ECU vs Michigan is this Saturday!!

NFL Sunday Ticket is now on YouTube and YouTube TV which means that you can stay close to your team even if you don't live in their town.

Like maybe you're a raven who married a seahawk who got a job in the land of the falcons. With NFL Sunday Ticket you can watch your team's out of market Sunday afternoon games no matter where you live because you shouldn't have to change teams even if you change towns. NFL Sunday Ticket now on YouTube and YouTube TV. Go to youtube.com pre-sale to get $50 off. Terms and embargoes apply. Offer ends $9.19. No refund.

Subscription auto renews. When we talk about expanding the ACC there are fans in our footprint right here that wonder why not us? East Carolina's got a huge appetite for football. Why not us? Well as I bring in our friend Steve and Igo from Hoist the Colors.

24-7 Sports covers the Pirates. I would just say to you be patient my friend. In time if the ACC is going to add SMU, Cal, and Stanford, East Carolina can't be too far down the pecking order. As soon as enough schools leave or the ACC decides to get bigger I assume that ECU will get a call.

How you doing man? Yeah I think for ECU it's almost like you would have to have maybe North Carolina or NC State leave for that to happen. I just don't know if those schools would allow East Carolina and the ACC or the other schools in the conference call five schools in the state of North Carolina as it currently sits but who knows man it's crazy. I was I mean obviously I'm kind of making fun of the entire situation but I don't think any of us really know what the next wave of it's not even expansion it's probably contraction is going to look like and we may be looking at a time where we go totally regional if you're not in the upper say 50 schools in college football but we we might we might be going back 50 years uh when it comes to what's below the top level uh but that's it that's just speculative and who knows what it's going to look like you guys uh have a a great opportunity uh and I've already seen the uniforms white uh white tops purple bottoms for the match at the big house in Ann Arbor this has to be just a lot of fun heading into it even though you're going up against the team that is likely going to compete for a national championship. Yeah I think that's the thing is uh East Carolina fans are excited for the game just because of something new ECU in Michigan never met in football yeah but the reality is too he's getting paid 1.8 million dollars to play the game so it's a nice payday but you're also anytime you're getting paid that much money you're going to be a pretty massive underdog and when they scheduled this game Michigan and the gym hardball era was just getting going and you knew Michigan would probably be pretty good but this good I don't know I mean they obviously are one of the teams picked to probably make the college football playoff as it stands now and ECU has played good against strong competition in the past they seem to rise up in these situations but you know doing it against an NC state North Carolina Virginia Tech West Virginia is a little bit different than going on the road in front of 110,000 people and competing with a national title consider 110,000 people in Ann Arbor match is that's that's where the big 10 that's why the big 10 uh makes the money that they do because they have alumni bases that are just you cannot compete with them uh but that is going to be an absolute blast so uh let's talk about life after Holt Nailers and Aylers we should point out who was assigned who was signed to the Seattle Seahawks practice squad was also just subsequently released uh and I know this because I follow Steven Igoe on twitter um so what what is life after Holt Nailers like that's a great question I will find out a little bit on Saturday although I don't know how fair of an evaluation you can make but all signs point to Mason Garcia being starter and he really is the highest rated recruit from a quarterback perspective in program history during the online recruiting rankings era he's a four-star kid out of Myrtle Beach been with the program now this is going on four years he's kind of always been seen as the guy after Holt Nailers and now this is his time now Alex Flynn a red shirt junior has pushed him for the job but I think Garcia is going to get first crack he's mobile he's 6'5 250 he has all the physical tools he just needs to go play he's going to make mistakes that's going to be the biggest thing and DC fans have to realize that they got to be patient with them even against this tough early schedule but I think by the end of the year he could be a really high caliber quarterback he's got all the tools just a matter of how it all comes together now we've seen him before it's not his first time you know under center or in the shotgun for the Pirates was it the Navy game a few years back where he showed flashes but also made some mistakes yeah so in 2020 his true freshman year Holt Nailers you know was diagnosed with COVID and that was kind of the pandemic and everything so he could not play so Garcia had to step in really on like four days notice and start that game and you know there were definite ups and downs as you would expect Navy runs a very complex defensive scheme ton of mixed coverages that sort of stuff and but he shut off his athleticism he ran for a bunch of yards that day made some good throws also made some mistakes so you know again that was three years ago he's progressed since then this will be his first start since then we've seen him here and there but Holden has pretty much played all the snaps meaningful staff so this will be a big opportunity for him for sure Stephen Igoe Hoist the Colors is joining us here on the Adam Gold show this is like another step along the way as Mike Houston is trying to rebuild the program it might be unfair to compare it to pass glory but you certainly can compare it to where they have been and where they want to be within the American Athletic Conference so where are the Pirates in this I don't know if you even know if rebuild is the right way to to say it but where are they in this return well that's the thing I think this year we figure out are they rebuilding or are they reloading I mean I think we'll know midway through the year kind of get a fair gauge now they do start again with Michigan then they play Marshall which was the 9-1 team seasons ago and then they go to app state so the schedule is pretty tough and it lightens up a little bit after that so they're going to find out where they stand early the thing is being out of practice being around the team this team top to bottom talent wise is as deep and as talented as has ever been the problem is they're just inexperienced they don't have a ton of experience but they've got guys who have been in the program who have been waiting developing and so it is more of a true program they did go out and add some transfers but it's not like they took 30 40 transfers and are asking those guys to come into play so it's kind of more the old school model now you got all these guys who have waited their turn we'll see if they can step up and there be not too much of a drop off and I know the coaches are there's a quiet confidence I would say about the state of the roster it's just that outside of greenville nobody really knows a lot of these names on this team let me ask you about that app state that app state game that's coming up because I've been these are the types of things that when I see them on the schedule I always wonder why isn't this an annual um do you think east carolina would be interested in this being a regular year in year out occurrence hey carolina panthers fans chris lee and dennis cox here we're excited to offer you all the inside information on your team with the newest member of the capital broadcasting podcast network panthers playbook twice a week we'll keep you updated on your carolina panthers we're talking about lacqueroom insight exclusive interviews and of course in-depth looks at all of the panthers wins touchdown carolina panthers playbook download and subscribe today at wrelsportsfan.com or wherever you discover your favorite podcasts I do I mean as somebody who covers the team and we talk about the way college football is going like I think these games are awesome man like I mean even the game and charlotte in 2021 to kick off that season the crowd was great uh both fan bases were into it and that was a thursday night game and so like I just feel like we got to get back to it not just ecu and app state but just across college football taking advantage of these opportunities you got two passionate fan bases in this case where it just makes a lot of sense to play the game and I know you and app have had some discussions to extend the series I would love for it to become an annual series I would love for it to be you know played week one or at the end of the season every year kind of make it a true rivalry like we see so often around college football at times even though many of these many of those are unfortunately dying as we continue to get these crazy conferences all right final thing for steven igog about 30 seconds what is a good season for ecu I think if you can find a way again that six seven eight wins that's a good season expectations have been raised but again so many unknowns it can kind of have a good year this year return a lot of this roster which is sophomore juniors more so than seniors and kind of build towards next year maybe make a run at a conference title next year I think that would be ideal steven igo hoist the colors spell colors o-u-r-s I love that uh appreciate your time enjoy uh the uh the opener at the big house and we'll talk to you again sir all right adam I appreciate it man you got it steven igo uh who by the way does a show on uh 94.3 the game in greenville that's on before us so uh I wave to them but