We Want To Watch

It is a Monday drive. We're just like the earthquake we had yesterday. It feels like the college football landscape is shifting constantly beneath our feet.

If you have any good earthquake stories, by the way, we're taking those at 336-777-1600. If, and I want to stress if, because based on what I've been hearing all day today, no large decisions have been made. If there isn't a college football season, the ripple effects, they are going to be wide. They are going to be immense. And it's not just going to be in college football. Take the Carolina Panthers, for example. Ten years ago, the Panthers had a team that was so bad with Jimmy Clausen and company, they ended up getting the number one pick.

I remember all throughout that season, Panther fans saying, oh, the prize is going to be there in the draft. It's going to be a quarterback. It's going to be Andrew Luck. And we didn't know anything about this guy who used to be at Florida, then went the JUCO path and had a superb season at Auburn by the name of Cam Newton. Cam Newton wouldn't have been the pick if Andrew Luck was available, but here's the thing. Luck wasn't available because he chose not to be available.

He went back to Stanford, had that big game against Virginia Tech and the Fiesta ball, returned to school. That very well could happen to Carolina again as the Panthers are staring right in the face, their least talented team since 2010. All I'm hearing from Panther fans, it's going to be alright.

This is a good year to be bad. Got that great quarterback class next year, Trey Lance out of North Dakota State, Justin Fields out of Ohio State. And of course, Trevor Lawrence is going to be there out of Clemson. Trevor constantly gets compared to Luck. He's got this great mental makeup. He's able to get on the field immediately.

Just dominant, great arm. If there's no college football this year, I expect Trevor Lawrence to remain at Clemson. And that might sound crazy to you, but this was Trevor on Friday when he was asked about why he opted into this season, why he's so adamant about playing this year for the Tigers.

And oh yeah, whether or not he considered not playing. Everyone's thought about it just with everything going on, but I mean, since I've made the decision to play, I hadn't thought about it again. That's my decision. I'm committed. I want to play my last year here. You know, if that's what I decided to do, it's my third year, even have another one. So I think people are forgetting I got four years.

There it is. Oh, they're forgetting I got four years. This might not even be my last year. If I do play and you think that guy for sure is going to enter the draft, if the last snap he took at Clemson was with a losing football team in the national title game, I don't see it. Now I'm in the minority on this. I put it out on Twitter earlier today asking what you guys might think. We got right now about 125 votes, but we certainly will have more on this by the end of the show at Josh Graham radio at sports hub, try and 90% of you think he's going to enter the draft. If you're one of those people, I'd love to hear from you three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one 600 on Twitter at sports.

I'm trying. I think he wants to play college football. Look how public he's been starting the hashtag. We want to play movement bringing together the big 10 and pack 12 players who had the petition had the demands hashtag.

We are United putting that together with the hashtag we want to play. He's been more vocal than anybody in college football. He's incredibly bright. He knows exactly what he's doing.

He knows his value. Now he knows he has a voice and it seems he is committed to the Clemson tigers. I think if there's no season, he's going to be back in 2021 and the same could go for Justin Fields, which presents a nightmare scenario to you. If you think that Teddy Bridgewater, isn't the guy that isn't me, I'm a big fan of Teddy.

I think Teddy, he could be the franchise quarterback, but if you subscribe to the theory, Caroline is playing for a quarterback at the first round next year. We'll see what Trevor Lawrence we'll see what Justin Fields, who was also on that zoom call last night. And for trying to get this football season in there is precedent for the number one pick deciding to stay at school, even knowing he's going to be the number one guy, but here's something that makes this circumstance or another reason that makes the circumstance a lot different than what we even saw with Andrew Luck. The NIL legislation is coming down. It's going to be legal in Florida next year, the NCAA, they have their board of directors. They're going to discuss it in the fall. They're going to vote on changes by January, which means they'll come into effect for the next collegiate athletics season. Is there anybody in college sports that you think can benefit more from NIL legislation than Trevor Lawrence with that hair, with that arm, with that team?

Of course not. With how public he is with how he handles himself. That's something he has that he can benefit from that Zion didn't have who almost returned to Duke by the way, Andrew Luck didn't have, and he decided to return and Luck at least had closure if he wanted it with that win against Virginia Tech.

He still decided to go back to school. Trevor, it seems like to me has unfinished business. You win your first 29 games, then you lose to LSU.

You put together all of this over the weekend. You're talking about changing the face of collegiate sports, getting a player's association, something that's just unprecedented. And then hypothetically, if everything is discarded by university presidents and there's no season, he's just going to completely turn the page to the NFL. I don't see it. If there isn't a season, I think Trevor is going to come back to college. I think he's going to play for the tigers next year. Unfinished business. I believe that.

I want to transition. The most improved player finalists were announced in the NBA over the weekend. You got a couple players from the state of North Carolina. Bam Adebayo from close to Little Washington in Eastern North Carolina. Atta Kinston, also an ENC.

Shouts to the hashtag 252. Brandon Ingram, New Orleans Pelicans. Carrying on the legacy started by Cornbread Maxwell, then to Jerry Stackhouse, Reggie Bullock, Ingram, and we'll see who's the next to carry that torch.

They are both finalists. Then you got Luka Doncic for some reason. Where the heck is Devante Graham? Devante Graham is the most improved player in the NBA. He is. Just ask.

I don't know. Luka Doncic? Luka, he had that tremendous game over the weekend. He had the triple-double. He looked just awesome.

Like unstoppable. The through the legs pass that went right past the defensive player of the year, soon to be MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo. But after the game, Brad Townsend works for the Dallas Morning News. He was asked by Luka, who votes on this?

The most improved player. He said, well, a hundred of us, including me. Luka said, take me off the list and put Devante Graham on there.

I don't deserve to be there. Jamal Crawford said similar things. Now I don't want to make this all about Devante Graham because I think this is the bigger takeaway. The Charlotte Hornets are starting to gain respect around the league.

It's happening slowly, but just look at these factors. Devante, he is the league's most improved player. As much as I like Bam, what he's done with the Heat and Ingram, bad situation in LA, then going to New Orleans with a new team.

He's starting to make it happen. Those guys, they're top picks. They are guys, they're first round draft picks. They're not playing in the G league. Devante went from the G league to an all-star in less than a year. Went from four points a game to 18 a game. The players know this.

The voters don't. They're not following the Hornets day to day. The players do recognize it. They recognize Devante is an all-star caliber talent. He's the most improved player. Miles Bridges, he's earned his stripes too.

MVP of the Rising Stars game. LeBron at that point called him his little bro. He even said, hey, you're somebody I'm worried about. You're a problem, I think he said before the start of the season.

If LeBron's validating you, that's a big deal to me. He was a candidate for the All-Rookie team at about this time last year. He didn't make it. Reporters asked if he was snubbed. He said he didn't get snubbed because he didn't deserve it because his team didn't win.

He said he could play a lot better. That's something that stuck with me. You want to know what these two players have in common, Robert?

What's that? They were the first two draft picks by Mitch Kupchak in 2018. The Hornets, they have the right GM and they have the right coach. Borrego, he's turning heads.

He's doing national media opportunities. He had the worst roster in the league going into last year when losing Kimball Walker, they were an embarrassment. No one thought they'd win 20 games. Vegas had their over-under at 18 and a half. They ended up winning 22 or 23 this year and they were shortened 12 games, about a dozen games because of when things were halted. They exceeded expectations. Devontae, he developed well.

P.J. Washington, the first round draft pick from last year, 26 in his debut, a Hornets record for a debut. I believe they have the right coach and the right GM. I don't think I was able to say that five years ago.

It's always about mismatching parts and such. I think they're starting to build an identity. It's a young core. They're going to get a top 10 draft pick in all likelihood. In fact, they have the same odds the New Orleans Pelicans had at this time a year ago to get the number one pick. And it worked out for New Orleans in the way of Zion Williamson. Now there's no Zion in this year's draft, but the Hornets have a chance to get a really important player this year.

And they're finally getting out of some of these bad contracts that were not given out by Mitch Kupchak to have more flexibility to build this team and improve them moving forward. We're now the opposite of the front of sports talk because we're, well, we're, we're back to it. Get it? Well, that's not funny. Back to the drive.

That's moronic. With Josh Graham. Multiple time South Carolina sports writer of the year for the NSMA, Grace Rainer is now with us, Clemson beat writer. And it's just been difficult to try and get information from college football reporter friends of mine today because everybody's running around with their head on fire. We got Sam Hartman on today's show after Wake Forest's university president Nathan Hatch met with the Demon Deacon football team today.

So there's just so much to get to. And Grace, I appreciate you spending the time with us. Trevor Lawrence, he's been at the center of the college football news because he's the one that started this movement of hashtag we want to play and then brought together the big 10 and PAC 12 initiatives of hashtag we are United. We saw what happened at about midnight last night where they both come together and now they even mentioned trying to put together a players association for college football, trying to unionize players in a way that's never happened before. Did anything Trevor said this weekend to you on Friday and his media availability or just on social media surprise you?

I don't know that I would say I was surprised. I think that 2020 has really been the off season of Trevor finding his voice and he's really started to speak out publicly on things nationally on things affecting college football. You know, this is just this is not the same kid who two years ago came to Clemson as a freshman just, you know, trying to win a starting quarterback job. This is the most important voice in all of college football right now. And so yeah, late last night, he and running back Darian Rincher got together and said, Okay, we need to do something.

And then the zoom call was kind of born from there. And, you know, this is something that they were actually planning on putting out this morning. But as they learned from the other conferences and the other players from those conferences, that decisions were going to be coming sooner rather than later, they pumped it out around midnight Eastern last night. Do you have any idea what Dabo thinks about what Trevor and Darian Rincher, as you mentioned, are doing on social media? So we're going to hear from Dabo Sweeney tonight.

We were originally supposed to hear from him Wednesday. But you know, I think that this is something that he's going to really embrace. I mean, this is these these two have already teamed up once this summer when they kind of got together with two other Clemson veterans and decided that they wanted to plan a peaceful demonstration to protest racial injustice. And I think that you know, Dabo Sweeney, of all college coaches has been extremely vocal about wanting to play and thinking that it is possible to do it safely. I mean, I know that a couple months ago, he kind of went viral for saying, you know, I, I feel confident we will be doing this and America can kind of overcome this. So my guess and just knowing Dabo and kind of the way he operates is that he's probably going to stand by his players on this one because I would imagine that there's no football coach in the country that wants to play more than Dabo Sweeney.

Grace Rainer with us. Clemson beat Ryder on Twitter at GM Rainer had a really good story this weekend titled, I wasn't ready to give that up. Why Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence opted into the season.

You can find that on The Athletic. It also had me thinking, or it reminded me of something 10 years ago where the Panthers had a terrible football team and all Panther fans wanted to talk about was, hey, we're going to get this quarterback named Andrew Luck. And then Andrew Luck decided he was going to stay in college another year and they ended up settling for this guy named Cam Newton. The Panthers, they're not a great team and there are people who are already circling, hey, Trevor Lawrence, this is the guy we want in the draft next year, but the college football season, it's still a big if, but if there isn't any year, based on what you've heard Trevor say about opting into this season, would it surprise you if Trevor stayed at Clemson rather than declaring for the draft?

That part I think would surprise me. You know, I think that he has been very vocal about this is something that he really wants to do and some of his parameters that he went through as he was making his decision were obviously he wanted to be comfortable with the safety protocols, but he also wanted to know, okay, what does the schedule look like? Are we going to be getting a full schedule?

Can Clemson compete for a national championship again? And then he had said, if someone has specifically asked, if this thing gets moved to the spring, kind of what's next for you? And that's when he had said that he would reevaluate. But you know, I don't know, I just, I think if we get to the point where college football is in the spring, I think at that point, I would be surprised to see Trevor or running back Travis ETN just because at that point, you know, you've got NFL training stuff going on in the combine, get an agent, the draft, all that stuff. I just think that there's already a lot at stake. And I just feel like if it gets moved to the spring, we might be seeing some different decisions.

That's just my personal opinion, obviously we'll, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. And that's kind of what Trevor said is he would evaluate if it happens. But I would be surprised.

I think, yeah. Based on Ross Stellinger's reporting from Sports Illustrated over the weekend, it seems the big difference between the big 10 announcing its full schedule on Thursday and where we ended up last night, really where we're at right now, is this medical journal that was published about the effects COVID's had even on younger people in terms of cardiac inflammation in other words, heart damage being done. Clemson has had a number of players get COVID and Xavier Thomas.

He's going to miss the year. Dabo, I know he said he hopes to get him in four games this season, but how has what they've seen a young person and Xavier Thomas face this disease affect the way that Dabo views it and heck even university officials you've spoken with? Sure.

Yes. So Xavier got the virus before. So Clemson had 37 players get it in the month of June.

Xavier was not one of those 37. He got it, I think a little bit closer to after spring break. And after he got the virus, he then on top of it got strep throat. He gained 10 to 12 pounds and Dabo was very vocal in saying, you know, once he got back to activities, football activities, it was just very apparent he was not where he needed to be. He was having a hard time breathing. He's just not in the shape that he needs to be in. So they are going to look at red shirting him, maybe try to save him for down the stretch. But just the way that Dabo talked about it, it does seem like it's going to be, you know, a process for him.

It's not something that's just going to turn for him overnight. And I think that that is a really telling example of what this virus and granted he did have strep throat on top of it, but what this virus can do to you. I mean, I think everyone in the country would agree that Xavier Thomas is one of the most athletic kids on Clemson's entire roster.

I mean, this is a kid that came in as a five star recruit with first round draft pick expectations. So to see, you know, one of their stars really have to reset, I think is very telling about this virus and what it can do to a group of kids that are 20, 21, 22. Did you feel that earthquake in South Carolina? I did not.

I actually slept through the whole thing and I woke up and I didn't really know if people were. Did you guys feel it in South Carolina? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. We were we were probably about 25, 30 miles away from it. So, yeah, we felt it. Yeah, I I actually woke up ironically and was like, man, last night was like one of the best nights of sleep I've ever had.

And then I got on Twitter and it was like there was an earthquake and I had no idea. Was that how was that night of sleep compared to last night with everything happening regarding Trevor's comments? Oh, gosh. Night and day. I mean, two nights ago, Saturday night, is that what it was Saturday night?

Yeah. Snoozing happily last night. I was I mean, once we saw all that news break, it was like one in the morning. And so then you're kind of on an adrenaline high and you don't know if something else is coming and you don't know if players are going to start speaking out at two in the morning.

So definitely two very different nights for sure. Keep up the great work, Grace. It's good to hear from you.

Hope we can catch up sometime soon. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it. Of course. She's on Twitter at GM Rainer.

She would follow the award winning writer for the athletic covering Clemson football. Robert, where were you? I'm sure there's a story here. Where were you when the earthquake happened early Sunday morning? Dead asleep. You didn't wake up?

No, not at all. I was already awake, but I was still in bed. I was on the iPad doing stuff. And then when I felt it, I immediately went and looked under my bed. I thought something or somebody was underneath my bed. I don't know if I thought it was a varmint or something, but maybe. A varmint. What's the first thing that popped in your head?

What did you think? Raccoon. You thought a raccoon, a snake. Maybe I don't know. It shook your bed.

I don't know, man. I was scared. Legitimately scared. It was almost strange.

I was relieved when I found out it was a earthquake. How do you think Winnie would take it if there was a raccoon under your bed? It's an excellent question. I'll ask her later. Maybe we'll get her on the phone.

Good stuff from Grace Rainer though. But yeah, things are changing. Everything seems to be moving strangely and just seems to be quaking beneath our feet.

The headlines, it's the same way. And since I guess kind of in the spirit of that, to follow suit, we're going to do Let's Get Crazy a bit earlier today. 336-777-1600. More specifically, we're going to do that next on The Drive. This is it. Ready? All right, hold on. All right, do it. Do it. Do it. All right, listen up.

This is The Drive with Josh Graham on Sports Hub Triad. A little bit earlier than usual, it's time for one of our favorite weekly segments, Let's Get Crazy, where hot takes are welcome and that's it. Don't come in with any of those cold lukewarm takes. We will question those, but we will not question you if your takes are too hot. That's actually what we're encouraging right now. We suspend journalistic integrity for one week, for 10 minutes a week, I should say.

336-777-1600. When the headlines are crazy for this segment, we try to make our takes even crazier. Let's go ahead and dive right in. Crazy. Crazy. Crazy. Crazy. All right. Give us a call.

336-777-1600 is the phone number. Hot takes are welcome. If we deem your take hot enough, we will bestow on you the greatest gift we can give you as a sports radio show and that's this. And let's start by going to the phones, Wayne and Greensboro.

Let's Get Crazy, Wayne. Well, in case you guys haven't noticed, the Phoenix Suns are the only undefeated team in the bubble. I predict they will win out and take the eighth seed. They will play the Lakers and take them to a seventh game.

When they roll, well, they will go down to with the clock sticking out. And guess what? Booker gets triple teams and he passes to a wide open Frank Kaminsky who takes the game-winning shot. And of course, he shoots an air ball. Once a Hornet, always a Hornet. Yeah, there you go.

That's Wayne. Let's Get Crazy. Looking at that Phoenix team right now, they're trailing at the moment. 54-47 with five and a half left to go in the first half. Two of the younger teams in the bubble, OKC and Phoenix, playing at the moment. And both of them have looked pretty darn good.

I got one right here. Carolina Hurricanes know their opponent. It's going to be the Boston Bruins who swept them in the Eastern Conference Finals a year ago. Well, I think the tide's going to turn. The Hurricanes are going to sweep Boston.

Here's why. David Pasternak, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, those are the three best players on Boston. Last year, they crushed Carolina in the Eastern Conference Final. They've combined for zero goals in the round robin that they just played. Meanwhile, Carolina Stars, they're playing great and they're getting Dougie Hamilton back. Those guys are going to be locked down. Starting tomorrow night at 8 o'clock, Canes begin taking it to the Boston Bruins. Let's go to Justin and Elkin.

3-3-6-7-7-7-1-600. Justin and Elkin, Let's Get Crazy. Let's Get Crazy. So for the release of Nickelback's album on Friday, Josh Graham is going to declare a national holiday. But it's not a holiday where you get paid time off.

It's one where you got to take your own personal time. It's going to be the Nickelback holidays. Yeah! Yeah! That's right.

Thanks for the call, Justin. Nickelback's coming out with an album on Friday. The Rolling Stones. Who are they, right? They're coming out with an album too the same day on Friday.

How about this one right here? Ohio State, according to some reports, if the Big 12 or make it the Big 10 cancels things, they're going to be looking to join other conferences. The SEC is looking to add potential schools. We're seeing Michigan's interested, Nebraska, Iowa.

I'm going to go ahead and say it. Ohio State, Texas will be this year's Big 12 championship game. It's going to be a reunion for Tom Herman. Once upon a time, Tom was the OC at Ohio State. He needs to get things done at Texas this year. Granted, of course, there is a season. Robert, let's get crazy.

Your call is welcome at 336-777-1600. We've bashed on the Nets a lot this bubble season, but I will not be bashing on them today. They might not do so hot in the playoffs this year, but next year the Nets will have the number one seed in the East. They played without their three best players, not even counting Kyrie or KD.

If they get those back next year, it's going to be, they're going to be shooting lights out. Who are their three best players? Harris, Lavert, who am I missing? Jared, the center.

That's right. They don't have Jared either. Not giving any love to De'Andre Jordan? Nah, he's not playing either. He's not playing as well. I thought you might give him a little bit of love. No love for me, for De'Andre. Wow.

Is that a hot take? No, it's just not nice. All right. I don't even know if I want to say this because you might think less of me, but you can't go to bars during the pandemic. You can't do it.

It's not safe. Certainly not recommended, but I enjoyed myself on Friday by having a power hour. Robert, you familiar with the power hours? Yeah. You drink every minute.

It's a different song. It's a, yeah. You take a sip every minute and then before you know it at the end of the hour, it's five or six beers. It's supposed to be a shot of beer, not a sip. Okay. Like a shot of beer.

I'm a lightweight compared to you. I think this is a lot better than pre pandemic going to bars. Power hour at a house party with four or five people. Give me that every single day of the week and I'll have a bonus hot take. Disney themed power hour. The best of all. You know, like Disney songs play every minute. I've never done a power hour that was not a Disney power.

Is that right? Yeah. I don't even know what other kind of power hours there are. I can't tell if you're being serious.

I'm serious. I don't know another power hour. What else would it be? I mean, there's like a nineties themed one, two thousands themed one.

I'm sure they have eighties and seventies too. Just listen to music and drinks in like, I feel like it has to be a gimmick with Disney or why are you doing it? You know, like what's the point? So you don't even think that's a hot take at all.

Uh, I mean, no, it's kind of, kind of cold, but I mean, some people also don't know about power hour, so maybe it's a hot take for other people. Robert, close this out here. Close us out in this edition of let's get crazy. Shia LaBeouf is going to be this generation's Jim Carrey and I'm not talking about funny people. I'm talking about a guy that is misinterpreted by the public as quote crazy. You can also put them in a Gary Busey category. Do I think Gary Busey is crazy? No.

Does everybody else think Gary Busey is crazy? Yes. Shia LaBeouf is going to fall in that same exact category after getting a real chest tattoo for his latest movie. A what chest? Oh, an actual chest tattoo?

A real chest tattoo. What is it up? I don't know. I haven't inspected it, but it's like a large flag, Eagle looking thing. I don't know.

You'd have to go check it out yourself. Same dude who streamed himself on the internet watching a movie, but we can't see what he was looking at. We thought that was crazy, but then we figured out he was kind of ahead of his time.

A lot of other people do that now where they stream themselves watching games and such. Not necessarily my cup of tea, but it seemed that Shia LaBeouf may have been ahead on that. That's a pretty good take on your part. And that is let's get crazy.

I want to shift things. I started thinking about North Carolina as a hoop state this weekend, where you have the most improved players in the NBA announced, the finalists. You have Brandon Ingram, who's from Kinston, North Carolina. You got Bam Adebayo, who's from close to Little Washington, North Carolina. Luka Dunkic, he's not from North Carolina, but he doesn't belong on the list if you're one of the best players. Wasn't he on the All-Rookie team? Yes. How do you go from the All-Rookie team to most improved player?

That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Davante Graham should have been on the list. Luka even says so. Get me off the list, put him on there. Going from the G-League to the All-Star game. Four points a game to 18 points a game. He belongs. We should have had a scenario where all three finalists were from the state of North Carolina.

It had me thinking. If you're putting together a North Carolina-born starting five, what would it be? And I'm not talking about all time, so don't come in here with Michael Jordan or James Worthy or David Thompson. I'm talking about right now in the NBA, what would that starting five look like?

Could you do better than what I have right in front of me here? At point guard, I'm going Steph Curry. At shooting guard, you know what? I'm gonna go Chris Paul, my point guard, Steph, my shooting guard. That's my backcourt.

Not bad, huh? Brandon Ingram. He's the small forward.

Zion is my power forward. A lot of people don't know that. He actually wasn't born in South Carolina. I think he was born in Durham. Maybe it was close to Burlington. I don't know what specific city he was born in.

Could you check on that real quickly for me, Robert? Where Zion was born? I know it was in a North Carolina city. Played at Duke.

We're gonna count it. Salisbury. Salisbury.

Shouts to Salisbury. And bam out of bio is my center. So that's starting five. CP3, Steph, Ingram, Zion, bam. Coming off the bench, it would be TJ Warren, Montrezl Harrell, Devante Graham.

Could you do a lot better? Would you change my starting five at all there? I mentioned those three guys coming off the bench. CP3, Steph, Ingram, Zion, bam. Warren's been very hot right now. We know what Devante is capable of doing with the Hornets.

And Trez Harrell, he's in the running for sixth man of the year. Zion would probably start, but I'd probably put him on a minutes restriction. Move Brandon Ingram to the four, slide TJ Warren into three, mix it up a little bit. Get some different looks. Yeah, we're gonna go minutes restriction in this hypothetical?

Yeah, probably 18 to 20 minutes. You know, I'm just worried about his weight, worried about his potential injuries. You know, just trying to keep him fresh. There are a number of guys that I could have included into this mix. I think those are the best guys. But I know Kent Basemore's from North Carolina. Kai Bowman, Gary Clark. I mean, Giles is from the Triad. John Henson, does he qualify for this list? Any of the Martin twins?

Shout to Davie County. I think you included the right guys. You think? Yeah. Or Kobe White?

He's probably on the outside looking in. John Wall? Yeah, is this healthy John Wall? Are we going to put him on a minutes restriction too? He might get 10 off the bench. Hassan Whiteside's from North Carolina. He's been playing like straight doo-doo water to coin a term that you use. Yeah, I like Hassan Whiteside's game when he's playing well.

I mean, shot blocks, shot blocker effective at doing that. So I think we got the right five guys. Maybe the right seven or eight guys. And then it's about what order you might put them in.

What your starting five might ultimately look like. I'm surprised you slept through that earthquake yesterday. I thought you'd be someone who has a story there. Yesterday, it was just awesome. Yesterday was just an awesome day until all the Big Ten rumors started where you have this loaded leaderboard. And there's something that we keep doing with golf that we need to stop doing. Anytime a young golfer wins, we start doing, is he the next Tiger? News flash to everybody. There isn't going to be another Tiger Woods.

Enjoy it while you got it. It's what I tell people when it comes to LeBron. There's not going to be another Michael.

For five or six years, we tried to create another Michael and we just ended up looking stupid. Then we had LeBron. There's not going to be anybody else like LeBron. It isn't to say there aren't other stars. He's just unique. He really is. Tigers the same way. Now, I love golf.

So I enjoyed so much what we had yesterday. But I'm not going to put added pressure on Colin Morikawa at 23 playing in his second major and winning it. I'm not going to put added pressure on him just to try and fit this.

Is he the next Tiger narrative? Because that doesn't help Colin. And it doesn't really help, I think, the game of golf. I really don't.

Can we just stop doing it? I just realized today, Rory McIlroy, who we did this for, oh, this guy after he had that big day at Memorial, he's going to be this next great thing in golf. He hasn't won a major since 2014. Jordan Spieth has had a really rough go of it over the last couple of years. We did the same thing with him. Did it to a degree with Koepka? And we saw how he fell apart yesterday after tucking all that trash. DeChambeau, we're inflating him a bit, even though he's inflated himself quite a bit. He's not really likable on the tour.

So let's not make Colin Morikawa unlikable. Just enjoy what happened yesterday. I did. It was awesome.

But I'm not going to make it anything more than that. You are listening to WSJS Winston-Salem, WCOG Greensboro, WPCM Burlington, WMFR Highpoint. Those signals make up Sports Up Giant. Josh Graham loves to talk sports. He also loves the way his new jeans highlight his man curves. Ooh, hot. Oh, yeah, that's hot.

You're on The Drive with Josh Graham. Robert, are you a big t-shirt guy? As in wearing t-shirts? Yeah, I love wearing them.

Right. I love getting t-shirts that are kind of funny, sports related. We still haven't gotten any NC Dinos gear.

We need to make that happen. But I love minor league baseball for their creativity. Obviously, there's no minor league baseball this year in the triad or really anywhere. So I loved what the Durham Bulls and the Down East Wood Ducks in Kinston have done with some of these t-shirts. The Bulls have one out there that says 2020, and I got to make sure I make sure that I'm saying this the correct way so Robert doesn't have to bleep me out. 2020, this is some Bull shirt.

It's pretty good. And then you got the Down East Wood Ducks that have 2020, what the duck with the D. That's not bad. But as far as the NC Dinos gear goes, I think that's going to be like a seven year engagement.

It's just not going to happen. Let's transition things to golf. Ma'am, what a major championship that was this weekend in San Francisco, the PGA Championship where you got Colin Makanawa winning and he had that great drive on 16 where he eagled in order to close things out. Essentially the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club.

It's going to start on Thursday. The big news of the day in golf, Brooks Koepka is going to be a part of the field, one of the last few to announce that he's going to be a part of the field at Sedgefield. You got the Wyndham Rewards top 10, a lot on the line this week. So we welcome in Ed Harden, our good friend from the Greensboro News and Record to discuss it.

Follow Ed on Twitter at Ed underscore Harden, read his stuff, Greensboro.com and in the pages of the News and Record. Ed, what's the most fascinating golf headline you're following heading into the Wyndham? Really Brooks Koepka having to eat crow yesterday. It was just, I've never, well, there's never been a golfer say the things that he said yesterday or the day before. And then he went out and shot a 74. I think it was just, it was fascinating to not watch him because they didn't put him on TV. But you know, I've never pulled for Dustin Johnson in my life, but I kind of was yesterday.

So it was an interesting golf tournament. Who's more disliked among the players, Koepka or DeChambeau? Ah, that's a good question. It's probably DeChambeau is probably coming around a little bit to him. He's endearing himself.

I'm not sure that Koepka will ever endear himself. He doesn't want to happen. He doesn't want friends on the tour.

He's on the record saying that I don't, these guys are not my friends. Has he reached Patrick Reed-like levels yet? He's probably close. What he has said about Rory in the past and what he said about Dustin Johnson, I guess it was Saturday evening, is just, it's almost as if the tour has turned on him now. It's almost like he's a marked man. And this is going to haunt him.

This is going to follow him for the rest of his career. How much does the lack of fans, no fans being allowed at Sedgefield for the Wyndham hurt Greensboro and hurt this tournament? Well, it hurts both.

It really does. Long term, you're going to have the charities not get what they're used to. And that's really a sad thing. Now, the sponsors have come through. They're still going to try and help the charities as much as they can, but that's really the big loss. I mean, the tournament will survive and Greensboro will be there when it comes back next year.

But I feel bad for the charities who need it now more than ever. I want to hear some stories that you have about some of the old days of the tournament. Excuse me, my phone's going off. I should probably turn that off when I'm on the radio. But anyway, Sam Snead, for example, you know, you hear it's true that this was his favorite golf course, right? Oh, yes. And also his favorite town to come to. He loved it here. You had conversations.

I didn't realize this until I read your story over the weekend. You had conversations about fishing and about golf with Sam. What's the best fishing story you heard from the great Sam Snead? He liked to come fish the Greensboro Lakes, Lake Higgins, I think was his favorite. And he liked to fish with this man named Dave Goforth, who was a great local fisherman of his time. He actually, he fished differently than anybody I've ever seen. He would take a little, a tiny little inline spinner and then he would put a little piece of cut bait on the back of it. And he never told anybody that he did that, but he gave the tip to Sam Snead. And then Snead went out and told everybody about it. So the Dave Goforth style of fishing was for a long time in Greensboro the way to catch fish.

So he was quite an influential person. What's the best story you've heard about the history of this golf course? When somebody asks Ed Hardin, who I consider you to be a historian about what this tournament's been about and the history of it, what's the top one that you're pulling out to tell somebody? Well, it used to be a hunting preserve before it was ever a golf course. And for the longest time, the golf course was second to the, what was then just an Inn at the Sedgefield Inn is what they called it. And as golf caught on more and more, you know, it's like Greensboro finally came around to it. And the weird thing was a pro, one of the early pros at Sedgefield won the US Open and he came home and we gave him a ticker tape parade downtown.

And it's just been, I guess from then on, it just became a part of our life because it was only a certain few who could afford to be a part of the club. You know, it's like a place you just don't drive into because most people aren't, you know, most people don't live there. So that's what's going to be strange this week. The people are going to be there who live there. They're going to be in their backyards. There's going to be a gallery, but they're going to be behind ropes and sitting in lawn chairs and sipping vodka tonics. Where are you going to be?

I haven't figured it out yet, Josh. I'm going to be there. I'm going tomorrow and trying to just get a lay of the land. I'm not going to sit in that media center for five days. I can tell you that.

So I'm going to try and find a way to get out on the course, socially distance myself from everything and everybody and cover it in a way I've never covered it before. I really don't know how to answer it. I'll let you know when I get out there.

Yeah. Is there any chance we can revisit with you on Friday and see what you're observing? OK. Ed Arden's with us here from the Greensboro News and Record award winning columnist. And you obviously have seen so many tournaments.

So interested how this one's going to look. You actually being inside Sedgefield Country Club. Let's get to the breaking news here. Every time you're with us, there's always breaking news. Brett McMurphy just put out there that the Mountain West has canceled its football season because of COVID concerns. Meaning this weekend, the Mac, which means we're down to eight FBS football conferences. It was reported that the Big Ten they were going to cancel today or had already canceled. That was debunked. And then it was reported that Big Ten presidents are going to chat at six o'clock.

Well, it turns out that wasn't accurate either. Athletic directors are going to talk at six o'clock, not university presidents getting away from the minutia of it all. What's your general feeling about the ACC and SEC? Because they seem a little bit more committed to being patient, to trying to get the season in than the Pac-12 and the Big Ten are. What do you think it will take for those two conferences, the SEC and ACC, to call it quits on the football season? I mean, at this point, it's going to take up an outbreak to convince them that you just can't do this.

This is first of all, it's not the AD's call. They'll their position will be heard. But this is going to come down to the presidents of the schools. And if just like what happened in the ACC tournament, people really don't know the full story there. Duke called Swofford and said, we're not playing.

And in one phone call, they ended both the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament. So if you get one school that says we're not going to do this and Syracuse is close right now, their players are in full revolt. They want no part of this. It's all going to fall in their face.

I mean, it's a terrible optic if they're the last two standing and insisting on playing football. At some point, some president has got to be strong enough to stand up and say we just can't do this. Now they're waiting. And I understand it. I don't know what they're waiting for. A miracle, a vaccine. I just I don't understand their their reasoning.

But I just can't help but believe that somebody's going to make this decision for them and they're just going to have to stand down. Where were you when the earthquake happened yesterday? Apparently sleeping because I didn't feel it. Oh, I know. That's disappointing. Yeah. Well, gosh, we were betting me and Robert before.

Me and Robert were betting behind the scenes that there was going to be an Ed Harden story regarding the earthquake. So you're going to have to make up with it. Make up for it with a good story on the lake about your latest catch. Well, the latest catch actually came from my wife again, who has suddenly become a better fisherman. Wow.

Yeah. So we're on the water. We find this little worm hanging to the drain that's in our lake and she uses it and starts catching fish with it. It's this ugly blue little thing. So then we lost it in a tree. She's not the greatest caster in the world and came home and directly went on Amazon and ordered like two dozen of those little blue worms for her.

So if it doesn't rain and it's getting ready to pour where you are, by the way. Yeah. My phone let me know. With her new blue little worms. It's amazing.

It's all about her. The National Weather Service, the flash flood warnings, they hit and my phone, you know, regardless of them on the air or not, it'll go off. Ed Harden, good luck with a very strange week on the college football front and also with the Wyndham. We'll chat with you at the end of the week to see exactly what everything has looked like and what's found to be a very unique Wyndham championship. Thanks for doing this. Thanks, guys. I appreciate it. There you go. He's on Twitter at Ed underscore Harden. Just one of our favorites to catch up with altogether.