even thought about that. A two loss SEC champion because my mind all year has only been Alabama. My mind has been on Tennessee. My mind has been on Georgia winning SEC. Whoever wins out of that group of three teams in the SEC is not going to have two losses. Do I think, do I think LSU is going to do that first off? No, but if they had two losses and they won the SEC championship, would they get in?

I still think I would still say no. I think it has to be a lot of chaos. Like Clemson would have to lose. TCU would have to lose maybe even Oregon and, or UCLA, whoever the PAC 12 champ is maybe losing again.

That'd be one of those situations. Remember it was, you remember it well, Penn State, Ohio State, Penn State, Ohio State won the big 10 championship and then Ohio State had one loss that year. Yeah. Two Penn State didn't win their, didn't win the conference, didn't win their division. Remember go back to four years ago, 2017 Auburn and now they lost to Georgia in the SEC title game. But there was thought that if they beat Georgia again for the second time, like three weeks or four weeks, they would make it as a two loss.

Yeah. There's no, first off, LSU is not that good. There's six and two. I had no, like if people are freaking out over the 10 ranking, I'm not, I asked who should definitely give me like two, three teams that definitely should be in front of them and I didn't get great answers. So I'm not even freaking out over the ranking. I just don't think they're that good.

I think it just speaks to the sport this year, there's like seven or 18 that are really, really good. But in this case, I don't see how they went out. So that's why I'm going no offside.

This is Zach Yup's show on CBS Sports Radio. Is there something really absurd that skeaves you out? Getting a paper cut on my eyeball. A fear you can't shake. I'm going to leak ocular fluid on 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. What makes your skin crawl? No matter how absurd.

I want to know. Tails without fur on them, such as rats or possums. I'm Larry Mullins, the host of a new podcast called Your Weirdest Fears. You send me your fear.

I'm just so weirded out about the texture and how they can just move around and flop. And then I go to the experts to learn how to overcome them. Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from. What makes your skin crawl? No matter how absurd.

I want to know. Tails without fur on them, such as rats or possums. I'm Larry Mullins, the host of a new podcast called Your Weirdest Fears. You send me your fear.

I'm just so weirded out about the texture and how they can just move around and flop. And then I go to the experts to learn how to overcome them. Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from.

You're listening to the Zach Geld Show. You can think of Riley Auto Parts for your car care needs, get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at Riley Auto Parts, the two biggest games in college football this weekend, Alabama LSU, Georgia, Tennessee, Heisman wise. What does this mean for the Heisman Trophy conversation?

Two thoughts. Number one, Hendon Hooker can wrap up the Heisman Trophy this weekend. If Hendon Hooker beats Georgia, he would then have defeated Alabama and Georgia in one season.

Assuming he beats Georgia, you would think he has a monster, monster, monster, monster game. I don't see how anyone else would be able to win the award even without knowing if Tennessee would win the SEC championship game. But I don't see how anyone else would win the award if Hendon Hooker in one season beats Alabama and then beats Georgia. Before I get to my other thought, Hickey, would you agree that if Hendon Hooker wins this weekend and let's say has three passing touchdowns, no turnovers, they beat Georgia or four passing touchdowns, whatever it is, that you would start to feel as if the Heisman Trophy races over and that it would eventually go to Hendon Hooker. He'd be the clear front runner and in cruise control, I would not say it's locked up.

Then who else could you think may enter the conversation? I think Max Duggan of TCU could enter the conversation. I think your guy Blake Corum can enter the conversation for sure with another big game against Ohio State.

Well, let's not bury the lead here. This is a stat patter type of week. You pad the stats this week if you're Blake Corum. Ruckers?

Yeah. Isn't that a six or seven touchdown potential performance if he wanted it? For Blake Corum, I'm not saying he's going to get all those touchdowns, but a guy just ran for a buck 70 something against Michigan State and the Michigan offense wasn't even great against Michigan State.

If he wants to go get 200 yards this weekend and four touchdowns, there is a five touchdown performance game this year. I forget what year was an exact score, but there was like Michigan one and beat Ruckers like 72. I was there. I was there. You went to that game?

I was. I was covering the game because we aired on the low end station that I used to work for my first job out of college. We aired in South Jersey, the Rutgers football games. So I went with a high school buddy of mine that played college football D3. He wanted to see Michigan. So we went and in the third quarter, we both looked at each other in the warm confines of the press box and he goes, Oh, I want to hear hardball after the game. Like we had press passes and all that. So we could have got a locker room and I looked at him and like, you still want to go see Harvard? No, let's get out of here.

It was ugly. That needs to be a game for Blake Corum on Saturday. I forget what year that was.

Let's run up the score. I want to say 28 is either 16, 17 or 18. I know it's a long span. And I was at a college. So it's in that I would say if I had to take a guess, Michigan is pretty good that year. I want to say it was September of 2016. I mean, that's maybe not September, but it was late. I think it was later on in the year to remember Penn State Ohio State and Michigan. The combination against Rutgers was like 220 to zero in the three games that year that they played. Let me see.

But it was a, it was a shell. October 8th, 2016 78 to nothing, 78, nothing. That needs to be, you talk about staff heading. It does help Blake Corum with the game 56 to 10 and go out for touchdowns. Don't pull me in the third quarter when it's 49, nothing. I need a few extra TDs and the way that like, so the guys you mentioned max Duggan, he would need TCU to remain undefeated and win the big 12 for him to, to win the Heisman. Blake Corum will have to beat Ohio State, win the big 10 championship to win the Heisman. Even if both those guys do that, if Hendon Hooker wins this weekend and then somehow even loses the SEC championship game and doesn't play horribly, I don't think he's going to lose the award. And you know, I've been leading the Blake Corum charge on national CBS sports radio since like week three of the season. Because he wins this weekend as long as he doesn't bleep the bed in the SEC and even if he does, I think he wins the Heisman. I really do.

And you know what the weird part is? These voters, first off, got to be careful here with what I'm about to say. The Heisman voting process, sometimes like a lot of award voting processes, not always the best indication sometimes of who should win the award. And and what I mean by that is that there's a lot of like when I go to Heisman every year, and as long as I don't get COVID like I did last year, we're planning on going to the Heisman Trophy presentation again. They bring you out of packet once the award is announced and you get to see all the breakdowns. And something that always fascinates me are the early votes that get casted for the Heisman Trophy. Shouldn't the process be, Ryan, and I've always thought this.

You could do this. I know you have to get people to New York on that Friday and you got a bunch of award ceremonies and travel. Shouldn't it be right after the final conference championship game to the people that have the Heisman votes? You get 24 hours and all you have to do in the year of 2022 is what the way that this should work is you have an online account, secured password, and you have a security code that gets texted to your phone or something and you just log in and you give your ballot. I hate when people cast their vote for the Heisman Trophy before conference championship weekend ends.

I don't know why it's allowed. Yeah, it makes no sense why you can like in September or October say, you know what, this guy like it fluctuates and it really is not that this award is like what have you done for me lately sort of thing, but it does come down to the end where you lose. That's why I'm not ready to say head and hooker would lock it up after this weekend is one bad game. It usually those guys do tend to fade or someone else rises up and you have, you know, Max Duggan, CJ Strad, Blake Quorum.

It's kind of like a flavor of the week. Now this may be weird to say it's an underrated part of the conversation, but you really haven't seen because he got hurt and he's still been great for them this year. But people are down in Alabama because they do have a loss and it wasn't Bryce Young's fault why Alabama lost to Tennessee. But if Bryce Young in a big game this week, let's say goes five touchdown passes, no interceptions. Not that I think there's a big Heisman push for him, but I do think his name resurfaces.

Oh, Heisman winner last year. Oh, maybe blew out LSU. If Alabama goes and plays that SEC championship game and wins the SEC championship game and starts to have big moments down the stretch. I know that the Iron Bowl this year, it's always big, but it's not as big as it's been in previous years because Auburn, well, actually may have gotten better now with Brian Harson out of the picture because you got Cadillac Williams coaching for Auburn. But anyway, you keep on seeing Alabama and bigger and bigger spots.

This could be a week where Bryce Young, let's say reenters the conversation gets an invite back into the room. Without a doubt, you have LSU all miss back to back weeks. And like I said, you make the SEC title game and we were questioning the Alabama talent, especially at the wider series. If you beat again, Georgia, Tennessee, whoever it is, an SEC title game, another SEC championship, Bryce Young probably would be winning two in a row. If you think of five names to win the Heisman this year, Henson Hooker and no water, Blake Quorum, CJ Stroud, I put Max Duggan in there over Caleb Williams. Yeah. And okay. So you're really hitching your wagon to TCU running the table.

He puts up mega numbers, too. I'm just saying you're really hitching your wagon to TCU running the table. It's part of the award, unfortunately, you know, as it is to say, I think the four names that I have to give you, I know I'm going to give you five, but right off the bat, Quorum, Stroud, Hooker, Bryce Young still, and then that fifth one I'm deciding between Duggan and Caleb Williams, I would lean.

You're probably right. It should be Duggan, but I'll lean Caleb Williams just because of the brand recognition of USC. Like Christian McCaffrey should have won a Heisman, who was, Toby Gerhart had a monster year as well.

There's just some guys that don't go to the schools that are always in the spotlight. They should have a better chance they don't end up winning the award. And you know what was also the weirdest year? It was when two of us should have won the award and Kyla Murray won the award. I thought that year was, it was, it was just SEC buys.

I really do believe that. I really thought to a tongue of my lowest should have won the Heisman trophy the year that that Kyla Murray ended up winning the Heisman. I remember doing segments on that on when we were on the weekend overnight. Anyway, that's our Heisman trophy conversation for today.

It is Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. What makes your skin crawl? No matter how absurd I want to know.

Tales without fur on them, such as rats or possums. I'm Larry Mullins, the host of a new podcast called Your Weirdest Fears. You send me your fear.

I'm just so weirded out about the texture and how they can just move around and flop. And then I go to the experts to learn how to overcome them. Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from. What makes your skin crawl? No matter how absurd I want to know.

Tales without fur on them, such as rats or possums. I'm Larry Mullins, the host of a new podcast called Your Weirdest Fears. You send me your fear.

I'm just so weirded out about the texture and how they can just move around and flop. And then I go to the experts to learn how to overcome them. 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's season for the first time you can hear every Western One NFL broadcast stream live for free. Mondays, Thursdays, Sunday nights, the international series, holiday triple headers and every postseason game catch all the action on the Odyssey app on what's one sports.com via what's one station streams or by asking Alexa to open Western One Sports all sponsored by AutoZone.

It's time to say good night to that check engine light with the free AutoZone fixed finder service that will help troubleshoot the likely cause of your life for free restrictions apply get in the zone AutoZone before we get into the first year coaches in college football the big ones and you'll get my reactions on where I think their program is going. I had something occur today that surprised me. It caught me off guard. I'm not the Grinch. I don't like to say no holiday spirit and I happen to love Christmas even though I'm Jewish but I have family that celebrates Christmas and it's one of my favorite holidays. I dress up as Santa Claus and I'll be dressing up as Santa Claus to come into CBS Sports Radio. One of those days and we'll take a great show picture and you dress up as an elf this year Hickey. Can we do that? Can you be an elf and I'll be Santa Claus? I'm gonna pass on that.

Why not? No elf. I'm gonna call for an elf number one. Fine, fine, fine. We'll get Santa to be a little elf. That's a lot better.

Yeah. Santa would be a good elf. He would play into it. And I think he would. Do you think he'd be offended? If I said to him, hey, can you dress up as an elf for Christmas and I'm gonna be Santa Claus? I don't think so. I feel like he wore elf ears last year. I could be wrong about that. Yeah.

He probably did so for TV. We're very on brand for Santa. But anyway, I was very surprised and I think this is the earliest I've ever heard it. Hey, I'm in Starbucks. Not only am I in Starbucks and I hear Christmas music blasting through Starbucks, the entire staff is dressed up in holiday kind of gear, like spirit gear for the Christmas season.

Now, Ryan, correct me if I'm wrong. We are one, two, three, four, five, six, seven weeks away from Christmas. So kids, make a list. You'll find out if you're naughty or nice this year. And Santa's got to get ready, right, to go eat your cookies and deliver the presents. But seven weeks away from Christmas for a store to be playing Christmas music, which I happen to love Christmas music. And having employees dressed up in Christmas spirit gear, a little premature if you ask me.

A little. I love Christmas. We're not even at Thanksgiving yet. Can I enjoy Thanksgiving first?

I have no problem. Black Friday, you want to start cranking out the tunes, putting the Christmas tree up. Different because that's the start of the holiday season.

That's the push in terms of let's go crazy, let's go shopping, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, all that stuff. We're not even close right now. We're getting there to Thanksgiving, but we still have one, two, three weeks away from Thanksgiving. I was just going to say we still have a was 20 days exactly right. We have a long way to go just to get to the second holiday, the second biggest holiday of the season, if you will.

So let's just personally my favorite holiday Thanksgiving. Let's pump them with it. Let's calm down.

And also, I mean, it does help. The sports is pumping out Santa Claus commercials left and right with the World Cup might calm down. Are they really? Oh my goodness. For the last like two weeks, Jon Hamm is Santa Claus. He was running, I hope USA, what I want for Christmas this year, USA to win the World's Cup. We get it. You got the World's Cup. Let's just please.

That's not going to happen. Let's get a different commercial. No one in Santa Claus in like late October. I think it was like before the last time I saw was Penn State Ohio State on Saturday.

It was before even Halloween. Really? Crazy. That's wild.

So I'm not nuts here. When I was waiting for my, my tea today, I wasn't even getting coffee. I was waiting for a little Earl's grade tea with some honey, which by the way, my next drink from Starbucks is free. After that experience. It's not because I complained, not like I was a Grinch who complained about the music.

I actually enjoyed the music, but I just thought it was too early or the employees dressed up in the, in the, in the Christmas gear. They put my order in and I'm standing there for 10 minutes and I'm maybe one of three or four people in the store. It's hot tea. All you do is you pull down the lever, the hot water comes out, put the tea bag in and boom.

You serve it up, put a little honey in and away you go. They registered my order. I paid for my order. They rang it up, never processed it.

So the manager was nice. He came over and he was like, Oh, next one's on us. I apologize about that.

But if I never said anything, it was like 10, 10 minutes gone on nearly 15 minutes. I'm like, Hey, uh, where's that, uh, Earl's gray tea. Got that tea anywhere. Oh, we forgot to put it through.

So I got a free tea out of it. I did think that was very late for Christmas season because usually I expect Christmas music right after Thanksgiving. And I think that is usually right the 20 like fifth in that range 26, 27, 28, whenever it depends when it falls on that Thursday. Right after the next day, I expect Christmas music, not a month before Thanksgiving.

Pretty much very early. Then it gets tired and then it's like two months of Christmas. We get it because the Christmas music makes you smile. It's so catchy. You start singing it. Like I'm singing all the Christmas songs today because I just heard them six, seven weeks from now. That's enough when also not to celebrate it the most like it gets old quick because there's not that many songs to play. Yeah.

Like, I don't know what less than 50. Did I tell you about the year by the way, where I was dressed up as Santa Claus and I was visiting my cousins in Pennsylvania and I baby cousins and their father wanted to have a game of flag football. It was like, it was a nice day. It was one of those Christmas days where it's really nice day and I'm in the Santa Claus suit and we had a few beers before and my brother-in-law thought he could tackle me in the flag football game and you just see a large Santa Claus bulldozing in the streets. My brother-in-law as my brother-in-law thought he could take me down and there's a big size difference between my brother-in-law and yours truly.

I was just always wondering if his neighbors were watching and they see this large gigantic child like I am in a Santa Claus suit, just looking as if he's Brandon Jacobs running through a defense and the defense was my brother-in-law. I respect to some cornerbacks who will run away from the running back and kind of avoid the hole. Your brother-in-law stepped right up now didn't go well for him, but I respect him to put his head down and. He had guts, but he was stupid. Taking a chance. Had a heart.

Had a heart. Yeah, give me some first-year college head coaches and I will tell you if I'm starting to believe in them or my confidence levels, I will do a little approval rating. Let's start with a man who's going back to his alma mater. That is Mario Cristobal at Miami, the Hurricanes 4-4 so far through 8-week.

Yeah, I like Mario Cristobal to be clear. I think he's going to do a good job at Miami, but when you lose to Middle Tennessee and I know whenever you take a new job, sometimes it doesn't go the way that you expect it to in your number one because you're building and they have a lot of building to do because that rat many other that snake many Diaz or whatever animal I call him was that Miami and was just ruining the program like a lot of other coaches, but this has been ugly and I was I know early on they had two cupcake games that won them both, but then they lose to A&N. They lose the Middle Tennessee, you lose to North Carolina. They lost to Duke. I got blown out by Duke. They just beat Virginia in overtime last week by two points.

Yeah. I can't say I approve of what's going on and in a four and four season. I'm intrigued by where they're going to be next year, but right now I can't say that yeah, I'm approving of many Diaz at Miami.

Here's an easy one. Coach are the number 17 in the country. That is Sonny Dykes and TC. Yeah, it's easiest when you gave me and he even admit it when he was on this show a few weeks ago when I think there were five and oh and he said, I am surprised when I asked him about this because you never know what's going to happen to your number one and this is his fourth time being a, a head coach on a different stop. This is first, you know, his fourth time being a head coach and you never thought it could come together to this capacity, but it has.

So yeah, I don't care what happens the rest of the way, two thumbs up so far to Sonny Dykes. It was a rough start for Marcus Freeman in Notre Dame, but the Irish now five and three, which are belief level that he can kind of continue the little momentum he's got going. So do I think Marcus Freeman can build Notre Dame to getting back to being, I don't want to say build because he took over what was a really good program that was in a good spot. But do I think they can get back where they're undefeated for a year or two and they're maybe back into college football playoff and they get blown out by a just a superior team?

Yeah, I do think they could get there. I know that they had that loss to Charles Huff squad in Marshall. They played Ohio State tough for a first half that Ohio State was the better team.

I've been okay. I could think that Marcus Freeman, once he gets his feet wet, first time being a head coach, I think in year number two, you'll see a drastic improvement. So I'm okay with the way this Notre Dame season played out because I didn't think they were all that good with the lack of quarterback this year. How about Dan Lending in the Red Hot Oregon Ducks? Two thumbs up. And who would have thought that after the first game of the season, especially with the inconsistencies that we thought Bo Nix was going to display.

Bo Nix has been Red Hot and you have not lost since the first game of the season for Dan Lending. Yeah, approval rating for the roof. The roof is a ceiling as MJ would say.

That is a famous one for sure. Still don't really get it, but hey, good for you MJ. How about a team right on the heels of Oregon that's USC with first year coach, Lincoln Riley?

Approval rating. I know that they had that tough loss to Utah and again that they were winning and it looked like they were going to win. So going away and then they ended up losing 43 to 42 and Cam Rising just left it all out there on the field with that, I think it was a five touchdown performance in that one. But with that being said, USC is starting to feel like they're starting to get back.

And I think it's only going to continue to improve now. They are going into the SEC, which has its own challenge or the big 10, which has, I know they're going in the big 10, excuse me, which has its own challenges. So they're going to a step up in conference two years from now.

But with that being said, I think that Lincoln's going to continue to move them in the right direction and bring that sexiness back, bringing sexy back little Justin Timberlake style to one USC. Three more coaches here, Billy Napier, four and four, Florida. Napier is tough and I said this going into that game early in the year against Utah, the first game that they played this season where you may better serve, you may better be served off there as losing a close game and winning the game. Because once you win that game in game one for Billy Napier, you knew the expectations were to go through the roof and they have declined since then. I'm not saying that Napier has been bad, but I'm not ready to tell you that he's definitely going to be this great, successful coach.

I got to see more. Are you all aboard the Brian Kelly train at LSU? I like what he's done because that could have got really ugly in year one. It seemed like everyone was rooting against you because of the whole family thing and the weird dancing that he would do with recruits.

This is a big test. I give Brian Kelly the benefit of the doubt for the job that he didn't know to name. I do think that Brian Kelly will be good at LSU. So I approve. And finally, Brent and Venables had a very rough midway stretch of the season five and three Oklahoma, what's your belief level in the first year head coach at Oklahoma? Got to see more. I can't tell you that I'm a big.

I like the higher. He's been waiting for a job for a long time. They went in that back to back to back stretch where they had three losses in a row, Kansas State, TCU and Texas, the Red River where they got blank 49 to nothing. Now they've won their last two games. I got to see how he finishes the rest of the way. I think he can be a good coach, but I'm not ready to go all in because you thought, right, this could have been a college football playoff team.

And I didn't think that was a crazy thought. I would have thought maybe at most two losses, they're already at three. I got to see how many more he piles up before the end of the year and his remaining games. Let me just look real quickly. Baylor, West Virginia, Oklahoma State, and then Texas Tech is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. One thought each on every game for the NFL in week nine coming on up in five minutes. We'll serve that to you.

It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Is there something really absurd that skews you out? Getting a paper cut on my eyeball. A fear you can't shake. I'm going to leak ocular fluid on 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. What makes your skin crawl? No matter how absurd, I want to know. Tails without fur on them, such as rats or opossums. I'm Larry Mullins, the host of a new podcast called Your Weirdest Fears. You send me your fear. I'm just so weirded out about the texture and how they can just move around and flop. And then I go to the experts to learn how to overcome them. Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from.