David Teel, Richmond Times – Dispatch, shares Virginia insight

Let's talk about Must Not Losing. David Teel, my friend from the Richmond Times Dispatch is joining us on the Adam Gold Show.

First, I want to say this the right way. I don't want to say we want to get through this first, but this has had to have been a super difficult time for you, for all of the people in Virginia. I know they didn't play their game against Coastal Carolina. We still don't know. The game this weekend in Blacksburg is still a TBA or a TBD, I guess. So where do we sit with that and just how has everything else gone?

I know they played a basketball game. Well, Adam, as several people have mentioned to me this morning, there are so many moving parts in regards to the Virginia Virginia Tech football game. My best information is that the most likely outcomes are outright cancellation or a one-week postponement, and I would imagine we will get that decision today. As for how the Charlottesville and UVA communities and the Commonwealth at large are doing, that's one of those things where it's perhaps they're doing as well as could possibly be expected. The memorial on Saturday was incredibly moving and hopefully for many people cathartic. There will never be closure, of course. I went by Scott Stadium on Friday and just went to the makeshift memorial to pay respects and flowers out front, and there was this wooden carving, and you have no idea who did it, but it was facial whitenesses of Lavelle and Deshaun and Devon with their names, and it was leaned up against some flowers and a teddy bear.

It just, you know, it broke your heart. Yeah, such a senseless thing. Do we know more about the motivation? It was a former teammate, a former football player at Virginia, I don't know about a former teammate, but do we know anything else about the motivation, about the motive for this?

We really don't have it. It's interesting you make that distinction. He was not a former teammate. He was a one-semester walk-on. I talked to Bronco Mendenhall at length last week and asked him about the suspect and said he came across their desk because this young man was such a quality student that he had gotten into the university and earned some scholarship money from the Richmond community, and he had played high school football and wanted to try to walk on, and so he came out but got hurt and then left the team after, left the program after one semester.

David Teel from the Richmond Times Dispatch is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. Like, not that the opponent is, that the opponent matters in this situation, but Virginia Tech as a community can understand what the University of Virginia is going through at this point, right? Oh, and tragically, yes, they can, and 2007 resonates forever in Blacksburg, where 32 innocents lost their lives in a mass shooting, and of course the Virginia Tech community immediately, immediately rallied around UVA last Sunday and Monday, just as UVA had done for Virginia Tech, and it's not just these two schools. I mean, everyone has reached out. The outpouring has been remarkable and reminds you of the good in the world amid unspeakable evil, and there is a, as Brent Pryde, the Virginia Tech coach, talked about after his team had beaten Liberty on Saturday, and I asked him about, does it feel weird because you don't know about closure here? You know, is this the end of your season?

You don't know, and all he said was, we're thinking about our brothers up the road, and that's the phrase of you, brothers. Yeah, it's been a tough year for Virginia Tech as well. That's a sneaky good win, because they were underdogs against Liberty. They have needed something good to happen. Hopefully the game will be played, whether it's Saturday or next Saturday. Actually, this Saturday is not even an option.

I believe it is, Adam. Okay, all right, let's move on to the other part of this conversation, where ACC football can't have nice things. We're left to just Clemson at this point, and maybe we were always left to just Clemson, even though had North Carolina gone 12-1, they would have beaten Clemson, right, and had the ACC championship, but they were probably still behind a one-loss Michigan, certainly one-loss Tennessee, then Tennessee goes and gives up 63 to Shane Beamer's South Carolina Gamecocks, who hadn't scored 63 points combined in their last three games. Where do you think, though, I mean, is Clemson in good shape, or do they still need too many things to happen?

I think they need a lot of things to happen. TCU, USC, they certainly need Georgia to win out. They can't have LSU winning the ACC championship game, so it seems to me unlikely that the Tigers can get into the playoff, but I was listening to the Carolina-Georgia Tech game on the Tar Heel Network to James Angel on the way back from Lynchburg the other night, and I was, because the first score I had seen was 17-0. I'm like, okay, taking care of business, Drake may be and Drake may, that's right, they just saw a score, and I couldn't believe what I was listening to. Yeah, and then the other surprising thing is that they have a chance to go ahead late, and it's an easy pitching catch to Josh Downs, who, I mean, Josh has caught everything this year, and I was talking to somebody last week about the Heisman Trophy, and like, Drake May is going to be on my ballot. One, two, or three, Drake May is going to be on my ballot, and so I think I was, there might have been Joe Giglio, you know Joe, he said, you know, Drake May might be the Heisman Trophy winner, but he also might be the second best player on his own team. That's how good that's how good Josh Downs is. I mean, he could very well be, I know he's small, but he could very well be a first-round pick because of his ability to catch the ball and do stuff after the catch. I mean, he's a dynamic player, but yeah, that was just a very, an uncharacteristic drop, but then again, doesn't mean that they wouldn't have given up a late touchdown to Georgia Tech anyway. Yeah, it's to think you're playing against a third and fourth string quarterback, yeah, operating behind a makeshift injury-riddled offensive line, and you're at home, and you have an outside chance to make the college football playoff, and you lay that egg. Yeah, that that is definitely an egg, and I, maybe we have too many eggs here. I know we're a, we're very much an agricultural state, but maybe here in North Carolina we have too many eggs. And NC State went into this season thinking about huge things, and I know Devin Leary's injury impacted things, but they were sort of looking suspect going into the game where Devin Leary got hurt.

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Find your purpose at Grand Canyon University. Well, with and without Devin Leary, that offense did not look right. And they clearly miss Emezi, their playmaker on the outside. There wasn't a whole lot of run game going on. I was there at Carne Finley for the first time, and I was there at Carne Finley for the Virginia Tech game, and the Hokies are racing them 21-3 until MJ gets it going, and they think, okay, wow, here's the future. And then he can't go on Saturday against Louisville, and it just all seems to be cratering for the Wolfpack, as it always seems to. I mean, we were thinking about 10 win seasons, and now like seven and six is staring them in the face. If they don't win in Chapel Hill, they lose their bowl game at seven and six.

And look, injuries matter, but it's a shame the way ultimately this whole thing went. Who is right now, if you had to send in a ballot, and my ballot would have changed based on results this weekend, but maybe not the one we're thinking about. If you had to vote for coach of the year right now, who would it be?

Elko with Norvell, a close second. I would, like Mike Elko definitely would have been, would probably be my vote. Mac Brown would have been on that list had they been able to go 11-1.

No question. And I mean, I hate to put it all on that, and Mac Brown didn't necessarily have the execution problems. And Mac clearly talked about it being an execution issue this past week. But man, they were super fun offensively. And with all the talk about, well, State didn't have Emeka Emezi in this, Carolina went into the season with only one known commodity to catch the ball and no running backs that we knew about. There was a lot of promise. And frankly, neither of the guys we saw early are killing it now.

It's somebody else. And yeah, it's, you know, you've got you've got downs, but we still don't know who the other pass catchers are for North Carolina. And they have they have managed to make it work. So they've done a great job. And whether it's Mac Brown or Phil Longo or whoever, the head coach is always going to get that credit. They have done a great job getting this team ready.

And inexplicably, they spit the bit against Georgia Tech. Player of the Year is who? Other than Drake May.

Oh, other than Drake. Come on. Is there a second choice? To me, there isn't just Josh Downs brought past notwithstanding, right? We would probably be number two.

And is he a band of Canada would be number three, or maybe Riley Leonard at Duke, who has had an exceptional year? Absolutely. I mean, they're there. Look, I think one of the most fascinating games of the week is Wake Duke coming up on Saturday. Where did that come from?

Yeah, no, you get no argument for me. At the beginning of the year, I found that it's absolutely hysterical that Duke at Kansas was suddenly a game to watch. Like, what are we talking about? So this basketball game we just saw last week was the second Duke, Kansas game of note this year.

We had that first one. We're matching two undefeated teams with I believe College Game Day. Just absolutely crazy. David Teal, Richmond Times Dispatch. I appreciate your time. Thanks for the update on what's going on up in Charlottesville.

And we'll talk to you soon. Happy Thanksgiving. And to you and all your listeners. Be well. Thanks, David.

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