The Drive with Josh Graham - Remembering Skip Prosser

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It's brilliant. It's official. Cam Newton can throw a ball further than 40 yards. He hit a wide open Curtis Samuel on a post pattern last night and what we can easily call the most exciting play in the history of Carolina Panthers training camp.

Why? Because Cam Newton's still got it. Cam's shoulder is the difference between the Carolina Panthers picking in the top 10 next spring and the Panthers playing in January with a first round playoff bye. Oh yeah, while I'm thinking about it, Joe Weil worked in movie lines for You the Audience, lines submitted by You the Audience into the Winston-Salem Dash broadcast right here on the Sports Hub.

This batch might be the best work he's done. So Dez, grab a couple of those clips so we can play them in a few minutes. But I do feel like Cam Newton sent a message last night hearing all the doubters the last few months. I don't know if he could ever throw the deep ball again.

I'm concerned about his shoulder. The Panthers, they won't be able to contend. This could be the end of Ron Rivera and Cam Newton and Charlotte, yada, yada, yada, yada. Cam Newton wanted to show some people last night that he still has the zip, that he's just a few seasons removed from being the MVP of the NFL, that he is a future Hall of Fame quarterback. So very early on, he throws that pass, a pass that he wasn't able to throw physically all of last year. We focus on the losing streak after the Panthers were 6-2. But even before that, Cam Newton wasn't throwing the ball 40 yards.

So it really is significant to see that. It reminded me of Cam Newton's first preseason game. I remember it very vividly for some reason. They were playing the New York Giants.

It was in Charlotte. You had all the talking heads, Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith doubting Cam, saying they don't know if he has the pocket presence, if he has the arm strength. He wasn't really a number one overall pick kind of quarterback. The Panthers just needed one, and he was just the best one in a down quarterback year. Then there was a slant right in the first quarter. I forget who he completed it to, but it was a fastball right on the numbers, hit somebody right in stride before they even broke out of their route. And I thought in that moment, oh wow, Cam is for real.

Oh wow, this is the best quarterback the Panthers have had. And he showed it game one against the Cardinals, and he's shown it in the years following that. That's what it reminded me last night.

That's what it reminded me of. He could not physically throw the deep ball, and Carolina started 6-2 a year ago. Cam was putting up MVP numbers without being able to throw the ball. A lot of people are concerned because we've seen this movie before, Cam getting the procedure, then his arm getting to a point where it's deteriorated and having to be taken out for the final game of the year.

The final two games I should say. But remember, Cam had the surgery in 2017, two years ago. And that was done in March. He still was ready for the start of the year. He played 16 games, threw for 3,000 yards, Carolina went 11-5. This was a cleanup of that surgery from two years ago. It wasn't reconstruction, and plus it was done in January. He's been throwing since the end of April.

He's had more rest for a less severe procedure. I believe the offensive line's better now than it was two years ago. I believe the Panthers' weapons are better now than they were two years ago. So if Cam Newton's healthy, I think the Panthers are going to contend in the NFC South. The only time a team has ever won three consecutive NFC South titles was when the Panthers did so in 13, 14, and 15. The New Orleans Saints are going for three in a row. Now, you have to say New Orleans is the favorite since Carolina has only beaten them once the last few years.

And that was with Kyle Allen at quarterback and New Orleans was playing all of their backups, preparing for the playoffs a year ago. But history shows us that teams don't win this division three times. Even Carolina, when they won it the second time, they were 7-8-1 on that season. So it was a down year when Carolina won consecutive division crowns.

Ron Rivera and Cam are still around. And you could argue the NFC South is the best division in the NFL right now. The only other one I think that's in the discussion is the AFC West. You have the Chiefs and the Chargers, who are two of the top five teams in the NFL. The Raiders and the Broncos.

You really don't know what you're going to get. Broncos a new coach. Broncos a new quarterback. Great organization led by John Elway.

Oakland adding Antonio Brown. That might be the best division only because Tampa is that bad. Tampa Bay is one of the four teams today I know are going to be bad this year. There are only four teams today I can speak with absolute certainty are going to be bad that are going to finish under 500 this year. Tampa Bay, the New York Giants who lost Corey Coleman for the year today. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, as I mentioned, the Arizona Cardinals and the Miami Dolphins.

Cardinals, Bucks, Dolphins, Giants, they are the four teams I know are going to be bad. Since the Bucks are bad, I think that holds back the South. I think the South is going to get three teams into the playoffs. I like Atlanta bouncing back with Dirk Kutter calling the plays and Mike Malarkey there too, replacing Steve Sarkisian. I like Carolina, of course, they very well could win the division. And I still think the New Orleans Saints are the favorite.

Whoever wins the division is probably going to get a first round bye. Today's also the 12 year anniversary of the passing of Skip Prosser. So a big day here in Winston-Salem as we'll talk plenty about the legendary basketball coach at Wake Forest.

It's crazy to think it's been 12 years. So there's a faction of the audience that might not remember much about the games he coached or the impact he had on Wake Forest. So that will be discussed. Stan Cotton will join us in about 20 minutes to discuss that, the voice of the Demon Deacons. Let's get to the voice of the dash though, Joe Weil, what he did last night.

I would contend that this is one of the best batches Joe Weil has ever given us. The audience, you came strong yesterday. You gave us great lines and Joe returned the favor in kind.

If you're listening to that, it's great with the context. Even without it, though, that just sounds like a great line that an old timey baseball broadcaster would say. Hey, listen here, Joey Roberts fell for that pitch like a blind roofer. I sure did.

Yeah, he really did see. Desmond Johnson producing this show, Aaron Gabriel hanging out as well. The gang's all here.

Give me another of Joe Weil's calls. I love Van Wilder. When you think Ryan Reynolds movies. Is that immediately where you go? Where do you go, Aaron? Deadpool. OK, that makes sense.

For me, it's either. What movie were you going to say, Des? Waiting. Oh, Waiting. That's a good one.

I was also thinking Just Friends. Whatever happened to Amy Smart? She just kind of did that thing. She's in Hollywood for like five years and went off. She's probably a teacher in Oregon or something right now. Just disappeared. Yeah, she might be like a chef somewhere. Take the Coolio route.

I can see her doing that. Coolio, one of my favorite 90s rappers. And now I think he's really big in the culinary arts community. Really? Fun fact. That is a surprise.

Don't say you've learned nothing today. What's next? One, two pitch. Swing and a miss. Strike three. One gone here in the bottom of the fifth inning. Cavanario continues to dominate the Salem Red Sox coming into this start. He had three wins and three outings. He's already posted four in the third shutout frames against Salem. And listen, for the Red Sox, truth hurts.

Maybe not as much as jumping on a bicycle with a seat missing, but it hurts. And the truth is Cavanario is a strong pitcher. It didn't sound like he was reading at all. Wow. I got to, because I was skeptical about that one yesterday. I got to give him props on that.

That's pretty good. Stop doubting Joe. I know, I know. Stop trying to protect Joe. Stop doubting Joe.

That's from The Naked Gun. He is damn good. The last of Joe Weil's calls from last night.

1-1. Popped up down the right field line. Long run for the right fielder. Corcino, and he watches it bang off the wall. Corcino picks it up, tosses it towards second base. Perez slides in, and he's in there safely as a shortstop.

Fitzgerald could not corral the one-hop throw. Carlos Perez has hit the ball hard twice today. Two doubles and two at bats, and that's a bingo. Quentin Tarantino's best. I love Inglourious Basterds. Speaking of Tarantino, I went to see Once Upon a Time in Hollywood last night. The movie debuted. It was Quentin Tarantino's, or it is Quentin Tarantino's, ninth movie.

He's supposed to direct ten, or at least that's his plan. It was classic Tarantino. Des, you're a big Tarantino fan, so the length of the movie isn't going to deter you. Two hours, 45 minutes. It probably was 45 minutes too long, but then it ties together at the end and the ending's very satisfying. That's all I'm going to say about it.

No spoilers you're going to find here. History-altering, that's something that Tarantino's played around with and he did here. It's Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt both doing Pitt and DiCaprio-like things. Margot Robbie, I would say, is probably the most attractive woman I've ever seen in a movie. I'd go as far to say that. But on the other side, Brad Pitt probably is the most handsome man you will find.

So the combination of the two, it's worth the price of admission in its own right. Margot Robbie playing, who's the actress that she's playing? Oh, Sharon Tate.

She's playing Sharon Tate and Brad Pitt, in one scene, is on a roof, shirtless. So, that's my selling point for the movie there. Take my money. Selectively violent and the violence is always hilarious. You always find yourself laughing at the violence in this movie. The ending is incredible.

It's such a great payoff. It's classic Tarantino, so I strongly suggest you go see it. The Drive is broadcast live in the law offices of Timothy D. Wellborn Studios. Learn more about the way Tim Wellborn can help you online at TimWellborn.com. You'll know when you need us. Coming up, why Skip Prosser represented the best of college sports. This is The Drive. Twelve years ago today, Skip Prosser died suffering a massive heart attack in his office. And you could argue Wake Forest basketball still hasn't completely recovered from that yet.

The voice of the Demon Deacon Stan Cotton will join us in fifteen minutes to share some memories about Coach Prosser. And to me, I loved ACC basketball. I still do love ACC basketball. And I think that era of Big Four hoops is often overlooked. Speaking about 2004 to maybe 2006, 2007. In my view, that might have been one of the best eras in the history of Big Four basketball. Because how often can you remember a time when all four teams were good?

Think about it. In the early 80s when NC State won with Valvano and North Carolina had MJ and Worthy and Duke was just getting it fired up. Duke was still in a rough spot with Coach K and Wake Forest wasn't on that same level where they're competing for ACC championships.

That was pre Muggsy Bogues in the late 1990s when Duke and North Carolina were going head to head with all of those NBA lottery draft picks. NC State was a bit down. Wake Forest had Tim Duncan. They had great teams, but NC State quite wasn't there. But in those seasons, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, when Wake had Chris Paul and Josh Howard and NC State had Julius Hodge and were led by Herb Sendek. Duke with J.J. Redick and Sheldon Williams. North Carolina, the only one of the four that won the national title during that stretch with Sean May and them boys.

I really do feel like that was one of the best, most fun eras of Big Four basketball you can remember. Because there was little certainty of who the best program was at that point. You could argue Wake Forest. Out of the four teams, Wake Forest turned out to have the best player of the bunch, didn't they?

When you think of those four programs, the players who went through it. Who on Duke, North Carolina or NC State would you say is a better player than Chris Paul is? Chris Paul was. I don't think there's anybody I would... Maybe J.J. Redick at Duke? Maybe Sean May?

What would you say? I was going to mention Grant Hill. Well, no, no, I'm talking about 2004 through 2007. Oh, yeah, Redick, I mean, national player of the year. Out of those four, it probably would be J.J. Redick. But looking at the complete picture now, Chris Paul, a better player than J.J. Redick is at the next level. I would say that Duke just had more talent around J.J. Redick than Chris Paul had. And Chris Paul had a lot of talent.

But that's just the larger landscape of Big Four basketball at that time. Narrowing it in at Skip Prosser or on Skip Prosser, to me, he represented everything great about college sports. He was a positive influence and he elevated everybody around him.

Everybody. Dino Gaudio putting him in a position where he could be successful for a couple of years after his passing. The players, of course, the ones that went on to the NBA, but many more who didn't, who are a lot better and a lot more prepared for life because of Skip. His family. We had Mark Prosser on the show a few times talking about his dad when he went to face Wake Forest in a building that had his dad's name in the rafters. And he just constantly spoke about how well his father prepared him to be a coach, to be a husband, to be just an overall good citizen. He was an academic. Quoting throw and using S.A.T.

words regularly, just throwing them casually into conversation. Now, I never met Skip Prosser, but watching ACC basketball my entire life, that's just a man that I grew to admire from afar, somebody I wish I had a chance to know. He was the perfect fit for Wake Forest.

A guy dropping S.A.T. words on a private institution campus. It was a great fit, and I'm interested in what stories Stan Cotton can add when he joins us in a short while. The drive brought to you in part by our friends at Twin Peaks Restaurant. Find them Haynes Mall Boulevard and Winston-Salem. It is your local sports lodge. Learn more about them and visit them Haynes Mall Boulevard and Winston-Salem.

Twin Peaks eats, drinks, scenic views. I think Charlotte's going to get an MLS team when you consider you've got the cash man, the richest NFL owner interested in David Tepper. Tom Glick's a soccer guy, New York FC president for a year.

He was a COO for Man City across the pond. Charlotte has an NFL stadium. It's a big city, ninth most populous in the country. The International Cup deal. I think a significant gold cup games have been played there. Validation with soccer players saying that Charlotte's a great market for soccer. Megan Rapinoe said that last weekend while Arsenal was in town. I think it's going to be St. Louis, Sacramento, and Charlotte that gets the teams.

But here's what I want. If Charlotte gets a team, what are we going to call them? I love talking about nicknames and uniforms.

And usually the best time to do that is in July. Nicknames and uniforms. So, on Twitter, at sportsubtriad, 336-777-1600. If you have Charlotte soccer team names, send those in. It could be the Carolina something, since you know David Tepper's going to want to factor South Carolina into this as well. The Charlotte something, 336-777-1600. Or if you're a Wake Forest fan and would like to share some thoughts on Skip Prosser, the phone line is open for that as well. Aaron, do you have anything for us?

I got a few. Okay. Going with the whole North Carolina, South Carolina thing, I was thinking Carolina United. Carolina United. I like that one. Ryland on Twitter says, the Charlotte young boys. I don't know about that, bro.

Young boys? Charlotte Checkers FC. Don't we already have a Charlotte Checkers? The Charlotte Checkers are the AHL champs.

They won the Calder Cup. I was also thinking NCFC. We already have an NCFC. Do we?

They're in Raleigh. Oh, how about that? Okay. You're really starting to hit a nerve with me right now.

And maybe this is going to be seen as intolerant to some cultures. Oh, boy. Here we go.

Can we stop copying the British? Okay. We don't use United and FC. We have a North Carolina FC.

Do you know what they're called? The bleeping Panthers. That's what they are.

Our North Carolina FC is the Carolina Panthers. Let's stop mimicking the British. They call their fields pitches. We call it fields. They call shoes boots. We call them cleats. Well, we're kind of late to this whole soccer thing.

We're learning. No, we call it soccer. They call it football. Let's embrace our own soccer. Whatever it is. So, NCSC.

Soccer Club. There it is. I'm down with that. I got a couple here that don't mimic anything from the British.

If you call them mimicking the British, I'll fight you. A real Salt Lake. Whatever the hell that is. Yeah. No. Enter Miami.

Bleep off. How about the Charlotte Kicks? The Charlotte Kicks? I bet you.

Can Jordan Brandt sponsor them? Hey, now you're talking. See? Charlotte Kicks. Jumpman. Jumpman.

They haven't invaded the soccer market yet. I like it. Okay. What else? The Charlotte Fever. Why? I don't know. It just kind of. Wait.

Actually, isn't there a fever already? I think in MLS. I think it's in the WNBA.

Okay. Then I started looking at the history of Charlotte. They are apparently super important during the Revolutionary War, so I've got the Charlotte Independence, which actually is the name of a high school down there, and then the Charlotte Revolution.

We already have, actually. It's the North Carolina Independence that is a soccer team already in Charlotte. The New England MLS franchise is the Revolution. They are the Revolution.

Oh, dang it. So take those two off. Prince and the Revolution.

Kicks and the Fever. The Charlotte Racers, because of our NASCAR history. Okay. Racers. I like that. The Charlotte Racers. Or the Wildcats, just because Panthers.

Bring that Bobcat name back. Yeah. Like the Charlotte Bobcats. The Charlotte Bobcats? Yeah. No, let that die.

Instead of it being a Bobcat, just the head of Bob Johnson. All right. We need to do a lot better than this. On Twitter at Sports Hub Tryout, we could come up with better names, because you both agreed, yeah, let's just go Carolina theme, and then three of the four that I've gotten, Charlotte Kick, Charlotte Fever, and Charlotte Racers.

Well, the independents, but y'all kind of poo-pooed that. Well, no. It already exists in Charlotte. Yeah.

And the Revolution, you said, already exists. I mean, honestly speaking, what's North Carolina really known for? Barbecue? I was about to say barbecue.

Yeah. Charlotte barbecue doesn't really have a ring, does it? Charlotte pulled pork.

That didn't really strike anybody. The Carolina Hurricanes have a mascot that is an ice hog. What in the world is an ice hog? It is.

It's pretty self-explanatory. I know. It is a pig on skates, Des. Why?

Because we like eating them. The Charlotte Queens. The long-time voice of the Demon Deacon, Stan Cotton, will share some Skip Prosser stories next on The Drive. Stay tuned. This is... Countdown. Command. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. I would like to introduce to you at this time... The Sports Hub at AM600, AM920. Now back to The Drive with Josh Graham.

The long-time voice of Wake Forest Athletics, Stan Cotton, now with us on The Drive. Often I could be accused of being an English snob. I'm very particular about what words mean in the language. When I hear people using unique and rare almost like they are synonymous terms, it bothers me. Rare means a few.

You don't see it happen very often. Unique means just one. And I think the man that we've been spending a little bit of time talking about today, Skip Prosser, who passed away 12 years ago, is somebody who can qualify, be qualified as being a unique individual. And your mind, Stan, with your experience with him, what makes Skip Prosser unique to you?

Oh, man, well, you're, number one, exactly right. I mean, I think there was one Skip. There'll never be another.

Not even close. You know, I think one of the more unique things about him as a human being was that regardless of who you were, Prince or Pauper, I mean, Skipper's your guy. He could meet anyone at whatever level because he genuinely loved people.

He just did. And I don't think he ever saw himself as better than anyone else. He was just Skip. He was just a guy. He was a teacher. He was a basketball coach. And that's what he did. Oh, what do you do, by the way?

Oh, you're this or that, whatever. He could carry on a conversation with anyone. And I think that's something we can all learn a whole lot from.

And if we were all more just a little bit like Skip, this would be a better place. When I was traveling around doing basketball play-by-play, I enjoyed it so much because how small in that sport the group is. When you have 10 or 15 players, a manager, some trainers, then of course the coaching staff, you really get a chance to know that small group of people over the span of a 30 or 40 game schedule.

And I always found the best stories I have are on airplanes or in restaurants or at shoot arounds when the cameras are not fixed on you, when things are a little bit more private. What win was most memorable to you as somebody who has a peek behind the curtain that many people don't or didn't when Skip Prosser was coaching? Well any win was a good one because Skip, more than anybody I've ever met, hated to lose. I mean, he would rather do anything than lose a game.

He took it personally, every single one. Now he reacted a little bit differently as he got along his career. I remember early in his days at Wake we'd be doing a post-game show, and if it was after a loss, many times he was just a bear, he was not happy, he just beside himself. I remember one time early, probably without question it was in the first year he was the head coach at Wake after a loss, and I can't remember the game specifically, but we went to a commercial break during his post-game interview and he kind of slammed the headset down on the tabletop in disgust and said, that's a $450 headset, and he said, well it's a good thing I can afford it.

I can afford it now. But he handled the feat better over the years, but he just hated it. He really, really did, and he loved the win, and I remember the triple overtime win in his first trip to Chapel Hill with Eric Williams and Chris Paul on that team, they were both freshmen. When he got to Wake Forest he just thought it was so cool to be in the best basketball league in the country, the ACC, and when you played one of the other Big Four teams, whether it be Duke or State, and then this instance Carolina, he really got jacked up with those games. And to go to Chapel Hill in the Smith Center and win that game was just, I remember him being so happy after that game. But you know what, he loved every game, period, win or lose, but boy did he like to win and boy did he hate to lose. And speaking of a loss, what it is, what a loss it was for all of us, not just Wake, but the ACC, College of Basketball, humanity, with a huge loss when Skip died. And I don't, I've never gotten over it, I don't think Wake basketball really has ever gotten over it, and it never will, and it shouldn't.

He was that special, that, as you said, rightly so unique. 12 years ago today, Skip Prosser passed, we are being joined by Stan Cotton, the longtime play-by-play voice of the Deacs, who you can follow on Twitter, at StanCottonWF. Another note on that game in Chapel Hill, way back when, 2003-2004 ballpark, I was talking to Chris Mack after Louisville beat North Carolina in Chapel Hill earlier this year. He said that the last time he was in the Smith Center, you had to go all the way back to that win because he was only an assistant for Coach Prosser at Wake Forest for two or three years. So he didn't return to Chapel Hill again until he was with the Louisville Cardinals last year, being his first year.

They got a win up there, and it was in dominant fashion. He was pretty emotional speaking about Coach Prosser, but also just winning in that place because of that. Do you remember the first time you met Skip?

I do. It was the day he was introduced as the head coach. He was at the press conference, and afterward, there were a lot of people, as you might imagine, who wanted to go meet Skip, and I was one of those. I just got in line, and when I got up to him, I just stuck out my hand and said, hi, Skip.

My name is Stan Cotton. Then immediately, he said, was the voice. That told you something about Skip. He had done his homework, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who was going to be working with him, that he had done his homework about, and he knew as soon as they introduced themselves. But that really impressed upon me the kind of guy that he was, the kind of detail guy that he was. I'm not sure I can recall him ever saying my name. After that, he always called me, hey, voice, hey, voice. He would stop by and sit down on the couch in my office at Wake Forest on campus, hey, voice.

He would ask a question, hey, voice. So that's what he called me. He had nicknames for almost everybody, and that's another thing that made him very special.

But that first night that I met him, first afternoon, whatever it was, and he knew who I was because he had done his homework prior to that was special. Do you have a favorite Skipism? You know, I really don't. We've heard a lot of them. I've seen a lot of them on Twitter today.

You just knew you were going to get them. I remember doing coaches' shows with him. His vocabulary was incredible, and he would always come up with a word or two during a coaches' show that I had never heard of.

Have you ever worked any of those words in? Is there a word or two that sticks out that Stan Cotton still uses today because he once heard it out of the mouth? One of my favorite words that was a skipper, as I used to call him, was a skipper that I had never heard and ever used at the time was a vicissitude. He was talking about how, we were talking about, I think it was about the ACC and how tough it was to exist in what we all think is probably the best, over the years, basketball conference in the country. And he said, well, that's just the vicissitudes of being in the ACC.

And I looked at him like he had three heads because I'd never heard that word before. What word is it? There's a lot of words. Vicissitudes. Vicissitudes? V-I-C-C. Vicissitudes.

Okay. Let's get the definition of that up really quickly, Desmond Johnson. Vicissitudes. Yeah. Look that one up.

And it's just difficulties or struggles or whatever. But that was just skip. I mean, that's just the kind of vocabulary he had.

And I'm an old hillbilly. I don't use those kind of words. Well, just about every coach's show, he would use one, two, three of those gems that I would have to look up. I would kind of nod my head like I knew what he was talking about and go back and learn something.

You know, that's the deal about being around skip. I mean, you walked away with him. You learned about an author. I remember one time we were on an airplane going from a basketball game, and I liked to read. And he said, hey, boys, what are you reading there? And I showed him the book.

And he said, oh, yeah. And he rips off about seven or eight more titles from that author that you ought to read. I mean, I don't care what it was. He'd read it. I mean, I think he read every word ever written of every book.

I don't care if it was a novel, autobiography, whatever, fiction, nonfiction, Skip Rosser had read it. And again, that was just one of the things that made him a beautiful, beautiful person to be around. Viscisitude, a change of circumstances or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome or pleasant.

They're like, quote, her husband's sharp vicissitude of fortune. Yeah, the vicissitudes of being in the ACC tough, tough sledding, changing gears a bit before we let you go. It's the summer and I'm holding true to my word, something I told you we do with us with a ticket to the house touchdown call that we play every single day on this show to close things out. But we need to follow through on what we said we're going to do. I said I'm going to watch The Outlaw, Josie Wales, which I've never seen before.

Your favorite Clint Eastwood movie. We need to make this happen, Stan Cotton. We will. And you and I have talked about this. But we will get that done. We've had it's been a crazy kind of summer. We've been gone a ton.

And the weekends just turned out to be, you know, most of them we haven't been around or had a ton of stuff to do. But mark my word, we will get that done. We might even make it a doubleheader and throw another Clint movie in this story that you haven't seen.

If you're going to come all the way out to Davie County, we might have to throw a double feature. We will get it done. Mark, we will get that done. Don't you worry. I'll bring some pie guys pizza.

We'll make it happen. Thanks. Oh, man. I was there the other day and I didn't even know it. And they brought me my pizza, which was the one I ordered, but it was a smaller one and I hadn't picked up on it.

And three minutes later, they brought a huge one that I took home and ate for about three or four days. So those those folks are fantastic. And if you haven't been to Pie Guys Pizza and Clemmons, you need to go. Stan, thanks for that and for sharing some thoughts on Skip Prosser today. It's appreciated. You bet. Always an odd day on this anniversary, but we love remembering Skip.

We do. He was he was the best. Yes, he was. Thank you so much, Stan. The famous of the Demon Deacon Stan Cotton on Twitter at Stan Cotton WF. And on top of that, I reiterate what he says, that the folks at Pie Guys are among the best out there. Try the Graham Slam pizza. Try the Moravian sugarcane pie that I've been really pushing. They've only had it on the menu a couple of weeks. It's one of the best desserts you'll find out there. And you can only find it at Pie Guys Pizza and more online at pie guys dot com.

Kenneman Village Commons right off of Lewisville Clemmons Road. We're going to make this happen, Des. We're going to go to the Stan Cotton Radio Ranch and watch some Clint Eastwood movies, including The Outlaw, Josie Wales. Up next, a decision made this week that will set the tone for ESPN for the next decade. Keep it here on the drive. This is where the magic starts. You're on the drive with Josh Graham. Showtime.

The Sports Hub at A.M. 600, A.M. 920. More bad news for the New York Giants. They learned that Corey Coleman is going to be out for the entire season. It's the first major training camp injury we know about. The Giants are already without Odell Beckham Jr., who they traded away this offseason. Olivier Vernon not a part of this team either. The first pass by Daniel Jones yesterday as a giant during training camp sailed over the head of its intended target by over 20 yards.

So things are going to get interesting in New York. In fact, it seems like even as bad as Eli Manning has been, Eli Manning is going to be the starter for the foreseeable future, probably this entire season. But I bet you Eli Manning and Daniel Jones are very close. What do you think the advice sounded like that Eli Manning gave Daniel Jones after he missed that first pass?

How do you think that sounded? Say, man, I don't know what you was throwing at, but you might want to aim a little lower next time, you think? You know, I was thinking about throwing it lower, but if I throw it in the field of play, it might get picked off.

Maybe. But then it might get caught. I mean, you're right, but Coach Cutt, he told me back when I was at Duke that if you don't think your guy is going to catch it, just throw it out of bounds. It's better than getting caught by the other team. Well, that could be true. But I mean, I look at me, hell, I got two Super Bowl MVPs and I throw it to the other team all the time.

Don't affect me. That's true. So would you rather say throw it to the other team versus throw it out of bounds? Hmm.

Depends on the team. OK. I mean, if it's like, you know, like somebody that I really, really like, then I might maybe throw it to them. But not intentionally.

It just it just happens that way. You know, David Cutcliffe, I think, is right over here. Coach Cutcliffe. What do you what do you think about the situation?

What advice do you have for me and Eli? Well, what worked for Eli was aim for a fellow's helmet and maybe he'll pull it down. Is that what you told me to do?

Yeah. Because I haven't been aiming at helmets, Coach. I've been aiming at like like shoes and like blades of grass on the sideline and sometimes birds.

But they they move so fast. Well, what kind of place do you like to eat at dinner, Eli? What kind of what now? Well, what do you like to eat for dinner? Well, I like chicken. Sometimes I like to eat chicken with like shrimp. Sometimes I like pork.

Wow. I like a burger. I like a real good burger sometimes. Do you miss Odell? What was he like? Well, I miss him.

No, not really. He I don't know. He just he was real loud to me. He was loud. He was a colorful character.

I don't know. He liked to catch though. He was real good.

He catch the ball. Oh, is that Odell right over there? Oh, hey.

Oh, I'm sorry. Hey, Odell. Hey, Odell. Hey, man.

I didn't even know that you was behind me like that. Well, actually, I was just gonna let you guys know. Yeah, that's not Odell. That's a Kelvin Benjamin. We brought him in for.

Oh, okay. I heard that we brought Kelvin in. He's an interesting guy. He's a little bigger than Odell. I thought that was an offensive guard.

He does look like way about 290. We might try to tie it in. Is he is he gonna is he gonna be my left tackle? Can you catch from left tackle?

I've never tried that before. Kelvin likes to eat. Kelvin likes to eat more than he likes to catch. Insane. Three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one, 600.

The Giants, they're a team. I was expecting some applause. I was expecting something for that.

Even if it was an X. Was that well received? I'm scared to look at Twitter. Three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one, 600. Should the Daniel Jones, Eli Manning bit die before the season starts, or should we continue doing this? I'm willing to make this a democracy, because we've done this many times now. And I really am just, I'm genuinely asking, is this good?

Three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one, 600. Because I don't know. I really don't. I've been tripping on the fact that apparently Odell Beckham Jr. and David Cutlift sound exactly the same. It's crazy. It's wild. The next time you hear them talk, go and look at it. Odell and David Cutcliffe sound exactly the same.

I talked to Coach Cutt last week. It feels wrong. It feels wrong.

It feels wrong. Is that Odell? At sportsub triad on Twitter, the Giants, they are one of the four teams in the league I know for sure are going to be bad.

I just know it. The beauty of the NFL is three quarters of the league can talk themselves into being a playoff team. And if they are a playoff team, then you talk yourself into having a chance to win the Super Bowl, which means all the fan bases across the league believe they have hope when really only eight teams do. In reality, we know who the eight or nine teams are.

But everybody, you just name a team, Des. Name a team other than the Cardinals, the Dolphins, the Giants, and the Bucks. Name one, and I will talk you into them being a Super Bowl contender. The Tennessee Titans.

Wow. Tennessee Titans. Mike Vrabel has things in the right direction. He's a risk taker in Marcus Mariota. Derrick Henry's on the upswing. They just signed Beyer to a record deal in the secondary.

So you know you have that anchor on defense. The AFC South's been a weird division that anybody could take. The Texans, they've been good in years. Sometimes they've not been so good.

The Colts haven't been consistent with Andrew Luck. If you win the AFC South, you're going to get a home game in the playoffs. And then if you get to the second round of the playoffs, you're within the final eight teams left and you're three games away from winning the Super Bowl. The Tennessee Titans hope to win it all. That's what they're doing in Tennessee. That's what they're doing in Nashville.

Everybody can do it. It's the beauty of the league. AFC East teams are getting excited about their chances because they look at the schedule and aside from those two games against New England, they think Miami Dolphins fans look at the Jets and think, oh, we got them. We got the Jets. Oh, and the Bills, we got them. But here's the beauty of the NFL. Bills fans and Jets fans are looking at the Dolphins saying, we got you. That's it.

That's the beauty of it. So every team can talk themselves into being a playoff team and then being a Super Bowl contender. Except for these four. The Giants are going to be bad. The Dolphins, they're going to be bad. They're playing for two.

That's what they're doing. They're playing the long game, even though they got Ryan Fitzpatrick, which usually guarantees you five wins, which means you're not going to get the number one overall pick. The Dolphins, they're going to be bad. The Buccaneers, they're going to be bad. I happen to like Bruce Arians a lot. I don't think he's going to turn around Jameis Winston.

And even if he does, I don't think it's going to happen in year one. The Arizona Cardinals are a disaster. They're a dumpster fire. You got the GM in place who hired Steve Wilks, then fired him a year later. The same GM that picked a quarterback that he traded up for into the top 10 and then traded away for far less and took another quarterback number one and hired a head coach who was under 500 in the Big 12 last year and fired at Texas Tech. The Cardinals, they're going to be a flaming dumpster fire. It's awful what's going on with the Cardinals.

So those are the four teams right now and the only four right now I could say with absolute certainty are going to be bad. Something I think is going to be good though, this Joker movie coming out. Have you seen this? Joaquin Phoenix is playing the Joker. It's going to come out later this year. It is a story around the Joker. It's not a Batman movie. It's about how the Joker became to be who he is and it looks very dark. It looks very scary, but it also looks very good. And the only reason I'm thinking about this, I watched the Quentin Tarantino Once Upon a Time in Hollywood last night.

It debuted last night and there was a trailer for this movie. Then I wake up this morning and see a CFL football highlight. There's a guy picking off a pass who was wearing full Heath Ledger Joker face paint during the game. You know how you see players with the eye black doing some interesting things? This guy had the white powder all across his face and the red cut marks and the lipstick and it was all a little bit frazzled too. He picked off a pass and I loved how the broadcasters zoomed up on this guy's face and no one even acknowledged it. That was the strangest part. Not that someone with Joker face paint picked off a pass.

It's just that everyone acted like it was completely normal. He plays for the Calgary Stampeders. Yes, Steph? I was really curious about this when you mentioned it to me earlier today and while we don't really see it, something like that in the NFL, eye black and face plate in general is illegal to use as part of the uniform code in the NFL as of 2014 or so.

So you don't really see, like I remember Greg Hardy used to have like weird war paint like across all of his face and that kind of stuff, but now you don't see even eye black anymore like on anyone like under the eyes. So pretty crazy. Jessica tweets in, I love the Giants bit, especially Dez saying he aims at blades of grass. Dez didn't say that, it was Daniel Jones. And for the record, the Dolphins are tanking for Trevor Lawrence.

Trevor Lawrence can't come out next year? I was going to get there. Oh, sorry.

My bad. Didn't really even give me a chance. I'm just reading what was said here. I was so shocked by the tweet. I was like, wait a minute. Shocked? Yeah.

Maybe they are doing the long play. Hey, we're going to be bad. Not for one. For two years.

Two years. We're going to be bad. That's what we're doing. We're going to tank for two years and get this Trevor Lawrence guy. So I'm interested in how people view the bit.

I am, 336-777-1600. Should the Giants, Daniel Jones, Eli Manning bit die today or be something that we revisit later in the season? This is a moment of insecurity we very rarely have on this show. We're usually very open. Let you in on what happens behind the scenes, our fights, our struggles.

But this is something that we're a little bit uncomfortable with. Dwayne and Graham wants to provide some clarity. Dwayne, do you like the bit? It should have went the way it did to Elijah Hood. Wait, what?

Wow. You know how Elijah Hood got cut? Elijah Hood, excuse me, Elijah Hood got cut, don't it? Yeah, yeah.

His family was there and they wished him goodbye and then the Panthers cut him three hours later. Did that shit happen to this Giants bit? So that bit in particular, yeah, some of y'all's bits are pretty good. That one right there kind of left me a little like I don't know.

All right, thank you. Thank you, Dwayne. What if Dwayne's a Giants fan? Eli, they don't really like this bit much. What bit are you talking about? I don't even know what they're talking about.

I mean, you know, Dwayne said it wasn't that good. I'm just out here trying to throw footballs, man. Jessica likes, even for the blades of grass, it's good advice. That's what, hey, cut told me to do it.

I'm going to do what the cut tells me to do. But what about Coach Shomer? Who? Who's that? He's our head coach. Oh, I thought we still had a, you've been here, you've been here longer than I have.

What do you mean? What his name? I thought Tom Coughlin was still the coach. Who? That must be the guy that talks to me in the hallway all the time. What about mustache guy? Ben McAdoo. Whatever happened to him? I don't know. That guy was creepy, man.

He would hang out in closets and stuff. I don't like that guy. I never heard you say mane. Mane? I've been watching Empire. You know, Lucius line. He says mane all the time.

Just watch a hustle and flow. Oh, hey Odell. He played in that one too. I'm a big, I'm a big. Oh, I'm sorry. That's coach cut.

I'm a big, I'm a big fan of which is flying coach cut. I get you guys mixed up all the time. Hear him roar. Hey, it's me Odell. Odell, why are you doing or David Cutcliffe, why are you doing an Odell impression? I think Odell just walked in. What are you doing here Odell? You don't play here no more.

I did have a terrible Odell impression. I didn't want to do it. Okay. And now the fourth wall has been broken.

All right. This is a segment. This segment has officially died.

Just let it go. He just destroyed the fourth wall there. It's all.

I'm Deadpool. Like I'm looking in the law offices of Timothy D. Wildborn Studios and on the ground in the corner dead is this segment. I see it. I see it in the corner. It looks like a knife has just been stabbed right into the heart of it.

It has ceased to live. The end of this segment. Never unless, unless we could get a deciding vote on this. I don't think I feel comfortable doing the Eli Manning, Daniel Jones bit. One of us likes it. The other one of us hates it. One of us loves it. One of us hates it. I'm not going to tell you which one's which. We're eating lunch today. One of us loves this bit. The other one hates it. So that's where we're at.

And Aaron's doing Odell Beckham, David Cutcliffe impressions in the middle of it too. All right. We'll have Ed be the deciding vote. This is a democracy. Ed and Greensboro, you are our deciding vote. Ed, what do you think of the bit?

I think you ought to kill the skit. Daniel Jones is a winner. He might graduate in three years and grow as a athlete like he has.

You got unlimited potential. All right. Thank you, Ed. That's not a good reason to drop the bet for Daniel Jones as a good player. Eli Manning's won two Super Bowls. We've had Daniel Jones on the show.

Is he the champion for Daniel Jones? David Cutcliffe's one of our favorite people on the planet. I think it's at a nerve with Giants and Blue Devil fans.

That's what those are. Just having a little bit of fun. I liked it. Well. I liked it a lot. I'm just going to do this read now.

You do that read. You do it real good. Coming up, the five big stories of the day right here on the drive. Come on.

Let's go. You're on the drive with Josh Graham, the sports hub at AM 600, AM 920. The reigning North Carolina sports writer of the year, Ed Hardin from the Greensboro News and Record, now with us. And boy, I called it the most exciting play in the history of Carolina Panthers training camp.

A video yesterday in Spartanburg of Cam Newton throwing a football further than 35 yards. That shoulder was the difference between Carolina being a playoff team and Carolina just being awful like they were in the second half of last year. So Ed, as someone who's covered the Panthers as long as you have, if Cam's shoulder is right, what type of team do you believe Carolina to be? Well, assuming that it's the Cam we remember, he is the team. And if he's healthy and he's not going to deal with a hurt wing all year, I see no reason why they can't be good.

And I mean, really good. So that's confident, probably overconfident, but like you, I saw him fling that ball yesterday and we haven't seen that in a long time. So we'll just see. Do you think Cam was trying to send a message at all? I mean, he hears these things. Do you think that's a sign of that, hey, listen, everyone who says I can't throw a football far, here's something for you? Well, you know, he's certainly capable of sending messages like that.

And it might have been a message to himself as much as anything else. I'm sure he hasn't thrown it like that before. They wouldn't let him.

They wouldn't dare let him. But he reared back and forth yesterday. I mean, it was like there was a sign of relief, Panthers, the franchise, the nation, the fans.

I mean, it was like, finally, he's going to be OK. So we'll see. Is there any other story that matters a ton to you at this training camp or is that it? That's it.

That is it. I don't care about the young guys. I don't care about the defense. I don't care about the receivers.

I don't care about the running game. If Cam Newton is healthy, the Panthers have shot to win the division and beyond. And if he's not, we're looking at the end of the Panthers as we know it.

Follow Ed on Twitter at Ed Underscore Hard and read his stuff. And the news and record next week being a very big week. We're going to be broadcasting from the Wyndham Championship Thursday and Friday inside Margaritaville.

Ed, they have us set up underneath a tiki hut and it's going to be quite an ordeal. What story interests you most heading into this Wyndham Championship that looks a lot different and comes at a different time? I think within the next hour, we're going to know who's playing. And I think we already see a better field just even marginally at this point. But there's some big names hanging out there and they're deciding right now.

They probably have already made the commitment, just hasn't shown up on the commitment list. I'm not watching the tournament on television. I don't know that it's even the second round's even over yet, but there are some very big names hanging and it's going to be the story of the tournament. Who comes? Not necessarily who wins.

Here's the news that we have today to update you on that front. Hidekiya Matsuyama is going to be a part of the Wyndham field joining names such as major winners Patrick Reed, Webb Simpson, Brandt Snedeker, who won last year. Davis Love III is a part of it, Zach Johnson, Martin Kymer, many other big names through Jason Duffner, Billy Horschel.

But there are some other big names that, like you said, are still hanging. Who would be the biggest get for the Wyndham to reasonably obtain if it's not Tiger Woods? Koepka.

He's the only one left. Tiger moves the needle. Nicholson moves the needle. Koepka moves the needle.

That's it. The rest are just en masse pretty good. You'd like to get a Dustin Johnson, you'd like to get Rose, you'd like to get Kucher, but those aren't the guys right now. Koepka is the man.

That's who you want. Ed Hardin with us here. You've been in this area for a very long time, so on a day like this, the 12-year anniversary of the passing of Skip Prosser, when you think about interactions you had with Skip, where does your mind go first?

Wow. You know, the good times when the Beaks weren't playing basketball, I would go to camps with him and actually sit on the sidelines and talk basketball. He knew I was a youth basketball coach. And he would sit there and just grill me, what are you seeing here?

What's that guy need to do? It was like a test. And it was, I don't know, he was among my favorite people that I've ever gotten to cover for so many reasons. But I think the most important was he liked being around the media. He respected us, he respected what we did.

He gave us all nicknames. It was the greatest time to be covering Lake Forest. And my goodness, they took him to the heights. The team he left with Dino that went to number one in the nation, I mean, it was like a fairy tale.

It was like you couldn't believe that it happened. And they were recruiting with Carolina and Duke and Kentucky, and Skip wasn't afraid of anybody, you know? He had it going. So what I'll remember is the good times and the incredible loss when he was taken from us so suddenly. What was Skip Prosser's nickname for Red Harden? Fast.

Yeah, that's pretty good. You mentioned that team that went to number one following Skip's passing. There are a lot of people that point to his passing 12 years ago today as the moment things started to turn downward, even though there were some good years that followed.

Is that when you pinpoint things going south for Wake Forest? Yeah, and the seeds were sown. I mean, he recruited that next class that came in, and in other words, there were a bunch of not-heads, but he could coach them. He knew he would be able to coach those not-heads. Dino couldn't. Dino took them as far as he could take them, and then he would lose the team at the end of the year, every single year. And then there's a whole lot of stuff going on off the court, and the kids aren't going to class, and they turned out to be not very good people, and Skip wasn't there to yank them in line. Dino wasn't capable of doing it, and nobody at the university seemed capable of doing it.

And looking back on it, maybe those kids shouldn't have been at Wake Forest. There were some bad actors that came in after Skip left, and he brought them there. He recruited them.

But he always believed that he could recruit the knuckleheads, and he believed that he could coach them and turn them into good men. But once he was gone, the fabric, the culture of the program turned bad. What ultimately do you think Skip Prosser's legacy is? Just that he was a good guy and a good coach, and you don't see that in the business a lot. I won't say if at all, but he was such a good man, such fun to be around, and he wanted everybody to be involved. He's the guy that went away from Wake to see how the other programs did it, and to see how they played, it was to see what the game atmosphere was like. So he comes back with tie-dyed t-shirts and motorcycles and dancing in the aisles, and it was like, Skip said, this isn't good enough.

We're not having enough fun. And that's what he brought to Wake Forest more than anything else. He made Wake Forest basketball fun. Ed Harden's with us from the Greensboro News and Record. Now I know just a few minutes ago you said that if it's not Koepka, Tiger, or Phil, it's not going to move the needle. But in the last five minutes, the Wyndham Championship just announced, Jordan Spieth is going to make his first appearance in Greensboro since 2013.

Does that do anything for you? That's cool. That's really cool. He's actually played in Greensboro before. He played in the AJGA event twice. So he's been here. And he told Mark Brazel every year, I'll come, I'm going to come, I promise you, I'll get there when I can. So yeah, this is cool.

That's really cool. I've forgotten Spieth was out there. We've forgotten about Spieth. He's just kind of fallen off the radar a little bit. A little bit.

A little bit. So we look forward to seeing him in Greensboro. Before we let you go, I have two things to run past you. We've been following North Carolina's bid for an MLS soccer team, and people have been sending in names for a team that would be held in Charlotte if they were to win a bid. Would you like any of these three names? The Carolina Kickers, the Charlotte Racers, or Carolina Pride? Those are the three best ones we've got.

I hate them all. It has to be the North Carolina. Did you like the Carolina Panthers at first? It has to be the North Carolina Soccer Club. So it can be NCFC.

That's the only way it's going to survive. Charlotte can't support a soccer team. Come on.

And I'm going to push back, man. Get this FC garbage out of here. The British have so much. Let's stop.

Let's have American soccer here. I'll tell you what NCFC is. They're the bleeping Panthers. That's what they are. There you go.

But Charlotte couldn't have supported the opponent for the win, because they have to have them come out. Maybe you'll trick some people. NCFC.

Hey, come see them at Bank of America Stadium. Oh, wait. That's not what I want.

That's not the type of football I thought I was watching. Ed, before we let you go, tell us the best catch you've had this summer out on the fishing pond. I finally hooked a carp. I'm trying to get rid of them one at a time. I've been shooting them with my BB gun. But I finally hooked one with a grappling hook, dragged him to the shore, had him in my hands, and he wiggled one time and just about ripped my hand off and I lost it.

But I think he's wounded, and I know where he lives. Wait, you're shooting fish with BB guns? They're carp. They're not fish.

They're invasive species. They don't belong here. Ed you're the absolute best, man. I love your writing. I love you even more as a person. Thanks for doing this. See you guys. That's Ed Hardin on Twitter, at un-underscore-hardin.