UNC vs Oregon in the Holiday Bowl on Tuesday.

North Carolina Bowl Week is back in swing today with ECU taking on Coastal Carolina in the Birmingham Bowl. Tomorrow we got two games, Duke in the Military Bowl, UNC in the Holiday Bowl, if they play that one this year, and then on Friday we've got State vs Maryland in the Dukes Mayo Bowl. So it is North Carolina Bowl Week.

Here to talk about the upcoming game in Birmingham tonight. You can hear them on the call on 94.3 The Game for the pre and post game, and you can hear them calling all kinds of things across the state of North Carolina on the ESPN family of networks. He is often the voice of the NCHSA Championships for various sports, and his star continues to rise. He's my good friend Patrick Johnson.

Follow him on Twitter at p-man on air. Patrick, what's going on, dude? Hey, Haze. Merry Christmas. How are you, buddy?

Doing well, same to you. Let's start here. Hey, wait a minute. Permar, before you go any further, when is the best team, the best program in the state playing their bowl game? Is it sometime after New Year's? You guys.

I want to know when the best program in the state, the Appalachian State, is playing their bowl game this year. Here's the thing, and I'm not afraid to name names. I know what you're referencing.

Andrew Carter at the News & Observer called out the state the best program in the state, basing it on the number of like championships they win. Here's the thing about it. We, the sports channel 8 crew, guys that I'm friends with, they were kind of poking fun at it, right?

And he like, you know, responded, not in any untoward way, but was like, here, I'm going to defend myself. Then I'm like, everyone else is making fun of you. Everybody's, everybody, if you go Google, I mean, tweet search the phrase best program in the state, most of the times it will pop up sarcastically.

Someone is poking fun at that choice. I knew what Andrew meant, even if I didn't necessarily totally agree. And he did the, like Andrew should be a sports radio host, right? You're supposed to put a loud, possibly wrong opinion up there, back it up, but still have everybody else boo at you and hate you. Like that's how sports media works, right?

Yeah. Hey, that's how the late great, well, geez, Carlton Tudor used to do it in print. I hated Tudor when I'd read his column. I hated him, but I loved him. I hated him when I read his column.

Throw it out there. All right, let's start with the important stuff. Were you listening to the last segment? No, I was not getting ready to go on the air. No, good. Perfect.

I didn't want you to. So we're doing the most important thing. Can you name me a top 10 most purchased item from a North Carolina ABC store this year? I've got the stats. I know what number one is. Give me, give me an alcohol that you think will be a most purchased in North Carolina.

Like a brand or brand of alcohol. Yep. Fireball. Of course you'd say the ECU guy would say fireball.

We'll give them the win. It is number nine on the list. It's top 10. I challenged you. So well done. Fine. Yeah. I get it. Usually when I go to the working man's beach surf city. So there you go.

It's hard to find cause it's very popular. Um, all right. The most important thing to me in bowl games is which team cares more. Now, oftentimes after the game, teams will talk about how they didn't care or the fans will talk about they didn't care, but it's always helpful if you can know, you know, beforehand who cares a lot of times coaching changes, transfer portal, guys sitting out, things of that nature can, can, and obviously it being around the holidays, all of those things can affect your focus. Uh, what do you assess right now ECU to be in the focused and caring department?

I think Karen greatly. I hope focus, I would think focus, because Hayes, this is the first time they've been on the field for a bowl game since 2014. Last year, the military bowl was another one of those that got canceled as BC had the COVID issues with their program. So I think the motivation for ECU and the focus is most certainly there. I think the question will be maybe not motivation for coastal, but it is a little bit of a unique situation because Grayson would call their quarterback is in the portal, but he's playing in the game, but he's in the portal and they've got an interim coach and they've got a new head coach, but he's not coaching this game.

Like Luke fickle is for Wisconsin. And there's a lot of just upheaval and disarray. They've had some other guys at the portal. They're really banged up ECU. One thing to watch in this Hayes is their starting center entered the portal and transferred to Illinois.

Okay. So this that's, that's a big thing for a team, anything that operates out of a shotgun and that's a Avery Jones, the UNC transfer from havelock. So he's transferred to Illinois and they're also without Ryan Jones. They're tied in. It was a star for him.

Who's declared for the draft. So there you go. We'll see how all that plays out. I think that's more of a thing may I get what you're saying, but I think that's also got a lot to do with what may or may not happen in this game tonight. Yeah, that's true.

And that's interesting. First of all, I'd like to note if the guy's from Havelock, he's always a player. If you're from Havelock, you got game.

I don't want to square up against you, but secondly, you're going to love this by the way. So, you know, I do some of the ECU basketball games for ESPN plus they played a high point last Wednesday and because the band is out because of the holiday break, they brought the havelock band to play during the basketball game. You'd have thought they were in the Rose bowl. They had amazing. It was so awesome.

You would have loved it. They, they had the full band. It took up a whole end zone. They had all the drums. They had the bull regalia with the uniforms. They were on point. It was so awesome. And there were three guys playing in that band that probably could have made the team for ECU or high point right there because athletes live in Havelock, baby.

But the whole, I got to go to this. I'm fascinated. I didn't know this because obviously I don't do a whole lot of research on coastal Carolina football. They have a quarterback that's in the transfer portal, but playing Grayson McCall. Yeah. Who is a, a really good quarterback, very skilled quarterback. Uh, he is in the, he declared for the portal, but he said he's going to play in the game. Now you might also have read this, uh, Hayes, one of their backup quarterbacks, who I don't think would have played, but around the same time this came out, Bryce Carpenter got suspended.

He's accused of slamming a female to the ground, uh, on the sidewalk, outside of a bar down there. So it's really, I mean, when I just say, you know, they've their coach left for Liberty, they've got an interim coach who's calling defense. They got injuries. They also have all this other upheaval.

And, and I just think, again, I, the motivation is going to be there because I think they are easy to use the brand name in this. How many times does that happen in a bowl game? You know, not ECU is always, I think kind of better as the underdog in a lot of ways with a little edge and a chip on their shoulder coastal, maybe a little bit better. Coastal may have, may have that, uh, in this one. We'll see.

Interesting. But that's like a new thing that we're gonna get for the transfer portal. Like God says, he's leaving your first thought would be, well, get him out of here. We don't want him here, but like maybe for the good of the program, like, well, the program wants to show that we can be a place where quarterbacks go. Like they're obviously looking for a quarterback, right? So they're trying to advertise what they could do.

He gets one more game to advertise his skills before going to transfer portal. But it also just seems weird that, uh, I mean, again, I know people treat it like adults where the, you know, these are business decisions and life decisions. And so he may still be great with his team and his coaches and they're fine with it.

Yeah. You just don't know. I look, I credit him for playing. Cause there's a lot of players who, and it's all individual decisions that I understand it. There's a lot of players who, if they want to go to the portal, they want to, you know, not risk injuring themselves and, and look half, what does it have to quarterbacks in the ACC have pretty much entered the portal.

I mean, it's, it's, it's just a new world. It really is a new credit to make Carolina. You're I'm going to say something nice about the Tar Heels. Uh, you know, credit to him for staying at UNC because very easily could not have, and people would have understood why I heard he wanted to transfer to state, but he couldn't get in or something like that. I don't know.

I guess it's a rumor, probably not true. Um, I, what, speaking of quarterbacks, uh, the guy who is playing in his final game, his quarterback for ECU, as far as I know, I don't think we can put it out there for the ninth season, but Holt Nailers, uh, what, what's his legacy. I have a lot of respect for this guy. He stuck around. He went to ECU when, when he probably had offers to go other places. He's had a strong arm. He's committed, he's been committed to the school.

He stuck there through the transition. You mentioned, it seemed like he was going to get a payoff of a bowl game last year, earned a bowl game, didn't even get to play in one. Um, it stuck to the team, but obviously he will not be known as leading the team through its highest seasons. You know, the way the, the Jeff Blake's or others did when it was not only great quarterback play, but, but really fun, great winning seasons. What's the legacy of Holden Nailers in his time there when I know again, he's dedicated to the program and he's been a long time, uh, stalwart, but, uh, but what, what, what, what a fancy is his legacy? You know, I think, uh, leading the program back to likely and hopefully a period where they will have great quarterbacks and great seasons in the future, because it was not an easy deal to, to commit the issue. And he did when Scotty Montgomery was there and go through those couple of seasons. And the first couple of seasons with, uh, you know, with Mike Houston, you're looking at the transition to a new regime and you're looking at the COVID years in there as well. So, I mean, these were some pretty tough times for holding Nailers to go through.

He's gone through them. And so it would be really fitting in a way if old Nailers wins the game today, you know, to kind of ride off on the, uh, into the sunset, uh, as the guy who restored the football or help restore in a big way, the football program to, to being a bold contender, to being a team that in the new look American will hopefully be able to compete for championships and that sort of thing in the future. So, uh, we'll see, I think you're also going to see today, uh, Mason Garcia, the heralded backup quarterback, who's been in the, in the wings waiting for three years.

If you can imagine that speaking of guys that stuck it out. So, uh, we'll see some of that today from what I understand, but I think Holt Nailer's legacy and very rightfully so should be looked upon as, as very favorably by pirate bands, because especially if they win this game, it's almost like it's a storybook in to sort of leading things back. And I'll say this, he's been really hurt all year.

Hayes. I mean, the shoulder in the NC state game, there's been some other injuries on his throwing hand. He's a lefty, you know, he played with a broken finger the last couple of weeks. So he really is kind of banged up and hopefully the last month has allowed him time to heal up winning the NC state game. I think would have allowed him to be like, this is what I stuck it out for. Um, that would have been awesome for him and the team that didn't happen. Obviously they played it, uh, you know, fought them to the bitter end and hopefully took something away from that. But like you said, it'd be really cool for them to get a win in the final bowl game.

And for the others, he stuck it out. I promise you. I mean, this is a compliment. I hope that old nailers, you know, if he wants to explore playing whatever level of professional football and he's able to do so great. I hope he can, if he wants to coach great, I hope he can.

But I mean, this is a compliment somewhere down the road. It doesn't seem like he's destined to own a bar in Greenville. You know, he's already got some, you know, he's got kind of a clothing business. I think he's going to be successful in whatever he does. And there's another kid today, Miles Berry, who's on the defensive side, who stuck it out. And if you ever have visited with Miles Berry, we ever watch him in an interview, Hey, he will be running a company one day as a CEO.

I mean, he's just that talented and, and, uh, has that much ability and intelligence and the same thing for Holden. I just, I think, Hey, I mean, we've all been through tough things to varying degrees in our lives. And, and, you know, for these young guys in there, you know, college career, a lot of character has been built, but I would invest in Holt Naylor's bar if he wanted. I think you should too, Hayes.

I think since you've come up with the idea, you and I can get maybe a few points. I just want to make it clear that I make that cause you can go, you can go both ways on this. I do not mean this as like, that guy's just going to be the sad guy at his bar every day in Greenville.

I mean this in a good way. Like I think he's just going to be in Chicago. Yes, yes.

That's the, that's what I'm thinking. He's going to do other things, but then part of his, you know, empire, I think he's got to put a portfolio. He's got to put, he's got to put a bar in Greenville.

He needs, he needs a little permar in there though. You and I should get points per mar. We, we spawned the idea here today. I'll work the door. I don't, I'm not quite big bar. I'm not going for points. That's what I could do.

I could back bar, maybe DJ a little bit on karaoke night. Enjoy, enjoy the game. And of course the most important thing that ECU fans will be looking out for it actually, I'll admit this. It almost tripped me up earlier in the show. Cause I was saying coastal and that's a two syllable thing before Carolina. And I almost turned East into a two syllable thing. So I just know ECU fans are like, can we get through a bowl game with a random crew calling us without referring to us as Eastern North Carolina.

So let's, let's all pray that happens as well. Hey Hayes, I'm married to a bellhaven girl. And even though she says East, it's a two syllable word. That's where I should have gone with it. That's where I should have gone.

Yes. We'll we'll see you on the ECU basketball broadcast. The rest of the year will be listened to you on the pre and post game today. Enjoy the game and enjoy the rest of what you got left of 2022. Thanks man. You too. See you buddy.