All right, it's time for our roundtable. It's going to be fun. Camelot?
It's only a model. Shit. Oh, we have Sir Patrick Johnson at PJ On Air, 94.3 The Game in Greenville, and the Honorable Josh Graham at Josh Graham Radio from Sports Hub Triad. And today's edition is entitled Josh, You Were Right and Josh, You Were Wrong. And so I'm going to start. Well, I told you that ahead of time.
There was no need to laugh. And I will I will start where Josh is still funny. All right, Josh, I'm going to start with where you were wrong first. We'll get to where you were right in a little bit. So so, Josh, Matt Rule should not have gotten year three.
And I will just go dot dot dot. Admit your mistake. I don't agree with that at all. I don't think Carolina should have fired Matt Rule after two years, because regardless of what level you are in the NFL, especially an owner like you, the league takes notice of the way that you act. And if you decide to fire the builder two years into a seven year contract, your job becomes less desirable. Now, I know what you're going to say.
Oh, it's one of 32. It's always going to be desirable. I understand that. But I do think the job today, because they decided not to fire Matt Rule after year two, is a lot more desirable than it would have been last year. Also, from a competitive standpoint, when you consider they have a second round draft pick this year, they're going to be one of the three worst teams in the NFL. So you're going to have a chance to draft a quarterback.
And by the way, there are quarterbacks worth drafting in next year's class that were not worth drafting earlier this year. So I don't think it was a mistake to bring that rule back at all. When you consider you're sending signals when you're an NFL owner, especially when it's your first hire and firing the die, who's supposed to show progress in year three, two years into a seven year deal makes you look dysfunctional.
All right, you did a very good job justifying where you were wrong, but you didn't do a good enough job. Patrick Johnson, before I explain where it went sideways, Patrick, where are you on the Matt Rule train here? First of all, I don't know what the Rock Hill situation, firing the builder, has to do with Matt Rule, but a whole other situation there, it would seem. Look, you know what he's got, guys, David Tepper, that everybody that they're looking at, Matt Rule is getting out of this thing with $60-some million owed to it. So nobody in their right mind, and look, a very game attempt there by Josh to present his case, it was really well done, but it is one of 32.
Somebody's going to go because they know that he'll sign them to a gargantuan contract with a ton of money guaranteed because that's what he did with Matt Rule. So I think that argument doesn't carry water. Let me ask you this question. Let me ask you this question, Patrick. I just want to ask Patrick the question.
Okay. Patrick, the question I just want to ask you is, is Carolina, if you look at firings going into this next cycle, would you say Carolina is a more desirable job now than it would have been a year ago when they couldn't even attract Ben McAdoo to come into, or they couldn't even attract someone better than Ben McAdoo to join Matt Rule's staff after last year? Well, Josh, people talk of the league, they knew that this was going to be, one way or the other, this year was going to be it for Matt Rule.
But again, I don't think, I hear what you're saying about, well, but I think their choices were limited. Nobody in their right mind knew that he was going to make it out of year three more than likely, let alone beyond year three. There was nothing that was turning anybody, any trend lines were turning towards that this was going to get better this season.
It's actually gotten worse. It should have gone ahead and got rid of him after the second year and started over. David Tepper's got a lot of things he's got to internally do to get this thing going in the right direction, but he's truly taking responsibility for this. So it's a dumpster fire however you slice it up, and it's just going to, I hate that because I really think Steve Wilks could be a really good candidate quite potentially, and it could end up being the right fit if all things worked out.
I just don't know if he's going to have that opportunity because this is going from really, really bad to much, much worse. All right, let me, here's the actual answer here. Josh, the theory, the theory is sound. No, no, I'm like, I'm praising the theory. The theory is sound, but the evidence in year two, which was probably worse than year one, had to lead you to the decision that, all right, it's not going to get better.
I can't hire a credible coaching staff because of all of the problems that, I mean, we all knew that it was going to end after this year. We just all did. I didn't know that. No, of course we did. Of course we did. I didn't. But he saw, well, I'm sorry you didn't Josh, but all the signs were there.
Welcome to the party. Okay, well, you would have, hold on Kay, that's fine. You knew everything.
You knew everything after two years. You would have fired Zach Taylor after two seasons. Josh, we might fire Zach Taylor after this year. Josh, Matt Ruhle was 0% better in year two than year one.
Agreed. No, there was no improvement in any aspect of the way he coached the football team. The same problems that he had, timeouts, being unprepared, not knowing how to game plan in year one, we're still there and I would argue worse in game two, in year two. And if you, anybody thought it was going to get better, they were a fool.
And apparently the owner was afraid to admit a mistake. And this is what you get. You get further regression and what they have done now is they have wasted time. And I don't know how long the rebuild is going to take, but it's going to be somebody else's rebuild. Look, if it's Steve Wilks, great. I don't care who the next coach is. But your other point, is the job any more attractive today?
No, it's the same. It was an unattractive position. It has nothing to do with it. They'll get somebody to be the head coach because there are only so many of these and there are tons of people who want these jobs. It is the job of, whether it's Scott Fitterer or David Tepper, it's the job of somebody to identify the right candidate who can do this, right? It is not, this is not a college. It's, this is not Wisconsin versus Nebraska versus Arizona State versus wherever. This isn't, there are 32 of these jobs. They are not all identical. It's not the Cowboys gig or the Packers gig, but there's about 15 teams in the NFL that are identical in terms of their attractiveness. And the Panthers are in that group. So they'll have no shortage of options to be the head coach. And honestly, if the owner was smarter about this, he would have pulled the plug after two years. But again, the theory, I think, is sound. But in reality, the, they should have moved on.
All right, let's, let me get, what? I'll just say this, if you pull the plug after year two, you don't have Niners fans sitting in the stands in vast numbers probably, last Sunday. Yeah, you probably do. You probably, the Panthers fans want to see, I have- I've moved numbers. Well, 49ers fans travel. The San Francisco fans that live in Charlotte, they're not from San Francisco.
They just live in- That's all I'm going to say. All right, now we're going to go to where Josh was right. Okay. All right, can we handle this? Can we handle where Josh was right? Even with a healthy Devin Leary. I think Wake is better than State, based on what I have seen this year. And I do think it comes down to, and this is no disrespect, I think it comes down to the fact that Dave Claussen's freaking elite. That's what I think it comes down to. And I think their offensive line is better. So Josh, there you go.
There's my homage to you. I just, I remember Joe Ovius, Joe Gillio were looking at me saying, well, like I had two heads. Well, that happens all the time. Like when I suggested that, it was very simple of, Wake Forest was a better football team than NC State last year, right? Yeah. They won the Atlantic, right? And just in the most simplistic way, I thought, okay, when NC State got more votes in the pre-season poll, and when Devin Leary was the pre-season player of the year rather than Sam Hartman, I thought, wait a minute, NC State, what is the argument for them being better than they were a year ago, losing draft picks on offense the same way that North Carolina did, and there aren't teams other than Clemson that have demonstrated when you lose multiple draft picks on one side of the ball, you're able to absorb that a year later without drop-off. Meanwhile, Wake Forest has everybody back on offense, and they fired their defensive coordinator after they made it to the ACC Championship game. Like they upgraded at that spot in a way, I don't know if many other schools in the ACC would do that, just given the result of getting to a conference championship game. So it was kind of maddening seeing how things were overlooked with Wake Forest, but that's par for the course when teams would steal their play six years ago, and what would be an enormous scandal ground all planes if it happened in the SEC to Alabama. No one even recognized it or cared, so much so that Bruce Feldman put out a piece six years later earlier this summer, and I had people asking me, did you hear about this, this Wakey Links thing? So this is an indictment on just how little attention we've given Wake Forest. Take a breath. It is as simple as it's Wake Forest.
Your major mistake was telling him he was right. By the way, TMR got Sammy Walker out of the Outer Banks for Wakey Leaks. That's right. There you go.
Sam Walker. Look, Wake is better than State. I don't think it's as simple as Josh pointed it out, because things change. Players improve. What we haven't seen is, I think, a coaching staff evolve, and I'm going to flip it this way to you, Patrick, because this is also about East Carolina. I wasn't sure to what degree the opener was for NC State at ECU. I wasn't sure if that was ECU really playing well, or NC State maybe not playing as well as we expected. I don't think we have seen a ton different from NC State.
What have you seen from East Carolina over the past several weeks? Because I get the sense that there may be a game behind where they wanted to be. They can move the football. They've had problems completing drive scoring, and it's really simple for ECU on offense. Turn it over multiple times, 0-3. Do not turn it over multiple times, 3-0.
It's really that their margin of error is not terribly great. Holton Ehlers, while savvy, is not a quarterback that is not above still making questionable decisions at times, and he's got to have a running game that complements him. He did not have that against Tulane last time out.
Turned it over a couple of times, a couple key turnovers at back. So it's just that simple, and they've got Memphis coming in who's still licking wounds from a week ago today, blowing a three-touchdown lead against Houston. Are they going to handle Memphis?
Oh, I think so. I think so, but Memphis is interesting because Memphis can score. They're not great on defense, but they're okay.
I think it's close. Look, this is a pivotal game for both. I mean, it's just if you take care of the football, you score and you'll be fine if you're East Carolina at home for homecoming. Memphis is an invincible, but Memphis can come in and beat you because Memphis has a pretty good quarterback and Seth Hennigan in their own right, and he's their leading rusher, but he's pretty elite.
I think when it comes to making plays, a lot of other people disagree with that. I think he and the crab at Tulane might be the best two quarterbacks right now in that conference. So we'll see. Josh, who's winning the Victory Bell tomorrow?
Oh, I think North Carolina does. Duke's just really banged up. And I just don't know if they'll have enough offensively. They needed special teams and a lot of breaks at Georgia Tech to make that competitive and push that into overtime. But it's going to be close. I mean, when you look at this series, I'm going to go all Duke Carolina basketball rivalry on you here. When you look at the last 10 matchups, Adam Gold, five wins apiece. I don't know if they have the same number of points scored.
I might have to go deeper into that. But it is crazy to me that Matt Brown has won 11 straight games in this series dating back to 1989. Anytime there's a trivia question regarding Duke football, always go back to 89. The 41-0 win in Chapel Hill for Steve Spurrier in company.
So it's been a really long time. I think it's going to be a really competitive game tomorrow night. Certainly when it shocked me if Duke won it, but I think Carolina's figured out a way to win on the road.
In fact, I mean, the results speak for themselves. 3-0 on the road, dealing with success a lot better than they did a year ago. I think they win this game. I think it's decided by single digits, but I think Carolina does win the victory though. Yeah, because single digits, 10 points, something like that, I think Carolina will win.
I'm not blown away by the road record. They wanted App because Chase Bryce couldn't complete a wide-open pass. They won and they gave up, what, 100 touchdowns in the fourth quarter? Six fourth quarter touchdowns? They scored 63 points.
No, they did. They have an elite offense. They gave up six, six, one, two, three, four, five, six touchdowns in the fourth quarter. And won again.
I cannot ever unsee that. Still should have lost the game on the two-point conversion. That's fine. I'm glad they won it. Carolina is going to end up in the ACC Championship game in Charlotte. Not as a result of that.
But, you know, at Georgia State, at Virginia Tech, I think Georgia State might be favored on a neutral field over Virginia Tech. So I'm not, I'm not blown, they figured out a way to win on the road. I'm just, I'm not, I'm not blown away by, by that. Alright, I got one more, one more thing. This is something you guys both knew we were going to talk about. So I will, and I'll start with you, PJ, because you told me about this.
You sent me these sound bites. So Harold Varner III is over at Liv. They're playing the final regular season event, if you will, before their playoffs.
In, in Saudi Arabia. And it's his opinion that this whole thing is, we all knew what was going to happen. But I don't think they really did. Because if they really all knew what was going to happen, I got to get the feeling that a lot of those guys would not have done this. Because if they, especially young guys like Abe Anser, or Joaquin Niemann, who won a play in major championships. If you knew that the official World Golf rankings would not be recognizing that tour, or you wouldn't have access to the PGA Tour, do you think they would have done it?
Maybe not for Harold Varner, but do you think they would have done it? Hard to say on the other guys. I will tell you, I just maybe don't know enough about the other guys' aspirations. I know a lot about, you know, what Harold has said and studied it closely. So I'll kind of stick to Harold on this. I mean, Harold said as much, you know, we're not, I realize I might not get to play in the Masters, but I at least got to play in the Masters.
That was the genesis of his comments. I'll say this when it comes to this whole live thing. If everyone handled their business in the aftermath of this decision, like Harold Varner, particularly Phil Mickelson, I think we might be a little more up the road from a PR standpoint towards the momentum being, hey, we ought to include these live events.
We ought to at least initiate that discussion. From a PR groundswell fan of golf perspective, I'm not saying the PGA would have gone down this road or endorse this in any way. But if people handled this, particularly Mickelson and others, DJ too, because he just won't talk to the media, like Harold Varner, this whole thing would probably be a lot further up the road from a public relations standpoint. And again, that groundswell too, they should be, because it should, if they'll go to 72 holes, they probably should be included in the world golf round.
A hundred percent, as soon as they present themselves like a real tour, they will get world golf rankings points. And put Harold out there every time to be the PR arm. Put Harold, make him the face of the whole thing.
Regardless of what other players are there, because he's fantastic in these venues. Fantastic. Yeah, I like, I like Harold Varner. I just, I appreciate the honesty of it all. Like he made no bones about it. And that's what it is. Harold's being honest.
And that's what, that's what all of these guys could take a lesson in. Do you believe in the honesty that Harold Varner does? Do you believe Phil Mickelson, Josh? Do I believe Phil Mickelson? That's a great answer.
That's, yeah, I think just 2022, follow the headlines. Does anybody believe Phil Mickelson anymore? And I don't just want to be the third guy to say it, but I will. Harold Varner's the one that's acted like an adult this entire process.
If I hear grow the game one more time, I'm going to throw the phone I'm talking to right now into a wall. Harold didn't do that. And he deserves high marks for the way that he's handled this entire process. Plus, he's a great guy to drink beers with pre-gaving at an ECU football game with. So anybody who checks that box, as well as being a really good golfer and being an honest stand-up guy is also really high up in my book. Sounds to me like you drank a beer pre-game with Harold Varner. Me and my wife.
Me and my wife. Let me just, let me just say one thing on this though about even Mickelson. If none of these guys don't believe that this is the tour, then why did they even, I mean, you've got to believe it at this point.
If you're on live, you've got to believe, even if you, you got to at least say it. I don't have a real problem with what Mickelson said. He could just be, well, he lied about being interviewed by Alan Shipnock, but that's another story altogether.
I will say this, you, you mentioned DJ Dustin Johnson. I think DJ has conducted himself exactly like he should have. He has said nothing about this. Other than his initial press conference, DJ has said nothing.
And that's fine. I'm just saying he could be a little more of a public face. He doesn't want to be.
To defend DJ real quick though. You don't have to. I don't know what his voice sounds like. I never want to say anything before you join this. Oh, stop.
Stop. Josh Graham. Josh actually said something funny. He said something funny. Oh no, he says a lot of things.
He says a lot of things funny. At Josh Graham Radio, sports hub triad. Patrick Johnson at PJ on air.
94. What? Huge get on the Patrick Johnson show today. Huge get on the show at five o'clock. Who's that?
Adam Gold. Wow. Let's talk canes. We'll talk canes at five.
Yeah, exactly. That is a get in the business, ladies and gentlemen. A get. Right in the middle of my pregame nap. All right, because it's a 1030 star tonight. Gentlemen, I appreciate your time.
Whisper: medium.en / 2022-12-04 17:24:44 / 2022-12-04 17:33:53 / 9
