NFL Coach of the Year Race (Hour 4)

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For home loan solutions that fit your life well, Rocket can. I'm going to throw a new name into the Coach of the Year conversation. So, so far throughout the year, we've discussed the possibilities of a Mike McDaniel winning Coach of the Year.

The Dolphins are eight and five. We've discussed the possibility of Robert Salah, the Jets winning Coach of the Year. If the Jets make the playoffs, the Jets are seven and six. We've also have discussed at times Mike Vrabel, but I don't think Vrabel will win it because of that division and they kind of have cooled off as of late.

Then you shift to the NFC. Nick Sirianni, the Eagles are 12 and 1. He'll be in the Coach of the Year conversation. Ron Rivera may be making his way into the Coach of the Year conversation with how bad that was, that team was and the way that they turned it around. You know Pete Carroll's in the Coach of the Year conversation. Kevin O'Connell in the Coach of the Year conversation. And maybe Dan Campbell too.

The Lions end up making the playoffs. Dan Campbell has a shot to win Coach of the Year. But Hickey, a name that I have not heard mentioned yet, and maybe it's because it's a little bit of fatigue because the guy has done a really solid job ever since becoming a head coach.

But if the San Francisco 49ers win out and they get 13 wins on the season, can we see Kyle Shanahan win Coach of the Year? And I know some people are going to say, but Zach, he's got a loaded roster. Look at what he has on the defensive line. Look at what he has on the offensive line. He got Christian McCaffrey before the deadline. He has Deebo Samuel as well.

He has Kittle as well. They've had Trey Lance get hurt. Jimmy Garoppolo get hurt. And Brock Purdy right now, as the 49ers are up 7-0 as the second quarter just started, is 9 for 9 for 73 yards and a passing touchdown to George Kittle.

If the San Francisco 49ers win out, so that means beat Seattle tonight, beat the commanders, beat the Raiders, and then beat the Cardinals. You're looking at 13 wins. If this guy has 13 wins with a combination of three different starting quarterbacks, that sounds like a guy that not only should be in the Coach of the Year conversation, but he may end up winning the award. What do you think about that, Hickey? Totally agree.

100% agree. And you think too, if let's just say they were on the table, 13 wins, almost half of them are with a third-string quarterback in Brock Purdy. Let's just say, because only Jimmy Garoppolo played one series in the Dolphins game, Brock Purdy basically played the entire game. We'll just say he started that game and give him the win. When he gets the Dolphins, you won last week against the Buccaneers, you win the next four. Six out of 13 wins would be with your third-string quarterback. Is anyone else getting six wins with a third-string guy?

Probably not. I mean, I don't think so. You saw all the work that Sean Payne had to do last year at quarterback with two guys, these nine wins, and the guy went into retirement because of it or needed to step away. The fact that Kyle Shanahan is having this team, I know they're not quarterback dependent and one of the least quarterback dependent teams in the NFL, the way they're built.

Still, I'm with you 13 and four. That'd be maybe number two seed. You got to catch it to the Vikings, maybe need them to lose a game or two, but you could be the number two seed in the NFC with a third-string quarterback.

You could be. I just wonder if that will still be, it would put them in a conversation definitely. I just wonder if it's enough to win the award because if the Lions make the playoffs, how do you not give it to Dan Campbell? If the Seahawks end up making the playoffs, how does Pete Carroll not get it? No one thought the Seahawks or the Lions were going to be playoff contenders before the season started, so if those two teams get in, I got to think those coaches beat out Shanahan, and then for the Dolphins, I know things are starting to go the other way, and they're probably going to be eight and six after this weekend, but then if they win their final three games of the season, you got Mike McDaniel at 11 wins. That's a pretty damn impressive job by Mike McDaniel, and that's probably it. You know, Salah, if the Jets make the playoffs, sure, but if you put Ron Revere, if they make the playoffs and they're a six seed, Taylor Heineke.

So I would say he'd be in the conversation. The only thing is not that everyone was expecting that team to make the playoffs before the start of the year. They do got a lot of talent on that roster, and now it gets into one of those conversations like the stupid Micah Parsons conversation about Jalen Hurts. Well, if you're playing MVP ball, you got to have a good team around you, and in order to make the case for another guy, you're then kind of just trashing another coach, but yeah, Ron Revere has done a wonderful job because he almost lost that locker room, but he almost made that locker room become a circus when he was throwing a layup question, and then he went and trashed Carson Wentz. Now Carson Wentz deserved to be trashed, but you don't usually see a coach trashing your quarterback when it came down to those comments of what's the biggest difference of the NFC East between the three teams of the Eagles, the Cowboys, and the Giants, and it was like, oh yeah, it's quarterback play, which at the time that wasn't even a true response.

Yes, your quarterback play was not good, and I'll be the first one to rag on Carson Wentz, but it wasn't like the Giants were directly winning because of Daniel Jones. It wasn't because the Cowboys are winning directly because of Dak Prescott. Dak Prescott, if you recall, was hurt and Cooper Rush was in, so it just, that whole answer never made sense, but yeah, I would say that Ron is definitely in the conversation because he's done a really good job here down the stretch. Just like the fact we can make a case for, I mean, eight to 10 names, like this is, this is the hottest coach of the year, a coach of the year candidates that I could ever remember.

He was actually kind of funny too, in the same breath. This is also, some of the coaches have done a like horrible, it's like all or nothing, basically. You've been a great coaches here, but an awful coaches here. Because in the other side, you're looking at Nathaniel Hackett, Josh McDaniels, you look at Lovey Smith, Dennis Allen. There's very few coaches that are like, kind of in the middle where it's like, yeah, okay, hit or miss. I would put him in the bad conversation this year.

It's a very small pool. Todd Boles has been brutal. Usually it's either good, you really get the extremes of great and or really bad, but this year it's mostly.

So we get to throw people kind of in the conversation. Like legitimate, having a legitimate chance. McDaniel, I'm going division by division. McDaniel, no one in the AFC, oh yeah, Robert Solid could call. No one in the AFC West, no one in the AFC North.

Well, what happens to John Harbaugh wins the division with all these injuries now? Should be the mix. Okay.

Should be. So Harbaugh, do you put Zach Taylor in the mix? I will not.

Okay. AFC South, do you want to throw Vrabel in there for now? It doesn't look like he's going to win it, but.

Yeah, it's not that, I don't want to limit him because he's doing the same thing over and over again. It's impressive, but last year. These guys that are on the, in the realm of possibilities.

I would say no. I think that the talent and the pool is too high. It's tough to win that back-to-back years. Sirianni, Rivera. Oh, Brian Dabel. Yeah, that's one that we kind of glossed over there. NFC West, Pete.

That's it. Shanahan that we just talked about. You would have KOC, Campbell.

Absolutely no one in the South. What about Steve Wilkes? If they go make the playoffs, they win three out of their four down the, down the stretch. And he has seven wins as a coach. I think there's a conversation.

He's in the, he's in the conversation. You could have given it to Rich Passaccio last year. I can't give it to a coach that is going to, I mean, I get it. I mean, if the Panthers make the playoffs, their records give me what?

Eight and nine? Yeah, probably. That's they're not.

It's a good point. I just can't. Okay.

But he's, I mean, you're not wrong. It's like, he deserves consideration. Acknowledgement. If we had to, if we had to draft these right now, how many is, how many is that? 10?

McDaniel, Salah, Harbaugh, Sirianni, Rivera, Dabel, Pete Cowell, Shanahan, Kevin O'Connell, Dan Campbell. 10. Fine. That's where we'll draw the line in the sand.

We had to draft those right now. And I get, you know, flip the coin up. It's a tails today. Okay. We're going with tails. Who would I go with first? This is so tough.

Hickey. You know what? You won the coin toss today.

I'm letting you go. Wow. Yeah.

I love how that works. Sorry. I thought it was tails. It ended up being heads. Who are you going with?

I'm just trying to write everything out. I think I would go. McDaniel, Salah, Harbaugh, Sirianni, Rivera, Dabel, Pete Carroll, Kyle Shanahan, KOC. Bite your kneecaps off, Dan Campbell.

If I had the number one overall pick, I will say right now, I would think I would go with Dan Campbell. Really? I think you can make, I think his story is the best. They gotta make the playoffs for him to get in. I agree. But I mean, I think they can make, I think they will make the playoffs. Okay. And I think if you make the playoffs for the Detroit Lions, that in and of itself right there, especially starting off, were they one and six, right?

I think one and six. Give them the award. I'll go Sirianni. I'll just, I'll take that. All these guys that are kind of hovered right now, they fall by the wayside and then Sirianni has one loss.

How does he not get it? I'm going to go more in the should than would. I will take Kyle Shanahan in my second overall pick.

Wow. The guy I was making for the argument, you just steal him. Cause I mean, look, I think, I don't think he will get the award. I will say, I don't think the voters will, you know, give him, I think the proper respect is cause you look at the roster and is very loaded, but potentially again, I think they'll run the table. You look at the schedule remaining 13 and four, three quarterbacks, you got to give them some respect. I'll go KLC, Kevin O'Connell. Once again, I'll just go that these teams that are fighting out for the playoffs, they fall by the wayside, some of them, and then you get O'Connell with like a heck of a record, just winning that division to get it on a coach of the year. I'll go Pete Carroll. People will side with Pete Carroll. Say it again. Pete Carroll.

The guy that you wanted fired before. That is correct. Okay.

That is correct. Has done a great job and it helps also that Russell Wilson has looked like a fool. You can also kind of have that going your way as well. I'll go Rivera, Ron riverboat. So you got McDaniel Sala, Harbaugh and Debo. I'll go Robert Sala.

It's a good one. Turning the jets around and team to the playoffs and in the longest post-season drought currently in the NFL. You know, I'm going to double down here, either the commanders or the giants.

One of those teams will make the playoffs. So I took the commanders. I will then go Debo.

I'll get the insurance policy there. Okay. I can't believe Mike McDaniel's still on the board, by the way.

I'll take him right now. I probably shouldn't have said that because then you're going to- Well, no, because I wasn't asking. I don't think John Harbaugh has a chance to win it, but- Okay. So then I'm not going to take Harbaugh and I will- You're going to go off the board. Yeah. I will go off the board here.

Off the board. Wow. Just say it.

I know you want to do it. Who? You want to go Steve Wilkes. Just say Steve Wilkes.

Pull the trigger. I think out of the rest of the candidates, I would say Steve Wilkes may have the best- Oh, I was thinking Josh McDaniel's. Frank Wright.

Can I get him? A write-in vote. Yeah. I'll go Steve Wilkes. Let me tell you, I forget what we did a draft recently. And we were like, oh, it was the toughest draft we've ever done. It was within the last two weeks, but- Super Bowl contenders, probably? Yeah, I had to because you thought I was not going to take the Eagles.

I took the Eagles. No, no, no. I don't think it was that. It was something else. But anyway, I think that was the toughest one. Oh, it was top 10 college football head coaches.

Yes. That's what it was. But that was tough because you have all these guys that we all like their resumes. And with four weeks left into the season, I can't ever remember really a year where there's been these many, like this many candidates that you could make a legit argument for and it just be so open.

Because usually this time you could say, okay, here's a list of five guys. And one of these five guys will win coach of the year. I can make a case that the first four guys that we picked, your first two and my first two, Dan Campbell, Kyle Shannon, Nick Sirian, and Kevin O'Connor won't win the award.

You can make a case for it, then you can also make a case that they can. It's so tough because you look at the wildcard spots. We don't know if the command- I think the commanders will make the playoffs, but we don't know if they're going to. We don't know if the Giants will. We don't know if the Seahawks will. We don't know if the Lions will. And in the AFC, I guess Salah's that one wildcard spot. It's like, you don't know if he's going to make the playoffs tonight. If you don't make the playoffs, you're not going to. Those are five candidates that are on the fence. Now, like two or three of them probably get in, but not all five are going to be getting in. It's impossible just because you only have two spots really open in the NFC.

So that's a good one. So you have Campbell, Shanahan, Pete Carroll, Robert Salah, McDaniel. I have Sirianni, KOC, Rivera, Deball, and then go with Steve Wilks. Go with Steve Wilks.

It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We will break. When we come on back, we'll give you a little reaction to the Seahawks 49ers game that's going on right now with the 12th man. You think these jerseys are this ugly right now?

No, no, no, no. I love the highlighter green jerseys. I hate the highlighter green jerseys paired with the blue pants. That's a bad look.

But it matches the helmet. All neon. That's a fresh look.

That looks good. I don't love the old neon. I don't like the blue neon blue and then neon. You don't think these jerseys and pant combination look good also with the neon down the side of the leg?

No. Oh, I think it looks great then with the neon cleats. Too clunky.

I don't think it's clunky at all. I think it looks good. Now, yeah, the all white with the red stripes and the 49ers, that's as clean as you're going to get.

But that to me is not a bad uniform combination whatsoever. But you have all these crazy wacky, not crazy standards here. No, you don't. You're like you all over the place. You're nuts when it comes. No, I think I think I stand. I stand strong and I think I'm right. You can't play good feel and look good right now. Who's winning?

Oh, stop. If that's a standard, you love wearing your team's uniforms and your teams usually don't play well. That's all I have. Good uniforms, too. But they don't usually play well. Most of your teams are more losers than winners. Those are just the facts. I'm just I operate in a world of facts. I just throw facts around.

But if you're going to lose, at least look good losing. That's all I got to say. It is The Zach Gelb Show on CBS.

Oh, you do look good today. I will say that, Icky. And it's The Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to The Zach Gelb Show.

It is The Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio. So they got both seasons starting up in college football. And we all know it's really the wait until the only two games that you really actually care about, in my opinion now these days, in bowl season. And that, of course, are the semifinal games as you do have Georgia going up against Ohio State and then Michigan against TCU. When it comes to everybody else, like take TCU out of the conversation, take Ohio State out of the conversation, take Georgia out of the conversation, out of the conversation, and take Michigan out of the conversation. Are there any more teams under pressure for next season?

Are you just curious how they respond? Then Alabama, USC, and Clemson. And the reason why I picked those three teams, Alabama has not won a championship in back to back season.

Like any other school, that's fine. And Alabama, that's the biggest deal in the world. And oh yeah, by the way, they missed the college football playoff outright. And they're going to be losing Bryce Young this year. So you just want to see how they're going to respond in a year where they didn't have a lot of strong wide receivers.

We'll see what Milton could do at the quarterback position next year. It's just like, you look at the Alabama team and they're always going to have a talented roster. But that Alabama team, from what we saw last year, other than Gibbs and Bryce Young on the offensive side of the ball, it wasn't an Alabama team that really ever scared you. And it kind of reflected in their play where they never looked like that Crimson Tide team that we thought they could be.

And in the big games, they did crumble. So when you look at Alabama, I'm just fascinated next year what type of response they have. And if with Jalen Milro, they find a way, if he's their guy, if they could get back into playoff contention, but I don't know what to expect out of Jalen Milro. Like nothing. I know we saw him a little bit this year against, was it A&M?

I think it was. But I don't know what to expect out of him for this upcoming season. So you're going to be losing your three best players, right? Because Will Anderson's going to go to the draft, Bryce Young's going to the draft, and Jamere Gibbs is going to be going to the draft.

You would think. So those three guys gone, it's like, okay, you know, Saban always has the great recruits and everything, but you just wonder how they're going to respond. So that's Alabama. USC. They get Caleb Williams back. Caleb Williams are the Heisman.

Caleb Williams coming off losing in the Pac-12 championship game. And it seemed like there was a legit, well, they felt like they had a opportunity to go to the college football playoff and they blew it. They were in line to go to the college football playoff and they just absolutely blew it in that game to Utah, where they lost to Utah twice. And it's their only two losses on the year. And year one was so successful and the transfer portal for them were so successful with Addison and Williams. You just wonder, with all year one under their belt, with Lincoln, Riley and Caleb Williams back together as a duo, just it that USC team could take care of the unfinished business.

Because, Hickey, that's always a difficult spot when you win a Heisman Trophy and you still got to play college football. Now, the motivation is going to be there because they didn't take care of it. They didn't take care of business by winning the Pac-12 championship. And they didn't take care of business by getting to the college football playoff. But you just wonder how far they could go.

And is this just going to be typical? Whenever you expect something out of Pac-12 team, they just beat up on one another. And then finally, Clemson. There's that thought that Dabo being stubborn and Dabo not going to Cade Klubnick earlier because of what you saw from DiGio N'Gilele against NC State and Wake Forest. We played well in that stretch.

It's almost as if you wish he didn't play as well and you still won that game because then maybe it would have forced Dabo's hand to go to Cade Klubnick earlier. And we saw him go to him in the ACC Championship game and they end up winning the ACC Championship game. But now, Clemson hasn't been Clemson in the last two years where you actually fear them and you actually think they could get to the college football playoff. And even with their lackluster performances this year, they still had an opportunity to get there.

And they messed it up at the end of the season when they had the door open back up for them with that loss to South Carolina. So those are the three teams that I look at. Bama, USC, and Clemson where I just wonder how we're talking about them next year. And they're intriguing to me if you take out the top four teams this year because those three teams for Clemson, it seems like not... Yeah, I'll say that they're losing their way.

Now, when I say that, I don't mean they're going down the drain. They just still won the ACC. But that ACC wasn't anything great this year. And you look at a team like Clemson, you know what the standard is under Dabo, it's to be a legit national championship contender. And it doesn't feel like they've been that way the last two years. For USC, you had the success, now can you sustain it? And for Alabama, this is a year now after the way the last two went down. Well, I don't want to say you don't fear Alabama anymore because, hey, with everything that transpired, they still almost made the college football playoff. But they're starting to look vulnerable. That's the way that you phrase it. And you wonder if they steer away from being vulnerable and get back to the Alabama Crimson Tide where they just continue to roll over, folks.

I got another one for you. Oklahoma. Down year and year one under Brent Venables after a hot start. They've had a lot of success, whether it's Bob Soups into Lincoln Riley.

This is a big year for Brent here to kind of get people back into believing and try to get the ship right. Especially, would you think TCU had a great year this year, but Max Duggan's going to leave and maybe that team takes a step back and kind of comes back down reality after getting a lot of breaks go their way. Big 12's up for grabs. Capitalize and make a run at least.

I'll give you one more too. Now, I don't think you're going to be thinking about it this way because this team had success that they have not seen in a while. What about Tennessee?

Had it written down. Absolutely. Because you lose Hendon Hooker. Heupel did a phenomenal job this year with Hendon Hooker.

Unfortunate how that season ended with the injury. But now it's kind of like USC where you put yourself back on the map where Lincoln Riley, and I know he was in year number one and Josh Heupel wasn't, but you put him back on the map. You get people talking about them again in a positive way, not just who's going to be the next coach at Tennessee, who's going to be the next coach at USC. And now it's about that sustained success. And is there, and I know the volunteers that are tougher conference than what USC is for now, but you look at the SEC, like, can they get to a level where I know they just beat Alabama this year, but where they could win the conference. And they came close. At times, they look like they had the inside track. At one point, they were number one team in the country this year, but now it's about that sustained success.

And if they could continue to not only keep that ship moving in the right direction, but then build onto the ship that you're making. We've seen plenty of one-hit wonders in college football where you have a great year and then you're unable to kind of, like you said, sustain it and you kind of fizzle out. It's going to be a great test.

It's going to be tough for Tennessee for sure, but with Hypo's offense, they should be able to kind of plug and play you would think, and at least continue a somewhat sustained level of success. I got another one for you. I have no faith in this guy whatsoever. No faith. No faith. Hold on. No faith whatsoever. But still interested to see how the response is going to be next year. Oh, I know what you're saying. This is your favorite college football coach in America, Jimbo Fisher.

A&M. Yeah, I got no faith in him either. I agree, but I mean, this is, you talk about a pivotal moment. You talk about all the recruits that he brought in. That seems like it's the only reason why he's still there because of NIL money and the recruits and everyone that you brought in. You better take that next step and you'll have their quarterback, Connor Wigman, for the entire season, who's supposed to be like the great quarterback, you know, one of those great quarterbacks in college football. There's really no excuses for Jimbo anymore.

Yeah. And I would have fired him already, but let's be real. The only reason that guy's keeping his job, two reasons, one, the contract and two, the recruits that he's brought in. But when you're not winning games, it doesn't matter what recruits you're bringing in. Cause I would say with the NIL resources that they have, any Tom, Dick and Harry can get some of the recruits that they now bring in. If it's just the bidding war to get those, those players in almost anyone could go get those guys in. And if you can't develop them, what's the point?

You know, like that's part of it's taken the talent in, but also you gotta be able to get them to a level. Right. Exactly. And he can't do it. No. And he definitely has a one.

I'll throw you one more. This may be, this is my hint to you. This may be the biggest story in college football next year when it, when it comes to on the field, not like conference realignment and the college football. Auburn, no Ole miss. No, this is not, this is not a first time head coach. Not a first time head coach, biggest story. You never know what to expect out of these first year coaches, even though they had a lot of success this year.

I think Texas, Bingo. Yeah. Is arch going to be the guy or are you going to continue to go with Quinn Ewers? Like how does that eventually play out that quarterback battle?

If they actually let them have a battle, it's going to be one of the more anticipated battle we've ever seen in college. Cause you have a former number one guy and then the number one guy, and we know the Manning name, but Quinn Ewers was playing really well this year. Unfortunately got hurt and he would have had that. There is no doubt in my mind that he would have beat Alabama. They almost beat Alabama without him.

If he didn't get hurt in that game, I really do think he, he would have beat Alabama. By the way, one of my big memories from that game is seeing Drew Brees basically just tell Quinn Ewers, Hey, you got to suck it up and get back out there on the field and shoot yourself up with something. I remember that Instagram post as it happened. Did you see where Drew Brees is now going? This is one of the great all time comeback stories ever.

Got struck by lightning a few weeks ago. I was all legit right on that point spec commercial where he got struck by lightning. I couldn't believe it. I thought the guy life was over now is going to be the interim assistant coach at Purdue since Jeff Brom said, I'm coming home and going back to Louisville. I think coaching is the right move for Drew Brees. TV could not hack it as an analyst. No, obviously his playing days are done. I think he'd be a good coach. Was he really that bad on TV? I know that it was NBC that wanted like nothing to do with him after one year.

Right. But was he like, I did not get to hear or see enough of him because I would do the ion football show and then I would rush home. And by the time I would get home, you'd already hit the Sunday night game. And the one playoff game he did, I think last year was the playoff game that he did.

I don't know. I was just say Bengals Raiders. I was at the Pats bills game, which was right after that. So I didn't really get to hear much of him. Was Breeze, was he really that bad?

That bad? No, his thing is what you sometimes criticize me for and fairly so he's too nice. He doesn't really criticize anyone. He doesn't really give an opinion. Like he's, you know, on the Sunday show, especially after the games are over, he's just too, he doesn't want to say anything.

So it's like not an analyst. He doesn't really, you know, it's not like Tony Romo where he's breaking things down. It just was, he was a guy and I think he would have been easily replaced because there's now more athletes in the media that are, you know, getting more practice. I think he would have been there are more athletes in the media that are getting more practice, but the name recognition of Drew Brees, I think goes a long way in terms of, of credibility a little bit, but then you also have to be good at the job. We've seen that's, I mean, Tony Romo's, you know, the guy and it's not like, you know, he was a big name, don't get me wrong, quarterback of the Cowboys, not, you know, the name drew breezes.

Yeah. Like, you know what, I'll say it because we had them cancel an interview on us, like Montana. Montana is not the Mr. Personality, but he's one of the biggest names ever. And that's like Brady. People wonder if Brady's going to be good because usually Brady is very vanilla when it comes to the media. Now you see a little bit of a different Tom when he goes to Tampa Bay, but it's not as if Brady with what he's shown us in press conferences is the most like, Oh wow, this guy is, is so exuberant in some of that.

I need to hear, talk football. Like I'm sure he will find a way to give you something creative about it, but not everyone is made out to do TV and radio. It's all a personality now.

It's even more than names. So I listen, I look at the guys that are in TVs, right? Like Daniel, I love Dan Olofsky. I was one of the first people that put Daniel Lofsky on any show when I was in New Jersey with a show that probably no one ever heard. Dan would beg to come on. We put Dan on Dan was great. And look at what Dan, you see Dan on five days a week on ESPN. When you mentioned Daniel, ask you to people in terms of his NFL career, people just remember him running out of the back of the end zone. But Dan, I think is one of the best voices in television right now when it comes to, when it comes to football. So yeah, I think it does help when you're a big name too.

Like that's like the dream, but you could still win game. You could still be Taylor hand Heinecke pretty much. I'll give you one of these quarterbacks that, you know, like are in a franchise guy, but they win games and you know that you're going to put them in the starting lineup because it makes a good product.

So we'll see how that works. You know who I think is phenomenal. And I wish I got to hear more of him.

And I bet you Marco will agree with this because this is, I think this is kind of one of Belletti's guys because Marco's like BFFs with Kevin Burkhardt, who I love. I think Greg Olsen is great on television. Greg's awesome.

Right? He really is. And this is the first year that I'm really getting a chance to actually hear it because I was always working.

So it's hard. You know, the deal is when you do an eye on football, you're watching the game, but you don't hear the game. So that, but yeah, now getting a chance to hear it more this year, Greg's doing a tremendous job. I mean, unfortunately it'll be out of a job when Brady wants it, but it gets like the number two job, right? He's just going to slide down, but Fox has got something with Greg Olsen and he's just getting better. Cause it's only in his second year. And you know, when I've heard him the most, which is crazy, just because as you said, I do the Sunday show and everything.

It was actually early pandemic or in that pandemic time when he was doing the XFL game. And I was like, wow, Greg Olsen is, I've interviewed him before, but I was like, wow, he's really good in the booth. Yeah. I can't say I'm surprised though. Cause I mean, I mean, Greg grew up around football his whole life and, you know, played in his life, but he's got a personality though. So you guys were talking about Drew Brees. Drew Brees is vanilla.

Like there's just nothing there. And again, and that's, that's something Jason Witten fun when you get to interview him, but he's calling games out of his element and that's, and that's fun. He realized it pretty quick too. And he was like, you know what? This is not my thing. And you know what it also comes down to.

I think you gotta be a little bit genuine. And for Drew Brees and Jason Witten, they started growing this hair. And now when you see Jason Witten, he's fully bald and Drew Brees, he doesn't have that much hair. I'm just, if you can't be truthful with what you have on top and you got to start growing more hair or wearing something, maybe you're thinking too hard because if you're bald, you could, you could make it on TV and be great. Yeah.

There's a separate, those are separate. Look, it's not for everyone. Just because you can break down the film and just because you know, all the ins and outs doesn't mean that you can convey it to everybody on a normal everyday basis. I mean, nobody wants to listen to the game to break down the, you know, whatever that John Gruden banana, Y2, whatever.

Spider 2, Y banana. Nobody cares. Like that's, it's fun.

It's joking, but like nobody cares. So you gotta be able to explain it so that we all understand it. And there's some guys that can do that in layman's terms and give you a vibe that they care.

And some guys that just can't. I'm going to throw one more thing your way. Totally different. We're talking about, can you see Kyle Shanahan winning coach of the year? He's had three quarterbacks. They're up 14 to three right now. They're on the verge of getting their 10th win. If they win out and they have 13 wins, or even if they lose one game and get 12 wins, is that the coach of the year in the NFL?

No. So who is? He's in the conversation, but when your team is stacked as much as his is, and I hate to say it. Third string quarterback though. I'm well aware. You also were the reason why, you know, the whole Jimmy Garoppolo and the Trey Lance thing started in the first place. Good point. So you're part of that. You're culpable in that regard.

You've done a great job. It's nothing it's taking away, but you're looking at other teams that are teams that are around the league. I mean, Seahawks, Giants, Jets. If the Seahawks make the playoffs. Lions. If the Giants make the playoffs, if the Lions, I mean, you're talking about teams that no one gave them a chance coming into the season. They'll get it over Shanahan. If you're telling me Shanahan, the difference between what you would have thought with the third string quarterback, nine wins to 12 wins. That's a nice job. It's not coach of the year.

And also like a Sirianni. Yeah. They win 15 games. I mean, come on. One or two losses. Well, you got to give credit where I guess could be in the mix.

Absolutely. Robert Salah, if the Jets get in, there's a ton of them out there. I don't think there's ever been a, like usually this time of the year, if I ask you coach of the year, you can give me like five guys that without a doubt, one of those five are going to win. It's a long list this year. Cause you have so many of these guys, like as you just mentioned, Ron Rivera, Brian Deball, Dan Campbell, Pete Carroll.

Those are four guys fighting for two spots. And if you don't make the playoffs, you're not getting in. Well, and I think that's, that's kind of what's going to shake it out. I mean, you're going to wind up when the teams drop off and whatever it is, the lions, the Seahawks, the giants, the commander, whoever winds up out of the playoff race, you're going to be out of the coach of the year brace. So it's going to be simple there. And then the same thing on the other side, the just don't make the playoffs.

Nice job by Robert Salah, but nobody's going to care. Yeah. So it still comes down to wins and losses. And there's going to be someone that elevates once you figure out the playoff push. Can we get a Kevin Burkhart and Greg Olson to get Marco Biletti in the booth, like do a little spotting work?

Yeah. I mean, let's not overstate it just because Kevin and I have friends for a while. It's not like, you know, we're not hanging out on, we're not hanging out on Thanksgiving.

You would look good in a Zach Gelb show shirt in the booth on Fox, just pointing out the other numbers. I don't do that. It's going to happen. And let me point out to take up a lot of real estate and again, we're friends, but Kev got me started. So it's more of like we became friends. Kev was a mentor. And then we, you know, you work together enough, you become friends, but you know, I owe a lot to Kev. We need to book Burkhart by the end of the season.

And we got to kind of pitch him to get Biletti in the booth just for a game for maybe some show publicity or just some Marco publicity. And just see how Kevin approaches that. You probably get a decent response out of Kevin.

I don't know if I'm all that comfortable out of there. And I will say that I would like to think Greg would remember me from all these years too, believe it or not. I actually watched him in high school. Oh yeah, you covered, I covered him in high school, his senior year. I don't think he's gonna remember that, but his dad was the coach and you know, he would always come back, obviously his little brother.

I covered him through his whole high school career. So I would think if Greg, not if we ran into the street, no, if you, if you give the preamble of, Hey, do you remember? Yeah, I think so.

That's what I would probably get out of that. You know what, Super Bowl this year is on Fox meeting Marco in the booth spot and for the Superbowl, that's what we're running by Kevin Burkhardt. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. Another day is in the books and we're taking stock of the sports world.

It's time to find out who's up and who's down. Let's end the day right and hit the closing bell only on the Zach Gelb show. As you know, Marcus Satterfield, the OC of South Carolina, now the OC of Nebraska. So Shane Beamer, friend of the show has a new OC hire and that is Dow Loggins. And he has a report for anyone questioning his hire of his new OC. So surely everybody that wants to critique every hire that we make here, I'm sure you guys knew that Dow Loggins turned down a coordinator job in the SEC last year, correct?

Everybody knew that, right? I'm sure you guys know that I'm the fourth SEC head coach that's reached out to him in the last two weeks about coming to work for him. So we were fortunate to hire Dow Loggins because there were a lot of other people that were interested in hiring Dow Loggins as well. I'm sure you guys reached out to Bill Parcells who Dow worked for.

Anybody? I'm sure the people on the outside, all the experts on social media, I'm sure they called Sean Payton, arguably one of the greatest NFL coaches of all time to talk to Sean Payton about Dow. I'm sure you reached out to Kyle Shanahan, the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. All those guys are guys that Dow worked for. Did you call Connor Shaw? Al Sean Jeffery coached, Dow coached Al Sean Jeffery with the Chicago Bears.

And I'll keep my conversation with Al Sean private, but it was pretty dang special what he told me. I talked to John Fox, former head coach of the Carolina Panthers, Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos about Dow. Clyde Christensen, current quarterbacks coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Sylvester Croom, longtime NFL coach who just went into the hall of fame for college football last week. James Franklin, current head coach at Penn State. Stan Drayton, current head coach at Temple University. All people that he worked with or Dow was the coordinator for. So we hired a big-time coach and couldn't be more excited about hiring Dow.

And the text messages that I got from people that he's worked with or coached over the last however many years in the NFL validate that for sure. I would have one follow-up to that, Hickey. Just one. Do you have any idea what my follow-up question would be? Why do you say Dow Loggins like 30 times?

No, no, no, no, no. Did you have a conversation with Adam Gase? How'd that go? That would kind of be like my jackass response since they did work together with the Jets and Adam Gase was this awful, awful head coach in the NFL since he was naming all these people that have these great resumes. But that was a great takedown. I love Shane Beamer, but that was awesome. Just comes out guns blazing and just ripping everyone that's criticizing him for his hire of Dow Loggins. Give Shane Beamer a stock up.

And you know what? It was so good. That's the only stock up we'll have today. We won't even give you a stock down today. We'll be back tomorrow in a big Friday edition of the Zach Gelb Show, Football Friday. Alex Anzalone of the Detroit Lions is going to be stopping by. Jersey Jerry with his NFL picks.

And oh, so much more. Be back tomorrow 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. Big thanks to all the call-outs, listeners and tweeters. You can always give me a follow on social media. Do that right now. Instagram and Twitter. Takes two seconds. At Zach Gelb, Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B.

Big thanks to Hot Ticket Kiki as well. Talk to me now, everybody. We out. Bye-bye. Peace.