The Drive with Josh Graham - Daniel Jones - 08/9/19

Attention, please. This is The Drive with Josh Tram Podcast. Tune into The Drive 3 until 6 p.m. weekdays on the Sports Hub. I love it.

It's brilliant. The former voice of Appalachian State, David Jackson, is hanging out in the studio with us. He now works with the Carolina Panthers on game day. Preseason game number one is in the books. My biggest takeaway, the Carolina Panthers should retain three quarterbacks, I think. I think it has a lot more to do with the fact that Cam Newton hasn't been able to show you two of the last three seasons he's been able to finish the year.

I think it has more to do with that, less to do with Will Greer and his performance last night. Of course, it's one preseason game. Elijah Holyfield fumbles, bounces back, scores a touchdown. Will Greer throws an interception, bounces back and throws that touchdown to Elijah Holyfield. I think the biggest story going into camp was always going to be quarterback and specifically Cam Newton.

Everything else, it's icing on the cake. It's nice. It's good to hear Curtis Samuel is looking great the last few weeks. It's good that the pass rush showed you something last night with Brian Burns. But really, this is all about quarterback and keeping three quarterbacks has, I think, a lot more to do securing yourself in the case of a Cam Newton injury than it does telling you anything about Will Greer, doesn't it? I think you've got some points there. And certainly with Will Greer, I just don't see that the Panthers, after drafting someone like that, and while it shouldn't matter in some room somewhere, it does matter that he is a local product.

There's a feel good story about that that can resonate into ticket sales and the marketing element of things. I don't see them cutting him loose. I mean, I think he's going to be a part of this for a while. They're going to develop him. They've said they want to develop him. But to me last night in that, in each of their opening drives, Kyle Allen looks like the guy who's got just a little bit more poise that if you have to go a game or two or three with a quarterback, as you mentioned, that's often makes himself susceptible to injury. I want to have somebody that's polished there because if it's about a two or three game run, it's going to be the difference in a division championship or a wild card or making the playoffs at all. I've got to see somebody that's in there that's proven they can do the job. Now, that's awfully presumptuous to say after one game that maybe Kyle Allen had just a little bit more juice about him last night than Will Greer did.

Greer is the ultimate destination guy. But Kyle Allen's the guy I think you got to go with right now. I don't think we should be comparing Kyle Allen to Will Greer. It's about Kyle Allen versus, say, Taylor Heineke. And I think there's no question that Allen is way ahead of Heineke, who had to deal with injuries during the offseason, the one he sustained in the Atlanta game, the final home game of the year last year. Allen gets the win against New Orleans, looked very good in that game.

Granted, most of the New Orleans Saints were playing reserves in that ballgame. But when it comes to Will Greer, to your point, they're not going to cut him loose. You don't cut a third round pick loose as a rookie.

The question is two quarterbacks or three, because if you have two, that means you have a spot open to maybe present some depth in the secondary or on the defensive line. Do you feel good enough about Will Greer? Do you think there's a situation where Will Greer plays well enough this preseason? Scott Turner and Norv Turner decide, all right, we're good enough with Will Greer as Cam Newton signed.

Insurance policy, his security blanket, that will feel comfortable just having two there. Yeah, and I think that makes the case even more for three, because I just don't even know. Let's say that Kyle Allen caught on somewhere else.

Let's say he wasn't part of the equation. I don't know that there's been enough proven yet that you could feel good about that with a rookie QB coming in, again, behind a guy who's shown a history of having those gaps in a season where he's been unavailable. Unfortunately, what fans don't see and coaches do see are the differences in a film room, in a practice situation, with Kyle Allen and Taylor Heinecke. What we all saw was that one of them did well in a fill-in role last year and the other one did not. So that's where I think fans will say, Allen's the guy because he won the game. He beat the Saints. Great.

That's awesome. But what was it that got Taylor Heinecke there in the first place? I think that Heinecke is certainly the odd man out in this situation.

But I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that the Panthers, at least in some way, thought so as well. Otherwise, you don't draft a quarterback in round three. Allen's got a little bit more stability about what he does. He's not flashy. He's not going to be a cam type from that perspective.

I don't see him as a gambler. I see him as a safety valve that if you need somebody to come in for three quarters or a game, you can go with him until you get this other guy figured out. Next year at this time, I think that Kyle Allen's got something to prove because you've made an investment in Greer that's going to go long beyond this season or next one or the one after that probably. Looking at the guy that they're backing up, Cam Newton doesn't play last night. It really is one of those things with the preseason. Alright, let's get jazzed up. It's the start of the season. You get to see your team for the first time. All 22 starters offensive defense don't play. Not even one snap. They sit out.

That's fine. But Cam Newton, everybody wants to see what's up with that shoulder. The day after he had the Curtis Samuel completion 35, 40 yards down the field, everybody is already jumping to the conclusion that Cam Newton's back. It might have been the most exciting play in the history of Panthers training camp in Wofford. Fans were just so excited to jump to that conclusion, even as Cam Newton himself was saying, I'm not there yet.

I'm not out of the woods yet. They don't see the work I'm doing behind the scenes to get ready. That play continues to get talked about over and over again, but we're not seeing them throw 35, 40 yards every single practice. He's not out there every single practice. When would you like to see Cam Newton on a regular schedule?

On a week three. I mean, going into that game where, as we have seen in that, in today's NFL, we understand now that you're not buying tickets to the preseason opener to see all your favorite guys because they're not going to play. They're going to be standing there in street clothes. Maybe you can talk to them if you sit close enough to the sideline, but week three seems to be the game. That's the dress rehearsal game where those guys are going to get three quarters of the action. They're going to get multiple drives.

They're going to be able to give basically the closest game look that they can give. So if Cam's ready to roll by that point, Ron Rivera said it sounds like there's a potential at least that maybe Cam gets at least a series in the next game against the Bills. But I think that you want to see all systems go by week three.

I think also too, as boring as it is from a fan's perspective to hear, there is a lot to be said for what Caroline Kan's been talking about for the last couple of weeks in trusting the process. Because you also don't want to just rush a guy back for a preseason game that doesn't mean anything. If you're a Panthers fan, you think this team's got a chance to be a playoff team and certainly they project that way.

I'll take all the time with him on the sideline now if that means that in November, December, he's got the strength left in the arm and the health to be able to do what Panther fans hope he can do. It's David Jackson in studio with us. If you have any NFL thoughts based on what you saw last night, 336-777-1600 is the phone number. He's on Twitter at BooneChamberDJ. The drive is broadcast live in the Law Offices of Timothy D. Wellborn Studios.

Learn about the way that Tim Wellborn can help you online at TimWellborn.com. You'll know when you need us. Let's bring things to Daniel Jones. Had a chance to watch this drive live before the Panthers went live at 8 o'clock.

5 for 5. Good zip on the throws. The touchdown was located in a place where only his receiver could get it. I think the intense heat Daniel Jones has had put on him, the pressure there in New York City after being picked sixth overall and the criticism that followed is an indictment on the NFL draft coverage. Everything that led up to the draft and what happened in following because the initial reaction from everybody, it seemed like the day after that draft, that Friday, was that Daniel Jones is going to be a bust.

This isn't a great pick. This is Dave Gettleman making a massive mistake and a lot of that had to do with two things. One, 98% of people don't watch Duke football or probably most of the people who are watching the NFL draft aren't watching Duke football. 98% of the media not watching Duke football even if they know Daniel Jones might be an NFL draft prospect.

That's one. That means everybody is basing their opinions. If you haven't watched the kid play, you're basing your opinions on two things, stats and the mock drafts. And since Daniel Jones wasn't picked that high by anybody, he gets selected, everybody reacts in shock. But they didn't watch Daniel Jones play. They don't know Daniel Jones from Daniel Jeremiah.

No idea who Daniel Jones is. Why do Eagle fans get very excited when Carson Wentz is picked number two, even though he went to North Dakota State and they certainly didn't watch North Dakota State. But New York Giants fans are freaking out when Daniel Jones is picked number six.

It's an indictment on the draft process. See, I was sitting in a room, DJ, when Cleland Farrell was getting picked. I was with a bunch of NFL draft gurus with the air quotes. And when Cleland Farrell got picked, I said out loud, oh, great pick. Everyone around me looked at me like I had two heads.

What are you talking about? Kuiper didn't have them that high. Daniel Jeremiah didn't have him picked that high. Well, I mean, I watched him at Clemson. He was a very good player. We thought he'd be a first round pick. Oakland liked him a lot.

What are we doing here? Last night, you saw a lot of the same people who overreacted to Daniel Jones being picked six, saying it was an awful pick, immediately flip flopping and saying this guy's awesome now because he had one touchdown drive in the preseason. I think having both those opinions, both premature, both equally ridiculous, if you're saying this guy's going to be a Hall of Famer now because of one drive in the preseason, but also judged him for being terrible after picking him six and not watching him. Well, sure. But you got to remember that the average person these days only has the selective memory that is about four swipes up on their Twitter feed on their phone.

So they don't remember all of the things that they said about somebody, you know, four months ago, let alone four minutes ago. I thought I thought he looked I thought he looked pretty sharp. I thought he looked like a guy who was coached by David Cutcliffe. I think he kind of comes from that same mold, which should be, you know, something that that certainly bodes well for him and his pro career based on the lineage that he is having to deal with.

I hate that the rain messed it up, though, because it looked like or at least it sounded like coming out of coming out of the Giants camp, he would have had an opportunity to maybe get another drive in. But certainly, certainly the the delivery, the the the read and react, all of the intangibles are there. I think I think that that, you know, sometimes there's too much information. I think it was easier for us to remain rational when we didn't just scour the Internet for someone to agree with what we think.

And I think that has had a toll on things like that, things like evaluating prospects. You're going to sit and read about Daniel Jones until you find whether you like him or you don't like him. You're going to sit there and read until you find somebody that agrees with you.

And that's what he said. So I'm right, because this one guy said it when when it used to be that we we had trusted evaluators that had actual legitimate credentials that did this kind of stuff. And and you could process that in the ways that they would take some time and you might not be able to read the instant reaction about a guy's drive four seconds after it's over. Back in the days when newspapers had to be printed the next day, you had to wait for your trusted local sports journalist to say, hey, you know what?

I saw these things the other day and you can formulate your opinion while you also get a chance to formulate your stuff. Well, we're so reactionary. Yeah, it's ridiculous that anybody could could could sit there and say based on one preseason drive in week one that he's going to project to be should be the starter. Got to be the guy.

It was one drive. But but also, I think that we put a little bit too much stock into people who purport themselves as experts when they've they've never sweat the sweat, put on the pads, played the game, and they don't really have anything other than data analytics to sit around why we're judging people the way we judge. And I'm not even claiming to be one of those experts. I just found the reaction to be totally unfair to Daniel Jones. And it's funny, the guy who was most trusted for his analysis that you mentioned is Mel Kiper. He defended the pick back then.

He still defends it. The Giants picking number six, Daniel Jones. You can criticize the evaluation of him. Right. If you don't think he's as good as Dwayne Haskins, that's fine.

Here's the part that bothered me. Folks saying that because they had a pick at number 17, that they should have waited to take Daniel Jones with that position. The philosophy is right. If you believe you have a franchise quarterback, you don't wait to see if in the next 12 picks one of the teams picking whether or not they disagree with your assessment. No. If you think you have the franchise quarterback, you take him at six.

You don't wait till 17. So that was another piece of it that's maddening. There's a lot of things I want to get to with David Jackson is spending time with us, perhaps a little bit of Appalachian State football. Also, see, you are you are a play by play man by trade. So you're someone who has a trained ear to know a great play by play when you hear it. Joe Weil is the voice of the Winston-Salem Dash, and every single week the audience sends in lines, movie lines for him to integrate into his baseball broadcast Thursday nights here.

That's wonderful. On the sports. So here's what we're going to do. We're you're going to hear those calls from Joe.

Next on the drive. After hosting the David Glenn show, David Jackson kind enough to hang out with us. Former voice of Appalachian State does work with the Carolina Panthers on game day now. Joe Weil did a number for us, and we're going to get to these calls in a second.

Movie lines that he integrated into the broadcast last night on the sports hub. Appalachian State working in a new head coach and Eli Drinkwitz. You still live in Boone. You covered Appalachian State for all of those years. They have a quarterback that right now a lot of people are very excited about in the Sunbelt. And Zach Thomas and the Mountaineers, even though it is a new head coach at the controls, it's another offensive minded guy. The sense I have right now is they are expecting another big year at Appalachian State. Coach Satterfield did not leave the cupboard empty by any means.

No, he did not. And I think Eli Drinkwitz has done a good job of not just necessarily coming in and installing a philosophy that doesn't fit the personnel that's there. I mean, it's not like inheriting a pro franchise where you can just fire guys and hire more. You've got to live out a recruiting calendar and and the talent that you've got now, fortunately, in this particular takeover situation, if you will. You know that the job flipped for a positive reason because Appalachian has had a period of sustained success for decades now.

I mean, save two years. They haven't had, you know, a back to back losing seasons in more than 30 years. So it's it's a program that's got a certain respect level tradition. And Eli Drinkwitz is going to become familiar with that as he brings in nuances that can help establish the philosophies that he's looking for to add to the to the championship pedigree that's already there. I think that, you know, as we're talking about quarterbacks who are smart just a moment ago with with the Daniel Jones commentary, I think that's where Zach is is going to flourish. Zach Thomas was, you know, just coming into App State as I was getting getting ready to leave.

And one of the things that that in talking with a number of people that are still around there, he is a film room rat. He is somebody that that understands that there are certain limitations that he has and certain strengths that he has and he and he tries to play to his strengths. I think that Eli Drinkwitz will see that that while Appalachian has always been a run first type team, that now he's got a quarterback that that that can take some shots. And now the question is for App State is, you know, you graduated some receivers here over the last couple of years that have been headline, you know, kind of household names. Can they get that talent pool up to speed with a quarterback that's that's ready to do what Eli Drinkwitz has done before? And that's that's moved the football around through the air a little bit more.

It will be the most dynamic offense potentially in the state, quite honestly, just because of the tools that they've got and the philosophy that Drinkwitz is going to bring to the table. Putting us on the air in the control room, Desmond Johnson taking your calls at 336-777-1600. We're on Twitter at Sports Hub Triad running our social media today and doing putting out other kinds of fires to Aaron Gabriel is hanging out as well. Let's get to some of these movie lines from Joe Weil. This is from the Winston-Salem Dash broadcast right here on the sports hub.

We carry them once a week on Thursday nights. The audience sends us in via email and Twitter and Facebook movie lines that they would like Joe to finagle into his play by play. It's a way for this show's voice to infiltrate the Winston-Salem Dash broadcast. What's the first line you have for us? Pressure situation for Cade McClure here in the bottom of the first inning.

The Dash get their first lead of the series at the top of the first inning. But now the Pelicans are threatening but Cade McClure responds well to tough situations. You can envision him saying, I love pressure. I eat it for breakfast.

Now he looks to get out of the bottom of the first inning. That isn't the only Nicolas Cage line we have, do we? Like we were talking about Nic Cage yesterday.

I eat pressure for breakfast. Have you ever seen the movie Con Air? Yes. Okay.

Put the bunny back in the box. Is that the next one? But it was a runner on first, nobody out situation. Then Andrew Vaughn lined it to the third baseman Belego who doubled off Cruz at first base. The 0-1. Swung on it, foul tipped.

Counted nothing in two. But Cruz was bouncing off of first base after the pitch. And the Pelicans essentially put the bunny back in the box by recording that double play. That's so polished. That was not planned, what just happened right there. This is ingenious though.

Because all play-by-play guys have somebody that's in their ear. And you say, give me a word, give me something. A whole movie quote is ambitious. It is. I like that.

And Joe does an excellent job with that. The last one, this might be my favorite one that we've done in a long time here. Still a ton of fans here tonight. All around the lower bowl.

And hanging out in their seats or heading off to the Clark and Addison Grill or some of the other great places you can eat here in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at TicketReturn.com Field. The 2-1. Outside, counted 3-1. A couple of days ago I had a chance to eat a burger from this facility. And that is a tasty burger. The 3-1.

The 3-1. That is a great line. So, alright. I have one of these.

I have one of these also that I threw in. Different Quentin Tarantino movie though. So, well, no, I don't know if Quentin Tarantino did this one. Anyway, it was a big Lebowski line. And so, I dropped in a, fool the folks in the league office. It was around a penalty. And it was like, you know, I was like, hey, you know, Joe Schmo, picks up the flag, no penalty there. I tell you what, you can't fool the folks in the league office. It was really hard to make sure that I delivered that line in the way that it can be delivered on the radio. It's a league game. Yeah, it is a league game, Donnie. Yeah, that's great, man.

I love the concept behind it. Was this your idea? This was something that we've been doing since I was back in Greenville. I was in Eastern North Carolina. There was a Florida Panthers radio broadcaster. I remember watching these clips back when I was like in high school, first getting into broadcasting. Randy Muller was his name. I don't even think he does the Florida Panthers anymore. And he would just work it into his goal calls. And I thought, this is a funny idea, and the Dash seemed to like it.

And so, we're going to keep doing it. So, I used to work with Ryan Manuel, who's the general manager of the Dash, or whatever his new fancy title is now. But he was a sales associate. We both worked with our good friend Wally and the Winston-Salem Warthogs back in 1999 when Ryan came to town. All right, but since we have you here, David Jackson. But since. I know, I know every single time somebody talks to you at length about Appalachian State football and your time with the team. They bring up September of 2007. It comes up on occasion.

Yeah, and the reason we want to talk about it, if we're talking about play-by-play calls, we need to address this right here. 37-yard field goal. This is it. This is it right here. It's already. The snap's good.

The whole thing. The kick is blocked. The Mountaineers are going to try to take it. It's Garza. Garza in the Big House.

30, 20, 15, 10. The Mountaineers have just beaten the Michigan Wolverines. The Mountaineers of Appalachian State have just beaten the Michigan Wolverines in the Big House. It's an excellent call. If you're an Appalachian State fan, you absolutely love it. If you're a broadcaster who doesn't care about the teams, you really feel for David Jackson getting trampled over there a little bit. Well, that's another thing that I've, you know, we got beaten up pretty good on Mike and Mike that next Monday because of that.

And and, you know, I thought at the time and I still contend to this day, you know, situational, right? So so Steve Brown, who is my color analyst, a very dear friend of mine still to this day. He he was a former player, one of the most decorated quarterbacks in Appalachian State history until Richie Williams and Armani Edwards and those guys came around.

And Zach Thomas probably take all their records. But but Brownie was a player. He was a coach.

He was a volunteer. He was a fan. And that is the same reaction that every app state fan anybody tied to the school had at the same exact moment. We weren't calling that game for ESPN. We weren't calling that game for CBS or Fox or whoever. We were calling that game for Appalachian State and for a moment that we didn't really understand at the exact time that it was happening. But but very soon afterward began to realize that it was going to be a transformative moment for the university, not just a program, not just a coach, not just a player. But the entire university, the entire town of Boone. I mean, I'm still up there as the chamber director every time a visitor comes and references that that is yet another opportunity to say that one play one day made life different. And I'm sorry you lose it when that stuff happens.

If you're genuine. If we did just mailed that one in, oh, then the ball was intercepted and Appalachian State wins in that call. Why?

Why? Because, you know, here I'm an alum of the school very proudly, and that was a moment that was going to change it all. And when it happened, it was like, oh, my gosh, this really paid off. And I think you also have to take into account the emotional roller coaster that the previous five minutes to that was.

App has got the lead. Mike Hart runs a 57 yard touchdown zigzagging through. I think he ran around every one of the 11 defensive players, like ran a circle around him on his way to the end zone.

It was it was an amazing run. And then the very next offensive play after the ensuing kickoff, Armani Edwards threw an interception game should have been over. I mean, it should have been over app state holds field goal opportunity for Michigan to have stretched it to where Apple to needed a touchdown to take the lead block that one.

Brian quick blocked that one. And then app got the ball, went down, kicked the field goal and then blocked the other one. But but I mean, you're talking about here is a monumental opportunity. And remember, App was housing them for a while, should have been up three scores at halftime. Yeah. And then all of a sudden it's given back and you're like, oh, man, that was an opportunity that would have been so amazing.

And then you get the dagger of the interception, but then you get the dagger of hope and then hope becomes realized and then it almost goes away again. I mean, it was it was I remember being so physically exhausted after that was over because it was just it was it was so emotionally heart wrenching and rewarding all at the same time. So, yeah, we're we hear that every August it comes up.

We just had the big 10 year anniversary not long ago. You know, it's been documented. It's one of the few instances where a school will not live down a moment and that be positive. Appalachian State is always going to be a be associated with that.

And for that reason, we'll always be associated with David Goliath perseverance type conversation. And it's going to be capped off by saying just like when App State beat Michigan. That's great, man.

No, no campus could ever pay enough money to get that kind of positive publicity. And for us, if we had it to do all over again, we would do it the exact same way. You're the man. It's fun. I mean, I got to meet you because of that, because then Patrick Kenis thought that I was cool enough to come hang out at his camp down in. And you were down there and Chris Edwards and the rest is history. Yeah, it was just the neatest thing listening to your broadcast when you were with Appalachian State going down to the sideline.

What do you got, dad? Yeah, it was well, and he still works with the team. He's still on the basketball crew. And it was a lot of fun. You know, you understand this when I say that these jobs are, you know, us as fans, we get passionate. We get excited about our teams and we email coaches at two thirty in the morning, our trick play ideas and all that kind of stuff because we're fans and we're crazy, right? That's that's that's that's the definition of fan.

But but for your hobby as a fan is someone else's job. And that job, as we heard Caroline on the David Glenn show earlier, Panthers got back at four in the morning yesterday from a preseason game. And many of them went straight to the office. That's what that grind is like. We get back from trips and coaches would go straight to film and we'd get ready for the next week.

And doing that for 15 years, traveling about one hundred and thirty days a year, travel in three sports for a long time to it. It just got to be the time where we're with a family that I wanted to see more of. It was time to do something else. I enjoyed it thoroughly. But but now the stuff that I get to do like this and and and other broadcast opportunities I have, it's a hobby and not a lifestyle. And I like it a lot more.

Let me let me use this as an opportunity to point out, though, I think Des said it was official as of today that ink to paper. We're going to be carrying Appalachian State again this fall. Appalachian State football right here on the sports hub.

It is the triad's home for Appalachian State football. It's good to have you. You know that Adam Whitten's been doing something. It's good to have you in here. Thanks for doing this today. Hey, thanks, man. Appreciate it. That is David Jackson kind enough to be in studio with us up next.

Criticizing your boss publicly. Courageous or foolish is the drive. I love talking and conversing with you. You're on the drive with Josh Graham, the sports hub at AM 600 AM 920. Sports Hub Triad is the station that plays all the best sports here in the triad. We had caller number seven winning tickets to go see the Ted Nugent show. Our winner is Mark in advance. Mark, tell us the station that plays all the best sports hits in the triad. That's right. Mark in advance. Thank you so much for the phone call.

Yeah. That's what we do. We play the best sports here at the triad. And we had caller number seven winning those tickets for next week. Congratulations to Mark.

Why do I sound like John Mulaney? There was a lot of controversy. We got to get to the important stuff. There was a lot of controversy in Nashville last night.

The big story. John Mayer mixed up his set list with questionable play calling. Namely, he decided to open his show with songs from the battle studies record, which has a large faction of the fan base asking questions and pointing figures. Fingers.

I got it. John Mayer. Had a press conference with one of his fellow band mates and gave an assessment on his controversial performance. You know, I think we just went out there tonight looking to hit really hard in the first set with a heartbreak warfare, which which I thought was really strong tonight.

And I thought I hit the falsettos really well. And then from there really told the story slow and steady. And by the time we got to the slow dancing solo, I feel like we we had him against the ropes and we would live to see another day. And I think that's when we all knew that it was going to be a great set. It's a good point that he brings up when he got the slow dancing in a burning room. That's when the show really started to hit its crescendo. That's why you go straight into waiting on the world to change after that and close things out with In the Blood and Dear Mama. How's this for a encore, though?

Gravity and new light. Perfect way to close the show. If you're John Mayer heartbreak warfare to open things up, though, that was a questionable album. If I was him, if I was going to do things the right way, you don't want to upset the fan base. You want to open the game the right way. You start things out with something from continuum.

I think maybe something I don't know, like I don't trust myself loving you. What do you say, Des? You know, just looking at the the recap here, I got to say, Josh, that I'm not sure why they waited so long to do your body as a wonderland. They waited all the way till set.

Absolutely makes no sense to me. Yes, it was the second song in set two. I don't know why John Mayer did that. Fortunately, he's going to have an opportunity to bounce back later on tonight. He's going to be performing in Charlotte at Spectrum Center.

It's his opportunity to have a recovery bounce back effort. But when you look at this set list, it just left you wanting more. When you look at the songs and where they're put, there was just a lot more that I wanted from John Mayer that, quite frankly, I just didn't get.

I will say that I was quite impressed with the the turnaround, right around waiting on the day into slow dancing in a burning room. The effort given by Mayer and his band was extraordinary. But where is Free Fallin'? Free Fallin', the cover of Tom Petty, or maybe even the Jimi Hendrix cover of Hey Joe or Along the Watchtower?

Where's that out? When I think of John Mayer, I'm thinking about him rocking the guitar and doing some covers. There wasn't enough guitar solo in my mind, so I thought it was a questionable performance by John Mayer, but he has a chance to bounce back later on tonight. Shifting things over to the Carolina Panthers. They faced the Bears last night. A couple of observations, random preseason game observations here. It's hard for me to get excited about NFL games when the players at skill positions are wearing single digit numbers. Do you feel this way? When you know a game is a preseason game, when the first snap, Aldric Robinson, is wearing number eight for the Panthers.

Like you have a wide receiver wearing number eight or number two. That just hurts the appeal to it for me. Not so much for me, and we have different views on preseason football in general, so I could see where you're coming from on that angle. Then again, I was the one that watched all of it. Exactly.

I don't know. Last night I knew I'm seeing Luke Kuechly with no pads on, Cam with no pads on. Pretty much anybody that's a first stringer didn't really play yesterday, so I settled in from the very beginning thinking, okay, I'm going to see second string guys first quarter, and then I'm going to see a bunch of guys I'm probably never going to see again in about two weeks.

Let me just accept it for what it is and go. So those numbers don't really bother me that much, but for someone like you that already has issues with preseason in general, I could see it just bothering you the entire night. I'm looking at some breaking news that we're getting out of the NFL. A lot of people were talking about Antonio Brown again. Raiders wide receiver Antonio Brown has told team officials that unless he gets to wear his old helmet, he will not play football again per league sources. His old helmet? It might be a situation where brandings of helmets change.

Antonio Brown believes this is more from Shafter. The new helmet that the rules mandate he wears protrudes out and interferes with his vision as he tries to catch the ball. The Raiders have been sending Brown and other teammates approved helmets to be trying out. At this time, he's not interested in wearing any of them. It's just another situation where Antonio Brown is being a little bit difficult. Tom Brady had to change his helmet and he did so and it worked out just fine. Antonio Brown doesn't seem to be in the same category from a leadership standpoint or in a diva or whatever the opposite of a diva is standpoint as well.

Real quick question while you're on Antonio Brown. This whole thing with the extreme frostbite stuff he's got going on with the bottom of his feet, how do you, what's the recovery time for, I mean we've all seen the picture at this point of the bottom of his feet. He had to have worn socks, right?

Something. They don't let you just, he has a trainer. There's someone who runs the cryotherapy chamber. They don't just let you walk in without socks. You're going to wear socks and here's the other reason I know he's wearing socks. He had to have a sock somewhere else. If you're getting, he didn't forget to wear that sock or else that headline's coming out too. Is that how it works? You have to wear a sock over that to get in the- You're not forgetting to wear a sock when you walk in to something that's 180 below zero. Like flea?

Red hot chili peppers? Like that? That's not frostbite either.

That's something else because frostbite turns the digits black. This is starting to get reckless. No, it's true. What we're doing is starting to get reckless when we're starting to be doctors and speculating what things are. Whatever we do, whatever you say next, I want the hip hop air horn as a result so we know that this is still very reckless what we're doing right now.

It's fine. Reckless is fair, but the digits- No, I just set you up though. You can say whatever you want now. Like you can jump to whatever conclusion you wish because you now have the freedom that the hip hop air horn gives you.

Let's do this. Antonio Brown has permanently damaged his feet. He'll never play football again and he's using his helmet stuff as a cop out. See, I appreciate that.

You said the thing that a lot of us are thinking. There's the frostbite news. He's saying he's not going to play again. Oh my gosh.

That'd be horrible. Speaking of jersey numbers, number 14 for the Carolina Panthers, has anyone ever worn that jersey number and been good? Fifteen? Fourteen.

Fourteen? Can you tell me who number 14 for the Carolina Panthers is right now or has been for the last few years? Last year it was Mose Frazier. That's who wore it last year. He wore it for a few years. He never amounted to much at wide receiver. I don't think he's on the team any longer. I doubt maybe he changed that number because he wasn't producing. Maybe it had something to do with the numbers. Can you tell me who it is now?

I learned this last night. Punt returner Jaden Mickens. How come it's always the punt returner too that wears number 14? It was Armonte Edwards. It's the curse of Armonte Edwards. That jersey number.

No one good ever wears it. Well, at least in Armonte's case, he came in from a background of being a quarterback because you normally associate that number with being a quarterback, right? So I understood it with Edwards, but just kind of tossing it on randoms that may or may not even make the roster. Has anyone ever worn that number with the Carolina Panthers and been a good player?

I don't think so. Armonte Edwards, Mose Frazier, Jaden Mickens. Those are the guys we're talking about. It's kind of like when Kemba Walker chose to wear number eight with the Boston Celtics. Celtics fans thought, uh oh, no one good has ever wore that number.

Antoine Walker didn't quite meet that bar and neither did Jeff Green or Al Jefferson or Stephon Marbury. Wearing number eight, that's not a good sign. Some people care a lot about jersey numbers. Some don't care at all. I happen to care.

I pay attention to such things. If you can find me a complete list of players who wore number 14, I would appreciate that. I don't have a complete list, but I did stumble across an article from the Charlotte Observer. The best player from the Panthers. Frank Wright.

Jazz history, all losses. Number. Is that a sign? That's not a good number to pick. Like if you're assigned 14, coaches are essentially telling you what they think of you. Like that's almost like getting cut. Like you should expect in the next few weeks. I'm about to get cut. Why? I'm wearing number 14. My apologies to Jaden Mickens that you had to find out this way.

If you deduct 10 from 14, you get four. That's what Joey Sly was wearing last night, kicking for the Panthers. Ron Rivera made it clear that they worked Graham Guineau very hard at camp. They didn't want to overload him.

So he didn't play last night. It's not a kicking competition. Panther fans like Joey Sly.

I'm a college football fan, though, and I follow college and the ACC very closely. Joey Sly is not a good kicker. Joey Sly was Virginia Tech fans can back me on this. He had some big field goals with Virginia Tech, but there were some stretches you had no idea.

What was going to happen with Joey Sly? But also, it bothered me seeing a kicker wear number for the same number as John Casey. Should John Casey's number be retired? If you're a Panthers fan, when you look at numbers that should be retired, never worn again by another Panther.

Eighty nines one with Steve Smith, 90 Julius Pepper. Seventeen, we've already had Devin Funches come out and wear that number. And I think there's another Panther that's wearing seventeen now that Funches is gone. But I think number four, there's a legit argument you can make that that number might be retired for the all time leading scorer in Panthers history. I would make that argument a little bit. It just feels wrong seeing somebody else wear that number.

Is there anybody with me on this? But Casey being number retired. I mean, I definitely think he'll be in the next class to go into the hall, the Panthers Hall of Honor or whatever they're calling it.

He if I'm not mistaken, he is the franchise leader in points, like you said. And he played, what, 20 years. So, I mean, he deserves it. I know there's still some angry folks out there about the Super Bowl 38 kicking the ball out of bounds. But he kicked the ball out of bounds. But let's also not forget the fact that the defense let him go 50 yards. I mean, it was Tom Brady.

Nobody wants to blame the defense. He kicked the ball. They got it at the 40. You let him go all the way inside your 30.

So what is that? Ten. You let him go 40 plus yards. You let him go 30, 35 yards. I don't know. But the general consensus is that had that not happened, you get a whole nother half of the field to try to stop Tom Brady in the Patriots. Which is BS.

Maybe. But the lingering sentiment is John Casey cost us at Super Bowl. Wait, when the game tied when the Patriots got the ball?

29, 29. So, yeah. So it wasn't like we were leading.

Also, you're going to overtime. So it didn't really cost you the game. Right.

Oh, that is factual. I'm just saying how people feel about John Casey. Saints fans feel like that referee cost them the game. They're still mad about it. They're still trying to get Roger Goodell on the record to say something. I don't know what they're wanting Goodell to say. I really have no clue what they want Goodell to say at this point.

But they're just trying to get the Goodell in court, having to speak on the record. That feels like a win for Saints fans when they're ultimate losers because of the way they handled things. And also the fact that they blew that game. You take the lead with the field goal. Your defense allows for the team to march all the way down the field to tie it.

Oh, and on top of that, you got the ball in overtime and you threw an interception. Saints fans, I don't want to hear it. Is it possible that Clemson football just got better?

We'll discuss next on the drive. If you're looking for a good college football read today, the headline on ESPN, how the one handed catch is taking over college football. David Hale from ESPN wrote it. He's been in Clemson getting a look at the Tigers as they look to defend their national title. And he now joins us on the show. And he's also one of the best Twitter handles, has one of the best handles you'll find across the land on Twitter at a David Hale joint.

That's where you can find him. How this week, how many times have you been catching footballs one handed as you got some did some research and got some info on how to do so at Clemson? Yeah, I mean, just tons and tons of reps, you know, that's getting into the preseason camp. You know, I got to it's the same for us.

We've got to get our reps in. No, I don't know. I've got a few beer lifts one handed.

That's that's my my feat of athleticism. Physically, how much differently does Trevor Lawrence look? I don't know.

Not I don't. I mean, the hair is still the same, right? That's the important part. That's where his power comes from. But, you know, he's he's filled out a little bit more, I guess. I wouldn't say that he looks like a completely different dude. But part of the allure of Trevor Lawrence is that he came in day one as it's not a finished product physically, certainly further ahead than you would expect.

Most typical freshman. I mean, I was in Dabo would say last year, like, look, you know, he's he's very similar to Deshaun in terms of where he's at in his development of a quarterback. But physically, he was ahead of Deshaun the day he arrived. So I think that's kind of the beauty of having a quarterback like Trevor Lawrence. One of the things that sort of sets him apart, it's not just the arm strength and the decision making and all of that.

He came in a pretty physically refined product from day one. And there's not a ton of these. You would say that about just talking about the offensive side of the ball with Clemson. Do you detect any weakness with what they have coming back, what they are right now?

Not really. I mean, this is certainly you look at any team and say, well, injuries could be a problem. And even at that point, there's some depth there that I don't know that a ton of other teams have.

They're replacing Mitch Hyatt, a four year starter, left tackle. And most teams should say, boy, that's a problem. But they've got a guy in Jackson, Carmen, who was a borderline five star recruit coming out of Ohio a couple of years ago, who got some playing time last year.

And I think everyone's pretty confident he's going to step in and do just fine. There's just not a real issue on offense anywhere. A lot of teams when Amare Rogers goes down and say, boy, that's a real problem. But A, Amare has been sort of insane in his rehab and could be back for the early part of the season. And B, they signed two blue chippers to come in. Frank Ladson and Joe Negada and both of those guys had huge spring games and look like they're ready to be the next big Clemson receiver. It's just, you know, there's not anywhere on that offensive side of the ball where you point to it.

You say, all right, well, I could see this being a problem. They're not great at tight ends, so all right, they'll run out three and four wide and it won't be a big deal. When you look at the schedule, where do you go in terms of potential places they could get tripped up?

Because you have a team that loses four starting defensive linemen, three of which that were drafted in the first round. Texas A&M has Kelly Mond back and back to back week two and week three. You have Kelly Mond to Texas A&M, albeit it's a home game. Then you go to Syracuse and even though they don't have Eric Dungy, that's still high octane pass game, passing game that they try to run over there with Dino Babers.

Is that the spot you would detect? Yeah, I mean, those are the two that obviously jump out of the schedule. And I'm not sure that there's another game. Maybe you make the case for South Carolina at the end of the year. But I'm not super concerned about Clemson's defense.

It'll probably require a little bit of growing pains to get where they want to be. And that is sort of the problem when you have likely your two toughest games coming in week two and week three. It does not give you a whole bunch of time for the guys on the defensive side of the ball to get their sea legs. I don't think they're super worried about the starters. I think they feel like, especially on the D line, they're good across the board with the ones.

It's the twos and the threes that are the problem. And I think that's why Syracuse is a particularly intriguing matchup. And it's part of the reason that Syracuse has been so successful against them, even when they had Christian Wilkins and Dexter Lawrence and Cleland Farrell. The tempo wears down the defensive line.

It forces you to either keep your ones on the field to the point of exhaustion or to try and run in guys quite ready. There's just, you could see confusion, especially the game two on the Syracuse set. And so you look at it and you say, all right, well, where is the week for Clemson?

And I think that is certainly probably the biggest thing. And you say, who can exploit that weakness? Well, Syracuse, there's no question that's who it is. So I think a lot of people are shrugging off that game. And I haven't looked at the point spreads recently, but it was a two touchdown game in favor of Clemson. So I don't know that anybody's picking Syracuse at this point.

But to me, that's definitely a tougher matchup than people are giving it credit for. David Hale, a great writer, ESPN college football writer and an even better Twitter follow at a David Hale joint on Twitter. You can find him while we're talking about Clemson. I just want to play a game called story or not a story. And we'll start with 13 self-imposed football violations for Clemson story or not a story. Story, because any time you have an illegal use of confetti to me, that's a good story.

So, I mean, you just if you if you run into some guy and he says, you know, he's got out of court and you say, why? He's like, confetti incident. That's a story you want to hear.

So I'm going to go with story. Have you ever used confetti? I have been on the field during some confetti situations and it's really not. I don't know where you even go buy confetti. I don't know. Is there like a section in the grocery store for confetti? Staples?

The Staples carry confetti? I don't know. Aaron, I want you to search this for us very quickly. It's very important. I want it by the end of this interview. Where do you buy confetti?

I want to figure that out. Meanwhile, playing our game here. Kelly Bryant not receiving a championship ring. Story or not a story? No, I'm on the fence about it. I think it's not a story because I don't really think anyone cares one way or the other. It's sort of in inciting this controversy that's not really there. But what is a story is this kind of continued sort of split between the folks who think that Kelly Bryant's just fine and made all the right decisions and maybe wasn't treated very fairly and all of this. And the folks who think, dude left in the middle of the season and Clemson could have easily lost the Syracuse because of it. And that national championship game may have never happened if that had been the case. I don't know that either side is necessarily wrong, but it is pretty clear there's a division among fans, among pundits, whatever, that we don't exactly see eye to eye on this.

And it's a story because we haven't seen the last of it. After week four this year, there's going to be people like Kelly Bryant making similar decisions again. And I don't know that it was a big deal for, what, a week and a half last year and then everybody kind of forgot about it again.

It's going to come back around again at the end of September. Is the relationship between Dabo and Kelly Bryant contentious at this point? Did they not leave amicably at the end? They certainly didn't leave amicably and contentious maybe.

Yeah, I mean, I guess it's probably not a terrible word to use. The long and short of it is Kelly essentially ghosted them. He was in a quarterback meeting and he said he'd be at practice and he just never showed up. And the only way that Clemson ever found out he was leaving is he sent one text message to Dabo saying he was leaving. So that's not exactly what I would call the most professional way of handling it, though I'm not a millennial. I hear the kids today are real big into ghosting.

I don't know. I think Kelly certainly did not endear himself with many people around the Clemson program when he made comments afterwards that he didn't feel like he was treated fairly there, because I think most people within Clemson feel like he was treated extremely fairly. Now, having said all of that, Dabo has said, look, I wish Kelly the best. I like him as a person.

I hope he's successful. I think that's about all you can expect from either side. I think Kelly wants to move on with his career.

I don't in any way blame him for wanting to get another year and a chance to play and a chance to better himself and hopefully have an NFL career. I think that's all reasonable. But there was definitely it was definitely not handled. And in my opinion, not handled by Kelly Bryant particularly well when the decision happened.

You can purchase all your confetti needs at a local party city, Walmart, Supercenter or Target. Now, you know. Wonderful. David Hale with us here on the drive from ESPN. Last but not least, I never saw this before, but last night on Late Night, you could flip between ABC, NBC and CBS, the late night show that they have. And at the same time, it was Ron Burgundy on all the different shows doing different acts. He was on Conan. He was on Seth Meyers, too. So I just flippantly assumed that Ron Burgundy is the best Will Ferrell character.

And we have it on a poll right now. Ricky Bobby, Buddy the Elf, Ron Burgundy or Brennan from Step Brothers. Which do you view David Hale as being the best Will Ferrell character?

Oh, so I mean, man, you know, because they're all so it kind of has to be what mood you're in. What's that? What's that? I think I would go with Ricky Bobby just because it's so ridiculous.

But you only go off the board and just say going back to his Saturday Night Live days, Will Ferrell playing Harry Caray and Will Ferrell playing Neil Diamond are two of my all time favorites. Whoa. Going off the board. David Hale. Whoa. Incredible. Remarkable stuff. The poll right now says 45 percent Ron Burgundy. You could continue to vote on that, though. And while you're at it online, read the story.

It is how the one handed catch is taking over college football. It is authored by David Hale, who's kind enough to spend some time with us this afternoon. Thanks for doing it, David. My pleasure. You all have a good one. I'm off to buy some confetti.

Do that, please. Thank you. That's David Hale from ESPN on Twitter at a David Hale joint. If you were to buy confetti, what would you use it for? Celebration of like do we still have that cool in the game? Like, OK, I just went to the local party city and we're just hanging out, having some fun.

I have a good one. Pittsburgh Steelers locker room. Antonio Brown is threatening not to play this year.

Where can we get some confetti? Mike Tomlin's probably just swaggering around the locker room, firing the double finger gun. Yeah, yeah. You know it. You know it.

What's going on, Juju Smith Schuster? You know why I like you? You are not AP. That's right. That's right. You know it. What is that voice?

That's my Mike Tomlin impression. That's right. Yeah, yeah. Buy some confetti.

That's what we're going to do. What part of the store is the confetti in? It is Friday. I don't know what part of the store it's in. Probably right beside the glitter.

That is the shadow land. Good stuff. Three three six seven seven seven one six hundred. Last call for phone calls. Including how do you think the Pittsburgh Steelers locker room is reacting right now to the Antonio Brown news? And what's the best Will Ferrell character? He went off the board. I should have said movies, but it sounded like he was just trying to take an escape route because it sounded like I wanted to ask. What's the one on your mind right now? Because he had one on his mind. But then he didn't want to say it because he started considering the other candidates.

But the first one he said was Ricky Bobby. Right now, the poll says forty four percent. Ron Burgundy. Twenty six percent. Ricky Bobby. Twenty one percent.

Buddy the elf. Nine percent for Brennan from stepbrothers. The disrespect towards Brennan from stepbrothers. It's very similar to the disrespect I'd imagine Daniel Jones was feeling. But then last night, Daniel Jones just comes out and slings it.

See, we have this character that I don't know if it's a good character or not. It's a good bit, but we're running it until we're going to run it into the ground. It's Eli Manning and Daniel Jones. We try to imagine what these conversations sound like.

And we have a more confident sounding Daniel Jones after he is perfect passing last night against the New York Jets. Eli, did you see what I just did? Did you? Yeah, I was I was there. Yeah, you are. You were on the sideline. I was when I was doing what I was doing, but I started the game. Yeah, but it ain't how you start.

It's how you look when you in there. Well, coach didn't let me keep playing because I'm the starter. Starters don't play the first preseason game. Well, you know what? I was walking to the bathroom the other night and I was walking past the coach's room and I overheard talking. They lied to you. No, you didn't. They did. I did too.

I don't know. No, you didn't. I did.

I had to go use the bathroom. You didn't lie to Eli. We're going to let Eli play a couple of games, a couple of snaps in the beginning to make them think he's going to be the starter.

But he ain't the starter and he should know he started because we drafted the quarterback in the first round. And then they started saying a bunch of expletives and stuff about you. And I'm not going to go and tell that explore what expletives.

What's that mean? See, at Duke, they teaches these big words so we can look all crazy when we out here in public. They don't do that at Ole Miss. No, no, they can't do that down there.

Expletive means like naughty word, bad word, curse word. They were saying that about you. I don't believe you. Coach Cut.

Coach Cut. You weren't saying naughty things about me. These expletives. You weren't saying that, were you?

Oh, next question. I don't know how you want the truth or you want me to kind of like sugarcoat it a little. Coach, he can't handle the truth, OK?

He can't handle the truth. Eli, he's a man. And as a man, sometimes, you know, you have a hard life lessons that you have to learn. You might you might be riding some pine this year, but I'm out for five. I'm a man. I'm two years from 40. I'm a man.

I'm 40. You know what my quarterback rating was last night, Eli? Why don't you take a guess?

The same as mine, I'd imagine. One hundred fifty three. Excuse me. One hundred fifty eight point three. I almost sold myself a couple points short.

I think that's perfect. You know what day it is, Desmond? Or where's Desmond? Who is who? Daniel, you know what day it is? The day I took your job? No, it's life hack Friday!