Regional SZN (6-2-23)

We've made it to a Friday drive. You are listening to WSJS Newstalk Sports for the Triad, where regionals are underway in college baseball, NC State, beating Campbell 5-1 in Columbia, Duke smacked UNCW in Conway 13-2, and the Carolina Panthers are starting to take shape at OTAs. When you're a parent and you send your kid off to college, and he has a buzz cut, a polo shirt on, tucked into some khaki pants, and then when they come home from Christmas break, they have longer hair than they've ever had before.

They've grown some weird facial hair and have some, shall we say, interesting fashion choices. It's a lot like that, except in this case, it's a good thing for the Carolina Panthers. This is a new era of Panthers football. Let's start with the personnel perspective. In terms of just sheer personnel in the most obvious way, it's going to look completely different. How many things will remain the same? Rather than break down all the things that are different, what's going to remain the same from what we saw even last year?

There's only one thing I can come up with. The offensive line. That's the one constant.

You bring back those starters and they perform pretty well. That's your one constant on the offensive side of the ball. But everywhere else, quarterback. You have a rookie number one overall pick that you traded up for.

You brought in Andy Dalton. Wide receiver. No more D.J. Moore. Say hello to Adam Thielen and D.J. Chart and more involvement for Laviska Chennault, we would imagine. No more Deontay Foreman in the backfield. Miles Sanders come on down to replace 33. And philosophically, it's going to be a mesh of Sean McVay's philosophies with Frank Reich, Doug Peterson, some sort of system like what we've seen in Philadelphia and Jacksonville under Peterson and with Frank Reich in Indianapolis.

That's what the offense is going to be. And there is some overlap there. Here was Frank Reich describing how those two systems mesh.

I think we're starting to know that already. There was a lot of, you know, in our kind of melding of systems, you know, if I were arbitrarily putting a number on it, maybe 30 or 40 percent of it was similar, maybe a little bit higher. And then but just getting the language that we wanted to use. Some of it, we brought the new language.

Some of it, we kept the old language. And then in the passing game, you know, kind of same deal. So it's been exciting. So expect a lot of creativity.

You should expect a lot of open space. Creativity with an offensive minded staff. The Panthers haven't had an offensive minded head coach in their history before Frank Reich. The offense. Here's how you're going to notice the differences, though. There are two key ways you can notice the differences. Big things that stand out.

This is number one. Number one, this is going to be an offense that's built around the quarterback. It's going to be built around Bryce Young. That didn't happen under Matt Ruhle. Mostly because they never had the air quote franchise guy. They had a bunch of mercenaries, Teddy Bridgewater for a year, Sam Darnold for a year, Baker Mayfield for a year. So they didn't build around him. Instead, they built an offense. It seemed like around Christian McCaffrey, a unique talent, your highest paid offensive player.

They built things around him. And when Christian McCaffrey was traded and Matt Ruhle was fired, Steve Wilks still went all in on running back. Both Steve Wilks and our guy Ben McAdoo going all in with the big and heavy package. That's true.

Well played. Deontay Foreman running over people, ground and pound. A lot like what we saw with Ron Rivera before Matt Ruhle, Steve Wilks coming from that staff. This staff that we're looking at now under Frank Reich, it was put together to elevate quarterback play.

That's why you have, you pay extra for one of these consultants that some teams don't have. You pay more to bring in Jim Caldwell's expertise and have a passing game coordinator, Parks Frazier, who Frank Reich's lauded about. And you have Reich who's played the position and coached quarterbacks and has been an offensive coordinator as well when he wasn't a head coach. And Thomas Brown, who comes from that Sean McVeigh tree and Josh McCown, who played so long in the league and has a ton of knowledge too.

This offense is going to be built around the quarterback. And the second thing you're going to notice is Frank Reich's not going to neglect the tight end position. Matt Ruhle did. Matt Ruhle didn't see a lot of use for the tight end. So expect Hayden Hurst to be the most productive Panthers tight end since Greg Olsen. That's not saying a lot because under Matt Ruhle, a tight end did not catch more than 21 passes.

Crazy that's the case. Like Hayden Hurst's worst season, he had more than 30. Last year, he had close to 60 catches. Greg Olsen, when he's healthy, he's catching over 50 balls every year. Yeah, so expect more from the tight end, but don't just take it from me.

How about take it from Hayden Hurst out of OTAs yesterday? It's very tight end friendly. When you're in the red zone, it's very tight end centric. I think everything kind of goes through that, especially when you have a young quarterback. So you get the ball out quick, the guys that are kind of in your first sight of vision. So it's exciting to be in those progressions and in those reads.

So again, compared to Matt Ruhle, the era that we saw that was terrible, those three years, the Panthers offense that we see this season is going to be unrecognizable in a very good way. On Twitter at WSJS radio. If you want in on the show, Will Dalton, he's the executive producer of this show.

Are we really doing this today? And he's also your baseball guy. I know regionals are happening. I already mentioned a couple of those final scores. What? What? Well, listen, there are some things here.

I mean, you got LSU into Lane, LSU is shutting them out right now, six to nothing. Really shocked to hear that one. This is really important stuff here. We got to cover it all. Sanford, they're looking to close up. This is our first extra inning game of the day.

42, bottom 10th against Southern Miss. Santa Clara and Arkansas, Arkansas leading the way in this one. But let me get to something very important here.

You're going to like this one. I know it. Boston College and Troy. They're actually not enough right now.

Three apiece. I'm not going to lie. I'm glad I have that piece of information. Boston College. Now, it is a weather delay, so we're going to have to wait for Boston College. But I thought you should know you're welcome.

We're going to do that on today's show, it sounds like. Great teams often take the image of their greatest player. That's something we see in basketball when you only have five players out on the court one time. That's a sport that great teams generally take the image of their greatest player. Last year's champ, best team over the last decade, Golden State. Steph Curry. He is Golden State Warriors basketball. The way that they play, the way they it is in Steph Curry's image. He's fun. He's flashy. The team's always loose. Why? Because Steph Curry is always loose.

They follow his lead. The San Antonio Spurs with Wake legend Tim Duncan. Duncan was boring. So the Spurs were boring to a lot of people. Duncan did all the right things. So that was expected of everybody else. Duncan never said interesting stuff in the media.

So nobody else really said interesting things in the media. And that's how the San Antonio Spurs. Were run as long as Tim Duncan was there and they were very successful at that. This also applies to Nikola Jokic.

In game one, Denver took the image of their best player, who also doubles as the best player in the NBA. Last night, it wasn't flashy, but it's methodical. It was very methodical. That's probably the best way I could describe Nikola Jokic's game, too. How would you describe it?

It's not flashy, but it's methodical and it's overwhelming. And Denver was all of those things last night. Some would say they didn't really blow out Miami, but the game never really felt in doubt. They just coasted. It was a double digit game pretty much the entire way through. It wasn't flashy. It wasn't one of those deals where they embarrassed anybody, but it was methodical.

They were in control throughout. That's Nikola Jokic. He had the quietest triple double you will ever see in a Finals game. He attempted three shots in the first half. Still finished with 27 points. Three shots and a half. Fourteen assists in the game. We're talking about a triple double in the Finals and there wasn't much drama in the game either. That has a lot to do with Jokic.

Not a lot of pushing and shoving. No hard fouls. You know, Miami's probably pointing out, hey, we didn't. They never called Denver for any fouls. We didn't get to go to the free throw line. Hubert Davis somewhere is having issues with the fact that Miami only attempted two free throws. Just stating facts, right?

Stating facts. But Jokic, he says all the right things. Listen to Jokic right here in his postgame with Lisa Salters. You know, right now the most important thing is to win the game. I'm trying to win a game in any possible way.

I don't need to shoot and I don't need to score. I know I don't need to score to affect the game and I think I did a good job today. Everybody contributed. AG, Jamal, Mike, everybody who played contributed. It's a great win for us. Yeah, bring up all your teammates' names. Say, oh, I think I played great after having a triple double. I don't need to score.

How many stars are giving an answer that way? That's what the Denver Nuggets are. If you find it boring, well, it's probably because you find Nicole Jokic boring. But that doesn't mean he's not great. And he's not overwhelming at times.

He was every bit of that. Denver taking the image of their best player as a lot of great championship teams have done. The director of athletics at Wake Forest, John Curry, going to be our guest in just a little bit. A lot of things going on in Winston-Salem. You have Wake baseball hosting the region that features George Mason tonight at 7 o'clock. Maryland just finishing off Northeastern in a 2 hour and 24 minute game in the opener today. That final was 5-2.

That's already taken place. And then you have the games tomorrow, Sunday. And hopefully for Wake Forest's sake, we're not talking about a game 7 on Monday night. But in addition to that, you have Winston-Salem-Baseball this weekend. And we still have a pair of tickets that will be given away later on in the show for Sunday afternoon's game. And in addition to that, we were chatting with the lead singer of Smashing Pumpkins yesterday. Billy Corgan, who runs NWA Wrestling right across the street from where these regional games are going to be played at the couch on the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds campus. You also have what's going on with Wrestling 2 and the Crockett Cup.

It just sets up a really big weekend where a lot of stuff is going on. But we're now being joined by the director of athletics at Wake Forest, John Curry. John, it's been a while since we've chatted. This is your first time as Wake's AD getting ready for a region that you're hosting. What's been the biggest challenge in getting the couch ready for a regional? Well, Josh, first of all, I'm at the couch right now looking out just next to Tom Walter's office, the ACC Coach of the Year, looking out at the park. It looks beautiful. And our staff has worked incredibly hard to get ready for today and the whole weekend as the number one seed in the country. I'm so proud of them. But to be candid, the couch is such a great facility and we're blessed at Wake Forest and in Winston-Salem with plentiful parking around, thanks to the Coliseum and Truist Field and all that kind of stuff.

It really is a perfect place for a baseball regional. And that's one of the reasons we sold out the whole thing within a day or two earlier this week. How does that work behind the scenes, though?

How many plates are you spinning at one time? How many moving parts are there when you're talking about ESPN coming in and the broadcast element of it and accommodating three other teams as well? How difficult is that behind the scenes? Well, again, we've got a ton of people working on it. We've got a great broadcast team led by James Overstreet. Our grounds crew is incredible. And we have big-time events at Wake Forest at Truist Field with the national exposure we've had over the last number of years in our seven-year bowl streak. They see basketball. We've had big-time events.

So it's a challenge, but it's a great challenge and it's a fun challenge. And because we do play at the highest level, we've got these kind of opportunities. Were you surprised at all that the committee didn't send any of the other seven in-state teams to Winston-Salem? To me, it seems like a sign of respect considering how good many of those teams are. But you're talking about one region in the state of North Carolina and it's in Winston-Salem, despite the fact there were a record eight teams that got in from our state. Yeah, I am so proud of my home state to have such great baseball across our state is really, really cool. You know, the committee has an extraordinarily difficult job in all the committees because of the quality of baseball that's played at so many levels.

That's evidence in our own state right here. John Curry's with us here. Wake Forest Director of Athletics.

Haven't chatted with you since Amelia Island a few weeks ago. So getting to some of the news items that came out of that, the ACC announced last week, or it might have been the week before, that the new revenue distribution model is going to be performance-based. Dave Clawson was quoted down there saying that this is a very positive thing. You just brought up a moment ago the success you've had in football and in men's basketball. How comfortable are you from Wake's perspective that this is going to be the model that it's going to be performance-based moving forward for the revenue sports? Well, first of all, you have to remember that the bulk of the revenue that we earn as a league through our media rights partners, the NCAA basketball tournament, our conference bowl affiliations, the ACC football championship, et cetera.

The bulk of that revenue will continue to be distributed evenly. You're really talking about a portion of the revenue related to the college football playoffs and NCAA basketball tournament distributions that would go along the success incentive formula. We believe in success incentive because we've invested to be successful at Wake Forest. We have 10 national championships at Wake Forest. We're one of seven schools with 10 national championships. Wake Forest, Notre Dame, North Carolina, et cetera are the teams that have led the league with championships. In terms of the success incentives, we're one of the most successful football programs in the league over the last seven years.

I've got no problem with that. I think as we continue to move forward as a league, our league is different than other leagues. We have broad-based sports offerings.

We have a continued commitment to academic integrity and academic achievement in our league. We do have media contracts with ESPN that are really important for our league, not just because of the revenue stream, but also from a fan perspective. You've probably seen, Josh, some of the articles about how complicated it is now for fans to find their favorite team.

I think there was a tweet you probably saw about one of the big-time Major League Baseball teams, and fans would literally have to subscribe to four different streaming services to watch all the games of that Major League team in one week. Because the ACC is solely affiliated with ESPN and it's subsidiary of the ACC Network and ABC, that's an advantage for our fans, even though we don't make the most money as a conference. I think we really have to be careful about ranking ourselves according to the raw dollars that come into a conference. I agree with you. It reminds me of something that Jim Phillips was saying. It might have been the most impressed I've been by Jim Phillips in the last few years. I give him a lot of credit for what he had to say.

You had all the stuff coming out about the Magnificent Seven and all these things going into Amelia Island. And he had a very clear, convincing message that what you just said, that dollar count doesn't translate always to on-field success. I'm a baseball fan, as I know you are. Tampa Bay is the best team in Major League Baseball.

The Yankees haven't won in 15 years and the Dodgers won once in the last 35. And those latter two spend more money than anybody else. And you also have him saying, hey, we're third right now. We're third when it comes to revenue.

Of course, you want to make more. But when people are framing it as if it's a crisis that the ACC is in, the TV contract that you're talking about also gives security to the ACC. It feels like two that other conferences don't have because I know you, like pretty much everyone else in the conference, has looked at that grain of rights and it seems pretty solid. How impressed were you? See, that was just on the outside of what we saw, what Jim Phillips had to say.

You're in those rooms. What most impressed you of how he handled what some viewed on the outside to be like a pretty difficult situation, a lot to maneuver through? Well, being a commissioner of a Power Five conference is not an easy job, right? I think fans see the commissioner going to a lot of really cool games and getting to meet interesting people and coaches and think, man, that job would be a great job.

It's a really hard job balancing 15 different universities with 15 different institutional missions and 15 different types of governance systems, maybe 15 different issues in any particular day. I think Commissioner Phillips has done a really fine job of navigating that and building relationships. He directly, I thought very directly, confidently and appropriately navigated that meeting. I thought his post-meeting commentary that you alluded to was really spot on. But the best part about that meeting was the dynamics of openness and honesty and candor that we had inside that AD meeting room and all the different governance groups and the dialogue we had with Jim.

I'm completely confident that people in our conference want the ACC to be successful and want the ACC to continue to strengthen itself and grow just like we have since 1953. On the way out, how did you celebrate a national championship last week with women's golf and coach Llewellyn? What's a national championship celebration look like? Well, we had an awesome scene here in Winston-Salem. Really our whole staff, Lindsey Babcock, our deputy AD and Randy Cass-Stevens and Ellie Shannon, who's the senior associate AD, who's the sport administrator for women's golf and Will Pantages and all our video crew, volunteers, Deacon Club members, etc., all being there at the Haddock House when the team got back that next day from the tournament. It was really special. It's special to see the comments from our student athletes.

If you read my From the Quad newsletter, which you can find on GoDeacs.com, we link to Rachel Keen's comments about the Arizona Week being a dream come true. So much about college athletics really is creating lifetime memories for the student athletes. Them having the opportunity to achieve something, certainly the exposure and the brand value that student athletes have from the experience like last week. But to be on a team that achieves something so significant and so rare is really almost a priceless experience. And I know there's listeners out there that at some level, somewhere, we're on a championship team and remember it, whether it was a peewee football team or a college baseball team or a college golf team.

And those student athletes having that experience are really, really special. John Curry, thanks so much for the time. I'll see you at the couch later on tonight. OK, we'll see you tonight at the couch. Get here early. It's going to be a great night and make sure you thank the great staff members at the gates, our partners from Rhino, our concession staff working really hard to serve all these people.

So let's have a great night and go deep. Today is college baseball's day. Regionals beginning and here in Winston-Salem. We have the only host out of the record eight North Carolina teams that received bids this year. Wake Forest, the number one team in the country. And even though that's the only regional we have stateside. The Deacs are not the show this weekend. Wake Forest is not the show, or at least they shouldn't be because there really shouldn't be that much drama attached to this weekend. Number one seeds almost always advance going through the history of it.

This format that we've had for a while now started in 1999. Only three number one overall seeds didn't make it to the super regional round. Didn't make it to the second weekend. Every team since 2015, the last time a number one seed went down was UCLA in 2015, they've advanced to the second weekend.

Fewer than 25%. If we were to expand this to national seeds, one through eight, fewer than 25% get eliminated on the first weekend, which means there's more than a 75% chance if you're one of the top eight seeds that you get through to the second weekend. If you're the number one seed, it's practically a formality that you're going to get through. And Wake Forest is not your everyday number one seed.

Every year, you got to have one of those. Wake Forest is not a normal number one seed. There was no question they were the best team in baseball. And the NCAA tournament committee treated them as such. That's why you have seven other teams that made the NCAA tournament. And Wake Forest is the only one hosting, yet none of the other seven are sent to Winston-Salem.

It's a sign of respect for the Deacs. And last I checked, W.D., none of the teams that are playing in Winston-Salem this weekend other than Wake, they're not ACC teams, right? That would be correct. I mean, Maryland, maybe a few years back. Good point.

Yeah. Didn't consider Maryland. Wake Forest hasn't lost a home non-conference game this year. 18-0, Wake Forest and home non-conference games. So if they lose at any point this weekend in a double elimination format, that'll be the first time they lose against the team that doesn't have, that's not from an ACC school. They haven't lost back to back games all year.

They were the obvious number one choice. And here they are. So I'm going to be out there at the couch.

I'm excited. I love college baseball. I love regionals, especially when the weather's good. And looking out the window while it might be hot. It is sunny.

And we appreciate that. After this past weekend, after Memorial Day, where there was so much rain, my power went out. Lantern Josh and Willow are prepping for the show at one in the morning. I'm having to go to a sports bar in shorts and a hoodie to watch a game seven of the Easter conference final. I'll take this weather. It almost seems like it always rains when regionals happen. So hopefully, knock on wood, that it just looks like it does right now throughout the weekend in Winston-Salem. And looking at the forecast, it's supposed to really hold up. Wake Forest is not the show because next weekend's the show.

Who knows? It might even be against Boston College. Boston College?

If B.C. is able to get out of the Tuscaloosa regional. The other in-state action, that's our primary focus. Can ECU or North Carolina come out of the Charlottesville or Indiana state regionals? Can NC State follow up what they did today? They beat Campbell 5-2 in Columbia? Can you take down the 15th ranked regional host, 15 out of 16, South Carolina? Can Duke do that to the 10th ranked? Team Coastal, after beating down UNCW 13-2. That's the great appeal to me. Wake Forest, I think it's going to be very little drama. But those others, I think there's a real shot that they could advance.

But it's going to require a heavier workload in order to do that. On Twitter, at wsjsradio, if you want to implodge it, going to join us in just a bit. On Twitter is also where you can watch our show in addition to YouTube and Twitch. Did you have something there, W.D.? It looks like the tarp is coming off for Boston College, so I'm keeping an eye on it for you. What do you have on in there?

I've got Boston College. Do you have the, what do they call that show where they whip around to all the different places? Is it called Squeeze Play? Is that what ESPN has?

I have no clue. They have that whip around show where they go to... Coming around the horn? No, I'm talking about for baseball. They have the equivalent to NFL Red Zone where they take you to different places and when something happens, they treat it like a golf broadcast. It might be a little bit behind, but then you see the home runs and you see all the things.

No, see, I've actually created my own in here. I've got LSU on one screen. I've got Boston College on another, so we're in the know over here. I love how much you love college baseball. It makes me really happy. I know. You and Darren Vai. I'll tell you something I love. The fact that the Denver Nuggets are up one game to nothing on the Miami Heat... Is Game 2 a must-win game?

I think it is. Game 2 is the entire series for the Miami Heat because this is the first time all playoffs long that the Heat have trailed in a series this year. They were up three games to nothing on Boston and ended up winning at seven, but took the first three games against Boston. They were up three games to one on New York. They beat Milwaukee in five.

Now, they're in danger of losing five of their last six games. But the good news is, if you look at the finals that the Heat have won, they've won three championships. They lost Game 1 in 2006. They lost Game 1 in 2012. They lost Game 1 in 2013. So it's still doable, but I think you have to win Game 2. Out of those three, I think the only time they were down 2-zip was when they trailed Dallas in the 2006 finals, if memory serves. This year, 2-zip, it's too big of a hole to climb out of for Miami. Especially when you're facing the top seed in the West and the best player in the sport in Jokic.

Like, think about what they would have to do from a practical standpoint. I just mentioned, if they lose on Sunday, they would have lost five of six games. Five of six, if they lose on Sunday. Also, if they lose, it would be Denver's eighth straight win. And the team that would have lost five of six would then have to win four of five in order to win the finals. And oh yeah, they're an eighth seed, facing the number one seed in the West.

No, absolutely not. Absolutely not that can't happen. If Miami, however, wins Game 2, completely different story. You steal back home court. If you win either Game 3 or Game 4, you're guaranteed a Game 6 on your home floor in Game 6.

You're guaranteed that. To me, this, the entire series is Game 2. The entire series. If Denver wins Game 2, we're talking about a five game series here, boys. That's what we're looking at. If Miami wins Game 2, we're going six, maybe seven.

That's what we're looking at. That's how big Game 2 is. A lot bigger than Game 1. Where to your point, Miami didn't fly back home after winning on Monday in Game 7.

They flew straight to Denver, and you're there for three days, preparing while Denver's had a week and a half after sweeping LeBron and company. Game 2 is a must-win for the Miami Heat. It's big. It's important. I mean, it's difficult. I view every game as a must-win, but in the- How do you view every game as a must-win?

Well, because like you need a- obviously you're trying to win it. Like last night was not a must-win. It's Game 1.

Right. In the terms of what we describe as must-win, I don't think Game 2 is a must-win. I think it's massive. It's big because of all the reasons you just pointed out, but I don't view it as a must-win. It's like, oh, series is over. I just don't view it that way.

I would. I get it. Like, notice I'm not saying the series is over today. It doesn't help. No, because Game 2, it's over. It's a wrap if you lose on Sunday. Oh, but it's not a series until the- a team wins on the road.

I don't buy that garbage. Miami's really scary home crap. You have that drop where I say, ooh.

Yeah, that's how I feel about Miami's home court advantage. Ooh. The Drive with Josh Graham only on WSJS. Will Pelagic joins us. His weekly visit on the show. The voice of Charlotte FC that you can listen to tomorrow night as Charlotte FC closes a three match road trip with Columbus on WSJS.

You can listen to Will and Jess Charman. Before we get to the soccer, it's been OTAs week, another week of OTAs. Really exhilarating stuff looking at, you know, passing numbers that are being put out there and video of Bryce Young having a pass batted down. So, you know, that means he's going to be a bust according to the Internet.

But, you know, I want to do a service for the people. We're learning that the offense is really starting to come together, meshing concepts from Sean McVeigh's tree and Thomas Brown with what Frank Reich wants to do and has done in Philly and also in Indianapolis. This offense, Will, is just from a personnel standpoint, so different from what we saw a year ago, everywhere except for the offensive line. So from a fantasy football perspective, I'm not big on fantasy football. I know so many people are. When you look at guys who could potentially take a huge leap in being one of the leading players on this Panthers offense, there seem to be a lot of choices. Laviska should not be talked about this week. And you add Adam Thielen and DJ Chark and Miles Sanders coming from a Super Bowl. There are a lot of options.

Where would you go first? Well, it's weird. You also forgot to mention the fact that Derek Wright is this year's C.J. Saunders, because we always have that one guy who stands out, whether it's OTAs or minicamp. And it's been C.J. Saunders over the last couple of years for the Panthers, the Matt Rule protege, if you will. And now Derek Wright has taken at least a little bit to Bryce Young.

But I'm going to go with Miles Sanders. I do think that they are going to run the football early and often. I think the addition of Hayden Hurst allows them to do a lot of double toss. So I'm sure they're going to want to get Tommy Trimble and Ian Thomas on the field is blocking tight ends alongside Hayden Hurst because of his ability to catch the football and also be able to block.

And I think this could be very interesting. There was a stat we referenced this morning on the air where Frank Reich over his time in Indianapolis, his offenses were seventh in the NFL and rushing the football. So I feel like Miles Sanders stands to benefit a lot. I think we'll get a lot of the load as well. I know that Chuby Hubbard might still be a little bit of a spell back for them. I know you mentioned Leviska Chenault and there's been some talk this week about him kind of assuming a Deebo Samuel-esque role, not necessarily at the level of Deebo. But I think they feel like he could do a lot of the different things out of the backfield that Deebo does. I don't know if they expect to be the kind of receiver that Deebo Samuel is.

I don't think anybody is at this level right now. But I do feel like from the Panthers aspect, you're going to want to bank on them running the football early. That's why I'd go with Miles Sanders.

Leviska Chenault is my choice. Hayden Hurst was one I was considering just because Matt Ruhl completely neglected the tight end and Frank Reich is not going to do that. Tight end value is so weird unless you're in like a PPR league.

So again, it's different when it comes to that. So Chenault is probably my choice because of his versatility because when you start to dig into Deebo Samuel's first few years in the league and Leviska Chenault's first few years in the league. And you look at size and build and some of the reasons why last year he didn't really burst out. I mean, he was traded for after the third preseason game. Wasn't able to play the first two games because he was still trying to learn the playbook like simple general concepts.

Like now you have an offensive minded staff and a full offseason and a creative playbook. That's the guy that I have circled multiple times that probably is not going to get drafted in your fantasy draft, but might be somebody who'd be a Hall of Fame worthy waiver wire pickup. Oh, I think he's going to be somebody who sticks with some teams in the middle part of the fantasy season just because I think he is going to put up some numbers early. I think two of the teams that he did put up numbers against New Orleans and Atlanta are very early in the schedule.

He had those two big long ones in both those contests. So I do feel like the ability of him and the ability of Bryce Young to want to get the ball out of his hand quickly. I think that's the other part of this, too, is that, you know, the Panthers didn't necessarily have the kind of quarterback could execute those type of things last year at any point in time. And I think now with Bryce Young, he's a big, keen guy on hitting the open man. And I think a strength of his is that you don't really have an alpha wide receiver that's going to demand the football.

So because of that, I do feel like as a result, there is more from, you know, making sure that, hey, each time that there's a play run, there should be a clear cut way to go. I have an ulterior motive for bringing up the Visca Chanel and that ulterior motives. This is my guy. Yeah, that's my guy.

Yeah. So I'm a Moreno and Antonio Ramos. Those are my very, very good friends on the Spanish radio side. No doubt. Also do Charlotte FC as well on the Spanish side. That was going to be my transition to getting to Charlotte FC tomorrow night. They're facing Columbus. And what would it mean, you think, for Charlotte to take two out of three from this road trip?

Oh, it'd be incredible. Honestly, I think trying to go up and play in Philadelphia is always a tough task. It's a team that's only one only lost rather once in the last two seasons total. They've lost a second game. Got to go back to twenty twenty one in their home building. It's a team that won the Houston Conference a year ago was always going to be a tough matchup.

You had an unlucky bounce that doesn't go your way off the goalkeeper. That's a hard thing to account for from Charlotte's perspective. But if you get a victory in Columbus, I feel like you think it's a very big success. I think if you would have gone for the season and said you had a three game road trip at L.A. without knowing what L.A. was going to be, because, you know, L.A. has turned into a bit of a dumpster fire.

Oh, yeah, fortunately for them. So I think before the season, without what L.A. was going to be, if you could have told me that Charlotte FC could go on the road to L.A. and Columbus and get two wins with Philadelphia sandwich in between, you get a two out of three road trip. That'd be incredible. And because these two teams right now, Josh, are neck and neck in the table, they're even on points. Charlotte is behind Columbus in the table because of goal differential, but they get a head to head victory. They vault up the table and they get a season sweep of Columbus, which is big in terms of tiebreakers as well. And then on top of that, you don't have a midweek game that follows this game.

So thank God for that, by the way. And then and then thank God goodness, they're back at home at home. Yeah, although although Seattle is tough. Seattle is well, that'll be fun. I think the surprise team in the West right now, because last year, I mean, it's surprising that they were so bad last year, but it's not surprising the fact that they always seem to find a way to get things together. They're now in first place in the Western Conference.

So I not to look too far ahead, but that is going to be a tough customer. But they have to come west to east, which always favors the home side as well. Is there a region in college baseball that you're locked in on the Columbia Regional? Because you got NC State, you got Campbell, you got the Gamecocks. I think that's incredibly salty.

I don't think it's a foregone conclusion, but Gamecocks win. And I think the the humps, they felt a little salty. I know one of my my very good friend, Chris Haymeyer, does the radio for all the Campbell fighting camp. This is the best he was.

He was my first radio boss out in Kingston. So he was telling me that, you know, some of those Campbell fans are not exactly happy. And they are showing up in droves right now in Columbia, South Carolina. Love it. Yeah.

Clemson Regional, too. Also, I watch out for the Niners. Watch out for the Niners. There you go.

You and Darren, but watch out for the Niners. Willie P. Style on Twitter. It's Will Pelagic joining us. We look forward to listening to you tomorrow night. Thanks for spending the time as always, Will. Thank you, Josh.

Appreciate you always. There he goes. Will Pelagic joining us. Voice of Charlotte FC.

Obviously, I'm going to be at the Winston-Salem Regional. Oh, come on. I was just getting to baseball. Yes, we were. I was just getting there. You didn't have to interrupt.

We were just getting there. Well, I didn't have to, but you were talking about the Winston-Salem Regional. And there's so many other regionals going on. I know specifically 16 of them.

That's correct. And right now, LSU now they've extended their lead a bit. But Tulane made a run. Really?

Well, not a run, but they scored a run. A few. Two. It's seven to two right now. Top nine. Why are you telling me this?

Well, because you should know these things. I'm glad to know that LSU is up 7-2 on Tulane. A 40 loss Tulane team. I've got some pretty good news here. Also, by the way, Santa Clara, Arkansas. Arkansas beat them by 10.

You're wasting my time. I'm keeping you informed. But the big news here. The big news. Boston College. Boston College.

Up in the Bama Regional. Has that game restarted? Have they taken the lead? It was 3-3. It's still 3-3. They're warming up. You stopped what we were doing. Tell me that this game hasn't even restarted yet. They're warming up. Unbelievable.