Adam talks to David Hale, ESPN.com, about college football turnouts from this past weekend and the ACC in general.

This is the Adam Gold show. As are things clearing up on the coastal side with North Carolina's win David Hale ACC sports.com not in front of my dog ESPN.com. I don't know what I'm doing anymore.

David. I'm listening. I've my producer is just euphoric over Matt rules firing with the Panthers, but I never met a problem that a firing firing a coach couldn't solve. Well, it apparently solved all the problems at Georgia Tech like not that I wanted to start there, but what's going on in Atlanta. I don't really realize it's just Duke.

I get it. I mean, I don't know how good Duke is to be perfectly honest, but at least that's a cool story for them. They've had a rough.

Go. Yeah, I mean, I didn't think that Georgia Tech was without talent. They just were a team that was utterly lost confidence wise approach wise philosophy wise. I mean, you name it and they were bad at it. But I think I mean, neither of these last two wins have been particularly impressive offensive performances, but the defense has played really well. The biggest thing to me is that they figured out a way not to just get beat over the top again and again and again and again, which is what happened last year.

How sustainable is this? I don't know. I'm sure within the locker room. There's a little bit of like we've been talking about the coach for a year now. We don't have to talk about that anymore. I think that makes some difference as it may for the Panthers, but at the end of the day. You beat a pit team that has been weird offensively and you beat a Duke team that I'm not sure is that great and Jordan. You probably would have predicted before the season Georgia Tech to beat Duke.

You just would have projected how old this came about, right? Duke Duke to be four and one having played pretty well in all five games. Because I thought they played, they represented themselves well at Kansas and then they come to this one. But as I assure Duke fans, it's still all right.

All of your dreams are still right in front of you. If you can beat North Carolina coming up on Saturday night at Wallace Wade. So let me ask you about North Carolina. I mean, I don't know what your thoughts are, but I think they're the favorites. The absolute odds on favorites now, maybe even money or better in the coastal division.

How do you see it? Well, so let's just look at the team. I mean, I think you can write off Virginia and Virginia Tech completely. They are terrible. You look at Miami. I don't know how they're this bad, but they're not particularly good on either side of the ball. You look at Pittsburgh, they're bad on offense, pretty decent on defense. You look at Georgia Tech, they're bad on offense, maybe okay on defense.

You look at Duke and you say, I don't really know what we have in Duke. With Carolina, you have the one genuinely good functional unit in that entire division, which is their offense. Now, is their defense so bad that it won't matter?

I don't know the answer to that yet. Tyler Van Dyke, who got pulled against Middle Tennessee and has been just a train wreck and the Miami offense as a whole has been a train wreck. Maybe they started getting things together because they had an off week and figured some things out or maybe Carolina's defense is still trash. I don't know, but I do know Drake, man, that offense can score some points.

So if you're going to go with anybody at this point, I mean, it's the one unit you can kind of convince yourself it's worth getting behind. Yeah, the only thing is from a UNC perspective, obviously, if they beat Duke, it's not a wrap because there's still a lot of games to play, but it's pretty close to a wrap if they beat Duke. But State and Wake, even State without Devin Leary, that defense might be enough if their offense can run the football.

I just don't know. Some of the weirdest things happen when NC State kicks off a football game. I've never seen the punter punt the ball across the line of scrimmage before.

I didn't even know the rule. Like, wait a second, State's getting the ball to 13 and then they went backwards 20 yards or whatever it was, more than 20 yards, like almost 25 yards. They went backwards. Chris Dunne had to kick a 53 yard field goal to cash in that field position. Then they punted from the plus 36.

I don't know. It's like watching football for the first time. Yeah, there were 50 different ways Florida State should have won that football game and none of them happened. What they were doing throwing that pass at the end of the game makes no sense to me. NC State was trailing by a touchdown, one by two, and in the interim completed one pass and that was by their wide receiver. So, no, there are no explanations.

This defies logic by any stretch of the imagination. But I guess, look, if you're NC State and the football gods have essentially laughed at you for the better part of, what, 30 plus years, maybe you're due. I don't know. By the way, the completion was for a loss of five. So, it wasn't even positive yards. So, here's what I need to know about Jack Chambers.

I'm not even going to lie and say that I know anything about Jack Chambers. But apparently the offense that they ran at Charleston Southern was a passing offense. So, they can throw it, right? Dave Doran said today that Jack Chambers has had 400-yard passing games.

I did not look that up, but I'm going to go ahead and take Dave Doran's word for it. I mean, he basically said FSU was daring them to run the ball. I don't know why FSU would do that when given Devin Leary being out, but okay. I mean, look, Syracuse is an offense that can move the football. They have not consistently done that this year, and they're not a team that's necessarily putting up 40 a game, but you're going to have to complete some balls to beat Syracuse, I think, this week. I don't know, man.

I don't know. Devin Leary wasn't doing the best job completing passes the last couple of weeks. I find it hard to believe that suddenly the offense will come alive with a backup quarterback.

But again, stranger things have happened. Yeah, I'm not sure it was all Devin Leary's doing, or guys like Devin Carter haven't yet really, haven't yet, aren't as good as we want them to be. And maybe some of the other guys right now, they're only a reliable receiver.

It really is Thayer Thomas. I will say that as soon as Trent Pennix can come back and play, I think their offense will get a little bit better, because I felt like by the end of last season, I thought Pennix was a huge part of the passing game. Of course, maybe the real huge part of the passing game was Bam Knight and Ricky Person in the backfield, which just created so much fear, I guess, in defenses, because those two guys were electric. I think they have good running backs now. Maybe they're just not as not as good.

But David Hale, ESPN.com is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. Just one more thing about NC State's defense. They've stayed relatively healthy.

So unlike last year, where it was this like every week, it was another guy, another guy, another guy. They've stayed relatively healthy. Is their defense good enough to run the table from here on out?

Oh, yeah, I think definitively. Clemson is the defense of the league, but I don't think NC State's far off from that. As you said, some of those injuries last year really helped to build some depth for this year. I thought their D line played terrifically against Florida State. We know how good those linebackers are. The DBs, that's been the one area where they've had, because of a couple of targeting calls and a few little injuries here and there, where they've had some substitutions and everybody's done well. I think this is certainly a unit that will keep them in every game. Now you ask, do they have, can they put together an offense that can close the door on the games that your defense is allowing you to win?

And that to me is the big question. They remind me a little bit at this point of what Clemson was last year, which was a defense that gave you a chance to win every game. And they won 10 of them, despite an offense that was an absolute train wreck. So I've seen enough of good NC State offense to know they can be better than what Clemson was last year.

So I think that this can still very easily be a 10-win team. I don't know if you aren't getting any offensive production. Is the defense good enough to go out and win you a game against a team like Wake Forest or even this week against Syracuse that can move the football? Yeah, as it turns out, Syracuse becomes a problem because Syracuse looks like at least they know what they're doing. Wake Forest, we know what their offense, their offense is awesome, as is Carolina. So, I mean, I don't know how much you can hold those offenses down.

You're a guy who delves into numbers. What do numbers say the offense, the advantages of a good offense over even a good defense? I just don't know if you can stop any good, really good college offense if they have a good quarterback.

And that's what it comes down to. You know, I've talked to Phil Longo about the QB play at North Carolina a week or two ago about Drake May. He said, look, Drake May has all the talent in the world.

We knew that. What he has done so well this year is not make mistakes. You know, the job of the quarterback within our scheme is to distribute the football to the guy who's open, which sounds much simpler than I think it actually is. And Drake May is doing it terrifically.

It's about decision. He has arm talent, right? He is a good physical QB. But the decision making has been terrific for him this year.

And that's critical. You look at Wake Forest. And Wake Forest, their whole offense runs because Sam Hartman is a Ph.D. in what they do and makes good decisions again and again and again. And, you know, it reminds me a little bit of sort of how Georgia Tech used to get after you with Paul Johnson.

They would just keep doing the right thing over and over again until you made a mistake and then, boom, they break one. That's a little bit of what you think. I think a good defense could theoretically shut down one of these teams, but it requires them to not just be talented and not just be able to get an explosive play here and there. It requires seventy five consecutive snaps in which you're doing the right thing. And that's really the hard part to ask any defense to do.

Yeah. Is I guess this is easy because Devin Leary is going to be out. We'll just assume at least one game, but probably more. So Wake the second best team in the league again.

You know, I kind of thought they were already honest with you. Like you look, there was reasonable questions about Wake last year when they won eleven games. Questions about obviously the defense, which was not great. Questions about sort of the mentality of the team and how they would handle adversity. Questions about the sheer talent differentials when you're recruiting guys that are low three stars and you're going to play against teams that have a bunch of blue chips.

They've answered all those questions this year, right? They got down 14 to nothing against Clemson and came back and easily could have won that game. They matched up with Clemson in the trenches just fine. They could have gone into a shell after losing that Clemson game.

They didn't. They came out and went after, I think, a very good FSU team. And then you look at the Army game last week, which Army is certainly no world beater this year. But that's a team that they could not stop last year to save their lives. And Army essentially had nothing in terms of offense against Wake Forest this this year.

So I look at them. I don't know what I say. Wake Forest is a playoff team.

I don't think I'm ready to go quite that far. But this to me is not just like, oh, Wake Forest is good because the teams around them are bad. They have a soft schedule and they run a gimmick. No, this is just a good football team. Plain and simple.

I don't have any qualms about saying that. And the funny thing about the the Wake Clemson game, just going back to that before we let David Hale go from ESPN.com, that Wake was running the ball effectively on that final drive until I think it was Brian Bracy made a really big stop and pushed them, like got them. They call it off schedule. So we ended up being second and long. So I guess I guess they felt like they had to throw it. But they were moving the ball on the ground at five, six, seven yard chunks. And it looked like they were going to get into field goal range to kick a game winning field goal until they obviously got pushed out of field goal range.

And then both teams settled for overtime. And we could have won that. There was a third down conversion that Clemson, the D.J., D.J., I thought played great in the overtime. You know, Clemson was behind. They managed to convert a third down. Then it was a touchdown.

And then that was that. But we could have easily won that game. And we're talking about a completely different thing. And I don't think Wake is getting nearly if you put and I keep using this example, if you put Wisconsin's uniforms on Wake Forest, we would be talking about a completely different team. I bet Wisconsin wouldn't mind taking Wake Forest coach either, by the way.

But that's neither here nor there. No, I totally agree with you. This Wake Forest team is incredibly undervalued, I think. I mean, they're 15th in the country, which is really good. Yeah, I we put our power rankings together for ESPN. I had them in the top 10 because I think they're that good this year. They're fun.

They're they're also fun to watch, which, you know, if you're the Panthers. Call Dave Klassen. I like it.

Let's get that rumor started at a David Hale joint on Twitter. I appreciate your time, my friend. I'll talk to you soon. My pleasure. You got it. David Hale.

ESPN dot com. Look, first of all. Dave Klassen, not an NFL guy. So let's just stop right there. But I will say this about Dave Klassen. When it comes my feeling about college coaching is that it's not about X's and O's. It really isn't about X's and O's. Better players are going to win because the disparity between. The elite players and the rest is vast. But in the NFL.

Where it is X's and O's. Dave Klassen might be a good guy to have on staff, but he is just such a wonderful football coach. Wake's good.

Wake's just absolutely flat out good. All right. We got to halftime. Now, your halftime entertainment. Hey, in case you didn't hear, that rule got fired today. You are worrying cards today. I know. I'm sorry. This is just unbecoming. Not really. No, it's look, I love my team. He has been dragging us down like an anchor and he just needs to go play some golf or something. It's fine.

It's fine. It's good for him. Anyway, first thing on the list tonight, Monday night football. There might be an awkward moment and I could not wait for it. So Troy Aikman could be called out tonight.

There might be a little awkward moment. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes enters Monday night football matchup against the Raiders with one hundred and sixty two touchdown passes. He only needs four to pass Aikman's career passing touchdown mark of one sixty five. Aikman would be the sixth probable or pro football Hall of Fame quarterback Mahomes passes if he doesn't know why is this awkward? Back in two thousand and nineteen, the athletic Kansas City shared that Mahomes had already reached thirty six percent of Aikman's passing touchdowns in just eight percent of the games. Well, Aikman responded to Mahomes saying he should get back to him when he reaches thirty three percent of his Super Bowl titles, which it didn't take long for Mahomes to do. So if he makes it today, Aikman, he's going to have to call it.

All right. Here's the thing. What people don't if you looked at Troy Aikman's career statistics, you would be very underwhelmed.

Yes. It is alarming how few touchdowns Troy Aikman through. That's not the way the offense was built. Now, the offense was built around Emmitt Smith and to an extent, Darryl Johnson.

But it is it's amazing. Troy Aikman was never a prolific thrower. Now, so if you wanted to argue that Aikman, based on his numbers, does not belong in the Hall of Fame. I'm with you. If that's the way you wanted to do it, except that there are very few people who watched football in that era that didn't think that Aikman was among the best quarterbacks in the game. Right.

That was just not the way their offense was designed. But it is it is an interesting mental exercise. That is funny, though. I know. I know tonight could be the night. So I'm waiting and watching. OK, moving on. So, you know, I just had this conversation actually with someone about when you have good ideas, when things spark you and you're like, oh, that was a really good idea.

I'll let you know when I have a good idea. There's a study that found you actually have your best ideas in the shower or. Oh, yes. When you're walking, like just going for a walk, which absolutely.

But here's the kicker. You can't do like too mindless of an activity because that works in the opposite direction. So an extreme example, watching paint dry. They say something like that is too boring to spark creativity. So everyday tasks like showering, doing laundry, going for a walk is just like the right amount, the perfect amount.

So this ties into my next topic. If you're needing to come up with some kind of creative idea or maybe shop for some early Christmas presents because I'm that person. Go for a walk, take a shower.

You'll have a perfect day. You can't shop in the shower, though. No. But you can think about what to get people like the perfect gift. I'm a really good gift giver.

Are you? Yes. OK.

I take pride in my gift giving. OK. I have to I'm bad at it. I'm very bad at it. Although, no, actually, here's my problem is that it's not that I'm bad at it. I have good ideas. And then I wait too long and then I've forgotten all of my good ideas when the pressure's on. Yeah, that is my problem. There you go.

See, here I have the solution for you. I have a Christmas closet throughout the year. If I find a present that's perfect for someone, I'll just buy it for them and keep it in the closet because I've also forgotten where I put it. And then I buy it in July.

Christmas gets here. OK, well, I have no idea where you put your present. True story. True story. What if when I do the my version of Christmas shopping, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas shopping, I'll usually put stuff.

I'm trusting the fact that my wife or child are not listening right now. I put stuff in my closet. I have a walk in closet and there are little nooks and crannies in there. So I actually found two things I did not give last year. So you're already ahead of the game.

Way ahead of the game. Two items that I did not give that I thought I had. Yes. And I'm like, oh, look at those. I guess I have to give those out this year. Oh, look at that.

I hope to try not to smile when they say, oh, this is perfect. Thanks for thinking of that more perishable. Yeah, that's a good thing. Speaking of that, Amazon's early prime access sale starts tomorrow. But be careful with this.

This comes as a PSA. So and this is for a lot of shopping and retail. Amazon is guilty of sometimes upping the price of something to make it look like it's on sale. So if you're going to go shopping tomorrow and their example is like a vacuum cleaner. Right. If it's typically two hundred and fifty bucks, they will actually make it three hundred.

That way, when they strike through it and say, oh, but it's on sale for 250. Yeah, that's what it is. So be careful.

I'm sure they're not the only ones that do. Oh, absolutely not. One hundred percent not. But yes, that is tomorrow in case you're a shopper and you want to think about something.

Go to the shower. And last, I just this was clickbait. I had to I had to look at this ranking all 32 NHL teams for the twenty to twenty three season from least to most watchable.

So I had to go see where our gains was on this. What do you think they are? The hurricanes in terms of least to most watchable.

Yes. Most watchable is going to be Colorado, then Toronto. I'll put Carolina third.

OK, well, you are absolutely right about number one. It's Colorado Avalanche. The canes, however, are number seven.

Number seven. Yeah, it's called the Colorado Avalanche. Number one, Tampa Bay Lightning. Number two, Toronto's more watchable. Then Toronto is number three. Then they had the Oilers four and Rangers five. I was a little surprised at the Rangers, though.

Oilers I could see because McDavid is just next level. Yes. So absolutely.

He's crazy good. So who else was ahead of Carolina? Florida? Yeah. All right. Yeah, they're fun. They're fun. I think. Well, that's fine. Yeah.

Carolina, probably not three, but Rangers now they're better. They're more fun to watch in the rain. Exactly. So we'll see if that changes over time. This is the Adam Gold show.