The Drive with Josh Graham - ACC Kickoff

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. We're live at ACC kickoff in Charlotte.

So we're going to have a slew of great guests just in the next hour. Dave Doran from NC State, Matt Fortuna from The Athletic. Wake Forest Athletic Director John Curry will drop by. But it has me thinking: if we weren't in Charlotte for this event in the middle of the week, in the middle of July. What the hell will we be talking about today?

I'm looking at headlines. across the sports spectrum. And there just isn't a lot.

Now, I know in Greensboro, right down the road, Desmond Harrison, Arizona Cardinal. Just got released from the team. After a warrant was issued for his arrest on felony charges recently. But aside from that, locally, there's not really much we have for you, except for what's happening at this event with the ACC Network giving us some new details on their programming, and of course, looking ahead to the football season. The ACC Network being the biggest topic of the day.

John Swofford spoke at the annual Commissioners' Forum. here inside the Weston Hotel, uptown Charlotte. You let me know. Desmond Johnson's back in Kernersville, Aaron in the house as well. Your thoughts welcome on Twitter at SportsHub Dryad.

You let me know what you think about some of these programming decisions because. All we knew was about The Packer and Durham radio show that's going to be broadcast live from Charlotte, even though most of the operation for the ACC network will be originating from Bristol. That's going to be held in Mark Packer's basement, literally. We knew about the Duke documentary that's coming out: an ACC network original. The class that saved Coach K.

It was the class with Jay Billis and Johnny Dawkins, among others, in the 80s. Leading to that championship appearance, going to the Final Four in 1986. And aside from that, we didn't really know much.

Now we had the games. Defending national champs Clemson is going to open its season exclusively on the ACC network facing Georgia Tank. North Carolina Wake Forest in week three. Friday night game at BBNT Field exclusively on the ACC network. But today, we got some more programming news and some pretty exciting stuff.

for Florida State fans. There's going to be a Bobby Bowden. documentary Outlining What he did for Florida State in growing that program, all the success that they had in the 90s, we haven't seen. a level of success currently in the ACC with Clemson. probably since those Florida State teams in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Then we learn that our good friend Scott Satterfield from Louisville is going to have An all access show. That we can catch.

So there's going to be cameras all around the Louisville program, and I'd imagine you'd find some old footage from Appalachian State, too.

So, something potentially Mountaineer fans could get excited about as well. Then, with Clemson having arguably the best season, maybe in the history of college football, going undefeated. and winning the national title. fifteen in all, there's going to be a documentary series released on the Clemson Tigers national championship winning season. Then we learned about some of the broadcast teams we could expect to see in the fall.

We learned that Dave O'Brien, in addition to the work he does covering the Boston Red Sox, he's going to be the lead play-by-play announcer for the ACC network. He's going to be joined in the booth by Matt Hasselbeck, who we remember all those years. Playing for the Seattle Seahawks and the Indianapolis Colts, already doing a lot of work on the NFL side of things for Sunday NFL countdown.

So. Matt Hasselbeck gonna be a part. Of the package with Adam Amin on Thursday nights. Tim Hasselbeck's the one that's going to be with Dave O'Brien. A lot of hassle back.

news from earlier today. Then Wes Durham, our good friend, we learned was going to be paired with Roddy Jones, one of the broadcast teams, too. A lot of the questions, naturally, when a new network is being launched, center around how many carriers are going to be picking it up. David Glenn had the reporting from The Athletic, our early afternoon host. According to the reporting.

19 million subscribers at the moment for the ACC network. When you put that up against what the SEC network currently has and what the Big Ten network currently is. It pales in comparison, but the Big Ten network with 55 million subscribers built that up over 12 years. They launched first among the major networks in 2007. Then the SEC network five years ago.

really started out slow by all standards. They at this point they had fourteen million subscribers before its launch also in August five years ago. After five years, they sit at sixty million subscribers. That's where the cash flow begins to come in, additional cash flow. The ACC making about thirty million dollars per school because it based off T V revenue.

while the Big Ten and the ACC network benefited To the tune of 45 to 50 million. That's an additional 15 to 20 million dollars annually for each school, and you could start to see how the arms race begins.

So the ACC network has been. The talk of this event for years now. I remember when it was just conjecture, when it was just rumor, before it was announced in 2016. And every year since then, John Swofford has taken this stage and told us about what his vision for this TV network is. And now, It's time for it all to come into fruition.

Next month, seven o'clock, August the twenty-second, the ACC network officially launches. But Since we're starting with TV network talk. It really shows you how slow a time of year this is. Aaron. If it's not the ACC Media days here in Charlotte.

What do you think we're talking about today? Seems like the biggest conversation going around right now is like ranking the dynamic duos of the NBA. Maybe we'll be doing something like that. That's what we're doing now. I know you frown upon walking the line as everyone else, but that seems to be the duos in the NBA is what we're talking about.

Where do you rank? On July the 17th? Yeah, where do you rank Kawhi and Paul George versus AD and LeBron? Yada, yada, yada, yada. Yeah.

Gosh. NFL training camp previews. Yeah. We need to get a lot better at this. Us in the media, we need to get a lot better at being creative and not just doing Ranking point guards, ranking top players in the NBA, and talking about duos.

We need to be better. I don't know exactly what it is. But there are so many different things we could talk about. The Lion King is coming out later on this week. A former wake quarterback.

is in the final three of The Bachelorette. With Tyler C. This week marks the 50-year anniversary of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. These are things we could be talking about more than the dynamic duos of the NBA, yes? Oh, yeah.

That's what I plan to do today. I want to talk to Dave Doran about space exploration and only space exploration. Let's go. Yeah. And then we're going to have a ton of wake people drop by.

We need to hear what they say about Tyler C. That's what we'll get to the bottom of today. The important stuff. It's our responsibility to the triad. It's our responsibility to our listening audience to talk about the things that matter most.

So that's what we're going to do at Sports Hub Triad. And to make the day more interesting, We assembled Our ACC media day Bingo board. A handful of media members have been playing along with this all day long. crossing things off during the commissioners forum. Bringing a sheet of paper with our ACC kickoff bingo board with them to see if some of these things have been crossed on.

Let me tell you what we already got. Footprint is off the board. Virginia basketball off the board. I haven't heard noon kickoff yet, but when Dave Doran joins us, damn it, we will cross noon kickoff off the board. Trevor Lawrence's hair off the board.

A lot of people were mad. that Trevor Lawrence wasn't brought along. Here two ACC kickoff by Dabo Sweeney and Clemson. John Simpson, the offensive guard, was one of the two players Dabo brought along. To fill the void left by Trevor Lawrence, John Simpson showed up with a.

Beautiful. Blonde wig. Walking around today.

So, Trevor Lawrence wasn't here in person, but his hair was.

So, Trevor Lawrence's hair. Scratch it off the board, Daz. Cable providers off the board. Which leaves a lot here. Oh, and the FBI.

John Swofford was asked about the NC State notice of allegation, so we can also scratch off. The FBI being a part of this too. That leaves a number of things. that we need to talk about before The end of ACC kickoff. AJ Dillon's legs.

Clemson schedule, fine bomb. A score of 44 to 16. Will the U ever be back? Is Wake Forrest for real? Why is wake wake pick so low?

David Cutcliffe's quarterback background. The North Carolina alcohol laws. There's so much ground for us to cover on today's show, and I feel like it's our responsibility to get there. The drive is brought to you in part by our friends at Pie Guy's Pizza and more. We've got our own pizza.

You need to try it, it's the Graham Slam Pizza. Buffalo Chicken on top of Texas Pete Base, bacon on top of that as well. The Graham Slam. Also, we have our secret menu item that is the Philly Cheesesteak Pizza. Give it a try.

Right off the Louisville-Clemens Road in the Kinneman Village Common. You can find it in Clemens. It's pieguyspizza, pieguys.com. You can find them. We're not broadcasting live in the law offices of Timothy D.

Wellbourne Studios today. There's just so much going on around us on Radio Row. Dabo Sweeney is just swooping around Radio Row, trying to surprise his players. He just did it to Tanner Muse, and he just snuck behind. John Simpson, right now.

So I'm looking at a devious Dabbo Sweeney. Trying to make his mark here at ACC kickoff. I'm looking straight ahead of me. I see the college football playoff national championship trophy. Davo has been well acquainted with that trophy, winning it twice.

Since 2016 Also, the ACC Championship Trophy is going to be awarded in this very city of Charlotte later on this year. Will it be Clemson again? Certainly, something we will be talking about the later months. It's football, and we're at ACC kickoff. Matt Fortuna from the Athletic will join the show from ACC Kickoff right here in Charlotte.

We're in the west in Uptown Charlotte. That's coming your way next. Can we talk here? Let's talk about it. This is the Sports Hub at AM600, AM 920.

Now back to the drive with Josh Graham. We're now being joined by John Curry. Wakeforce, Director of Athletics, a lot of things going on. Dave Doran just came by from Midseach Stay, Matt Fortuna. And we'll chat with Dave Quawson.

We'll also catch you up. Where Scott Satterfield. It is ACC kickoff in Charlotte. Heck, they even have ACC football cookies here. which we're all about.

John, appreciate you spending some time with us. This is your first ACC kickoff as the Director of Athletics at Wake Forest here in Charlotte. How are you doing? Yeah, I'm doing pretty awesome, Josh. I just had the opportunity to watch Coach Claussen and Cade and Justin up on the stage in front of everybody, and it's really easy to be proud of those guys.

Yeah, I learned from Justin Sternad. He is a current listener. He is an avid listener of the show that we're doing here.

So I guess we're doing something right, at least a little bit. Yeah, well, Cade said up on stage that Justin is a sports junkie, and I was talking to Justin beforehand. He's a communications major, and because he's taking advantage of his opportunities with summer school, et cetera, he only has to take two classes in the fall, and he graduates in December, which is a pretty awesome position to be in. I know how much I had to take my last semester, and it was a lot more than two credits or two classes, and I wasn't playing football.

So that's a great position he's put himself in, just like so many of our players have at Wake Forest.

Something that Dave Claussen has joked about for a long time, really the last few years. Is that This program doesn't really get much respect. That last year they'll get picked sixth in the Atlantic, they'll get picked fifth the year before, and yet they'll just go on and still have winning seasons and win bowl games. And when you come in, The first thing you want to do, it seems like, is hit the ground running and supporting football and pounding that thing, pounding that day after day, whether it be on TV or radio shows such as this one. I wonder how important is it to you to try and change this narrative?

Not necessarily change what Dave Clausen's doing, because what he's doing is pretty darn good, but change the narrative locally, regionally, nationally about what Wake Football's about.

Well, it's extremely important, Josh, and I appreciate the opportunities that you provide in helping change that narrative because the reality of it is that we believe we got the best football program in the state. I just sat in the room with two great football coaches. On one end was Dabo Sweeney, on the other end was Dave Clausen. And I believe that we got the best two in the conference right there in the room together just now. We have a great advantage at Wake Forest and in Winston-Salem.

It's so easy to get to ball games at BBT Field. You know, there's not 80,000 people there, which means you don't have to deal with 80,000 people. You got 30,000 people. People, it's easy to get in and out, and you know what? The team's pretty doggone good.

Coach Clausen said something really interesting in one of his remarks earlier that he may, I'm sure he shared with you and you've noticed because you follow it so closely, but we have nine fifth-year graduate seniors on our team this year. And that means in this day and age of portability and players leaving and going from one place to another, those nine seniors, including Justin, could have graduated and then gone and played their graduate transfer year anywhere they wanted to in the country. And they would have had plenty of opportunities. And all nine of them chose to come back to Wake Forest and play their senior year of competition in Winston-Salem in BBNT Field and under the leadership of Dave Claussen. And I think that really speaks volumes about the experience that Wake Forest offers student athletes, the hospitality of Winston-Salem, and the great culture of achievement that's then developed under Coach Clausen's leadership.

John Curry, Wake Forest AD, with us here on Twitter at John underscore Curry. What's the latest you can tell us about your initiative pushing to get? The opening game, and hopefully, others after that sold out the Utah State game. Man, I'm so grateful for all of our fans who have been so responsive. Our staff has really hustled.

They've put 6,000, 7,000 hangers on door handles all over Winston-Salem. There's door signs, excuse me, yard signs. I'm a fan, yard signs, kind of spreading the word all over neighborhoods. There's some down here in Charlotte. And we're about 2,000 tickets sold, individual game tickets sold for the Utah State ahead of what would have been the mile marker at this point in the past.

So that's a really good mark. You know, we're just now starting to get into the real excitement of preseason. You know, pretty soon in August, you know, as the date gets sooner and sooner, I guess we're 45 days or 44 days out today.

So we're very pleased with that. We still have for the Utah State game the opportunity for fans to buy four tickets and a parking pass for, I think it's $69 now. There is a sunset on that, I think, on the 24th. Or the 20th this week, it goes up again.

So there's an opportunity right now to visit godeeks.com and be part of that action. There are a number of things I want to talk to you about in addition to what's going on with Wake Forest football. You had comments earlier this week and a story written by our early afternoon host, David Glenn, talking about the ACC network and how important that is to this conference and how it is college sports has become an arms race. And this is just another example of that additional revenue for these conferences, the SEC, the Big Ten, and now the ACC hoping that they have a successful network that launches next month. And when you first got here, John, one of the first things we heard about, and you even made it clear, was I want to fundraise this thing right.

Be an effective fundraiser. And the way you put it in the story, if I remember correctly, not everybody can be the mega million dollar donor for a school, but you view. Being a part of the ACC network as a way of being grassroots fundraising for Wake Forest in a small way?

Well, there's certainly lots of folks that can help provide a great environment for our student athletes, and it's a fun way to spend your time. And so, there's really three things that we talk about: you know, one is black and gold, wear black and gold. We got great colors, Wake Forest fans can wear them and show the WF and show the deacon, show the strolling deacon, the top hat, all that kind of stuff is really important.

So, number one is wear black and gold. Number two is: if all the fans out there attend one more game. I'm not saying come to every game, but attend another game. Come to one more game, whether it's soccer with Bobby Muse or Tony DeLuce, or whether it's basketball, or whether it's football in BBT Field. Attend one game.

And then the last is demand the ACC network. Every fan that's listening to this right now that cares about sports in North Carolina, whether you're a Wake fan or Carolina fan or whatever you are, you ought to go to getACC.com or get ACCN.com and register on that site. And you can put in who your favorite team is. And that's helping leverage the distribution of that network, which is not only going to showcase ACC football and ACC men's basketball and all those old Jefferson Pilot games are going to be on the ACC network now, but it's going to provide an incredible platform to showcase our world-class student athletes in soccer, in field hockey, like we have an incredible field hockey tradition at Wake Forest, in baseball, really across the conference. It's a true game changer for the exposure for our student athletes and the storytelling about our universities.

Charter spectrum still hasn't finished a deal yet, but many insiders believe that's going to get done before the start of the season. My general advice is this: usually, people don't pay attention to what's going on with television networks, except when it's when it's their team and it's what's going on with their specific situation. It's normal practice. For television deals to go down to the wire. And I wouldn't be that concerned today that Charter Spectrum doesn't have the ACC network because that doesn't mean on August the 22nd they're not going to.

Generally, it's good business when something benefits both sides, that even if you don't get to a number you like in an agreement, the deal gets done anyway. And I feel like, particularly with Charter Spectrum, that's something I think will get done. But from a director of athletics standpoint, John, how has the introduction, really since the Big Ten network in 2007, of the conference TV network and partners with Foxer ESPN and the ACC Network's case, changed the game in terms of what you can do from a revenue standpoint?

Well, it certainly changed the game from a revenue standpoint as media valuations and the actualization of those valuations, meaning the actual price that the media companies were willing to pay to conferences and schools to televise their events or broadcast their events, that has influenced.

Some of that influence is really good.

Some of that influence, you know, maybe we may argue about the unintended consequences of that influence. But ultimately, it's given us the ability to totally enhance the student athlete experience, to offer more sports programs, to provide services like enhanced nutrition, like we've just added in the Christian McCrary Nutrition Center, which just opened last week in the Sutton Sports Performance Center, for all of our athletes, not just our football players. but our field hockey players and our track and field athletes too. All the things, if you go back, I've been in this 27 years and what is provided in the value of a scholarship for a student athlete today versus 1993 is completely different when you think about the addition of cost of attendance, funds, stipend funds, when you think about summer school opportunities that didn't exist back in the olden days.

Some of our athletes this summer are working out and receiving stipends and they don't actually have to have classes this summer because they're so far ahead. Academically.

So, there's been a lot of great advantages and advances, and ultimately, the technological advance in terms of delivering live content, which we now can produce right out of our own ACC Network studio located behind Couch Ballpark, and distribute all over the world, means that for the Wake Forest Extended Family, which truly is a national and international family, they can stay connected to our university, to the city of Winston-Salem, and the state of North Carolina, and that's important for the Demon Deacons. Your first job out of college at Wake Forest was with the Demon Deacon Club. I wonder how much Wake Forest, or specifically Winston-Salem, has changed from the early 90s versus where you've been living the last few months. It has been incredible, and you and I talked about this before. I actually, last week, I had a buddy from a childhood buddy who was in town visiting another friend, and we went downtown.

And it's the first time I'd been down. I mean, I'd been downtown to the Wake Forest School of Medicine to their incredible campus and the incredible brand new building in the Aldre Air Factory, but I hadn't been to one of the pizza places and kind of the walk around places. I mean, it is the coolest. seen and it's really it's almost impossible to have imagined when I left here 20 years ago.

So the way I look at it, Josh, you know, we're in Charlotte today, which is a great place. In Winston-Salem, to me, Winston-Salem is the coolest neighborhood in North Carolina. You know, we're a neighborhood and we're pretty easy to get up there now from here where we are in Charlotte, especially with the I-77 finally being cleaned up a little bit and just a great, incredible place to live. Looking at today, how much time are you spending talking with some of the other coaches, some of the other administrators that might be here? Because I'd imagine it's a small fraternity, directors of athletics, especially in the Power Five, but how much have the last couple of months been?

Getting your feet settled and also figuring out who are some of the people next to you.

Well, I knew most of the ADs in the ACC, some of them quite well, just a couple of them that I really didn't know very much. David Coburn at Florida State, I'd never met before, but every other one of the one I knew well. You know, I saw Boo Corrigan this morning. I've known Boo for a long, long time and was delighted when he got the NC State job. And we started on the same day, and that's cool.

Last night, the ACC hosted a very nice dinner, not extravagant, but a nice dinner with a lot of our salmon. Salmon, salmon, salmon. I had the salmon and the salad, right? No potatoes. But a lot of our bowl partners, Rosalind Durant, who's a senior executive at ESPN, was there because so many of the ESPN people were here in conjunction with the upcoming network launch.

You know, the Holiday Bowl is here. The Holiday Bowl is coming into the ACC rotation next year. Oh, and the Fenway game. And the Fenway game is coming into the rotation.

So it's great to be able to see those folks from different entities, many of whom I know from my 25 or 27 years in this deal. But it's important, I think, for Wake Forest, which, you know, back to your point, might still be a little undiscovered as a brand. You know, Coach Clausen talked in the meeting today or in the press conference today about now, thanks to Bob McCrary and thanks to President Hatch's leadership and the Board of Trustees and Ben Sutton and Mitt Shaw and lots of other people. David Couch, you name, keep going, Alan, keep going down the list. Wake Forest offers athletic facilities that are as good as anybody in the country and are just like we offer what we believe is the best Academic experience in the country.

I want to close on a housekeeping note here. You mentioned the new nutrition center that's up. We know Wake Fars has a new weight room too. Basketball is still working on the locker room and such. Are the facility upgrades still very much a work in progress, or where are you at percentage-wise, with where you want it to be completed by, or when you want it to be completed by?

So we're always going to be building something. And that is. Construction never stops. That is just the nature of the deal. And so if you look at, you know, obviously Ron Wellman, following Dr.

Hooks, both did a great job over the last 50-something years, and we've made incredible progress. The Sutton and Shaw centers will be completed sometime in April, excuse me, in August. Into September. And then we'll look at other things we need to do down the road. Obviously, the Coliseum is still.

A significant project, not just for Wake Forest, but for the whole community that will require some additional thought. Eventually, you know, the Deacon Boulevard project, you know, we've come back to that. Continuing to look at ways to upgrade BBT Field. The Wake Forest Tennis Center is being expanded as well.

So there's a lot of things that we'll be doing to look at in a fiscally responsible manner. John, thank you for being here. If you guys sell out the opening game, I'm open 7 to 8 o'clock being in a dunking booth if it happens. Everybody heard that Josh is going to be in the dunk book. Justin just walked out of the room.

Justin, Josh is going to be in the dunking booth. There's Cade, so we're ready to roll. All right, well, you can get up to them. Appreciate you being here, John. We'll talk sometime soon.

Thanks, Josh. That is John Curry, Wake Forest Director of Athletics, kind enough to spend some time with us. We're here at ACC Kickoff and we'll be here tomorrow too as the coastal coaches and players roll through. You are listening to WSJS Winston-Salem, WCOG Greensboro, WPCM Burlington, and WMFR High Point. Those signals making up the triad sports hop.

I don't want you to freak out, freak out, freak out. This is the Sports Hub at AM 600, AM 920.

Now back to the drive with Josh Graham. One, two, three. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. With the, with the, with, with the, top, top, one, two, with it, two, with, top, three, we're at ACC kickoff. Radio row inside the west.

Austin Hotel Uptown Sharp. And it is time. For one of our favorite segments in the week, a Segment that's taken over the triad is soon to take over the state, and quite frankly, going to take over the whole damn world. It is our weekly top ten list. Top Ten Lions.

With the Lion King set the release This weekend. Desmond Johnson is producing back in Kernersville in the law offices of Timothy D.

Wellborne Studios. Sitting next to him, I'd imagine. is Aaron Tensively thinking what will be on this list. Dez usually has no idea. where we're headed with the word play.

Aaron meanwhile Has served as an apprentice in a way. An apprentice. To building top 10 lists and being witty and crafty with words in such a way. That He feels like he can guess, maybe even right on the spot where some of these are. Not only are you writing what you think might be on the list, Aaron, are you also doing.

10-9-876-54321, and at this point are trying to guess where in the list they are.

Some of them I have an idea of where they might be ranked, but for the most part it's just a scattered list. That should be the biggest accomplishment. If not only can you guess what's going to be on the list, if you can also place where on the top ten it's going to appear. That would be the biggest accomplishment of it all. Man, that's like advanced stuff.

Yeah, yeah. All right. Top. Ten Lions, it's time for our weekly top ten. Again, I'm gonna be one of the.

very embarrassed if I just let out a loud No. yell or roar in this sense. I mean Dabo Sweeney is sitting like 10 feet away from me. Yeah. Oh yeah.

Oh, man. It's awkward. No, that was weak sauce. It was incredibly weak. Everybody.

I mean, everybody would be staring if that happened. You've got to understand how condensed this is. Des, Aaron has given the roar out there. Can you give us. Your best impersonation of the top 10 list Roar.

Oh, yeah. I was pretty weak too. I was almost as weak as what I do. Aaron Help us out. Oh Oh, yeah!

Now that's what I'm talking about. That was pretty. Top 10. Yeah. You can guess what you think is going to be on this list on Twitter.

At Sports Hub Triad, that's your way to chime in on the show. Number 10. My number 10 lion. The Cowardly Lion. Who's your favorite character from The Old Wizard of Oz.

Hmm, that's actually a really good question. Probably. Actually, a very good question. Do you expect me to ask four questions? Makes it sound like it's a surprise, actually.

Probably the Darren Bott's coming over. He sees we're doing the top 10 list. He's racing over here. He hates the top 10 list. We're not sharing with Darren until tomorrow, but Darren's over here because he hates the top 10 list and wants the rain on him.

Tell him to throw on a headset. All right. He's so much he loves it. Yeah, he does. He's got a headset on now.

Number 10 is the cowardly lion. Dez, who's your favorite Wizard of Oz character? I'm gonna go with the 10, man.

Okay. It's done. Todo! Oh, that's your favorite?

So defiantly, Toto the dog. It's a great answer. That might be the best animal sidekick of all time, right next to a booth from Aladdin. Yeah, except it's real and it's a dog. There's no hating Toto.

Well, just because you don't think it's the best animal psychic doesn't mean you hate Toto. It's kind of like saying Duke is better than North Carolina. Then I get North Carolina fans raining on me saying, oh, you're a Carolina hater. No, I just don't think they're the best in the league. You can say that a supermodel is a good idea.

You better look at the actress, but that doesn't make the actress bad looking. This was about an adorable dog and my respecting the adorable dog, and somehow you made it about you. Congratulations. Continue with your list. Number nine.

My number nine lion. The East Dillon Lions. Friday Night Light fans out here?

Okay, just throwing that out there. Number eight! My number eight lion. Snoop Lion. Damn it, you got me.

Aaron Grass spit up water. You like that one? You like that one, huh? How long did the Snoop Lion era last? It was long enough for him to be in FIFA commercials.

An album? Too long? He put like one album. Did he get an album out? He had a reggae album out, didn't he?

What was his biggest song album? Not Snoop Dogg's biggest song, but Snoop Lion's biggest song. We'll do some crack research. Number seven, my number seven lion. Cecil the Lion.

Alright, Petey. That's even sadder, I think, than a rombie passing. Everyone's got mad about nearly the media attention, either. Cecil the Lion, Rabbi, was just. Overblown.

Like, he was like a major attraction at a Zimbabwe zoo, but then he was put into the wild, and he was best friends, I think, with someone from this zoo, and they hadn't seen each other in years. They're embracing. Like, it's a famous video. You think, oh no, this guy's going to get mauled by a lion. But then they're hugging, and the lion's licking him.

And then the next headline is, oh, Cecil the Lion just got killed in the wild. Wow. That's the only thing that's going to be. Wow. Bro.

I'm surprised you're just learning about this. Number six! My number six lion. Lion Eyes by the Be uh Eagles. Mm-hmm.

Great A. Delivery. Lies. Nailed it. I get see, the audience is getting so good at picking these things.

David has it nailed on Twitter, lion eyes being a part of this list. Number five. My number five lion. Aslan. Who?

The lion from The Chronicles in Arnia. Ah, there it is. Yeah. Alright, well you just should have said that. The lion from the Chronicles.

Yeah. That should have been the list item. I'd get there just because you don't know it? How many books do you read, Darren? Do you read books?

I majored in English literature. Does that mean you've read books? A lot of them. I would think that's the requirement that I major.

Somebody get this man a Harry Potter book. Read one page from the Harry Potter book. Number five. My number five lion. Oh, number four.

My number four lives. You can't even count today. Ha ha ha. I wasn't a French. I'm not going to do a list of ten things.

You're an English literature major. I was not a math major, so counting wasn't a part of the deal. Oh, my God. Number four. My number four lion, Barry Sanders.

Yeah, you already know. It would have been shameful were he not on this list. Who's the most noteworthy Detroit lion, Sanders or Calvin Johnson? Oh, Barry Sanders. Barry.

Barry. 100%? Yeah. 100%. If Calvin would have been.

Who seemed to be higher up in his position? Barry. All time. Barry. There's people that view Calvin Johnson as one of the three best wide receivers ever.

Those people are crazy. At his time, he was the most dominant in the league. I agree with that. I don't know.

Well, Emmett Smith was in that time, too. Yeah. So that would be completely.

Well, I'm talking about Calvin Johnson as a wide receiver. Yeah, but with. With them it though was like everyone kind of Side out because he had one of the greatest offensive lines of all time. Barry was out there spinning and twirling by himself like every single game. Number three, my number three lion.

Iron Lion. Zion Williamson. Nice. Wait, what? Are those?

That was a stretch. I don't think that's a stretch at all. Iron Lion Zion Williamson. No one's called him that, but you. That's a stretch.

Yeah, is that an actual nickname? No, it's not. That's Bob Marley song. Yeah, but like, no one's called him. No, this is the problem.

I'm with you, Josh. I'm with you. William is the problem with this list. The actual list item was not anything. It's wordplay.

It's bad wordplay.

Well. To quote The big Lebowski. Uh Well. That's like um Your opinion, man. Number two!

My number two lion. Lionel Richie. What do you have issue with Lion Nell Richie? I have zero issue with him. He's not a lion.

And you put him on a list of lions. Lion red line on Richie. Where did you have it? That was the first thing I wrote down, was Loudon Rich. Wow.

See, Aaron. Gets the game. No, Aaron is around you too often. Lion, Nell, Richie. My number one lion.

Number one on this list in honor of the Lion King coming out this week. Food line. Uh Isn't that a regional thing? Salad. I think it's a very.

I grew up with food lions everywhere. It's a bunch of random sounds that Dez plays. Is that the disgruntled. Um Nashville woman at the draft who's upset that the NFL draft was ruining the bad parts. I think that's what that sound was.

Yeah, that's exactly what it is. That's also the sound. I mean, it's not the great sound to play there because that could have been very well the sound Darren Vought was making after learning number one. I liked that pick though. This sound is could have been Darren Vought.

I got two glaring omissions, Josh. Thank you. There it is. There it is. Who were the glaring admissions to my top 10?

Well, I know. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Thundercats? Yeah, yeah. Wow. Love that.

See, Thundercats. Yes, that is. Her heroes like that. Then I'm going with a wild card, Gucci Main. See what it did there?

Hold on. Lion mane. Oh, man. See, you guys would have crucified me if I just. No, that wasn't bad.

No, that one was bad. That required way too much thought. Yeah, no, there was a long, a long. road to walk to get to that one. We're going to be sharing with Darren tomorrow, but this was a very good, brief share.

Sharon. Yeah, I don't know what I'm doing here. I was just sitting down to say hi. He just came over. Uninvited grabbed the headphones.

It was like he did. It was like he's a state farm rep. Uh No. Like a good neighbor, I guess. It's like we've been in the middle of the day.

Are you calling me a good neighbor? We asked for him, and then all of a sudden, he magically appeared beside us.

Well, I didn't ask for him. No one asked.

Well, me and Aaron was. He just came over and grabbed my headphones. We were in here. I wasn't even here for the whole time. Just urinated all over it.

No, we were in here. Thank you for that. We were wishing for it in here, and all of a sudden, he just appeared in our headphones. He loves the segment so much. He does.

He does. That's exactly what happened. Lauren Brownlow apparently has, from WREL SportsFan.com, she has. The bingo card that we put together, and she's been filling it out all day.

So, we're going to get an update on that. Lauren joins us next. What are you guys talking about? Talk. Talk.

You're on the drive with Josh Graham, the Sports Hub, at AM600, AM 920. Ba-da-da-da-da! We're at HCC KitCon. Radio Row inside the Weston radio row. Uh in Charlotte.

Thorn Brownlow. From WREL SportsFan.com is with us and Earlier this week with David Hale. From ESBN on the show. We started running past him some things that should appear on an ACC kickoff bingo board.

Okay. This bingo board is complete, and we were setting rules and stipulations for this earlier today. It can't be out of our mouths for it to be included on the bingo board. Certainly not those of us who are in on the bingo card. Right.

So if I say. Oh yeah. Clemson beat Alabama 44-16. Right, yeah, that's not. We're tampering at that point.

That's tampering. That's tampering. That's unless it's the NBA. It's not allowed. I've heard unaffiliated reporters ask some of these questions, and then I have checked it right off.

Fair enough. People that do not know about this, allegedly, even though it's all over your social media at Ellie Brownlow, you can follow Lauren on Twitter.

So, where are we at right now?

Some of the ones that you have checked off, and Des, we can have audio accompaniment with some of these sounds as well as Lauren tells us what she's discovered today.

Okay. Checking this off the bingo board throughout. All right, so what we have checked off so far is FBI, which I actually was surprised that got checked off. Thank you. Thank you to Luke the Copps for asking that question at the commission.

Yeah, I think he wanted to take advantage of the fact that he had John Swofford there and wanted to ask him about what was going on with all of that.

So that's one. Then we got footprint. Ah! That was an early one. He ran up the score with that.

He really did. He swap said it three times. I was going to say, can we count this more than once? Because he mentioned it several times. Yep.

Um Excellent producing work. Notre Dame is also marked off because I heard a Louisville player at the big press conference being asked about playing Notre Dame. Also, also. Jack Collinsworth is going to be an analyst or, I guess, a host for the ACC network. He was introduced today Friday and Saturday nights during football season.

Exactly. He is a Notre Dame guy. Return of the Mac.

So, okay. I have to say this. I counted Return of the Mac because. I mean, A, it's gonna be talked about tomorrow anyway, so f don't worry about it, but B, I I had this idea to do this story before I knew about the existence of this bingo card, so I feel fine going ahead and checking it off. I'm not doing this to tamper.

I already had this idea.

Somebody tomorrow is going to have background on. Right.

How many radio shows would you say are here? Like if you had the ball card? There's a lot, I think. Yeah, 20, 25 of them. Mac Brown, every single one he does.

There's going to be rejoy music that is. Yeah. Return of the Mac.

I mean, I certainly hope so. It's just going to happen tomorrow. We're going to have Mac Brown on the show tomorrow.

Okay, what else do you have? We've also got cable providers. Ah, thank you. We knew that was going to be one that was mentioned in the Swafford segment. David Glenn asked the question our early afternoon home.

He certainly did not know about this pingo card. He did know about the bingo card. He was talking about it all day today. Right? I don't think he did, but also, another inside thing: DG works for everybody: ACCSports.com, the athletic.

I heard. And also the David Glenn show. We had a joke going back to college basketball season that if DG is going to ask a question, over under two and a half affiliations when he's introducing himself. And DG knew about this, and he went over. He went over.

See, he tampered with the over under. He did tamper. I'm David Glenn from the David Glenn show, ACCSports.com, and the athletic.

So it was over two and a half. I was certainly concerned that we would not see this mentioned because Trevor Lawrence is not here, the Clemson quarterback with the fantastic hair.

However,. John Simpson, the wonderful, lovely John Simpson. Came wearing a Trevor Lawrence wig. And I'm trying to think the best way. See, John Simpson's an offensive lineman, which I think should be a name.

He's a wonderful human. But there are offensive linemen that have longer hair and could probably pull it off. There are things about John Simpson that make it look like he doesn't usually have a long blonde hair. And that was a good wig, by the way. It was an excellent wig.

Very good quality. He really thought it out, and there were a lot of ACC media members upset that Trevor Lawrence wasn't going to be here. Right.

So, John Simpson, it looks like it. And so, you know what they did? You know what Clemson did? They had a little fun with it. Good for Clemson.

And that's why everybody appreciates Clemson. And Dabo. North Carolina Alcohol Laws. That was an early checkoff to Bingo card. We were talking about that.

Did you get noon kickoffs? Is noon kickoffs? I did. That is also checked off. That was my next one.

That was one that actually I heard James Smith Williams being asked about from Vincey State and how much, you know, does he like them, whatever. He says he doesn't really care. Do you want to hear a sassy Dave Doran from about an hour ago? I love sassy Dave Doran.

Okay, so sassy Dave Doran, I made sure to mention the best way to not play at noon is to make sure you win at noon. And Dave Doran had this to say. I'm undefeated at noon, my man, so I'm not going to get mad if they put me there, but I understand the value of a night game. Rent the t-shirts. I'm undefeated at noon, my man.

I'm undefeated at noon, my man, says sassy Dave Doran. That's amazing. Did you see that when he was on 999 with Adam and Joe? In Raleigh? Yes, in Raleigh, he said that if everyone stayed in the stadium instead of doing the passouts.

at halftime that he would shotgun a beer. What? It's irrelevant because it's not happening. No, no, no. Still, that's awesome.

Good for Dave Doran. Good for him.

Okay, what else do we have? All right, we have one more check of Virginia basketball, which I did not expect at all. Oh. But then once it happened, it made complete sense. Commissioners for him.

Yeah, he's going through the accomplishments, right, of the league.

So I shouldn't have been that surprised in hindsight, but I was. I was like, oh, there it goes. It's off the list. We are not. The closest we are to a bingo is if we can find somewhere where Dabbo was asked about going to Alabama.

The contract is. If we get that, we have bingo. But we don't have bingo yet. We don't have bingo. If you want to find that out, if you want to find out if Lauren gets bingo on our bingo card, it's very exciting.

L.E. Brownlow on Twitter. Before we let you go, I got to ask you about the all-or-nothing Carolina Panthers series because you're also known on Twitter as the Sad Panthers fan. Yeah, this is going to get me all in my feelings, and I'm not ready for it. You really watched.

You've already watched some of the all-or-nothing specials. I heard some. Audio as well of Greg Olson doing a little bit of a singing performance, which you're going to enjoy. And actually, Greg Olson, Cam Newton, and Christian McCaffrey doing a bit of a collaborative performance that you're really going to enjoy. Christian McCaffrey can play piano, can he sing?

He was doing a sound machine. He was doing like an air machine, a fog machine noise. Huh?

Sound effect. And Greg Olson, I've seen him sing in the locker room before. Yep. One thing I was wondering: if it's an eight-hour special. How many cameos will I make over under We'll say four.

Eight hours. Ooh. If me just in the locker room, me in the presence of the number, I think. I mean, the drip thing. The drip, yeah, that's got to be on there, you would think.

Yeah. Sure.

So I think that's a number of cameos that's going to make it put me in your face. You're in your feels? It's going to put me in my feelings because any like slow-mo, dramatic series like that with my team is going to put me in my feelings. Those things put me in my feelings when it's not my team, much less when it is now, and I get to watch all the dramatic footage. Lauren, it's a wonderful update you provided.

Go up and do ACC officiating for him. Yeah. That's what's happening right now, the Q and A, the fireside chat, as they called it.

So I'm about to sit in on it and see what the latest rule changes are. Thanks for dropping by anytime. That's Lauren Brownlow, WRAL SportsFan.com. Spending a little time with us. Scott Satterfield from Louisville will join us in about Fifteen minutes.

A lot of stuff happening here. I've been emotionally detached with the Panthers for a couple of years now.

So, I don't know if I'm going to be, like Lauren said, quote, in my feels at all watching this. There are going to be Panther fans, I'm sure, who. feel that way. Just nostalgic about the start of football season and Uh watching Some of their favorite players sing and happy in the first half of the season.

So maybe you're in your feels for the first eight games. of the Amazon special documenting next year. But then the back half, I don't know how much. being in your fields, you're going to be. I'm specifically talking to you, Daz, because You're the resident Carolina Panthers fan.

Well that's my fear actually knowing how Knowing how the season ended, it's like those people that watch Titanic and they're already walking into it. Uh Not really curious in the actual story because they feel like they already know it because they know Titanic's gonna sink at the end. That's how it kind of feels going into this. I do want to see the behind-the-scenes stuff because the Panthers are notorious for.

Well, underneath previous ownership, they're notorious for not letting This kind of thing inside of the franchise.

So, this will be the first really in the history of the franchise that they're doing something like this. Do you think knowing something sad's gonna happen deters you from watching?

Well, you just said you were excited. You said you were excited about watching The Lion King. Is there anything sadder than? The death of Mufasa? But that's not the end of the movie.

But you know that's going to happen. But that's not the end of the movie. That's like halfway through. The story's not about Mufasa, it's about Simba.

So you get to watch Simba grow after that point. There are people who go watch this movie A Dog's Purpose and other iterations of it, knowing damn well what they're trying to do. Yeah, I don't understand that. They're trying to make you cry, and you know they're going to because puppies and dogs. It's not fair.

I get what they're doing and I reject it flatly. You are listening to WSJS Winston-Salem, WCOG Greensboro. WPC and Burlington, WMFR High Point, those signals making up the Triad Sports Up. Get ready for our. This is the sports hub.

Okay, it's on at AM 600, AM 920.

Now back to the drive with Josh Graham. The neat thing about Events such as ACC kickoff. We're in Charlotte, inside the west in Uptown Charlotte. You never really know who's going to drop by. We caught up with Scott Satterfield, Dave Clawson, Dave Doran.

Every once in a while. And West Durham is now hanging out with us from. Packer and Durham. That's it. Always Packer in front.

Don't ever put Durham in front. Packer and Durham in the basement of Mark Packer going to air. This is all Richmond Weavers' fault, by the way. Packer and Durham. Is that right?

Not really, but he walked by, so it was fun to get him into conversation. And you're an injured West Durham today. Yeah, this is a torn perineal tendon, Josh. This is a 53-year-old man injury. Yeah.

Yeah, most you know common young people like yourself would never tear the peroneal tendon in their left foot. While walking on a golf course. But much like Kevin Durant, the courage it took for him to get back on the court, West Durham fights on and he's doing I did par, par, par, sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen after tearing the tendon. That's what you're talking about, fighting on, because you're not talking about this event. Is it true when you have that type of injury, though, you don't really know what you're dealing with in real time, and then it's like after the round, oh, that seems pretty bad.

For me, yes, because um I can't believe I want to tell you this story. Yeah, I can. I um you wanna let here's the laugh, funny part. I do it on the 16th hole. And I literally was going down the downslope of a green on a par five because I went for the green and two and hit the ball in the water and thought the ball was on the downslope, right?

Sure.

I got down there. Thinking that the ball hadn't gone in the water and I was going to play the shot, and I got down there, it wouldn't my ball. It was another ball, and when I took the step down the downslope, I felt my foot pop. I thought, well, that was weird, but it didn't really like hurt.

Okay. So then You go back, you drop, you. You know, I'll make five. Par, par par. and played really good.

I was thrilled. I shot 76. It's one of the best rounds I had all year. That afternoon I go home. I go to buy Phil Steele's College Football Magazine at the grocery store, and I'm limping a little bit.

My wife's like, what is going on? I don't know, Vic. I mean, my foot hurts a little bit. And she goes, Well, you need to shake it off.

Okay. Wow. Yeah, oh, yeah. She she didn't put with anything. And so the next morning at 5 a.m., I woke up in more pain than I've ever been in.

I mean, literally since like ever. Couldn't put any weight on my left foot. I go, Vicki, I got a problem. She said, What happened? I said, I think I broke my foot yesterday.

She goes, how in the world did you break your foot? I said, well, I felt a pop on the 16th green. She goes, you were fine last night. You were hobbling around like you were old.

So I got to see an orthopedist and he said I got good news and bad news.

Well, isn't that the thing you want to hear from an orthopedic guy?

Well, no. And I said. Do you ask for the good news or the bad news first? I said, I broke my foot, didn't he? He goes, That's the good news.

I go, that's the good news? He goes, you didn't break your foot. I said, well, great, Andy. What's the bad news? He goes, you tore the perineal tendon.

Which runs down the outside of the left. This is too much medical for a sports show, by the way. Runs down the outside of the foot. It's an east-west tendon, not a north-south like the Achilles. East-west tendon.

I have calcium deposit on the bone, which fractured and also created the tear. Anyway, this is excellent stuff. I'm in the boot for four. I've been in two. I've got two more to go.

Potentially four more to go to avoid surgery. Again, I started by telling you it's a 53-year-old man injury. That's why it's a 53-year-old man injury. Wes Durham, again, from the ACC network, spending some time with the doing a medical segment like Marcus Welby. And there's something I wanted to talk to you about at the NSMA, but I was waiting for a story to be published on it first.

And Spencer Turkish, who's just walking by, did an excellent story on it from the Green Frog News and Record. I walked up to you at the NSMA, and I asked, hey, where can I get one of those microphone lapel pins? You said you can't because it's actually my dad's. And you said all throughout last season, how long was this going on? Just last year?

All last year. All last year, every single game, you wore at least one item of clothing that belonged to your dad. Yeah, I wore either the lapel pin, a pocket square, or a tie. And then Spencer said, Hey, I really want to write the story and I thought, Okay. I was hesitant to have the story written.

Very few people knew about it.

Some people on our crew, television-wise, knew about it. A couple of my broadcast colleagues knew about it during the course of the year. And there were two games during the year where I wore all three: the pocket square, a tie, and the lapel pin. And I can tell this story now. One of them was the Duke Carolina semifinal in the ACC tournament because I knew that would be my last broadcast for Raycon.

My dad started his career in the ACC working for C.D. Chesley long before Carolina. My dad did games for CeeDee Chesley. And my dad's last broadcast for C.D. Chesley on television was an ACC semifinal at the basketball tournament.

Wow. And so that night I elected to wear a pocket square tie and the lapel pin. How did it start? Innocently. In all honesty, very innocent.

My mom, as I told Spencer, wanted my brother, my son, and I, and my wife, and my daughter, and Somebody was gonna we were all gonna wear something Carolina blue. at the memorial service in April a year ago at Carmichael. And in going through some of the things at my parents' house, I found the lapel pin that day, and I knew he'd worn it. And there's a story about the lapel pin that I told Spencer today. My dad used to wear this little tar heel-looking thing.

You know, kind of like the foot with the black spot for the tar on the heel. And he wore it for years and years and years. And then he was in an elevator somewhere. It may have been Atlanta. It may not have been.

It may have been D.C. Anyway, he got on the elevator in a hotel, and a lady got on a couple floors later as they were riding to the lobby. She stared at my dad's little tar heel, and she said, Are you here for a podiatry convention? Oh Now, he used to tell that story, Josh, and people would laugh like crazy, right? Like I am right now.

But my brother and I always sensed, God, how mad and frustrated. No, ma'am, I'm here. You know, I mean, it's just some haywoody moments. That's all they are. Those are haywoodies, by the way, when that stuff happens.

So then he started wearing the microphone later in his career. And he kind of wore the microphone almost all the way out at the end of his career in 2011.

So when I saw the microphone lapel pin prior to the Memorial Service, I wore that that day along with one of his pocket squares. And then before I left town, I I ended up taking Several of his pocket squares and probably two or three ties, and I still have them. And I don't know. I think I'm probably going to do it next year because it's the first year of the network. But there's always, in some respect, a little bit of him with me every time now.

And not that there wasn't when he was alive, but now I think a lot more about it. And I've had some close friends who've lost their dads or lost their mom here in the last year and a half since my dad passed away. And I think more about my dad now, especially with something like this. I mean, what's gone on now with this thing since March for me? in in many ways has been one of the more emotional things in my career.

Because I grew up with this. I mean, Mark Packer and I feel very blessed to be given kind of the keys to the morning. Because in some ways we were born around this, and so that's been the cool part. Can you confirm the rumor out there that sailing with the pilot is going to be a part of the ACC network and potentially Packer in Durham? I cannot confirm yet.

I can tell you That somewhere on the set Yeah. Is the basement almost complete? Ma, I can't speak to any of that. I can tell you, though, that there will be some element of the set. That will feature the pilot.

A funny thing about getting to actual football, we're talking with Western here. I think you can hold multiple truths when it comes to this league that I think many fans don't connect. Sure.

Clemson. You can maybe accept since 2005 when the league expanded to 12, the gap maybe hasn't been as large as it is between number one and whoever you perceive number two to be. But the number two thing I don't think people recognize with the ACC because they're so fixated at who's at the top. There aren't many bad teams in this league, and it's possible, very possible, that. Every single team is a competitor and a bull team, with the exception of maybe one or two.

That the overall middle of this ACC has been elevated despite that gap being so large at the very time.

Well, I put it in a different way. This is not Goliath and the Lilliputians when Florida State joined in the early 90s. No.

Okay, this is not even close to that, and yet a lot of people outside the conference footprint are running to that kind of rhetoric. It's just wrong. It's just wrong. And a lot of that has to do with perception, where if it's not Florida State and Miami, people aren't willing to accept Syracuse, Virginia as a private sector.

Well, they don't understand. They don't understand. It's not sexy. It's not a brand name. It's not Virginia Tech.

It's not Miami. It's not Florida State. I mean, they don't want to give Kendall Coleman and Alton Robinson or Syracuse their due. Two of the better defensive ends in the league. They just don't want to give them their due.

You don't want to give Bryce Perkins his due. Bryce Hall. Bryce Hall, the DB, might be the best defensive player in the league. Might be a first-round draft pick. Might be.

I mean Michael Carter at Duke, really good player in the secondary. I think Duke's going to be very good. Eight defensive players back. Quentin Harris, back at quarterback. I like what he did again.

He'll benefit from the three starts, there's no question. Look, here's the thing: Clemson in Alabama. Are the two best teams in this country? Right now.

Okay. And then you got to go away, and then we get to Oklahoma, Georgia, Ohio State.

Okay. Then you got to go to another level. And I would say this. We have to have the discussion as people that follow college football. Is the gap between Alabama Clemson and those next three?

Bigger than the gap between those next three and that group, you want to, and then whoever the August national champions are. Oh, they're right there now. LSU, Texas, Notre Dame, all the August national champions are in that group right there.

Okay? Texas, let's go. Sure, Texas, we're back.

Okay. So, how big's the gap between Auburn Clemson, those other three? And then the next. Is that gap. Bigger than the gap between the middle three or the Top five, if you will, down.

I think we ought to have that discussion. I think you can give me a lot of different lines about it. But Clemson and Alabama are both. capable of running the table. Here's the other thing too.

We've gotten to where college football is consequential every Saturday. Look at week zero this year. Miami and Florida. Look at week one. Even in the ACC.

Conference games. Pitt Virginia, V.T. Boston College. I mean, we got good games. Clemson, Georgia Tech.

Clemson, Georgia Tech. I'm not sure about that one now. Sure.

Jeff Collins, first game. Yeah, yeah, but I think Pitt, Virginia is a really, really important game, and I think Virginia Tech B.C. is a really important game. By the way, so is Florida State, Boise State.

So is Louisville, Notre Dame. I don't know what SAC could do. He's a hell of a coach now. Hell of a coach, hell of a job at Appalachia. But That's a large order now.

That's a large order value meal on a Labor Day night to go up that one. One thing I want to talk about as well. Two storied or make it three storied programs had step backs last year in Virginia Tech. FSU in Miami. Yes.

You have a lot of talent, I think, at all three schools. Which of the three do you think is most poised to have a comeback season and you just recognize, okay, last year was maybe an aberration? Um. Tech. Has 10 back on defense and a schedule that's manageable.

And last year was a season from hell. For Virginia Tech, when Bud Foster's banged up himself and the code DC gets dismissed, and the ineligibilities, and all of that. But see. Josh, I agree with that, but Here's the thing, there were injuries combined with those distractions, okay?

So let's take that part and say if Ryan Willis can do this. By the way, they couldn't run the ball last year. No? I mean, you know, and you can argue now, not since the day of You know, Darren Evans and Ryan Wilson. And David Wilson David Wilson.

David Wilson here. David Wilson and Ryan and Darren Evans, have they been able to run the ball? I mean seriously. Yeah, I'm trying to think. McMillan he had moments, but look, I could go Eisenhower on you.

They haven't run it since Eisenhower. I mean, I'm not trying to be that guy, but remember Dalvin Cook was the first thousand-yard wrestler at Florida State since work done.

Well, let's break it down then, maybe compartmentalize it. Who has the most talent out of the three? Is it Miami? Yeah, yeah, I sure they do, because defensively they're They're legit now. They have the easiest schedule of the three because they don't want to deal with Clemson.

And I think some of their biggest games are at home, including the Virginia Tech game. The Virginia Tech's got the easier schedule. Man, at B at Boston College. At Virginia.

Okay, but yeah, you'll get there. That's late in the year. Sure.

Sure.

A lot of Hail Me in the barn by then. I think I have Virginia Tech Winter. NC State has the easiest schedule in the league in the future. We've got some starts. We've got to put.

Our ACC poll out there, our preseason poll, we have to submit that pretty soon. Yeah, I'm submitting mine. Who do you have when in the coastal? Virginia. I think that that group is being completely undersold.

Like that football team a ton, like the culture that's been built. It's different. I think they've got the second-best quarterback in the league. Maybe the offensive line might be a bit of a question. Defensively.

Charles Snowden is big time. Jordan Mack is big time. Eli Hanback is big time. We've already talked about Bryce Hall. You want to talk about Perkins, the quarterback?

That's fine. Hasis Dubois is a big-time player. If Joe Ellis becomes the playmaker that maybe Zacchaeus was a year ago. Look out. Look out.

And oh, by the way, friendly schedule. Friendly schedule. You're looking forward to, I guess, not only what's going on with Packer and Durham, but also Atlanta Falcons training camp? Yeah, it starts Monday. Just signed Deion Jones, by the way.

Yeah. So we're handing out money in Flowery Branch, apparently. Brady Jarrett yesterday, Deion Jones today, and the Deion Jones number is $34 million guaranteed. I mean, you see after Kyle Shanahan leaves, the numbers drop. Points per game by eight points in Sark's first year.

Now you got Dirk Cutter calling Mike Malarkey. And Mike Malarkey. That's going to be interesting. What's old is new again? That's right.

We'll have Matt Hasselbeck on the show tomorrow to talk about that. Nice. West Durham. Thanks for being here. Congratulations.

We can't wait for the show. Thanks. I appreciate it. Looking forward to it. And tell everybody to call their local cable or satellite operator today.

Get ACCN.com. Or else we riot. Wow. We're going to, but we personally, no. No, no.

My mom's calling Spectrum on a regular basis. Is that right? Oh, Miss Jean is dialing the numbers. Dialing, dialing, dialing. My son is going to be on the ACC network.

Are y'all going to carry it? Listen here. Yeah, no, it's a little more direct than that, Josh. All right. We take it to the house.

See you, man. Thanks.