So Long, Sam Hartman

He's amused Cam Newton. He's been insulted by Charles Barkley. When some idiot in the press asked him, if you know what you know now, what you scheduled this game.

He's interviewed Matthew McConaughey. And he's taken on Big Blue Nation. He's just completely taking the wind out of my sails. It's time for The Drive with Josh Graham. We're back from a quick holiday break.

Glad to have you here on this Tuesday Drive and do hope, like us, you enjoyed Christmas with your family and loved ones. We called it three weeks ago! It just made too much sense to not happen. Sam Hartman has entered the transfer portal and according to Pete Thamel Notre Dame is expected to be the destination. For those who don't follow Wake Forest, this might be a surprise. They might think Hartman is sliding the dekes with this decision. For people who do listen to this show and do follow Wake Forest, it isn't much of a shock. He isn't sliding the dekes because over the last month it became pretty clear that for both sides it was best for Sam and Wake to part ways.

Let's start with the Sam piece of this. It's not right but it is reality that he was not going to get drafted because of the slow mesh point offense, the gimmicky offense that Wake runs at points. What they've become known for across college football. Dave Claussen, he has combated this publicly pointing out at every turn that they only run the slow mesh maybe 20% of their snaps if that. They've run it a lot less over the last month but the perception is still this is why Sam Hartman has been as successful as he is. This is why he's the ACC's career passing touchdowns leader. This is why he has more passing yards than anybody in Wake history all the way down the line. Even if you use that 20% number that Claussen throws out there, that's still one-fifth of his snaps.

And how many more of those snaps? What percentage in addition to that are teams having to respect the possibility of a mesh point play and that affecting the way that defense is played. NFL scouts have been scared off of prospects for a lot less than they don't like the type of offense that you run particularly at that position. So Sam needed to go to a place where there would be more exposure that would be a pro style offense that he runs and Notre Dame's the perfect destination for both those things. If he wasn't gonna get drafted and wanted to still to be compensated well with NIL you'd be hard-pressed to find many places better than Notre Dame on that front either. He wouldn't have a problem getting in from an academics perspective.

Notre Dame has issues with the transfer portal because they're limited academically and who they can accept in. That's not a problem with bringing in Sam Hartman. You could even make an argument that Sam Hartman is the best Irish quarterback, is going to be the best Irish quarterback they've had since Brady Quinn given the numbers that he's produced. He has more career passing yards right now than any Notre Dame quarterback in history. More than Montana, more than Brady Quinn, more than Jimmy Clausen, Panthers great Jimmy Clausen, more than Everett Golsan, more than Ian Book, more passing touchdowns than anybody in Notre Dame history as well.

More than Flutie, more than any of those guys. So stepping in you got a handsome quarterback playing for perhaps the most handsome coach in college football, an interesting guy, peak exposure opportunities, it's a match made in heaven here. And from the Wake perspective, you got him for five years and he went out on a high for you. He played in the bowl game despite knowing probably going into last Friday he was gonna be entering the portal. He won the game for you, he broke the ACC passing record touchdown or passing record for career touchdowns.

He did everything you could possibly ask from the guy. And Wake, they're more than ready to move on to the Mitch Griffith era. You wouldn't want to risk losing the guy who has three years remaining by keeping Hartman around another year, would you? It's the Russell Wilson, Mike Glennon question of ten years ago. Griffith, in his start he had to make this year because of Hartman missing the start of the season with that entire blood clot issue, 21 of 29 passing with three touchdowns against VMI, he's got three years remaining and he's already been in the offense for three years.

Redshirt season, COVID season, and then this year was the first that counted against his eligibility. It was time, it was time for Sam, it was time for Wake Forest. If you're a Deacon fan you should wish the guy well and thank him for all he's done for your program and root for him every time he plays except October 28th when Wake Forest goes to South Bend next year. On Twitter at WSDS radio if you want in 336-777-1600 we'd be happy to take your phone calls, your thoughts on the Sam Hartman news of the day at 777-1600.

Will Dalton is the executive producer of this show, taking your calls, running the video stream on Twitch, Twitter, and YouTube, and on the ones and twos on the radio end as well, WD. Did you ever get power back? I saw you put on social media that you lost power over the weekend in Greensboro. I did, I lost power at about 7 a.m. on Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas. It was of course the day I was going to the Panther game. Not only that, like I was trying to get things ready because I was gonna go to my parents house after the game straight there, so I was trying to get a lot of Christmas things together. I had a thing of laundry in. I was picturing it's like a movie since how cold it is that you woke up and the first thing you saw was you could see your own breath inside. No, it's the power's out.

I wasn't there for it to get that cold because I had to leave fairly early, but I had a thing of laundry in when the power went out that I had yet to put in the dryer, so I had to run that to the parents house. Then we went to Charlotte. Speaking of that game, after quite literally running over the Detroit Lions, Steve Wilks has gone five and five in ten games as the Panthers interim coach. That fact, coupled with the news we've seen out of Denver yesterday, should have crystallized the obvious for David Tepper, that Wilks should remain the head coach after this year.

What else does he need to see? Don't just take it from me. Here was Dan Campbell's postgame handshake with Wilks after the Panthers beat down his Lions. If you can't make that out, that was Dan Campbell saying to Steve Wilks, that was an absolute ass-kicking. That's a bleeping great job. Love Dan Campbell for saying that. He can't finish worse than five and seven the rest of the way. That to me, matching David Tepper's criteria, is an incredible job done when you consider he took over a one-and-five team, re-inspired it with players that he did not hand pick, with a coaching staff he did not hire, with all these injuries and guys who were traded away, McCaffrey and Robbie Anderson, and now JC Horne added to that mix. Please tell me we have that drop today that we'll play in honor of our JC Horne.

Also, Wilks has become a more known commodity than any of the other alternatives. Can I put out this PSA today? It's the last week of the year. I've been hearing this for months. Please stop with the Sean Payton discourse. It's not going to happen.

It's not. You have, the Saints have to trade him to you. Even though he's retired, if he decides to play, he has a contract or decides to coach, he has a contract that he has to uphold with the Saints. What do you think the Saints are going to ask for in order to trade their coach within the division to a rival? Stop. It's not going to happen.

It's not worth it. Probably what it would cost in order to get Sean Payton. So let's stop there. You're probably talking about a coordinator. Probably talking about an active offensive coordinator. Look at the news we've seen out of Denver. Nathaniel Hackett was the perfect hire. He was Aaron Rodgers, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. And it hasn't worked. Denver is a dumpster fire.

It's done within a year for an organization that's really good. Generally, the Denver Broncos organization, really good. So really, I don't care what you see from Shane Steichen in Philadelphia or some of these others.

Oh man, Kellen Moore dropped 40 on Philly this weekend. That's all good and well. You don't know how they're gonna react when they're a head coach. You don't know what kind of staffs they're gonna be able to hire.

You don't know how they're gonna handle situations. Meanwhile, the guy that you have in your building, he was hired to be a head coach before he got screwed by Arizona. Wasn't given a real opportunity. And this year, all the stuff that he's had to deal with, you saw how he would be in the worst of circumstances as a head coach and that's still pretty darn good. So Wilks, you know what you're getting and nobody else at least compared to the alternatives has a track record that you can bank on more stepping into a head coaching position than Steve Wilks right now. And David Tepper will now, it's now at the point, David Tepper will get crushed if he doesn't hire Wilks. His fans will be mad. You didn't hire our guy who had been around for a long time and had turned around this team, made football exciting in Charlotte in December for the first time in five years.

You didn't hire that guy. The fans will be mad. The national media will be mad because it will be another example of many in which a minority coach doesn't get the job that he probably deserves who's more than qualified. It's now gotten to the point where things should be crystallized. The Denver headline yesterday, him beating down Detroit and breaking yardage records, rushing yards and total yardage in the coldest game in the history of Bank of America Stadium, that should crystallize everything. Now I know you have to go through logistics where you have to interview other minority candidates and go through the process so they couldn't, even if he wanted to, name Steve Wilks the head coach today. You couldn't do that for logistical purposes.

We get that in compliance of the Rooney Rule. But in Tepper's mind there really should be no doubt at this point that Steve Wilks is the guy, or at least should be. That's right! It's your chance to win!

336-777-1600. First to call in, gets tickets to go see the Carolina Thunderbirds, face the Elmira Mammoth. First time those teams have ever met face-to-face. And it's a 730 puck drop, or make it an 830 puck drop, on Saturday night. Those are the tickets that we're giving away and it's a big night that they have. It's New Year's Eve, the first hundred hot dogs are free, there's a 630 tailgate party that'll have a band, there'll be balloon figures, fire truck for kids to ride, and after the game a New Year's countdown with Thunderbird coaches and players. Had a huge crowd out last week.

Your chance to win tickets now at 336-777-1600. Going to the Thunderbirds game, that's a popular thing to do. Today in the Carolinas, still not being a believer in the Panthers as a playoff team, not quite as popular. But that's where I stand, WD. I still don't believe in it. I don't.

And I'm not being a contrarian, I'm not being a curmudgeon, I'm just being honest. Because with Tampa beating Arizona on Sunday, it still feels like to me Carolina, even if they beat Tampa Saturday, is going to have to beat New Orleans the following week. Because Tampa, I went to East Carolina, I'm not great at math, but Tampa has one more win than Carolina does. So let's say Carolina beats the Buccaneers. They both have seven wins at that point. If Carolina loses to New Orleans and Atlanta with Desmond Ritter loses to Tampa the following week, well Tampa doesn't matter what happens this week. If Tampa would win the NFC South is my understanding of it.

That's what would happen. Carolina likely has to win both of its last two games and both of them are away from Charlotte. Carolina through 16 weeks has exactly one road win. One road win this year. That's it.

And you want me to believe? Oh yeah, Carolina's just gonna win both their road games from here on out. Carolina is now decimated at corner.

Can we talk about that for a second? JC Horn, our guy. He's out for the remainder of the season now with that wrist.

Send me that cash out, family. Was it his wrist or was it his knee? No, it was his wrist. Okay, you were in the locker room, not me. Yeah, he came in with a cast on and you know it was... Brian Burns was the one to break the news. That's what I found funny about it. Usually it's Schefter or Wilkes breaking the news or you don't hear it till a day later but Brian Burns saying, oh yeah, he told me that he broke his wrist. Yeah, I mean Burns was bummed out for me. I mean, his locker's right next to his, so.

So here's the funny thing that happens. JC Horn's out. Now Josh Norman's back and Panther fans just so happy about the chance to win a division and they like Josh Norman and they want him back are willing to forget all the details. The fact that this team's won one road win.

Gosh, I can talk today. They've won one road game. It's a tongue twister. All year long, Josh Norman hasn't been a good player since he left Charlotte six years ago and they're like, oh yeah, NFC South, Super Bowl vibes. That's what we're talking about. I don't know about all that.

Super, super excited. They're willing to forget all this. Do you not remember the Steeler game from two weeks ago, not even two weeks ago, nine days ago, where Mitchell freaking Trubisky jumped in and carved up Carolina Secondary because, because they lost a corner. Dante Jackson already out. CJ Henderson had the injury so it was JC Horn and whoever Keith Taylor was matching up with. So now CJ Henderson's your number one corner and on the other side it's Josh Norman. That's not good when you're facing Chris Godwin, Mike Evans and those wide receivers and some guy named Tom Brady.

I don't care that he's 45 in this instance. Mitchell Trubisky carved him up. To be fair, the Bucks haven't looked great. And the Steelers have.

I get everything you're saying. Mitchell Trubisky carved up the Panthers. It's one game. It was nine days ago. Well, something else happened since then. Yeah, JC Horn got hurt.

That's a problem. That's a scary game and guess what? Tampa's not gonna get run over in terms of their run defense. When Carolina beat them, it wasn't that. It was unbelievable throws that Baker Mayfield was making. No, no, it was PJ Walker. PJ Walker was wheeling and dealing.

So it's a little bit different than Detroit. So I am not optimistic about this game Sunday and even if they do win it, I am not a hundred percent sold that they're going to win the following week in New Orleans, which I think they need to do. So in some, in totality here, I'm not a believer yet in the Panthers being a playoff team right now. I'm not getting this tweeted into me.

Eye test, Josh! You keep forgetting that the Panthers have the best running game in the NFL right now just imposing your will, okay? Detroit is 26th against the run. Seattle is 31st. When Carolina played a top 20 rushing defense in Pittsburgh, they went 16 rushes for 21 yards. Again, best rushing team in the NFL. Are we forgetting nine days ago when they ran for 21 at home and Mitchell Trubisky carved them up? Do you think this is related to the opponent you're playing?

Probably. Tampa hasn't looked great, but it's Todd Bowles. He's not gonna get run over. He's one of those defensive coaches that's gonna say, hey Sam Darnold, how about you beat us? And if Sam does it, but until I see that, I'm not gonna believe it. And we haven't seen it. Sam Darnold hasn't had to beat anybody yet. They just asked him, don't screw it up. Don't screw it up against these teams that we can run over.

And Sam's done that, but we haven't seen him beat a team yet. I got more bad news for you, WD. Oh. So we're not gonna be on tomorrow because Duke football will be on the air. Tomorrow night, it is the Holiday Bowl. And against Oregon, North Carolina looks like it's gonna be a lamb to slaughter.

Or I guess a ram would be a better term here for obvious reasons. This does not look good for Carolina. The Tar Heels neither have their play caller nor their offensive line coach. Phil Longo's in Wisconsin and his O-line coach went with them. Which means Lonnie Galloway is gonna be calling plays for Carolina.

Why should you know that name? He's best known for stealing Dave Clawson's plays in WikiLeaks when he was an assistant at Louisville. So that's not good for Carolina's offense, which if you've been following the Heels hasn't really looked right down the stretch anyway. And the other side of the ball probably looks more grim. For one, they haven't really been great all year long. And now they don't have Storm Duck, Cam Kelly, or Tony Grimes in the game. That's pretty much your entire secondary. And Bo Nix is playing in this game and he's gonna be back next year for the Oregon Ducks. He's gonna be a Heisman contender.

This stat is the stat that blows me away, WD. Do you know how many teams play FBS football? Want to take a guess? Top level of college football. How many teams? 60 some teams.

130. North Carolina ranks 128th in the nation in sacks gained. So sacks that they have on defense. They've only had 16 sacks this year.

That is 128th in college football. Oregon is number one in the country in sacks allowed, positively, or yeah. So how many sacks they've allowed? They've allowed the fewest in the country.

Four. They've only allowed four sacks all year long, WD. And they're playing the team that has 100 ranks 128th in sacks.

It's not a great combination. So the Tar Heels, good luck to them tomorrow night. They're two touchdown underdogs.

That sounds about right. The Tar Heels still don't have a ranked win this year. They lost it home to NC State's third string quarterback. They got blown out by Notre Dame and Clemson.

And Oregon is 15th in the country. This is blowout written all over it. But here's the best news I got for Carolina fans. At least Gus Johnson's gonna be on the call for the game. At least Gus Johnson, you get to enjoy some of his calls. Just throw a few out there.

I know he has the soundboard. Yeah! Oh I'm a huge fan of Gus. Great. On the mountain! Here comes the paint.

Pure! He's... Gus Johnson, along with Joe Tacitor, my two favorites calling college hoops in college football. Uh-huh. Oh my guy Dez wrote in. PJ Walker threw for two touchdowns last time. He started against Tampa. He only threw for 177 yards total.

He didn't carve up anything. Panthers ran for 173 yards in that 21 to 3 there. Yeah I was at the game. Good luck doing that twice. Good luck doing it in Tampa. I'm not saying they can't win this week. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying I want to bet on it, number one.

And number two, I want to bank on this team to win back-to-back road games when they won one road game all year long. That's what I'm saying. And the carving up, I didn't say Carolina didn't carve up Tampa that day. I'm saying Carolina got carved up by Mitchell Trubisky because they didn't have CJ Henderson on the field for three quarters.

That's what I'm saying. And now you're missing JC Horn and you're going up against better wide receivers, then I think you even face that day. We've got basketball rankings to get to since we were off yesterday. ACC basketball rankings and critically acclaimed, which includes a new number one team, which we haven't had all year long thus far. Plus some interesting notes on Sam Hartman's Notre Dame slate next year. Next. Got some really neat nuggets on Sam Hartman, who is likely to transfer to Notre Dame, albeit that hasn't been made official.

That's based on a Pete Thamel report earlier today and also something that we threw out there three weeks ago. We'll get to that after we get through our ACC weekly basketball rankings that we call critically acclaimed. We don't go through all 15 teams, we just go through the top 10. So let's run through that right now.

And we start with number 10. The Syracuse Orange. Hit. Snapped Syracuse's five-game winning streak in the dome last week.

The Orange. What's new? Quarterline tourney team gonna be on the bubble all year long. They sit at 8-5 right now.

Number 9. The NC State Wolfpack. Slow clap for the pack. Didn't mess it up against Furman. Didn't mess it up against Vandy. And didn't even mess it up against Louisville at home last Thursday night.

The pack? 11-3 on the season. Not a lot of great wins, but good ones. Beating Vandy. Beating Dayton.

Beating Butler. Had an opportunity at Miami. Had an opportunity against Kansas at the Battle for Atlantis. Another team that's probably gonna be right on the bubble, but the pack in the top 10 certainly with that 11-3 mark.

Number 8. The Pitt Panthers. They won at NC State. They won at Syracuse as we just mentioned. Also they have a 30-point road win at Northwestern.

Almost four high major wins. They lost by a point in Nashville to Jerry Stackhouse's Vandy team. It's a 9-4 basketball team. 9-4.

And I didn't see that coming from Jeff Caple this year. I thought they were one of the two worst teams of the week. They've been a nice surprise in the non-conference.

Number 7. The Wake Forest Steam and Deacons. They validated the Wisconsin win they had at Kohl's with the Duke win last Wednesday night.

They needed to do it. They needed to step up their non-conference schedule. And they did that with a high major win against Georgia. The road win in the ACC Big Ten Challenge at Wisconsin that we mentioned. Beating Duke even though it's a conference game.

It's still in the month of December. It doesn't really feel like you start a conference play yet. Some nice wins for Wake that are going to age well. Wins that they didn't have last year. They only had one win on Selection Sunday that qualified as a net ranking quad one win. They have two of those right now as they get set to turn the calendar. But let's not look too far ahead because they have another quad one opportunity with Virginia Tech coming in on New Year's Eve.

Number 6. The Clemson Tigers beat Wake head-to-head. They're now 10 and 3 on the season. And they went on the road and blew out Georgia Tech last week. It's a sneaky good team. TJ Hall looks like an all-ACC guy.

A lot of good blue players. Brad Brownell the all-time wins leader at Clemson. This is one of his finer teams he's had or at least one of the best wins he's had since Jeron Blossom game left.

Number 5. The North Carolina Tar Heels. The Heels they've now won four straight games after that four game skid. The latter two against Big Ten teams. Beat Michigan.

Beat Ohio State. They're now ranked as we thought should certainly happen. They're ranked number 25 in the poll. The Tar Heels number five in the ranking and climbing.

Number 4. The Virginia Tech Hokies. They were number two the last few weeks.

Down from number four or down to number four from number two. The Hokies they lost to Boston College. And that's pretty bad that's a pretty big ding. They've got good wins like the one against North Carolina from a few weeks back. But losing to BC stings as does losing to the College of Charleston even though both those games were on the road.

Number 3. Got Duke here. Lost to Wake Forest but Wake was at home. I think Wake's pretty good and Duke was missing two lottery picks. No Derek Lively.

No Dureek Whitehead. Would Wake have won the game anyway? Probably but it wouldn't have looked as lopsided as it did. Wake Forest winning by double digits if those two guys were out there on the floor. Plus the layoff factors in this too with a young team the week of Christmas it just seemed like a Molotov cocktail.

Surely to blow up the Blue Devils and it did last week. Number 2. The Virginia Cavaliers. The first time this year Virginia is not number one in critically acclaimed. They get bumped out of the number one spot because they lose their first two games of the year and they lose them in consecutive games. Falling against Houston and then losing to the team that is number one in the rankings now.

Number 1. The Miami Hurricanes. The Canes. Do I believe they are the best team in the ACC?

No I don't. But it comes there comes a point where your record is your record and they are 12-1 on the season. They've lost one game and it was to Maryland and they beat Virginia head-to-head. And they beat NC State. They've had their close calls. The 12-1 is 12-1.

They've earned the number one spot this week. Before we get to those Sam Hartman notes I want to tell you about our friends at Contour Brands. They're the makers of Lee and Wrangler Jeans and they're looking for some of you trying to find a new career. Want to apply for a new career?

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Contour Brands, maker of Lee and Wrangler Jeans. The Sam Hartman stuff. He has the potential to have an incredibly special year at Notre Dame if that is in fact where he's going. And according to Pete Thamel that seems to be the case. They could be a national title contender. They can run the ball, we know that. That's what Notre Dame does. They will play strong defense.

They will have great players in the front seven. Marcus Freeman a defensive-minded coach and Sam Hartman he is the best quarterback Notre Dame's had in a long time. I watched Ian Book live. I've seen Jimmy Clawson. I've seen Everett Golsan. Sam Hartman's better than all those guys. He's probably the best quarterback Notre Dame's had since Brady Quinn. And to back up some of those numbers, Tim Beret, who is a legend in the sports information business. He does stuff for the Masters, for Jim Nantz, and he's done Final Fours and big-time football games. He's been Clemson's SID, done a lot of stuff with Notre Dame as well.

Here's what he just tweeted me in the last 15 minutes. This is how Hartman would rank in Notre Dame history in various categories upon arriving on campus. He is first in passing yards, career passing yards, first in career touchdown passes, eighth in completion percentage, eighth in passing efficiency, 12th in yards per pass attempt. These are career passing numbers. Sam Hartman is the best in passing yards, passing touchdowns, and top 10 in completion percentage and in passing efficiency. And that's in the history of Notre Dame football.

That's what we're talking about here. In terms of schedule, their most difficult games, USC and Ohio State, both going to be played at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend. And personal to Sam, there are some games on the schedule that are beauties from a familiarity standpoint. Obviously playing Wake Forest is going to mean a lot to Sam. October 28th, South Bend, Wake Forest traveling to Notre Dame Stadium. But Notre Dame plays five ACC games a year.

The other four ACC opponents are teams that Sam Hartman lost to this year and they're all on the road. That is compelling to me. It's almost like I would make a Kill Bill reference here, but you haven't seen Kill Bill, the Quentin Tarantino movie I'd assume.

I have not. Like him going on a revenge tour to get all these teams. You have one more shot as a Notre Dame mercenary. You haven't beaten Clemson before, this is your chance. You're going into NC State who beat you on that prime time stage. You have one more shot at him. You have one more shot at getting Duke who beat you to close the regular season. And remember the day that he had the six turnovers against Louisville? Well now you get a chance to avenge that by going back to Louisville.

That's pretty spicy stuff there. And there's a lot of Russell Wilson to this. This is a lot like the Russell Wilson Wisconsin year where both quarterbacks didn't feel like they were getting the NFL Draft Pub that they should, the respect that they should, probably were not going to be drafted if they decided to forego their final year of eligibility and take their chances in the draft.

So they go somewhere else where they have more exposure. And exposure was important to Russell Wilson who played in a Rose Bowl game for Wisconsin and it's going to be important for Sam Hartman. But the reason why both players were doubted is the difference between the two.

The reason why Sam Hartman's being doubted as a prospect is because of the offense he ran at Wake Forest. Scouts, they're gonna be scared off by that, right or wrong? Probably wrong but perception is a powerful thing that could scare off teams and scare off scouts. And think about the time ten years ago when it came to Russell Wilson.

He's under six feet tall. Teams weren't drafting guys like that at that point. Not in the first round, the way that they the Browns did with Baker Mayfield or the way that the Cardinals did with Kyler Murray. It was a different time so his height, Russell Wilson's height and the fact he played at NC State scared off a lot of people. And it wasn't until he went to Wisconsin and did it on a bigger stage that a team saw fit in the third round Seattle to take the shot at Russell Wilson and it paid off.

Let's hope something similar happens for Sam Hartman in South Bend. Let's have some fun. B Dot, six man, Carolina basketball joins us here in studio.

I'm just kidding, he's on zoom. I was wondering if people could pick up on that whether or not you were in studio without me saying it. Hmm, I wonder. You think it sounds different?

It does. I do hear some commotion in the background. It always sounds like it's hopping wherever you're at. It sounds good but it always sounds like it's popping wherever you're at. Popping because he's there. I mean you know yeah wherever I am that's definitely where it's popping. However, I'm just in my living room wondering if I'm going to take this tree down today or not. That's it.

I'm not really doing much. Let me turn this TV off. Sarah Bradford loves having the Christmas tree up as long as possible so we put our Christmas tree up right after Thanksgiving and we're gonna keep it up through the college football playoff national championship game. So January 9th around that point right after that that's gonna be the point where the Christmas tree starts to go down. Yeah, my tree won't see 2023. What's the best Christmas?

Not gonna happen. What's the best Christmas gift you received? Um, David Kelly got me some nice headphones so that was cool. The wife and I we really didn't exchange gifts this year. We were more kid focused so watching the kids man. Ryan had been saying how much he wanted a laptop and you know I knew she wanted a laptop but when she opened the laptop and started crying like it just was it was it was pretty powerful in here and Zay he wanted a scooter well he didn't even say he wanted a scooter we surprised him with a scooter and he was very excited about that so seeing the kids just super super excited man like it's I don't know Christmas was very strange this year Josh I wasn't feeling very St. Nicholas but again seeing the kids happy made it that much better. I think my gift was watching the boys beat the wheels off of Michigan in the Spectrum Center that was my Christmas gift. Yeah, I had to talk a lot of Tar Heel fans off of a bridge a month ago after the four-game losing streak.

Here he goes. I've stayed firm on them being one of the 10 best teams in the country I still believe that now that they're ranked in the top 25 and dot Virginia's lost two in a row and Duke lost to Wake Forest last week I get it lively and Whitehead didn't play in the game but I felt Duke lose that was gonna lose that game even if those guys were in the lineup that night it does seem like I would be surprised if someone outside of the top five won the ACC this year Miami Virginia Duke Virginia Tech and North Carolina but those are the firm five and Carolina's one of them. Well listen man nobody's really worried about your how you feel about the Carolina season Josh Graham we don't care we don't want your optimism we don't hear your pessimism it doesn't matter we are trading.

They hear my past they hear my past has whenever I'm pessimistic I hear about it. No yeah for sure because and you know that like you know that we're like Duke fans like they're so hit or miss you don't know if they're gonna respond or not so but you know that there's always a passionate Carolina fan that's gonna respond back and forth with you and that's what you enjoy but I don't like to play into it at the time so I say that to say wait you stay on your Virginia wagon okay don't come over here creeping over here talking about how good we are and all those you stay over there on your Demon Deacons wave and that goofy situation they got over there we don't need you on our bandwagon when we lost our four in a row it was great because we got to loosen and lighten up the bandwagon okay we got to see the true colors from people now we're damn we're again our upward trajectory things are good and I'm excited about this weekend I can't wait for the boys to get back to the Smith Center January 4th so we could smack Wake Forest around. North Carolina on the road at Pittsburgh this week how are you gonna be ringing in the new year any traditions? Well you know as PA announcer for the Greensboro Swarm we always usually have a game on New Year's Eve and we do that this season at 1 o'clock so I'll be in Greensboro for the game from 1 to 3 and then after that I really don't know man I'm you know probably gonna be family oriented here on the couch city thing like the past couple years I'll be asleep before the ball falls and wake up about 1 in the morning like damn happy new year everybody and go back to sleep.

A lot of stuff going on around here Wake Forest has Virginia Tech on Saturday on New Year's Eve the Carolina Thunderbirds in action at night you mentioned the Greensboro Swarm to win the day so you do have sports options on New Year's Eve WD is going to Duke playing Florida State that day so it's gonna be a busy day and the college football playoff games happening on New Year's Eve as well. How about we play grammar school? I like it. Josh Graham has his own way of speaking in high school he didn't play sports but he did wear a helmet and just when you think it can't get any worse my English teacher wanted to flunk me in junior high thanks a lot next semester I'll be 35 Josh is going to attempt to learn B dots vernacular I'm from the old school I got street knowledge you know what I mean you know what I'm saying it's time for B dots grammar school presented by Heritage hardwood floors when it comes to flooring they have no ceiling. Tell me about Jess and Catherine.

Wait a minute I have to sing my song. Heritage hardwood floors. Because of course every woman loves what Josh Graham? Heritage hardwood floors. No big thanks to heritage hardwood floors man it's just the growth of grammar school man we started this three years ago now I'm looking at folks like heritage hardwood floors wants to actually sponsor the segment I'm greatly appreciative of heritage hardwood floors and they can help help your house situation or your business situation or your gym situation okay they're professionals if you want to see a sneak peek of how professional you can check out Winston-Salem State University right there on the floor and the CE gains heritage hardwood floors. Great stuff shout out to Jess and Catherine now let's get to the business tell people how we play grammar school. It's very simple Josh Graham usually I have three words or phrases for Josh Graham but this is in essence Josh Graham the season finale this is the last episode of grammar school for 2022. Season 2.

What I have done is yes season 2 so what I have done is I've gone into my notes and I have 10 10 former words or phrases that we're gonna go through you get no lifeline if you get a 70 or better you will pass this season of grammar school. I do got a caustic question for you though okay let's go start off with your caustic word seeing that this is season 2. Who's Dick Clark? Dick Clark's the guy that used to do the ball falling and stuff on New Year's Eve.

That's correct. Dick Clark. I would have accepted American Bandstand but that also works of course Dick Clark's New Year's special. That white man was in our house for years and years and years and years every New Year's Eve. Okay I got 10 to do here so let's get to it. We're gonna get rolling to him.

Alright let's first Josh Graham. What is the perk? Percocet. There we go. That is right. Josh Graham whose phone number was 281-330-8004. Mike Jones. Who? Who?

That's correct by the way. W.D. doesn't know what we're doing.

He got very confused. When we started yelling who? He's like me in high school when I'm like Mike Jones made the tackle of Eddie Dyson at the one yard line in Super Bowl whatever it was the Titans Ram Super Bowl and they're like who? I'm like Mike Jones made that tackle. Who? Mike Jones. Who? I keep telling you it's Mike Jones.

Poor W.D. You guys all know him? How do you all have his cell phone number?

Because he gave it to us. 281-330-8004. Alright you're two for two. Josh Graham what is a loc? L-O-C. A loc. Loc. I forget if this was related to Tone Loc at all. A loc. I'm gonna say it's like a not like a homie but kind of like an alpha type.

The guy who runs things so to speak. He's a loc. Is that your final answer? Yes. That is incorrect.

Why didn't you stay on your first one? It's a homie. The loc is just a homie.

He's just a homie Josh. I was close. Yeah it's west coast.

That's west coast Norman Clayton. Okay the loc. That's my loc. You're my loc if we're on the west coast.

Alright keeping it moving. What's up BBL? Oh boy.

BBL huh? Yeah yeah. Uh huh. Uh huh. BBL. Everybody's thinking the same thing I'm thinking.

You struck a little bit there John. Yes. You can't spit it out.

I am struggling. Oh boy. BBL. Yeah.

You're ridiculous. W.D. do you know what this is?

I think so. I don't get one lifeline on ten. There are review questions. There are questions that you've already been given. But there are ten of them.

I remember this one too actually so I actually do know what it is. Say look at my word W.D. Fine if you want to waste a lifeline go ahead. I get one. Yes.

A Brazilian butt lift. 100% correct. 100% correct. Thank you for that. 100% correct. I needed that. Josh Graham what is a toy cop?

Mall cop. There we go. Correct. What is a loosey?

A loose cigarette. There we go. What does it mean to let the chopper rain? This segment.

It really is so great. What does it mean to let the chopper rain? Let the chopper rain.

Of course. When in doubt. Something related to guns. I think it means empty the clip. It definitely means empty the clip. You let that chopper rain baby.

What does it mean if I need to bounce? I gotta go. That is 100% correct Josh Graham.

Two left Josh Graham. At this point you already have a 70 which is passing. But let's just go ahead and show the people that you've actually learned. I want an A.

You're damn right you do. What are yams? They're often referred to in my favorite Kendrick Lamar song. I think I could say the title of that song on the air. Is that right?

I don't know what is the title of the song. Let's see. Let's find out together. It starts with King. I could say that second word on the radio right?

I believe so. I don't know what comes after King. You don't know that song?

For some reason I'm drawing a blank. You know what song? To pimp a butterfly? I know that album. Right it's on that album.

What's the yam? Oh oh oh. I think I know what you're talking about.

Was he a character in Roots? Yeah. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. You can definitely say that. Yeah King Kunta is a great song. Well no that's not the answer though. That's just a song.

No no no. That's just a song that mentions yams quite a bit right? We're not talking about what's the classic Thanksgiving video that always pops up where the ladies at the church talking about beans, greens, potatoes. And you played that at the Smith Center?

Yeah we did as a matter of fact. No idea what that video is. Yams. Sounds like the context that I usually hear that. It has something to do with female anatomy.

I'm gonna say it has something to do with a woman's butt. You're 100% correct. Yeah! You always want you a woman with some yams. Yams. That puts you at a B.

That puts you at a B to get an A to get a 90 for the year on your final pop quiz exam. Let me know what some good bump is. Not to be confused with what W.D. plays coming back in segments here. Correct. That is good bump. Yeah yeah yeah.

But if you hear the homies, if you hear the locs chopping it up after somebody just let the chopper ring and they say dang man that was some good bump. What are they talking about Josh Brown? When in doubt.

Drugs or guns. I'm gonna say it's good weed. You're gonna be 100% incorrect Josh Brown. No! Yeah some good bump is just some good basketball. We had some good basketball, some good bump. Oh that was some good bump. You can always, a matter of fact the next basketball game you're at when you're talking to the players like what'd you think about that was that some good bump?

Oh yeah we had some good bump out there tonight. Writing that down. That's one that you can use 100%.

Armando. You can use let the chopper ring too. Like somebody just shooting the lights out just said like yo RJ tonight you was letting the chopper ring weren't you? He gonna go crazy. Writing that down for real. Please use those two. That's what we're doing in season three.

Season three of Grammar School it is imperative for you to use one of the words from the week in your press conference whether you're asking a coach or asking a player and you have to record it and post it that week. Yeah well you just gotta give me some that are easy to incorporate not BBL's. No we can't do BBL's. Well we wouldn't do BBL's absolutely but see I might give you a category and then I might just give you a one that we've used in the past to use in your presser. Understood. I'm not gonna talk about Lucy's. But you can talk about needing a bounce. You might not want to talk about Yams or Lucy's or BBL's or Perks.

Or Perks. That's right. W.D. I did pretty good on that.

B.Dot. Well no good stories from over Christmas at all. You said you weren't in the holiday spirit. I wasn't man I was just watching a bunch of movies man. I watched everything. I watched Violent Night that was the worst movie ever. I cannot believe somebody did a green light for that movie. Have you seen Violent Night? I haven't but I didn't like the new Knives Out movie that everybody's talking about.

Yo what's crazy is I saw you talking about that Josh and the new Knives Out movie was my introduction to this whole thing. After I saw that one I went back and saw the first one. The first one's a lot better. The first one was great. The first one I give an A. The new one I give maybe a B minus.

It was cool. I'm not gonna spoil it for anybody but the first half of the movie you don't need. Like you just don't need the first half of the movie.

Because of how it's written. And then at the end like the main characters even describing how the last hour how it played off is really dumb and how predictable everything was. So like when the writers telling you how dumb it is and the first hour is not needed. It's probably just not a great movie that Netflix overpaid for which is typical of Netflix.

No that's fair. But it's fun. But it's fun. It's like an Adam Sandler movie. It's like an Adam Sandler movie. It's probably not a great movie but you'll have fun.

Like nobody's out here saying that Happy Gilmore should win an Oscar. But you know what? Sometimes like you go to McDonald's sometimes you need a Big Mac.

Right? It's not the best for you. But guess what? Sometimes you just want a Big Mac. Sometimes you just want to go to Cookout and get yourself a Big Double Burger.

Doesn't mean it's great for you. But sometimes you know you enjoy a Big Double Burger. That's it. That's what this movie was.

Sometimes all you're just trying to do is you're trying to work up a territory Josh Brown. On that note. Happy New Year B Dot. And we'll talk to you next year. Happy New Year gang. I love y'all man. Go Heels.

Love you too. That's B Dot. 6th man of Carolina basketball. We've got Take It To The House To Do. W.D. what do we have in Take It To The House? Extra, extra, extra crunchy peanut butter came through.

JFK Airport. Next. When I look at Detroit, I see a team that is 26th in the NFL against the run.

Seems like a significant number to me. Darnold keeps flicks to Blackshear headed to the end zone and in for a Panthers touchdown. Moving toward the end zone. Foreman, it's a touchdown Carolina Panthers. Panthers, they're going to be strongly motivated. Carolina wins their home finale on Saturday. The underdog Panthers come through big time and the NFC South, they win their final two. It's all theirs.

You go into the transfer portal. You look like the bachelor and you're a pretty good player. And there are stories that make you an interesting guy. There's some NIL opportunity. There are also some schools that would be interesting in bringing in the ACC's all-time touchdown leader.

I don't know. Don't want to throw a specific school out there, W.D., but maybe it's a school that rhymed with Schmoader-Shmame. Yeah, we nailed that. That was three weeks ago that we were talking about Sam Hartman. And then last week we've been all over the Carolina Panthers. When they were underdogs against Seattle, we picked them. When Pittsburgh was an underdog in Charlotte, we were on the Steelers and we were on the Panthers as an underdog against Detroit this week.

Now Carolina getting set for the Buccaneers. This weekend, a reminder, we just gave away a pair of tickets for the Carolina Thunderbirds this Saturday. 6.30 tailgate party on New Year's Eve. First 100 hot dogs are free. Fiddle and Fish beer. Fire truck rides for the kids. Balloon figures. Abandon all. They're also going to be giving away a TV.

55 inch there. 8.30 puck drop. Then players and coaches will help you count down to the new year. Should be a great time Saturday night in Winston-Salem. Now let's get set to close things out because we do not have a 5 o'clock hour today. That's due to a Duke football coaches show that's going to start in about five minutes. No live show tomorrow. Again, this week is weird.

Between Christmas and the start of the new year, that's because the military bowl will be on in the middle of the day and we carry Duke football here on WSJS. So until Thursday, let's take it to the house. A Rhode Island man kind of found himself in a little bit of a sticky situation at JFK airport. He was trying to sneak a gun in his peanut butter through the airport. Yeah, because those those detectors and sensors, they're not going to be able to sense something through the peanut butter. No shot.

No news. So did he put it in a peanut butter container or did he like just smother it in peanut butter? Full on peanut butter container. He disassembled the gun and so he just kind of stuck it in different places in there and he was trying to get through security, which of course, he did not succeed. And the guns magazine had bullets in it. So this guy might have meant business. He might have meant business.

Peanut butter. What was the chopper thing again? Oh, you're talking about. Yeah. What was he letting the chopper ring? He was going to let the chopper ring a little bit. Maybe met. Yeah, maybe two smooth, creamy jars of Jif.

Yeah. If it was chunky, maybe you might have got away with it. I watched Total Recall for the first time last night and he had like a sensor and apparently they couldn't find him when he had like a wet towel on his head. That's all he needed to do in order to throw people off. I think our technology is a little bit more sophisticated today. Yeah, that peanut butter isn't going to help in trying to disguise a gun magazine getting through airport security.

Not too smooth on his part. If you missed any of today's show, the best of pods, the way to find it. Search the drive with Josh Graham on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Anchor. A lot of great stuff today, including VDOT joining us. On Thursday, we've got Wake Virginia Tech tickets to give away. We've got football to recap. We've got finals tomorrow, Duke tomorrow, East Carolina tonight. And we hope you'll be back with us Thursday afternoon on The Drive.