Former ECU football coach Ruffin McNeill

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Visit us at Capital Financial USA.com. This is the Adam Gold Show. Under center emotions Richard Higgins to move closer to the line. Play action. Darnold backpedaling. Corner of the end zone. He's got Hollywood Higgins for a touchdown. For the first time in 2022, the Carolina Panthers are going to be playing at Bank of America Stadium with an opponent on the other side.

It's the first game. By the way, I'm obviously not Adam Gold. I'm merely Josh Graham, just a kid from Youngsville, North Carolina, who attended East Carolina University, and now mostly host shows in the Triad corner of Bank of America Stadium.

The owner of the universe for WSJS. Happy to be here again. Things are about to get busy at Bank of America Stadium. You're playing the Chili Peppers right now, Dennis Cox, executive producer of the show. They're going to be at Bank of America Stadium next Wednesday night, next Wednesday or Thursday. Six events over the next 16 days at the bank.

12 over the next 44. Aggie Eagle Classic. That's going to be at Bank of America Stadium.

Not this Saturday, but next Saturday. I can't think of a better opening weekend in the history of this state. Than North Carolina going up the mountain for the first time to play App State.

At the same exact time, East Carolina, the Pirates in Greenville, America. Welcome to Top 15 NC State team. And you get Aggie Eagle in Charlotte. It's hard to top. That's unbelievable.

I don't know which of those is going to be the best environment out of the three. Speaking of NC State, East Carolina, Ruffin McNeil, who's an ECU alum, former ECU head coach, now a special assistant to Dave Doran at NC State. He's going to join the show in about a half hour. I get that we've already had preseason football and that it's week two of high school football tonight. But today really feels like the first football Friday of 2022 with week zero kicking off tomorrow.

North Carolina and Florida A&M. So with gridiron top of mind, it's all football out of the gate today. As I mentioned, tonight is the Carolina Panthers dress rehearsal.

Side note. Did you ever do a school play once upon a time dress rehearsals? Yeah. Well, I've been in a theater production and within a few years ago. So, yeah, I know all about really dress rehearsal. What theater production have you been in in recent years?

Tony and Tina's wedding. Huh? We can get into it more later.

I'd like to do that. My only theater experience was at Franklin Academy High School in Wake Forest, North Carolina, where I was this loud, loud kid. Shocker. Talked a lot. And in an effort to get me to shut up, we had like a detective play and they created like a sidekick to the main detective. And it was a playoff T.J. Housham and Zara. They called him Detective Shusham and Zara. And I had no lines the entire play. Nice. I was in every scene, but I had no lines.

It didn't seem like that was a coincidence. We will see the starters for one quarter tonight, one quarter. And they're going up against the Bills second teamers. The Bills are not going to be playing any starters.

So this is what I want to see. Baker Mayfield lead a touchdown drive. He had one drive against Washington.

Pretty good. Only one negative play. Miss handled snap, went backwards, kicked the field goal, got inside the 20 yard line. You're going up against the Bills twos.

You're playing probably one or two drives. How about we get into the end zone? I'll tell you what I don't want to see. Christian McCaffrey. None of it. I don't need to see anything from him. Nothing. Do not want that guy to play.

There's no reason for it whatsoever. Seven o'clock kick. Panthers-Bills tonight.

I was about to say, let's get spicy around here. Cue the nuck if you buck if you've got it, because practice fights are being talked about again. The Aaron Donald helmet swing is the talk of the NFL. There is no scarier dude in the league. There is nobody I would want swinging a helmet at me least less least East Carolina education.

Then Aaron Donald. Right? Scary dude. Here with Sean McVeigh on what exactly happened here. I've been enough of a meathead in my past that I've done some stupid stuff, too. So I know how volatile and how fragile it is where you hit it the wrong way and then you break your hand and, you know, it could affect a guy's chance to, you know, be okay.

Or God forbid somebody gets hit in the head with a helmet off. And so that was really just I don't know what emotions I was feeling right there. I just was glad when everything I've broken up in my understand was everybody's okay. Follow up question. What stupid things did you do as a meathead Sean McVeigh? He doesn't really strike me as a meathead type. You'd be shocked. Here's my question.

How did nobody see this coming? How about we get the two teams that played in the Super Bowl and get them together? I'm sure there aren't any bad feelings. I'm sure everybody's cool with each other, you know, playing in the most important game in the Western Hemisphere about six months ago. I'm sure everybody's going to stay cool. Now, he's not going to be suspended. That's not going to happen. This is not like Myles Garrett because it didn't happen in the game and the NFL has rules that they stay out of it when it comes to joint practices.

Should that change? Maybe we could talk about that later, but do not expect the league to step in and punish Aaron Donald for swinging his helmet around. It is week zero Eve for North Carolina, Keenan Stadium, 815 kick. Why? It's on ACC Network. Man, Carolina is going to win this game by a million. What time's this game going to end? 1230 at night. Sunday.

That's when it's going to end Sunday. You're not that guy though that says that 1230. It's actually Sunday morning. Are you that guy?

No. Okay, that's still Saturday night. I can't be if you want me as far as I'm concerned.

I'm going to be there tomorrow night through what's going to be a blowout. The golden rule in coaching is respect your opponent. Do not look ahead.

So if you're a coach or a player who's been told this your entire life, I want you to do Vince Vaughn and old school for a second earmuffs for for a minute. That does not apply here. App State needs to be top of mind for North Carolina in this game tomorrow. Yes, look ahead.

Yes, have App State in mind. You don't need to completely respect your opponent. Fam you because they got 60 scholarship players. You're paying them to beat them by a ton.

And you should be able to do that. The reason you're playing in week zero is because you don't want a repeat of what happened last year, where you went into a hornet's nest the first game of the year on the road and you weren't prepared for it. So now prior to going to Boone, you are at home and you're going to win by a ton. So don't show a lot to give App State coaches an advantage in scouting you. And how about you play into the chess match, have some deep balls scripted in there for Drake May, so that App State coaches have to prepare and scout for that and perhaps not load up the box for that week one game when App plays North Carolina.

So there is real chess match stuff here for App and North Carolina, even though App State's not on the field tomorrow night. Last night in preseason, it became clear to me that Trey Lance is the quarterback Green Bay hoped Jordan Love would be. They were both in action last night, just in separate games. Both teams traded up for their quarterback in the first round, but only one team's moved on from the incumbent, the current guy they had, in favor of looking to the future. San Francisco still has Jimmy G on the roster, but Trey Lance is going to be the guy. Green Bay begged and pleaded for Aaron Rodgers to stick around after back to back MVP seasons. Jordan Love's a bust. If he wasn't, the Packers would have moved on from now, by now, excuse me, and gotten a huge haul in exchange for Aaron Rodgers to help equip Jordan Love with all that they've gotten. You don't draft a quarterback in the first round if you don't have an intent on him to play in the first three years. So they know what they've got, and it's not good when you watch Jordan Love play.

You can see that he's just not it. He had another interception last night. Some of this is coaching, too. Kyle Shanahan gets the most out of people, got the most out of Jimmy G. I think he's going to get the most out of Trey Lance. That's great coaching. Do we know about that when it comes to Matt Leflore?

I don't know. He didn't take Aaron Rodgers to the Super Bowl despite two MVP seasons the last couple of years. Didn't win a playoff game last year, losing to San Francisco. So I think there are real concerns that you have about Leflore.

Obviously real concerns that you have about Jordan Love. And San Francisco to me is an incredibly compelling team in 2022. Circling back to the Panthers. As I mentioned, first preseason game of 2022, first home game of 2022, the last time the Carolina Panthers were at home was the day after Christmas. Lost to Tampa Bay by a ton and the fire Matt rule chance rain through Bank of America Stadium. Here's my question to you, Dennis Cox.

Talk to me. More Panthers fans at the stadium tonight or Buffalo Bills fans? Bills Mafia.

It wouldn't shock me if it's 50-50. They travel, man. Well, that and there's a lot of upstate New York transplants that live down here in North Carolina. I remember I went to training camp in Spartanburg when the Bills and Panthers did joint practices a few years back.

This might have been five years ago and I was stunned. There were twice as many Bills fans there than there were Carolina Panthers fans. So they're not going to be deterred by the fact Josh Allen's not playing and there aren't starters out there. They're going to be jumping through tables, preferably tables that are on fire.

Yes, of course. And they're going to pack out that stadium. I don't think it's unrealistic what you're talking about there. 50-50. Bills Panthers fans because it doesn't seem like to me. There is a lot of energy among Panther fans getting excited about this team.

Adding Baker Mayfield helps. There's no doubt. But there isn't a great buzz surrounding Carolina. And I think that's a shame because I'm bullish on Carolina being better than they were in the last two years. And I don't think the NFC is that strong. So eight, nine wins could be enough to make the playoffs in the NFC this year. I think Carolina's in that mix.

I really do. It is about time for the NFL to tighten up joint practices. The Aaron Donald incident might be the final straw, but we saw it when the Panthers and Patriots got together last week, didn't we? Everywhere there's a joint practice, a joint practice breaking out. There's a fight breaking out. Cue the Knuck if you buck, after all. And the reason that is, I think at the core, guys are not fearful that they're going to be punished for mixing it up in a joint practice the way that you would in a game.

I think there's some truth to that. I think they know that it would be up to the teams to punish their guys. And the Rams aren't going to punish their best player in Aaron Donald and suspend him.

The NFL says that they're going to leave that to the teams. How much does that change moving forward as the league rolls back more on preseason games in favor of more and more joint practices? Players and coaches love joint practices more. Coaches love having guys in certain situations and being able to run two minutes as much as they want to. And hey, how about we do some individual work and you get more out of the guys and you get more information on what you actually have versus you're running vanilla formations in preseason games because you don't want to show future opponents anything.

And you don't learn much about guys because that's not what the games are. It's not what the games look like in the regular season. Coaches love those situations.

Players love how controlled it is. There are fewer injuries out there. So if there's more emphasis on joint practices moving forward than preseason games, the NFL, I think, needs to step in here because I think that is the future. That is where we're headed.

You just got to manage it. You got to have more restrictions on what players can and cannot do. It's not just Carolina playing in week zero. Here are three other games that could be decent, Dennis Cox. There are some bad games on the board.

Oh, yeah. Games that you shouldn't pay attention to. Probably most of them, if I'm being honest. We're starting with Will Healy, Charlotte 49ers. They're playing at FAU.

Quick trivia question. Do you know who coaches FAU? Lane Kiffin. Willie Taggart. That wasn't really Willie Taggart. Willie Taggart's there. Kiffin was there. The Cozy Perry still playing quarterback over there. Former Miami QB. And Charlotte has this Reynolds kid who's going into his sixth year in college.

You're going to see a lot of that still for the next couple of years because of the COVID season. This will be a really good game. It's been competitive the last few years between these two. CBS Sports Network at seven o'clock tomorrow. You got a conference game in Ireland, Nebraska, Northwestern, 1230 on Fox.

I expect that to be a slugfest. Pat Fitzgerald's team is two years removed from being in the Big Ten title game. They were not good last year. I think they're going to be strong defensively. Scott Frost is on an incredibly hot seat in Lincoln.

He needs to win this year. And in order to beat expectations, you can't really afford to lose your opener against Northwestern. So that's a conference game.

Stakes attached to it. And then, yes, I'm going to do it. Vanderbilt, Hawaii, 1030 kick CBS Sports. You know, you know, 20. Hawaii playing the late night game on week zero. Always.

Every year. Guarantee you it'll be a one possession game at one o'clock in the morning, right when I'm getting back into my house in Winston-Salem from the Carolina game tomorrow night. That's going to last a million years. I will be watching the end of a Vanderbilt, Hawaii game that's close at one o'clock in the morning.

Last thing real quick. It was the debut of Amazon's Thursday night football telecast. Yeah.

And I loved it. Is there a better tandem in the NFL right now than Al Michaels and Kirk Herb Street? Hard to top. My wife, every time she hears Kirk Herb Street's name, she has the tendency to say out loud in my presence, Kirk Herb Street. Don't know why. Kirk Herb Street.

Every single time. And now every time I say his name, that's all I can think of. Kirk Herb Street. I need a recording of that. Kirk Herb Street.

Yeah, I think that might be as good as you get. And Kaylee Hartung, who's been in news and been in sports. She's on the sideline. I didn't know that we're doing NBA style quarter in interviews in the NFL now.

Yeah, we're doing that. Which coach do you think is going to be the worst? Oh, Belichick. No, but at the same time, he's probably the best.

Because you know what you're getting with him. End of the third. He's losing by two touchdowns. Bill, what needs to happen in the fourth? Well, Adam, you know, it's going to be, you know, you just got to tackle more and do your job. Can't wait. Can't wait.

That's exciting. Ryan Fitzpatrick, really good studio analyst. I enjoyed him. And Richard Sherman, you knew that was going to be good TV.

Carissa Thompson. We already know that. Very accessible.

You can find advanced stats and it is a nerd's delight. I'm sure there are a lot of people upset saying, where's the game on my television? You're going to see a lot of that, of course. But I was pleased with the Amazon Prime Thursday night broadcast, the debut that they had last night. Texans forty niners.

OK, in 10 minutes. Ruffin McNeil is going to join the show. It'll be his first game back at East Carolina since he was fired. He was inducted into the East Carolina Sports Hall of Fame last year. He was back for a Friday night ceremony, but then left early Saturday to rejoin the Wolf Pack at Florida State.

Why did he rejoin the Wolf Pack? Well, because the last few years he's been special assistant to Dave Doran with NC State. So when NC State goes to East Carolina next week, it's going to be his first game back.

And the first time Ruff at any stop has ever competed against ECU. He was a player there for Pat Dye in the 70s. Yes, that Pat Dye who coached Bo Jackson and returned as a coach. Where he hired some guy named Lincoln Riley to be the youngest offensive coordinator in college football. Then after he was done in Greenville, Lincoln brought him to Oklahoma, where he helped coach some dude named Baker Mayfield and then Kyler Murray and Jalen Hurts. So he's a really interesting guy.

This is something I'm not going to bring up to Ruff, though. I like the Pirates next weekend. All offseason. I've had this tingle.

It's been telling me you see a doctor. East Carolina has a shot here. I'm ready to go there. I think East Carolina is going to win this game outright.

OK. There are a lot of people, state fans saying they're scared of this game. There are some media saying you better watch out. Upset alert. I'm going to go ahead and say it.

I think the Pirates win this game. And I got a handful of reasons for it. Like I was talking to a state fan this morning telling them, make sure you're not listening to the show around 12, 15, 12, 20. Why? Come on, you're going to have a Tar Heel on?

What he said. OK. No, no, no. Yeah, that was Luke May yesterday. No, I, I think ECU is going to win this game and I'll tell you why. It reminds me a lot of Carolina last year where you lose your top receiver. You lose your top two running backs. You lose a top 10 pick at left tackle. And it reminded me of a conversation I had with Mac right before the game in Virginia Tech a year ago. I asked him, are you at the point yet as a program that you can afford to lose?

Multiple draft picks and it not hurt you. And he told me the only team in the ACC that is built that way is Clemson. Yeah. So there are some real questions there on offense. And then the first time you're going to step on the field with all these expectations of being a top 15 team, you're stepping into a bleeping hornet's nest like Blacksburg, like Greenville, America is going to be.

I don't like using the expression Super Bowl. But let's be honest about it. That's what this is for ECU. It would make their season.

It would justify the first few years for Mike Houston. And we know squirrely things happen when state goes to that building. I was there in 2016 when that NC State team that should have beat the national champion Clemson Tigers in Death Valley lost to Scotty Montgomery, the guy who only beat UConn, Carolina, NC State and FCS schools in three years.

Weird things happen. And this East Carolina team is the best pirate team that they've had since Ruff was there. They did something. They do something that Ruff's teams never did with Lincoln. They play defense and they run the ball.

And you got Holton Nailers back for a fifth or sixth year. So it has all the makings. So I'm just going to go ahead and say it.

I've got East Carolina beating NC State outright eight days from now. OK. I don't know what that line is. I think it's 10, 10 and a half. Guarantee you, when we're placing our bets next hour. Yeah, that's something that you're going to be there. Something that's going to be there.

They got last saws on 11 point spread. Yeah. I hope this doesn't hurt your feelings. I hope this doesn't come between our mind.

Yes. I don't care. OK. Joe Gillio. He's going to be in later in the roundtable.

Steven Igoe from Hoist to Colors. And he's been giving me grief. He's been saying, Josh, you were the one guy to pick Pitt last year. Josh, you were right about Georgia.

What do you got for me now? I think he's Carolina's going to beat NC State. What? Don't couch it.

Don't couch it. Do you believe that? Yes. All right. Then say it. OK. And now I've said it. All right. I can't wait to see your Twitter feed.

I don't have it up right now. I'm on Twitter at Josh Graham Radio. Oh, you're just an East Carolina guy. Oh, you're a Homer. Oh, you're just trying to stir it up and make radio.

That's what you're trying to do. Josh Graham. But I am conflicted. Because while East Carolina is my alma mater and they're playing next weekend against the pack, I can't help but root for Ruff McNeil. He is the friendliest and perhaps most well-traveled coach in the state of North Carolina.

And Ruff, who's now at NC State, is going to be our guest next on the Adam Gold Show. We're not supposed to have rooting interest in this business. And for teams, I don't really feel emotionally invested anymore. Except, I guess, for my Baltimore Orioles, maybe the Hurricanes. But I can't help rooting for people, though.

And there are few people I root for more than our guests now. It is Ruff McNeil, former East Carolina head coach, ECU alum, now special assistant for Dave Doran at NC State, heading into his third year. Coach, be honest with me. Do you expect there are going to be any tears when you return to Greenville, America, eight days from now? You know what?

I was speaking earlier. I don't know what emotions I will feel. I'm sure there will be some that I have to deal with because I've never been in my entire coaching career for three years had to play a team.

The team that I played at and coached, I've coached that. So it'll be a, I'm sure, emotional. But then to get right to competition, I'm sure very quickly. But I've never experienced it. So I'm looking forward to the first time seeing how it goes. Because here's what I know about you getting to know you the last dozen years or so. You are an emotional guy.

You wear your emotions on your sleeve, but also you're a coach and coaches are control freaks. You would love to control everything to prepare for everything. So how do you even prepare for what you might be able to feel or what you might feel when you see the purple smoke and Hendrix playing and you're not the one running through that smoke? I'm not, you know, I'm sure it'll be, it's going to be different to say the least. And I'm sure at that time it'll be ready to kick off and receive and get ready for the game to start.

So, again, I'm not sure the response because I've never been in a situation before. But I'm sure quickly for both teams and I know fan bases that we'll be ready for the game and get right, dive right into the competition. Ruffin McNeil is with us here. I know you hate making it about you, so I'll get to your team in just a bit. But I wanted to ask one more thing because I'll never forget the first time we spoke after your coaching tenure in Greenville ended and there were wounds there.

You were emotional and it's easy. You know, it's easily the most wounded I've ever heard you are some of those wounds still there. You know, over time, you know, over time, you and experiences, you get a chance to I've had a chance to experience other experiences. So to say, you know, and this is my third school I've been I've worked since. And so my Virginia experience was was learning and great to work for Bronco Mendenhall there. We we are really close with and learn so much working with him and that staff and those those kids there at the University of Virginia and then working to get a chance to work with Lincoln Alley at Oklahoma again.

Again, a different capacity. But it was a lot of the staff, some his staff, they were on my staff here at East Carolina at that time. And before that experience has been a big part of it now and now here working for Dave Dorn here at North Carolina State. So I've had three different experiences then.

So it's helped, you know, ease and ease the next phase or ease the next level that you go to. Josh, when you were in Oklahoma in consecutive years, you had Baker Mayfield, Tyler Murray and Jalen Hurts. Now you've got another top 15 team at NC State and a quarterback everybody's really excited about. And Devin Leary, does Devin remind you at all? Is there a common thread between some of these great quarterbacks?

Does he remind you at all of some of the guys you dealt with before? You know, the two things I would say that the ability everybody knows about that part, but the leadership and poise they have at practice and the leadership they have at practice with the offensive unit, but also with the entire team. When they, when Devin speaks, just like when Baker spoke or Tyler spoke, Kyle was really quiet and Devin is a little bit too, but when he speaks, the entire team, the entire bit will listen.

So, you know, the ability between those all three were at top level, but their similarities would be leadership, ability and poise. Ruffin McNeil with us here on the Adam Gold Shell. Josh Graham filling in for him. Since the Carolina Panthers are starting Baker Mayfield now, I've got to ask, I know you love former walk-ons.

The Burlesworth award trophy, one of my favorite trophies that are handed out each year. Justin Hardy, who led college football in receptions. He, one of the best walk-on stories we've seen in the last decade. And Baker Mayfield going from being a walk-on twice to be in the Heisman Trophy winner. What's your favorite Baker Mayfield story that speaks to the type of guy the Carolina Panthers are getting? Well, I'll tell you, you know, one, when we were at East Carolina, Lincoln and I both tried to reach out to Baker, while he was in high school, to try to get him to choose us.

Okay, hold one second, hold one second. I've heard this as folklore, Ruff, multiple times from Lincoln, from other folks, that there was a chance Baker Mayfield could play for the East Carolina Pirates. How true is that? We didn't have a chance, you know, because we had roots down there and, you know, and coaches, coaching connections. But, you know, Baker chose to walk on and stay in the state for Texas Tech and then transferred to Oklahoma and walk on. But I think, you know, the fact that he has that passion, you know, the Oklahoma story is amazing because, you know, he left Texas Tech, you know, they had decided to go with Holmes and he goes to Oklahoma on his own. He had his mom drive up from Texas and he enrolls on his own. No coaches, no athletic help. He gets his dorm room and everything on his own. And then once he gets everything loaded, then he goes over to the football office and introduces himself to Bob Stoops and wanted to have a chance to try out for the team as a walk-on.

And he did it without any help, without any lead help from a coach or particularly just and then went out for the team. And then the rest is history, you know, to see the fight in him. You know, people, Baker's misunderstood in a lot of ways to me when I see things or hear things about him.

You know, I've had a chance to see him in a different light than people sometimes I hear talk about or mention his name and things. Yeah, he is competitive. And yes, he has a chip on his shoulders. And I tell you what, going to war with him in practice was a challenge, but also no going into the game, we have a really good chance to win with Baker other than him. So I know Matt, Mattie, I call him Mattie, but Matt ruled the coach at Carolina very, very well.

I think Matt understood that having gone against each other at Oklahoma and Baylor, understood that fight that Baker's going to bring to the table. And then we have Icky there to block for him. So from State, Icky was in the draft to a six-person pick to block for him. So I look forward to Baker having a great, great year in Carolina, personally. Icky's going to play a full quarter tonight. First snap. I enjoyed watching it last week against the Patriots.

It was one of those old school tosses like finding the alley, Vince Lombardi, Paul Horning style, and Icky Iquanu just putting somebody on roller skates and pushing them backwards. But Coach, you said that there were some misconceptions about Baker. What's a misconception you hear that bothers you when people talk about Baker?

That he's not a keen guy. That's false. That's false as false comes. I've never been around a guy that cares more about his teammates and his teammates' respect. And I know NFL is different. I consider that football is football and team concept is team concept. One of my ethos is team first, last, and always. And for me to hear that that's not true, that's my opinion, just like they have their opinion, I think that's a misconception of Baker. I think he cares about team.

I think he cares about bringing a team and being a great leader for his team and his possible power to help his team win. Ruffin McNeil, last thing for you. You've been talking about Lincoln Riley, who you made the youngest offensive coordinator in college football at East Carolina a dozen years ago.

It was funny. I was talking to Trey Boston last week and former Carolina safety now doing stuff with the ACC Network, Wizard Panther. And we were talking about the 2013 game where you guys put up 55 in Chapel Hill. And I said, do you know who the OC was back then? He goes, who? It was Lincoln Riley and his head almost exploded.

What? Lincoln Riley was calling plays for East Carolina? No wonder we gave up 70 and gave up 55. But he's one of the biggest stories in college football. He left to go to USC.

They're ranked 15th in the country when last year they just weren't really that good of a football team. How quickly do you think Lincoln can make the Trojans a contender? Well, I think it was, I have no, I think it's pretty evident how much confidence and belief I have in not just Lincoln as a coach on the field, but him as a leader off the field. And, you know, he's a person that will galvanize not just the team, but he'll galvanize the whole entire organization at Southern Cal. That's first of all, I think that with the new rules able to use a transfer reporter now, it's a part of college football life. There's no need for anyone to hate or not hate, not use it, but it's there. I think he's used that as perfectly as possible. I know he has a great staff, a symbol of great staff out there with him at Southern Cal.

And it would not surprise me, and it's not going to surprise me when Lincoln has success there. Not one iota. Ruff, thanks for putting up with me for all these years. Hope to talk to you sometime soon. Always, man. Josh, it's always, man.

You know that. Anything for you, brother. There he goes, Ruffin McNeil, one of the best there is. Really appreciate the time, and I'm betting tears, minus 120 tears for Ruffin McNeil next Saturday. Tomorrow is a significant day for Mac Brown, not just because his team's opening up the season against FAMU.

There's something else that's pretty significant that we'll share with you next on the Adam Gold Trail. Tomorrow night, North Carolina is going to open the college football season against Florida A&M. It's week zero, but that's not the only reason tomorrow is significant for Mac Brown.

Tomorrow is also Mac's 71st birthday, and here's why that's significant. He will be the only 71-year-old coach in FBS college football. At least head coaches. Frank Solich, for the longest, was the oldest coach, but he retired not too long ago at Ohio. So I believe, as far as I can see, Mac is the oldest coach in FBS college football.

He's got Saban by a couple of months. Here he was on how he plans to celebrate. As you get older, you appreciate life more, and you enjoy what you're doing more. You take your purpose more seriously, I think, because you understand what you've been through.

You really want to help and give back, and that's something that being older does. I've never been able to celebrate a birthday because it's always been during the start of football season. So we won't be able to celebrate this one either. Sally said, can we go to dinner or something? I said, no, we can go to a training table, but we can't go to dinner. We don't have time. Please. Can you imagine that?

Yeah, actually I can. You know why? It's his birthday.

He should be able to choose what he wants to do. We're going to the training table. There you go. It's his birthday. Do you know the story of how Mac and Sally got married? I think I may have heard it, but I might need a refresher on this. I know they've basically been inseparable since. He got married. They got married, he told me once, during football season. I didn't think about that at all. It didn't really resonate with me at all, that that would be weird.

So I didn't say anything at the time, but then the next time I talked to Mac, I said, wait a minute. How does a football coach get married during football season? It was early September, I think, 91. So they've been together over 30 years. Sally and Mac Brown have been married. Apparently, the story goes that they didn't want it to be a big deal. They just wanted to get married. So Mac went up to her right before the season started.

Let's get married. OK, when? They picked the date on the calendar.

The way Mac described it to me. I don't want to pick a week that we're going to lose. So Florida State, Bobby Bowden, that week's out. Yeah, going up against my alma mater. I think it was Maryland right before a Maryland game. He thought we're not going to lose that game. Maryland apparently wasn't really good at the time.

So the day before the game. Early morning, he leaves a meeting, picks up Sally, drives the Dylan, South Carolina south of the border. Got themselves a marriage license.

Mac said that he picked up Burger King on the way. Ask Sally if she wanted any. She didn't. And when they got married, they turned behind them. Saw another couple doing the same thing. Asked them if they could take their picture. This is their wedding picture. They took it. Apparently. Their finger was included in the photo.

So the photo, when they were when that was developed, rendered useless. And Mac said he saw a T-shirt in that room that said, I got hitched in Dylan. He regrets not getting one. So we just showed up later that day and the entire office was surprised that Mac was serious. When he said earlier in the day that he was going to leave and get married the day before a football game.

All right. So I can only imagine how that conversation was like. Hey, Mac, how was your morning? I got married. It was good.

It's great. And a lot of people owe the guy an apology. Mac Brown. I remember the day he was hired.

The immediate reaction was up. All the olds in the Rams Club just calling back to the 90s, going to hire this guy in his late 60s. It's just not going to work.

He's been on television the last five years. This is not a good hire. And we're wrong about that. And I think the recruiting shows that. I don't think it's fair in college football today to eliminate people because of age. If you can be a president in your 70s, you can be a college football coach. And our last two U.S. presidents have been in their 70s.

If you can do that, you can be a football coach. And how many ACC coaches are more energetic, more lively than Mac Brown is? Not a lot.

But this is a fair question to ask now. That he's 71 years old as of tomorrow. That he's the oldest coach of college football. What is the plan after Mac decides to step away? I'm not saying that's imminent.

But he's 71 next year, two years, three years. Who is in line, if you had to guess today, Carolina's next coach? Because I don't think it's the coordinators. I don't think it's Longo.

I don't think it's Gene Chiswick who comes back. Yeah, I think a really good guess. If I had to guess right now. Probably Dre Bly. OK, really good recruiter.

Young, one of the best players to ever play there. That would be a home run, in my opinion. Now, don't aggregate this. Don't Doug Gottlieb me here.

I don't want you to find that clip on YouTube. When Gottlieb said, hey, Roy's going to retire after if they make it to the final four and Hubert's going to be the next coach. Oh, he was right about Hubert being the next coach. He was just wrong about the final four bit because they went to two final fours after he said that.

And then stuck around a few years after that. This is not me reporting anything. I'm saying if I had to guess today who the next guy might be. My guess would probably be. Dre Bly. OK, probably make a lot of sense. All right. This is The Adam Gold Show.