Roundtable Time!!! With Vashti Hurt and Chris Lea

Let's get right to it.

Vashti, Bryce Young threw an interception. This is the worst thing that ever happened. Maybe in Panthers history.

Talk me off the ledge. I know, right? He's supposed to be perfect, even as a rookie. It was notable. It was a miscommunication.

I was there. It was his second mistake in a row. And he handles them so well. I think he'd overthrown a wide open feeling and then the pick. But, you know, even with the interception, which was nothing, you could tell. He threw it right to C.J.

Henderson and it was clearly a miscommunication and Frank Wright confirmed that afterwards. I just still have been impressed with what he's looked like so far in training camp. Would you agree with that, Chris Lee?

One hundred percent agree with it. He's a quarterback. So sometimes the ball is going to go to the other team.

So in this case, it happened in practice. And he's a rookie trying to get on the same page with somebody who's trying to make the team. And those two weren't on the same page. Oh, my gosh. You know, let's not the world right now.

But no, it's fine. And as I said, you know, you there's so many more positives than this one thing to harp on. The main thing for us to look forward to is how does he bounce back from his mistakes? And he's already bounced back very well so far from mistakes. I think this is the one I'm interested to see from from Bryce Young going, you know, as we get to see, we know he was going to be the quarterback. So it's not that big a deal that he was named QB one this week because he was sort of weak. Frank Wright basically forecast that during during minicamp and all that.

No T.A.s. But this is a guy that from almost from the womb, he has been a winner and they have been like whatever an O or whatever in one. You know, there are too many to loss seasons in Bryce Young's life.

So on this team and I think reasonable expectations are something around five hundred. Can they get just over it and maybe even challenge for a playoff spot, whatever? How does he deal?

Chris, I want you to start start with you there. How does he deal? What do you think he how do you think he deals with a team that is basically winning as much as they're losing? Yeah, well, I think one, he already has a good head on his shoulder, so I'm sure that, you know, Bryce Young is not going to do anything to make Bryce Young, you know, any worse than than what it could be, right? But then secondly, like he's got a professional staff that's behind him.

You got Frank, right? You got also Dom Capers as their other side of the ball, but somebody he could, you know, speak to. You've got Jim Caldwell that's there, all this wealth of experience on that staff.

There's plenty of people around him. Plus, not to mention Andy Dalton as his backup. Andy Dalton's lost a few games in his career. I'm sure that Andy Dalton could help him, you know, deal with losing when it when it does come. But I think that, you know, Bryce Young by himself, he'll be fine just because of his makeup.

What do you think of that, Vashta? You know, as a guy with number one, people, you know, who was a winner and came in as a as a rookie and people didn't like the way he lost the games. You know, I want my starting quarterback to be not I mean, I don't want a good loser. And I don't think Bryce Young would be a good loser. And I don't see a problem with that.

I mean, once you get used to losing or you get complacent with losing, then then then mentally you're in a space that where you don't want to be. I think he'll handle it in stride. I don't think he will be as overtly mad like we saw with Candid. But he'll he'll he'll take it in stride. But I still think that he is. And like Chris Lee said, he has the makeup where he'll take those losses.

He'll be upset about them in private and he'll use that as fuel the next week to try to get those wins. I'm not the only one who's already missing that Cam Newton's basically out of the NFL. We're done with it's too soon for Cam to be done with the NFL or the NFL to be done with Cam. But I guess that's what it is, Vashta. Well, you know, the NFL, you don't retire.

You don't get to pick. You know, when you retire, the NFL usually retires you and that and Cam, you know, you expected him the Superman persona to play forever. And especially people here in Carolina, where he's still the man. But, yeah, you know, I don't know if anybody is really ready to say, OK, he's done. But I think he's ready to say at least he's content with if he doesn't play another snap on the professional football. But I think he's reached a point where he would be content with that.

He's already said he's good with his bank account. We saw that on the in the video on social media. Chris, is there a controversy brewing anywhere? I'm not used to a Panthers training camp without some question about Baker or Sam or this player or that player.

It just seems like everything's kind of it's too calm for me. Let's make something up. You know what? I don't really see too many controversies, but I guess the closest controversy that we could see is let's get a drum roll. OK, Raheem Blackshear could end up being RB to over.

Oh, that's probably the only thing that I that I see. And that's mainly because of this offensive system and Frank Reich valuing not only just a running back, but a running back who can catch up the backfield. We know that Truber Hubbard has a hard time catching balls. And so because of that, Raheem Blackshear could end up being a little bit more valuable, could have more snaps.

But other than that, I really don't see too much controversy going on right now with this team. Yeah, I miss it. I miss I miss talking about Baker Mayfield. I actually don't.

I'm I'm really I'm really joking about that. Vashta, let me throw this to you, because just I know you were in operation football with all of us for a couple of days. And now there's talk about ACC expansion again. So as a former athlete yourself, talk to me about your thoughts on the potential of Oregon or Washington as part of the ACC. I'm not a fan, you know, but I'm somebody who wasn't a fan when the old or the traditional Big East broke up. But but it did. And we moved on. I just don't know even logistically how that would work out with the West Coast team playing majority in a league where there are majority East Coast teams.

It's just, you know, I'm very progressive, but I also appreciate old school things. I don't know about Oregon and Washington. I also don't see how that moves the needle for the ACC to try to compete with, you know, an SEC type conference when it comes to these TV contracts. I mean, those aren't programs who I think would fit into the ACC and immediately be competitive or compete with, say, you know, a top program like Clemson. And I'm just I don't know if that's where the ACC needs to look. I think we could simply say it's dumb.

Right. Can we, Chris, can we say it's dumb? It's dumb for Oregon in Seattle. No, I'm sorry. They know they're in Eugene.

I'm sorry. Washington would they're in Seattle. If you're if your school is on the Pacific Ocean, then you can't be in the Atlantic Coast Conference. That's the rule. Well, I guess here here's what we could do, right, because the ACC is going to have to do something to make sure that they survive.

Right now, we know that the greener writes until twenty twenty twenty thirty six, excuse me, is what's kind of holding everything together. Maybe they switch the letters around set of ACC at CAC. They change themselves to the Coastal Athletic Conference and you just have teams on both coasts kind of representing and you have the Western Division. You have the Eastern Division and go ahead and swallow up the Pac-10 or Pac-12 or Pac-9, whatever they are right now, based on how many teams are still in that league. And yeah, make it the CAC. And this is going to be the CAC 25 or however many teams are going to end up being there. And this is this is maybe how the ACC survives just by swallowing up, you know, just whatever is going on on the coast.

Since everything in the middle seems to be taken up by the Big 12, SEC and Big Ten. It's just the whole thing is it's kind of gross to me. Like I get it. We need you need money.

You need money. I understand all of that. But at some point we have completely lost the script for what I mean.

I look, I don't understand. I'm not trying to make college sports what it used to be. But even looking forward, I just don't know what we're doing. And we just keep making decisions based only on one thing. And that's money.

And that is and that is too bad. Last thing, we'll talk about actual college football. Vashtod, bigger game for UNC this year. The opener against South Carolina or the game against NC State?

Oh, that's tough. I would say South Carolina only because you set the tone for your season with that matchup. You got the storyline, ACC versus SEC or in Charlotte. And you want to set the tone for your season and get that win.

And all eyes will be on Drake May. And gosh, I'm drawing a blank on the South Carolina quarterback. Spencer Rattler. Maybe the best name in college football, to be honest.

Exactly. But yeah, I think that's the biggest game because that's the next game. And I sound like a coach, but it's Chris. Bigger game.

Well, can I say something really quick? I think the best name in college football is General Booty. So I think General Booty. Who is that? He's a backup quarterback at Oklahoma. If he's still there, I don't know. Maybe he hit the transfer portal.

Maybe that's why Rattler left. Wait a second. I don't have as good a name as the guy behind me. General Booty behind me. Maybe that's what it is.

Let me look him up real quick and make sure he's still there. But you said the biggest game for North Carolina, this bigger game for North Carolina. I would think it is going to be the opener against South Carolina, just mainly because a lot of what Bashad said, I think for the Tar Heels, they are more like a momentum team.

And if they can start off with some good momentum, they'll continue to have some pretty good momentum. When it gets towards the end of the year, I know that for bragging rights, they'll want to win that NC State game. But let's say if they've only dropped one game, once that game comes around and they happen to lose to NC State and they finish the regular season at 10 and 2, they're going to be okay with that because that's still a really good season. So I think that South Carolina game is going to be a little bit more important.

Interesting, by the way. North Carolina announced just a little bit ago that the games against App State and Duke are both already sold out. When Mack Brown talked about not liking the end of their schedule because it's back-loaded State and Clemson, or Clemson and State the last two games, he neglected to mention the Duke game is before the Clemson game. And I know that it's easy to overlook the Blue Devils, but I think the Blue Devils are going to be good. They have a difficult closing stretch, which is where they failed last year. They had a great start and then what would they lose their last four games, right?

So they just kind of fell apart late. But I think you're both right that getting off to a good start, it's also a bigger game for the ACC. In week one, North Carolina has to go to Charlotte and beat South Carolina. And we'll close on this. Who's the real Carolina?

Like, we don't know the answer to that. Who is it, Vashti? Who's the real Carolina? You're going to get me in trouble because, you know, I grew up in South Carolina and then I went to college and I live in North Carolina now. But if I had to pick one, it's North Carolina.

Right. It is North. North Carolina is Carolina. On top of that, Chris, South Carolina isn't even the real USC.

No, it's not. There's a lot of things that South Carolina has to try to get on their own. They're not Carolina. North Carolina is Carolina and they are not USC. University of Southern California is USC. So good luck to everybody in Columbia. Sorry if I'm making anybody mad that may be listening who has ties over there. But North Carolina is the real Carolina.

I mean, they're a school without a nickname and I just call them Scar. And I think that's really appropriate. Hey, honey, can we talk?

Of course. What's up? Well, I just thought you should know I've been curious about the new Dr. Pepper strawberries and cream. Have you felt this way a long time? No, I just think I'd really like the taste of Dr. Pepper swirled with layers of flavor. If you feel that way, I think you should try it, babe. It's amazing. I mean, you're amazing, too. New Dr. Pepper strawberries and cream. The new flavor you deserve.