The Drive with Josh Graham - ACC Kickoff Day 2

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

It's brilliant. From the Westin in Uptown Charlotte, it's day two of ACC kickoff, and things are going to get crazy fast. In 15 minutes, the head coach of the Miami Hurricanes, Manny Diaz, will be here. Once upon a time, he was on Coach Chuck Amato's staff at NC State, so we'll talk to him about the Hurricanes and maybe get some Amato and Philip Rivers stories. Ten minutes after that, it will be Mack Brown, the new head coach at North Carolina, dropping by Bryce Hall from Virginia, who might be the highest draft pick in next year's draft from the ACC. He will be joining us, too.

However, wherever you are listening, we appreciate that. Speaking of Mack Brown, often at events like this, we start thinking about prominence. When there are so many people we have access to and so little time for us to squeeze these guests into time slots here on the Sports Hub, we start prioritizing things. It was crazy to think last week when we were putting together a list of guests for you to hear today, that beyond Dabo Swinney of Clemson, who won the national title for a second time and four years, that Mack Brown is easily the second biggest star in the ACC. The second most prominent name in this conference is a coach who has been out of the game for five years and a coach who is new in the league at a program that isn't a traditional football talent.

It's not really even close, either. If we can accept that Dabo Swinney is the biggest name this conference has to offer, who would be in that discussion with Mack Brown? Desmond Johnson is back in our Kernersville studio.

Your thoughts welcome on Twitter, at Sports Hub, try out on Twitter. Beyond Mack Brown, is it David Cutcliffe from Duke with his background with the Mannings and Daniel Jones being drafted in the top ten? Could it be possibly Manny Diaz since he had one of the top defenses in college football last year at Miami and just being the head coach of the U carries a certain type of way. Mack Brown being this prominent of a figure already for the ACC, coming in after not being in the lead for decades, not being in college for years, it doesn't help the perception. Whether or not, the ACC, they don't get the same love the ACC will when Florida Tech and Miami are having down years.

The traditional programs need to be respect you feel like you deserve. And with them being down last year, the nation wasn't ready to jump on board the Eric Dungy, Dino Babers, and Syracuse bandwagon to get behind Virginia and what Bronco Mendenhall has built. Again, I don't think that's completely fair because I thought those were two very good programs both in the top five Syracuse finishing 15th in the nation in the final eight people, so it's not completely fair, but that's what we do.

Maybe not in the SEC as much. Remember when Kentucky had success under coach Stoops last year. Everybody was applauding how great Kentucky was. They weren't making fun of the SEC when down traditional programs like LSU was struggling.

No, no, no, they were saying how great Kentucky was and how great of a story it was. We didn't see the same stories with Syracuse. We didn't see that with Virginia. I don't know if we'd see it with North Carolina even with Mack Brown back.

So is it because Kentucky is that much better than Virginia and better than Syracuse? Probably not, but when people talk about SEC buy-ins, that's what they go through. Speaking of SEC buy-ins, that's one of the squares in our ACC kickoff bingo card and Dez, I've got news. Dez, we've got a bingo. That's a bingo. All right, get the bell ready.

I'll tell you the five that we have across, starting with the FBI. Thanks to Luke DeCott, the assist from the News and Observers fine columnist, asking John Swafford about that yesterday at the Commissioner's Forum. Footprint. Swaff, his go-to expression. We knew it was coming and he ran up the score with that yesterday. Return of the Mack. We haven't had Mack Brown on the show, but believe me, I've heard that a few times today.

It's just an easy thing to do. It's low-hanging fruit, like talking about the Lion King or the 50th anniversary of the moonwalk. The 50th anniversary, by the way, will be Saturday. How about Notre Dame? Notre Dame. Scratching that one off since they were in the college football playoff last year. Duke has to face both Alabama and Notre Dame on their schedule this year.

Two teams that were in the playoff. Fortunately, they don't have Clemson. Dabo to Alabama made the cut and that gave us the bingo. Five for five on our ACC kickoff bingo card. So we're almost through our days here in Charlotte. Thanks to everybody who's made it possible. The SIDs, the folks back in Kernersville, and lining up all the great guests that we visited with. But what do you think has been the highlight of what we've done so far?

I'm undefeated at noon, my man. Wow. Do we have the t-shirts being made? Is that in motion already? I don't know, but I was going to talk to you about that. We were going to get together, get some t-shirts made, make a little money. What's the logo we're putting on the t-shirt with these letters? I'm undefeated at noon, my man.

Undefeated at noon, my man. Maybe just like a facial shot of Coach Dave Dorn. Just Dave Dorn. Is he smiling though? Because you rarely ever see Dave Dorn flashing a smile.

I'd either want him clapping or in some kind of screaming motion because usually that's what he's doing. Intense Dave Dorn or maybe his hands up in the air and edited in the shot is a red solo cup in his hand. I'm undefeated at noon, my man. Dave Glenn was really excited about the idea of t-shirts. His show starts at noon, so DG likes the idea that, like Dave Dorn, The David Glenn Show here on the Sports Hub also is undefeated at noon. I like that. That sounds good. What do you think, Dave Dorn?

I'm undefeated at noon, my man. I get it. It was sassy, Dave Dorn. And he also said that if there aren't any pass-outs at Carter-Finley Stadium as a result of the new beer legislation being passed, being allowed to sell alcoholic games, that he would chug a beer of sorts.

And he's not a light beer guy. Dave Dorn loves the IPAs, we've learned. We're talking about IPAs potentially being chugged on the sideline of Dave Dorn if NC State fans stay in their seats and don't leave to go to the parking lot in uniformity. That's something that could actually happen. That was according to a Raleigh radio host who spoke with Dorn yesterday.

I think that's a pretty good bet that could go down. I didn't even realize, over the last two years, Dorn's won 18 games and he's gone 11-5 in the ACC. Him and Dave Fosse might be the two most underappreciated coaches in the entire conference. It's just crazy to think, going back to Mac Brown, him being probably the second biggest star in the league right now, the ACC was the best league in college football three years ago.

I don't think there was any question about it. SEC fans would be upset to hear that, but think about just what the 2017 season was. About the 2016 season that Clemson won its first national title under Dabo. You had North Carolina coming off an 11-1 season.

Mitchell Trubisky, a quarterback, who was soon to become the number two pick in the NFL draft. Virginia Tech won the Coastal in Justin Fuente's first year. Clemson won the national title. Miami had Mark Rick, and Miami fans the very next year thought that the U was back for real.

Georgia Tech continued the win at a high clip with Paul Johnson. And you had Lamar Bleeping Jackson in the league winning the Heisman Trophy. That was just a few years ago. Now look at the league.

I'm not saying it's incredibly down. I'm just saying that it's completely different and it's happened in just a few years. Florida State no longer having Jimbo Fisher. Mark Rick not being around. Paul Johnson as mentioned. No more Frank Beamer, albeit I still have faith in Justin Fuente.

It's just completely different and it hasn't helped the national perception of things. And it's all happened in a very quick period of time. Like I said, there are a lot of things happening here at ACC kickoff. It's going to be Mark Rick and Manny Diaz joining us in moments.

The drive is not being broadcast today in the law offices of Timothy B. Wellborn Studios. You can learn more at TimWellborn.com. And the ways that they can help you, you'll know when you need us. Get ready. Get your popcorn ready, as T.O.

used to say. Both Miami coach Manny Diaz and North Carolina head coach Mac Brown will join the show next on the drive. You're on the drive with Josh Graham. All I do is win, win, win no matter what.

The Sports Hub at AM600, AM920. Now we're being joined by the head coach of the Miami Hurricanes, Manny Diaz. Kind enough to be here.

And there's a number of things I want to talk to you about with your program. But I actually want to start with your time in the state of North Carolina on Chuck Amato's staff. Phillip Rivers was the quarterback of that team. What was your first impression of Phillip Rivers when you first met him? So Phillip came in as a mid-year enrollee. I mean basically the exact same time that we got hired at NC State.

So we all really almost came in at the same time. And I remember that first spring practice and it didn't take long to realize that Phillip was going to be our guy. That we were going to go with a true freshman quarterback.

Which today doesn't sound quite so crazy in the air of Trevor Lawrencefield. But back then giving the reigns to a true freshman was almost unheard of. But Phillip, he just had that maturity about him and had a great freshman year. And we had some magical nights even that year at Carter-Finley. And it was fun to watch Phillip mature and watch Phillip grow all four years as competitive of a guy.

As I've ever been around. And I'll tell you a quick funny Phillip Rivers story. So it's after his career is up at NC State. And a lot of guys now go away to train for the draft.

And Phillip was such a great guy. Phillip just stayed and trained in Raleigh with our strength staff. So it was March Madness time. So we had a racquetball court and there still is in the facility at NC State. So we decided to have a March Madness staff racquetball tournament. So we make up a bracket and we're in the strength coach's office in the weight room. And Phillip walks in and Phillip goes, Hey what are you guys talking about right here? And we got this like 16 person racquetball bracket. We're like oh this is our racquetball March Madness bracket. And Phillip looks at it and he goes, where am I? We're like Phillip, like the draft is like in four weeks.

Like you're not playing freaking racquetball with a bunch of us right? And Phillip's like no way man. He's like put me on the bracket. Like Phillip you're not playing.

He's like slamming the table. He's like I'm on that bracket. So okay Phillip. So we like took some J off and put Phillip Rivers on. Lo and behold we end up in the final four. And it's me and Phillip Rivers playing in a semi-final. And all I'm thinking is I'm going to hit a racquetball and hit Phillip in the eye. And end his NFL career. You know what I mean? Like this would be like literally the worst thing that could ever happen. So as you can imagine it didn't happen.

But that was definitely my fear going in. What's the best Chuck Amato story you can think of? You're talked about as somebody who has a lot of energy. Chuck Amato the same way it seems like. Yeah Chuck had a ton of energy and still does to this day. And you know his love for NC State and his passion to take that place somewhere it hadn't been was special. You know I think the natural year we had in 02 when we won 11 games.

You know beating Clemson on the Thursday night. And you know wear the infamous white glasses. Which you know what people don't understand about Chuck is Chuck was doing those things because he was highly highly superstitious.

Everybody thought it was like out of some like fashion sense. Like he wanted to wear sunglasses at night. We had been playing.

We were 8 and 0 I think. We had been playing all of our games during the day. And he had been wearing his sunglasses.

When we go play Thursday night at Clemson. He was not going to play a game without the sunglasses on. It was not a fashion statement. It was just because he was so superstitious he couldn't play without him.

And that's where ultimately it was born. How superstitious are you? My superstition I got a great one. My superstition is that I want my team to play really really really hard. And when we do we normally win and when we don't it sometimes goes sideways. So I've actually become probably less superstitious as time has gone on in coaching. Probably because when you finally lose you're like hey I always wear these socks. Oh damn I lost.

So like you run out of like lucky things right. So you begin to realize you know what why don't I just focus on getting the guys to play as hard as they can play. Where is the turnover chain right now? Right now it is an underground layer in the Everglades guarded by python snakes. Okay. And that's where we keep it in the off season.

Okay. Who has access to it? There's an old man with a cane and a long white beard that sits out front of the layer that can talk to the snakes and lets people in. So I can tell you're really good at this here media thing that we do. Manny Diaz with us, Miami head coach. We're going to chat with Mac Brown in a second. Another guy who's very good at this media thing. He's had experience in it the last five years. Twenty years ago you were somebody who would probably go to an event like this as a production assistant in television.

What's it like now? I'd imagine a little surreal being here at ACC kickoff and you're the subject. And on top of it you're the head coach of the Miami bleeping hurricanes.

It's completely surreal. And even though that time in my life before I got into coaching when I was at ESPN, as you get older that time becomes a smaller fraction of your life. But when you're young you're still very impressionable. So a lot of my instincts, a lot of things I think about I still think about from that time when I was at ESPN and when I sort of got my start coming up through the journalism route. And I think that's always helped me have a good relationship with our media because I understand their job, understand what they're trying to do and because I was trying to be that guy at one point in my life. Well Manny, we wish you the best of luck. I know you've got a lot to do today. Thank you for spending some time in Greensboro, Winston, Salem today.

Yeah, thanks for having me. That's Manny Diaz, head coach of the Miami Hurricanes. You're not going to stop him completely.

You just have to contain him. You're on the drive with Josh Graham, the sports hub, at AM 600, AM 920. Duke head football coach David Cutcliffe hanging out with us at ACC kickoff. Perhaps a visit from Mac Brown in a little bit from North Carolina. Gosh, there's so much going on here in Charlotte.

You enjoying your time? Yeah, I think, you know, we're all getting a little bit behind, pulled here, pulled there. But man, I saw an open seat. Josh, I'm here, man. Let's go. You're our closer. You know, you're the guy we go to out of the bullpen and you can throw heat like Trevor Hollister.

I can do it now. You put me on the mound. I was normally a starter, but I never, ever hated the fact if you had to close, you're on that mound when you win. That's pretty sweet, right? Yeah, it is. I was, I'm ready for football to start. So I started, I subscribed to ESPN Plus and a show I've been binging is The Detail with Peyton Manning.

Oh man, isn't it good? And there isn't the coach that makes more appearances. Here comes my friend. Mac Brown's coming by? Well, we'll see if we can get you both together. That would be a neat thing as we can get both David Cutcliffe and Mac Brown together.

We'll figure it out. But in The Detail program, Peyton Manning references you time and time again when it comes to you can't put the ball on the ground under any circumstances, any of that. Have you seen the show? Oh yes, he would send me the raw copies before and just say anything you see, anything you don't like. So you talking about enjoy it, I would get the uncut version and look at it, critique it a little bit and send it back. But anybody that, I'm not trying to sell subscriptions to ESPN Plus, if you haven't seen those and you like football, you're missing it. Would you not agree with that? It's excellent stuff if you're a big football fan.

It is awesome. And you're somebody who's known for your quarterback expertise. So facing Alabama in Game 1, it's Tua Tungavaiola and this is somebody people are projecting to be the top quarterback on the board next year.

In examining what Alabama brings, and specifically 13, what makes him so special? He has a really quiet lower body, meaning it does not take much for him to get the ball out. A quarterback, the mechanism of not just where you're going or how things are happening, it's when and why. He does that as well. I've studied him a lot. He's very difficult to defend because he can make a decision in the instant and get the ball halfway there before you know what hits you. Reminds me of Dan Marino in that regard. Obviously he's a lefty, but he is so accurate, so gifted.

His balance is phenomenal and that's one of the reasons he's been so consistent throwing the football. We hear when you're drafted to play for the New York Giants, it's a different kind of pressure with that media scene. And you coached Eli Manning who was drafted into that and won Super Bowls in that. Now it's Daniel Jones who was drafted in the top 10.

And with the whirlwind that comes with being picked by that team in that city in the top 10 of the draft, what advice have you had for Daniel for how he should handle himself? Well, the first thing I told him when the noise started, and it started quickly. I said, Daniel, that is so awesome.

He looked at me. I said, you're getting, before everybody else has got a honeymoon, you're getting reality. Welcome to pro sports. You're going to be able to train your mentality right now to understand that it's not going to be easy. It's not supposed to be easy. And I said, the thing that you focus on, if you're making athletics a career as a coach, certainly as a professional athlete, you worry about your work, not what other people think about your work.

You dive in. Have you ever heard Tom Brady act like he's worried about what people think about his work? I don't think so. And so if you're going to be successful, you're going to be criticized. How much has Eli been criticized? He's won two Super Bowls, two MVPs for Super Bowls.

It doesn't matter. And I just, I went through and then I said, the other part with you, Daniel, is that you've got the gift of all gifts. You've got a teacher like Eli. Man, he already has a good relationship with Eli. He's been with Eli when Eli comes to our place to work and brings his receiver. So Daniel even has familiarity with some of their players. So I said, listen to everything he says, work like he works, and then compete to beat him. And I would tell Eli the same thing. Compete to beat him.

You'll be better for it. Duke head coach David Cutcliffe is with us. Your current quarterback is Quinton Harris, who we saw really slice and dice a Big 12 defense last year in Baylor and did a really nice job in Daniel Jones' absence in September. What makes his skill set unique versus other quarterbacks you've coached?

Got a great release. He's a lot like what I was describing. His release is so quick and so effortless. He's going to get better and better and better with playing time. He's brilliant.

He's a baseball player. He's got great vision. He does a great job, which a lot of quarterbacks struggle with, going downfield and reading back tight. He does a great job of reading deep coverage and working his way back down.

So he's going to be an aggressive quarterback, which I like. Last thing for you, I'm not sure if you know this, Coach, but Saturday marks the 50-year anniversary of the moon landing with Neil Armstrong. I wonder, do you have any memories of when it happened?

Absolutely. I was 15 years old in our little den at a small house, a very small TV. My dad was born in 1915. We're watching this happen on TV, black and white, sketchy, and it frightened me because my dad said we shouldn't be doing this. God did not intend for men to be on the moon.

We will pay for this at some point. And as a 15-year-old, it disturbed me a little bit. I lost my dad not long after that, unfortunately, the very next year. But I'll never forget that comment because I was just in awe and fired up as a young person, and that was his immediate reaction. I wonder if other people out there had parents born in a similar time, if their parents might have had that same reaction.

There's that. There's conspiracy theories that people have about the moon. Yeah, that we weren't there, that it was filmed in a studio.

I think that would have been the best-kept secret of all time, if that were the case. Yeah, very vivid, and I remember the bounce. I remember it live, vividly remember it live, so it's pretty cool. Coach, I can't wait to catch up with you when the season gets closer. Thank you for being a closer and coming in and getting the outs we needed. Got you done, man.

Take care. That's David Cutcliffe. You're listening to the Sports Hub, live from Charlotte. Let's begin. Let's talk about it.

Let's talk about it. You're on the drive with Josh Graham, the Sports Hub, at AM600, AM920. As usual, with live radio, baby, crazy things happen and mess up the schedule a little bit. We were just talking with David Cutcliffe, who pinch hit for us, Manny Diaz from Miami. And now racing in here is Matt Crown, the head coach at the North Carolina Tar Heels, on in Greensboro, Winston-Salem.

It's purely a car wash. At ESPN, that's a different expression. Today, it's a lot different. So I wonder, how does your time at ESPN, Mac, change your perspective on events like this? It makes me come in and have a lot more fun. I've got so many friends here, and I've got people that I've been doing the same thing you've been doing for the last five years at Media Day. And I used to laugh and say, you know what, nobody's going to say anything in here anyway. Well, we had a good summer, and the guys were working hard.

We got good leadership. We got a lot of question marks. And I used to laugh at coaches about what they say.

And I was thinking yesterday, as I was coming down, I was talking to my grandkids and said, why do you think it should be different? They said, let's do charades. Let's go down and have charades when they ask you a question. I thought, that'd be pretty cool.

We can try that. But so many coaches are miserable, and they're worried about getting fired, and they're worried about losing, and they're worried about kids getting in trouble. And the truth is, I'm going to have fun.

I've already done my worrying, and they're worried about some media guy that's after them. And you're not after anybody. You're trying to do a job. And I was able to see that for five years. Just trying to be interesting, thinking about being the liaison to the audience.

I mean, we could go into your quarterback situation, but quite frankly, I don't think you really know all the answers at this present moment. So instead, David Cutcliffe's here, and he's talking about the moon landing 50 years ago. Fifty years ago Saturday, and what his father told him when he was 15 years old about it. You remember the moon landing 50 years ago? No.

Well, neither do I. I would have been very young. Yeah, I was fighting something. I don't know what I was fighting without.

I had another fight other than the moon. So I remember when you were at your opening press conference, something that sticks with me is that you want to make North Carolina your home base. And recruiting, that's the big thing this state. In your mind, what do you view to be the biggest competition where you have national programs coming in and getting these kids? Is it the in-state schools or the ones on the outside that's your biggest competition? Well, all of the in-state schools, including us, need to really work to keep all the kids in-state. And if we can do that, then we can have our competition between each other, and it's fine because they end up playing, and we'll all get enough of them. What we can't continue to do is let the top players go out of state.

They've got to make football important enough in the state that they won't stay. Does it bother you when they leave? Yes, if they're a fit. Sometimes it looks like they should stay, and maybe they're, academically, they can't come to your place.

Maybe they're not good character. But by and large, if he's a great young man with great grades, obviously it really bothers you that he leaves you. You think kids would rather stay around their parents and around their high school coaches and their friends, and you need to be the cool place to be so these kids will want to stay and let everybody that's important in their lives see them play. We're going to talk to Virginia corner, Price Holland, just a bit, one of the finer players in the league. It's just funny to me, and you were at ESPN, so I'm sure you might get this. When Miami, Virginia Tech, and Florida State are down, and it's Syracuse, Virginia, having nice years, everyone's taking shots at the league, saying, ah, well, the ACC's just not what it used to be. And then when the SEC has some of its top programs down, and Kentucky, say, have a great year, it's all about, oh, wow, look at Kentucky, what they're doing. What do you make of the national perception of the Atlantic Coast Conference and how these other teams have risen up, including some of the programs that don't have story football pedigree? Yeah, I've never felt like the ACC's gotten the respect that it deserved, including when I was in the media. And you look at Clemson now, it should have. And you look at the ACC in general, how many national championships this league won this year, it's important to note that, but football has never gotten the credit. And I think partially because basketball is so big, and Virginia won the national championship also, when you start looking at it, but to me it should be a real plus. When we were here before, basketball was a huge plus for us, and it's going to be a huge plus again. And you can be really good in both sports.

It's been proven across the country, and we proved it when we were here before. Last thing for you, what's the ratio between players saying, oh, Mac Brown from television versus Mac Brown Hall of Fame national champion winning football coach? That's a good question. I really can't answer it. I will say that both helped.

I think TV was first because when the first that came out is people recognized you on TV and I was in their homes. So they all loved that. And then after I was inducted into the Hall of Fame after I took the job, that was pretty cool to them too because they'd be in my office, they'd see the Hall of Fame ring, they'd see the stuff, and so I think both have been a really good combination and really good timing for me. Well, we look forward to seeing you September 13th in the Triad.

You're on at Greensboro-Winston-Salem. Coach, congratulations on getting the job once again. Thanks.

And have some fun before the start of the year. Thanks. Thanks for having me on. That is Mac Brown, head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Ready whenever you are. You're on the drive with Josh Graham. Now, the Sports Hub at AM600, AM920. ACC Commissioner John Swafford had a couple interesting things to say on the show a little bit earlier on. We'll get WRAL award-winning sports anchor Jeff Grabley's reaction to that from Rowan in about 15 minutes. We caught up with Matt Hasselbeck, though, yesterday. Former NFL quarterback with the Seahawks and the Colts, now with ESPN, of course, from Sunday, NFL countdown. He's going to be working Thursday Night Football for ESPN with our good friend Adam Amin. There were a lot of Hasselbeck's running around yesterday.

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times. The only thing better than one Hasselbeck is two Hasselbeck's. And Tim Hasselbeck is going to be a big part of the ACC network on the lead broadcast team for the network when it launches on August the 22nd.

He will be paired with Dave O'Brien, who you might know as the voice of the Boston Red Sox for Nesson. So a lot of ACC network news over the last two days here at ACC kickoff, uptown Charlotte in the Westin. But we talked college ball and we talked a little bit of NFL and what's going on with the Carolina Panthers, specifically Gerald McCoy and Cam Newton with Matt Hasselbeck.

And here's how that conversation sounded. Being joined now by Matt Hasselbeck from ESPN. Before we get to college football, because we're at ACC kickoff, the Carolina Panthers getting set to start training camp. And when you talk about a team that was 6-2 with a healthy Cam Newton, and then has the losing streak after the fact when he goes down, just how essential do you think that shoulder is in the entire landscape of the NFC South? Yeah, well Cam had really been playing good football and then I think it was before the Monday, I think the Monday Night Football game was his last game until they put him on the shelf. He was missing throws that you know that he would normally make.

And so having had shoulder injuries and that kind of thing, you've got to get it right. So it sounds like they learned from last year's surgery and he'll be ready to go in a better way than he was to start this year. But I like this team. I really love Christian McCaffrey.

I've loved him since he was at Stanford. I think that their running game and their passing game, running it through the running back, it's really dangerous. In that division, it's a tough division, but I think Carolina has a legitimate chance to compete for it this year. Bolstering the pass rush, drafting Florida State's Brian Burns, bringing in Bruce Irvin, and also bringing in big old Gerald McCoy. Does that view the way you see the Panthers differently in terms of how they might be able to contend in the South? Well, I think the thing about Carolina is they have a blueprint.

They know what they want to be because they've had so much success in the past. Like Ron Rivera knows what kind of defense he wants to run. I remember playing against them when it was Sean McDermott as the coordinator and Ron Rivera as the head coach.

You got a little bit of both. You got like at times you get that Ron Rivera, hey, we're just going to get home with four guys and play solid on the back end. But at other times, maybe a third down, you're going to get that Sean McDermott crazy blitzers are coming from everywhere. So I think they've kind of, they understand how to do both of those things. And they understand what kind of players they want.

And they went out and got them. And so I just, I think that defense is going to be more sound. And if the offense is a little bit more consistent, I think you'll see more complimentary football.

You'll see them. I think the secret about Carolina that no one really talks about on a national level. They have always been such an amazing running team, which really has helped them have such a great defense. When the running game's not working, then the defense seems to struggle. And so I think they have it figured out, at least a plan.

Now does everyone stay healthy? That's a big part. Is Cam Newton important?

He's super important. But they've also invested in the just in case situation with a backup quarterback this year. But I think the defense will be the storyline because of what you said.

Getting home with four guys allows the back seven to do their thing. It's no secret that Ron Rivera's going to be coordinating this defense. Going back to your playing days, whether it was the Bears or San Diego, what do you remember about going up against his defense? I think he's going to be more what he was with the Chicago Bears. I think he's going to be more in that Brian Ehrlacher, Lance Briggs, hey, it's all about the four guys up front and we're going to let our linebackers run. We're going to let them play ball. We're going to let them be instinctive. We're going to let them be the playmakers. Kind of that junior Seau, Luke Kuechly mentality.

I mentioned Lance Briggs. Like, you see the ball, go get the ball, make a play. And he's got a special, special linebacker in Luke Kuechly. All the teams I've ever played against in the NFL, the teams that you feared the most were the teams that knew how to get a pass rush with just four guys.

They didn't have to create it with a gimmick blitz or something like that. So if they can pull that off with guys like Bruce Irvin, their new draft pick, I think they've got the rest of the pieces to be a great zone defense type of defense. Since we're at ACC kickoff, though, what ACC storyline fascinates you most going into the season?

Well, you know, there's a few. I think being a guy from Boston, Anthony Brown, a three-year starter, they've obviously got a Heisman Trophy candidate running back in A.J. Dillon.

If he stays healthy, I think B.C. could be a team that takes the next step. I think Syracuse is a dangerous team. They had Clemson on the ropes.

Really, I think the question is this. Who can knock off Clemson? Can anyone upset Clemson? In the NFL, you see it all the time.

The Patriots lose to the Dolphins. The Rams show up in Chicago and look like they don't know how to play offense, but yet they're one of the best offenses in the game. In college football, you don't have an opportunity to just lay an egg on a given Saturday, or Thursday night for that matter. You need to show up every time, and it's football.

I mean, it's not a Game 7 series. So the challenge will be can anybody upset Clemson this year, because that would shock the world. Catch Matt Hasselbeck Thursday night. Adam Amin, yourself, going to be doing Thursday night games on ESPN. We saw you last year on Thursday night.

Tim Hasselbeck and Matt Hasselbeck on the call for Wake Forest in C-State. Today, your brother getting big news today announcing that he's going to be a part of the ACC network. How fulfilling is it to work with your brother in the way that you have the last few years? Yeah, it was really, really fun. I can't tell if I loved calling college football Thursday night games or if I loved working with my brother.

I think it was probably a little bit of both. But also coming in and being on campus and talking to these coaches, talking to these players, it's a lot of fun. And the atmosphere in a college stadium is special. And I think there's an electricity and a momentum right now for the ACC network.

I think this is a conference, obviously Clemson's leading the way. But I think, I know Tim will do a great job. He's working, he's got a great rising star in Katie George as a sideline reporter. Dave O'Brien is the voice of the Red Sox where I live. He's a stud. And so, it's an all-star team. I'm looking forward to working with Adam Amin. He's a blast, a really funny guy. Molly McGrath, another Boston College girl, as our sideline reporter.

You know, I think that's probably the thing that I would say. Going from playing quarterback in the NFL to working at ESPN. It's all about the team that you're working with.

It doesn't matter if you're throwing spirals and touchdowns or you're talking about other people doing it. It's the team. And so, I'm excited about the team that I have.

And I got to meet his team and he's got a great one as well. Wake Forest and North Carolina fans, Friday, September the 13th. The first time you'll see Matt, it'll be BB&T Field and Winston-Salem. We'll see you then, Matt. Alright, thank you. We'll be right back.