App State AD Doug Gillin (8-6-20)

So I want to bring you the latest I know on Wake Forest Appalachian State.

Because minutes after we got off the air yesterday we learned that the game was canceled with another home and home being announced for way down the line. I've been on the phone talking about this subject with both sides and we've got Appalachian State AD Doug Gillen joining the show at 5.35, so in about 45 minutes. I think we're headed for a 2021 rescheduling of this matchup in Winston-Salem.

I think it's already in the works. The ACC released their schedule earlier today and you see Appalachian State, you see there's an opening for Appalachian State in Wake's non-conference a year from now. That's because ODU is playing the Demon Deacons this season when they were scheduled to do so in 21.

So they're moving up an opponent. Appalachian State's likely going to have to do the same. Their non-conference is already jam-packed full right now for 21.

They got East Carolina at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. That's been on the books for five or six years, close to that. Maybe four years. I don't know.

Losing track of time. Miami, not Miami of Ohio, the University of Miami is going to be hosting App State and Coral Gables. You got Elon, which is a sneaky fun series between the two. If you go back to the days where they're playing more often, there's no love lost in that series. Marshall, Appalachian State, there would either have to be a cancellation or one of these games get moved up. Now, Elon's a game that you would like to still have fans at, ideally. So I don't know if you move that game up.

That seems to be the easiest one to do more than Marshall or something of that sort. But I can say pretty confidently right now, Wake Forest wants this game next year. Wake wants to play app. And if we look at how the power structure, if we're just being honest with ourselves, how the power structure looks in college sports, if a power five school wants to play a group of five, wants the game to happen, is willing to give something in order for it to happen, it's going to happen. Like I went to East Carolina, I covered ECU. If they were going to get a home and home from any ACC school, they would take it.

Anyone, AppState, I feel like the same thing. If they could get any home and home from an ACC school, they would do it. There's a history with this rivalry. Wake, App, I don't think a lot of people outside of this area understand what that means. Wake Forest, they want this game to happen.

They view it to be mutually beneficial. Yesterday, John Curry was on the show and even though it wasn't official that this game was going to happen at that point, we all kind of knew where we were headed when he said this. You know, such a huge part of that robbery is fans in the stands. I was so excited about having that game on Friday night. I figured we'd set our all time attendance record.

We would probably set an all time revenue record from a sales standpoint. And so as we're tracking now, you know, there's part of me that it seems a little bit empty to play such a historic rivalry in a game that means so much for our region in front of a very sparse crowd because of the regulation. So we just gave away the game right there.

He told you everything you need to know for why this game isn't happening this year, despite what you see from a very small faction of people of online and root for AppState. Small faction of people who I see on Twitter saying, oh, Wake Forest is dodging the Mountaineers. They don't want to play us. They don't want to play us.

They're scared. I think most sensible people get it. I put out this poll 10 minutes before that announcement came that the game was officially going to be canceled. And we got a pretty good number of people to vote on this. I'm not going to say it represents the largest sample out there.

It represents the views of the majority, but it's worth noting. I asked, App, Wake fans, which would you prefer? Hypothetically, this year without fans next year with them. 75% voting said they would prefer next year with fans. These non-conference games, regional non-conference games, they are driven by gates.

They are driven by having tremendous atmospheres. If you're Wake Forest and you have the option between having the Appalachian State game this year or the Old Dominion game, knowing you're not going to get a big gate, you're not going to be allowed to have a lot of fans, I want the ODU game. That's what you want. Like, why would you schedule Appalachian State over Old Dominion this year? How does that make sense? Even if you do factor in the competition piece of it, why would you want to play a better team? I'm not going to fault Wake Forest for doing what's best for them. This is obviously what's best for them. And they scheduled a home and home for down the line and they want to play next year. So I think one way or the other, App State, they're going to come to the table and they're going to figure it out. And I think we're going to have this game in 2021 because it's mutually beneficial. App State gets the Power 5 team that wants to play them.

It's regional. Your fans can attend it. You have a great fan base that's in the triad. And Wake Forest gets the gate.

It's beneficial for everybody. But if you're a Mountaineer fan or a Wake Forest fan, I'd love to hear from you right now. What do you think about the game getting canceled and the idea of it potentially happening next year? Wake Forest, I know is pushing for it. App State's interested in it, but I haven't talked to Doug Gillen about it. He's going to join us at 535 and we'll get his thoughts. That simple.

336-777-1600 is the phone number. Putting COVID aside for now, college football, it does feel back. The ACC released its schedule, as I mentioned earlier this morning.

And how about this? The USA Today preseason coaches poll is out. Clemson, the number one team in the country.

Hashtag as expected. And there are three other ACC teams in the poll, including Mac Brown's Tar Heels at number 19. Now, as you may or may not know, I've been high on this North Carolina team all offseason long. And today the breaks keep on coming in the way of scheduling. Favorable start and a favorable finish. No road games until the month of October. Three of the first four games are at home. Four of the first five weeks of the regular season, the Tar Heels are staying put in Chapel Hill. Then you look at the end of the schedule. Last two out of the three in Chapel Hill. More importantly, after playing a road game October 17th against Florida State, North Carolina is going to arrive back probably on the 18th. They do not have to get on a plane until their road game at Miami for December the third or December the fifth, excuse me.

That is ideal. It doesn't get better than that. Nobody has it that good, the way that the schedule looks. They have a bye week before their most difficult game against Notre Dame. That game's going to be at home. Previously, their two most difficult games were non-conference games against UCF and Auburn, both of which ranked in the top 25.

That was going to be the most difficult game, both those games. And neither were played in Chapel Hill. Auburn was going to be in Atlanta. UCF was going to be in Orlando.

You take those games off the schedule and you replace it with Notre Dame essentially. It's a pretty good trade. Virginia Tech, they're ranked, but they're going into Chapel Hill. Tar Heels have been getting a lot of breaks here.

It's a good trade. It's a good roster. We told you, 10 of the 11 offensive starters are back. Chaz Surratt, the best defensive player back.

North Carolina, they've been crushing it on the recruiting trail. They landed their first five star player in a dozen years in Tony Grimes. He is out of Virginia. He's a corner. Trey Bly did a lot of work in recruiting him. He is. He was supposed to be playing next year, not this year, next season. But he reclassified he's going to play this year.

So that is adding to just an incredibly talented team. Everything is breaking the Tar Heels way right now. Had a chance to catch up with Christian McCaffrey earlier today. And the things I want to see from Christian are this. Three things I want to see. I want to see him play all 16 games. That's number one.

Stay healthy. He hasn't missed an NFL game in three years. 48 for 48 in the regular season. I want to see the Panthers protecting the investment they just made by having far less usage for 22. He was on the field for 93% of the offensive snaps.

That's a whole lot. Like, there were only three other backs in the league that cracked 75% usage. And you could probably name those backs off the top of your head. Zeke Elliott, Leonard Fournette, and Saquon Barkley. None of them had more than 88% of the offensive snaps.

So you've got to protect your investment. I don't know how they're going to do it. Is it going to be Reggie Bonifant getting more carries?

Probably. Curtis Samuel, I think that's a fascinating idea. Putting him in the backfield, trying to capitalize on his versatility that we've talked to Coach Rule about and we've talked to Joe Brady about. You got to protect Christian McCaffrey. Because last year, okay, it's his third NFL season.

He's still trying to make some progress. He's still on his rookie contract. And while the next two years he technically is still on that deal, well, you already committed all the money to him. You committed this massive deal. It's the richest a running back's ever gotten in terms of just the entire span of the contract, but also guaranteed money.

So now you need to protect them. This year's not about winning. It's not about winning games.

It's about evaluation. So why would you run your most valuable asset right now into the dirt? Number three, I want to see how Joe Brady's going to use him differently. Are there more ways you can utilize Christian McCaffrey?

I'm genuinely asking because it gets to the Saints on that Monday night game in 18. He's throwing a touchdown pass. You have him catching a ton of passes, a thousand yards receiving, a thousand yards rushing.

You got the wild calf. I mean, what else could Christian McCaffrey do that he hasn't already been asked to do? Joe Brady, when I watched LSU last year, it's a lot of pre-snap motion, lot of jet sweeps, a lot of screens.

They do a lot of things. The Saints, we saw that with Drew Brees really the last few decades, the last 15 years. So Joe Brady, what is he going to bring that's different than what we've seen before? Those are among the things I discussed with Christian McCaffrey earlier today, starting with just what this offense looks like. It's a fun offense.

I think that's one of the words I'd used to describe it. It's an offense where we're always moving. I'd say it's fast. With all the weapons that we have, we want to play fast. We want to play physical. We want to be efficient and once again, just execute. I think the biggest thing is once you have the offense down, it's about going out there and making sure your steps are right, making sure your eyes are right, making sure we're communicating.

Just going out having fun and playing football. That's one thing I've taken from getting to learn this offense and taking reps this last week. How do you expect to be utilized differently in Joe Brady's offense than what we saw last year where you seem to be utilized in every single way possible?

We'll see. I just know I have a lot of trust in our coaches. They've had a history of success and they're going to put our best players in the position to succeed and put the ball in our guys' hands who can do something with it. For me, I'm ready to line up anywhere, run any route. I think just continuing to expand my knowledge of the offense and the knowledge of the receiver position and the running back position and the blocking schemes helps a lot.

It allows me to feel comfortable wherever they need to put me. Kristen, how much different has Curtis Samuel's role looked in the early part of camp? Coach Rule even noted that he's a guy they see a lot of versatility in and the fact that he played running back at Ohio State. Kurt's a guy that can play anywhere.

With his speed and quickness and versatility, like you said, he's able to be dynamic with the ball in his hands no matter where that is. He's a guy that I know Coach Brady and the rest of the coaches are going to put in a position to succeed. We're excited about his role.

That's Kristen McCaffrey. Appreciate him spending time with us earlier today. Tyler in Greensboro, Appalachian State Wake Forest. What's your thought on it? I'm good with it being delayed for a year. I'm a Wake fan, but I've been to a lot of the Wake app games through the years. The app's beaten Wake in a couple of big moments that actually knocked Wake out of a bowl quite a few years ago, but it's always been a good rivalry. Plus, I don't know what the rules are if they get halfway through the season and the season's canceled. If that game would be considered played or not, if that game were to be later in the season, the season gets canceled. I don't know if that would just ruin the app game being at Wake or not.

So just delaying it makes a lot of sense. Wake's schedule is brutal. Call it what it is, it's brutal. Their schedule compared to what the Sunbelt is, that's not a knock against app. They need to be in a different conference. But Wake's schedule being what it is, they're going to struggle.

They're really going to struggle. So it makes sense to have ODU for quite a few reasons. Yeah, it's a great call.

Thanks so much, Tyler. And I'll piggyback on what you're saying there. When you're opening up with Clemson, add NC State and Notre Dame, you kind of got to worry for yourself. And adding App State doesn't make a lot of sense when you can add ODU. If you can't add a gate, I mean, it makes more sense to play it next year.

But there are two sides to this table. I get Wake Forest's side of it. I want to hear what Doug Gillen has to say, and he's going to join us shortly after 5.30. I think Wake Forest came out on the rough end the way that the schedule ended up for the Demon Deacons. But to answer your question about what would just happen to the game if things got canceled, I think it's just a loss because you got non-conference games next year.

And I think it would just be a loss, kind of like the NCAA tournament this year and really all of spring sports in college. Before we get the App State Director of Athletics, Doug Gillen, who's set to join us in a little less than five minutes, let's get to the bottom of something that's just perfectly stupid. The Golden Sombrero, Robert asked me on the spot what it was. I think I said it's 0-for-3 or 0-for-4 in the game. I must have forgotten the detail that it's 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. But Degenerate King's tweeting in saying that it's 0-for-5 with five strikeouts. And Jeff has a definition for us right here on our line at 336-777-1600.

Jeff's calling from Kernersville. Jeff, what is a Golden Sombrero? Yeah, it's absolutely 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. Very rarely in a baseball game when you get at five at bat.

So there's nothing, you know, there's no term for five strikeouts. I don't know, a platinum sombrero maybe. But yeah, the Golden Sombrero is definitely 4Ks. And it happens more often than you think, man.

Have you ever gotten a Golden Sombrero in your days playing baseball? Hell no. Hell no. What kind of question is that, man? All right.

Not that I'm going to admit to anyway. Thanks for the call, Jeff. It's appreciated. Thanks, bro.

All right. I'm trying to think what else in sports there is we could compare to a Golden Sombrero. Do you have any ideas, Robert? We did have a caller suggest it would be like in an NBA game, a player just fouling out with no other statistics. No shots taken, no rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, turnovers, anything. Just straight foul out.

OK. That's a good idea. I'm trying to think who would be the best wide receiver to talk about in terms of drops. I know Dez Bryant dropped a lot of balls. Like if three or four drops was the threshold to get a Golden Sombrero in football, I think Dez Bryant would have had a couple Golden Sombreros in his day. Last year, the teams with the most drop balls were the Miami Dolphins and the Bills.

I'm trying to think who in the Dolphins would have had a lot of drops. Devante Parker is really good. Maybe Albert Wilson.

Just guys. Preston Williams was pretty good for them last year. I do like the nickname that they have down there in Miami for Albert Wilson. They call them Fast Albert.

That's pretty good versus Fat Albert. It's not as funny when you explain the joke. So we got Doug Gillen, who's going to join us in just a few minutes. And there are a number of things to get to the bottom of in regards to the Mountaineers schedule since we last talked with Doug a few months ago or not a few months ago, but a few weeks ago.

Days, weeks, they seem like months. But the news yesterday that broke right as we were getting off the air is that officially Wake Forest Appalachian State wasn't going to happen this year. We do have a new series to talk about that's going to happen a little bit down the line. I've been trying to do some reporting and figure out on both sides where they stand in terms of trying to get a game in next year since ODU is going to be playing at Wake Forest this year when they were set to do so next year.

It seems that opens up something for 21. But as has become clear, there's a lot of different things and different scenarios to consider. Doug Gillen is now with us, the AD for Appalachian State. So Doug, my understanding is that Wake facing ODU this year creates an opening for you guys to potentially play Wake next year. And from what I've been told, that is what Wake Forest would like to do.

Where do you stand on it? How willing are you to try and move your schedule around to make that work? Yeah, thanks for having me on.

I appreciate it. I think the scheduling dynamics been about clear as bud over the last month or so. Certainly have had significant conversations with Wake Forest and appreciate everything Jon does there and trying to work through this with us. I will tell you that as we sit right now, we're full. We're full until 2026 is the first opportunity we have to play. Obviously for both of us, we want to play each other as soon as we can. And it's not as easy to move some of these games around, but it's certainly something we're going to look at. This is real fresh for us.

Just found out yesterday that definitely from a scheduling standpoint, we needed to change some things around. So we want to play Wake. I can't say enough how much I appreciate Jon working with us and certainly Coach Clawson have a lot of respect for both of those folks. And we really want to play. They really want to play. So now it's just figuring out how we can.

Did you agree with postponing the game this year? Yeah, I think once we had the conversations, I think that we always want to play. The thing that is the hardest for us is our student athletes, certainly our seniors that wanted the opportunity to go down and play at Wake Forest and play in ACC school.

That's important. So for us, we were excited for the opportunity. We understand certainly from a fan base standpoint and then from an ACC scheduling standpoint, how it became more and more difficult as things progressed.

And some of that you're in a holding pattern till ACC makes a decision on what dates they might have. And then from a fan base standpoint too, I do think that that's something that we looked at. Again, what I feel the worst for is our student athletes, particularly our seniors that were really looking forward to go play that game.

It's App State AD Doug Gillum with us here on Sports Hub Triad. Has Wake Forest indicated that if you can find a way to maneuver the schedule in such a way next year, maybe even by doing what Wake's doing, moving up Old Dominion, that they would be interested in having you guys in 2021? Have you guys even had that discussion?

Yeah, no, we've had great discussions about when they might be able to play, when we might be able to play. We have been all encompassed on trying, certainly as we sit here at Appalachian, we had our first game with the MEAC when they decided to not play in the fall. Morgan States, we lost that game. When Wisconsin, Big Ten, decided to go conference only, we lost that game. And then certainly yesterday, we made a decision with Wake to not play that game this year. So as our schedule sits today, we're full until 2025. The first opportunity we have to play is in 2026.

So we haven't, in terms of trying to move things around, we haven't even had an opportunity. I'm trying to get games for this year as we sit here on August 6th. Speaking of this year, did Roy Cooper's announcement yesterday spoil any plans of yours to potentially play the Charlotte 49ers at Bank of America Stadium?

That's a great question. I've had lots of discussions with Charlotte and felt really good about some of the discussions that we were having. Yesterday definitely eliminated an opportunity for us to play on September 5th. So whether or not we could have got that game worked out, could have got all the i's crossed, i's dotted and t's crossed, was not done. But for us, even looking at games to play here in Boone, September 5th is now not a date that really seems like a good day to play, certainly if you want to have fans.

How would you describe the last week of your life, Doug? It's not just football scheduling. Certainly we have student athletes on campus, student athletes coming back to campus.

We have our testing protocols and guidelines. We have a university getting ready to start. We've got academics that we need to make sure that we get all that ready to start.

So I say crazy, certainly crazy from a football scheduling standpoint. We're having lots of conversations with a lot of folks. Some I thought were going to get done, then get done.

Some that maybe a week ago I didn't think were going to get done, may have a chance of getting done now. So that has been wide open. But also we have a lot of other things going on with our fall sports student athletes. Our men's and women's basketball teams are here. Our football team is practicing. I went to practice yesterday and for the first time you see a football team all with masks on in practice.

That was a little surreal. So I think for all of us, not just us and the Intercollegiate Athletics, it's just different and we're trying to adapt and create opportunity through all this adversity. You're talking about trying to add games for this year. What is your goal in terms of how many games you want to have? So September 5th, with that day going away, in our current Sunbelt Championship scheduled on December 5th, we would be at 11 games. We're trying to move some things around even within our conference to open up some dates. We have the opportunity within our conference to play a couple of midweek games. That's because ESPN picks us to be on midweek games. They're good for our conference, they're good for our school, but when you play a midweek game it knocks out two Saturdays.

If you play two midweek games, I guess, you knock out three Saturdays. So we're kind of in a compressed timeline right now in terms of trying to get the games. September 5th certainly was a date that we were looking at and now we have to move off that date and see what we can do with the remaining dates. Based on conversations you've had with university officials, what's kind of like the drop-dead date of, I need to have a finalized schedule here? Our university and our chancellor, Dr. Sherri Evers, has been so great with us. She understands the situation that we're in in terms of trying to find games.

So there hasn't been a drop-dead date. Certainly, if we're going to have a home game, there's a lot of things that we need to do. With our campus, we continue to be one of the largest fan bases, certainly in the group of five and in the state, in terms of folks that want to come to our games, trying to see what looks like it could be.

And I say could be 50% capacity, so trying to look at all that. And we want to let our fans know. The university has been great to work with, and we have a great working relationship. So I wouldn't be a university, it's really we want to let our fans know. Our student athletes, they're over there practicing right now and we're down three games.

I want to let them know, so I have a sense of urgency in that regard. But from a university perspective, we have a great relationship with our university and great communication. It's App State AD Doug Gillum with us here on Sports Hub Triad. The Mountaineers not going to be playing the Demon Deacons this year. And I just want you to give me a sense for how frustrating it is for the coaching staff right now, because I was reading what Ethan Joyce was writing for the Winston-Salem Journal earlier today, and he said that Sean Clark, he was he was bothered. He was he was annoyed by the fact that this was postponed.

He even had this quote, and I want your reaction to it. I know our side worked day and night to get that deal done, and I'm not sure if it was reciprocated. I mean, what do you make of it and what can you say about how how the coaching staff led by Sean Clark's feeling about it? Well, I think, you know, they're competitors and they want to compete. They want to compete against the best. They certainly wanted to compete against against Wake Forest.

And, you know, there there was a lot of work. And I think, you know, so I understand his frustration, as you as you alluded to John and our conversation and try to move the game, you know, as early as next year has been very amenable to try to get that moved as soon as possible, played as soon as possible. Really excited that we're going to be able to add two more games to the series. So we're excited about that. So, you know, again, as competitors won't play and what I'm doing is trying to manage it, manage expectations, give the games to play our student athletes want to play. So we're just trying to get the schedule filled out. Doug, you're really good at what you do. I told you that before. I appreciate you coming on while everything is still in flux with the breaking news yesterday, because you know how much App State means in the triad.

Wake Forest the same way. Thanks for sharing what you know today. And we look forward to continue following. You know, you have this as a platform if you ever want to share what's going on with Appalachian State fans. Thank you, Josh. I appreciate you having us on. Of course, there's Doug Gillen. He's on Twitter at Doug Gillen.

Follow him there and we'll continue to follow whatever's going to happen over the next few weeks. It is a shame. If we're being honest, it is a shame. I'm not blaming Wake Forest because I get it.

I do. But I just mean generally for App State schedule altogether. This team with Zach Thomas back and all these great weapons. This team, I felt should have been ranked in the coaches poll today.

And they weren't. We'll see if the AP ranks them in the top 25 coming off the 13 win season. They were going to get their shot against Wisconsin. Then in a flash, the Big Ten just goes conference games.

They were going to get an opportunity to face Wake Forest and we were going to figure out who the best team in the state was. And now that's not going to happen this year either. I do hope things change and they can figure out a way to play next year because 2026 just seems so far away, Robert. What do you think you're going to be doing in 2026? It's going to be COVID-22? What are we going to be dealing with in 26? That's two elections from now.

I will be over 30. Congratulations. Yeah.

I mean, hopefully. I don't know, dude. I don't even know what I'm having for breakfast tomorrow. I was about to say, you do know what you're having for dinner. I definitely don't even know what I had for breakfast today, let alone what I'm doing that far in the seat. I make it simple, man. No breakfast.

Not a breakfast guy. I'm going intermittent fasting and I don't know if it's working well for me, but the person who cuts my hair last week said that I looked good. That's like you walking in to buy a car and you're like, yeah, the used car salesman said I looked good today. Well, she's been cutting my hair for a long time.

Exactly. She has to say that. Well, never once has she said, hey, you lost weight. She said that last week.

And, uh, yeah, I think if you don't ever say it and then you do, there's a higher percent chance that you meant it. Nah, it's Corona time and she wanted that tip. She was like, but I do the same thing every single time.

It's a $15 haircut. I give her a 20 every single time. She knows it. It's been a couple of years.

Yeah. She's like five bucks for a tip. This guy is cheap. You lose a weight, Josh. And then she still didn't get it. She's going to be like, you look fat as hell today. That's not a cheap tip in any way.

It's Corona time. I, I give you a 20 for a $15 haircut. Like what is that percentage tip? That is a 33% tip. 33% tip. She's not a waitress. She's not bringing you water and sugar for your coffee. She's cutting your hair.

I know that's a higher degree of difficulty worth tipping somebody over. Also, I know that, you know, where you get a $15 haircut at. I know it also costs them a little bit if you go card, right? If you go card. So going cash is it, it, it saves them. It's convenient and they get all of it. You should always tip with cash.

Always. Cause if you pay tip with your card, it's going to get taxed. Exactly. They don't get that money.

Exactly. So that's why I'm giving them a $20 bill. This isn't me, you know, entering my, entering my card and saying, yeah, just give a $5 tip.

I probably would give more as a tip if that was a result, but they wouldn't get all of it. So $20, I mean $5 is a good tip for a $15 haircut. How long has she been cutting your hair for? Two years.

Two years. She'd been cutting your hair for two years and you give her $5 a little thank you. I hope she gives you a streak up the back next time and she don't, you don't even know about it. You're acting like I'm not tipping at all. No, you're just not just tip a little better. That's not a bad tip. It's not a good tip.

She's like, ah, thank you. Thank you for this $5 bill. What do you got? What do you got and take it to the house today?

I got something with drive-throughs and a horse. I'm now Googling how much to tip for a haircut. And it says tip at least 20%. So at least yeah, I'm tipping more than 30%. I know you're doing a percent. Percents are misleading.

You're like, I'm tripping 33%. It's $5. Yeah. They're saying for a $20 haircut to $5. Well, when did that come out?

They wrong. I don't care. I treat my haircut guy good.

I don't see him a lot. I'm going to put this up on the pole and we'll figure it out. Why? Okay. How about lunch on the line?

No, I know never. All right. We take it to the house next. Tiger woods round has been completed. He shoots a first round 68 and on this, on the eighth hole, he bogeyed to go back to two under par and had a shot probably about a 20 foot putt on nine and he just left it a bit short tapped home for that first round 68.

I think that's right about where you want to be. If your tiger, if you ask him going in first round 68, you cool with that? I think you take that if your tiger would. So tigers through his first round, a reminder, we got plenty of golf set for you over the next week. Of course, it's the major championship that we're going to continue to keep you updated on today and tomorrow and recap on Monday. But next week it's the Wyndham championship a week from today at Sedgefield Country Club. Somebody who knows quite a bit about the game of golf is Adam Gold.

Our early afternoon host is kind enough to be with us right here. So tiger shoots a 68 in the first round. He's at two under par. Has that exceeded your expectations?

Yes, it did. I did not expect him to play all that well. It's cold. He looks like he was getting ready to drive in the Iditarod more than he was getting ready to play a professional golf tournament. But yeah, two under par. It's a good solid start. Not the lead, but I don't think that we're going to be looking at a very, we'll call it a low score winning. I know there have been some good scores today, but I actually believe that we're going to be looking at a number around eight or nine under par winning it. So two under is a good start. The storyline you're most interested to follow this PGA championship is what?

It's going to be hopefully we'll get it. I want Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka to be paired together at some point. That's what I want and I want fire ants to be everywhere and I want Koepka to bring out some dumbbells or kettlebells and they can work out on the first tee. Koepka's at four under par, one shot back of Jason Day for the lead in the first round. Follow Adam on Twitter at agoldfan. Listen to the Adam Gold show noon to three right here on Sports Up Triad. Okay, we had Jacob Slavin an hour ago. You talked to Jordan Stahl earlier today. Dougie Hamilton, he's back at practice and with a healthy Dougie Hamilton, how many teams do you like more than the Canes heading into the round of 16? Zero.

Wow. Put that on the ESPN scroll at the bottom of the screen. Adam Gold says that Dougie Hamilton with him in the lineup. Canes, they're the best right now. Put them in the cup final.

I've said this from the beginning of the restart. Now, I also expected Hamilton to be back and so they played this round without him and it certainly did. I was curious to see how they would play defensively. I thought they were exceptional defensively without Hamilton. They weren't as good in game two as they were in game one, but they were still good.

The first two periods of game three were a disaster, but they were tied at one. But with Hamilton, it just makes everything better. Their second pair now will be Brady Shay and Sammy Votten and that's a very good second pair. And their third pair, I'm going to guess right now, will be Joel Edmondson and Jake Gardner. Hayden Flurry is just, I assume he's going to come out of the lineup with Hamilton going in. And then a couple of rounds from now when Brett Pesci can get back into the mix. I don't know that we've ever seen a top to bottom, like Jake Gardner probably is the guy that's going to come out at that point. Uh, Sierra is the guy that makes almost four and a half million dollars a year and has been a key part of your power play.

And he's probably going to come out of the lineup once Pesci comes back. I mean, it is just, it really is an embarrassment of riches as long as the Hurricanes can continue on in the playoffs. If they get good goaltending, I think they're winning the Cup. I mean, I don't, but I've been saying that since we saw the plans for the restart. I want to see Washington in the next round. How about you? Don't care.

Don't care who it is. You can agree that's the most fun though, right? Like if you're talking about the most fun, would that be it? I think Boston would be fun too. That would be fun. I think Boston could be fun. And here's the thing. If Pittsburgh doesn't wake up, I don't know what they're doing.

They're like playing with their food. If Pittsburgh doesn't wake up, then the Hurricanes are going to end up being the five seed. And to me, it looks like Boston is going to be the four and that'll be the first round matchup where, you know, a rematch of the Eastern Conference Finals a year ago. And I would argue that the Hurricanes should wear whalers jerseys just to rub it in even more. Did the whaler jerseys make the trip to Toronto? Can we confirm or deny?

No, they did not, sadly. But, you know, the U.S. Postal Service hasn't gone out of business yet. Great.

That's great. What about the Canadian Postal Service? I don't know enough about it. I don't know. I don't know. Everything is delivered by a Mountie.

Bob and Doug McKenzie do that. I got something special for you. What's for dinner? I got a great answer to the what's for dinner question because tomorrow you can figure out what's for lunch. What do you have for dinner lined up? Well, actually, we're going kind of, you know, we're doing burgers. I'm going to I'm going to bake green beans, although I'm throwing them in the oven. I'm going to wrap them in tin foil and throw some lemon and butter in the green beans and just bake them for about 15 or so minutes. And then some mac and cheese, because my son likes mac and cheese. I'm going shrimp, a shrimp and orzo pasta dish.

That's what I'm doing. An orzo pasta dish. We're trying this thing called Blue Apron. Are you familiar with this? Yes.

OK, it's great because of how easy it is to break stuff down. And also, I mean, if you're not going out to eat, which we haven't been doing pretty much anything any of the last few months and having food delivered to you and then making it, that essentially serves as your night out. So that's what I'm doing tonight.

That's the plan. Now, are you endorsing Blue Apron? Is that why you're doing it? No, I'm not endorsing Blue Apron.

This is just something I enjoy. You actually joined on your own. I did. I did.

Actually, there was a woman involved. So I can say this out loud without anybody getting in trouble. Correct. Here was my problem because I did Blue Apron for a while as well. Here is my issue with Blue Apron, which is a great concept.

They sent you things that are way too complicated for most people to make. Like if if I were Wolfgang Puck, then Blue Apron is a great idea. But if you're cooking for a family, even if it's a small family, husband, wife, one child, then Blue Apron, way too many steps, took an hour and a half to do anything. I'd rather just throw stuff together that I'm used to making and go from that. But the concept of Blue Apron is next level. The execution of Blue Apron, not as good.

I think there's a reason why that is. I think the obvious answer to why it is complicated the way you're describing is because if it was too simple, you would just take the recipe and make it yourself without buying from Blue Apron again. It's a great idea for them to just, a company to send you the right ingredients. You don't have to buy it. You don't have to measure it.

Do I have enough sour cream? Whatever it is. It's great that they do that. But then there's 47 steps to do to execute the menu. And I'm like, I can make this without all of your hoops I got to jump through. So that was my only problem with Blue Apron. I'm glad we're not ripping a sponsor or anything.

No, we are not. Maybe one day Blue Apron, please sponsor this segment. Adam Gold joins us every single week. This is the weekly Adam Gold segment sponsored by Blue Apron. Thanks for spending the time, buddy. We look forward to hearing you tomorrow. No problem, man. There you go.

That's Adam Gold. Robert, did you have something there that you wanted to ask me about? You were looking at me with some curiosity. Were you just wanting to tell me what you were going to make for dinner or what did you have? I was going to ask you if you've ever had orzo before.

Yeah. It's a lie. It's not a pasta. It's a large grain of rice made out of grain. That's not a pasta to me. It's just it's an impasto. It is actually just rice. It sticks to whatever you cook.

That's what it's good for. But if you were interested in what I'm having for dinner tonight, I am interested. My buddy is up here from Florida. He drove up after going on a fishing trip last week. He froze some fish. We're going to have red snapper tonight. Red snapper.

Oh, yeah. Super excited. Going to crank the grill up, do some baked potatoes, do some of the special seafood rice that my my stepmom makes when they're trying out. So pumped for dinner tonight.

Wow. We are all having great dinner. Great. And I hope I hope you guys are too. Adam Gold going burger route. I'm going to have some impasto with some shrimp and and Robert is he's going to enjoy whatever the hell he just described there, which sounds great. All right. App State Wake Forest. I'll tell you why. I'll tell you what I'm hearing the latest on what I have and why I think it's a smart bet this game is going to happen next year. That's next on the drive.