This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast. Tune in to The Drive weekday afternoons 3 to 7 on Sports Hub Triad. I'm gonna do something I usually hate seeing other sports media do. I'm gonna call out a fan base. I've been trying to talk myself out of this all day, but I was just too annoyed by Tar Heel fans this weekend that I've just got to say something.
It is not time to start worrying about basketball season. Okay, I heard that at least a dozen times at Keenan Stadium on Saturday. More people that seem interested to talk about what happened at late night at Roy the night before than talking about the fact that you're facing the number one football team in the country and nearly beat them. And then after the game ends, a lot of hoity-toity North Carolina fans out there who are saying, huh well maybe one of these times we could beat the number one team in the country. Well since we didn't, we'll just move on forward and maybe I'll care about this football team when we start beating Alabama or Clemson or the top teams that exist. Anybody who shares that sentiment, this you're probably not going to like the next five minutes of what I want to say here. Tar Heel fans, they flat-out disappointed me.
I feel like the dad telling the kid that I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. First off, they didn't show up the way they even did at the state game. 80% of one side of the stands was orange Clemson fan. And shout out to Clemson fans, they travel very well. But I go to StubHub and I'm looking at tickets the day before the game and I see, okay, Appalachian State game they floated around $95 to about $112, that's like the cheapest ticket you can find.
For this game it was between $55 to $70, the cheapest ticket for the number one team in the country. And part of that I get, okay, it's a 28-point spread here. Everybody thought the Tar Heels were gonna get murdered. So if you're a Tar Heel fan you might not want to be at that game while the Tar Heels are getting trounced. But the part that bothers me is when fans check out and say the line that they've been throwing out there and toting for years now, oh well I guess we're on the basketball season in the month of September. In past years you've had excuses to do that.
The last two years, perfect examples. Okay, the team's bad, we know they're bad, they're not gonna go to a bowl game, so yeah let's focus on what Roy and the boys have. But here, could you have asked for a better five game schedule to open things up? And on top of that, great five game schedule, South Carolina, Miami, Wake Forest, Appalachian State, Clemson, all are driving distance away. North Carolina hasn't gotten on a plane yet. So if you're a Tar Heel fan, you could go watch the Tar Heels play in Charlotte against South Carolina, you could go watch them on the road, play at Wake Forest, and then at home, the number one team in the country, the defending champs are in your house, Appalachian State in your house, first time you've played the Mountaineers since 1939, or excuse me 1940, Miami in your house, night game in Chapel Hill.
Not only do you have that, all five of the games are entertaining and come down to the final play. South Carolina, you're down 20-9, rally win it. Miami, last-second field goal doesn't work after Daz Newsome makes a crazy catch for a touchdown. You convert the fourth and 16 or whatever it was. Wake Forest, you have the ball, you're down 24-18, but you don't get that final second.
It was riveting. Appalachian State, you're lining up for a field goal to try and tie it up, it's partially blocked, you lose by three, and then you are facing the defending champion Clemson Tigers, you have the ball and you score a touchdown, you go for two to try and win the game against the team that hasn't played a competitive football game in a year. Trevor Lawrence has started and finished 14 games heading into Saturday at Chapel Hill.
His average win was 35 points, he's won every game by an average of 35 points. The Tar Heels and Mack Brown did something that Nick Saban couldn't do, that Brian Kelly couldn't do, that top coaches across the country couldn't do, Dave Doran couldn't do, they found a way to make the game competitive. A Trevor Lawrence-led Clemson team and they had him on the ropes with a chance to decide the game and win it.
And the game ends and what am I hearing walking out of the stadium? Not, wow we need to get behind Mack Brown, he's got this program coming back. No, it's talking about Notre Dame, the basketball opener, and what happened with late night with Roy. Some of you might be thinking this is a straw man, no it isn't. I was there Saturday, I look at my Twitter mentions, I talk to media members, they tell me about some of the posts that they have, how much interaction there is for football when you just barely lose to the defending champs versus late night with Roy content.
And I'm here to tell you this is not a straw man, it's something that bothers me. North Carolina fans, please do better. This team deserves much more support than what they're getting here. It's exciting football, it's great games, this is a bowl team. Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, those are both winnable games. Duke at home, winnable game. You're telling me NC State's not winnable? Every game on North Carolina's schedule is winnable if Clemson was a winnable game. How good's the Coastal, how good's the ACC that you can't win in it? I get asked to put out my ACC rankings every single week for ACCSports.com. I have North Carolina as the fifth ranked team and you might say, Josh how do you do that?
You rank them. It's easy, Clemson one, Wake Forest two, Virginia three, good luck after that. I have Duke four just because of the way they won at Virginia Tech. North Carolina five because who else are you putting there? Miami? They lost to North Carolina. Syracuse? Not a chance. Boston College? They lost to Kansas.
I just think the support needs to be better there. So I'm doing the thing that I wish other radio stations, other radio hosts wouldn't do and I swore I won it but man I couldn't help but get that off my chest here. Joey in Thomasville and on the sports out three three six seven seven seven one six hundred if you want in on the show. Joey you're a UNC diehard. Is this something you notice?
Does it bother you? Okay to some extent but not nearly the extent that you're saying. What I will say in this state, Carolina is one of the most supported. I would give NC State that as well but football, basketball, baseball. Let me, you must be sitting with Josh, I love you buddy, but you must be sitting with the the court side guys at the Dean Dome because they might be the ones saying that but the people that I hang around with man we suffered through the last two years. We sit there and we're still going to games. We're still watching the game. We're still pulling for them. We're behind the Mac is back and and all that and we are beyond excited about this football team and about where he's taking us.
We love baseball. We referred to Duke. If there's a team in the state that you can make that claim about it would be Duke. We refer to them as dumb fans. Duke University men's basketball fans because they care nothing about the football team, the baseball team, anything else. We love this team.
The people that I hang around you need to come with me. You need to come with me to a game because the people that I hang around they love Carolina sports, period. Not just basketball but the whole gamut. I'm talking about women's soccer. I'm talking about baseball. Oh my gosh, the World Series, you know, to win the national championship in baseball would be just a dream for me and to have Matt back and to know that they are going to be soon competing. I say going into this year. I knew what he had to work with. I knew he was in the young team. I predicted five and seven, outside shot at maybe six and six and I said we would make some noise this year.
We would start contending next year. All right. Joey, thanks for the phone call. Appreciate that. I wish there were more fans like Joey but what he's describing there that's not the majority of Tar Heel fans.
It isn't. And I'm not hanging around just the hoity-toity courtside folks. That's not what I'm hanging around. I'm on the field. I'm venturing around in the stands. I'm in the press box. I get the emails. I get the tweets.
So I'd like to think I got a pretty good feel of things. I'm hanging out in the tailgate lots with David Glenn. I'm meeting some hardcore North Carolina fans.
Don't get me wrong. The Joey's are out there. They're out there. But I just wish there were more of them and there's less talk of checking out after what was the most entertaining five-game stretch any team in the country has had.
And there's nothing else. There's no other team you can dispute that with. There's no one else who's close to this five-game stretch North Carolina had in terms of opponents and quality of games.
Yes, Des. I think a lot of Carolina fans are probably taking a wait and see just with everything involved with it. Matt coming back not knowing exactly what we got. Knowing what we had last year.
He's using players that aren't really totally his yet. So I think a lot of it was that. I will say that there's probably more interest in the Carolina football program today as we sit here than there was six weeks ago from the Carolina Faithful. Like that that can't be disputed. They're they are more on the radar than they were a month and a half ago.
It's sustained winnings what will bring those people to the level that you think they should be at today. Yeah I mean we always talk about how infamous this area is as a basketball college basketball area. Like it's a notorious college basketball area. And even with the Panthers like it took a while of sustained success for the Panthers to really get a good foothold around here. So I would think the same would be true for UNC football.
Like it just takes a little doing. Panthers still struggle with it. It's just when when he makes the comparison to Duke it's not the same. Okay you have David Cutcliffe but he took over a program that it was almost court ruled was the worst college football program in the country.
North Carolina has resources and they've had what have you done for me lately? How about an ACC Championship appearance just three years ago. Four years ago excuse me the 2015 season. Where you're winning double-digit games. When's the last time NC State's been to the ACC Championship game?
And most people younger people don't remember because it hasn't happened in their lifetime. The Butch Davis years produced some pretty big moments for North Carolina. There was that Thursday night game I think it was against FSU where it happened. So there are moments I'm not gonna give North Carolina that out. I'm just not gonna give the fans that out saying that they haven't had anything recent to talk about when you beat South Carolina and Miami in the opener and you did something that Saban and Brian Kelly couldn't do against Clemson this past weekend. I'm just not gonna accept that.
You actually hit the nail on the head with what you just said. That's that's the literally the reason why Carolina has not, Carolina fans have not gravitated towards the football in the way you want them to yet. Everything you just laid out was not sustained. It was all spurts.
It was all two years here. But that's college football. The only thing that's not sustained are five or six programs like college basketball. There's Ohio State, Michigan, Alabama, and Clemson.
They're the only programs that do that. That churn things out every single year. Yeah that's true.
With that kind of consistency. But the fan base that you're you know reprimanding they're used to sustained excellence. That's the problem. And that's the part that ticks me off.
Right and you can be mad at them for it but they're they're gonna look at it you know in a different light. It sounds spoiled. It sounds entitled.
That's what it sounds like. Oh hoity-toity yeah North Carolina but we win in basketball all the time and you know in football we hope we can do the same thing. And if we don't that that's where the name comes from. And I just wish there were more like that last caller that we had. More North Carolina fans like that. So you know what fine we'll take the calls at three three six seven seven seven one six hundred.
I know I'm murdering the clock right now. I don't really care. On Twitter at sportsubtriad if you care to chime in that way. Where are we going to? Let's go to Michael and Winston Salem very quickly. Michael what do you got on North Carolina? First off Michael are you a UNC fan?
Well no I'm from Maryland. Since I came down here I actually started to like App State because it seems like the football around North Carolina the entire ACC besides Clemson is dominated by basketball. The ACC is dominated by basketball. They can't get no love for football. Yeah there's only two true I think football schools in the state thanks for the call Michael and that's Appalachian State and that's East Carolina. Maybe NC State but I still think Wolfpack fans care about basketball more than they care about football.
There are some who might disagree with me on that that's that's just the way I feel about it. What have we learned about the Kyle Allen-led Panthers through the last two weeks? That's next on The Drive. The Panthers win again and here's what I think we've learned about Carolina during these last two road wins. This isn't a playoff team exactly with Kyle Allen at the controls under center but there's still a tough out which means if Cam Newton gets healthy in time this isn't only a contender to win the NFC South but to win the entire NFC to potentially appear in Super Bowl 54 because if you're pushing back on what I'm saying right now I have a very simple question to ask you. Who is the best team in the NFC at this present moment?
3-3-6-7-7-7-1-600 on Twitter at Sports Hub Triad. There's only one beaten team in the NFC Dez can you name them? In the NFC it is the... That's the reaction you should have because it's the San Francisco 49ers. 3-0 they didn't play yesterday.
I like Carolina more than them. The Rams got rolled at home by Tampa. Dallas lost to Teddy Bridgewater. The Packers lost at home to a winless Eagles. If Cam returns the Carolina Panthers are right there because I don't care what your view of the last two weeks are I don't care how big of a Carolina homer you are how much you're drinking the Kool-Aid or what shade of blue your Carolina Panthers blue tinted shades are there is undeniably a ceiling with Kyle Allen. He's gonna start next week Ron Rivera made that known today.
He expects Allen to start against the Jaguars as the Panthers return home Sunday afternoon. But let's just be honest they should have lost yesterday's game. When you lose three fumbles on the road you should not be able to win in the NFL.
But it wasn't just that. The Texans missed a field goal. Deshaun Watson missed at least two touchdown passes down the field most notably DeAndre Hopkins on a post beating James Bradbury who's been great all year long. No Trey Turner. No KK Short.
No Dante Jackson. Carolina should not have been able to win this game yesterday. Heck the Miss facemask call and Bruce Irvin. I'm glad Carolina ended up winning because that makes this team more interesting.
That was the more interesting result but they caught breaks. Let's not act like Kyle Allen has all the sudden elevated Carolina to a point Cam Newton is incapable when he's healthy of lifting Carolina to. There are heights with Cam Newton at quarterback that Allen just can't obtain. That's not a slight on Kyle Allen by the way.
You're an undrafted player. Cam Newton is a transcendent talent who's won an MVP award who I still think today is more than likely a Hall of Famer than not a Hall of Famer. Just look at guys who are active winners of that award. Matt Ryan's gonna break every single record. He's going to be in the Hall of Fame just by sheer statistics alone. Aaron Rodgers. Tom Brady. Adrian Peterson. These guys are gonna be Hall of Famers. Cam Newton is in that class because he's won that award and he's only 30 years old. He's not 37 like Big Ben Roethlisberger. This is a playoff roster. That's what we learned the last two weeks.
James Bradbury. I got to apologize to that guy. Before the year I said the Panthers should not pay him because he's not even the best corner on this team. He's been great all season long to the point where he has people saying pay that man his money.
Yeah I think I'm on board with that. JB's been great. The pass rush.
It's been clearly fixed. It just took Irvin who played in his first game. It took Brian Burns. How do you think the team's picking in the first 15 picks of the draft are feeling now? Letting Brian Burns drop the number 16. He has to be the front-runner for defensive rookie of the year at this point. Just tremendous play all over the field. Whether it's on special teams getting a piece of that punt. Constantly being in the backfield penetrating on run and also pass. He's been terrific.
Carolina all over the backfield yesterday. Mario Addison. Turns out the key to getting him revitalized is lessening his snaps and having him pin his ear back his ears back on certain snap counts. Have him not be your number one three down rusher but have him in on third down.
Have him in certain situations where you think there's pass. Get after the quarterback and that happened at certain points. Ron Rivera is pressing the right buttons. I think he deserves the game ball yet again because he's the defensive coordinator in addition to being the team's head coach. But we're focusing so much on defense. Let's also focus on Christian McCaffrey too.
The guy's a cyborg. Catching that pass at the end of the game. 175 total yards and it's just balanced catching and rushing the football. The NFC is wide open. This team if Cam Newton gets healthy is going to be a contender. I think I'm not gonna try and speculate how long Cam's gonna be out.
I'm not a doctor. It looks like doctors don't even know what's going on. Cam right as we were getting off the air on Friday put out a 15 minute long video. He's sitting facing a camera smoking a cigar drinking wine and he was very candid. I think there's just so much to glean from this video. I think we learned so much from Cam but he says that it's a mild Lisfranc sprain. That's the way he put it.
A mild Lisfranc. And he wouldn't say when he would return but this is what he would comment on moving forward. It could very well be a week or it could be two weeks. It could be three weeks. It could be four weeks. It could be six weeks.
But the thing that I have to understand and know if it takes that time I trust in this team that they will we will still be in a great situation by the time I get back. How's this for a stat? Will Bryan just brought this from panthers.com.
We're gonna chat with Bill Vogue in a little over 20 minutes who was in Houston for the game. Christian McCaffrey while we're spending time talking about what he's doing offensively leads the NFL with 629 scrimmage yards through four games. It's a franchise record and the six most scrimmage yards for any player through the first four games of a season since 2000. So we haven't seen it in nearly 20 years the kind of start that Christian McCaffrey is off to. Desmond Johnson producing today's show.
Taking your calls at 336-777-1600. But you heard it there from Cam. He wants to be 100% when he does return. He feels like his team's gonna be in good spot, in a good spot. And I think yesterday's win all but solidified that because Carolina has two games left until they get to the bye week. The Jaguars at home, Gardner Minshew, Uncle Rico, Minshew Mania gonna be in Charlotte this weekend.
Returning to the state of North Carolina after he spent two years on the ECU football roster. Very winnable game. Allen will be starting in that one. Then it's Tampa Bay in London and I think that's gonna be another competitive football game. I think the Panthers need to win one of those two games. Go into that bye week with at least a three and three record and I think that San Francisco game on October 27th is one you circle as a potential date Cam Newton could return. Because that would be a little over six weeks to win Cam Newton sustained the injury. Remember it was on a Thursday night so then six weeks later this is where the Panthers are. If that's when Cam returns I think it's a perfect spot for Carolina. I think they need Cam Newton in order to be a Super Bowl contender.
I don't think they're quite a playoff team with Kyle Allen playing quarterback. Shifting gears to the NCAA they're trying to play catch-up now. Now that Gavin Newsom the California State Governor has signed into law this pay Fair Play to Pay Act that will allow for athletes college athletes to benefit off their likeness to collect endorsement money.
Gavin Newsom did it on the shop with LeBron James and Maverick Carter. I think also you had a lot of other star athletes who are sitting in there as well but Newsom put this on Twitter colleges reap billions from students of athletes but block them from earning a single dollar that's a bankrupt model. I just signed the Fair Play to Pay Act with LeBron James making California the first state to allow athletes to profit off their name image and likeness.
Okay this California law is a common sense step. Most people agree the athletes aren't getting enough or at least they could get more. They felt this way when college sports was generating just millions now college sports are generating billions with a B. But there has been disagreement on the way to do it. There's been disagreement specifically on the schools paying the players directly. I'm not even sure if I'm fully there yet that the school should pay the players directly there's complications with that Title IX okay what does softball get women's basketball all of that.
This seemed like common sense because it's something that happens outside of the university. This is the likeness of the player it is their name it is Zion Williamson saying okay I have all these Instagram followers already there are people that want to do business with me before I ever stepped on the floor at Duke I should be able to get paid $200 to sign autographs for an hour at the local Barnes & Noble or the local Dick Sporting Goods. What's wrong with that?
Let me be in a commercial. The NCAA they've exploited likeness for decades. You have the bookstore always fittingly having the star players jersey without the players name on the back right at the front of the store and they say oh it's just coincidental it's those jerseys there. The online store got caught you just type in players names like your Daveon Clowney and Johnny Manziel and funny enough number two Texas A&M jerseys pop up or number seven South Carolina jerseys.
Yeah kind of a interesting deal so I agree with this step I think it was a common sense step and we'll see how many states follow suit because we're already seeing Florida and South Carolina getting set to present similar legislation. Coming up just how much blame Mac Brown deserves for the final sequence of number one Clemson's win in Chapel Hill this weekend. This is the drive. You could try getting your sports news and talk somewhere else.
My life sucks quite enough already thank you. Best to leave it right here on the drive with Josh Graham. So with back-to-back road wins the Carolina Panthers are two and two. Guess who's coming to Charlotte next week?
It's Minshew Mania. Gardner Minshew and the Jacksonville Jaguars will be in Charlotte one o'clock kickoff time at Bank of America Stadium. But before we get two down the road talking about what's ahead. Bill Vogt thepanthers.com was in Houston at the game yesterday and I want to spend some time talking about that.
But before we get to the actual game Bill. Cam put out the video on Friday right as we were getting off the air. 15 minutes pretty candid describing what's going on with his foot and specifically what's happened with him over the last month or so.
He covered a lot and I think really filled in a lot of blanks for us but the one thing I was interested in. Why now? What motivated him to put out this video you think? Who cares about that?
What was up with the bump music? Desmond. What was that? That was Desmond Johnson.
You want to own this up desk? That was Billy Joel Summer Highland Falls. Yeah which is I've been talking about the past couple days so that was well done. Billy Joel's most underrated song.
That's impressive work by Des. He's excited about this concert at Bank of America Stadium. I saw him last year in Winston-Salem. It's gonna be a good show Bill. You gonna be there?
I am an old white man. I will be there. So the motivation of Cam Newton you think putting out this video.
Any idea? I mean I think yeah. Cam's got a lot of money at stake. That's not the only reason he's doing it but I think you know I don't think Cam or people around Cam want him to be seen like he was those first two games and I think they want to remind people that he can still play and that the reason why he looked the way he did those first two weeks is because he was injured and here's a guy who you know wouldn't make excuses for so many years and was clearly one of the toughest quarterbacks we've we've ever seen and we saw those first two weeks and especially that second week and something was clearly wrong and he did his best to kind of hold his tongue about it but then eventually it was just how much longer are you gonna keep playing this game where nothing's wrong you gotta pull yourself you can't keep putting yourself out there you can't keep putting tape tape out there that looks like that because you're not able to make basic quarterback functions right now so I think it was the smartest play for everybody involved is to take yourself off the field and get better and from a Panthers perspective go get healthy because the way he was playing wasn't the best for them follow bill on twitter at Panthers bill it is bill both of Panthers calm what was the most interesting thing you saw in the video um nothing really all that much I mean I think it's we get into a whole media discussion here only media is ever gonna win with they complain or bringing up how what guys should be doing and how they should be handling and talking to media as someone that used to work with athletes on controlling their brand and controlling their messages I find that fascinating I find it fascinating at the beginning that you know cam says well I'm gonna do this on my own term so I'm gonna sit here and tell you cuz I'm this is how I'm comfortable he's not comfortable clearly as we've seen over the years standing up the podium and having questions asked of him I'm the same way I hate when people ask me like questions like especially like personal questions so I I get where cam coming from now you could say well that's part of his job he should be answering those but I they think those people who say that are never gonna win the they are gonna make fans are just happy to hear from a person no matter what the setting is and they don't feel the media is owed anything and perhaps that is true so I think in one piece of me it's disappointing that you know cam won't allow himself to be asked questions like this and have you know just kind of a back and forth but I also think it's you know hearing something as perhaps as filtered as it may be it's better than not hearing from him whatsoever is the advantage a team gets from concealing injuries overblown in your mind I think it's all case by case I think in this in this case I don't think there's any concealing I think they believe that cam was fine and I think that he he you know was putting himself out there now if he wouldn't have complained after the Thursday night game would they have then sat him down a bit like cramp cam clearly something's up with you yeah I'll probably but you know the cam was the one who came up from the next day and said something about it but I think that questions all case by case Silva Panthers calm with us here yesterday the following things happened in this Houston Texans game that Carolina won you had three lost fumbles by Kyle Allen that's been well documented the Texans missed a field goal Trey Turner KK short and Dante Jackson did not play there was the Miss face mask with Bruce Irvin that's gotten a lot of attention from Texans fans today and and Sean Watson missed a couple of deep falls that seem to be open down the field should the Carolina Panthers just theoretically been able to win this game if I gave you all that information beforehand sure did you know that they're gonna make the Texans are gonna make a horrific play call having DeAndre Hopkins fill that ball in the red zone there's that or just Sean Watson miss on those those two throws to open receivers you know so it's a weird game you know where we've been talking two weeks ago you know the whole woe is us type thing oh and two where the Christian McCaffrey went that final yard and a half against Tampa Bay or the Panthers made another player two against the Rams it was just that's why people are so addicted to the NFL and in in in in it's how you have a job it's how I have a job because we over analyze these things to fill up time in the weeks in in the six days in between games where it's like if you actually just take a deep breath not everything is like as crazy as it should be each and every week but because the NFL allows you to stew on these things for six days you analyze every single player like oh this shouldn't have happened this should have happened what could have been and all this other stuff I like baseball basketball you kind of move on the next day football this stuff just kind of lingers and so there's a natural inclination to just overanalyze everything and so they could have won their first two games I think they handily won in Arizona but they could have lost yesterday they could be up but so I think it's fair that they're two and two and all after after a month of talking about it it's there were probably where they should be I couldn't agree with you more when it comes to what we do in the media and dissecting too much I said this Friday after the Eagles Packers game that not every single game has to mean something doesn't have to mean anything about Aaron Rodgers in the big picture sometimes a team wins and then the other team just so happens to be on the field and loses but if we're gonna broaden it to just the two games that Kyle Allen has played without looking at just specific plays and numbers what do you think we've learned about the Panthers as a whole seeing what Kyle Allen's been able to do in leading this team the two road wins well I had multiple conversations with Dave Tepper near the end of last year and in the offseason and he was so adamant about what we have to do is we have to find somebody that if cam's gonna be out for two to three weeks that we will have somebody that will be able to fill in and I think after you know after after the preseason people were pretty skeptical of that it was like oh boy that now you're back to square you square zero again essentially but it looks like in three games going back to last year the story of last year but three games it's somewhat of a small sample size but I think Kyle Allen at the very least is capable of making you feel like you can win a game of Cam Newton's not playing and that's that's where the Panthers wanted to get to now cam and it'd be healthy ones you're going to be healthy that's as a whole other issue but in the meantime at the very least I think Kyle Allen has proven he can play a bat as a backup quarterback in the NFL the anti-cam anti-cam crowd and others press screen but no he's he just started he's better than cam already I'm not ready to go there but at the very least this isn't a Nathan Peterman with the bill situation so that's good has the pass rush exceeded your expectations the defense the last two weeks says yeah I mean it's not all that surprising that they can quarterback last week it was pretty surprising what they were able to do to a pretty potent Houston team in Houston yesterday just defensively overall so I I think the pass rush might be getting it's good I think it might be getting a little bit too much credit the coverage has been really good the last two weeks Arizona clearly has had a problem giving up sacks not just last week and Houston's offensive line hasn't been very good either so this is why right it's all these things need to be taken with a grain of salt now why not everything has to meet everything so the Panthers just beat up on two teams that are giving up a lot of sacks does that mean the Panthers pass rush is really good not necessarily but maybe it maybe it is so who knows and that's why you know that's maybe look at a bigger picture a little bit longer down the line and really overanalyze everything in the first month but it certainly has been a good start in there's reasons for folks to be excited especially with freaking Bryant Burns he he I mean he in training camp he looks fantastic preseason clearly he did and and he's really carried it through this first month I'm interested that you said that you don't like answering personal questions about yourself though I don't get that vibe from you which personal questions that I answer oh gosh it depends well like you know family members are asking about work or job things like your friend yeah I just yeah are you a better text person or a phone call person oh don't call me I hate like this right here it's like can we just do this over check with the last time you did a FaceTime chat oh gosh I accidentally have done it lately but yeah no face it if you FaceTime me you'll see the water bottle currently in front of me right now you don't get to see it all of you get unfortunate I would save you you don't get to see my face he's on Twitter at Panthers bill thanks for doing this bill we'll see you Sunday you're welcome see it yeah that's bill both Panthers calm come here to talk sports it is man at his most man and do it like you mean it what you got biatch this is the drive with Josh Graham so Clemson over a span of 14 games won by an average of 35 points in the first four games of the year they blew out still pretty much everybody won by two touchdowns against Texas A&M so I guess they didn't cover there barely but in three of the four games or in two of the four games they covered which required a lot winning by 40 against Charlotte rolling Georgia Tech even as they weren't playing incredibly well still covering games to prove how good they are they have a tight game on the road in the ACC win by a point in Chapel Hill 2120 and now they get knocked down a peg the a people has Alabama at number one Clemson to Georgia three Ohio State for LSU five Oklahoma six here's my issue if Alabama had gone on the road and won by a point in Oxford or in Starkville or won by one point in Arkansas at Fayetteville do you think they get knocked down a peg do you think they go from one to two I don't think there's a chance in hell that happened Clemson should not have dropped the spot in the AP poll for winning on the road in the ACC this is an indictment on the ACC it's blatant disrespect I won't go as far to call it SEC bias but I always do find it funny when people say the ACC is down because FSU and Miami aren't having great years meanwhile if Kentucky comes up there is in the top 10 one of the best teams of the SEC nobody's laughing they're just giving Mark Stoops all the credit no Syracuse is ranked in the top 15 that means the league is back if Wake Forest and Virginia are in the top 25 Congrats to the Deacs being in the AP poll for the first time since 2008 by the way if that happens that means the ACC is down but when some of the lesser programs Ole Miss and Kentucky they are competitive moving up the ranks oh it just means the SEC has more depth it's ridiculous there's a little bit of bias there I don't think this happens any chance to win SEC team I don't think it happens to Alabama Georgia LSU Nick Saban would lose his bleeping mind he might even pick up that coca-cola thing on his podium and chuck it at a reporter if they voted against Alabama dropping in the poll your thoughts are welcome on Twitter at sports up try it Desba Johnson Aaron Gabriel in the control room taking your calls three three six seven seven seven one six hundred yes Aaron I don't know that that UNC team did just come off a loss to App State even though we know in around this area that App State is a good pro so imagine what App State would have done to Clemson yeah sounds nice mountaineers baby Eli Drinkowitz will be a guest on the show on Friday but give North Carolina credit North Carolina they didn't make any mistakes and then it turn it over they they didn't get gashed in the running game like they didn't let Clemson do anything in between the tackles aside for the Travis ETN touchdown at the end of the first half that's the only time I remember Clemson finding a big hole through the Carolina defense so give Jay Bateman credit give Phil Longo credit give North Carolina credit it's a slap in the face to the ACC that Clemson goes down a spot in the poll because for the first time in literally a year Clemson's playing to the wire yesterday I don't understand why especially in the AP poll it feels like there's this there's such a bias towards the SEC like before the weekend started and I'm not mistaken it's still going on in the top five three the top five or SEC teams I just read the top five none of those teams have played anybody really the past five weeks so what makes them top five ranked like honestly other than the names of their jerseys they're rolling teams and this in a perfect world you wouldn't have the AP poll until right now but since you do it will be the bane of my existence till the end of time while I have this platform I'm going to be railing against the AP poll it only exists to drive television ratings so you have a six next to a 13 and somehow that means it's a big game because nobody knows the coaches of the players in college football nationally you need that to drum up interest hey you have these great teams playing each other even though we don't know really how good these teams are and the preseason when we set the poll that's all good and well for the first few weeks but a month in here's the issue you have Clemson was preseason number one now in order for the preseason poll to hold any weight in anybody's mind you have to have a reason you pick Clemson to be number one which means if you're gonna knock them off you have to have a reason to knock them off so then you're comparing oh yeah what's the quality of the team that this team's playing versus the quality of this opponent how many wins is how many points is too many points how many points is not enough points I hate playing that game if you had the poll come out tomorrow October the first and you had a full month of games to evaluate then I think you get a more accurate poll like I wouldn't have an issue if there were was no poll whatsoever and then the first one came out tomorrow and Clemson came out number fifth or number five if Clemson was number five you'd say that's justified my issue is that they were number one last week and then based on one game you're gonna knock them down from one to number two based on what why if it's a bigger sample size I'd probably have Ohio State one right now based on the first month of the year Ohio State's been more impressive than I think Alabama has Georgia has a win against bleeping Notre Dame and they're behind Clemson in Alabama why oh because you had Bama and Clemson there at the very beginning it's a sham we shouldn't even have the AP poll till right now if it was me it'd be Georgia and Ohio State at the very top then Bama then probably Oklahoma then Clemson but since you already had the poll and Clemson's number one you have to have a reason to knock them off and I don't think winning by one point on the road in the ACC is enough to say yeah you deserve to be knocked down a peg you won the game you're devaluing winning a conference game I don't think that's fair you know it's funny too because at the beginning of the year what were we told that Carolina needed to beat South Carolina because it's a ACC versus SEC man they did and that would give us juice right so shouldn't that give Clemson juice for beating that North Carolina team that beat South Carolina SEC team beat Miami yes Aaron but lost to F State app states good I know but we know F state is good but on a national stage if you're an AP voter and you don't know how good app state is you should desert you should lose your AP vote well the thing what I showed the thing what I've state though going into a day it lost their last 11 tries against power five school so I get the whole not giving that state you can't give them juice off the Michigan that's gonna hurt them that's gonna losing the app state hurts it really it does good for Wake Forest though they are number 22 they are on an open date so the wait begins November the 16th Wake Forest plays Clemson and boy do we feel a lot better about this potential of 9-0 after watching Virginia Tech play Friday night against Duke who boy it's not a good sign when Virginia's Virginia Tech's best athlete is the robot doing push-ups on the surfboard it's not a good sign a robot with a helmet on not great Virginia Tech got smoked by Duke so Wake Forest open day Louisville at home that should be a win Florida State out of the three straight home games that's the one that worries me more I'm worried more about FSU than I am about NC State because FSU Alex Hornibrook looked pretty good Saturday against the Wolfpack but if you take care of business at home then go to Virginia Tech where Duke just won by a million we could be talking about 9-0 Wake Forest versus 9-0 Clemson November the 16th college game day maybe gonna go to Clemson maybe the only other game that competes with that is Auburn in Georgia you might think that's about a lot better of a game but you would think if there's any opportunity any good excuse for college game day to feature the defending champion Clemson Tigers that would be the game like if you need an excuse oh we want to feature Clemson one of these weeks and not go to an SEC Stadium every week this would be the one that we'd go for if it's Clemson especially if you're talking about 2-1 defeated teams on top of that there might be broadcasting reasons why you'd want to do Clemson Wake Forest because that's gonna be on the ESPN family and networks and I'd imagine the SEC games gonna be on CBS but putting that aside let's get excited for that Wake Forest Clemson and heck deep fans after watching North Carolina nearly beat Clemson you got to think there's hope you got it they're not gonna run into an offense that's as good as Wake Forest's offense this year I don't think so so I'm saying there's a chance I'm I'm not I've get it I get accused of being a homer for so many teams I got an email this morning from somebody who said I am a Duke basketball homer and let me make sure I get this right because I get a ton of these every week people alleging what my fandom is each and every week but there's a lot more scrolling than I think I need to do here does you want to filibuster yeah I hope yeah here um looking at Wake Forest schedule I don't I normally I don't try to get on the hype train early either for other teams other than my own but looking at their schedule like you said Louisville Florida State NC State if they can get through those and then the Virginia Tech team that never gets smoked at home at Blacksburg at night and they got smoked by Duke embarrassingly I think you're looking at a Wake Forest team that could be sniffing the top 10 by the time you get there if they're if they're not it's doable let's go it's doable I'm a Clemson football I'm a Clemson football homer Duke basketball homer according to somebody in the audience have people eventually figured out have they figured it out at this point that I don't care like I really don't really don't like really do not care I mean I said nice things about North Carolina just a little while ago I got something for North Carolina fans a little bit later that you might not like uh NC State I mean they haven't given me much reason to say good things I like their team last year maybe a little too much I mean you went to ECU so I get that oh well and that you're not like all on there you see I was in the stands for the first time like three weeks ago for a game at Navy and I left at halftime because it was 35 nothing I know who Josh likes but I'm not gonna say it oh please do no I'm not gonna put it now now you have to know it's like my ace in the hole you need to say it now I mean no you opened up a radio microphone to say something that you can't say that's not that I can't say it's poor radio for you to say that now you're just teasing people yeah don't be a T don't don't tickle the audience people who is it snow because now I don't want to out him being neutral who is it Adam I heard your pop say it we were a kickback Jax what's that did you like to Carolina what Carolina the North Carolina Tar Heels or heels what I this entire season I got badgered and hammered my North Carolina fans saying that I didn't care about that's why I found it hilarious when you're thinking my dad you think my dad knows who I root for anybody I don't care Wow all this time you've been sitting here as a Carolina Tar Heel fan questioning my fandom of the Tar Heels you telling me he's a Tar Heel fan he's a mastermind I'm also a sociopath it's impossible for both those things not to be true social paths function well in society these things happen can be fans yeah I was a poor double negative on my part drive brought to you by our friends at pie guys pizza and more try the gram slam pizza it doesn't matter if you're a closeted Carolina fan or somebody who loves App State or Clemson or whoever it's good pizza and we can all get behind good pizza there are so many things that divide us in this country today something that brings us together is delicious pies and delicious pizza pie specifically so grab one of them a pie guys pizza and more and try the gram slam pizza if you have it already or the delicious dessert of a Moravian sugarcane pie right off of Lewis Phil Clemons Road it's the kind of in village comments pie guys pizza and more online at pie guys calm a terrific sponsor of the program you felt like you had something like real secret information there Aaron yeah cuz y'all you take such great pride in staying in the middle it's just who I am it's just who I am that's your flag the WSJS Winston sale of WCOG Greensboro WPC and Burlington WMFR high point those signals making up sports I've tried 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 in the newest AP poll Clemson unseated as the number one team in America Alabama now number one the Tigers dropped the number two following a one point road win in Chapel Hill Saturday afternoon meanwhile Wake Forest for the first time since 2008 ranked in the top 25 AP AP top 25 they're in at number 22 Virginia loses to Notre Dame they drop to number 23 to kind of figure it all out we welcome in ESPN's Roy Philpott now one of the best college football play-by-play man ESPN has going right now Roy you've spent some time in Clemson I wonder what you make of this should Clemson have dropped from number one to number two based on the first close game they've played in practically a year well first off Josh good to be with you I hope you guys are doing well up there in North Carolina secondly the answer that the short answer is yes and yes it's been a while since Clemson has really been tested even going back to the college football playoff but when you face a team that's coming off a home loss to Appalachian State and Appalachian State's good I mean Appalachian State may be in the Cotton Bowl in January by the time it's all said then think about that for a second but when you lose at home to Appalachian State and it lost two in a row coming in and Clemson comes in as a four touchdown favorite and you need to hold North Carolina off on a two-point play with a minute to go to sneak out of there with a win it leaves a bad taste in the mouths of the AP voters so yes in my opinion and I posted it on Twitter right before we went on the air down at UCF Saturday night right as that game ended I said and you know my best guess is Clemson will fall from number one in Alabama will be number two or B will take their place and Clemson will follow number two it was in the minds of the voters the eye tests and if you watch to a tongue if I low in the way that offense is operated this year they have been literally flawless in the downfield passing game I know that the you know the teams they played haven't been great but they demolished Duke who just demolished Virginia Tech as we all saw Friday night at least they had that one on their resume that was going to be more than enough for the voters to go ahead and make that move it doesn't really matter right now it doesn't matter at all but I would have voted out Alabama number one after watching Clemson escape Chapel Hill with that two-point play and a narrow victory here's why I think it matters if Clemson it shows that that the the AP voter doesn't pay any respect to the Atlantic Coast Conference I'm convinced if Alabama beats any SEC team on the road by one point they don't get knocked down from number one to number two and it shows me that the ape in the AP voters mind that if Clemson loses any game from here on out they're probably not going to make the college football playoff without getting any help I would agree with all of that and the ACC whether you like it or I like it or anybody in the geographical footprint likes it right now is not viewed very positively by just about anybody with a college football pulse and there's certain you know claims you could make that this would dispute that or things that would you know certainly support that but I think that's just where it is perception is reality that's the perception and that plays into what you're saying Alabama's gonna be tested multiple times in the next couple of weeks with their schedule Clemson probably isn't and to that point despite the brand that Clemson has built in the last six or seven years the schedule is so weak and you know Texas A&M losing at Auburn I don't think helps matters pummel Texas A&M at all but the schedule is so soft if they were to slip up somewhere especially in a game in which you're favored by four touchdowns yeah you're gonna need a ton of help I mean listen that happened against Pittsburgh back in 2016 and the day that it happened and that was a home loss for Clemson the day that it happened two other teams right there ranked with the Tigers all lost which helped propel Clemson into the playoffs that year and hopefully the national championship it's not impossible if they were to lose a game but if they do I do think that they would require help and and you would need a couple of other teams to lose one and one game and maybe maybe twice by the time it's all said done it hey that's perspective perception is reality especially in college football it's ESPN's Roy Philpott with us I think ultimately what my bigger issue is it's the preseason AP poll and I think what we do or what voters do they look at what the poll was the week before and you're not asking necessarily who the better team is it's a did did all right well how many points is not enough in order to impress or to maintain your spot it almost sounds like that this top five that we're looking at of Bama one Clemson two Georgia three Ohio State four LSU five and we'll make it top six Oklahoma coming in at number six it would be completely rearranged if let's say the first AP poll came out a month in which would be tomorrow October the first well here's the good news the AP poll really it just it doesn't matter and I say that because when the playoff committee meets for the first time in a couple of weeks and they produce their poll I think if they were doing that right now they think they may very well have Auburn number one Ohio State or Georgia or Georgia or Ohio State or whoever so again I you know hey Clemson falls down a spot the perception the ACC is not great I just don't think it matters at all the one thing I posted on Twitter the only thing that really counts is that they found a way to win the game and you know if they continue to do that there'll be among the top four teams in I don't know if they're going to be number one in the grand scheme you know I don't know that matters a whole heck of a lot in Clemson fans would all say we want to play the semifinal game close to home in Atlanta as opposed to going all the way out I hear you well if the ultimate goal is to win a national championship I mean I don't know that that makes a ton of difference I don't think it does if you're good enough to win it you're gonna win the game whether it's in Phoenix or Atlanta and regardless of what the home crowd looks like it either one of those bit so Josh honestly it just doesn't matter a ton you want to be one of the top four if you're in the top four you have a chance the AP poll doesn't matter the only thing that matters is what those committee members think in about a month or so it's a locking screen between now then but look Auburn Georgia Ohio State Oklahoma I mean they don't play anybody but they're grilling everybody with their hurts and that surprised me maybe they're the number one team so we'll go more in about three to four weeks when the committee comes out with their first poll all the talk to me down there is just talk it really just doesn't matter a whole bunch are you buying into Wake Forest at 5 and 0 I like their offense I like their quarterback as team that's going to contend or challenge with Clemson now you could say hey they had an easier time with North Carolina arguably I get that but I think Wake Forest looks like an eight or nine win team and a French top-25 team so to that extent yes I'm buying it and we all know Dave Paulson is a great coach if he were to get Wake Forest let's say to 10 or 11 wins this year and maybe somebody else comes calling they try to you know try to get him out of Winston-Salem he's good enough to do something like that but I like the team it's got a different vibe to it they can score they can throw they're a little bit more explosive you know that the well coach on both sides the ball I'm buying them I don't know that I buy them winning pin games or by them winning the Atlantic Division find them people criticizing Mac Brown's two-point call today fair or on you know before that before it when they were driving again back to Twitter I pose a question will he go for two because I think everybody that knows Mac felt like he would go for two and of course he did I agree with the call you can argue against it because you know they had some mojo in their favor on that final drive you know it just it felt good at Keenan Stadium there was a good vibe there and so makes you find a way to open I agreed with the call to go for it I didn't like the option and it's easy for us to to look back and say well that wasn't the right call to make Clemson was waiting on that and if you go back and you look over Davos win his tenure I want to say since like 2008 when he was the interim coach there's been 14 or 15 two-point tries against Clemson only one team has converted a two-point play and it was like 2015 South Carolina and a meaningless situation everybody else is like you know over so like teams are one for 15 I want to say in two-point plays that's what took over a big part of that is Brent Venables they had scouted Carolina they had seen that play in it in a two-point situation before they were expecting it and it was defended like they knew what was coming so yeah you would like to have maybe tried something else especially if that's what you had already shown so I you know I wasn't a huge fan of the call and especially with the defense's it you know has that kind of speed to get to the edge but I like the fact that he went for it and I like what he had to say afterwards you know justifying it that's that's Matt Brown back is doing good things he is doing great things in Chapel Hill and in a year or two they're gonna win the coastal division and kind of be right where they were when Larry Fedor got him there what was that four years ago now or so so he's doing a great job he'll continue to do a great job Carolina back on the map in football and he kind of did that already this weekend give me a little bit more something on the two-point play against the number one team and defending national champions at home with a minute to play give me give me something a little bit different two observations I had fieldside to confirm kind of what you're saying there on Saturday but I was on the North Carolina sideline when they scored the touchdown and I'm looking straight at Mac and he goes straight to Phil Longo the offensive coordinator and it was clear there wasn't much decision to be made they were going for two and Mac said after the game that Longo he liked this play and yeah after the fact Dabo said as much kind of what you just hinted at and what was obvious and see in the play that Dabo told his players hey they're gonna go for two if they score he prepared the team defensively so they weren't shell-shot when they roll out there trying to win the game and then Dabo said Brent Venable's expected speed option and that's exactly what they ran and that's why the guy gets paid two million dollars a year to be the defensive coordinator coaching instincts and having that type of film study where you understand what they might run and a two-point situation lastly for you Roy there's the story out of Mexico City where someone stripped butt naked at a Walmart when they were accused of stealing shoplifting something to prove that they didn't shoplift they stripped butt naked did you ever shoplift something as a kid that you remember oh my gosh yes what a random question my two daughters are right here so I gotta be careful but yes I did it was a pack of cigarettes from the grocery store and we just about got busted so it was a very scary and I never did anything like that again but yes I am guilty as charged with that how about that that's the most random question I've ever been asked in a radio interview when that award this yes you're the reason I changed my Twitter handle Roy Philpott you gave us that advice I had to return the favor with something oh that's good and by the way my youngest daughter just looked at me and said daddy were you smoking cigarettes so I'll let you get to that appreciate you spending time with us thanks for doing it yeah yeah anytime I guess that's right Philpott of the ESPN
