App State football is still riding a high

This is the best of the Adam Gold Show Podcast. Brought to you by Coach Pete at Capital Financial Advisory Group.

Visit us at capitalfinancialusa.com. This is the Adam Gold Show. I'm Hage Permar filling in on a Wednesday. Is gold going to take off every Wednesday in football season?

Because we're going to get to this. Wednesday is the one day that isn't just home run easy to do, right? Monday is obviously easy. You're coming off the weekend, football. This year, everybody wins apparently in college in North Carolina.

Not the case in the pros. On Fridays, obviously, it's the weekend. You got the games. Starting Thursday, Thursday is like Little Friday. You got football that night. Might be an ACC game, might be an NFL game. Tuesday, you had Monday Night Football the night before.

It's just all football, football, football. What do we do Wednesdays? That's what I'm here to figure out.

I'm also trying to figure out exactly who is producing today. Fortunately, you and Victoria have different hairstyles. Oh, we do?

I'll say that, yes. Yes, I have a beard and she doesn't. I was talking about the hair on top of your head. Hers is a little bit longer.

Her hair is longer than your hair, let's just say. But I know you guys have been, jokes aside, you guys have been doing Yeoman's work in the absence of Jonathan Rand filling in. It's always nice to see you again, Dennis Cox, producer of this show, at least for the day. For those that don't know, I'm now full-time producer of the OG in the afternoons in Raleigh on 99.9 The Fan. I was moved there officially on Monday, but today I'm back with you. There we go. I would say, I don't have a rider.

I'm not important. If I started making demands, if I'm like, the case can be filled in, yes, but, no, sorry, we'll go to somebody else. But if I was like, yes, but, I need Dennis Cox producing. I don't want to say that because I enjoy being with Victoria, but hopefully from time to time. You and I have done radio together multiple times over several years. Through a pandemic. We literally, yes.

Sitting in different places, doing it blind. Sometimes. I still remember you and I being on air together. I was producing for you in Sports Channel 8 when the ACC shut down the tournament in 2020.

It's only new things are getting real, but not quite real. That was... I was at 1030, John Swafford. We're playing basketball. 1130, John Swafford.

Here's your trophy. Tournament's over. Yeah. So, we've seen... And then we did five hours of radio, I think, that day.

That's right, because people had to be driving around. So, good times. Hopefully, we can do some more good radio today. We've got some friends that are going to help us with that. Adam Whitten, play-by-play voice of App State will join us at 1230.

People who want to hear more App Talk all the time, this is the week for you. We will also talk to Jeremy Markovich at 2.15. He'll join us to talk about not only what's going on up in Boone, but even more good stuff in that part of the state. North Wilkesboro found out last week it'll be hosting an all-star game. I mean, all-star race, excuse me, for NASCAR.

And Jeremy was on hand when racing was back at North Wilkesboro. We'll also talk to Katie Sweet, Senior Director of Brand Communications at the V Foundation. It is Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month.

They've got a lot of cool things going on. I want to ask her if the V... It is the V Foundation now. It's not the Jimmy V Foundation. It's just the V Foundation.

I feel like, at this point, the V Foundation almost is as much vital as it is Volvano. And I wonder if there would ever be talks about making that an official thing. And of course, Chip Patterson always joins us at one o'clock. My man, we might just talk about what's going on in the neighborhood because we live very close to each other. But we'll probably try to talk some college football that you might actually care about.

Chip keeps us happy. But for right now, we've got some topics that'll help get us out of the gate. They're off. Tommie number one, it's still football season, so I don't care. It's Wednesday. Wednesday's early enough to talk about the games. We're good. Everyone's good right now. Duke's good. Yeah, they're 2-0. State's good. UNC's good. They're undefeated. ECU's good.

They bounce back with the win again. It's Old Dominion. Ab State obviously riding high off the window. Texas A&M.

Charlotte is in South Carolina. They don't count. Football in the state is good right now. And this weekend has some good games and some in-state matchups that probably won't be great games.

They're cool for the state anyway. So, topic one are the games this weekend. State hosts Texas Tech.

7 o'clock. Should be a big one. Texas Tech coming off a big win. State still a 10-point favorite. You got what you wanted in Charleston Southern.

Some feel-good vibes. Watch Devin Leary spin the ball, throwing it around the place. And I think State has good vibes going into Texas Tech, but it's going to be an interesting game. Duke hosts North Carolina A&T and ECU hosts Campbell. Again, two teams kind of playing on different levels, but fun to see those games. And don't never take North Carolina A&T lightly. ECU knows that well. Wake Forest hosts Liberty.

And I should have pulled the audio for this. I forgot about this. Liberty's talking smack. Liberty's saying, yeah, you can't do your run pass stuff when we're in your face.

I can't remember one of their linemen said it. So, it'll be an interesting game for Wake Forest. One of those where, again, they should win. They should be the favorites. They are the favorites.

But Liberty has taught people not to take them lightly. And then game day in Boone. App State hosting Troy.

3.30. A Sunbelt matchup. App State is no slam dunk to it. Don't do the we won big, now game day, and you fall on your face and lose to Troy. Because it could happen just like all these other Sunbelt teams are beating good teams.

They can beat each other. So, that is the college slate for the weekend. Should be a great weekend. I like them night games. 7 o'clock in Raleigh. 6 o'clock in Durham. 5 o'clock in Winston-Salem. 6 o'clock in ECU. 3.30 up in Boone. And if you care about Charlotte at Georgia State, that game is at 7 o'clock.

Speaking of which, topic number two. Game day is in Boone. Now, this is kind of cool. You saw that game day pivoted not just because App beat Texas A&M. But the other Sunbelt wins, right? So, this week is just going to be kind of a celebration of the Sunbelt Conference. So, Boone is kind of being picked as a representative. But it's still going to be freaking awesome.

I mentioned earlier, we'll talk to Adam Whitten. There's been a lot of discussion about App State's place in the state of college football, right? On the one hand, they've got championship trophies from their conference and from their lower division days. They're knocking off big teams on the road. They've got huge signature, never forget these wins. On the other hand, they're playing with lower expectations, lower resources. And when they've gone head-to-head with State, UNC, and Wake Forest, it usually has gone the big school's way. They got the big win against UNC a few years ago. But Wake has beat App a couple times, I think. State's now scheduling them. So, that's good.

I love seeing all the teams play App. I think that's the best part. What I will say, I almost did this, Dennis Cox, but I'm just a fill-in guy and I basically only get paid for the hours I'm on air.

So, I do research for the show, but I didn't feel like doing a whole hour just devoted to this. But I wanted to find out, if you can answer the program, it's close to who won the in-state title each year. You know what I mean? There's that debate. But there's kind of like, who had the most juice in the state, right? Like, when Duke went to the ACC Championship game, that season I feel like they had the most juice in the state, right? State, under Phillip Rivers, had the most juice.

Late 90s, UNC under Mac Brown, they hosted Florida State, and they themselves were a top-10 team. They had the most juice. App State, it's hard to steal juice when you're playing at the 1-double-A level. Even when you're winning national titles, right? It feels a little bit like winning the 2-A State Football title when you're like, I don't know, the 4-A's like the big boys, right? Now they're playing on a different level, so I feel like they're in the juice conversation. What I feel like has happened is, they've taken ECU's spot as the team that could sneak in there and steal the juice, right? When ECU had a great year, and especially if they knocked off State or UNC, or State and UNC were mediocre, ECU had the most juice in the state.

Right now, currently has the most juice. State, obviously if they go to the ECU championship, or maybe even beyond that, they would have a juice-worthy season, right? Like State, putting up big numbers and being a top-10 team, that's more juice than App State winning the Sunbelt. But, App State's big win, and if these other teams finish with 8 or 9 wins and they're just kind of mediocre seasons, I'll give App State the juice title for the year. Next topic.

Choose your character. We also have an NFL team, in addition to those college football teams. Who? We've got an NFL team. I realize, I have no doubt, I do listen to the show, I don't catch all the show, I have no doubt that Adam Gold has talked extensively about the Panthers, with Will Brinson, with other people, but darn it, I get to come in here and talk about how bad the Panthers stink. Yeah you do.

I get my time to talk about it, okay? I watch that game. Do not be deceived with how the game ended.

Do not say, ugh, one bad call away from a win, one lucky kick. That first half was terrible, abysmal, like below NFL-worthy football. It was gross.

Will I be a little bit open-minded? This guy stinks! I mean, it was so embarrassingly bad, and I almost wanted to see it continue in the second half, just so that we could start discussions of, is this one of the worst teams of all time? That first half was so bad, couldn't catch snaps, couldn't move anywhere. Biggest play of the first half was like a bad roughing the passer call in the Panthers favor.

They were so bad. Now we could get into the nitty-gritty with like, is there a new mantra of trying to protect Christian McCaffery, so we're only going to give him the ball ten times a game? But I don't know, man. I was team in his rookie and second year, yo, you can't use this guy 35 times a game because that's how running backs wear out, right? But at this point, he's getting highly paid, he better touch the ball at least 25 times, or what are we doing?

That's one. And then other playmakers, DJ Moore not touching the ball, find creative ways to get the ball on offense. I mean, it looked like it was going to be one of the longest seasons in NFL history. We'll talk about how bad Detroit has been.

I wanted my few minutes to chime in on how bad it looked. Did we play the Giants this weekend? Like, I don't think there's a lot expected of the Giants. I believe, did they win last week? They did.

I thought they may have. Two-point conversion. So, we'll see, but I mean, it has got to look markedly better from the jump of this next game for me to have any faith that this team can win like five games. Their ceiling was eight or nine with some breaks, and admittedly, they didn't catch some breaks late, but they didn't deserve to be in that game. The Panthers are bad, folks. Next up, because even in the middle of football season, we know where we're at, right? We're on Tobacco Road, and the ACC basketball schedule was released yesterday.

I got the normal jokes for you. Yeah, that's right. UNC and Duke play twice. But the reason, I'm actually not going to deep dive into the ACC schedule release. I'm going to mention it to you so if you care, you can go look it up and see your favorite team, right? Interesting matchups, teams are getting smarter about, they need TV money, they need TV eyeballs. We need you to play big games in November and December. More and more of the big programs are all playing other big programs, right? My question when I see the ACC schedule release is, is this the last year the ACC basketball schedule will look like this?

There is discussion, I forget the name of the consulting firm. Swim Slam? Stop. It's actually close to that. It's like Slapfish or something.

I'm not making, I mean, I am making that up, but it's like something close to that. It's like Fish Tales Consulting, but it's a former ESPN guy and they've been bringing them in to try and figure out, okay, ACC football, you're not the greatest, we're going to do what we can with you. ACC basketball, you are the greatest.

Can we do more with you TV ratings-wise, right? And what could that look like? I'm sure it's been discussed on this show, but a possible like return of a big four tournament? Having, you know, the North Carolina teams, you know, maybe the ACC breaks up and has many tournaments or has a tournament where you may not be paired necessarily against an in-state team. But all four in-state teams go to Greensburg Coliseum and play for a weekend against four other big teams that come in, right? Or maybe there is a tournament event evolved where Duke and UNC could meet in the finals of that little event or whatever it might be, right? There is talk of those. There aren't specifics, everybody's throwing out their good ideas. Sure, like Joe Gillio's probably scratched up some, David Teel has some.

But they've dropped some crumbs of things that they might be looking at. It wouldn't be scheduling Duke and UNC to play four times a year. It would be these other possible in-game mini tournaments. The NBA has talked about doing an in-season tournament, right? Not being so bound to what you've done and like mold to what, where are there voids in the TV schedule? Are there weekends in December that college basketball could own even more? The ACC have a, you know, premiere thing. So, when I see the schedule release, fine. You should be online savvy enough to go find out who your team's playing.

I'm not going to sit here and read them to you. But, I am curious, is that the last week, is that the last year that we'll see the schedule look quite like this? Probably not drastic changes coming next year, but there is talk about squeezing more money out of a basketball schedule for the ACC.

And so, they'll try and get creative with it. Next up. We're talking hockey, baby.

Yes. You know, look, we'll always catch the jokes being a, you know, a southern hockey market team. You want to know what made me realize once again that the Canes are a real deal fan base? Consume me! Because people got real deal mad about the NHL stadium series ticket buy yesterday.

I didn't get into it. Can I say this? Can I be arrogant enough to be like, I'm going to find some tickets. Come on. That is a little arrogant.

Rally guy working in sports. I'm going to find me some tickets. I'm sure you can. Now, I think was it pre-sales technically, right, for full season ticket members? And here's the thing. Yes, it was a pre-sale, but there's a lot of confusion and talk. I'll just throw you some of the things that I've been hearing. One was that maybe anybody who had the link actually could have bought. Like, the link got sent to season ticket people, but they weren't the only people that could access it. These are unconfirmed rumors. These are gripes that I heard that possibly could be true just because I'm a fan. I also have heard that the Canes don't have much control over this event ticket sales.

They do not. It's an NHL run event. So people are going to get mad at the Canes and that also is going to, I've heard that the ticket allotment break down. I won't get into specifics, but maybe more were allotted to Washington Capitals fans who, you know, are within driving distance. It's not like we're playing Toronto or the Los Angeles Kings. I heard that maybe the NHL figured they could sell a decent amount of tickets. Now, I'll be mad at that too because if we're hosting it, darn it, we should have the overwhelming majority. And if we host it and don't sell out, then A, don't give it to us again or next time you do, give the other team more tickets. But like, give us a chance to sell it out just Canes, right? So now, if you go look now, there's a decent chance you'll see tickets for resale and the prices will make you feel bad, right?

However, just know that's a lot of the game. Even in real sale, the market will correct itself. There will be tickets. It's going to cost you money. I'm not saying it's not going to cost you money.

But it may not be as crazy as it looks right now. And I also think that there are going to be more tickets released. So I don't think that was the end of the ticket.

I don't think it's totally been gone yet. So, also, if you could create a ticket service that customers like, like I can't imagine who gets more complaints per capita about them than like Ticketmaster, right? The fees, the getting squeezed out, like the time waiting, and then you don't get whatever, you know. I'm sure I've, as far as ticket transition, I've had mostly smooth issue, right?

Like I can get mad. I don't do a lot of like sitting in line waiting for stuff, mostly because I'm bad about planning like eight months out. I'm usually trying to find the best value ticket I can to something later in the process. So I've been happy with Ticketmaster as used basically just being able to get my tickets and scan them and get in the game, right?

That's a big part of customer service. But another big part is just not feeling like you're price gouging people and people feel like they have a fair shot getting tickets and nobody ever feels like that about their ticket service. You know what they should do? They should have people that stand outside the stadium that say, hey, I have two tickets and then people can just buy it that way. Maybe that's what the NHL should do. And like they can also buy people's tickets and resell them. Maybe that's what they should do. I would love to be able to create a ticket service that has negotiating on it, right? Where if everybody's offering a ticket for $100, you go to one person and be like, yo, there's 30 tickets available for 100.

If you sell yours for 80, it could be gone right now. We'll be done with this, right? I think that'd be wonderful.

I like the service. We'll see. Hopefully the right Canes fans will get in.

But it sounds like there might be a lot of Caps fans there too. Next topic. Aaron Judge hit two more home runs last night. You want to hear them? Here's what they sounded like.

They sounded like this. That one's driven out into right center field on the run for Gugo. That ball is gone. Home run number 56. High fly ball deep left field. There it goes.

See ya. Number 57. Aaron Judge four away from Roger Maris. Four away from Roger Maris. American League record, I believe that is. And I guarantee you, and Yankee record, of course. Guarantee you, there's some people out there willing to say, because the only people above Maris now, Sosa McGuire and Bonds. Is there anybody else that snuck over 61 that I don't know about?

Not that I can think of. Baseball fans are so mad right now, listen to me. Those three obviously all have high level of performance enhancing drugs.

Suspicion around them or whatever. So I can see some people who would like to crown Aaron Judge as a home run king. If he passes Roger Maris, not me.

I will not do that. Next topic. Brett Favre is a scumbag.

Yeah. A downright scumbag. Now, one of the interesting things I saw about this was Jeff Pearlman who wrote a biography about Brett Favre. He had a series of tweets where he said, I wrote a book about this guy. It was mostly heroic stuff because it was about his like sporting adventure and overcoming odds and that stuff. He's like, I did mention his addiction issues and his treatment of women and things. He's like, but even with that, don't read my book. This guy should not be glorified anymore.

I don't quite come down on that. But the latest is this. This has been simmering for about two years.

I won't bore you with all the details. But states sometimes get money from the federal government. This happens in North Carolina for whatever it is.

Sometimes it's an opioid settlement. Somebody's got to pay money to the states. States get the money. They give it to cities or counties, whatever. They decide what to do it.

We're going to use these resources to build a new building for addiction processes. That's what happened to that money. Federal government pays out money for all kinds of things. Federal government had paid the state of Mississippi money that was designated to be used for poor people. To like fight poverty.

Yes. To raise people out of poverty. To help the poorest people. And Brett Favre, among many other people, with close political ties and knowing people, were entangled in trying to get their hands on that money for themselves and for causes that they want. Brett Favre had already been raked over the coals for taking a bunch of money that was from this fund. He said he didn't know it was from the fund. He thought he was just getting paid from the state. He didn't know who was earmarked to.

But, yeah, I don't know. At this point, it's looking bad for him. To give some speeches. And he didn't even give them, apparently. He was getting paid for work he didn't do. Then, on top of that, he's trying to influence the money to be used to build a volleyball center at the school where his daughter played at the time. And the most damning thing that came out yesterday was text between him and, I believe, a former governor saying, hey, the media's not going to find out that we're using these welfare funds to build a volleyball center.

And it just looks despicable. So, if you are hearing the name Brett Favre today, that's why. I just wanted to give you a primer, because it is a topic I don't actually really want to talk about Brett Favre anymore, other than I hope he gets everything that's coming to him for anything illegal he may have done involved in this.

And his reputation, obviously, is tarnished even further. And finally, very quickly, the Detroit Lions have been underdogs in 24 straight games. I want to go back to the old Lebethardt show when Poppy would be like, but tonight, tonight, the Detroit Lions, currently still holding as Vegas favorites at home against the Washington Commanders, 2.5 points. 24 straight games they've been underdogs, longest streak in Super Bowl history. Do you know who the last team they were favored to beat was, Dennis Cox? I feel like there's a North Carolina tie to this.

There is! It is your P.J. Walker, at the time, led Carolina Panthers. Detroit was favored, the Panthers beat them 20 to nothing. Oh wow, okay.

Hopefully being favored will go better for them this time. Those are your topics getting out of the game. Adam Gold here from MyMan, Coach Pete DeRuda with the Capital Financial Advisory Group. We are talking retirement. All right, Coach, simple. When do we start tax planning in retirement? We should start as soon as possible, because here's one thing, Adam, taxes are not going away.

Right. And so the game here is, we know the rules. A lot of people want to ignore the rules or act like they aren't familiar with them, but the IRS knows the rules. And so when we get to retirement, they're going to reach in and start taking some of their money out of your accounts. So the secret here is to put a force field around as much as possible by strategically moving some of our money to Roth IRA or some of the other vehicles that aren't taxed, like special life insurance policies.

You can borrow against your money there and never have to pay tax on your money that you build up inside your cash value. So there are a lot of strategies here. The one strategy that does not work is ignoring it. So let's make sure to not ignore it.

The next 10 people will do for you your very own tax and retirement plan that will help you minimize taxation all the way through retirement. 800-661-7383, all you got is call, or you can text Adam to 21000 for Coach Pete DeRuta. I don't know if you heard, but they did. They indeed did run out the clock, and they beat the number six ranked Texas A&M Aggies. That kicked off a series of great videos for everyone who wasn't in Boone, North Carolina, of, you know, two separate groups of, well, students, but strangers, seemingly choreographed, running down the middle of the street. I heard somebody describe it like, it seemed like a scene out of Grease, where they just planned to dance their way to the middle and then meet. Then there were students swimming in the duck pond.

We saw the great video. And then we got the announcement, I think late that night or early the next morning, that yes, College Game Day changed their plans. Well, I guess they maybe didn't have official plans, but kind of unofficially they were probably headed to Texas A&M Miami.

They said, nah, we're going to celebrate this win and Sunbelt culture by taking it to Boone. A man who called the game, has been calling the games for a little over five years now, maybe six, seven, six years now, I think. And he'll call this game as well.

It is Adam Whitten, radio play-by-play guy for App State. Adam, how are you doing, sir? Doing well. Yeah, it certainly was an interesting trip, to say the least, between winning the game, finding out about game day, documented travel difficulties and getting back. For a lot of different reasons, it was a memorable experience in College Station. Thanks for having me. We're going to talk about some and all those things. And I know you're one of those guys who, I know a lot of people who work in sports and the media, and you're there to tell the story.

You're there to connect with the fans, right? And so I know you'll say, the players earned the win, the coaches coached it up, the win belongs to the fans and the students. But, I also like to peel back the curtain a little bit, and you are a person that was in that position.

So I want to hear specifically about your experience. A, can you tell us what the time has been like between the final call and, well now, but obviously going on this week, what's it been like for you? Texts you've gotten are like a best story that sort of encapsulated what kind of a crazy win this was.

Yeah, so I mean, the first thing is just kind of experiencing it in the booth. And, you know, you guys played that audio coming out of the break there. But, despite saying that, I still didn't really believe that they were going to win that game until it hit triple zeros. Because there was still a little more than a minute left on the clock. They couldn't just take three knees, they had to run a few seconds off the clock on each play. And so, you know, they'd had their hearts broken so many times in games like that before that I just, I wasn't willing to give in to the victory until the game was actually over and the players spilled out onto the field. The moment was incredible, soaking it up during the post-game show. You know, my experience was, I usually put my phone on Do Not Disturb during the game. And then when I picked it up afterwards, I think I had about 175 text messages. And, you know, a bunch of other things on social media.

Our coach, Sean Clark, said he had probably close to 500. You know, talking about it has been a lot of fun, you know, just getting to experience it. I got some really cool messages from people that just said, hey, you know, people that are in the business and do this kind of work that said, it's so cool you got to call that moment, be a part of that moment. And, yeah, so, you know, you feel like you didn't affect the outcome of the game, but you had a part to play in it because you're helping to tell the story. So from that standpoint, it's been a lot of fun. And then just talking to buddies and people I went to school with and others about, you know, where's game day going to set up and, you know, do interviews like with you guys and other shows throughout the week.

It's just these these type of things are they don't happen that often for schools like like App State, because you just don't get a lot of opportunities to play teams like Texas A&M or get college game day to come to town. So our philosophy with stuff like this is just, you know, soak up as much as you can with these opportunities and just try to enjoy it. And for me, I don't I don't have to worry about preparing for a football game and worried about, you know, making sure that you don't you don't lose all this momentum by losing to a team like Troy. So I get to soak up as much as I want to this week, right?

Yes, absolutely. And we're trying to make sure, try to prepare everyone. I know the coaches will be delivering the message, but like, don't do it, App State. Do not have to let down loss with game day in town.

I'm sure they'll be ready to go. But sort of from the personal side, but this is also a little bit on the App State side, too. So you were a student there in the early 2000s and then you've been on the call since about, what was it, 2016 that you took over as the full-time football voice, but you had done some broadcasting before that.

What what has been the the thing that has run through? I know you'll say culture and it is the culture, but the coaches have changed, Adam. And it's not just one guy who's created this. It's not just Jerry Moore. It's not just Scott Satterfield and, you know, the transition to the next level, which was huge. It's gone through now three and four different different folks and not everyone beat a Michigan or beat a Texas A&M, but almost every one of them was playing top-level football. And every time they play a power five school was scaring the bejesus out of them. What is the thread that keeps the culture in line and how it gets passed even as the coaches change?

Sometimes rapidly, which is what happens when you play a really good college football. Yeah, you know, it's a good question. And we talk about culture kind of winning out over stars when it comes to recruiting and that word gets used a lot.

But when you really think about it, you say to yourself, OK, what does that mean to define culture? Like, how does that work? And I guess I'll kind of sum it up in with something that I talked about. We had our coaches show last night and one of our guests was our assistant coach, Justin Watts, who's also our recruiting coordinator. And I have some kind of a similar question, which is, you know, how does this work in terms of you're not recruiting for stars, you're recruiting for fit.

And fit is the best word that that app is looking for when it's trying to figure out who's going to play football for them. And one of the things that they do is, you know, when players come up for their visits, they end up spending some time with the current players in our coaches. You know, yes, they look at tape and they and they look at they go watch them play and they visit with them and try to get a feel for. Can they can they do can they perform at the level they need to to be able to play at this at this stage? But they also rely really heavily on feedback from their current players to say, OK, you guys spent some time with him. Is he going to fit? Is this person going to fit? And if he's a highly recruited player, but the feedback from the players is, you know, I just I just don't think that this is going to be a good fit. Then they're they're OK with letting that player go and not making an official offer because, yes, he's probably got all the talent in the world, but but just isn't going to fit well and therefore is not going to maximize his potential, isn't going to develop the way that they want to. So I thought that was a pretty good explanation to really summarize why this is worked year over year, despite turnover in head coaches, assistant coaches and things like that.

It just continues to to home at the same at the same efficiency and perform at the same level. Adam Whitten joining us. He's the radio play by play guy for App State.

He was on the call for Texas A&M will be on the call for Troy this weekend when college game day comes to town. I saw that you you graduated in 04. You worked with the school's broadcast through 2006 in different capacities. What were you doing in 2007 when they were in Michigan?

You know, I wish I had a great story for that. But, you know, I work at states of media rights are with Learfield. They're partners with Learfield. And so I've been working with that company since 2006. And, you know, seven, I was working as a studio host in our in our offices in Winston-Salem. And that's what I was doing when the Michigan game was going on. And so you'll remember a couple of things from this haze.

You remember that first? It was the very first game broadcast on the Big Ten Network. And and then secondly, it was pre Twitter pre sure opportunity to follow what was happening in sports through something like Twitter.

So I'm sitting in a studio working a game that was that was kicking at the same time as app in Michigan. Dude, without a television that could watch the game and without something like Twitter to be able to tell me what was going on. So because I'm on a broadcast at the time wearing headphones and dialed in and doing my job, I could not watch. I could not listen. I could not follow along with anything other than the commotion happening around me and refreshing ESPN dot com. That's all that I could do to follow the game.

So imagine what that's like for somebody that can't actually watch it transpire. So no, I wasn't in Ann Arbor. No, I wasn't at a watch party. No, I wasn't locked into David Jackson and Steve Brown on the call of the game.

I don't have a very good story at all for that game. I had a similar experience. The I was working at the Durham Herald Sun at the time.

You know, probably type an agate or writing up something. The UNC State game wasn't televised when T.A. McClendon either did or did not get in and try to follow that on on game cast like the points went up.

They came back down like what is happening? So I can I can relate in some way. Now, I won't take your answer to this either way to mean a lack of faith in Ab State. They've obviously taught us that they can compete against anybody. It's been cool when teams like Miami or Clemson or Penn State agree to to a game with Ab State. But did you ever worry like I'm I'm never going to have my Michigan moment? Like when you when you took over and they they had a couple of close ones, did you ever think maybe I'm not going to have get to call a game?

Will they get it done again? And I don't I don't mean to say you didn't have faith in them. But did you ever sort of think in those terms of like, you know, I'll never get a game that big? Yeah, I mean, I'd be lying if I said it didn't cross my mind. And the reason, though, is because I get reminded of it. And, you know, I hope he's listening.

I don't know if he is or maybe I can send him the audio from this on demand. But, you know, David Jackson always is quick to remind me of these things. You know, he called the Michigan game that that that his voice will forever be heard every September 1st. As long as college football continues to be played. But, you know, my very first game was 2016, like you mentioned, app at Tennessee on a Thursday night. Tennessee was number nine in the country and app goes to overtime. That's right. And I'm you know, you're thinking to yourself, oh, my goodness, are they going to have this type of a win in the very first game?

And they lost that game in overtime. And of course, the first thing I get from David, my first game replacing him is not, hey, really enjoyed it. It was way to finish the job.

Fantastic for D.J. Good stuff. I could talk to you for days. Just I know you're going to be excited to be up in Boone. But we got a lot of people who are actually joining us today on the show, even as I guest host.

So we'll let you go. We'll be listening to you this weekend. I'll make a point to get to a radio and hear some of the call on there.

I don't know if you got a sign ready for game day, but I hope all the folks in Boone are bringing out their creative juices for good signs. We appreciate you taking a few minutes out of what I know is a busy week. Congrats on a great call and have another great one and a great rest of the season, man.

Yeah. Thanks for having me, Hayes. I really appreciate it, man. Adam Whitten, you can follow him on Twitter at Adam B. Whitten. I believe I have that right.

I do. Adam B. Whitten, the radio play by play guy for Ab State. What a cool experience for him. Again, those folks, they they grind. Those are not glamorous jobs, right? They seem glamorous when you see them calling the coolest moment in sports. But there's a lot of, you know, dragging a bunch of equipment up some stairs. Oh, yeah. For a game that like, you know, not as many people care about because it's, you know, a random December and the team's five and sit.

Well, Ab State rarely is, but maybe their opponent isn't great, right? For every one of those big ones, these guys work hard. So it's cool when they get to have those big moments.

A Galaxy Z Fold 4. And always keeping in light is our good friends from the V Foundation. They do great work. The question is, is September the best month? You got good weather. You got football back.

You got. Good weather, football back, trying to think. September is some people's favorite month. Do we have the guess?

OK, I thought so. So I want to ask Katie Sweet, senior director of brand communications for the V Foundation, if September is her favorite month. And that's the first question we'll ask her. Katie, thanks so much for joining us. September, your favorite month. It is absolutely. It is. It's pediatric cancer awareness month for us. And so it's a chance to honor all of these tiny little cancer fighters that should not be going through these battles, but they are. And so we turn our focus to them for September.

So, yes, it is. Honestly, it is really one of my favorite times of year to be able to connect with these kids. What on a personal level, we'll talk some more about all the cool things you got going on for pediatric cancer month. But is September are you a fall person for real? Oh, yeah, my birthday is in September, so I'm super.

There we go. When is it? Has it already passed or is it coming up? No, it's Friday. It's this Friday. Happy early birthday. We do have birthday music. We should add birthday music for Katie. Happy birthday. I saw one of the things that's going on for pediatric cancer awareness month.

And it tied into the question that I wanted to ask anyway. So it's perfect. I saw one of the things that's going on is that Mark and Cindy Pentecost, founders of It Works, are matching donations to the V Foundation in honor of their matching donations to the Dick Vitale Fund for Pediatric Cancer, part of the V Foundation, up to a million dollars.

So right now, whatever you give can be doubled by that match. But one of the things I want to ask is Dick Vitale and Jim Valvano, two of my heroes growing up, being from this area, loving college basketball. They are so intertwined. They, you know, did TV appearances together. They did TV together. They were funny.

They were great characters. Their names both just happened to start with a V. And now Dick Vitale, after Jim Valvano, has clearly become the most visible, hardest working celebrity face. I know obviously the foundation has tons of folks working every day. But as far as the celebrity face, he has taken over that mantle that Jim Valvano started. Is there any way that it would ever become the V and V Foundation or if the subheading could be founded by Jim Valvano and perpetuated by Dick Vitale?

It seems like it has almost become as much the Vitale organization as it was the Jimmy V Foundation. Isn't he amazing? Every time he comes up, I just am stunned at the level of energy he has, at the level of commitment. And he focuses. The reason that we have the fund, the Dick Vitale Pediatric Fund, is because he focuses on children 24-7, seven days a week. I mean, it is unreal how much energy he puts into it. He hosts his own. Kayla, if you stop and talk to him, if you ran into him on the street, he would get you to make a donation.

That's how invested in this he really is. He is a great, like I said, ambassador for college basketball and has become an ambassador for the V Foundation. Katie Sweet joins us from the V Foundation, talking about all the things going on.

I won't have time to talk about all of them in depth, but I want to hit on what they are. There's the Connor's Cure, the partnership that you guys do with WWE. There's the Dribble for Victory over cancer that has started at some other schools, but this year is coming to Duke and UNC.

Because obviously, if it's basketball related, we need it here. You can go to thedribble.org to check that out. The walk is 60 miles in September, where you can raise money, do the walk sort of on your own, and then you partner with the V Foundation and you can get some free swag from them for the donations. Of those three things, we mentioned the Dick Vitale pediatric cancer fund of the Connor's Cure, Dribble for Victory, or walk 60 miles in September. Do any one of those speak to you in particular? Oh my gosh, it's like trying to pick a favorite child. Oh, that's a terrible question.

I'll give you a better question. Have you ever met a wrestler in person and how big was he or she? I have not, but I will tell you, Titus O'Neil, he made a very large, wonderful $100,000 donation to this cause just a couple weeks ago, and so he is my new favorite person. And I absolutely, I haven't watched a lot of WWE, but I will. I'm a fan now, because it was just incredible for him to step up and do that. It seems like one of those things where, much like watching hockey or NASCAR, when you see it in person, the people are just so big and so fast.

It feels like wrestling in person would be one of those things that you've got to see them up close. It is September, it is pediatric cancer awareness this month. You can go to V.org. We used to talk to Sherry Mazur about the process of owning a letter on the internet, having V.org as your address, and how cool that was. But Katie Sweet, do you have a favorite football team that you're cheering for this fall? Well, I love college sports a little bit more than pro, so I do have one I'm leaning towards, but I will tell you this.

What I love is that you mentioned the dribble. What I love is that it actually involves NC State, Duke, and UNC. So no matter what fan you are of these local awesome teams, you can get involved with that. So I will say I do have a favorite, but you can get involved with it. You're playing politics with us. I understand, I understand. It's like when the governor comes on or whatever. You don't like to say their favorites, even though sometimes we know.

But thanks so much. And how is Sherry Mazur doing? I know she's moved on, but she used to join us all the time on radio. Any word from her down in Atlanta?

She took her husband out of the sports market as well, so it was a loss for your organization and the sports media brethren here in the Triangle. So are they doing well down in Atlanta? Oh, they are. They are living their best life. Concerts, the soccer game, the soccer team, they're big fans.

Falcons fans, so you name it, they've been to every one of those games. So while we miss her, I feel like she's probably not had any time to think about us. I doubt that's the case. Katie Sweet, marketing director, excuse me, senior director of brand communication for the V Foundation. If you go to V.org right now, they make it very easy to find all these things I talked about. I was on there this morning. The first thing you'll see is that make a donation to the Dick Vitale Fund for Pediatric Cancer, and it'll be matched right away so you can feel good about your money being doubled. And then all the other things that I mentioned, thedribble.org, Connor's Cure, the Walk 60 Miles in September, very easy to find, great website, and you cannot forget the address, V.org. It's all on there for Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month.

Thanks so much for the time. Best of luck to your favorite school, whoever it might be. If they're in North Carolina, there's a good chance they're doing well right now, so we'll assume that things are going well for you. They are. They're 2-0. Aren't they all 2-0, I think, at the moment?

ECU's 1-1, so they're out. All right, we're narrowing to death. Oh, okay. I've narrowed it down.

And you had seized 3-0, so now we're getting really close, but no, we won't make you reveal. Katie, we appreciate the time, and best of luck with the rest of the football season and a great Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month. Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you. That is Katie Sweet. Again, you can go to V.org. One of the coolest charities, one of the charities most intertwined with sports, and it's very cool that it basically started from Jim Valvano here in our backyard. People always like to talk about the SB speech, and state fans always like to say, you know what, the real speech was the one in Reynolds Coliseum before the SB speech. So we appreciate her time, always joining us. This is The Adam Gold Show.