I Will Say...

He's amused Cam Newton. He's been insulted by Charles Barkley.

He's interviewed Matthew McConaughey. And he's taken on Big Blue Nation. It's time for The Drive with Josh Grant. Welcome to a Tuesday Drive WSJS Newstalk Sports for the Triad, where two weeks ago, I remember sitting at the Carolina Classic Fair in Winston-Salem with a cotton candy funnel cake right in front of me. Not really relevant to the point, but just painting the picture for you here. I was at the fair when I said Drake May should be in the Heisman conversation.

At that point, nobody even suggested such a thing. And the reaction that I got was all too predictable. You're a Tar Heel Homer. You hate Wake. Why aren't you pushing Sam Hartman?

Aren't you supposed to be from the Triad? You're a hot take artist, Graham. You're just trying to stir it up. However, fast forwarding two weeks, here are a few of the headlines I'm seeing today. Raleigh News and Observer, Drake May for Heisman?

Not as crazy as it might sound. 24-7 sports! Drake May has entered the Heisman conversation. Here's what I want to do. Since it's election season, let me take this opportunity right now to firmly plant my flag as the leader of the Drake May for Heisman campaign. If you have any interview requests about our campaign, my campaign manager is Will Dalton, executive producer of this show.

You can give him a call at 336-777-1600. He's going to handle all of our PR here because the numbers don't lie and they point to him being right in the mix. He's tied for the nation lead in touchdown passes with CJ Stroud. They each out 24.

Here's the difference between the two though. CJ Stroud is the odds on favorite to win the Heisman from Ohio State. Drake May is still at 40-1 odds.

I think that's good for 12. Tied for 12. Drake May, unlike CJ Stroud, has three rushing touchdowns. He is nearly 400 yards rushing.

Insert your white, quarterback, cliche, draft terminology if you like. Hashtag gym rat. Hashtag deceptively quick.

Hashtag coach's kid. Take your pick on that. He has three rushing touchdowns, nearly 400 yards rushing. That's more than Henon Hooker has. Who has the second best odds. That's more than Caleb Williams has.

Third best odds. And he has better passing stats than those two. He's also third among power five quarterbacks in passing. The two in front of him, Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. who already has two Pac-12 losses.

And Will Rogers at Mississippi State which doesn't really count because any quarterback that's in Mike Leach's offense is probably going to be number one or number two in passing yards. Heck, Gardner Binchu. Check that box. Former pirate from a few years ago.

I know what you're thinking in your head. Josh, who has Drake May played? What kind of competition has Drake May gone up against?

I don't know. Same competition CJ Stroud's gone against. What's CJ Stroud's best win? The best team he played? It was Notre Dame. Isn't the best team Drake May's played? Notre Dame?

Oh, but you know, Josh, come on. Ohio State beat Notre Dame. Carolina didn't. No one's disputing that Ohio State's better than North Carolina is.

This is an individual award. And you look at Drake May's numbers. You know what, W.D., do me a favor.

I actually don't have it right now. You are at that Notre Dame, North Carolina game. Pull me up the stats that Drake May produced against that Notre Dame defense. Because if memory serves correct, I know CJ Stroud wasn't all that great. Had a couple of touchdown passes, but Ohio State's offense wasn't so great in that opener in Columbus. Drake May's numbers were still pretty good.

North Carolina did not lose to Notre Dame because of Drake May. What did he do in that game? He had 301 yards passing. Went 17 of 32. Completion percentage, 53.1. Had just a measly five.

Okay. Who's he played? Five touchdowns against Notre Dame. Oh, and Notre Dame's not any good. That's the best team that Stroud's played to. No picks in that game either. Just throwing that out there. Uh-huh.

But look in the rest of the way. He'll get a chance against Clemson because he's going to win the Coastal, I think. He also has Wake Forest. I don't see Wake losing any games between now and their matchup, I think on the 12th of November.

So that's going to be a matchup. Carolina, if they don't lose, if they take care of business at home against Pittsburgh and beating Virginia, which they should, you should be talking about two teams that are ranked at the top 15. Wake could be ranked at the top 10. NC State's ranked as of right now. North Carolina still has that on the schedule.

Gosh, I just don't know if that's going to be good enough. Well, it was for Lamar Jackson. Except Lamar only faced two ranked teams his entire year winning the Heisman Trophy in 2016.

Went one and one in those two games. He didn't win the Atlantic Division. Certainly didn't win the ACC.

So you're telling me if Drake puts up better numbers than anybody in the country, which is still in the realm of possibility, and Drake takes Carolina to the ACC championship game where they haven't been in seven years, and is more than what Lamar Jackson did when he won the trophy six, seven years ago, he doesn't have a shot? I think his story is going to appeal to the voters. Everybody loves an underdog story. We know about C.J.

Stroud. We know about Bryce Young. People like the Hendon Hooker story, Tennessee.

That's why he's so high up in those rankings. Beat Alabama. Everybody watched it. Record ratings for that game.

Just wait. If Sam, if Drake May continues to do what he's doing, I think he's going to be in that conversation. Because if I've learned anything since Mac Brown returned to Chapel Hill, people love themselves some Mac Brown. And people love Carolina basketball. So a lot of people loved watching what Luke May did against Kentucky hitting a three in their eye hole.

People remember that. And that family tie and having these winning moments at the end of the game like App State and against Duke. Drake May, I'm planting my flag. Three weeks until Election Day, Drake May, I'm leading this Heisman campaign. Drake May for Heisman.

Hashtag May for Heisman. On Twitter at WSJS radio if you want in. 3 3 6 7 7 1 600 is the phone number. That's also the phone number for your chance to win later this hour as this Thursday night.

We're talking about Salem's Lot, the haunted attraction in Winston-Salem at the fairgrounds coming up this Thursday night. If you want tickets, usually these tickets go for thirty dollars a person. You can have a pair for free later this hour.

We're giving away two pairs. This is what you're listening for to call it. You're so basic. Oh, I'm a huge horror fan. I've never seen one of the classics, The Shining, which you're going to watch this week.

I've never seen Silence of the Lambs. Oh, I'm a huge horror guy. Really what you are is just a huge Halloween fan.

Just like I like Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Not the biggest Friday the 13th guy, but besides the point. So that's your cue to call in if you want to win tickets to go see or go to Salem's Lot Thursday night at the Winston-Salem fairgrounds a couple of days from now. The NBA season starts tonight.

Couple of games on TNT. So just for fun, because I know these picks are going to look ridiculous when we get to June and nobody's going to remember them. So what's really the point, Josh? It's just for fun. This is my preseason finals pick. I have not run this by you, W.D. So I'd like to know your thought on it. I'm going with Milwaukee over L.A. Let's start in the East.

I'm going with the least amount of drama because I see it as a four team race. I think it's Milwaukee. It's Philly. It's Brooklyn. It's Boston. Boston's got a lot going on. And their coach isn't going to be there this year. Brooklyn, need I say more?

Philadelphia. I like the addition of Montrezl Harrell and I think Tyrese Maxey's coming into his own, the former Kentucky guard. Joel Embiid might be an MVP candidate, but I don't know what you're getting from James Harden.

I'm certainly not going to bank on it. Milwaukee, I think they are back to back defending NBA champs if Chris Middleton's not hurt during the playoffs last year. So I'm trusting Milwaukee to get out of the East, go to the finals. My L.A. team's not the Lakers. It's the Clippers I'm going with. I can't just unsee what happened with Phoenix in the playoffs last year.

Can't do it. Think they're aging out a bit. Golden State the same way.

It's hard to repeat. It's hard to get back to back long playoff runs when you're talking about guys that age. Many of their key players also kind of like what we talked about in the East, staying away from drama.

There's certainly quite a bit of that out there on the bay right now. There are three teams that intrigued me. Memphis, Denver and the Clippers.

And out of those three, I think Kawhi's going to remind a lot of people who he is and Paul George the same way. And they have a lot of depth on that team that I really like. So those are the two teams I really like. And I've got Milwaukee over the Clippers in the finals.

What do you think? I like it. I mean, I don't have a pick yet, but I was taking a hard look at Milwaukee.

I don't know if I buy the Clippers. Yeah. Well, see, a lot of people forgot about. Yeah. And Kawhi. This is why I don't look at other people's picks.

I have no idea if that's popular. It doesn't seem like, according to Vegas, that those are the teams that people are favoring. But looking at rosters, doing my homework, watching a little bit of preseason. Those are the two teams I'm leaning on.

It might look ridiculous when we get the gym, but I got Milwaukee over the Clippers in the NBA finals. Through three games, they only allowed one goal in each of those. Not bad.

Uh huh. They're outscoring opponents 11 to three as a result. Usually these West Coast road trips to start the year with the Canes being out of town due to the state fair going on. That doesn't really go well for Carolina, but this team feels different. We'll see if that's the case throughout the year. Somebody I know is pretty excited about that's our friend Hayes Permar, who joins us now from Sports Channel 8. We'll play skips or plays in a bit. Hayes, how much do the Canes have your attention, given the state of the Panthers?

Very much so. One of the problems with the Panthers is the playmakers aren't even necessarily identified. Brian Burns is one. I guess maybe Jeremy Chin. Jeremy Horn looked like they could be. Chris McCaffrey obviously is supposed to be, but even he hasn't looked great this year.

One of the cool things for the Hurricanes is the dudes you want to see it from are bringing it. And it's not a great point either. I mean, you're just proving your point when you call J.C. Horn Jeremy Horn.

I think you're making your point. I meant Jeremy Chin and then J.C. Horn. But no, Svetch is hot. One of the guys that we needed to take a step, if the team was going to take a step, was Natius. He's been hot, I think, five points through three games. Scored again last night.

Heard I had an assist last night. So yes, it's not just that they're winning. It's that the players that they're counting on to be even better. They're good players.

Aho, Sesikov, Natius. These guys are expected to kind of take it to the next level, and they look like they're starting the season the right way to go next level. How many wins do they have to start the season in a row for you to write a Canes parody song?

Ooh, that's a good question. Here's the remaining road trip they have. They're at Edmonton on Thursday. They're at Calgary on Saturday.

And then they wrap up things next Monday night in Vancouver. I mean, what we do is maybe some West Coast rap song. If we sweep out there, we do some sort of West Coast thing to feel like it would be right. Maybe a Beach Boys song or something about just getting it done on the West Coast.

I don't know. No, I think if they win, if they go undefeated, maybe we can work to get Stephen A. Smith to get an actual live remix of the Raise Up song with him. Rather than him just name-checking North Carolina town names during first take, we can get him back to get in the studio and record. Hope, Bladen, Pasquaton, just all of them.

Get Stephen A. Smith to do the whole thing. Yeah. For those who have forgotten, our show is broadcast in downtown Curtisville. Yeah.

Triad name drops from Stephen A. Smith, as you pointed out a couple weeks ago. In the spirit of election season, which campaign of ours are you willing to jump on? The Drake May for Heisman campaign or the Wake Forest 11-1 playoff bid? I'm all in for Wake Forest 11-1 playoff bid getting in. So they lost to Clemson in double overtime?

Double O2. So you're saying they got to win out and then win the ACC Championship as well? I think, no, well they can't get to the ACC Championship game. So you're hoping it's like Bama five years ago didn't win their division, but were good enough to get in. You look at it, double overtime loss to a team that's in the playoff. I don't think Wake Forest is going to lose again. I was worried about going to NC State, but without Devin Leary, not so much. And I don't think North Carolina is going to beat Wake three straight years, especially with this year's game being in Winston-Salem.

So I think you're talking about an 11-1 Wake Forest team. I think that's what we're looking at. Okay. All right.

So this is interesting. Now, are you asking me which campaign do I want to get on as far as like which one I'd rather see happen or which one do I believe actually is a campaign that has a chance? I'm asking you, see, I'm running both campaigns.

I'm trying to get funding for my campaigns. Which one are you putting stock into Hayes Perm? Are my Drake May campaign or my Wake Forest campaign? You're still not answering my question because when investing, it's like, I don't know, am I investing in the cause I believe in or the person I think will win? I think that's a choice that people actually make. So I'll give you my answer. For a cause that I think could actually win, go Drake May for Heisman. It's a long shot, but he's already put up some crazy numbers. There's nobody on Alabama or who's the... Ohio State has the quarterback, but funny enough, they are both tied for the lead in touchdowns.

And whenever I suggest it, it's great. I say, hey, Drake May for Heisman, Ohio State fans jumping my mention, who have they played? And I say, you know, the best team you played was Notre Dame, which was the best team North Carolina's played to, except Drake threw five touchdowns in that game.

No, no, it's interesting. But even in that one, I think, you know, the way things could break out, if his stats get too eye-popping, if Ohio State loses two games or, you know, the other quarterback falls off or whatever, like those are things that could feasibly happen. As sad as it is, and this is what's one of the things that's wrong with college football, waste not getting in. And that is 11-1.

And the way you described it is exactly right. If you put different names on the teams and put them in a different conference and you still have the same number of top 25 wins and losses and Rogan, all that scenario or whatever. That's, you know, it's a scenario where any other team would get in.

The wait for us will not. The sad reality is it could get really extreme this year because I pointed this out on Twitter earlier today. All the talk in college football right now is if Bama runs the table and Tennessee is going to play Georgia later this year, someone's got to win, somebody's got to lose. But let's assume that neither of those teams lose another game and Bama wins out. People are making the argument for three SEC teams getting in all with one loss, given they've all beaten each other. I don't know if that would happen, but I would guarantee you all three of those teams will be ranked above Wake Forest, which is not right.

Yeah, it's ridiculous. And it's one of the reasons I've come around to accepting a 12-team playoff just because this came up, I was talking about this on the gold show today. UNC just got voted number one in the basketball poll, right? Now, if UNC makes the final four at the end of the season, it'll be because they played well, earned a decent seed, and then won four games in the NCAA tournament. It will have nothing to do with whether or not they started the season number one, and that's just not the case in college football. You start the season with a brand name and number one, and you are set up to have advantages, even with one loss, as long as it happens at the right time to the right team, in a way that you have an advantage over other teams that will be able to earn the same way and won't have to. It's a flawed system, and so the only reason I'm down for a 12-team playoff, as much as I don't want that much more playoff, I just think it's more fair, and it'll keep Alabama from winning championships just because they have a huge brand name and have the easiest path to getting in the top four every year. I agree with that, and also I'll second, there was a story by Ross Dellinger today looking at what the 12-team playoff would look like in this format with the teams that are currently ranked right now. Wake Forest would be going to Ann Arbor to play a playoff game against Michigan.

You get home fields involved, that's a really cool thing too. A team that is in the playoff mix, that's in the SEC with a quarterback from the Triad running the show is Tennessee, and W.D., in the spirit of Hindenhooker, in the spirit of that great game which drew over 11.5 million watching it, more than a million more than the next closest college football game this year, you have a Tennessee-themed skips or plays with Hayes today. Hayes Permar is somewhat of a renaissance man, an expert in the finer things, but he hangs his hat on music. Today Hayes will decide if this music is smash or trash, blows or blows.

It's time for skips or plays with Hayes. Okay, W.D., what is the first artist slash song that you got for us? I assume Rocky Top is taking off the board.

So what we're going to do, we're going to start off with Jolene from Dolly Parton. Okay. No chance he's skipping this. I defy him. He wants to, but he's not going to do it. Nah, it's an obvious play. It's an obvious play.

I was just letting it play out a little bit. Excellent. Tight harmony, tight song, and that little guitar riff at the beginning. Have you guys seen the, I forget the name of their podcast or video group, but it's basically dudes who film themselves reacting to them listening to classic songs for the first time. Do you know what I'm talking about? No, I've not seen it.

Oh, it's fantastic. There's one you may have seen where they're listening to Phil Collins in the air tonight and videoing themselves watching it for the first time, and they're kind of grooving along. Oh, I've seen these. I'm not a fan of these. I'm not a fan of these. What? Not a fan?

What do you mean? I don't like watching other people listen to music for the first time, and I don't believe that's the case either. I think they're putting on a show. I don't believe that's the first time. I will say it's one of those where I wouldn't watch a full episode or regular episode, but the highlights are good. The Joe Lean one is another one.

If you watch them when it first kicks in, those guys are like, oh, Joe Lean, don't take my man. It's a good reaction video. I dig it. Hard to really go higher than that, talking about Tennessee themed here. You came out of the box with Dolly Parton.

What's next? When the Sun Goes Down by Kenny Chesney. I'll never forget Permar on this show ruining Uncle Cracker for this show because apparently Uncle Cracker's Follow Me is the exact same song as this song, apparently.

One hundred percent. Ruined Uncle Cracker for me, who's also a Tennessee guy. Rest in love for a long, long time. We'll be moving when the sun goes down. You know what? I'm skipping this one. There's a reason why Uncle Cracker played a song that was so close to this.

He did. It sounds like a paint-by-numbers song. Even though Uncle Cracker ripped it off, it didn't sound like a song that ringed with originality to begin with. Just feels like a little play school, rinky dink, put together, easy country song. Kenny Chesney probably made $10 million off it, but it's not a good song. Skipping it. Yeah, you could have gone a little better on that if you were going to go Kenny Chesney.

That's on you, but at least you didn't go on the nose. Touchdown Tennessee. Let's close things out.

What do you got? I wasn't going to do this, but I'm going to call an audible here. Oh no.

Not a good sign. Permar's here. I'm excited. And I want to win this thing, frankly. I don't think it's going to work out for you. I want to win, Josh. I want to win. I know what you're thinking. It's not going to work. I don't know what's going to happen.

I don't either. This song's fire. Yeah.

It should win it. Here's the thing. Tennessee fans absolutely ruin this song. Much in the way they're like Tiger Rat, Hold That Tiger. That's a great Dixieland performance song. The Clemson fans ruin it by playing, hold that tiger, hold that tiger. Hold that tiger. Get out of the way.

There you go. You try skipping. If you've ever been to a wedding with Tennessee people, they'll try and get the band to play Rocky Top. And that's not good enough.

They'll try and get the band to play Rocky Top again. It's like, dude, stop. Just stop. Tennessee fans have ruined this. But it's a great bluegrass song.

It's a play. Let's keep it. I'm going to Rocky Top, Knoxville, for the first time next week.

Excited for it. If you really wanted to hit a home run, you would have gone with the Doc Watson, Tennessee stud. That would have been the easy way to guarantee a victory for me.

I wasn't sure if you'd be able to pull that. There's also the Tennessee Jed, an old Grateful Dead song. Is that a one?

That's a great one, too. We need to go to Merle Fest together one of these years. One of these years we need to go together.

We definitely need to make that happen. All right, Permar. Thanks for the time, man. See you guys.

Enjoyed it. Sam should be coming up and looking forward to him to get back on the field and see exactly where he is right now in his progression. And then, you know, we'll go from there. That was Panthers coach Steve Wilks. This week should be the return of Sam Darnold.

That'll probably be official tomorrow. That's when Carolina makes decisions when it comes to injuries, when they put out an injury report, that entire deal. He's shown positive signs the last three weeks.

This doesn't really surprise me at all. After every game, I've seen him in the locker room. He gets extensive workouts done before the games.

And if you go watch Bill Vos' Twitter account from, and I think the Panthers put this out on their social as well Sunday morning. He looked really good in L.A. in pregame. Looked pretty close to full speed after dealing with that foot injury from, or I guess it was an ankle. He got hurt in the third preseason game. I don't think Baker will be ready to go, but even if he was, I think it would be Sam this week. This exchange here that Wilks had, this exchange between Wilks and our guy, Darren Gantt, who was a guest on yesterday's show, I think is telling. Steve, when Baker is healthy, is he the starting quarterback? Darren, I can't give you that answer, but I can tell you right now, those guys are going to compete at that position, just as well as other positions to see exactly who goes out there on Sunday.

This exchange tells you something. Baker, I think he had his shot. Carolina, once a different spark, a different leader, a different guy, I think, a different look at quarterback. Because what's happened with Baker Mayfield just hasn't really panned out at all, but it is pretty hard not to laugh at the current state of the Panthers quarterback position. It's become comical for the second straight year. Last year, you're paying five quarterbacks at one time because you were still paying off Teddy, and you brought in Cam, and then Sam Darnold got hurt, and things just went south from that point on. That was a really rough thing, and this year, to try and get out of that situation, you keep Darnold, bring in Baker, draft Matt Corral, and this past week, all those guys are hurt. And to make matters worse, PJ Walker went out of the game being looked at due to a head injury. So, you're next up, Jacob Eason. It's unbelievable.

And what's great about it, Jacob Eason had, I think, he actually had the best throws of the game, better than anything PJ Walker did. So, it's laughable. It is. But help seems to be on the way, just not the help that anybody wants. It's Sam Darnold.

Imagine saying that. Help's on the way. It's Sam Darnold.

That's right. Here's the picture I'm painting. You are stuck in a tree. You're stuck. Help's on the way. It's Sam Darnold. Do you feel comforted? Help's on the way.

It's Sam Darnold. Why? Why? You're drowning. You got some cramps. I'm drowning!

Help's on the way. It's Sam Darnold. You know and I know, first thought that's going through your head. Is he going to accurately be able to throw that, that, you know, that float to me? That lifeboat to me? The life vest?

Will he be able to accurately throw that to where I'm at in the water or am I drowning in this ocean? Help's on the way. It's Sam Darnold. This is a conversation that is really starting to frustrate me. We'll get to who's to say in just a bit. But the SEC media machine, it's back at it. We talk about the SEC media machine. Could you imagine if the SEC West had four teams ranked in the top 25 right now? They'd be telling you, why even have an ACC? Why, you know, why don't they just join us because we're so powerful nobody else could even compete?

Why even bother? Four teams in one division ranked in the top 25? Hard to really top that. It just means more.

That's what you would get if that were to happen. The ACC's Atlantic has four teams ranked in the top 25 right now. Clemson, and this has been the case for multiple weeks now. Clemson at five, Wake Forest at 13, Syracuse at 14, NC State football still in the top 25 at number 23. Four teams ranked, and then you got North Carolina that's ranked out of the coastal. So a fifth of the teams are ranked from the ACC. Four from one division. Yet, Tennessee beats Alabama.

And what's the discussion that I continue to see on social media and here on radio shows? Oh, the SEC might get not one, not two, but three teams in a four team playoff format this year. This is what's being discussed. Somebody asked me about that in the press box at Duke Carolina on Saturday. The game wasn't even an hour old, the Tennessee Alabama game, and somebody looked at me and said, so what happens when Bama wins out Tennessee and Florida or Tennessee and Georgia go head to head? And other than somebody having to win, somebody having to lose in that game, everybody just takes care of business. Up until the title game where Bama beats either Tennessee or Georgia, the winner of the head to head.

In other words, all of them have one loss and they've all beaten each other. What happens in that circumstance? What do you do? I don't know. Pick one of them.

Pick one. Maybe two. Three? Three. And not one person wants to talk about the idea of Wake Forest potentially being a team at 11-1 getting in?

Oh, that's just ridiculous, Josh. What scenario would that happen? I would imagine it would happen on the same planet that we're talking about three teams from one conference getting in.

Think about it. Wake Forest, if they went 11-1, didn't go to the ACC Championship game, didn't win the ACC Championship, because again, Clemson, they would have one loss against the team that's in the playoff, that's unbeaten, assuming Clemson's clean the rest of the way, and they lost that game in double overtime. And Wake, because of what I just spelled out, you're talking about more teams, four teams that are ranked in the top 25. In that division alone, you still got Syracuse, and you still got NC State, and you still got North Carolina on the schedule who's ranked. If Wake wins those games, right now they're 13th in the country. If they win, if they went out and go 11-1, who's going to make the argument?

If not us, who's going to make it? Because if Alabama can get into the college football playoff at 11-1, they can get in without winning their division or winning the SEC. Other teams should be able to do. And you're going to hear, oh, it's just the ACC. And that's where the media machine comes in.

That's where perception comes in. Because everybody's like, oh, the SEC, it just means more and all that. And then I look at the rankings and there's five teams from the ACC and four from one division where Wake Forest just so happens to be. And we're going to punish them for not being in the Coastal? That's what we're going to do? All right.

All right. To be clear, I don't think either of these things would happen. I don't think they will happen. I don't think an 11-win Wake Forest team would get into the college football playoff just like I don't believe three SEC teams would ever get in. Because that would require Clemson or Ohio State to both slip up. I just don't think, I don't welcome it.

Two teams from the SEC? Certainly. Yeah, I could see that. That can happen. Three? Come on. And it would really fire me up if three teams were ranked ahead of Wake Forest at 11-1. Knowing that that's probably going to happen.

And that's the part that bothers me. W.D., you got your Yankee cap on. The Yanks on Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge home runs jumped out four to nothing. I see that the Cleveland Indians have scratched a run on the board. Four to one. Bottom four.

Starting to get concerned? No, it's a run. It's a do or die game.

It is. And we've got a good strong start to that do or die game. Not over yet. Bottom four, two outs. Getting close to the halfway point of Yankees, Guardians, Game 5 do or die, ALDS.

The NLCS begins with Phillies, Padres at 8-0-3 tonight. Got to be specific on Fox Sports 1. Let's debut a new segment. It's not every week that we have a new segment that we haven't done before. It's also not usual that an NFL team fires its coach with about a dozen games left to go. So it's going to be a while before the Panthers name their next guy. I've got a feeling that that coach is currently coaching right now. So we're going to power rank the top candidates for the job each week. And so this is going to be reactionary week to week based on what you've done the previous week. It's called Top Cats, which I just now realized is the name of the Panthers cheerleaders.

Don't know if people will make that connection, but I just made the connection now. Let's play the game. Odds are the Panthers next head coach is coaching right now. So who's it going to be? Here are this week's top cats. OK.

I remember saying a couple of weeks ago, I really liked D'Amico Ryans at San Francisco. Defensive coordinator over there. But I'm not going to include him as a top cat. Why? Because they allowed 28 to the Atlanta Falcons this week and Kyle Pitts was dancing in the end zone.

So you're out. And the Cowboys lost on Sunday Night Football to the Eagles. So Dan Quinn, you're not on this list either. And Eric Bienemy. Uh-uh. You didn't have a great offensive day throwing picks in the red zone, Kansas City.

You lost it home to the Bills. So none of those guys are on the list. Who's on the list? Let's get it started with Rahim Morris. He's the Rams defensive coordinator. We just saw his defense.

Odds are really good chance. Panthers next coach might be a guy that they've faced the last two weeks. Rahim Morris. He was once an NFL head coach about 10 years ago. He was the Bucs coach for three years. First year didn't go well. Second year won 10 games. I don't know if they made the playoffs that year, but they were really close to doing so. Then they went 4-12 the last year he got axed.

Why not give him another try? It's been a decade. And clearly he knows Sean McVay.

That's a pretty good qualification. And he was a defensive coordinator for a team that won a Super Bowl last year. So Rahim Morris is the first name that I got here. W.D., how does that move your needle? You are a Panthers fan, so your reaction to the first name that we have here?

It didn't move my needle a ton, but we'll see what else you got in store here. Second name, Brian Flores. I don't know how many times the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to win the rest of the year, so I wanted to make sure I threw Flores in there. I don't know if a lot of people remember that Brian Flores is on an NFL staff right now. Mike Tomlin hired him, not to be a coordinator, but to be a special assistant to the head coach.

I think worked with DBs too. Pittsburgh, big win against Tom Brady and company from over the weekend. David Tepper, not a guy that really cares about the lawsuits we've come to find. Eric Reid, Colin Kaepernick were suing the NFL together. Eric Reid felt like he was blackballed. David Tepper didn't care about that.

Hey, can this guy help us? We're going to bring him in. Steve Wilks, part of the lawsuit against the NFL, currently with Brian Flores. David Tepper, it didn't deter him and tapping Wilks to be the interim head coach and to get an opportunity to impress between now and the end of the year. So Flores, you got to at least give him a look. He shouldn't have been fired last year and he has a proven head coaching track record. I like that one because I mean, we we talked about this, you know, the Panthers are set up for a defensive head coach and Flores. Good guy on defense to have so just as long as you don't trade away any of the defensive pieces.

Yeah. Keep Brian, keep Brian Burns around. Keep that is a fact. Eric Brown and Jeremy Chin and all those guys.

And I think they will. So I'm with you. I'm all for a defensive coach, which might make this next name appealing, too. It's probably a name that a lot of people aren't yet familiar with. It's not a household name yet, but soon will be Jonathan Gannon.

Josh, what the heck is a Jonathan Gannon? He is the Eagles defensive coordinator. Philadelphia, one of four teams in the NFL that were top 10 in scoring defense last year and right now top 10 in scoring defense this year.

It's pretty good company to be in. Gannon was the D.C. last year. D.C. again this year.

He could be a sleeper candidate to consider given the Eagles are playing really well. And while the offense is getting a lot of attention, Jalen Hurts and those guys, the reason this team is as good as what they are currently, it isn't hurts, although he's played really well. It's the defense first.

The defense comes first in Philadelphia, and Jonathan Gannon has it really fired up. Well, and I mean, he's used to coaching up Darrius Slay so he could bring some of that wisdom to Jeremy Chin. Did you just learn his name?

Yes. A lot of people probably don't know who Jonathan Gannon is. Last name, just on general principle, Sean Payton. I might just throw his name in there every single week. I think you should. We've got to we've got to workshop this segment a little bit. Do we bump names off? Do we keep names on?

It's top cats. We're trying to figure out what exactly the Panthers are going to do with their next hire. Sean Payton, he said on Colin Cowherd show that job was appealing outside of the context of him being asked if he would be appealed to it or find it attractive. I don't need to get into Sean Payton's resume. I just felt that I threw three defensive coaches names in there and I needed to have somebody that was offensive minded. Sean Payton checks that box. I mean, it is an attractive position with that defense, assuming you keep all the pieces.

And if you're in a position to have your pick of the litter in this coming draft, a Bryce Young, a CJ Stroud, maybe a Hendon Hooker. We'll see. I mean, you got stuff to work with there.

So that's been top cats. I will say this. I don't know why I started. Why not just say it rather than say, I will say this? Isn't that something that bothers you?

Everybody has their own tics and I catch myself sometimes. I will say this. How about just say it?

That does seem like something that would bother you. I will say that. No, just say it. I do declare. Like literally.

I do declare. Literally bothers you. That one does. But not because the word is used. You use it incorrectly at points. Do I?

You do. You use the you use literally wrong. And it's because of people like you, but mostly teenagers that have ruined the word literally. I will find myself writing the word literally out and then not using it just because even if I use it correctly, teenage girls have ruined it. Literally.

So I literally use the word wrong. You have. I'm sure I have.

Kind of like the teenage girls. I mean, who hasn't? You say obviously a lot, too, and then say things that aren't obvious. I do. I nitpick. You do. I notice things about the language.

It is something I'm working on. But I mean, you know, when you're flowing and that's it. But I do it. It's not just you. I do it, too. I do it to myself.

As I just caught myself a second ago, I'm an equal opportunist. There you go. But this was what I was going to say when I said. Just get to the point, Graham. When you look at many of the top candidates in coaching right now, doesn't it seem like to you most of them are defensive coaches? It's funny, you would think it's the other way around, but when people talk about offensive coaches right now, it's. Ken Dorsey and Eric Bienemey.

Those are the two that I continue to hear. Yeah, it's Ken Dorsey. This is his first year as the offensive coordinator.

Yeah. Let's hire that guy. I don't even think he was that great. I didn't even think he was that great of a quarterbacks coach for the Panthers. Personally, I thought Mike Shula was a better quarterbacks coach than Dorsey was.

And then when they lost Chudzinski, who became the head coach of the Browns for a year. Shula was in a chair too high. Great quarterbacks coach, not a great OC. Sometimes you can be sitting in a chair too high. A lot of great OCs or DCs are not great head coaches.

Sometimes you can sit in a chair too high. I didn't think Ken Dorsey did a great job as quarterbacks coach. And now Buffalo's scoring a lot of points to get a great quarterback and Josh Allen. I understand why his name's being thrown in the mix, but that's really the great list that we have.

Hey, here's the here are the two great. If you want to hire an offensive coach, you got. These two guys, here they are, Eric B enemy, but we don't even know if he's the actual one calling the plays or Andy Reid, which might lead to why he's been passed over the last few years.

Or you got Ken Dorsey, who is a first time OC. It's kind of tricky. I'm just saying I did it again defensively. There are there are a there's a bevy of candidates offensively. I don't see a lot of them right now. I just don't.

I don't. Oh, we have a response. The Washington Commander spokesman just put out a statement in response to Jim Erce. He said Jim Erce said that it might be time to look at removing Dan Schneider as an owner.

First time we've heard an owner publicly voice that attach their name to it at owner's meetings. This is what the Washington Commander spokesman said. I have not read. I have not read this yet.

I'm going to assume they're not curse words so that I don't have a Ron Burgundy type moment here. Go bleep yourself, San Diego. Here's what the statement says. It is highly inappropriate, but not surprising that Mr. Erce opted to make statements publicly based on falsehoods in the media. It is unfortunate that Mr. Erce decided to go public with his statements today while an investigation is still in progress. And the team has had no opportunity to formally respond to the allegations.

The commanders have made remarkable progress over the last two years. We are confident that when he has an opportunity to see the actual evidence in this case, Mr. Erce will conclude that there is no reason for the Schneider's to consider selling the franchise and they won't. So wait a minute. Hold a minute.

This is great. At the start of this, this is like the second sentence of this. It is unfortunate. This is a sentence in the statement. It is unfortunate that Mr. Erce decided to go public with his statement today while an investigation is in process. That is an actual, they feel you should not make statements until the investigation is finished.

Oh, I'll bet they won't. And then another sentence, three sentences later, we're confident that when he has an opportunity to see the actual evidence in this case, Mr. Erce will conclude there's no reason for the Schneider's to consider selling the franchise and they won't. Wait a minute. I just, I thought you just said it was unfortunate and inappropriate to make statements before the investigation was done. Then you just decided to make a comment and a statement about the investigation. I mean, what? Didn't you just do the thing that you just said was inappropriate?

Everything about Washington is just such a dumpster fire. Everything. They just, you can't say you can't talk about this until the investigation is finished, but yeah, we didn't do anything wrong and we're not going to sell the team. What?

And also, here's the thing. If 24 owners vote and say you have to sell the team, you're going to sell the team at that point and we won't. Well, it's not your say at that point.

You got to sell the team if 24 of the 32 decide that you have to sell the team. It's unbelievable. What a joke. Washington. You know what Washington reminds me of?

I don't actually. The Washington commanders? Fear Farms. It's spooky over there. Spooky season. Woods of Terror. I've had folks reach out and ask, hey, you're talking about Woods of Terror.

How about you help out some of your listeners? We might want to go. It's a tough ticket to get or pricey ticket to some. You know, Maclaurin Farms. They do it right. They really do. And here's the thing.

We do have tickets that we're going to be giving away next week. But that shouldn't stop you from going. No, no, no, no, no, no. See, W.D., he loves being scared. That's his thing. You're really into that. That's why you're going to watch The Shining, maybe tonight, even though I doubt it.

No way. You're going to be watching NBA basketball and then I'll talk to you tomorrow. Oh, I'll watch it tomorrow. Cool. And your Yankees are playing right now. So you'll watch The Shining because you have to. Big scary movie person here, Woods of Terror, Maclaurin Farms.

Welcoming you in the monster parade starts in a little over an hour, 7 p.m., you got the monster midway dawned the snake, the entire deal Jeffrey was telling me that he was out there over the weekend, had some fun. I don't know if DJ went out there. That sounds like that sounds like DJ Speed. It does. They do it up right over there.

I mean, it's like a movie production quality over there with makeup and they do it right. It's exactly what you want. With Halloween right here, that's the place that you go. Woods of Terror dot com. Don't miss your best chance to say to be scared. Hey, I got scared. No, dare I say I got terrorized this Halloween season. Are you ready? They're ready for you.

Might have to make my way out there. It is spooky season. I was reminded today that Halloween's right around the corner. You were. There are rumors the Tennessee Vols are going to be wearing black uniforms when they play in a couple of weeks, which they've only done once in the last dozen years. Yeah, it just it just dawned on you today that you're going to be down there on Halloween weekend.

Yeah, I am. During football season, I'm so out of the loop on things. I get it. Like even. I did not even know that the midterms are right around the corner. No idea.

Call me ignorant like a couple of days ago. Hey, yeah, man. Hey, the election. Who won? Me and you both.

It's like it's it's October, Josh, the elections and a few weeks. So ask me the extent of my knowledge on politics. You don't have to worry about being what's the word I'm looking for? Partisan on this particular radio show, because the extent of my knowledge on the subject as a sports talk radio host who's at football and basketball games all the time is.

The ads I see on TV. Yeah, that's it. That's the only reason I even know what's going on. I don't know. I did. If I see one more ad about Sherry Beasley or Kathy Manning one more time, I'm going to punch a wall. I don't know anything about them.

I don't even know what party they're about. I swear. I believe you. I swear. I don't know these people are, but I know them because of these ads. There you go. And you know me.

People don't get to see what happens during commercial breaks, like when these political ads run or whatever. I always like answering the questions. Yes, you do.

But they say it's like it's like, do you care about children? Yes. I'm Sherry Beasley. Hey, Sherry Beasley. Hi, Sherry. That's your favorite. I do do that. You say hello back to whoever said hello on the ad.