The Drive with Josh Graham - Bob Ryan

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast. Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons 3 to 7 on Sports Hub Triad. Here comes the life of the party. The Drive. Corrupting the minds and the hearts of our children. With Josh Graham.

Program for low expectations. On Sports Hub Triad. There is what I believe to be a blatant example of SEC bias and a double standard in college football that we'll get to in just a minute. But we have breaking news on the NBA front. First reported by Shams Karania of The Athletic. Zion Williamson the team now confirms has undergone successful arthroscopic knee surgery addressing a torn right lateral meniscus. They describe it as being a routine debridement and that he's going to miss an estimated six to eight weeks.

Adrian Wojnarowski's initial report on Friday said that they ruled out a serious knee injury and that he was going to miss a few weeks. How do you go about differentiating couple to a few to what makes several? Like I'm asking on a general sense. Like if you're texting a friend I'll see you in a couple hours how is that different than I'll see you in a few hours? And how is that difference that I'll see you in several hours? How do you distinguish that? It's kind of like asking what's afternoon versus night because some would say 5 30 is in the evening and others would say that's in the afternoon.

I'm asking the important questions here on the drive desk. To me couple means two or less. I'm gonna see you in two or less hours. Couple is two.

It makes sense that that is the case. Few is vague. Okay how vague is few? Three to four. Three to four hours possibly.

Right. Maybe five. Five is several.

I'll see you in several minutes. Five minutes. That seems a bit excessive. I think five minutes still qualifies as a few. Five would be a few. But when you get into six or seven, six to eight I think is several weeks. Yeah. Several.

Six to eight. Which also would not accurately depict what Woj said in the tweet on Friday. So Woj was wrong. He was flat-out wrong. Was he wrong because someone told him wrong info?

It doesn't matter. If you're a reporter you got to double down. You got to trust your sources. You got to also double check on your information. You got to make sure your sources check out. What Woj reported Friday was wrong. And I said here that I was a little concerned.

Emphasis on the little. When the first Woj report came out because they described it as right knee soreness, precautionary, gonna be out just a few weeks. Few weeks. You know that's six to eight because that would qualify as several as we discussed here.

A few weeks. That's the way that they framed it. This is serious. It's a knee surgery and the Pelicans do not want it to be framed that way. Because why else do you see in this press release that is literally four sentences.

Three or four sentences. The routine debridement. Orthoscopic knee surgery. Torn right lateral meniscus. The routine debridement was performed by Dr. Jason Folk with the assistance from team orthopedic surgeon Dr. Misty Suri. They had to know this Friday right?

Because you don't find this out. When did this happen? They decided to do the surgery the same day. Zion looked great in preseason.

He's crushing people. We don't know when this happened. Everybody was just excited. Now nobody's gonna care about this game tomorrow night between the Raptors and the Pelicans. Here's the other thing. The report was actually lessened. So Woj put out the tweet Friday. Kristen Ledlow goes on TNT later that night and says that they haven't even ruled him out for Tuesday.

That's what they said contradicting Woj's initial report. Ledlow was told something by the Pelicans because again she's working the game over there and was told that he wasn't ruled out for Tuesday night. He was out for the Knicks game Friday night.

Wasn't ruled out for Tuesday. So what happened here? So we have to assume one of two things here right? Either the Pelicans are incompetent or the Pelicans knew exactly what they were doing and didn't want to reveal to their fan base that Zion Williamson was not gonna be available for the first two months. Or there's a third option here. Zion got hurt between Friday and now. That's a third option. Hurt more?

Like hurt himself more from Friday to today. Somehow I doubt that. Right but it's an option. Right we'll throw it in there. That's what I'm saying. We'll throw it into the box of options here.

It's puzzling. So I'm going from a little bit concerned to concerned. Not very concerned. Not this guy isn't gonna have a great career.

This guy's got no shot to win Rookie of the Year. Not going that far. I am concerned.

That's where I sit now. Because it is the same knee as the one that forced him out and cost Duke a regular season title in the ACC. He goes down. His shoe explodes. Barack Obama's courtside and says, his shoe broke?

We all remember that. Same knee that he hurt there is the one that just got operated on. He's been hurt three times in the past 12 months to his knee. I don't know if he got hurt in Summer Lake. I don't know if that happened. Well no they were talking about conditioning right after the awards circuit.

That's what they were citing that to. It wasn't him injured. It was his conditioning what was focused on there. That is my primary concern with Zion. But it seems that Zion, his conditioning was better leading into the preseason. That's what we heard all along and he looked great and a couple, using the word correctly, preseason game.

How much conditioning can he get in with a bum knee? And also do we know what his height and weight is officially with the Pelicans? Because they are tightening up on that. More specific height measurements even though I still don't buy that KD is 6'9 and 3 quarters or 6'10 wherever they put him there.

He's been weird about that his whole career. I don't know. They said they're gonna be more accurate with these things though.

I don't know if he lost any weight between finishing up at Duke where he was officially listed at 6'7 285 and now. I don't know the answer to that. But now I think there are reasonable people concerned, legitimately concerned about Zion now. It's not just nonsense.

It's not stuff you can easily dismiss. It's right here on the forefront. He's set to get two national TV games in his first week in the NBA. Tuesday night, tomorrow night against the defending champion Raptors as they're putting up a banner. And then they were set to be on national TV on Friday too. And the NBA is losing out on that and we're losing out on Zion for six to eight weeks. It really is a bummer.

The NBA.com officially has Zion listed at 6'7 285 as of today. All right. Shifting things to Clemson. It doesn't seem right to me that Clemson gets knocked down a ranking from number three to number four in the AP poll yesterday. You choose how much stock you put into the AP poll.

I don't put a lot into it but I'm not someone who says it doesn't matter. It does matter, perception, when you're a contender trying to win an ACC championship, also trying to win consecutive college football playoff national titles in the case of Clemson. I don't see a scenario now with the way the ACC is being disrespected, the way the Tigers are being treated, which I believe is unfair. I don't see a scenario they get in with one loss. The good news is the college football playoff committee, they may not share the same views as the AP voter. There's also, I don't think, any scenario Clemson is left out of the playoff with an undefeated record in an ACC championship.

Notre Dame's number nine. I don't really see anything on their schedule that will have them leapfrog Clemson at any point, especially since the Irish lost a game earlier in the year in Athens. Also, the Pac-12 is not really a serious contender in this for the third consecutive year.

Here's why I'm upset. Clemson wins on the road against 4-2 Louisville by 35 points and they still drop them. The same Louisville team a little over a week ago that went into Winston-Salem and beat Wake Forest, put 62 up at BB&T Field, Clemson beats that team in their house by 35, yet AP voters saw enough to say the Tigers should be leapfrogged by an Ohio State team that dismantled 1-4 Northwestern. Not Clemson, that's fine. If you want to hold Clemson to that standard, I get it, Ohio State's been great. It's hard to really poke any holes into Ohio State and the win against Cincinnati 42-0 and some of the other ones they've gotten look better as the season's gone on, which might elevate them over Clemson considering how bad things are in the ACC.

I understand that. What I have an issue with and where I actually buy SEC bias, they're not holding Alabama to the same standard. How can you justify, reasonably, Alabama being ranked number one over LSU?

How can you do it? LSU has two top-15 wins, they're crushing everybody. Alabama didn't score an entire quarter against Duke, struggled that first half, struggled in the first half against Tennessee. Oh, but Josh Tua was hurt.

Even when Tua was in, they were laboring their way through it. Yet, they don't get knocked down, despite how great LSU is. Why? Why is that?

How about this? Another name program, Texas. How come Texas allows near 50 points to Kansas and needs a game-winning field goal by Dicker the kicker himself at the horn to win that game? How come they enter the week at 15 and stay at 15?

They don't get knocked down at that. No, no, no, not Texas, not Alabama, but Clemson does when they're winning these games. And not only winning the games, beating a 4-2 football team that just got off a win against a ranked Wake Forest team, beat them by 35 freaking points, you're gonna knock them down a rank. It is maddening to me how that happened.

Yes, Aaron? I hear all of that, and all those are valid points, but you did just get done last week talking about how terrible the ACC was this year in football. It is. It is terrible, but when other teams aren't holding their own, you've got to hold them to the same standard. Alabama facing Duke in that same ACC. Tennessee just as bad as bottom-tier ACC teams.

They are that bad. And Alabama doesn't get knocked out because nobody would dare cross Nick Saban and knock Alabama out of the number one slot outside of them losing. Honestly, if you look at Alabama and Clemson's schedules side-by-side to date, like what they've done, I mean they have a common opponent Texas A&M, but I mean they look the same.

And the results look fairly the same too. The only thing that stands out is Clemson beating Carolina by a point. Which is the only time since Trevor Lawrence started and finished games for Clemson over a year ago that a game was decided by less than two touchdowns. The only time that that's happened, the average win for Clemson was by over four touchdowns. And when you look at the results, 45-14 over Florida State, crushing Charlotte, crushing Syracuse, beating Texas A&M by two touchdowns, beating everyone. The narrative was, oh Clemson didn't look great against Georgia Tech. They covered 37 and a half and won by 38 points.

Oh Clemson, they made mistakes against Louisville, won the game by 35 points. What are we doing here if that's not good enough? If 35 points isn't good enough? The good news is this, the offense they might be struggling a little bit. But the narrative, if you remember it going into the year, the only way things go south for Clemson is if the defense is what's struggling. But is the offense good enough to just overpower all of that and make it a moot point? The defense actually has looked great and that's the scary thing here. That they're winning by 35 points and the offense and Trevor Lawrence is struggling.

And we know what Trevor Lawrence is capable of doing and Justin Ross and T Higgins and Travis Etienne. When that gets right and we're confident with that personnel, it will get right. The defense has already shown us, as being the question mark going into the year, that they are up to task despite losing all those defensive linemen. The Clemson Tigers are still my favorite right now to win the national title. They are because the path is easiest for them and also I haven't given up hope and I'm not discounting a 35 point win against Louisville. But from what you've seen the past three years in the top five right now, would you put like on a neutral field, would you take any other of these teams over Clemson right now? Alabama, LSU, Ohio State? Considering, if I had to pull out LSU and Ohio State would be the top two teams and then it would be Clemson then Alabama. Well you would take them to beat Clemson on a neutral field right now?

That's my question to you. No, I take Clemson it's two different questions. What have you done to earn rankings and who do I think is a better team? I don't think anybody has more talent than Clemson.

I don't. But LSU has earned being the number one team and the double standard that exists here the ACC teams are getting knocked down. Alabama isn't when they're struggling. LSU fans should be ticked off.

They should be the number one team in the country right now. You are listening to WSGS Winston-Salem, WCOG Greensboro, WPCM Burlington, WMFR High Point, those signals making up sports I've tried. You wanted to hear some great sports talk? Well here it is. Oh what an appallingly ironic outcome. The Drive with Josh Graham.

It's not ironic it's just coincidental. On Sports Hub Triad. Now being joined by the great Bob Ryan of ESPN, somebody who's one of the leading faces as well of the National Sports Media Association too, which is home here in the Triad in Winston-Salem specifically. Bob I don't know if we've spoken since the NSMA.

I know it's been a very long time. Ron Rivera earlier today said Cam Newton's gonna be working on the side not practicing ahead of the Panthers matchup against the 6-0 San Francisco 49ers. Kyle Allen as you know has won four consecutive games going into the bye week for the Carolina Panthers. What's your perspective on what should happen once Cam Newton's foot heals? This is one of those circumstances you get every now and then which makes coaches life hell because he's got a clear decision assuming that Cam is ready to go you know in time. Obviously they responded well to Allen and obviously Cam was far from the Cam of a couple of years ago when we last saw him and hasn't been that Cam for a while and injury was you'd like to think it's with the only reason I want to give him the benefit of the doubt and that if he were healed up you know he could be the Cam of old because he sure wasn't when we were late.

So I don't know you know if he's healthy and he's a hundred percent healthy but the thing is and this is very similar to there's another one going on you know you don't have to oh you won't have to rush him back. This is you know if you I think that there's the sense of urgency, there shouldn't be, I'll spit it out, there shouldn't be a sense of urgency given how well Allen has played I'll just put it that way. Right because the New Orleans Saints they're dealing with this and Teddy Bridgewater. But here's what I find interesting about that Bob, among Saints fans there's no question okay Drew Brees he's gonna be a Hall of Famer right he's one of the best players in their franchise's history there's no question no matter how well Teddy Bridgewater plays when Drew Brees is ready to go he's gonna play but when it comes to Kyle Allen and Cam Newton we see the argument of hey don't rock the boat with things going well. I don't see any of those narratives in New Orleans despite the fact they've won five in a row.

No there isn't because you're right and you identified that there's a clear difference there which is obviously the Drew Brees is a deity and he is going to the Hall of Fame because like the speech you know you can start working on it now you know whenever it's going to be five six years whenever he quits plus five and then and he goes but Cam Newton's not in that category you know Cam Newton's had some flashes of brilliance in his career and it and he's gonna it's gonna be retired saying you know I was a damn good football player but he's not he's not gonna have a Drew Brees career you're right it's not exactly comparable circumstance. Bob Ryan's with us here on Twitter at Globe Bob Ryan you're one of the guys I rely on talking baseball in an age where it seems like people either talk you know two sides out of their mouth about baseball don't follow it as closely as we used to on a national scale. I'm looking at the odds here and it's the biggest odds in terms of a favorite in the World Series we've seen since the Red Sox and the Rockies in 2007 talking about the Astros who clinched this weekend to face the Washington Nationals. How wide do you believe the talent gap to be between the Astros and Nads? You know this is a great I'm glad you brought this one up because this is this is amuses me first of all you have to step back take a deep breath everybody and realize what are odds odds why what constitutes odds why are they made odds are Vegas's opinion of what they think your perception is and they're making an assumption about the public reaction to to the teams in advance and and that the assumption is that the public thinks that this is not close that the Astros are prohibitive favorites if that is true the public are fools did they not notice the pitching that took place did they do they not know that this is the one team that has not one not two not three but four quality starters that the fourth starter has twice in his career taken no hitters into the seventh inning of a postseason game most recently two weeks ago that that so I mean this to me is a Pickham series and I'm I respect them and I'm going to be happy to sit back and watching you know how to but um I I just find it highly amusing but that's all odds are and in any sport they're the Vegas's opinion on what they think of the perception of the fans is going to be and apparently that they think everybody's been overwhelmed by the by the Astros as if Scherzer and and and Strasburg don't exist and I'm I don't get it frankly I mean I do get it I mean I think it's if I just think it's ridiculous and Annabelle Sanchez had a really good start in game one of that and then I'll see ya so yeah I agree I mean when you look at just the starting pitching it seems to be there and then position players it seems like the Nationals hold up well to Houston obviously has the guys who've done it before but then I got two edges I think that you have to consider but I don't think they add up to giving that much of you know that just to create a big gap the two edges are they do what they have experience and then they're going for you know they're going for another two and three and they could have I usually had three in a row and they're really good you know they've been there and and I think if you're going that checkbox game you know go position by position go stitching go to and then get down to the end coaching managing in this case you got to give the edge to hitch you have to and it might come into play it might not but something it does more often than people think in in in a in a short series from baseball world series particularly so I I think that that that's true but I don't think it adds up to a big big gap you know I mean yeah they got some I mean I'm who doesn't like out to obey who doesn't like Korea who doesn't like brakeman who doesn't like Springer you know but Rendon's pretty good Turner's pretty good you know they got some gum Soto oh my god you know so you know there's there's some guys who can hurt you on that in that team and and and when they're when they're backed by the kind of potential starting pitching they got I mean you know come on follow Bob Ryan on Twitter at globe Bob Ryan we're going to be joined by one of the busiest guys in all of sports media later in the week Kevin Harlan who you could hear tonight on Monday Night Football he will be on the call tomorrow on TNT for Lakers clippers it's the start of the NBA season no Zion Williamson in the front end of that doubleheader as the knee Sordis is gonna cost him probably the first couple of weeks according to the reporting done by your colleague Adrian Wojnarowski at ESPN which NBA preseason contender and it seems like this year there are more of them than we've become accustomed to in the league or do you have the most questions about going into the year that's good I think in the East I would say Philly still even though they have loaded up over the last year I think this is a very important year for Ben Simmons okay so I think Philly if you're going to say the contenders are Philly and Milwaukee draw a line and then Boston Indiana and they're in a different category we don't know okay and in the West of course the Battle of LA is paramount and then Denver who people forget had a great record last year and I love Denver who do you like out of the Lakers and Clippers they've got one yeah so um that they're both they're not perfect teams god knows how do I like I mean that's a good one I've had this discussion I think the Lakers overall roster I'd like I take it I take it over over if I had to pick one and you said this is you can have one of these rosters and then I'll give you whatever coach you want and and and you know off you go into the season which roster though would you take and and I would take LA's roster but not by a lot and I and I could I will certainly listen to your argument which LA you know and to the contrary you said LA which LA oh I mean the Lakers that they're the Lakers you know the Clippers site they're still the look they should still be in Buffalo you know that's a long story but they said by the way that's the biggest we're San Diego going ever in the NBA franchise was Seattle and but second biggest and and not by too much was what happened to Buffalo there was no reason why the Buffalo Braves shouldn't still exist let's get to the most important stuff Bob have you seen any movies lately the Joker once upon a time actually two and two days and after a big drought big drought we saw Judy the other day and of course when they went so bigger is fantastic and and what amazes me she does her own singing she doesn't sound like Judy Garland because that you know that that would be ridiculously impossible but she can sing and the way it surprisingly well and her acting her her Judy Garland this you know her assumption of the Judy Garland personality and persona and and and stage mannerisms and charisma attack is phenomenal it's a it's it's it's certainly an Oscar nomination worthy performance and you know anybody that's interested in that music in another Judy Garland you got to go see it and then we saw a documentary which should be must seen for every American who has a vote in America and will be seen by like nobody and that is where's my way cone anybody wants to know how we got a certain place politically they got to go see Roy Cohn movie and unfortunately people aren't going to see it I thought you were gonna say Mike Wallace is here the documentary no I haven't seen that huh but you'd really like Roy Cohn one is is is chilling frankly it's so good I gotta know see we're getting close to Halloween Bob and there are laws that I learned today this is true ABC 11 outside of Raleigh reported there are places in North Carolina that are actually enforcing legal limits on trick-or-treating saying that if you're over the age of 13 there's even instances you could get sit the jail for six months and find in situations here what's the thought process behind this I have no idea there must be an organist there must be I mean what is the thought process that's a big Virginia I think this is where it originated how old's too old Bob how old's too old that's a trick-or-treat you know I mean I I don't know but I just think there's if somebody wants to do it and they don't feel ridiculous that they should be allowed to do it but what is the what you know if what's that I this is well you know I always say I've lost the capacity for shock in sports a long time ago and I guess I pretty much we've lost all lost the capacity for shock and public life and and cultural and should we say cultural discussions yeah I'll send you that link on Twitter but Bob it's good to hear your voice let me give you a recommendation okay all right go to YouTube go find the Korean call of the October home run it's out there all right let's let's find this right now let's see if we could find the Korean home run call see do you like listening back to those calls I wonder see in my mind I love broadcasters on the TV call who lay off back in the day oh hey credit job didn't say a word for two minutes new what to do but but that's us come on you've got to hear this you know the Spanish call goes without saying you know we all were so used to this to the auntie's contour and all that that goes without saying but the Korean one is priceless and you would know Bob because once upon a time you were a play-by-play man for Boston College I certainly was four years worth of basketball most fun ever had well we will we will grace our listeners ears with this Korean home run call in just a little bit Bob appreciate you giving us the recommendation and also spending some time with us it's good to hear from you okay look good Josh take care that's Bob Ryan on Twitter at glow Bob Ryan you can find him all right see if Bob is saying that we need to listen to something I think we should take the recommendation because it is always a lot of fun when you get into latter points of NFL postseason games into Major League Baseball NBA to a to a shorter degree you would have multiple languages broadcasting big moments and it's good to hear the local radio calls I don't know who does the Astros but John Sterling for the Yankees hearing him disappointed when I'll to they hit the bomb hearing Joe Buck on TV I was actually in the car on my way back from Wake Forest Florida State Saturday night this was quarter after midnight and it was Dan Schulman calling the game on ESPN radio and it's hard to find anybody who does it as good as Dan Schulman does but I'm listen I'm willing to listen to other broadcasters and admit that I'm wrong even if I don't understand the words that are saying I think inflection can be interpreted I think you can listen to voices in and just tell kind of what's going on by simply listening to the broadcast anywho the drive brought to you in part by our friends at pie guys pizza and more find them in Clemens you can locate them right off the Westville Clemens Road it's in the Kennemanville which Commons try the Grand Slam pizza today try the Moravian sugarcane pie try the Buffalo wings tell them that I sent you for that obviously you try the Grand Slam if you're a fan of this show in Clemens it is pie guys pizza and more online at pie guys dot-com okay I think I've stalled enough do we have this maybe possibly all right I think we've dug it up are you trying to figure out what language it is that you're listening to that might be part of the problem well it's in Spanish and then there's a Korean one too so we're trying to get down to the Korean one all right now we haven't we haven't had a chance to actually listen to this yet so all right let's just let's just play something over the air I'm down for this you sure yeah let's do it Aaron Gabriel I want you to translate what he just said there for the audience very quickly he just said here's the pitch oh holy crap now two of they just blasted the ball out of Park man that was bananas did you see that so there's the expert translation as well from Aaron speak fluent Korean yeah I can tell there that's really good is Appalachian State in the driver's seat for a New Year's six bowl game oh and we'll get to Wake Forest football too that's all net it's the drive with Josh Graham take it from me you're driving everyone crazy mission accomplished on sports hub triad I have quite the conundrum when it comes to the ACC and the college basketball AP poll that's released I hate the AP poll but I'm so excited about ACC basketball getting set to start that I look at them I dissect them and I take them too seriously but the AP poll is out today there are four ACC teams in the top 11 Duke is 4th Louisville 5th North Carolina 9th Virginia 11th no other ACC team makes up any part of the top 25 I have three big issues with the preseason poll by the way number one Michigan State Cassius Winston is back for that team they have a lot returning they seem to be the common-sense pick for the number one team in the country Kentucky with their great recruiting class to Kansas three and let's start with Kansas among my concerns Kansas they're not a top five team in my mind this team lost six games in the Big 12 last year and you're supposed to get me excited about the guys you have coming back granted Silvio DeSosa he was ineligible and just practiced with the team all of last year he's gonna be able to go this year and it's a good front court and you had Odoka Azabuki who was hurt halfway through last year I'm not discounting the front court I'm not even discounting Devin Dotson who is probably the best scorer among the guards who's returning shout out to Charlotte by the way I just don't think that this team is as good as Duke or Louisville or Michigan State I don't think they should be ranked where they are they might not be a top ten team by season's end usually you bank on Kansas having one of those great recruiting classes they didn't really have that 15th ranked class so not a bad class but I don't think this is a great team I think it's a good team just one that happens to be ranked a little bit too high Gonzaga probably a little bit too high too at number eight I was surprised they were in the top 15 considering all that they lost Zach Norvell jr. who looked very good with the Lakers during preseason play he raises serious concerns about what the Zags have at point guard and Killy and Tilly's the one players returns that you're really excited about Rui Hachimura gone off this team Brandon Clark gone as well Tilly was hurt for a lot of last season so I don't really trust that at this point either but putting those teams aside let's go to the ACC Virginia deserves more love if you're the national championship winning team you should be ranked in the top ten and the poll the next year remember that North Carolina team that won the title in 2009 and was awful the year after didn't even go to the NCAA tournament it's the only team Roy had that didn't make the NCAA that team was ranked in the top ten preseason after they won the title so they lose Danny Green Tyler Hansborough Ellington Lawson all them boys and we were supposed to get really excited about Dion Thompson Marcus Ginyard and the Ware twins oh yeah let's make that team a top ten ranked team Virginia isn't as stripped as that team was Virginia I almost feel like is underrated at this point at 11 and that's not usually the conversation you're having with the preseason poll after you win a national championship Virginia returns Mamadi Diakite who hit the most important shot in Virginia basketball history I'd argue that shot was assisted by Kihei Clark the starting point guard who's back as well Braxton Key he's back he was the leading rebounder for Virginia coming off the bench and I really like Jay Huff I don't know if the statistic is kept but I believe Huff to be the only person last year who dunked on Zion Williamson who put Zion on a poster that was Huff here's the only issue with that Zion fought back and if you remember him going through three defenders and dunking with the right hand and Cameron that was on Jay Huff so while he dunked on Huff Zion had a thing to say about it by games it I like Jay Huff from Durham North Carolina guy I like this Virginia team don't overlook them I like them more than I like North Carolina at this moment you might think that's a hot take but North Carolina is losing a lot and I think they're losing a lot more than Virginia is if I'm being honest the big question they have to answer is Mamadi Diakite his lack of scoring the first few years of him being in Virginia is that more a product of him being unable to score his game not being developed enough to score consistently or him just simply not being asked to score same thing with Trey Jones like Duke had all these guys who were putting shot ups read it shots at reddish Zion O'Connell you name it all these players reddish attempting threes how many shots were left for Jones same deal here for Diakite when you're losing Jerome and Guy and Hunter how many shots were actually there for Hunter to take that's a big question so I really like Virginia I think that they probably should be ranked higher than where they are also I have no idea how Florida State's not in the top 25 no clue Trent Forrest is gonna be one of the best point guards in the nation one of the four best point guards in the ACC I say top four because you already know what you're getting with Markelle Johnson Trey Jones and Cole Anthony Forrest is right there with those guys he returns he's a senior this is a pretty inexperienced teams but a team but with the transfers coming in they're not gonna lack scoring in the backcourt they were a strength in numbers team they have a great coach in Leonard Hamilton they made it to the elite eight two years ago sweet 16 last season they won 26 games last year they were in the ACC tournament championship game don't sleep on Florida State they should be in the preseason top 25 so those are my three objections to the AP poll Paul Meyerberg we'll get the college football with him in about 10 minutes national college football writer for USA today sports your thoughts are welcome on Twitter at sports up tryin three three six seven seven seven one six hundred yes desk maybe it's just me but let me get your opinion on this just looking at this this initial preseason poll it feels different in the past couple of years where I know they're kind of trying to prop Michigan State up as that the team to follow all year and they should they should win it all and all that good stuff but it feels like there's not really one squad that like the the nation will rally around like last year was Duke everyone was attracted to Zion and RJ Barrett and all these stars and everything and we're often not it is Duke with the classes that they bring in it's easy to get attracted to these high-profile kids but the Duke class this year is not as high-profile Kentucky their class wasn't as high-profile as we're used to you mentioned Kansas I don't know it just feels like a team like a Louisville or a Maryland might be there at the end of the year and no one's gonna be talking about them as much until we get to you know the end of the year Michigan State was an obvious choice for number one with Winston back also you got to remember they went on that run to the Final Four last year without Joshua Langford who got hurt at a very key stretch so he's gonna be back and they don't recruit scrubs at Michigan State and one of the biggest testaments I think to the coaching of Tom Izzo is that he gets these great players and they stick around like when you think of great Michigan State basketball players the last I don't know 20 years you look at Zach Randolph who stuck around you look at last ten years Draymond Green stuck around Gary Harris stuck around Miles Bridges Miles Bridges stayed an extra year when he probably would have went higher if he did not Adrian Payne stuck around these Michigan State players they love playing for Izzo and it's just an incredible feat and something you shouldn't underscore or undervalue the the fact that you're able to recruit the top player and then keep them in school based on what you're selling to them and how much they enjoy the experience of playing in your program so they have that going for them Ron Rivera updated the quarterback situation for the Panthers kind of today he said that Kyle Allen is going to start on Sunday against San Francisco Cam Newton isn't gonna practice per se but he's gonna be working on the side he's gonna be with team trainers all week they're not trying to rush him back Adam Schefter last week said that he would be healthy enough to practice this week but it doesn't seem he is going to at least at this point let's hear Ron Rivera say something and try to glean some substance out of it well other than having to answer you guys questions I think it's been pretty smooth I mean that's the truth of the matter I mean all I can do is just tell you guys where we are with them what the trainers have told me tell you that you know he's done his job he's done exactly what we've needed from him and we'll continue to go forward until things change do you get anything out of that desk nope basically the same thing I knew when I woke up this man neither did on mission accomplished Ron Rivera is Clemson getting a fair shake is Appalachian State and the driver's seat for a new year six bowl game we'll ask Paul Meyerberg of USA today sports next sports talk sportsman if you're talking about it I'm talking truth we're talking about it who you're talking to this is radio the drive with Josh Graham again I want to reinforce this point home I'm not conspiracy theory guy I don't believe 9-11 was a hoax I don't believe that the government's withholding information about aliens I don't think television networks similarly are saying we have a television deal with the SEC so we want all of our shows to talk about the SEC there are people who buy SEC bias in that regard I believe if any League wins six consecutive national titles and we're gonna talk about those leaks a little bit more I think but I do buy it in this regard there is respect that has been invested in that have been earned has been earned with the SEC and it's caused there to be a different standard held to other programs in other leagues than what you have at the SEC and I'm specifically talking about Clemson and I'm interested in the national perspective from Paul Meyerberger now joins us from USA today sports I see Clemson going on the road beating a Louisville team that we saw here in Winston-Salem beat a rank-deak team a little over a week ago the score is a 35 point margin yet they fall after Ohio State crushes a one in four northwestern team but it's not just the Clemson portion of this of them dropping that bothers me it's the standard that we hold to maybe since I brought up the SEC Alabama they struggled a little bit this weekend against Tennessee nobody seems to have any quarrels with the fact that they remain number one LSU's beaten two top 15 teams though and they're rolling along and they are number two as opposed to Alabama which remains there I think we have Paul Meyerberg now so do you think that this standard that Clemson's being held to by the AP voters is fair hey Josh I don't know if it's fair necessarily I mean it's easy to kind of live in a vacuum do you say that Ohio State's look gangbusters and they have and I think they deserve some kind of recognition and respect in terms of being in contention for number one two three four whatever I think for Clemson there's inevitably going to be a blowback I think you've seen it to a degree because the hype that kind of join this team all offices and it was the expectation that they wouldn't just win every game they would dominate so when it's 21 20 against at UNC there's the idea of okay well you know obviously they're not community good Trevor Lawrence is going to be the greatest quarterback and Peyton Manning all the sudden get more picks than all last year okay so kind of not any good I don't buy into it I think Clemson is just as good as they've been maybe not quite as good as they were last year but I think that's a little bit expected given some changes on defense I'm all in on Clemson you know I don't see there's a team out there that as of this point you just say in a clinically oh this is this team is better than Clemson this team is the number one team in the country I think Clemson no matter what is right there front and center of that debate here's what I find ironic about it though Paul if I would have told you people were questioning the Clemson Tigers in October and then I told you it wasn't the defense that they were concerned about it was the offense what would you have said to me well I think I would probably say Clemson in good shape you know I don't I think if you went into the year and you thought okay the office is going to be where we're going to have issues as you get to the end of October November I think Clemson would have taken it I think they knew what they had on offense I don't think they knew what I visited in August what were they were going to get on defense though obviously you have Brent Venables and you have this track record the assumption was it still be a top five unit in the ACC or top three or top ten nationally so you know that's the kind of state of things for Clemson like I said a couple weeks ago when I wrote about them after Syracuse if your biggest concern right now with Clemson is Trevor Lawrence then you really shouldn't be concerned about Clemson at all because to worry about Trevor Lawrence is to waste your time on stuff that you don't need to worry about do you envision a scenario where an unbeaten Clemson gets left out of the college football playoff or one where a one loss Tigers might get in no there's no scenario in the world barring NCAA sanctions or Clemson to span but they're not going to get in at 13 there's zero zero possibility of that they've been the playoff four years in a row they've won two of the past three national titles there's just no chance in the world that they would not be in at 13 of no shot I do think that there is a chance and we'll know in a couple weeks on the first Tuesday when they do release those the first playoff standings we'll know if we have a bit of a Florida State situation you know Jamis Winston sophomore year where the committee looks at Clemson and says well it looks good they've eaten these teams they've had one close call but we don't know about the quality of these teams we knew we do know who LSU and Alabama and Ohio State and so on have beaten so I wouldn't shock me necessarily if all these teams are still unbeaten if Clemson's three I mean maybe four but I don't think there's any really realistic scenario at all where they don't get they don't get in if they're unbeaten one loss to in 2016 Pittsburgh upset Clemson they still found a way to get in if it's let's say Wake Forest since they are the only other ACC team ranked in the top 25 if they beat the Tigers but Clemson still somehow goes to the championship game and wins any shot yeah they stole a shot you know I do think that we're not counting for the sort of chaos that inevitably happens in November I mean like I was asked the question the other day you look at these five unbeaten teams and you think yourself there's no way any one of these two teams are gonna lose I mean other than Alabama LSU because they'll beat each other these other teams just aren't gonna lose what have we seen from them what do we see with their opponents they're just they just won't lose but Ohio State gets bombed by Purdue you know our Clemson like you said loses to Pittsburgh so craziness happens I just think Clemson at 13 and 1 unless you have Oklahoma Ohio State and Alabama and then you know maybe in Oregon that's what keeps them out but I really can't see it I really can't I think the committee will respect Clemson too much what they've achieved this year the last few years to keep them out and it's week by week that it seems one of those top 10 teams get picked off Georgia at home against South Carolina and this past weekend lovey Smith and his beard beating the Wisconsin Badgers as Illinois put up pulled off the upset we are chatting with Paul Meijer Berg you can follow him on Twitter at Paul Meijer Berg Rita stuff USA today sports around here Appalachian State is a big deal and the Mountaineers they are 21st in the nation in the most recent AP top 25 again the first college football playoff rankings won't come out until the day before Halloween so we're a couple weeks away from that but assuming SMU loses because SMU they're the team that if they go on and win now that Boise State's lost they're gonna be the group of five team that plays in the New York City a New Year six Bowl what would have to happen for Appalachian State in order to get to the New Year six bowl game to be the group of five bid team well the easy path is to have Cincinnati lose to a temple or lose to a Memphis in the regular season and then beaten SMU and therefore be the American Conference champion with two losses it's that boys who lose to San Diego State and then win the Mountain West with two losses and then they're in it's hard for me to say I know it's really interesting perhaps they fans know the answer to this it's hard to say right now what the committee is going to think of the Sunbelt because they've never been in the situation they never had to consider the conference you know and I think it's telling and it's something that they will rely on unfortunately or not that last week I stated the first win as a ranked team in Sunbelt history so you look at the kind of pedigree of that conference where the pedigree of the Mountain West with the committee is very aware of with Boise and San Diego State Utah State so on obvious pedigree of the American with UCF having been there multiple times I think that's an issue but it's not like there's no road and it's not like you know there's nothing to play for there obviously is I think of Cincinnati wins out its concern if Boise wins out it's a concern and obviously like you said if SMU wins out it's a no-brainer that Boise State they have the power five road win at FSU Cincinnati they had their one losses to Ohio State which we talked about how great they are and they beat UCF and it's a really tough league you believe that a one loss Cincinnati and a one loss Boise State would get the nod over an unbeaten Appalachian State that if they are unbeaten at the end of the year Paul would have to power five wins that's right yeah and that's a big point and when you said they beat Florida State maybe thankful isn't beating UNC more impressively overstate right now South Carolina Georgia win yeah absolutely and look the case is there I think the only point I would make in terms of a resume I would almost make it a little bit even with Boise State even though obviously the Mountain West is better than the Sunbelt because you have those two group of five wins I'm sorry the two power five wins my concern is only list like I said the perception of the Sunbelt is very likely going to be extremely poor it's not going to be good in that room the American reputation is going to be really good really strong at least in terms of this macro conversation I had about group of five that's my only concern for F State however I think there's something very powerful certainly in this debate which is to a degree much less controversial than trying to find your top four I think there's a lot of power to be had in saying we are the only unbeaten team and if you are the only unbeaten team in the group of five not to mention you have two power five wins on the road I think it really shouldn't be a debate I think you should get in at 13-0 if you're at state I'm just concerned that they won't because the committee will look at the Sunbelt and say it's just not nearly good enough to say that being unbeaten there is better than being one loss in the American how many teams you think right now Paul had a legitimate argument to believe they are the number one team in the country I think there's a legitimate one for five and I don't put Penn State in that group quite yet though I have been obviously extremely impressed by Penn State overall I thought what they did on Saturday when they had the ball for about 21 minutes to win that game showed a degree of fortitude on defense I wasn't really sure that they had I think you're probably looking at five Alabama Clemson speaks for itself LSU is interesting they have the wins certainly I think winning at Texas probably doesn't look as good as it did in September but it still counts I'm worried about their defense Ohio State as much as like you want to say Clemson is a lot better than Ohio State because they've been a lot better I don't know if it's necessarily true I think Ohio State has looked the part and obviously Oklahoma all five of those teams can say we're number one Oklahoma the least of the five but I think each of them can make a case to some degree there is legislation in the state of North Carolina with Halloween approaching Paul that says that you actually could face legal punishment for trick-or-treating older than 13 years old I wonder how old is too old in the mind of Paul Myer Burke according to this report from channel 11 in Durham there are places in Chesapeake Virginia and also Newport News and several North Carolina cities that have restrictions for 12 or 13 year olds and also a 9 p.m. curfew that you have to follow for trick-or-treating Wow okay I will say this like if you're still trick-or-treating after 14 or 15 you're doing it with evil intent you're probably breaking the law in what you're doing fireworks and you know all sorts of stuff but not I'm sure no one else does but I think 13 is it's like the the conventional societal kind of level like you want to be like hey son like you're 14 that's not do spongebob this year you want to say that to your kids I don't think it should be illegal it's a free country you know so I think we should be able to do Paul Myer Berg's a man of laws and a man of freedom and saying hey you aside for maybe doing the fireworks illegally at 14 15 years old that you should be able to trick-or-treat if you want to what's the best trick-or-treating outfit that Paul Myer Berg wore as a kid I was um the karate kid mostly as a kid I did the headband and the geek it's called a key the outfit that the karate kid wears and so I did that most of the time did you do that for a good five or six years how many crane kicks a bunch off of stairs onto stairs off of beds off of short shed roofs all kinds of stuff you're the absence you're the absolute best Paul thanks for playing along and spending some time with us it's appreciated thank you guys talk to you soon you got it that's Paul Myer Berg on Twitter at Paul Myer Berg make it a great point there shouldn't be laws here can we please double check and see if that's a joke because I double checked there are two two news stories from separate outlets that have put this out here and then also there is a reddit page sadly this is not the onion that has this story here saying that this is legitimate so I did my due diligence of making sure it's not Google or Wikipedia making sure it's an actual news outlet and finding two of them that have had the same information here so it does seem legitimate I'm not making a joke here twelve thirteen years old or thirteen or fourteen it's too old to be trick-or-treating and there could be legal punishment it seems like it's just a like a ordinance like a town type thing but it's not there's no state law that's on the books right right but uh yeah if you live in like say apex then you can't go trick-or-treating unless you're under the age of 12 years old Aaron your thoughts I only have a personal experience with this and I can only say that you didn't want to see a pack of me and my friends at 13 14 years old roaming down the street at night for y'all uh engaging in thug activities just didn't want to see it there's asking a question that I possibly could not ask imagine how that would sound if I just ask the same question that Desmond just asked you I don't listen here are you engaging in thug activity yeah this we were having fun to us this was probably terrorizing the neighborhood always have fun do you give out small candies or big bars we each person like we're not home oh yeah forget those keys turn the lights out actually got big bars really see we love those houses we take my kids to those houses first we have like a plan but what kind of candy do you usually want because here's what I got Hershey Kisses it's always Hershey's with almonds I'm not a big fan of those either but get them out of like it Reese's Pieces always a win I've never been a Reese's Pieces guy well that's just as being weird quickly move along from that KitKat bars ah winner classic yep right and those are that's the complete list yeah full bar KitKats oh yeah that's not bad I could I think if I got that collection of goodies I could accept that the drive of Josh Graham isn't coming through here what's the weirdest thing you've ever gotten for trick-or-treat oh I mean our candy apples weird well I mean they're a little suspect that's the first one I came up with I got a live goldfish who's got sitting on his porch with bags of goldfish you know like at the fair who I got a cooler he was giving out gold that's weird that's pretty straight that's incredibly strange where did you get all these no one wanted to ask no one wanted to ask him that's actually strange also until you elaborated I thought you were actually talking about goldfish like the cracker like the crack no no the real live actual dead in three days fair goldfish do you like goldfish this guy has goldfish and then you walk up expecting the crackers and he's like years ago that's literally how it went down with a fish yeah that's literally how there's a goldfish ruins your it ruins your night cuz what are you supposed to do with a bag of like a lot of fish for the rest of Halloween gotta hurry up get home yeah I mean it's like what are you supposed to do with this I'm trying to think what my best outfit as a kid was I was Batman a lot in college I was Harry Potter I think we've had I think we've discussed this before that like we had this story before where I may or may not have met a lady of the night who said it's good to see you again and thinking I was another Ron Weasley that was running around oh oh no I'm pretty sure I've told this story so he played that off oh I did okay oh I did play that off wild nights in Greenville Greenville America yeah struggling Eagles fan Jay tweets the show got candy corn in a pack once in a pack it's just like a loose pack of candy corn yeah sounds like it corns like the worst candy it's the blue butterscotch I can get with butterscotch I like butter she yeah I'm cool with that that doesn't surprise me that Dez loves butterscotch really why it just sounds like right now tasty I always thought were those originals later on in a because you might get stuck in your two first get a full bar of Twix or Nestle crunch in your bag though hmm man that's right