Is NC State football at Clemson football the biggest game in school history?

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Visit us at capitalfinancialusa.com. This is the Adam Gold Show. The preseason friendly season of the NHL is here in the state of North Carolina. Polite bank holiday crowd at PNC Arena last night for the Gaines and the uniforms of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Not many NHL players. I did not realize Hayden Flurry was a Lightning.

Yeah, he's signed. Hayden Flurry got in the score sheet late with a cross checking penalty with about six seconds to go. I'm personally a big fan of Hayden Flurry. He is a really good young man and he's got, he's okay at a lot of different things, but he just isn't really good at any of them. And it makes it difficult to crack an NHL lineup, especially one like Tampa, but hopefully he can maybe makes the roster, maybe reestablishes his game in the minor leagues.

I don't know. But yeah, Hayden was, he was there last night, but I don't think he was noticeable, which is maybe a good thing if you are Hayden Flurry. Anyway, if you are a Hurricanes fan, you know by now that tonight's game at Tampa has been hurricane out. So they're not going to Tampa for tonight's game. As of right now, the game at Florida on Thursday is on.

That game, that game is on. I am Adam Gold. This is the Adam Gold show. Dennis Cox is, we can't get rid of you, but I'm glad you're here. Senior producer. Yeah.

By the way, thank you for your help last night. It was fun. It was actually my first time going into the locker room to do a postgame interview since before the pandemic. It's been two and a half years now. I've done some one-on-ones with some guys outside the locker room, you know, special interview set up, but actually postgame in the locker room.

Talk to whomever's there first time since before the pandemic February of 20. Yeah, that was the last time we were in the locker room February of 20 amazing how long it has been. I really didn't think we would go. I didn't think we would we would go back. I thought that the way it worked which was fairly efficient and controlled by the team. I thought that's the way we were going to stay because hey, look, it worked.

We all survived. Players, I think secretly kind of dug it that we weren't in the locker room, but I will say this about and this is man. You have to really care about stuff like this.

So I won't I won't go any longer than like 20 seconds on it. It's more for us than it is for fans and for us to be able to write some stories or be able to talk about players in certain ways establishing a relationship is important. But I don't know if it really matters to what fans need fans just want to know is my team good or my players good. Are we going to win blah done? A lot of that they can get from the team directly. Not to not to minimize our importance, but don't put that out there. I wasn't sure we would go back in the locker room because zoom calls and all of that worked bringing players into media rooms worked and in many ways.

That's how it's done in other sports. Yeah, right, but I'm glad we're allowed back in even though I don't have time to go. I'm glad you were there. Dennis Cox. All right, we have a bunch of things. We're going to do we're going to talk Panthers. We're going to talk college football. It's chip Patterson Wednesday. Also, I people by now understand that I'm a pretty big fan of football American football. Yes, but football and it was a disappointing afternoon. I thought for the United States men's national team last match before the World Cup and they just leave it at that you put a quote that okay tweet that if I can channel my my inner Dabo Sweeney tweet that.

All right, let's go. Did I mention that the Hurricanes were three for four in the power play? I'm not counting the six-second power play at the end that they weren't ever even going to possess the puck. It's been cured the power play woes have been cured Dylan Coghlan three power play assist. See Andrei Svechnikov Paul Stasny Sebastian ajo Seth Jarvis even multi Stromwall scored. It's a great name.

It's a great name. Freddie Anderson was good when he when they needed him to be good, but context people Tampa did not bring a representative lineup that now there were some NHL players. Sergachev was their chair neck was there. They brought their third line, but it was not an HLT canes will look different in Florida tomorrow night. They will not bring they will bring a similar team to Tampa brought Carolina will bring that team to Florida very similar and will likely get run by a Florida team that will probably play 60 to 70% NHL regulars. So what happens in the preseason you play your regulars at home and then you travel the guys that aren't going to make the team.

So you have you have to bring certain number of NHL players, but it ain't going to be a lot. All right, we are four days away for long days. We four or three Thursday three. Today. Oh, no, we got to count today. Yeah, so yeah, we're halfway four days away in a sport. By the way, it's Clemson at NC State nationally televised, right? I'm sorry the other way around. Can we start the whole show over?

We saw the whole show NC State at Clemson. Hmm. Okay, you really are. You're going to go all the way back to the beginning. There you go.

So you're not used to these late nights doing you know, Cain's radio and all that stuff. You got to get used to it. See we're getting you game reps that we're getting you into game shape preseason for me to exactly so somebody tweeted to me yesterday during Aftermath how much they enjoyed it and I said you sir are grading this on a curve because I I my own critique of what I did last night was garbage garbage. We'll get to it. Well, we'll get better. We'll get better stick with it.

All right, I'm going to start the whole thing over. We are four days away now that I've done the math and we know that we're actually four days away from the game and it's going to be a long four days. This is a long week for state fans because this is I think we're going to get some confirmation on this like in a about five minutes or so. I think this is the biggest regular season game they've ever played forget about rankings.

There's a lot at stake here. This is there aren't that many opportunities in modern college football. We're not going back to the mid 70s early 80s where you know, the ACC was adorable with eight teams. We now have 14 teams playing football in the leagues a lot of teams and as we have gotten more modern in college football, there's a greater separation within forget about from you know power five the group of five FBS to FCS within conferences. There is massive separation between the top and the next tier. And that's where NC State is trying to get there trying to get to where Clemson is and it's sort of like I'm not I've never climbed a mountain, but it's sort of like the last bit before you get to the peak is the hardest part.

That's where state is they're trying to you're now how do I stay on the rock from where we are right here because it looks like I'm going to fall off. It's just that big a deal. So I wonder if they're equipped to handle it now a quick conversation about Clemson and then we'll circle back and we'll hear from some folks about this. There's always a lot assumed about the Clemson Tigers. We assume that Clemson is great because they're Clemson, of course, 10 years ago, nobody would have assumed that 10 years ago. I think the anniversary of the them giving up 70 points in the orange Bowl to West Virginia is either just passed or it's this year. I think it was a 2012 season.

Yeah, right somewhere around that time 2010 2012. So they gave up white team whoever didn't make it 70. Yeah, they just got run in the orange Bowl now Clemson was still a developing superpower. What they are today is not what they were then.

But we assumed that and it took a while to change that perception. And now Clemson's reputation elevates who they are. I think Clemson is really good. I don't think Clemson is anywhere close to the top of college football. They're not close to Alabama. They're not close to Ohio State or Georgia. I'm not sure anybody else is.

I think those three schools have separated themselves. That's a good conversation for chip chip Patterson a little bit later on. We'll get back to the Clemson Tigers in a little bit. What to make of the NFL through three years.

I'm curious about this. It's a broad question and less than 20% of the season has been played. So we really can't draw any conclusions about anything. But offense is down by about a touchdown a game. Why has the quarterbacking been great?

I don't think so outside of a few know, right? How many truly great quarterbacks are there? First of all, let's factor in. It's been a ton of injuries to receivers tight ends offensive line, right? We know that we've like Tampa's got injuries to their offensive line Dallas's injuries to their offensive line and quarterback and receiver. Like every team has been like, oh my gosh, they're playing without this guy. They're playing without this guy this guy, right? So I think injuries have that a lot to do with it both sides of the ball, but I think offense it's more noticeable.

But let me just ask this question broad. How many great quarterbacks are there in the NFL right now? I mean bonafide great quarterbacks like just the level they're playing at right now like this moment. Or quarterbacks that you have confidence in being great six.

It's I think it's a little bit more but it's not much more than that Josh Allen. Yeah Lamar Jackson Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady. They haven't played that way because a lot of it has been injury, right? But would it shock anybody if both of those guys have started a steep decline based on age?

I'm not saying it's happened, but would it shock you if it did? No, let's still put them in the great category. It's for and that's it. Okay of what I'm sorry Patrick loves five. Yeah, but everybody else you can say but Jalen hurts. It's kind of early. Haven't really played anybody to yeah, but I don't think we'd say the two is great.

Now. We still have to see more but he's certainly off to a very good start Justin Herbert. Yeah, we got to see more from Justin Herbert.

I think we want Justin Herbert to be a certain thing that he looks like he will become but hasn't yet become. Yeah losing your starting center and left tackle and injuries that receiver and his own injuries matter. There are there are doubts on so many quarterbacks right now in the league, but I will say tell you this definitively more than half of the NH of the NHL gosh. I'm already in talking season more than half of the NFL more than half guaranteed knows that they have to find a quarterback more than half. That's why we have seen very few great games in the NFL this year. It hasn't been like a start.

We've seen before has not been all right. Let me get back to one thing about the Clemson Tigers. I saw this question today and I thought gosh, we're not going to be able to get into it deeply enough, but I want to I want you to hear two clips from ESPN today and then we will circle back and talk about this probably with chip Patterson a little bit later on. Here's Paul Finebaum.

This is a question. Can Clemson be in the playoff with a loss and the assumption is the loss I guess would be this week to NC State. Here's Paul Finebaum from ESPN. Well, everything is just backed up and screwed up because the defense is not as good in the offense with DJ is much better and you have to start wondering what the difference has been with Brent Venable's having left. He was the stalwart of that defense at Clemson.

Now. He's at Oklahoma struggling there after a loss over the weekend. So I think that's really the issue Greenie and as far as the what happens after this, they would be in big trouble if they can't get a win at home. They would be I think here's Heather Dinich from ESPN National College football writer on that topic. Well, if they don't win, they're going to be hanging from a cliff as far as the playoff is concerned. And so is the entire ACC, but I agree with Paul when you watch that game against Wake Forest. It was a greedy win. I thought it was very good for Clemson and put them in the driver's seat in the Atlantic division.

But here's the thing. I watched that game and I saw Wake Forest receivers do that against Clemson secondary. And my question was what happens to Clemson secondary if they play Ohio State because that's where I was watching the Buckeyes beat up on Wisconsin. All right, we're going to talk about that issue a little bit later on.

I will just say this before we bring in a very good friend of mine. Through four weeks of the college football season, we all make assumptions without context. And that's what college football has become really. It's one assumption preconceived notion after another. It's all it is.

But we'll get back to that topic in a little bit. My friend, John Peeler, my friend, NC State historian knows more about the history of athletics and probably the University at NC State than anybody I know also is the unofficial mayor of Cats Square, North Carolina. Did I say that right?

Cats Square? That is correct. All right, sir. I have been framing this game coming up on Saturday as the biggest regular season game in Wolfpack history, and I'm sure that's wrong. But how wrong is it?

It's not too wrong. I mean, I can identify four or five other games that may have been more important to NC State over the course of its time in the ACC, but you really do have to go back a long way. And certainly I would say it is the most important ACC game that NC State has ever played against a highly ranked conference opponent. One thing that Tim Peeler is joining us, one thing that I added to the that, you know, intro basically when I first thing I asked you was that a few years back, this was during the Tom O'Brien era, I believe, State played Maryland with a chance to win the Atlantic Division. This is before Dabo, right? This is BD, before Dabo at Clemson. They had an opportunity if they beat Maryland, you win the Atlantic, you go to the college, you go to the ACC Championship game.

I think that was it. And they obviously did not beat Maryland that day. I don't remember the final score. I don't recall it being very close. But the so that theoretically was a more important game because of the stakes. But this is the first time of the year that it happened. It was the last regular season game of the year. So, okay.

So, yeah, that and that that matters. This has a lot of similar ramifications, although nothing final because I've been watching Wake Forest and they look every bit as good offensively as they were a year ago now. But this is the first time they have ever played a regular season game as part of a top 10 matchup and every all of the hype that goes into this game that really didn't exist for the Maryland game. Does this elevate it above everything else that they've ever really gone into? So there have only been 16 regular season games played between two ACC opponents who were both ranked in the top 10.

This will be the 17th. Over the course of 70 years, that's a pretty big deal for NC State. NC State never played to a top 10 opponent while ranked in the top 10, though there were three other games where NC State had a similar ranking. You know, the combined rankings between the two teams, which is 15 for this game, were similar. Duke in 1957, the rankings were 15, Nebraska in 1973, NC State and Nebraska were both Nebraska was number two, I think NC State was number 16. And then the first time NC State ever played Florida State as a ACC opponent, Florida State was number two and NC State was number 19, I believe. So was it 1990?

92. So we got to go back 30 years for a game that even approaches it. How much do you think the sport of college football has changed in just the last 30 years? Well, I will say since that season, there are more than twice as many teams as there were in the ACC before Florida State came into it, or almost twice as many teams in the ACC.

Close. But yeah, things have changed. Things have changed a lot in the last two years, the last time the ACC has had, you know, top 10 teams facing each other, which happened twice in 2020. So yeah, there's, there's anything we know college football changes all the time.

Tim Peeler is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show at PacTimPeeler on Twitter. 16 top 10 ACC matchups ever. That's somewhat alarming, but I shouldn't be alarmed by it because we understand and the reputation of this league has been, yeah, it's okay. It's okay for football. And the real problem has been that the football brands, if you will, in the league, just had do not have have not seemed to be good at the same time, whether it's Clemson, who's I keep reminding people of this, but until 10 years ago, Clemson was, you know, almost perennially disappointing. Like they wanted to be better than they actually were.

And that was for them, you know, other than a couple of pockets here and there. I was at their national championship game against Nebraska in whatever year that was 1980 1981. I was at that 1981 season. And importantly, that was the first time an ACC team had ever, or two ACC teams had ever been ranked in the top 10 Clemson was number two 1981 facing number eight, North Carolina Clemson won that game went on to win the national championship. That's the only game in the first 45 years of the history of the ACC that two teams in the top 10 had faced each other in a regular season game from the ACC. It took that long for the ACC to establish itself Clemson is the team that established the ACC as a national brand, but it wasn't until Florida State got here in the 90s that the league really elevated itself to to have multiple teams that could even, you know, have the opportunity to face each other.

Really, it's it. Yeah, this this to me is not about whether or not state has elevated it. It's almost about whether the ACC like this is routine for the SEC routine year in and year out. They have multiple games in the top 10 against each other. It's almost sort of routine for the for the big 10 to And it's routine for the ACC to have such games as this in basketball.

Yes, I can give you a long line of those. It's where you put your resources and your brand and what you want to do the ACC build itself as a basketball league for the longest time still is but you know, that's it. It has been proven and it's factually provable to say you kind of got to choose how you want to do these things and it, you know, the expansion was all about building into the ACC brand in football while somewhat seeding some of its brand and basketball to be able to build its football brand because that's where frankly the television money is. Yeah, it's used to be 50-50 basketball used to used to equal football in terms of revenue.

Now, it's been at last look. It was 80-20. It might be 90-10 at this point. I will say we haven't mentioned it yet, but the most important game ever played by NC State in its football history was in 1967 at Penn State when NC State was the highest ranked that's ever been Penn State was not ranked but NC State was number three. They were 9 and 0 had they won that game. They had one more game left at Clemson. All they had to do was score from inside the one yard line in the fourth quarter against Penn State and Tony Barczyk was not able to get in the end zone, even though Chuck Amato will tell you to this day that he was in by a good foot and a half had they won that NC State could very well have been one of the teams in the conversation for national champion and champions in 1967. They lost that game. They went down to Clemson. They lost that game ended up going to Liberty Bowl went in the first postseason game and had one of the best seasons in school history, but it was that Penn State game that will forever be the most important game ever played until we can historically prove that the outcome of this weekend's game changes.

You know, that would be nice when you said Chuck Amato all I could think of was Philip Rivers trying to run it in at Ohio State and then TA McLendon at Carolina, which was a game that somehow was not televised Tim Peeler NC State historian. I appreciate you providing context to some of the thoughts that have been going through my head over the last several days. I appreciate your time. I'll talk to you very soon. My friend anytime. Thanks a bunch. You got a Tim Peeler at Pac Tim Peeler on Twitter. Nobody knows more about NC State athletics that I that I know and I thought he would add some context to it. This is the Adam Gold Show.