Are the Carolina Panthers awesome now?

I am your host, Steve Wilks. Steve Wilks is one of my best I personally, Lauren Brownlow is with us, I personally think Steve Wilkes has already won.

I don't think they have to make the playoffs. Here's one of the things that bothered me about Matt Ruhl. And this was always, we always found this out either in the postgame press conference or the next day, you know, Monday or Tuesday when Matt Ruhl would meet the media and he would complain about, well, we can't be a team that throws the ball 40, 38 times a game.

And like, then why did you? Steve Wilkes has developed an identity with this team that they will not deviate from unless the score forces them to deviate from it. And they've been pretty fortunate in terms, there have been games where they're going to, they're not good. There are games where they're going to get their rear ends beat, you know, the Rams did that to them in, I guess it was the second game and that game was the game where he sent Robbie Anderson back to his room and Robbie with a Y not Robbie with an IE.

And I was at that point, I was team Steve Wilkes. They play for him and I think he exudes confidence. I think he'd be a great head coach for them going forward.

And I don't even care what they think. They might not win another game. I still think that Steve Wilkes should be the head coach. And I think like, okay, let's say it doesn't work out, right? Let's say it turns out he was not a good solution and they don't have long-term success.

Okay, fine. But what's going to be funny for me as well is watching Tepper try to get out of not having patience with Steve Wilkes when he gave Matt Ruhl, you know, too much room to be frank at a certain point. Like he gave him too much leeway. And I think this is a thing that David Tepper will not understand because he's not, look, for all the bad stuff about Jerry Richardson, he did understand this, that Charlotte is a place that likes to feel a connection with the people on the team. They love, you know, they love when you draft guys that are from here. They love when you have guys on the team that take pride in the local community and want to give back to it.

It's part of the reason they love Cam Newton so much, you know? He gave back a ton, but they love people that want to be there, that care about the franchise, care about the team, care about the area, right? So Matt Ruhl didn't care about any of that, which is fine. He doesn't have to, but that's not necessarily the type of coach you want, you know? I certainly would not trust David Tepper to go out on his own and try to find anyone.

I really wouldn't. I would rather him not, but it will just be really like, again, it's making it impossible for him to kind of explain away any other decision at this point. I agree with you.

I think he's earned it by now. These guys are playing like... You can just see it in the way they're playing, too. They care about him.

I know players said that they really liked Matt Ruhl a lot, etc., etc. Sure. I think they did. What else are they going to say? What else are they... And maybe they did. But it's not the same connection they have with Steve Wilks.

It's just not. And you can see that in the way that they play, I think. They want to know that the head coach that is leading them can help them win. Or help them succeed, even individually, so they can get to the next contract. This is a business for them.

This is not fun and games. The time that you have to earn money in the NFL, and you have to understand that the giant majority of the players in the league are probably... They're just trying to earn as much money as they can in like four or five years.

So basically set them up for whatever life has for them next. Not that many of them make generational money. There's only quarterbacks that... They're talking about a $30 million plus contract yearly for Daniel freaking Jones, who is maybe a bottom third of the NFL starting quarterback. But that's what they're talking about.

Meanwhile, there are a lot better players at different positions that are just trying to get to the next year. And they want to know that the head coach can help them win, help them get better, help them get to the next contract. And I don't think Matt Ruhle inspired that. I think Matt Ruhle was a really good dude and they liked him, but I don't think they had confidence that he could be a successful head coach, because I think he proved that they could be. They maybe liked him some. I'm not saying that they didn't like him at all as a person, but I do think, and this is where Matt Ruhle is more successful at the collegiate level than at the pro level, that they're old and they're grownups and they see through the BS business talk, the motivational speaker talk, like OOU and that kind of... I know all coaches do it to a degree, even NFL coaches do it, but again, it's like you said, they can tell what's working and what's not. And if they don't have confidence that their coach is going to help them win football games and help them get more money, like you said, then I don't know what are they going to do with their own bodies? Are they going to put their bodies on the line for a guy like that? You know what I mean?

Probably not. I wouldn't either. So I think that it's one of those things where a lot of them have known Steve Wilks, probably for some years, although a lot of the defense is completely new, but still. He has worked with the team before, people know who he is, people know he cares about this team.

And I think it just makes the most sense. They look like a different football team since Matt Ruhleff. Just so everybody knows, they're 4-4 with Steve Wilks as the head coach and their quarterbacks are still Sam Darnold, PJ Walker, Baker Mayfield, the same quarterback. What's the number? 11 wins?

What have you had in like two and a quarter years? 5-5-1. That's great. Not good. In 17 game seasons. Alright, let me ask you about some ACC football matters. Let me ask you one thing about Clemson.

How are they favored over Tennessee? Geico asks, how would you love a chance to save some money on insurance? Of course you would. And when it comes to great rates on insurance, Geico can help. Like with insurance for your car, truck, motorcycle, boat and RV. Even help with homeowners or renters coverage. Plus add an easy to use mobile app, available 24 hour roadside assistance and more and Geico is an easy choice. Switch today and see all the ways you could save.

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Find new roads. Chevrolet. I'm at a loss for that. Well I think my guess is that it's all about the obsession with Cade Klupnick. Okay. That would be that would be part of my guess Tennessee's defense is terrible. Very bad.

Yeah. Honestly, and maybe I'll be proven wrong. Most of Clemson's Clemson's offense, no matter who's been in the game against teams that aren't North Carolina has been pretty terrible too. I don't think like the D.J.

Uwe Yangelole thing. I don't put all the blame on D.J. I do not think they called games to put him in a position to succeed. It felt like every other play they were calling was like, why does this play have to be this difficult? You have to pick up four yards. Why, like, why are you having him throw like across his body like 20 yards down the field? It just didn't make sense. Everything felt more difficult than it needed to be, especially with their wide receiver not being as good. That also played a role. Like it just look, I know Cade Klupnick looked great and maybe he is great.

I'm not arguing that necessarily, but I do think that some of that is probably the hype machine of everyone assuming that all Dabo had to do this whole time was just give it to the guy who at first when he put him in, by the way, he would hand it off to their best player, which they never let D.J. do to Will Shipley. I'm like, hello.

In the South Carolina game, I'm like screaming at my television. I'm like, Will Shipley. Hi. Is he still there? Did he leave?

Did he have to go to the bathroom? Like what's going on here? So here's you. You mentioned it. And I think it's been glaring for now at least two years. There's no Hopkins, Higgins, Williams, Renfra. There's no wide receivers that make you go, all right, we got to put two on that guy because he's going to kill us. They don't have that and they haven't had it since Trevor Lawrence left.

And I would argue even the last year they didn't have it. Trevor Lawrence's last year, they didn't even have dynamic wide receivers. So it's not just D.J. And by the way, who's left on defense? Right. They've had a couple of guys already, two starters on defense, opt out because they're going to the NFL draft. I mean, I know Tennessee doesn't have their quarterback, Hendon Hooker's out because he's hurt. But well, that's probably a part of it. Yeah. I mean, if I'm Tennessee, I'm going to put my offensive line out there and I'm just going to roll them. I am just going to run straight ahead on. I don't understand why Clemson is almost a touchdown favorite. I don't know. Well, I feel like I said, it's it's Cade Klugnick.

Look no further because people just were like, oh, that'll fix everything. And I'm like, OK, against North Carolina, perhaps. But let's see against, you know, someone else. No offense to North Carolina. But they were not a good defense at the beginning of the year. They had some moments later in the season where they were better, but then like half the defense got hurt and it was not a good defense to begin with. So just say like teams with functional passing offenses, we're going to find success against the Tar Heels.

Lauren Brownlow, it's been awesome. We'll do it again. OK, good. Next time.

Next time we'll talk hoops. And by the way, are you going to watch Virginia Houston? Oh, I hope so. Yeah. I hope I can.

I mean, I don't know what else they'd be doing, right? I can't watch that game. There's two teams.

No, those are two teams that actively tried to not score. I can't. I can't watch that. I'm sorry. I know. Yeah.

Top is number seven in Ken Palms offense. They are a much better offensive team this year. I'm just saying.

OK. All right. Historically, they try not to score. And Houston, I know, tries not to score.

It's it's. Yeah. I mean, I'll give I'll give me Houston closest to zero wins. We will use all our energy on the defensive end of the court and getting offensive rebounds bunch in Houston.

Yes. I agree with you on that. I hope Virginia. I think Virginia hosts the game. Hope Virginia wins.

I'll look at the box score. This day. Lauren, you're the best. I appreciate it. Take care. Best.

Thanks. Geico asks, how would you love a chance to save some money on insurance? Of course you would. And when it comes to great rates on insurance, Geico can help. Like with insurance for your car, truck, motorcycle, boat and RV, even help with homeowners or renters coverage. Plus add an easy to use mobile app, available 24 hour roadside assistance and more. And Geico is an easy choice. Switch today and see all the ways you could save. It's easy. You can go to Geico.com or contact your local agent today.