She Shed

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, would you schedule this game? He's interviewed Matthew McConaughey.

I do sing the guitar now. And he's taken on Big Blue Nation. He's just completely taking the wind out of my city. It's time for The Drive with Josh Graham.

What have we here? Welcome in to The Drive with Josh Graham, only here's the funny piece of this. I ain't Josh Graham. This is W.D. Will Dalton, the executive producer of this show. And this is kind of weird.

I'm not used to being over on the other side of the glass like this. I'm joined by none other than Connor O'Neill, publisher, Deacons and Devils Illustrated. Connor, sup? W.D., it feels like we've got a substitute teacher in here. Let's just let loose.

The better looking, cooler one. And then I'm joined by Jeffrey Griffin, the host of Triad Today on none other than WSJS 70 and the 10. Let me alone. I'm pushing buttons. I'm busy.

Bye. Yeah, he's trying to figure it out over there. I'm trying to figure it out over here, but I do really appreciate everybody tuning in. I'm going to try and keep the train on the tracks here. And it's a new era now for the Carolina Panthers, as we heard the bells and chimes last night. Now, we're probably not going to hear our usual sound effects today because I think Jeffrey needs to make just make sure my mic stays on about that. I did. I got no memo about Bell's time.

So you won't hear probably arm auxiliary sound. You won't hear that today. You won't hear Boston College today.

Yeah, I didn't even want to hear it in the original time. Yeah, I don't want to hear that. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe that's not a good thing.

I don't know. You be the judge. But it is a new era for the Carolina Panthers.

Bryce Young, as we kind of suspected, was the pick. Spoiler alert. And this is kind of weird.

Like the Panthers, they actually feel like a competent organization now. I don't know how to take this. I don't know what to do with my hands. Movie. No. Is that a movie reference? Oh, yeah. OK. Look at me making a movie reference without Josh in the building. How about that? It must be the chair. Very proud.

Thank you, everybody. I hope he's listening right now, but he's probably not. I don't know.

He probably is. But no, like everything. It feels so smooth. It feels like things are clicking now.

And you could kind of see the foundation of this new chapter, this new page or whatever you want to call it. You could kind of start to see it be started really after Matt Rule was fired, kind of because when that happened, like everything just kind of felt black, like like how closely have you been following the situation, Connor? I follow the Panthers probably more than any other NFL franchise, just because I'm in the state and, you know, it's gotten to the point where it's unavoidable on Twitter. It is that if I'm driving around and tuning into the drive of Josh is usually talking about the Panthers.

So it's it's something I've heard a lot about. It's a team that I I don't hold close to the heart. Sure. Not like the Orioles, right? Yeah.

Josh and I have talked about that. I have two favorite teams. I have the Orioles and I have the Capitals.

And he's Orioles, Canes. Yeah. So there you go.

But, you know, I pay attention to him. And the Matt Rule hiring was a bad hire from the start. Way too much money, way too many years. Yep.

All just to keep him from going to New York, essentially. They eat they eat meatballs, apparently. At least that's what Josh always says about it. So so now, you know.

I'm hopeful that they're good because. Like Josh has sold me on caring about the Panthers, you're a believer Panthers fan. I'm a Panther fan.

I was excited last night. I always say that one of two things happens. Fans of teams either push you into rooting for their teams. Like if you're a neutral observer, they either make you want their teams to win or it goes the complete opposite direction. You just want their team to lose all the time.

Right. And with most of the Panthers fans in my life, like I want them to be happy. They're not. It's not a franchise that is overly proud.

It's not, you know, arrogance does not come off for most Panthers fans. No, they're not Philly or anything like that. So it's a it's a team that, you know, when they when I see them make smart decisions like bringing in Frank Reich, Jim Caldwell, who's the O.C. that they brought in, who's really Thomas Brown. Yeah, Thomas Brown. Yeah. Yep.

That's the name. When I see them and then picking Bryce Young is is the right pick at number one overall. It kind of makes me happy for him. Like I can get juiced up a bit for that. Absolutely.

And we do want Panther fans to be happy and they haven't been happy for a while now, which is where we'll get to in a second. But first of all. He's early. He's the first one of the day. I got to meet him in person or I've met him before in person, but I got to see him in person for the second time last night. Dave and Clemens, where you at?

W.D. What's happening? How are you, man? I feel like I've watched you grown up over the last year. And here you are. And hopefully we can do the same thing with our new quarterback, Bryce Young, man. I just want to give a shout out how great last night was not only drafting our franchise quarterback, but the time that we had, man, all of us together. I got to meet some friends last night that I haven't met that always so good. And I feel like everybody's becoming my brothers. And I I can't tell you about last night and how great it was.

And if the Panthers keep rocking and rolling with this quarterback, I feel like we're going to have more watch parties, more bigger games to do this at. And I just can't thank y'all enough for everything. Dave, really appreciate it, man.

Thanks for the call. It was so cool to see you last night. And we saw the Graham Crackers last night at our NFL draft watch party last night. Where were you at, Connor? Where were you at, Jeffrey?

Neither one of you were out there. Uh, I defer to Connor. It's his turn to come up with a story.

I don't know. I should have spoke first and deferred to Jeff. Well, at least Jeffrey, he gets up at whatever.

Dark o'clock. I was I watched the first three picks and went, my goodness, that was exciting. That's right. And then I was back off Houston.

Jeez. Stroud and Will Anderson. When you know, you know, you ain't that the truth. And the Panthers know. And apparently it sounds like they've known for a while now it was gonna be Bryce Young, which I think we kind of figured that much. See, or did you not? The person sitting in that chair, I think, like a month ago, was trying to tell everybody it was gonna be C.J.

Stroud, right? He was kind of trying to do that. I was saying Bryce Young. Credit to him. He walked it back. He listened to some other sources. You know, we had a Daniel Jeremiah on here. Good to listen every now and then.

It is. And Daniel Jeremiah was talking about how, like, you know, because Frank Reichi tends to go for the bigger quarterbacks like a C.J. Stroud or an Anthony Richardson. But I just said, but like Josh. But he does that. That's not good that I'm picking up his habits. Tony, it's the chair. It's bad.

We might need a switch, but then it's gonna be your problem. But Daniel Jeremiah came on lead and a lead draft analyst for NFL Network. And he was saying, well, Frank Reich has never had an undersized quarterback before.

And he kind of compared it to a food on a menu like, well, how do you know unless you've tried it? And I think Bryce Young and I think Josh pointed this out, too. He's kind of an outlier. He just his intangibles. I mean, Scott Fitter has been gushing about all his intangibles and he's right.

Like, he just he feels the most ready. He feels like the quarterback of the bunch that could literally just, to quote Scott Fitter again, be dropped right in to a system and be ready to go. But no, it is a new era for the Panthers. They they've botched the quarterback position for it seems like five or six years now, ever since they got rid of Cam Newton.

A little bit late, too, I might add. I've I've really enjoyed calling it quarterback roulette. It's just like, yeah, it's it's just like David Tepper has been spinning the wheel.

It has. Let's see where it lands. Let's see if we can stumble into a franchise quarterback. So in that regard, yeah, I was thrilled that they traded for the number one pick because, you know, you need to get that position right and then you can fill out the rest of your roster. They've got some pieces on the roster. They kind of went backwards this time, like they kind of got like the coaching staff. They got feeling they got hers tight end. They got DJ Chark and other receiver Miles Sanders at running back and they kind of just got everything ready and just drop Bryce Young, an excellent quarterback right in there. Like he's not going to have to try and pull it.

Trevor Lawrence with Urban Meyer or anything like that. Yeah. Yeah. I I like what they've done.

Again, I have no dog in the fight. I voted for Bryce Young for the Heisman two years ago. That's always it's not quite a bullet in the call forward vote, but it was a Heisman vote. Yeah. See you got a Heisman vote.

I want to hear that every two seconds. Bullet in the call vote anyway. Speaking of quarterback roulette, they have had, do you know how many quarterbacks of the Panthers have had since I guess 2019 ish? 842. It's close. It's close. Seven. In the ballpark. I mean, if you want to get really, and I kind of went deep cut, I guess maybe for dramatic effect.

I don't know. Um, this is my first time at this, so I needed a little bit of pizzazz, a little extra. Uh, if you really want to go deep cut, we could say Kyle Allen was the first one when Cam Newton went down and then, uh, you know, what a magical three weeks though. And we thought Kyle Allen was the quarterback of the future. Yeah. Isn't it fun to look back at stuff like that? And now we're sitting here with Bryce. I love, I was just telling somebody this earlier today.

I love the historical retrospective, the immediate, like not looking at stuff 30 years ago and saying, well, if we'd only known this, it's like looking at three years ago and saying, man, that was pretty dumb. Yeah, it is like the Kyle Allen like month of hysteria was pretty dumb. They went Kyle Allen. Then it was Teddy Bridgewater to glove Teddy. They went Sam Darnold cam Newton part two. I was on the hype train for that one. I got to admit, uh, Baker Mayfield. Oh God.

That, that really worked out well. PJ Walker stepped in PJ. And then, I mean, he didn't start or anything, but I mean, they did draft a quarterback last year.

Matt Corral, who also wears number nine. You're on the drive with Josh Graham. All right. We're going to the movies yet again. I've never, this is a lot of movies for me. Two and a week.

What is this? You get credit is credit transfer to next week. Absolutely not. One, no shot, no shot. So, well, I appreciate the effort, but don't, don't waste your breath. Um, so yeah, at the movies, we're going to do it again. I watched dead poet society. It's one of Jeffrey Griffin's favorite movies.

Um, let's get into it. Unless you're talking about star Wars. Movies aren't exactly Will's thing. I don't get it, but that's about to change because Josh can't stand it anymore.

This is at the movies with Will Dalton. So listen, we're just going to have a little discussion about this movie. Usually the way we do it is Josh asked, what did you like about it? What did you not like about it? Give me a quote and a rating and all that. Well, he's not here, so we're going to mix it up a little bit today and just kind of, what did you like about it?

Oh, thank you. So this movie, it was a good movie, but it wasn't my style. Like it, I could tell when the bagpipes started playing at the very beginning, like, Oh geez, what is this? Like what, what am I watching? I mean, I gave it a chance.

I'm like, you never know, but it's like, they're sick. I'm going to do my best to, to describe this movie. What I liked about it, what was good about it. The, the ending parts were really good, really, you know, kind of pulled at you a little bit. It's really sad.

It's kind of sad. Cause I mean, I forget all the characters names cause I'm bad at movies, but the guy that killed himself because spoiler, spoiler alert, the movie came out in 1989. So I'm not sorry about that. But I really, what I liked, I liked Robin Williams scenes and sure. I know that all my favorite scenes of the movie were the ones with Robin Williams in it. Um, I don't remember his character's name, John Keating, John Keating, Keating. Thank you. I've got IMDB pulled up.

I've got an assistant cheating a little bit. That's all right. You know, still talking about the same person though. Uh, I liked the fact that Red from that 70 show was in it. I told you I'm a TV show guy, not movies. That 70 show. Now I turned out not liking his character a little bit because he was the mean one that, you know, kind of was the reason his son committed suicide.

Spoiler again. Um, you know, because his dad wanted him to be a doctor or a lawyer or something. It's your favorite movie, Jeffrey. So you can help me out. It's one of mine.

It's one of my top five. But the son wanted to be an actor. Sure. And he was really good at it. And he, what's the lesson here? Well, the lesson is, uh, the lesson is you should do what makes you happy. And like, if you're a parent, like I get like, and I, listen, I'm not a parent, so I'm not going to put any stakes in the ground here, but I, if I was, I would be more concerned about my kid being happy with what he's doing than forcing him to do something that he has no interest in doing or maybe even hates to do because of my ego. I think the part of it, and I agree, you're on the right track.

It's a, if you genuinely not to quote that old seventies posters that was in everybody's classroom, right? But if you do love somebody or something, do you set them free? Correct. To be who they are. Yes. To be what they feel and what they hope for and that for, to, to which they aspire.

And then it will come full circle, but that love is unconditional. It should not be predicated on. Did you get an A or a B? Did you pick this school?

That's cool. Did you pick the wrong career or the right career? So it was one of those. And that was the lesson to be learned there at the end. Uh, what did I not like about the movie? It just the, I don't know.

Like again, the bagpipes, like it just the time that it set the tone. I didn't like that school they were at. They were so mean. It's an elite prep school. There was a little too many guys there. Like they needed some girls to come in.

It was a boys elite prep school. I don't care for that. Like I don't like if I, if I can go there, like this movie was a little bit too, too many guys.

Not, not enough. All boys schools do exist until that magazine came out. You know what I'm talking about?

When they, when, uh, when they were reading the poems, one of those times in the cave and the guy unfolded it and it was the back of the magazine. Right. That was all right. Glad you enjoyed that. I did.

I did. Uh, the party scene was interesting when uh, again, don't remember the character's name, but when he was at the party and the, the girl that he had a crush on was asleep in his lap and he tried to make a move or I'm like, that would never work. And then she ends up liking him.

That wouldn't work in real life. They chased her down with flowers the next day. Like girls run from the Hills that guys that do that. You never, you never chased a girl with flowers.

Yeah. When I was young and naive, I don't do it anymore. Best how you really felt and sure. I made a plea for devotion and an innocent love. No, I don't.

I don't. I, yes, I've expressed how I felt to a girl before, but I've not done all that. Did it work out for you? Sometimes it did. If I would've done something like what he did, it wouldn't have worked out.

You were chasing the wrong girl. Fair enough. Uh, and it just, it was sad. Like again, like the ending was just very sad. And like the scene where he did kill himself, like it happened kind of fast, like just one 80. Like he, his dad brought him home cause he's like, you're going to do this.

And then just boom done. Well, that may have been a simply a matter of editing for time. I don't know. Maybe.

I mean, it was getting close to the end of it. Um, I'm trying to think of a quote that I really liked cause Josh usually wants a quote. Do you have a specific quote you like from this movie? Jeffrey? Uh, no. Oh, you don't. Hmm. There are, there are like, there are two right answers.

Oh, well Connor's got one. I'd love to hear. Well, I'll, I'll give you one of mine. You already said one.

I did like two segments ago. What did I say? Oh, captain, my captain. Oh, well of course. Oh yeah.

Right. But you know what else? I like rip it, rip it out. When they were ripping the pages out of the books. I don't remember. Oh, when they were ripping them out and he just kept repeating rip up, rip it out. It was funny. And Connor's favorite quote. Yeah.

What was the other one of the two? No, definitely. Carpe diem. Oh yeah. Yeah. Cause cause every once in a while Josh will give me these movies and be like, Oh yeah, that's what that mean came from. You're welcome. Or that's what that quote comes from.

You're welcome. Carpe diem. I was like, Oh, seize the day.

I've got a YouTube playlist of like 40 some, uh, it's it's titled get the bleep up. I watched them to get out of bed. Yeah. And Carpe diem, that scene is one of them. Wow. Huh? That's interesting.

I might have to look into that. Good stuff. I don't know if you're more well rounded now that you've seen it. I can't say that I do.

I felt a little depressed by the ending. Oh yeah. Also like, so when mr what's his name? Keating. When mr Keating at the very end when like they all stand up on the table and they're saying captain, my captain when he's basically, you know, being fired, I guess.

Right. Well, he still got fired. Like it was a happy ending and everything. They saluted him, but he still had to leave.

No, it's not. It doesn't have to be happy. He made a difference in the lives of those young men. This wasn't a Disney movie. You're just, you're out here trying to make it happy. And this is a real life movie and he's going to return now to England.

That's what I always envisioned to a woman that loves him dearly and has been waiting for him to return. So it all turns out well for mr Keating and that's been at the movies with me. Yeah, this is so weird. I'm just telling you this. I really appreciate everybody for hanging with us today. I really do. It's already been an hour already been an hour and see and Connor like Josh always says like when Connors here, the time just melts.

It really does. So I enjoy bouncing over here from, you know, 12 minutes away in K Vegas. Oh, yeah. So Connors about to get out of here and we're going to get to the big four in just a minute.

That's what I typically do. So wake baseball had what's the latest on that? Wake baseball is a machine right now.

Yeah, 35 and six. They're off from the ACC this weekend. They have they have games. They play Wofford tomorrow at four and High Point on Sunday at five.

I believe that's right. Well, and I was asking you this over the break because we were looking at the rankings LSU. There's still number one, which I don't I think LSU is not number one in the SEC, but their number one in the rankings and it looks like unless unless they get swept by somebody it looks like it's going to stay that way all year, right? I mean currently in the overall record LSU, they're 32 and seven wakes 34 and six.

So it's like it's like a breath away. Yeah, there's in with college baseball. There's no real benefit to being one or two like as long as you're a top eight.

Yeah, then you're good. You get the regionals at home. You get super regionals at home and then everybody goes Omaha, right?

You're just thrown into a pot in Omaha and it sounds like Campbell's probably going to get one Campbell sounds like they're going to get a regional seed. Duke is now up there in the running. Do we find out where ECU is in there?

ECU at the moment. They're number 12. They're number 12. Yes. He's number 11. Come on now. Oh, I know who's number 11. We don't have to say it.

Yeah. Boston College Connor. We don't have to say it.

I said we don't have we don't but I still wanted to Connor. I appreciate you coming in here with me for an hour. It was a pleasure.

You know, it only felt right that my first day hosting a show of any kind. This was the guy I had to have on David Glenn, former host of the David Glenn Show. You can read his stuff right now at Chapelboro.com. He's a founding editor of ACC Sports.com. He teaches at UNC Wilmington. He's got a background in law. He does everything.

He does everything and he offers he's got a good taste of beer too. DJ, how are you, man? I'm doing great.

Well, I'm excited to be with you anytime, but especially for a special occasion like this. Congratulations. I hope your show is going well and I hope to contribute to it.

It is. We're trying to keep the train on the track. You know, it's funny because like my first show here at WSJS I produced, you were filling in for Josh who was at the final four. And now the first one I'm hosting, it's the day after the Panthers, oh, I don't know, have the number one pick in the draft. And it seems have has their new franchise guy. And I just I had to get you on. I did want to get your immediate reaction. I mean, Bryce Young, he's the guy.

What are your thoughts on this? Well, as somebody who has been following the Carolina Panthers literally since they were born as the NFL franchise here in our backyard, I know that the fans of that franchise and really the fans of any franchise in the NFL that don't have faith that the quarterback position are in a really ugly position. Right. And the last full season that the Carolina Panthers had truly competent quarterback play was twenty seventeen and for the full season.

And guess what? That's the last time they made the playoffs as well. So I endorse the selection of Bryce Young. He's a Heisman Trophy winner for a reason. He plays winning football for a winning program.

You know, Drew Brees and Russell Wilson and other shorter quarterbacks have done just fine despite their height. I know the questions about Bryce Young. But, man, if I were a Panthers fan today and I know I have Bryce Young, I don't know if he's going to be great, but I think he will at least be good and may be great. Whereas if I'm on it, I'm a book, an Indianapolis Colts fan and I have Anthony Richardson of Florida.

I don't know if my new guy is going to be great, horrible or somewhere in between. So in that sense, I'd rather be a Panthers fan today than a Colts fan. And really, you know, most of these others that were seeking quarterbacks but didn't get Bryce Young. Well, and that's one thing that I was thinking about when I was prepping for this was, I mean, the Panthers, they've had like like I counted like five to seven different quarterbacks that they've gone through since they lost or got rid of Cam Newton. And I feel like even though I think most people thought that, you know, Tepper and Scott Fitter and those guys knew it was going to be Bryce Young, they were still very thorough. They went to all the pro days. They did all the dinners for the most part. And I mean, would you say that's probably why they were still this thorough about it?

So they knew they had to get it right this time. Hey, man, you know, in our lives, there are only so many enormous decisions, right? I mean, are you going to have children or not? Whom are you going to marry if you get married? And I say that as I'm only a few days away from my twenty fifth wedding anniversary. Oh, congratulations, Maria.

Thank you. But there's there's a there's a short list of the biggest decisions you can possibly make in life. Well, guess what? If you're an NFL franchise and you have the number one overall pick and you need a quarterback, if you don't do the most thorough, we call it due diligence in the legal world, if you don't do the most thorough due diligence on the candidates, of course, not just Bryce Young, but take a look at C.J. Stroud, take a look at Anthony Richardson, take it out, take a look at all the rest. There is no more important decision that you make as an NFL general manager than finding the right quarterback in a general sense.

And there's no more important pick you make specifically than when you need a quarterback and you have number one overall. So I'm not surprised David Tepper was involved. He's a hands on owner in some ways. He has been demanding excellence from this franchise since he bought it.

And he hasn't seen that yet. So I wouldn't be surprised if they talk to Bryce Young's, you know, high school coaches and your neighbors when he was growing up, because that's the level of scrutiny that you're under when you're going to be a first round pick generally, but also certainly if you're going to be the number one overall pick. Now, on the flip side, we've been talking about Bryce Young and how he went number one. Were you surprised to see Will Levis all out of the first round?

A little bit, but you know how it only takes one team to fall in love with you, that old thing? I think the reality is, you know, the Panthers wanted a quarterback and they got theirs. As it turned out, the Texans wanted a quarterback and they got theirs and C.J.

Stroud. The Colts clearly wanted a quarterback and they got theirs and Anthony Richardson. There were not a long list of other teams that had quarterback as their top priority. So once those guys all went in, what, three of the top four picks, a lot of these other teams had other needs to fill.

And the other reason that I'm not shocked is that most general managers will tell you that one of the biggest mistakes you can make as a talent evaluator is sort of trying to squeeze the square peg into the round hole. Meaning, if you know you need a quarterback, but the ones you had with a first round grade had have already been taken, it is not smart to just reach for a quarterback unless you had that guy, you know, ranked as a first rounder. So I don't think Levis was that for the teams that wanted quarterbacks.

And I think they're trying to stay true to their systems, where if they had Levis ranked as a second or third round pick and they happen to be one of those teams that still wants a quarterback, I think we'll see him go tonight. But it didn't surprise me that he didn't go last night, moving things to some Carolina basketball, because a lot of what you cover is UNC stuff, UNC basketball. And, you know, Hubert Davis, they've been kind of busy in the transfer portal. They picked up four guys, Paxson Wojcik out of Brown, Jalen Withers out of Louisville, Cormac Ryan. That was a big one out of Notre Dame. And not even like 48 hours later, they picked up Harrison Ingram out of Stanford. How would you rate, as somebody who follows it really closely into a detail, how would you rate what Hubert Davis has done so far in the transfer portal, given what happened last year?

Well, I'll put it this way. The Heels are not the only ACC team that has done well in the portal this year, but they're on the short list of those who have done best in the portal. And the reality is Harrison Ingram of Stanford is a double-digit scoring guy who can rebound. He's not an elite three-point shooter, but he's actually a great ball handler at 6'8", who is a threat offensively in a way that a guy like Leaky Black was not a threat offensively. And he moves the ball well. One of the Heels' biggest problems last season was that they did not move the ball well.

They did not create good open shots for each other very often. Well, Harrison Ingram can score himself or move the ball well. Cormac Ryan, formerly of Notre Dame, double-digit scorer. In his case, pretty good three-point shooter. But also a guy who has twice as many assists almost as turnovers. He can move the ball well.

There's no black hole that the ball disappears into the way it happened at times for the Tar Heels in recent years. And the young man from the Ivy League, Paxton Wojcik of Brown, that's a guy who can flat-out shoot from three-point land. So I think in all four cases, the Tar Heels added value.

And in terms of what they lost in the portal, obviously Caleb Love is somebody that some people love and some people didn't like as much. He's a big-time talent and a big-time scorer. But the other guys, the Heels lost, were really not yet significant players for the Tar Heels. You know, maybe Tyler Nichol becomes that at Virginia Tech. But Justin McCoy was never going to be a big-time player for the Tar Heels. Dontrez Stiles did not seem like he was going to develop into that for the Tar Heels.

Will Shaver wasn't going to be that. So if you only lose one really high-end player and you sign several impact players, to me, in today's portal world, the bottom line is that's a win for Carolina and a win for Hubert Davis. Since you did bring him up, I mean, he's probably one of the most polarizing players that's played for Carolina and certainly has one of the most, if not the most, iconic shot in Carolina history.

Maybe in college basketball history, it's up there. He's at Michigan now and you know, we haven't had you on since the move happened. How do you think he fits over there? I don't know their roster super, super well, but I'll say this.

I believe that both, this might sound contradictory to somebody, but I don't believe it is. I believe this is both addition by subtraction for the Tar Heels and I think the Wolverines will benefit from Caleb Love. And I understand how that sounds contradictory, but the reality is you have to be not only a talented, productive basketball player, you have to be a good fit for a system. You have to be a good fit for your teammates and chemistry matters. And for whatever reason on the court, off the court, you can debate that. RJ Davis and Caleb Love were not good basketball fits for each other.

They just weren't. And I think it's going to benefit the Tar Heels that Davis stayed and Love left. And maybe Caleb Love is a better fit chemistry wise or system wise or teammates wise or however you want to put it. I'm not putting all the blame on Caleb Love, but the reality is he took a lot of really low percentage shots. He did not always play team first basketball. He was often a horrifically bad defender with his mental mistakes and sometimes even his efforts. Now he was also a talented and averaged almost 17 points a game last year. So there was some really good to go with the bad, but many of the Tar Heels biggest problems included Caleb Love contributing to those problems. And I think the Heels are going to be better off with their new mix of personnel, but that doesn't mean the Wolverines won't be able to benefit from a six foot four guy who can flat out score, carve his way to the basket. And when his head is right, he's making better decisions.

He's unselfish. He's playing harder on defense. That's winning basketball.

And Caleb Love was really, really inconsistent with the winning basketball theme, both under Roy Williams and under Hubert Davis. Last thing I got for you on the way out, DG, because I know you're out that way and you're a fan or you used to go to all the games. I don't know if you still have season tickets or not. Canes, what's their outlook looking now? I mean, they're so pegged with injuries now. Yeah, I like, I like the Canes to beat the Islanders, right? They're up three games to two. Maybe they take game six tonight up on Long Island.

But I do have concerns for the reasons that you just implied there. You know, Andrei Svechnikov was lost to injury during the regular season. He's one of their best offensive weapons. Tavo Taravainen has been injured during the playoffs. He's one of their best offensive weapons. So I love how Auntie Ronta has been playing in goal. I love how the six defenseman have been mostly reliable. But you can't ask Sebastian Ajo to score all your goals. You know, the offensive depth is a real concern for Rod Brind'Amour.

And when the competition gets a little tougher, whether it's the Rangers or the Devils or the Bruins down the road, I just don't see a run to the Stanley Cup finals for this Canes team the way I have believed that they had them that in them in some other recent years with Rod Brind'Amour as their head coach. D.G., I appreciate it. I wouldn't want to I wouldn't want to have anybody else on here on this show today. And you're the man. I hope to see you soon. I appreciate you, my friend. I'm happy for you. I'm proud of you. Thank you. And I hope you continue being one of my most established former interns and good friends in my 30 years of having interns and hopefully some good friends to get your morning off to a great start with Jeffrey Griffin on Triad today, weekday mornings at seven.

Now back to the drive with Josh Graham. Well, this is a treat. Clara Goodwin of Fox eight coming in here early. Oh, anything for you. It is a treat for you. It's a pleasure to have you in. I'm on my maiden voyage here. Three hours is such a pleasure to be here. Welcome you in. Thank you. You in the hot seat.

You're doing great so far. Yeah. So with the Panthers, the Panthers are doing kind of kind of solid right now.

I would think with the number one pick, you would hope that they were doing well right now. Yes. Like, I don't know. Have you been watching this parade they threw for? Yes.

We went down this morning to the Bryce Young. Is that what you're talking about? Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. They were I don't know these fans. They stood out in the rain all day yesterday. I don't know what they did if they just like a lot of them camped out overnight or so. They were all there this morning, too. Is absolutely wild to see what they're doing for this guy. I love it.

It is. I mean, and they deserve it because, like, like it's a new era for the Panthers. Like, what if they had like seven different quarterbacks in the last five or six years? Like is Cam Newton. He was gone.

And then it was the Kyle Allen show for like three weeks. No, you're you're not from North Carolina originally, correct? I'm not.

I'm from Idaho. How long have you been covering this area? I've been here for three years now. Okay. So you kind of came in right at the start of Matt Rule, maybe. Correct.

Yes. And that's the thing about this fan base is they haven't had a lot to cheer for in a really long time. There's been little bursts of excitement, you know, in Cam Newton beat Arizona. There's little times where it's like, oh, my gosh, this is happening.

But it's always followed by a very, very, very deep downfall. It is. So to have something like this to actually be excited about, I think that's why they're showing up in such strong numbers and such high excitement is because this is the first thing they've had in so long is a number one pick with a great player. Do you remember those numbers that they were pulling at some of these games like when Matt rules the coach? Oh, I remember I remember.

Yes, I, I saw it first body. There was a lot of empties. I was at the 49ers game. I'm from Idaho, so I grew up a 49ers fan. My family's originally from San Francisco. And I remember we were at that 49ers game.

I went as a fan to that game and it was much more red than any other color out there. Yeah, I get it. It's like it.

I started off the show with this. Like, it's weird to see the Panthers as a competent organization. Like, I'm not sure quite what to how to handle it.

I'm kind of scared only to do with my hands. It's taken a few years, but here we are. I mean, you will never know until the season.

Of course you won't. But like I've been talking about this, like the situation that they're putting him in. That's a lot better than what Trevor Lawrence got when he went to Jacksonville with Urban Meyer and all that, like they it was almost like kind of like they did the reverse, like a lot of times teams will get the quarterback first and then figure it out while they they brought in the coaching staff, the Avenger coaching staff. That's perfect for a quarterback. They brought in Adam Thielen, Hayden Hurst, D.J.

Chart, Miles Sanders. And just like Scott, Scott, keep saying, just drop him in there. I mean, it is it is absolutely the other part of that. And I talked to Coach Reich about this yesterday was that he had mentioned earlier this week he does about 80 percent of his offenses. He knows what he's going to do. And then about 20 percent of the offense, it's adaptable to whatever his quarterback brings to the table. And I asked him that last night after they picked Bryce.

I said, you know, what does that 20 percent look like? And it was very clear that Coach Reich had looked at Bryce Young's film with the intention of how he was going to fit into the team. And I think they have a very clear picture of what they want the team to look like and how they are going to accomplish that moving forward. Well, and listening to him last night, like it sounded like Bryce does a lot of things that they're like, oh, that's exactly what we wanted to do.

So there you go. And the thing with Bryce as well is not only is he a talented guy, this is one of the most humble, grateful people I have maybe even ever talked with in my entire career. He sees the opportunity and he knows that he has to earn his spot. He's not quarterback one yet. We all have to remember that. Is that the expectation?

Yes. But he still has to earn the spot. And he he knows his role. He knows what he's coming in as. And he knows he has that pressure. But I think he's also he's just a good guy. And that's so mature. Exactly. And that's something that leading a team as a quarterback for an organization that's had a lot of troubles in the past few years.

You need someone with a good head on their shoulders who not only has a good arm, but has just an all around good person as well. But when you listen to him talk, it's like, how can you not like he just he's almost kind of soft spoken in a way. He's definitely wise beyond his years, I think. I mean, he's had you got to think about this guy.

He's been he's had cameras on him since he was eight years old. He's been on the best team, the best player for so long that obviously that's something he's very used to. But I do think this still he knows the stage that he's stepping into. And I think he is ready for the challenge. He knows it's going to be a challenge, but I think he's ready for that.

And one of the things that I thought was interesting when I listened to Scott last night and I Augusta Stone from Panthers Dotcom, she came on with us a couple of weeks ago and she was saying when she went to Alabama for the pro day, she spoke to Scott for a few minutes. And one of the things that he really kind of went in on a little bit was like the dinner that they had and how he just held court. And then last night he kind of went further on because, you know, you can talk about some of the things that, you know, you couldn't really say it's like letting it all out, kind of. And he was just talking about how like a lot of almost every answer he gave was like 10 minute long, thoughtful, detailed.

And it was almost like, OK, he actually lives these things. It's not just an answer he gives just to make it sound good. And that's the thing is I think you can kind of see through that when someone's trying to talk themselves up or you know, sometimes people say one thing and then you talk to other people and they say a different thing. And that's another thing that they said to you was we talked to Coach Saban and he could not say one bad thing about Bryce Young. And I've worked with Coach Saban as well before I used to work in the SEC. And Coach Saban says a lot of bad things about a lot of people.

And for him to not say one bad thing about Bryce Young, that is a very, very high accomplishment for Bryce himself. Well, well, well, we've got a guest on the line, it would seem. Does he have overalls on by any chance? According to my sources, the channel I enter Adam Shafter. Yes, he has one.

Just a hunch. Josh Graham. He is the host of this show.

And he's at Merlefest. Josh. For this segment only, I'm the captain now. Oh, make an eye contact.

You don't you don't want to steal your seat. Oh, one sec. Oh, one sec.

Oh, one sec. You don't understand the reference to that, do you? Is that in the movie I just watched last night? No, Captain Phillips. I was thinking like that poet, by the way, you like that poet. So we can get it.

Yeah, we can get into this a little bit. So I the movie was good. It was a good movie.

Wasn't really my my speed. I understand why you thought that last reference, by the way, was a reference to dead poets. I'm not standing on a table right now trying to pledge allegiance to you right now. That's not what we're doing. But I can confirm I can confirm that I am wearing overalls. But there is there's been a weather situation the last hour or so. So we've been indoors. I've been texting meteorologists and they've been telling me we're good and we should be hearing music shortly. Hopefully, Clara doesn't deal with the same problems at the Taylor Swift show this weekend.

Oh, hey, that isn't a covered dome and is a Mercedes Benz. We are good. My hair might get a little messy walking from the parking lot over, but our sequence should stay strong. What's the wardrobe going to be, though? What's the wardrobe going to be for the Taylor Swift show? You know, if you know anything about me, you know, I'm a sequent girly. My Taco Bell wedding was all sequins. Any chance I can wear sequins?

I go all out. So I've got these bell bottom pants. They are black with silver stars, all sequins. I've got a little black crop top. It has feathers, sequins, stars, black, silver stars, sequins.

Amazing. Midnight's very midnight's for all my Taylor people out there. It's a very midnight's thing. And the best part, my husband's coming with me. And if you are a Taylor fan, she has a song that Josh Graham loves called Karma. The lyric says, Karma is my boyfriend. And so my husband's wearing a little shirt that says Karma. We'll say Karma is my husband. I'm doing a little play on words here trying to.

That's the most I could get him to do. So we're trying. If I was if I was hosting this show, I would do a Karma as a cat.

Carolina Panthers transition. But I'm not. I'm instead being a bad guess by hijacking this interview. I'm sorry, W.D.

I mean, listen, I wouldn't expect anything else. Any time I can talk about Taylor, I'll take it. This is this listen. Hijack the interview or be a bad guess. Yeah. Hijack the interview.

Howard Stern style. Totally. No, we've kept the train on the tracks today, man.

We really have. W.D. 's doing good.

He's he's coming out to steal your job. Trying to hold it together here. So.

Well, I what's this put it this way. The overalls I haven't worn. Maybe the reason I don't wear overalls is because when I was a small child, my mom apparently dressed me in overalls all the time.

Josh is like trauma dumping on his girlfriend. First first girlfriend brought home, looked at some of the old photos as you do. And I just realized every other photo is being overall. So kind of like being a kid who in high school had a uniform that was just a Navy shirt, khaki pants and, you know, like a belt. I didn't wear that get up. I mean, that combination is perfectly fine, but I didn't wear that get up all four years that I was in college because I wanted to rebel out of that a little bit. So I think this might be the first time I've worn overalls since I that realization with my first girlfriend back at home, like looking at all those pictures. And what I'm telling you is I think I think I might have been ignorant here because these are comfortable. Like I I I don't want to get too detailed here, but they're like I don't you don't have to wear shorts underneath the the overalls.

And it's come so back to any other subject. I've never worn overalls. I have nothing to contribute to this. I'm just saying I have more respect. I might have rolled my eyes at the folks who wore overalls before who were not in a working context like, hey, why are you wearing overalls? Now I respect it in a way I didn't prior to today because these overalls are comfortable. Like I might actually wear these overalls in a setting that's not Merle fest moving forward. In a sense, I almost feel like I'm wearing a big diaper.

It's comfortable. What are you going to show? That just took a dramatic turn. Are you going to show up Monday to this set wearing overalls to do the show? Oh, no, I got I just bought myself an overpriced David Brothers. See, Connor said to go to some Panthers games in the overalls.

Now now we're talking like me. Bryce Young and I go get Bryce Young a pair. You guys can be matching. You got the two straps here. Like I might go one strap off and then see if Bryce Young appreciates the style. I know he's a big style guy. Like he had the nice suit on today. I saw yesterday had the open jacket.

He was rocking it. Like, you know, he might appreciate the style a bit. You know how things could be in these media rooms, Clara and will like, you know, everybody kind of looks the same. I think we could especially here in the south, make some room to normalize comfort wear.

And I think Southern comfort wear is best epitomized with wearing overalls. That's definitely an opinion, Josh. So I so I was explaining to her about Kyle, the Amazon driver, and how he basically made a fat head of your face screenshot when you say Boston College. I don't have my buttons today, so we're having to Boston. We're having an improv. It's me. I'm the button. See, I now I have like a running list. I I don't know the last time I've updated my resume because I've been on this job for like five years and things are going well.

I probably should update it after the segment because of how poorly things are going and how the topics that I'm diving into. But, you know, I I think pretty close to the top of the list pizza named after you. Shout out to pie guys. Pizza and Clemens, the Grand Slam. That's pretty high up on the list.

But pretty close to the top of that list, too, is somebody a listener getting a fat head of you of your face. And he wanted apparently his goal was to take it to an F.S. one broadcasted.

That's right. P.B.A. bowling event and to be in the front row holding up that face just to confuse people. No one would get it except everybody who listens to this show.

But, you know, I still think I should put that pretty high up on the resume. Don't you think? Josh, how does it feel to know that you're just constantly sitting like in someone's man cave and just always staring?

You're always there. Oh, it's comfort. I think he likes it.

It makes me it just makes me feel a special kind of way. A better question. That'd be a better question for my wife.

Oh, boy. Be honest. Like, it's fine. It's fine with me. I'm comfortable with it. I don't know how Sarah Bradford feels about, you know, some dude's face.

My my face in some dudes, you know, man cave. Granted, I don't know how you feel about it. We haven't talked about it.

I'm not sure if it's the most I'm not sure if it's something she should be exactly concerned about, but I will. I won't speak for. Oh, there it is. D.J.

Turner coming up in the clutch. Wow. Next up on the drive. What media person's face would you like blown up in your man cave?

Boston. Why do we need to call it a man cave? Like I could have a a basement with a lot of stuff in there and it might not be classified as a man cave. Oh, it's a shed. It's a she shed.

Oh, a she shed. Wow. This is a sports radio show, everybody. No. Well, this is a very important topic.

Like trying to figure out. I agree. Whose face? See, there's the title of the podcast. She said she. Thank you, Clara. You guessed her title. She said. I can't say it. She said in the she shed. Oh, I just got a text from Sarah Bradford.

What is this? She heard her name. Yeah.

The Human Torch was denied a bank loan. Sarah Bradford, since you are listening, I would like to know how did you say you feel if she's still listening? I'd love to know how you feel about your husband's face being blown up and put in someone's man cave. She must be watching the video constantly.

My Apple Watch is vibrating. She's messaging us and Josh and I and her group. I need to know her thoughts on that. I feel like I would be talking about me, you idiot. OK, I'm reversing the rules. I feel like I would be OK with someone taking. Well, it depends on the context. I think in this context.

I think it's OK. That's true. Well played. Oh, Ben McAdoo making an appearance. Boy, I want things now in my man cave. That's what I want. Like I'm thinking media people's face. Charles Barkley's face in my man cave. That sounds good. Yeah.

Charles Barkley. Thinking out loud on this. OK, OK, we can we can. Are you going to get on that? Are you going to put it here in the WSJS studios? Or are you just going to start having media personalities lining the walls? Was it Kyle that made that suggestion or did you?

Let me make sure I cover all the local bases. Clara Goodwin's face. I better be number one.

Put me next to Taylor. Laney Pope. Laney Pope. We can put somewhere like I mean, we can figure it out. Amanda Ferguson.

I don't know. We Brian Hall, even though I know he's not in front of the camera. Don't forget Lauren Walsh. Lauren Walsh.

Got to get her in here. We're all friends around here. We're all friends. It's one big neighborhood.

We at least say we are. By the way, Jeffrey, I love my budget blinds earlier today. I'll have you know. So I was worried about that. I don't know why that was a concern. I need to rest easy.

Let me ask you this honest question. Yes, I know you're supposed to be the one asking the question. It is. It's kind of a weird dynamic. This is what part of the job sitting in the chair that you're in right now.

Did you not have an appreciation for or as much of an appreciation for until you've been in it the last two and a half hours? Definitely the clock management. Yeah, you've been like Andy Reid.

Is it like bad clock management? What's been going on? It's like Tom Brady holding up the floor like I don't know what. I'm Brady.

I'm Brady with. There you go. There you go.

No, that's a statement though, Josh. This was interesting because, I mean, this is the first show I've hosted of any kind. And it was more so like making sure I had enough prepped, but I didn't want to over prepped. And then I'm reading off of something like I still wanted to be like, you know, spitting it off the cuff like I like to do. But it just it was new.

And you know what? I enjoyed it. I think we did OK today, Clara. I think you did OK.

It was vibes of the show. It is. I kind of like it.

Let's do it all again and wear overalls. Oh, God. All right.

Well, see, I'm not sticking around for Rhinestone Cowboy, but yeah, we're going to see. I know that's coming up. And also coming up, I'm gonna I'm gonna very quickly in the next segment, as much time as we have, I'd like to get Claire's reactions to some of our drafts this week because she saw I was kind of.

Yeah, that's kind of what I had in mind. I have very intense opinions on the draft. She's got something to say to me, apparently.

Do you have them pulled up? Come on, now. You know that. You know who specifically she wanted to talk about.

Yeah, I have I have some I agree to this because I think W.D. is great and I really enjoy being around him. He's a great friend. I saw his musical festival, his music festival draft, and I was I've got it out like a personal attack. There's the face.

It felt like a personal attack against me. Not only did Josh, Josh goes out here, he gets he gets Taylor, of course. I mean, why wouldn't you? I had the first overall pick and he follows it with Harry Styles, the only number two ever. If someone picks Taylor Swift, number one, you do not go little Wayne.

Harry Styles is the obvious number two. You're just you're just pitching softballs here to Josh. You're not even challenging him.

What do you think of my draft? The OK, so he doesn't like it. Beyonce, I'm a Beyonce. Beyonce is great.

Great. I cannot believe Beyonce was taken that late in the game. Beyonce is a clear number three. You can't be in multiple hives. You can't be in the beehive and also a Swiffy. You can't be both. Oh, that's weird, because I have tickets to both those concerts. Josh. Well, you can go to both, but reside in one hive.

He tries to make these rules. OK, that's why I said Beyonce is a clear number three. Taylor's one always. Put her up against anyone. She's going to win. Harry's number two.

Beyonce number three. Outcast was the most out of left field pick I think I've ever seen in my life. Luke Combs was good on my part, right?

I'm not I'm not a country girl, but a lot of people would agree with you. He's coming to Charlotte as well. I know. Right. Yeah, because David Tepper brought concerts back to Charlotte.

He didn't bring Taylor. Well, speaking of clock management, I should probably hit a break. What do you think of that, Josh? We got to sing Rhinestone Cowboy.

I'm looking at the time. We're getting about to that point. Yeah, we got to sing. I've warmed up my vocal cords.

Getting ready for the concert this weekend. All right, Josh, we'll take we'll talk Monday. All right. All right. See you guys. And oh, yeah, sorry.

Sorry about that. Oh, there he goes. The host of this show, Josh Cram.

Not today. You're the host, W.D. Yes, I am. And we're going to sing some Rhinestone Cowboy. We've got Clara Goodwin with us in studio. She's been hanging out with us for the last hour. We'll do some vocal warm ups during the commercial. We will check this out. We're on it.

The perfect blend of sports and pop culture happens this evening at six with the Rich Eisen Show. Now, back to the drive with Josh Cram. Oh, my. Is this a sing along? Am I supposed to if you if you'd like to I might I might save the vocal cords for when I'm sobbing to the song.

This is the closing song of her concert. So I know I will be in hysterics. This is something we don't do. Like we always play Rhinestone Cowboy on Fridays, except for the one time I forgot because it was just such a long day. And like I was just like, you know how when you just you're just like an autopilot. That's when you needed it the most. Like when you need I played someone I played some Linkin Park song just go.

And Josh looks at me and like shakes his head at me. And I'm like, what you the rhinestone cowboy is always there for you. You never betray it.

It's been a fun show. You're doing great. I am so proud of you. You do good at everything you do, but I see you in the sea.

You're a natural Will. I appreciate that. We've had Claire Goodwin in here. We've had Connor O'Neill. We've had DJ Turner in here for the last 30 minutes.

And an appearance from Josh Graham. I got to give people flowers like I'm Miley Cyrus giving herself flowers or she doesn't. I don't know. I've never sung this without Josh before. Oh, don't worry.

You'll never want to after this. It's coming up. It's coming up. Are you ready?

I'm ready. Like a rhinestone cowboy. Riding out on a horse in a Star Spangled Rodeo.

Like a rhinestone cowboy. Tards and letters from people I don't even know. And offers coming over the phone. Those offers are coming for you. They're coming and I'm taking it to the house.

Well, that was quick. Hey, we're ready to go home. And take it to the house is, of course, brought to you by East Coast Wings and Grill. We've got one like I'm starving. We've got some might have to roll up there now. I mean, they they're right here in downtown Kernersville where we are.

They also have locations in Burlington and Lexington, Charlotte, Winston-Salem. They got the best wings. They got burgers, too, though.

So wings aren't your thing. They've got it all. They've got it all. They got burgers. They got salads.

I like the buffalo salad. And they're a great place to go watch the second round of the NFL Draft tonight. About that. So in this take it to the house story, we're talking about bears. We're going in Nevada. Hey, Bear. Hey, Bear. We are very animal heavy today. I appreciate it. This is actually our regular show. Bear heavy and Florida man heavy.

You know what that is? You're doing wonderful. That was beautiful. So the roles were reversed for this bear. Usually the bears are the one terrorizing us.

OK. Unless your name's Josh Graham. They don't do that. I personally have never been terrorized by a bear, but I know others have. So this bear got stranded in a tree in Nevada. Or bear. What's a bear doing in Nevada?

I have no idea. Bears not go to Nevada. Gambling. Oh, he's just walking down the strip.

You know, that's all he wanted. It's a bear poker hand, a bear poker hand. Well, they had to use some type of some type of tarp or tranquilizer tarp to get this thing down. The fire department is there up in the tree trying to get it out. I've never seen a. It's like a cat. So is that someone's house?

He's at a tree at someone's house. It looks like somebody's house. Like there's the little picket fence on the side.

Can you imagine waking up? I see what they did. The tarp is under the tree and they're trying to get the bear to like to come down out of it. It's like a big trampoline. No, that's no. That's after they tranquilize it.

They're catching him. Oh, that's a very never seen this before. It's awful.

It's awful to watch. I was thinking like cute little childhood trampolines and we went straight to tranquilizing. No, they're down there holding a trampoline is to ease the fall. But there's nothing they can do once they tranquilize the bear. He's just going to pass out and fall out of the tree.

So they're they're basically breaking his fall. This took a tie. I like the picture of a bear jumping up and down. I didn't have a good old time a little better. I did a story. One of these stories, actually, because bears I found one where this lady looked down in her backyard and found five bears in her backyard, four of which were jumping up and down on the trampoline.

And then the fifth bear was like just looking like seeing what they were doing. Hey, boo-boo. How did the trampoline hold all that weight? I don't know, but you're just having a good time. Come on. Everyone loves a nice little trampoline jump every once in a while. I'm trying to remember where this was located at.

Probably Florida. Boy, what a day it's been. Talk to Connor O'Neill, talk to David Glenn. Me and Clara Goodwin sang W.D.

in the hot seat, killing the game. It was. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night trying to get ready for this thing, but we sleep well tonight. We made it through. I appreciate everybody who came out to steal hands last night and said hello to us. Thank you for everybody who listened. Congrats all our ticket winners. And we're going to do it again on a Monday drive right here on WSJS.