Has Matt Rhule lost the locker room?

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She is carolinablitz.com. How are you? You are everywhere, but I want to talk to you about the Panthers and if the mood has lightened, has changed at all since they finally broke through and won a game for the first time in nine tries. I mean, obviously, yes, the mood has changed.

But you know, before I came on, I was thinking I'm going to give the Panthers credit. Yeah, they were disappointed after those two losses to open the season. The locker room never seemed down. And you know that I guess, you know, I guess when you see that rule has lost the fan base, but he hasn't lost the locker room and so you know as wild as it seems like they they were happy I think to stop talking about winning and finally get in the win column. But, I mean, the mood seems to be the same.

They've never been down, despite the losses. It's interesting. There was a question asked of Robbie Anderson, heck, you probably asked the question, because everything I see I think is through Carolina blitz. But somebody asked Robbie Anderson, basically about, you know, does this ease the, the talk about Matt rule, leaving and Robbie went, Where would he go.

That definitely was me. And if you know Robbie like Robbie is very straightforward, he's going to answer your question. He's not going to give you too much fluff. And yeah, I wanted to know because Robbie said earlier in the week that he was playing for Matt rule. So if you're playing for your coach, obviously he hears the rumblings about potential firing. And when I asked that question he was kind of like dry and coy with the answer, like where would he go but you know you know right these guys in the locker room know what's going on. But, you know, Matt rule got the game ball after the win, and it seems like you know who the guys in the locker room are behind him. And it doesn't absolutely seem that way and that's, that's good for Matt you don't want it, because when a team quits on a coach, it's obvious. But I agree that that this team has not done that they have fought. I think there's, there's obviously some personnel issues that they're still working through. And Matt rule, again I think you asked him this question.

This is going to sound like a great setup just to pimp your website that died but it's fine. You asked him about Baker Mayfield yesterday, and having now watched the tape. You know what's your assessment of how Baker played, he took a political, you know, tack with it but Baker's not been great at all. Baker really hasn't been good at all the Panthers are winning. In spite of Baker and not because of Baker and that's not something that I think the Panthers were expecting coming into the season on Sunday I think that was his worst game so far. He was overthrowing his receivers I think DJ Moore might have had just one catch. There were at least three or four glaring like why, you know, I opening like bro, what is he looking at because he's nowhere close to his receiver. And the one.

The one long touchdown from the viscous channel with a screen. Yeah, so the biscuit did all the hard work in that touchdown. So, you know, Baker Mayfield has to play better for the Panthers, if they want a shot at kind of writing the writing the title writing the writing the ship format rule vast I heard Carolina blitz.com is joining us here you can follow on Twitter at keep blitz and here's the thing about this particular stretch of games and we talked about this on the show before these, they played the Saints, is that these three games all at home, really serve to do one of two things it either buries them because they're all usable obviously they won the first, but it also could elevate them and their level of confidence because they're also all winnable teams that are probably above where the Panthers are at this moment, maybe the Saints aren't they certainly didn't look like it on this past Sunday, but the Cardinals are a little bit above, certainly at the quarterback position a little bit above where Carolina is in San Francisco as a total team in spite of the quarterback situation that they've got. They're better, but they're also both winnable. So as you sit and you look at these two games coming up. What kind of an impact could it have on what the season looks like beyond this huge impact you know the Panthers struggled last year at home. And you know with that opening loss to the Browns, everybody thought it would be more of the same but as you mentioned, the next two games are pretty winnable game the Panthers historically, and I don't, I don't have the exact record but they they have a pretty good score.

And, you know, they haven't played San Fran as much but as you mentioned San Fran is struggling to score, like the Panthers are struggling to score. And so these. Whoops.

Was that a face mute could have been a face mute. We'll find out. We'll get vast I hurt back here in a second. We are we are efforting. So we have a senior.

It's all right. Okay, yes, they have, they have to win at home these two winnable games and, you know, if they lose these two games, then that only heightens the talk about whether Matt will be here next year or throughout the season. If they win the two games and that quiet to talk, and now you're talking about the Panthers as a potential playoff team so it really are two different ends of the spectrum, based on how the Panthers performing these next two games.

This is sort of like as we're watching I have Weather Channel coverage on in the studio as I'm watching all of the different paths that Ian could take. This is like the, the European model, which all you know all of a sudden why is this one all the way out to see the Panthers as a potential playoff team is that one that's like, why, why is that one so different from the from all the other models. But you know it's funny when I looked at the season beforehand, when I looked at each individual game and I looked at it in groups of games I think I grouped them in terms of groups of five. I thought if they could get out of the first five games three and two, which winning these three games at home would make them three and two. And I looked at it as a ceiling of eight wins.

Now I, I'm not associated or like foisting that on anybody else. That was just how I looked at it. But if they could get to that, then yeah they could still be a, you know, a team that is fringy in the playoff conversation when we get, you know, around Thanksgiving, because at that point there'll be like six or seven games left and if you're in it, you're in it.

It is what it is. But confidence does some unique things to teams. How is Iki Iquanu progressed over the last couple of weeks, and how much will that that help Baker Mayfield and associated with that, DJ Moore? Honestly, you know, there's been a spotlight on Iki and, you know, coming in to this year, a weakness of his was always pass protection and his strength was run blocking. And I think that that's still the same, but as a unit, the offensive line hasn't, has played decently.

Baker Mayfield has had clean pockets, but for whatever reason he gets happy feet and he's not trusting his protection to go through his reads in the right throw. But as a rookie, playing at that left tackle position, being thrown in the fire against the type of defensive front that he's gone against, I think Iki has had a decent season so far and you know you talk to offensive linemen who've been in the league and they say they really don't hit their stride until probably mid-year two after year two. And for him to be getting these reps year one and not doing horribly, I think is good news for the Panthers. Yeah, I think it was clear that they were playing the long game with Iki because we didn't see anything in the preseason that led anybody to believe that Iki was ready to be a starting left tackle, but they figured, all right, let's just, let's accelerate the learning process because we can't be great. And I think we all agreed that their offensive line can't be really good unless Iki Iquano is the left tackle, Brady Christensen inside the guard, which is probably their best thing going forward.

So there are, we all knew that there were going to be growing pains to say the least. Christian McCaffrey is Christian McCaffrey. Why did they scare us midweek last week by saying he had an ankle injury? You know, Christian says he could go to the bathroom during practice and it's going to show up on the injury report. And Panthers Twitter is going to overreact because of the injuries that he sustained in the past. Christian says he doesn't know and Matt Rule says it's some type of league thing if there's anything I guess maybe they have to report to the trainers or the trainers have to look at, then they have to do, they have to report it on the injury report and it shows up on the injury report. So even the minute things they have to report and then when they report it, they report it to us and we report it to the fans and then everybody goes crazy. So I actually love it because Christian McCaffrey by nature to us as media, he's a dry guy.

So that that leak mark, if I take a leak, then I'm going to end up on the injury report. Like that's the best thing that we've gotten from him in probably like three years. So I could just see it this week if he's on the injury per Christian McCaffrey, number one.

Right. That would be better we would be better than number two. If they listed that Christian McCaffrey know JC horn year two. What do you think JC horn is progressing, you know, being PFS put out there that, you know, played at different positions I think 39 snaps. Didn't allow a catch and got an interception. I still think, you know, you look at him in the end, you forget that he only played three games right here. But with him, and his youth, and really his lack of playing time he has to, he has to be less handy and he's a physical receiver, but there has to be a fine line and I think you get that with experience between being physical and not getting the call. He did better last week, I don't even know if he had any peace pass interference calls last week, as opposed to the week before against New York, but that's the fine line with him but I think that he's he's turning out to be, you know, a respectable top 10 pick.

Look, of all the positions that are impossible to project. And I believe this to be true cornerback coming out of college and getting into the NFL. I'm not saying I don't know why teams ever draft quarterbacks high, but the miss rate on cornerbacks has to be as high or higher than it is with quarterbacks. It is up there you that's a good point, and take you take a gamble.

When you draft a cornerback because you can get value cornerback for cornerback to end up being good guys in later rounds, but they really like JC more and he likes his pedigree with his that. So far, so far, it's panning out well for the Panthers and that defense as a whole, look, a leak against the same. I would hate to see the miles that you put on your car bash die hurt Carolina blitz.com at keep blitzen on Twitter. You're the best keep rocking. Thanks, Adam. So I saw you at the hockey game last night. Yeah, I was there. I thought you weren't going to go to home games. Well, because you have a you're busy until six actually later than that.

Yeah, I was about 30 or so. Well, here's the thing. There's no Bali sports for me yesterday to work. So I didn't have to worry about getting to the game or anything on time and I figured well, you know what I want to just I actually wanted to see how some like the new line combos and stuff like that that we expect to see I wanted to see it in person and it was either that or edit culture state on my on my couch. And then I went into the locker room actually chatted with just off record with Paul Stasney for a little bit.

Nice was great was nice to catch up to him. Good tip in good tip in goal for Paul Stasney. Yeah, there's a lot of things to like about this team and has nothing to do with what the final score was yesterday because Tampa just threw uniforms on the ice basically and Carolina will likely do a very similar thing tomorrow at Florida. Not that they don't have good players there.

There are prospects and some other good players, but ultimately it's not going to be a representative NHL lineup. All right yesterday. John Shire head coach at Duke had his first preseason as practice has begun actually preseason media availability and as you could expect he's kind of excited. For me, it's first day of practice is something something not that I've had marked down on my calendar for some time and also we're here.

So it's a now is the second day. So it's a exciting time for our team. We're really getting a feel for each other and we have a lot of work to do but it's exciting group. They were working on it.

It's been a lot of fun. First of all, good on John for recognizing the day to immediately follows day one. So already Bob's a good start making all the correct decisions. Look, they've had a lot of time together as a team, but a lot of it can is not really allowed to be coached. There's only certain a certain amount of time.

So already Bob's a good start making all the correct decisions. Look, they've had a lot of time together as a team, but a lot of it can is not really allowed to be coached. There's only certain certain things you can do with a group as a head coach based on NCAA rules, which seems to me to be kind of silly, right? It's just like you like practices start a certain time, but you should be there should be you should be allowed to hey, they're they're off-season workout. Who does it hurt? Yeah, who does it hurt if they pray if they practice a few times a week, there's no season. Nobody wants to practice for six months leading up to a season. But I mean, why would it why would it be terrible to get together?

Oh twice a week once a whatever whatever it is. I know no need to delve into that conversation, but this is what always happened with the other guy forget his name. When you're the head coach at Duke, you're not just a college basketball coach and I'm not saying John Shire is a spokesperson for the sport of college basketball. But John Shire is the new coach and people are going to ask him about issues that deal with this that the sport has to deal with including what happens when the NBA lowers the age limit from 19 to 18. The biggest thing I've learned since I've taken, you know, since I've become the head coach in the spring is understanding what real and what isn't and not overreacting to things and like that rule could change tomorrow and that rule could change two years from now or could never change. I'm not it's it's you know, there are other things along the way whether you talk about NIL whether you talk about the transfer rule transfer rule rule, but we try to just focus on obviously being prepared for either one. Like we feel Duke basketball and the way we've we've recruited and the way we will continue to we'll be in a good position but not try to jump the gun. We're anticipating something because next thing, you know, something else changes and just try to stay the course of what we know is real what we know for sure is happening. And I know obviously reports get put out there and we're aware of all of them and we do our homework and we make sure we're informed as much as we possibly can be. But I also think it's important not to overreact and jump the gun about how we're recruiting or how we're handling something based on something that may happen in this time or may not happen.

All right about this issue. It's clear first of all one and done whether it is an 18 year age limit or a 19 year age limit. One and done will not go away ever there will always be players until the rule is written that if you enter college, you must be there for two years or three years one and done will never leave will never be done. It will just be different types of players that play it one year because as soon as the NBA is interested in drafting you. I mean, I'm not saying you should go but the odds are that a lot of players will go one year or two years on matter. We have like all the players who go after their sophomore year now. Yeah, right and there are plenty that go John Moran right went after his sophomore year. I believe that's right, right. So if it's a so that guy would leave after his freshman year.

It's just the way it's the way it is. Yeah, so one and done is not going anywhere. I also thought about this as it pertains to Duke and programs that have really especially recently lived with one year players, and that's really what Duke has become so much turnover in the roster, every single year. And I'm not sure it will change that much for Duke because there's there is a value financial value in spending a year at Duke. There's no question about that how much money and again, it's always bad to use Zion Williamson as an example because he is an outlier but how much money did Zion Williamson make by spending a year at Duke versus going directly from Spartanburg where the high school he went to to the NBA made a lot. Oh immeasurable. It's not it's measurable but but yes, you're correct Dennis.

It is a lot. There is value to playing at Duke or at North Carolina or at Kentucky or at Kansas and playing in a place that is visible. Because your high school probably wasn't. So, that is the reason, even if you're good enough to go directly to the NBA. That is the reason why maybe you still go to Duke, or you still go to a Carolina or Kansas or Kentucky or Michigan State, or, or any of these schools that has a national profile. So maybe it won't impact this much at all, and the only kids who will leave are the kids who didn't want to go to college at all, or who don't have the academic credentials to go to college, which is fine. Not even sure I did. I'm not criticizing that that college isn't for everybody.

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