Roundtable Time with Tim Donnelly and Brian Murphy!!!

It's time to play the music.

I almost, almost, almost always forget that. Camelot. Camelot.

It's only a model. With me in studio, Tim Donnelly does the afternoon show here on 99.9 The Fan. That's where we live. And there's Brian Murphy, WRAL sports investigative reporter, man about town. He is who I am playing this week in fantasy football. He is the first-place team in the league. I have the second most points in the league. My record is trash. I am a terrible coach.

So I'm coming for you, Brian. I don't doubt that. I think my entire bench is on by, so I don't have many options. Well, you don't need to. If your bench is on by, who cares? You don't know.

Right. There's some of those guys are starters, but I have no options. I'm also missing two players, but frankly, it doesn't matter. I've already lost to Tim. I've already lost to you this year. But I've, like, I went, like, the first four weeks without winning. I keep scoring a lot of points. My defense is terrible. All right, let's, let's play the feud here. I'll start with you, Brian Murphy.

I'll be nice to you. I'll butter you up so you don't beat me so badly this week. The last week to me, the Panthers, Titans, I'm sorry, Texans game was all about winning the draft. I now know definitively that the Panthers won the draft because Bryce Young defeated C.J. Stroud.

That's how it works, right? C.J. Stroud was better through six weeks, so the Texans had won the draft or the Panthers had lost the draft. What is my motivation for Panthers Colts? I don't have Anthony Richardson. I can't say we won the draft. Can we just get Frank Reich revenge? Yeah, I mean, you know, the problem with this is you might see Gardner Minshew and say, why didn't we just sign someone like that and save our draft pick and wait for the next year's draft, which is going to have all these great quarterbacks in Drake, May and Caleb Williams, including, including a Charlotte native.

Yeah, right. That would be my concern is that Gardner Minshew shows you the kind of stop got quarterback you probably should have gotten when you cycled through Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold and Teddy Bridgewater and the list goes on. Hey, a former Panthers starter Taylor Honeke for a game is going to start for the Atlanta Falcons.

This is like Boys Town. That's what the that's what Panthers quarterback. You're trying to make Panthers quarterback into Boys Town. They're going to go home for wayward quarterbacks, Brian. Well, it's it is unbelievable what's happened in the NFL this year with with the number of backup quarterbacks that have been forced into action.

P.J. Walker is playing a big role in Cleveland. Zach Wilson. I mean, some some guy named Jaron Hall, I believe, is starting. I mean, how many these these are like made up names. These are these are random generated names on your on your NCAA football game. Clayton Toon is going to play for the Cardinals until Kyler Murray is ready to go.

That should be next week. What's the motivation other than keeping playoff hopes alive, Tim? Well, first, you touched on it when you when you intro Brian, it's it's revenge for Frank Reich.

Yeah. Here's here's my my pregame speech of I'm Frank Reich. This isn't about winning the draft. I just want you to win one for me.

I like it like just go out there and win one for old Frankie. These guys last last year told me I wasn't good enough and then hired a clown show in Jeff Saturday to replace me straight off the ESPN set. So, Bryce, we'll work on your developments.

Well, you know, Adam Thielen, you're 33 years old, right? Get the oil can out. We're getting the joints going.

We're going to try to win this one for old Frankie Reich. Was there a noticeable difference with Thomas Brown calling plays? Yes. What do you think it was? Because I think there was that had almost nothing to do with the place. I think it was just situational awareness. The last drive is the best drive they had. And it took him six minutes and 17 seconds to go whatever was 70 yards in position for a field goal. But everybody, there was no panic.

And I don't know if they changed the voice and act literally in his headset. But I was concerned because you have Caldwell at the senior offensive analyst position. You have Reich.

You have Brown. You have Andy Dalton as a veteran mentor. That's Josh McCown.

That Josh McCown. That's a lot of voices that Bryce hears in his head when he's like, what should I do? I think they streamlined it and it was just Thomas Brown. And it just seemed like everything was much more A to B. Rather than A to B to C to Q to 4 to 9, then finally to Bryce.

Here's what I thought about the biggest difference. There was like no, like not a lot of delay at games, false starts. We're not panicking down at the end of a play clock. We're not calling a timeout to avoid. We're not calling a timeout that you should. Right.

There were all of those things. I wonder when you're the head coach, like there are a lot of head coaches that call their own plays. Kyle Shannon calls his own plays. Andy Reid calls his own plays.

Sean McVeigh. Matt Lafleur. These guys all call their own plays. But sometimes it takes, I'm not saying Frank Wright can't, but for six weeks all we saw were delays. Not that the false starts are his fault, but there was just a lot of panic at the end of play clocks and that kind of didn't happen. And not many of them do that with rookie quarterbacks. Sometimes the rookie quarterback you need to take a little bit more time on timeouts, time management, clock management, getting him comfortable. Because, you know, play calling for a rookie quarterback is a full-time job and managing everything else for a rookie quarterback is a full-time job.

Doing both of those, like you bring it up. McVeigh with Stafford. Stafford can take care of timeouts.

It's going to be instinct, right? As soon as the ball's down, timeout coach. When the play clock's winding down, timeout coach. Bryce Young probably isn't quite there yet. Look, I think Bryce, I think you've been able to see him getting better and better as the season has worn on. And yes, the Panthers definitively have won the draft. Alright, Brian Murphy, finish this sentence for me. Duke being bowl eligible is? I mean, a testament to Mike Elko. I mean, what I'm impressed by is he did not come in and clean house.

He did not pull a Deion Sanders. These are the same players that were unable to get victories for David Cutcliffe and through weight training, through workouts, through scheme, through coaching, discipline, all that stuff. He's turned them into a team that's now reached bowl games in two consecutive years without a massive overhaul. Without saying, hey, we've got to get rid of all these players and bring in my own guys. I think it's really a testament to Elko to be able to win a game last night with your third string quarterback to be able to hang in the games with, you know, with Riley Leonard hurt. I mean, they beat NC State without him. I mean, that's really impressive.

And I know Elko will get some consideration for all these jobs that are coming open. But man, that's what you want. You want a guy who can come in and win with somebody else's players and then presumably can also win with his own.

That's the old Bear Bryant. He can take his own and beat your own and take your own and beat his own. All right. Finish that sentence for me. Expensive.

And for exactly the reason he just said that you're going to have to up whatever you're paying Elko. And I would expect Riley Leonard probably is going to have some name, image and likeness. Little birdies on it on his shoulder this offseason, especially after what he looked like healthy rather than what he looked like once the angry took place. The interesting part is when you turn your season around, the players get a lot of credit for that. And when players get a lot of credit in college sports, there's this new transfer portal. So and this goes for a whole bunch of different teams.

But you're better players. You better be able to fork over. And you heard Brian mention it.

Elko is sure to get a lot of contention or at least thought process for some other jobs. And a lot of times all that that means is, you know, you could just go back and you say, listen, I want to be here. They're offering the X. Can you get close to X and then I'll stay here? And X, I think is going to be a big number for him.

I think it might be two X's. So by the way, last year, Duke won nine and lost nobody in the portal. Leonard was the quarterback last year.

He could have gone last year. I'm not so concerned that there I almost think that Duke is like the. It's hard to I don't even know how to phrase this. I think they're the like the son. I think they were going to be attractive, more attractive than than guys leaving. If you get the right four names to loudly say I'm staying and Mike Elko would be one of them, then you're exactly right.

Then you start looking at the portal as an opportunity rather than a deterrent. My answer to finish that sentence is Duke being bowl eligible is a very low bar. They should do football. Have a high bar. Yes.

One. I'm totally serious. Duke losing to Notre Dame was an enormous missed opportunity because of what was set up for them after that. Not to mention, you don't have the injury to Riley Leonard if you stop Notre Dame on fourth and 16. Who knows where Duke is right now? Pivot points.

And with with Riley Leonard on one leg, like like Captain Hook. Right. They are fourth and three inside the five at Florida State, possibly from taking a 10 point lead. They've won conference games, completing four and seven passes in the game. Yeah. Imagine what that defense and clock management could do if you had a quarterback that could complete 15 passes. And I'm not asking for 30.

I'm just asking for a couple. I also wonder if this season brings Riley Leonard back that he's got status or things, you know, he's going back to college football, I'd say. Yeah. Right. And so, you know, now Duke gets the build with a third year starting quarterback.

And could start to attract people. Hey, I'll go play with Riley Leonard for a year the way Drake May was able to attract wide receivers to come play with him this year. I'm not sure the Duke passing offense is that although is that attractive? Although I will say if they had a couple of better wide receivers, I think the what we've talked about that this year. Duke in the passing game. It's not that they don't pass well. It's that they really only have two targets and one of them could not catch the ball last night in Jalen Calhoun. And Jordan Morris had some problems catching the ball as well this year. They need two really good wide receivers because they run the ball similar to like a tight end.

They have a couple of similar to like a like a Tez Walker and Nate McCollum coming out of the transfer portal and going across town. Could Tez Walker transfer to Duke? I'm kidding. Not really kidding. They'd let him go to Duke. No, I'm kidding.

I'm not even going to start that whole thing. I actually think the injury to the ankle, you know, if I'm an NFL scout, I'm telling Riley, you just showed us what you need to improve on. Beat teams from the pocket now. You're awesome when you can break a 40 yard run and shrug guys off. But when the ankle took some of that away, the offense struggled. There you go.

Fix that in the offseason. Lots of seven on seven. Let me start this question with you, Tim Donnelly. Tim Donnelly and Brian Murphy. Tim from 99.9 the Fan Does the Afternoon Show, The Drive.

And Brian is a WREL sports investigative reporter. Can UNC still have a great season? No.

No, they can't. Ten win season still on the board. A nice bowl game still on the board. I don't think they started any of their seasons going like, you know, hey, our big goal right on top of the whiteboard. Ten win season. I don't think I think they were college football playoff.

And it was realistic there for a while, which allowed them to continue to build towards that. So a great season. No. Can they salvage a good season?

Yes. But a great season. I don't I don't see how that I mean, you have you only get so many Drake Mays in a coaching career. And they've had two.

And I mean, which one are you counting? No, Sam Howell. Trubisky was the number two overall pick. Obviously retrospective, maybe not the best pick, but you only get so many chances with NFL guys at quarterback.

And it feels like this one was a bit of a waste. Well, coming back, Sam Howell coming back after the year he had. Essentially, they had two of those guys, even though the difference between Sam Howell and Drake May, you could build a Wal-Mart. Brian, would an ACC championship make it a great season? Yeah, that's what I was about to say. I mean, if this team could somehow find a way and they're going to need some help and some luck to get to an ACC title game and upset Florida State for the ACC title. Something I think they haven't done right since Lawrence Taylor was was, you know, terrorizing ACC quarterback. He did.

And other things, I imagine. Wow. Did I think that would be I always heard the story that he climbed the outside of Eric House when I was a student there.

I don't know how that's possible, but I'm not putting anything past LT if you record time to title. If you win the first ACC title in almost 40 years or more than 40 years, then, yeah, I think it'd be a great season. I don't know if this team can get there, but I think that's the one goal left that would turn this season from somewhat disappointing into, hey, we did something that hasn't been done in these parts for a really long time.

That's that's the one thing left that could salvage this. Doesn't that make the two losses that you just suffered so much worse if you win the ACC championship? Because then the only thing between you and a chance at a national championship is not being able to stop Haynes King from doing whatever the heck he wants at Georgia Tech, which just seems like that's so much more brutal. It's the Virginia loss that's going to haunt them for ever, forever. All right, we'll close on on this, gentlemen.

I'll start with you again, Tim. What should happen to Michigan football? I've actually I thought a lot about this.

I'm in favor of strong penalties, but I don't want the players to be the ones suffering it because that's, you know, why would you punish the kids for the adults? Right. So ineligible for the postseason this year and every player, if they want, gets their year of eligibility back at a school other than Michigan.

Whoa. Duke. Suddenly Duke's loaded. But again, you're like the J.J. McCarthy's of the world. They might stay because they're not going to use all their eligibility anyway.

Right. But there's going to be a lot of guys on that roster that I don't want to say, like, oh, you can't play in the postseason one of your four or five years because your coaches were actively hiding. You know, you know, the way they did it so disguised makes me think, you know, you knew this was bad. That's, you know, that's why you were hiding it.

If the guy was filming in a Michigan shirt, I'd go, you guys were just oblivious to the rules. You're hiding discrete from Section G. It's like, oh, you knew what you were doing was wrong. So I know they should be punished. I mean, it's breaking the rules. It's cheating.

It's whatever you want to call it. But I'm always in favor of protecting the players. So, yeah, punish Michigan by saying you get your eligibility back as long as it's with another school because we don't want to benefit Michigan. Brian, what should happen?

I don't think you can do that because I think I'm not sure anything should happen to be quite frank. I mean, I think there's going to be punishment to hardball. I think hardball is not going to be the coach there next year.

But I don't know. College football is about money, right? And they're not going to ban Michigan from the postseason. They're not going to take their best shot at a national title team. Now, if they lose to Ohio State, maybe they will ban them from the postseason. Right after they lose to Ohio State or Penn State or whoever they lose to. And I'm banned from backstage passes to Taylor Swift. Exactly.

Couldn't get them anywhere. I would be worried if I was the Big Ten or anyone else that this is going to come out at another school, that Michigan is not the only ones doing this. And if you set some sort of precedent where you give students or players another year of eligibility elsewhere, that you may be opening something where all of a sudden, hey, Auburn was doing this or Texas A&M was doing this.

Or, you know, fill in the blank. I don't want to pick on those two schools. Let's pick on Jimbo specifically.

I find it hard to believe that Michigan is the only school in the country doing this. I don't disagree with that. But they do appear to be the only one to this point that has gotten caught doing it. So let's just start there. You can call holding on every play.

That doesn't mean you stop calling. Yeah, I'm certainly not justifying what they've done. I mean, the other thing I'd like to see before we start all these penalties is like a real true comprehensive analysis or investigation of what they actually did. I know we've seen a lot of reports in the media, but like, how far does this go? How far back does it go?

How many games are we talking about? Like, I'd really like to see the investigation take place before the punishment comes out. When Deion Sanders said a couple of weeks ago, well, I mean, you still got to execute.

Yeah, you know what? I had the answers to the test. So I got a chance to study him. And the next day, man, the test was really easy.

I still had to remember the answers to the test. But please, it just says to me that Deion's done it. I mean, knowing a blitz is coming from a specific player makes completing the pass significantly easier. Knowing what the play is. If I'm a batter and I know the pitch, I have a much greater chance of getting a hit. I mean, Tim would know better than anybody. Does that help the offense more or the defense more?

Actually, I think it's a huge advantage either way. But things like screen passes, if a defense knows a screen is coming, you're just laying your quarterback out to drive. At the end of spring ball, you do get to the point where your defense knows all your hand signals. And it's just the worst. You're trying to subtly nod to a receiver, and then you hear the defense go like, they're running the go.

And you're just like, this is the dumbest thing ever. All right, coach, this drill is over. Do you remember, I'll let you guys go right here. Do you remember it was the Panthers and the Packers, it's a game I don't know about five, six years ago, Cam didn't steal the quarterback. And I forget who the linebacker was, it was Clay Matthews, basically called out the Panthers play and it was mic'd up. And Cam was like, oh, you know the plays, watch this now.

It was just a brilliant moment. I don't even remember the outcome of the play. I think Cam ran it. No, it was Christian McCaffrey and Clay Matthews was running, watch the out, watch the out. Christian McCaffrey was going to run out out of the backfield.

I've memorized it because it's a great clip. And Cam Newton goes, oh, you watch film? And Clay's like, yeah, us too, say go. And then it was a fake out and he slammed on the brakes and came back in and it was a walk-in touchdown. And it was, not only Cam could pull that off, only Cam. I miss Cam.

I absolutely miss Cam Newton. Brian Murphy at Murph's Turf on Twitter. I'm coming for you this week, Brian. I am coming for you. I'm going to make the playoffs. Brian Murphy is WRAL Sports investigative reporter, Tim Donnelly. You've already laid waste to my team.

At Donnelly Sports on Twitter and coming up right after us, right here on The Fan in Raleigh. And until next time, thank you very much.