Derek Jeter Dating Game

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast.

Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons 3-7 on Sports Hub Triad. Here's a stat for you Panther fans. Marty Hurney has been the GM for 4 top 10 draft choices. Those picks? Julius Peppers in 02, Jordan Gross in 03, Cam Newton in 11, Luke Keakley in 12. The last time the Panthers picked in the top 10, Christian McCaffrey was taken 8th overall in 2017. And you can make the argument, those 5 players I just listed might be 5 of the top 10 most talented players to ever wear a Carolina Panthers uniform. So, Carolina has a real opportunity here.

They're picking in the top 10 at number 7. Many fans are saying, hey, Carolina, if you have the opportunity, maybe you could trade up and draft Joe Burrow at number 1. Trade away some draft stock so you can reunite Joe Brady, your new offensive coordinator, with the guy he developed at LSU, Burrow.

I don't think that's a wise move. Carolina has a team on the rebuild. They have too many needs to try and draft up. You do need a quarterback, of course.

But there's a chance one could drop to you. Need an offensive lineman, need a defensive lineman, specifically an interior run stopper, and you also need a linebacker to fill the void that was left by Luke Keakley a little over a week ago. I see three perennial all pros in the NFL that might be available at number 7 for Carolina. And it starts with the linebacker out of Clemson, Isaiah Simmons.

I've watched Clemson play in person about a half dozen times the last two years. He's the guy who sticks out the most. He reminds me a lot, it's funny, of Keakley. He does. Except he's just a little bit more shredded a little quicker. I don't know how he's going to translate to the mental part of the game, but you just don't accidentally play the way that he has for the Tigers the last two years.

You don't do that. He has a great read on the ball. He's great in pass coverage. There's times that you put him back at safety. There's some Thomas Davis in him too, considering Davis came out as a DB out of Georgia and transitioned into being a linebacker.

I see similarities in both those regards. I really like Simmons. I think he might be the second safest pick in this draft. Chase Young, that's probably the number one sure thing. That guy's going to come into the league, he's going to be an all pro, he's going to be pro bowler pretty much every year that he plays. That kind of player. The second safest pick I think is Simmons, and there's a good chance he drops to Carolina.

Number two. Tua. Why go after Burrow if there's a chance Tua could drop to you? See, we have this thing with sports that we usually just react to the latest thing versus examining the overall picture. Go and watch Tua highlights, because they are incredible. I know he's dealing with a hip injury. There are people who are comparing it to Bo Jackson's injury, which of course set back his entire career, but here's the part that people miss with that. Bo Jackson continued to play on that hip, which is why it got messed up in a way that he could never be the same player again. That's not what's happening here with Tua. Tua, he got hurt.

It's been addressed. I'd like to think modern medicine has changed quite a bit in the last 20 years. He's 21 years old, which is also significantly younger than Bo was when he got injured.

So I don't really like the comparison for those reasons. I think Tua has a larger sample size of being great than Burrow does, even though Burrow beat Tua in a 46-41 clash in Tuscaloosa this year. I'm still convinced Tua wasn't exactly 100% for that game. I think if Tua drops to seven, Carolina should take him. But you shouldn't trade up to try and get Tua, because you can draft potentially a Simmons. Or the number three guy on my list here, which is offensive lineman Andrew Thomas.

I'm a big fan of this guy. And Robert, you're somebody who loves offensive linemen. You haven't had a chance to look too much into the draft prospects this year, but Thomas is somebody who could play left tackle and right tackle.

Flip them to either side. If you're Carolina, and they really do like Greg Little, who they drafted in the second round last year. They want to keep him at left tackle.

What a great foundation to set for a new coach with offensive line background, to have Greg Little, who you had a first round grade on last year at left tackle, second year player, and a rookie top ten pick Andrew Thomas on the other side. That would be a great situation for Carolina. So I think those three players, those are the ones that I think would be slam dunks.

If Carolina got any of those three guys, they will be set up to have a lot of success in the future. They would be Gross. They would be Kuechly.

They would be K.M. Newton. All pro caliber players. Dave Gettleman once said it, and I agree with this. When you're drafting in the top ten, you're not looking for need. You want to draft the best player available. And in Gettleman's words, if you're picking in the top ten, you want a future Hall of Famer as your pick. That's why I had no issue with Gettleman picking Saquon Barkley when he did.

No issue with it whatsoever. Because Barkley, we've seen it in the last few years. He is the best player out of that draft. He was a safer bet to be a Hall of Fame caliber player than Darnold and then Baker. Certainly safer than Lamar Jackson, even though Lamar fell into a perfect situation in Baltimore.

So I agree with that sentiment. Don't trade up just to take a risk, especially if you have plenty of needs like Carolina does. Sit at seven. I think this is a really top-heavy draft. I think the first 12 picks, you have a chance to draft somebody who's damn good. And if you don't get any of those three guys at seven, trade back. Trade back. Bring in more assets.

Because, again, someone's going to try and trade up and get a wide receiver. Oh, I want T. Higgins. Oh, I want C.D.

Lamb. Somebody's going to do that. Oh, I want Justin Herbert. Don't reach when you're in the top ten. I have no issue if Carolina says, yeah, we'll drop back two or three spots.

No problem with that. If you want to stay in place and take someone who's still a safe pick, Derek Brown, the defensive tackle out of Auburn. A lot of Vince Wilfork in him. He's huge, round and can run fast. Gerald McCoy.

He reminds me a little bit of that as well. So that's where I have Carolina go. One of those four players, if Carolina picks them at seven, I am not going to go on the radio and have any issue with what they did. But if they trade up, we have problems.

If they're reaching for Herbert at seven, then I'm probably going to be skeptical about it. However, and wherever you're listening, we appreciate that. Darren Gant for ProFootballTalk.com will join us to talk plenty more football with Super Bowl LIV on the horizon between the Chiefs and the 49ers in Miami. We will be carrying Super Bowl LIV right here on Sports Hub Triad. Kevin Harlan going to be on the call for that. NC State gets the big win in basketball last night. I started thinking about how big of a win this was for Kevin Keats.

I think this might be his second or third most important win he's gotten with the Wolfpack. NC State, they had a losing streak and they beat Clemson on Saturday. In the process, they lose two players, Mandy Bates and Pat Andres.

So you're in a spot where you are, you are shorthanded. You had six scholarship players going into the game. Also, your first two ACC road games were disasters. Losing at Virginia Tech, falling at Clemson.

Right when you were riding high, you go on the road and things just, they fall apart and they burst at the seams. You go into Virginia, one of the most disciplined teams you're going to find across the country, the defending national champions, even though they're without three players who were drafted last year. And it would have been so easy for them to lose that game. They win it. In terms of road wins, this game and the game in Chapel Hill that he won his first year, those are the biggest wins he's ever had at NC State.

I'd go as far to say it. It's the first time they won at the JPJ. It's the first time they beat Virginia in Charlottesville since 2005. That was Julius Hodge on that team. That might have been, that two or three year stretch, my favorite NC State basketball teams of my lifetime. I wasn't alive for the 83 team.

Sorry. But that 2004, 2005, 2005, 2006, NC State team, the one that beat UConn in the tournament. Julius Hodge doing the NC State thing with his hand into the camera. Enjin Atzer on that team. Andrew Brackman.

Oh. That era of ACC basketball, I'd like to see the ACC network do a documentary or something on it. Because it is the only period of time I can remember where Wake Forest, NC State, Duke and North Carolina were all good.

Usually you'll find a stretch where two are good, maybe even three, but all four? Wake with Skip Prosser, Julius Hodge at NC State, Chris Paul obviously at Wake as well. Duke, the number one team at the country in 2005 with Reddick, Sheldon Williams and those boys. And North Carolina won the national title in 2005.

So that era, I think, doesn't get talked about enough in big four circles. How will Lamar Jackson and the Niners' season affect how your team chooses to build and retool this offseason? Darren Gamp for ProFootballTalk.com and NBC Sports will join to discuss next.

Darren Gamp of ProFootballTalk.com, NBC Sports as well, spending time with us here. I'm interested in how the successful teams we see in a given year will affect the offseason that follows the year. Like we saw a year ago, Sean McVay, he gets the Rams to the Super Bowl, then everybody wants to find their own McVay. Of course you have the Zach Taylor hire in Cincinnati, LaFleur at Green Bay, he was in that Washington quarterback room.

He gets picked from that circle. Everyone wanted to find their young offensive mind who's forward thinking the way that McVay was. This year you have Lamar Jackson as successful as any quarterback we've seen of his ilk in the last handful of years. And the San Francisco 49ers, they are just pounding the rock with all this pre-snap motion, players moving everywhere.

It seems to be a bit of a zag from the zigging of everybody throwing the football in that trend from the last decade and a half. Darren, when Sean McVay, he went to the Super Bowl, it seemed everybody wanted a version of that with their team. What does Lamar's season and San Francisco getting to the Super Bowl, how do you think that's going to affect the way teams build this offseason? Well, obviously it means Eric the Enemy and Robert Salah are going to get head coaching jobs, right? No, nobody wanted to wait around for the young coordinators that are actually best at what they're doing right now. This is one of the big problems, and this might get a little far afield, but there's a fundamental unfairness about the way this job search process goes for a lot of teams. Because sometimes some of the best candidates, and listen, I could poo on your airwaves all day long about why Eric the Enemy is not getting a job, but the simple timing of these things often prevents the guys who are best positioned for these jobs from being able to take them. John Fox is in that situation. It was the year after he was the hot Giants defensive coordinator that he finally ended up in Carolina. That's the way these things often work.

It's usually you're a year behind that curve. Maybe next year Salah and the Enemy will be in a better position, but as long as we create this system where teams are able to talk to some coaches at specific terms, but not others, you're going to end up with these weird processes. It's interesting, when David Tepper, who is happy to wave around his wallet and show everybody how big it is, talks about a long-term plan, he was in an awful hurry. He fired Ron Rivera, so he had a head start, but he moved quickly to get a guy. Other coaches or other organizations are moving quickly to hire guys for long-term projects without talking to all the available candidates.

I think that's a mistake, and it's fundamentally unfair as well. With the draft ahead, is there such a thing anymore of a prototypical quarterback? Considering Russell Wilson, Drew Brees, and now Lamar Jackson, these are guys that I don't think would have been drafted 10 or 12 years ago. Now Baker Mayfield is being taken first overall, and Lamar Jackson is a first-round pick.

We'll see what his soon-to-be MVP season is going to affect. Russ was a third-round pick, and there were punters taken before him, so obviously times have changed in a hurry. If you're looking for a prototype, it's easy to say, with Joe Burrow, that's what a quarterback is supposed to look like. I think it depends on your coach, and I think it depends on how open-minded your coach is about what they want to do. Joe Brady, when he came to Carolina, talked about, it's not about my scheme or what I want to do, it's about what do we got? And I think that's how smart coaches approach it. If you are a coach and you sit there and say, to attack a ball is never going to work in my offense, you should probably be fired immediately because you're not open-minded about what football can look like. And guys who are too married to their scheme, I think, get rooted out in the NFL pretty quickly. So, we'll see about that, but I think one person's prototype might be, another coach's prototype might be Joe Burrow. A lot of coaches' prototypes might be Joe Burrow, but there are going to be people who like Justin Herbert. I mean, honestly, there were a lot of people who preferred Blaine Gabbert to Cam Newton, and how's that working out for you? I mean, that's gotten several people fired. So, it's a horses for courses kind of thing, and one of the things I've come to believe about the NFL is, you know, it's not absolutely this guy's better than that guy, or, you know, things are always certain. It's about fit. And where the quarterback falls with the organization, with the coach, with the offensive coordinator, with the parts around him is going to be more determinative of his long-term success. Your Tua pronunciation has gotten a lot better, Darren. I've been working on that in my spare time.

The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plane. It's Darren Gantt with us from profootball.com and NBC Sports. So, are you telling me there's not going to be 15 to 16 teams trying to get running quarterbacks going to take Jalen Hurts in the first round and mimic what the Ravens and 49ers are doing? It's not going to be a bunch of teams bringing us back to 1929?

Not necessarily, but there is a supply and demand consideration. I mean, as more and more guys like Jalen Hurts get chances to quarterback big programs, when more guys like Kyler Murray come into the NFL and have some early success, I think people will eventually become more open-minded about those kind of guys. But, listen, football is such an in-the-box sport and such an in-the-box industry. It's not just the sport. It's the entire system. The league, the way it's built, the way people think.

It's very small-c conservative for a reason. And there are a lot of people who, when they see somebody, I mean, look at Justin Hurts. That guy looks like what a quarterback's supposed to look like. He may get overdrafted because of that, because of those preconceived notions that some people have. And there are people who just don't want to draft particular kinds of quarterbacks, and that's their choice. But I do think as you see more people willing to put those kind of athletes on the field at those positions in college, you're going to see more of that in the NFL. It's got no choice but to adapt over time, because there ain't been so many guys coming out.

There's not a Peyton Manning in the draft every year, no matter how hard people look for him. Darren Gantt with us here, and I'm looking at the Super Bowl halftime show. And this has, I think, the makings of being one of the worst we've seen in a long time. I thought Jay-Z was supposed to make this all better. We've got Jennifer Lopez at Shakira. I don't know if any one of them has put out a hit in the last dozen years. And Demi Lovato is doing the anthem.

I'm sure she will be okay, I don't know. But who should get the Super Bowl halftime show that hasn't gotten it before? Who would Darren Gantt, if he had Jay-Z or whoever's ear? Who would he say get that person a halftime show? I would love to see a Metallica halftime show. And honestly, we're not afraid of heavy metal music the way we used to be. If you listen to every pregame warmup, there's a ton of Metallica songs, or at least Metallica riffs, that are a part of every In-N-Out halftime, or In-N-Out commercial breaks, that kind of stuff. It's bumper music everywhere. It's pregame warmup music everywhere. I think those guys have put on an incredible show. This is a league that's always about 10 years behind musical trends, if not 20.

So putting Shakira and J.Lo out there, yeah, I guess. I always want to see some local tie. I want to see something that reflects the Cuban heritage, the Hispanic roots of Miami. I want to see, when they're in Detroit, the Motown show. I wanted to see more of an Atlanta flavor in the Atlanta show. And we sort of half got that with half of the outcasts, but not the full thing.

But the NFL always lacks a little creativity, so I don't have any confidence that they would ever go there, because honestly, if they would have done it, they would have done it in San Francisco a couple years ago. Darren, you're the best, man. It's good to hear from you. All right, we'll talk to you all soon.

Got it. That's Darren Gant for ProFootballTalk.com and NBC Sports. Another headline. Wake Forest, according to a press release yesterday, with it being the 30-year anniversary of the Lawrence Joel Veteran Memorial Arena. Anybody call it that? I remember I had to read that in a spot once. I had to do an ad, and I had to read it that way. No, I mean, come on, it's the Joel or Joel Coliseum, okay?

Let's talk like people around here. Anyway, with it being the 30-year anniversary of the Joel, they're going to be welcoming back the 1995 ACC Champs. And they're going to do that December the 19th, the 94-95 team. It was Duncan's sophomore year, I believe.

Randolph Childress is an assistant coach, coaching his son Brandon, of course. And I'd have to think they're going to be bringing Duncan back, right? Like, you can't have a celebration of the 95 team without Tim Duncan there, can you?

That's kind of like saying, let's have a five-year anniversary of the Carolina Panthers Super Bowl appearance team. And Cam Newton's not there. So I have to think, it doesn't say in the release that Duncan's coming. But you've got to think Duncan's going to be there. And Dave Odom, I'm sure he will be there.

So, I mean, it's a great team. But what would it be like if Wake Forest honored the 94-95 team? Then they said, oh, well, Duncan couldn't make it. They'd have to show something. Maybe they'd put it on the big screen and be like a recorded message from him. He needs to have a video message, yeah.

Yeah, that'll be, if he can't come, for sure. Bare minimum. The bear. Apparently his style has gotten better. You know this?

I haven't seen anything. He went to Manu or Tony Parker's, like, retirement ceremony in San Antonio. And he was wearing, like, his hair was different. He had a suit on with a T-shirt underneath. It was stylish.

It was a lot more stylish than whatever he wore in the league. I was impressed by it, to be honest. I don't believe you. I haven't seen this. Hey, I've got to look it up. He's dressing like he would dress for a trample. I'm telling you.

He gave a speech, he was good, and he looked stylish. So that's the bar. That's what I'm expecting if Duncan returns to Winston-Salem February the 19th when Wake Forest plays Georgia Tech. So, in about a month, that's set to happen. Coming up.

A message for sports fans everywhere, especially UNC State fans. This is The Drive. You know when somebody picks out a blemish? Everybody who then is pointed to that can't help but notice it every time you see somebody? Well, that's what it's like in radio when apparently you say something funny or sometimes people hear something differently than the way it sounds in your head. Now, that Sawyer Dillon has pointed out that allegedly at times I say whittle instead of little talking quickly in transition points of segment. Now, I'm getting a ton of tweets.

I'm scared to check my email. And here we are, callers are now reaching into the show, reaching out to the show with nothing to say other than, hey bro, you just said whittle instead of little. Do you hear how hard it is for you to say the word little? It sounds so forced.

Well, now I'm shook. Now, here's the other part. This is kind of why with NC State, I understand when they collapse or when they choke. When fans all around you are expecting the worst thing to happen, that can probably permeate into a team psyche where they start thinking, oh, it's just not our night and you make the excuses and you lose.

And NC State had all those excuses last night that could have potentially did them in. In this case, when you point out something that's said that's improper, it gets into my head. So now when I'm trying to do a sports radio show three, four hours a day and I'm having to worry about one whittle word, okay, I did that one on purpose, then, yeah, it can affect you. It really can. So I haven't heard this yet, but Robert says it's pretty damning.

It's pretty incriminating. This is from last segment where apparently instead of the word that starts with an L, I said the one that starts with a W. And believe me, we'll get back to NC State, their win over Virginia in just a little bit. I still hear the L. I still hear the L. This isn't a blue dress, black and gold dress thing. I really do believe it is because let me hear that again. I hear an L. And believe me, we'll get back to NC State, their win over Virginia in just a little bit. I hear an L. There's no way. You're the only one.

You need to go to an ear doctor. Just a little bit. I just want to say this. When I first heard you say. Just a little bit. I genuinely thought that was just how you say it. And it was one of those things maybe like, you know, keep listeners like, oh, he's like a weird thing where he just says whittle instead of little. And I just thought for the longest time it was something you purposely did.

I feel so insecure right now. Like when I say Wake Forest versus Wake Forest or when I say I remember my first two weeks in Colorado, someone called in saying you're saying the name of the state wrong. Colorado. No, it's Colorado.

I'm like, you can just bleep off. I'm calling it Colorado. How do you say Clemson? Clemson. It's like you say Clemson. It's Clemson. And there you go.

You got the zen in there. Clemson. You don't usually say it like that. You usually say Clemson. Clemson.

Now you can't point it out or he changes it. I don't know what I'm saying differently. Clemson. Now you're saying Clemson. That's right. But usually you say Clemson.

I don't see the difference between the two things you're doing. Let me hear it one more time. Just a Whittle Bit. David Glenn is going to join us in Just a Whittle Bit.

And I also have a list of my five quarterbacks I'd want to build a team around in the NFL right now. And that's coming up. Just a Whittle Bit. Right now, though, it's time for something that is growing in popularity. It's the most polarizing segment we do on this show. People reach out to say that former broadcasters at school are rolling over in their grave because of this segment.

That's an actual thing I was sent. And some others will approach me in a gym and say, like I go to Nine Round in Winston-Salem and the guy comes up to me and says, hey, this is my favorite segment you do. This guy's macho.

Big, big dude saying I love the bachelor segment. That's what I'm all about here. There's no way that's true. 100 percent. This happened on Saturday. Saturday morning.

I swear on everything I own. I love the bachelor segment. Had a headband on the bachelor segment. I'm about to leave.

This is a true story from the folks over at Nine Round. And this segment, it's now just becoming a thing that we do here. It is The Bachelor Minute. So it's another ongoing, never-ending series of The Bachelor. Will Pete push the limits of what's acceptable on national TV? Is Pete here with the intentions of hooking up with as many of the contestants as possible?

Or is it simply the free booze? Pete is on the clock. Welcome to The Bachelor Minute.

Three major points, and that's it. All I want to hit from last night's bachelor episode, me and Robert were watching it together. He came over and brought some White Claws. What flavor do you like out of the Claws? Out of the multi-packs, I like black cherry. But I mean, I'll drink any of them. Mango is the best flavor. But it's also freezing cold.

Why are we drinking White Claws? The number one point to get to, producers. They really crushed it with this cast of women. They are the dumbest group I can ever remember in the history of this show.

English, not a strong suit. You had Hannah Ann, who, if you don't remember, is the absolute worst, in your opinion. Saying she didn't want to be involved with, quote, that finasco. That's what she thought that word was. Then you had, I forget who it was, who called it lingerie instead of lingerie. Putting on lingerie, actual thing. And then one of your picks, Sydney, who is a conniving one, we learned this week, might be the dumbest one in the box.

No. It's clear she learned an SAT word, like one SAT word. That word being facade. And she dropped it twice in one sentence. And then the next time she was confronted about Alea's fakeness, she said, she's putting on a facade.

She said it just like the vernacular. That was the SAT word I remember most. Like when I was preparing for the SAT in high school, facade was the one that stuck out to me. When I think SAT words, I think facade. And clearly Sydney didn't get that question wrong on the SAT. Secondly, Victoria and Alea are fake as hell. Apparently, and that's another pick of Sawyer's. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Specify which last name because we're not. Victoria P. No.

Oh, my. Victoria P. Apparently they were friends before this episode and, or before the season started. And they told each other that they weren't going to tell producers they knew each other, so they couldn't be grouped together.

So if someone was sent home, they wouldn't both be sent home. Then Victoria stabs Alea in the back by saying, hey, I don't think she's here for the right reasons here. Yeah, she told me that she's just trying to win your heart and trying to get the popularity, become famous. So that's, in your mind, that's not the right thing to do?

You would rather stick it out for a girl that you barely know that told you? Also, her teeth are fake. Oh, my God. Very fake teeth. Those things are veneers. And her lips.

And I'm not going to comment on anything else that might be fake. She is a Barbie doll. Yeah, and then she tells a story about being homeless.

I don't know what her job is either. She has three of them, though. She has, no, that's Alea who has the three. I get them mixed up. You've been giving a lot of people nicknames.

You've got the Wagon, which is Madison, and you gave Alea a nickname last night. Yeah, Scar. Because she is, she will rock those eyes, man. She will give you some evil looks.

I would not touch her with a 10-foot pole. When you say Scar, what do you mean? Like Scar from Lion King. Like Long Live the King.

That's Scar. Last night, when she gets confronted by Sydney, they're sitting there and she calls her fake in front of everybody. She has this evil look on her face, looking right at Sydney, and Robert just says aloud, Long Live the King.

Long Live the King. Who was the girl I said was a hot crier? Oh, that was Hannah Ann.

Very hot crier. I'm usually turned off by women crying, but wow. Yeah, women actually have to practice that apparently.

Like at weddings, they practice crying so they don't look like ugly criers. What? That is not real. No, that's a thing that happens. Yeah, and apparently Alaya has like a really fake personality and didn't realize that she was incriminating herself by talking to Sydney, who was clearly trying to slander her one way or the other. And the last point I want to make out here, I drafted Kwame Brown.

Yeah, you did. I had the number one pick, and me and Sawyer, we've been talking about this leading up to the season. We liked Madison and Sarah.

Those are the two that we thought were the best, and Sarah was a radiographer, a legitimate job. She seems to be a really fundamentally decent person because after the show ends, apparently she is selling the outfit she wore on the show as a way to raise money for the Australian fires. So, I'm watching her this entire episode, and she isn't speaking. Like, she's made it through the round. She's a pretty girl, and I don't think I heard her speak one time this entire season so far.

So, she gets eliminated, and in the last couple scenes she was in, drama is unfolding right in front of her, and her face is just like, get me the hell out of here. And this is the thing I didn't consider when picking first overall. You've got to have a love for the game, right? We hear that about Josh Rosen, you hear it about draft picks.

Do they really love the game? When it comes to The Bachelor, you've got to realize, is this somebody who's going to be willing to stoop down to the sewer and fight with Sidney, and to fight with some of these scars out there and whatnot, and Hannah Ann's who were trying to undercut you. Deal with the drama, deal with the nonsense.

Sarah, it just turns out, is too good for this damn show, and she would seem perfectly happy to leave all of the nonsense. So yes, I drafted Kwame Brown, and it was the most frustrating thing of anything. Josh, you may have drafted Kwame Brown, but I drafted Lynn Bias. My whole team is gone, and I would like some reparations. I would like to put in a waiver claim for, give me Tammy, give me... You've got Scar, she might come back.

Apparently she got kicked off and she might come back. We're giving Robert Alaya. Alaya. Who is Alaya?

Scar. Okay, cool. You've got to talk... She's also, you brought this up, the poor man's wagon, because she wasn't dragging no slouch either. I mean, my draft though has just been so far... I mean, you guys can talk all the smack you want. All three of them are still remaining.

You can talk all the smack you want. You can say Victoria's fake, Sidney's dumb, but then I still have another one in the running who's killing it. Yeah, Madison is killing it. Yeah, and I still have Savannah.

That's the only one I have left in the running. Robert has Alaya after we gave him Hannah Brown and also now Alaya, adding to the three that completely struck out the first night. And I helped. Robert, I want to tell the people what's coming up shortly. What's going to be coming up in just a little bit. In just a little bit. I'll tell you the five top quarterbacks that I'd like to build a team around today. And I guarantee you there's going to be some disagreement on this.

This is a Tuesday drive. In honor of Derek Jeter, I think, of getting into the Hall of Fame tonight. He's going to be voted in, in all likelihood. We'll see if he's going to be a unanimous inductee.

I want to play a game. And Robert literally has just put this together. He remembers Derek Jeter for non-baseball reasons because Robert doesn't care about baseball, quite frankly. I think about the fact that he had the trading card with him in a Greensboro uniform back when he was with the Greensboro Hornets. It was the last year of the Hornets before they became the bats.

And of course, now they're the Greensboro Grasshoppers. I think about Jeffrey Meyer because I'm a Baltimore Orioles fan. Since I'm an Orioles fan, I had to have Derek Jeter in my division forever.

And that wasn't great, to say the least. There aren't many teams in sports I hate. One of those teams is the New York Yankees. I still respect the hell out of Derek Jeter, so I really don't know why we're about to play the game. We're about to play here because Robert, again, doesn't think about baseball when he thinks of Jeets. He thinks about the rumors.

Robert's all about that hot goss. He's all about people just talking about things left and right. Oh, some gossip. Oh, Derek Jeter, he apparently has guests put cell phones into a bowl when they walk into his home and they can retrieve it when they leave. Apparently women that he was with before being married and having kids would get a gift basket on the way out.

Many people have alleged that that was true. He dated a number of celebrities. So Robert, how many names have you put together here that you're going to throw my way, figuring out I have to figure out if Jeter dated them or not? Eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve women. Twelve! And you're not going to tell me how many... No!

Heck no, you're not going to figure that out. And also, if I was a woman and I received a gift basket, it would just tell me I did a good job. You know what I'm saying?

I'm sure not all of those women got gift baskets. Okay, David Glenn's going to join us in 15 minutes. We'll get back to the ACC, our early afternoon host. Let's play the game. All right, Josh, a little setup here. If you get a woman, whether they did or did not date him correctly, you'll hear this. If you miss three times, you've got three strikes here, you'll hear this. Strike one, strike two, strike three, you're out. Everybody knows that I had to reset the timer, pulling back the curtain a little bit. All right, we're going to start this bad boy off.

We'll see how you do. Jessica Alba. Yes. You are correct. I remember those photos specifically.

I used to have a huge crush on Jessica Alba. Is Sawyer trying to distract you? Turn your microphone on, Sawyer, if you plan to talk. That was the thing that I was trying to convey to Robert, but it's okay. Keep going.

Jessica Alba, go. Yeah, I said yes. What were you trying to say? What were you interrupting the segment for? No, he was just asking me to cut his mic on, that was it. Okay.

We need a better system than that. All right, we're about to call you for not swinging on a pitch. Well, I already swung and I hit it. Scarlett Johansson.

Man. Lost in translation, she was big. I'm going to say no. Ooh, that would be correct. It was a rumor that they were together.

And here, rumors aren't truth and they're not facts. Tyra Banks, yes or no? Yes. Jessica Biel, yes or no?

Hmm. I don't know when her and Justin Timberlake got together. That was mid-2000s, so I'm going to say no. That's a miss, Josh.

Strike one. Oh, all right. They were together? They were together. Were there photos?

They were short-lived and she did confirm it later. Man. We're moving on, man.

I have a strike. Mariah Carey. Oh, man.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Correct. Gwen Stefani.

I don't think Jeter would go for somebody like Stefani. That is correct. Halle Berry. Ooh. He dated Tyra, so I think he could date Halle Berry. Ooh.

Strike two. Damn it, Josh. Halle Berry's list of men is very vast.

It is incredible. Kevin Costner, Eddie Murphy. Wesley Snipes. Me and Sawyer went in very deep to this. How did you guys go this deep in just three or four minutes? He was working on this side. I was working on this side. We were going very quickly.

Adriana Lima. How many more do I have left here? You have a handful. Okay. I have two strikes against me here, too. Correct.

You got your back against the wall. Yeah, he dated Adriana Lima. Correct. I knew that because you didn't know how to pronounce her name.

Correct. Minka Kelly. I don't know who Minka Kelly is. She's an actress. If you don't know who she is, we'll take her off.

He did date Minka Kelly. She was a former Miss America. Laura Dutta. Who's that? Oh, another woman he dated. She was another Miss America. I'm just really building up this dude's portfolio.

Drew Barrymore. Okay. That sounds like one you made up. That is correct.

I made that up. And we are coming up on the last. This is the last one? You have one left. Two strikes.

I have one left. Am I going to strike out or am I going to win this game? Gabrielle Union. I don't think so. Josh gets another hit.

He gets out of the game. It was a rumor and Gabrielle's quote was, if I was dating Derek Jeter, I would hold my own press conference and scream it from the rooftops. No way.

Yeah! I do want to find the audio, if you can dig it up, of Derek Jeter. He's sitting with Joe Buck back when Joe Buck had that TV show that I'm sure flopped. And he's talking about these rumors that exist. Namely the rumor that he sent women off with gift baskets with his own memorabilia in them.

Can you imagine being that self-centered? But everyone just believes it to be true. It's one of those rumors. Derek Jeter was such the player. To recap the list, he was together with Jessica Alba. He was together with Mariah Carey. He also was dated. Who else was on this list?

Minka Kelly, Adriana Lima, Laura Dutta, all these former Miss America, Miss Universes, Mariah Carey, Tyra Banks, and my mom. They actually went on a couple dates back in the day. She never called him back. Didn't your mom actually date a former NFL player? No, she kissed. Who was the quarterback for the Bengals that came from East Carolina? Jeff Blake.

She kissed Jeff Blake. Yeah. That's also not true. I'm sorry, Mom.

Totally true. You told me that story, and it was like I fall in confidence. But here I am talking about it on the radio. My mom's listening. Thanks, Mom. Sorry about telling all the athletes you've kissed. I hope he doesn't bring up Joe Buck, too. Yeah, I forgot your mom and dad live in the triad.

Sorry to the Washes for airing that out, creating some issues in the household. It's impossible for me, even though I thought it was a great win for NC State last night, it's impossible for me at this point to trust NC State. And before NC State fans get in my mentions and think that I'm a hater for NC State, hate the Pack, the way that referees hate the Pack and everybody else hates the Pack aside from NC State fans, it's a combination of factors.

NC State bleep, which Pack fans are certainly aware of, and the fact that nobody can be trusted, really, in college basketball today. NC State, they still don't have a win against a ranked team yet. Granted, they've only had two opportunities. They played Memphis and Brooklyn, lost that game by five. They faced Auburn on the road, they lost that one.

It was a tight game, too. But they do have three D, or three quad one wins. They're number 45 in the net ranking, which came out this morning. Wisconsin, UNCG, and UVA are the three net one, quad one wins they have in the net, I should say. Favorable ACC schedule, they only have one game versus Florida State and one game against Louisville. Both those games will be played in PNC Arena. And they played Duke twice.

So they'll have a chance to play some ranked teams. Last night, it shouldn't have been dramatic. They were up 42-31 against a team that can't score. Missed some free throws. Awful shots at the end for Virginia to salt things away. I don't know what Kasey Marshall was thinking. He grabs the rebound. It was a young player's mistake. Everybody knew that he was going to take the shot at the end going coast to coast because he had his head down. He wasn't even looking for anybody else. Wasn't looking for Kihei Clark streaking down the middle or looking for Mamadi Diakite.

So it was a bad loss for Virginia, a good win for NC State, but I'm not at the point yet where I know I can trust them. DG will be here in five minutes. Let's hear from Derek Jeter. This audio coming from Joe Buck. He used to have, was this a Showtime show that he did? Unattainable with Joe Buck. Oh, this was from the Audience Network. He used to have a show. Let's hear from Jeter.

But on top of it, it was a gift basket of my own memorabilia. So it's a dumb story, right? And you really have to be dumber to believe it. But they believe it.

I'm not talking about not you guys. But I mean, really, you come up with this stuff and then it follows you around like it's factual. I don't address them because I think once you address, I guess I just did, but once you address it, you have to address every single rumor that comes out. And then if one time if you don't, they automatically assume it's true. So I just choose not to address any rumors that are out there.

But that's got to be the dumbest one I've heard. If you did send people off with a gift basket, what's the right thing to put in there? Yeah. If I was a woman receiving a gift basket from him, number one, I would probably want some nice perfume, maybe like something, I'm going to take a shower the next day, maybe like a snack for my ride home and plan B because Jeter doesn't strike out. Yep, there's the line.

And Robert just, he rides his motorcycle about 100 miles past it. There we go. The culture for NC State basketball. Is it better than it's been in over, let's just say, a dozen years? We'll discuss with our early afternoon host, David Glenn, next. He may not be beautiful, and we do sit around all day and talk sports. And yes, Britt McHenry, we feel great about it.

Do you feel good about your job? This is The Drive with Josh Graham. Our early afternoon host, David Glenn, dropping by now. Read our accsports.com one through 15 ACC rankings each week. Brian Geisinger, who will be in here tomorrow.

DG and I put together one through 15. And it's always something that fans react to week to week. We try to examine the big picture while reacting to the big picture. And it's always something that fans react to week to week.

We try to examine the big picture while reacting to what happens in the most recent as well. DG, I'm interested in what you think about Kevin Keats on your show earlier today. As he's told us, saying that it is a tradition to get ice cream after road wins.

NC State beat Virginia yesterday. But he does not partake in the ice cream eating. He got some Ben & Jerry's south of Charlottesville last night and got some Ben & Jerry's. Your thought on Kevin Keats just sitting and watching?

Well, one thing that I've noticed as a member of something closer to Kevin Keats' age bracket than your current age bracket is that with each passing decade, there is more scrutiny of what you do eat, what you don't eat, and how much of it you eat. So I don't know if Coach Keats is going the ice cream-less route on the advice of doctors or his wife or somebody else. But he's clearly not partaking, but that doesn't mean he's not excited about ACC road victories. And beating UVA at UVA is not an easy thing to do.

We all know the deal here, Josh. After the big three of Florida State, Louisville, and Duke in whatever order you want to put them, everybody else is trying to build an NCAA tournament resume. And with wins like Wisconsin earlier this year for the Wolfpack and then UVA in Charlottesville, the Wolfpack has probably taken as many steps in that direction as anybody outside the big three in the ACC. And the UNCG win also the last of the three quad one wins that NC State's gotten so far. It just seemed like a game last night.

NC State loses nine times out of ten because it seems like NC State stuff always seems to come on the horizon. And this is a team that didn't make any excuses. They just won the game. They didn't have Bates. They didn't have Andres. They didn't have Funderburk for the final seven and a half. They didn't have any points for a ten-minute stretch in the second half. They didn't have any wins ever inside JPJ.

But nobody's going to remember any of those details. They're just going to see is it a win or a loss when it becomes the selection committee trying to figure out who's into the tournament and who's not. It seems like a culture building win for NC State. Have you seen enough from Kevin Keats in three years to say the culture at NC State, is it a better place than maybe it's been the last dozen years?

I think it's certainly trending in that direction. And for those who don't follow recruiting, he already has a bunch of players lined up for next year that I think will allow him to elevate the level of talent on the roster. But what he has going on is, you know, C.J. Bryce has improved dramatically since transferring from UNC Wilmington.

That's an example of individual improvement on Kevin Keats' watch. D.J. Funderburk inside, star last night, didn't always make the smart play but had a lot of good plays, 14 points in five rebounds, blocked shot, steal, etc. He is a better player this year than he was last year. I think Jerrico Helms is better this year than last year. I think Devin Daniels is better this year than last year.

So that's four of your top eight who are kind of new and improved versions of themselves. And that's a sign of a healthy program, as is next year's recruiting class. Markelle Johnson, we all know, has to become more of the old Markelle Johnson, where he's not shooting a lousy percentage from three-point land.

He's not shooting a lousy percentage from the free-throw line. Coach Keats even said on our show today, he feels like the pressure of being a senior and knowing, I've got to get a job in the basketball world a few months from now. He believes it's impacted Markelle Johnson, and that was a very candid answer from Coach Keats.

I think he's right. Coaches and players don't like to say those things out loud. But if Markelle Johnson can go back to doing all the things he usually does well, you might have an all-ACC backcourt combination of Markelle and C.J. Bryce to go with those other guys in what I think could be the fourth-best team in the ACC right now.

David Glenn with us here on Twitter, at DavidGlennShow. So that's NC State's win at Virginia. I'm going to be on my way to Cameron Indoor Stadium in just a little bit. 9 o'clock tip for the Blue Devils facing Chris Lykes and the Miami Hurricanes. I was also at Saturday's game against Louisville, and I thought the difference in that game was depth and maturity. Where Louisville, a year after they blew a 23-point second half lead against the Blue Devils at home, they had a lead in Durham. It completely whittled away to the point where it was a tie ball game at 58 apiece, and they really stiffened up, found a way to win with their experience.

Meanwhile, I look on the Duke bench. Alex O'Connell plays just two minutes because he couldn't defend some of these players the Cardinals had. The same way for Javon Delaurier, who was only in there for nine minutes. Joey Baker only hits one shot from the outside. Trey Jones only scores.

He didn't score in the first half altogether. What's your biggest concern for Duke as they lost two in a row and dropped five spots at the AP poll to number eight? To me, it's the supporting cast. Because if you told me I could have a three-legged tripod building block style of Trey Jones, the sophomore point guard, Vernon Carey Jr., the freshman center, and I think Cassius Stanley, who's averaged about 15-plus points per game over these last four or five for the Blue Devils, I'll take that any day of the week. That is high-end talent. It's a little sprinkling of experience, of course, with Trey Jones playing so much last year and this year at point guard. And that's what you need talent-wise to make a run later this year. Matthew Hurt has to become that fourth reliable guy. As you just said of Alex O'Connell, there are matchups off Clemson, for example, where Matthew Hurt was really exposed as a vulnerable defender. So he's already a good three-point shooter.

He's 6'9". He's got some versatility and skill. He's got to get better defensively.

He's got to get tougher, especially when the Devils play these older teams. And the rest of those guys, you know, Jordan Goldwire's a good defender, not a good offensive player. Jack White's a good defender, not a very good on most nights offensive player. Alex O'Connell's supposed to be a three-point shooter.

He's not even hitting threes and he's not defending very well. So how many guys can Coach K really rely on come March Madness? If that number is still three, Trey Jones, Vernon Carey Jr., and Cassius Stanley, that's not going to be enough to make a long run. If he can get to four, five, six, you know, just even five, five guys at crunch time, late and close games, you know, elimination style in March Madness, you know, that's what it takes. High-end talent, plus two or three guys that know what they're doing, won't cave in the moment or the pressure, at high basketball IQ, reliable.

Coach K's got to develop more of that beyond his very talented Big Three. And we still don't know when Wendell Moore is going to return, but when he does, that's another piece to the puzzle for the Blue Devils. I was talking to someone at Duke about this the other day. There are people who consider Matthew Hurt to be a one-and-done.

I don't see it. I see Cassius Stanley, I see Vernon Carey as guys who are going to leave, and with Jeremy Roach coming in at point guard, maybe Trey Jones joins the bunch. Anybody else you see as guys who potentially are going to leave and go to the NBA? You mean league-wide? For Duke?

No, I mean, you never say never, because if you're 6'9 and you're skilled, it only takes one team to fall in love with you, right? I'm surprised, just as you were referencing, you know, how some draft boards may or may not have the other freshmen. Vernon Carey Jr., who may be the National Player of the Year, he's on the short list, is not in most draft boards considered a top-ten pick. I mean, he's strong, he's 6'9, he's 270 or whatever, he is not like a Zion Williamson, but he's going to be possibly a first-team All-American. To me, he's a lottery pick. I just don't see all the draft boards that way. If he's a lottery pick, of course he goes. Cassius Stanley has NBA-caliber athleticism and scoring ability and slashing ability, and he's had a better freshman year than I would have guessed, so he is, of course, a risk to leave.

You know the deal, Tre Jones, while a very good college player, he doesn't have NBA teams beating his door down. I agree with you, Matthew Hurt doesn't have NBA teams beating his door down, but those evaluations can change between mid-January and late March or early April, so all of those Duke youngsters, most of them freshmen, are going to be worth monitoring from here until there. One of your questions of the day, DG, was who's the worst starting quarterback to start in a Super Bowl? So, I think I have a feeling where you're leaning for Super Bowl LIV early on, it sounds like you might be out on the Niners. Is your early lean the Chiefs?

It is, but one of the reasons I think it's such a fun question, you know, would you rather have the better quarterback or would you rather have the more well-rounded depth chart, is that we just saw an example of the better depth chart beating the better quarterback. You know, the Packers have Aaron Rodgers, and I know his numbers this year were down, but you saw even a little bit late against the 49ers after the game got out of hand, how quickly he can just make things happen. Jimmy Garoppolo threw the ball only eight times, so I don't believe Jimmy Garoppolo, you know, I tried to make clear, I can give you ten guys whose seasons in their Super Bowl year or their careers paled in comparison to Jimmy Garoppolo's, you know, the Rex Grossman's and some of the others that I mentioned on the show. But Jimmy G is a guy who's in his first full year as an NFL starting quarterback. Jimmy G is a guy who leaned on that defense and running game to take the 49ers where he has taken them.

Jimmy G has not been the guy who, when asked to win the game, can do it the way Patrick Mahomes has done pretty much for two years in a row, including, you know, just this past week when he was the star with his arm and he was the star with his legs against the Tennessee Titans. Yeah. I just lost you there for a sec. Oh, I think we have you now. Is Oliver there? I would like to speak to Oliver. Yeah, Oliver is running around the front lawn right now. Did I cut off mid-answer there?

Oh, no, no, no, no, it was just a little bit of a disconnection. Canes tonight, Justin Williams, how excited should we be? Well, the guy is not showing any rust at the age of 38 after missing roughly half of a regular season. And that's just ridiculous and amazing and fun and it perfectly fits how he has been surprising people for 20 years in the hockey fence. So it is a huge step back, of course, to lose Dougie Hamilton to that broken leg. The Canes only voted in All-Star. But they're good enough to be a playoff team even with missing Dougie Hamilton for a couple months, maybe three. It's just going to be a trickier road to get there because he was an important part of their defensive core, of course.

But he was also one of their more dynamic offensive players, even from the blue line. Austin's addition is a big lift, but Dougie Hamilton's elimination, if you will, is definitely a complicating factor here. Hurricanes, Jets, later on tonight at PNC Arena. DG, good to hear from you. Look forward to hearing the show tomorrow. Thanks, man. Oliver sends his love. All right, sounds good.