New Studio. Who Dis?

Yes, Josh Graham has opinions. There is nothing that entertains the audience and the masses more than me being bothered. And yes, he's got attitude.

Really, none of the game made sense to me. And that's exactly why you love him. When this all gets sorted out, I think you and me should get an apartment together. You're on The Drive with Josh Graham. You are on a Monday Drive, WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad, where we are broadcasting live from our new studios on Providence Drive in Winston-Salem. And on the first day in our new digs, we've got plenty of news to get to. Starting with a pretty big headline regarding the Carolina Panthers. The two newest inductees to the Panthers Hall of Honor were announced today. To nobody's surprise, the great Julius Peppers is one of them. Both inductees will be honored on October 29th when the Houston Texans are in town. But maybe not the first, second, or even third or fourth name you might have thought of is the second inductee. Musen Mohamed is a Carolina Panther Hall of Honor inductee, and the reaction to his selection is just more evidence that he might be the most underrated Panther of all time. He is deserving of induction just by the standard that's been set by the Hall. Jake De Lombe, like Moose, he's not ever going to be in the conversation to get into Canton.

Neither is Jordan Gross. But both were inducted a few years ago as long-term, long-tenured Panthers who were beloved by the fan base. Jordan Gross for more than a decade, Jake De Lombe obviously is a quarterback, leading the Panthers to a Super Bowl appearance and to another NFC title game appearance. Musen Mohamed, he played 11 seasons in Charlotte. Now, the first eight or nine he played consecutively, 96 to 2004, spent a few years with the Bears before finishing up with the Panthers.

But he always viewed the Panthers as being his NFL home. Speaking of Jake De Lombe and Jordan Gross, the Panthers put out some video today of those guys congratulating both Pep and Moose. Here was Jake De Lombe. I'm looking forward to welcoming two new members, two great football players that really and truly need no introduction, Musen Mohamed and Julius Peppers. Well-deserved, two great football players, better men, great leaders. What a great honor you two guys are going in. And I'm lucky to be a part of this Hall of Honor class because you two guys are in. But once again, congratulations.

This is so awesome. Can't wait to celebrate with you guys this fall. So that's Jake De Lombe. He went in the same time as Jordan Gross. Jordan Gross, pro move WD, quoting Avett Brothers lyrics when he got inducted in 2019 or one of the been 2020. So I guess it was 2019. Here was Grossie.

Moose, Pep, it's Jordan. Man, I just got to say congrats to you both on being inducted in the Panther Hall of Honor. I can say from experience that is quite a process and something that you're going to enjoy. So proud to be in this thing with you and I know that you've been waiting anxiously to get the call.

Well, it's time you're in. Couldn't happen to two better men. Love you guys.

Wish you the best and we'll see you soon. That's from, again, the Carolina Panthers, what they put out earlier today. Musen Mohamed and Julius Peppers, Hall of Honor inductees. Moose, again, is qualified.

If Jordan Gross and Jake De Lombe are qualified, Musen Mohamed is certainly qualified too. Beloved by the fans, spent so many years here and was a heck of a player some years. There was one year you could argue he was the best receiver in football.

2004 leading in some key categories had a tremendous year. The reason why he's largely underrated, though, is because of Steve Smith. Steve Smith is the reason he's overlooked because they were teammates and Smitty might be the most beloved Carolina Panther ever. And Smitty is going to Canton.

One day, Smitty is going to be inducted and his personality absorbs a lot of the oxygen out of the room. It's almost like a market correction in pop culture circles. Like when Nicki Minaj replaced Lil' Kim or when Cardi B replaced Nicki Minaj for a few years there. Or in television, or I guess in movies, it'd be like when The Rock decided to make Fast and Furious movies. All of the sudden people decided, yeah, maybe we don't need Vin Diesel. Why do we need Vin Diesel and The Rock?

The Rock's just a better version of that. Steve Smith, a big part of the reason why I think Moose might have been overlooked a bit. But it almost guarantees if Musen Mohamed get again, Greg Olsen's going to get it. As somebody who played a very long time and was a better tight end than Musen Mohamed was a wide receiver.

And of course, beloved. Ryan Khalil, he's going to get in eventually. If Musen Mohamed's in, Ryan Khalil's going to get in for playing for the Panthers for about a dozen years. And then you have the obvious guys like Cam Newton, Luke Geekley, Thomas Davis. They're going to get in as well. Musen Mohamed's inclusion tells us that there are a lot more guys that the Panthers are going to get in.

And that's a testament to just how many great players the Panthers have had in a short period of time, only being a team for 27, 28 years. On Twitter, at WSJS Radio if you want it on today's show. That's where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch.

336-777-1600 is the phone number. Will Dalton is the executive producer of this show. W.D., what tickets are we giving away on today's show? We've got some Matchbox 20 tickets here. That's for the show tomorrow. That's right. Tomorrow.

So we've got to get on these things pretty quick. In Charlotte. I love Matchbox. Do you?

She says, baby, it's 3 a.m. I must be alone there. Oh, I love Matchbox 20. I see. You're not going to do anything with that, are you? No. Have you ever known me to do that? Let's get to the obvious. We are in a new building. And I'm to your right.

I'm not in front of you anymore. It's getting strange. It's kind of weird. Trying to adjust to this in real time, getting used to things.

But to make it matter to you who might be watching or listening. WSJS's history is Triad history. Plain and simple. When you talk about how long we've been around here. It's historic. More than 90 years. That's what we're talking about. 1930 is when WSJS went on the air.

And across W.D. I'm not good at math, so you're going to have to come on. Neither am I.

So what are we supposed to do here? We're talking about 93 years. That's a good number. Across 93 years, WSJS, as far as I know, has only had five full-time studio homes. In 93 years, this is the fifth home that WSJS has had. In 1930, for the first 10 or 11 years of existence, we were broadcast from the Winston-Salem Journal's offices in downtown Winston-Salem. In 1941, we moved to North Spruce Street, where we were there for about 30 years. In 1972, that's when we moved to Fifth Street. That was our longest tenured home. We stepped into there after I believe IBM moved out of those buildings in North Spruce Street, or Fifth Street, excuse me. And we were there for nearly 50 years. 2016, we're in Kernersville, or as Stephen A. Smith might call it, Kernersville.

That's still not going away. Yep, he came with us. And now, after seven years, Providence Lane is WSJS's fifth studio home. And it's been a very special 15 months already since Truth has taken over WSJS. We're happy to share a building with them. They brought back local programming in the morning. They brought back with Jeffrey Griffin, who had a successful show this morning, and certainly took a lot of the anxiety we might have coming on the air at 3 o'clock out of the equation, so appreciate them for that. And the folks at Truth, they brought us back to our roots, to a format that had existed for most of those 93 years and still allowed for us to do the thing that we do, the little corner of our operation. They allowed for us to continue what we've been doing now for close to five years. And we're very happy about that. It's amazing what our engineers have done over the last few days since we got off the air on Friday, and we appreciate them. I got in yesterday just to see some of the developments in the morning.

And I thought, there's no way that we're going to be broadcasting here tomorrow. And we are. And they got it done. So shout out to those guys. They're miracle workers. They're the real heroes in getting us on the air today. But if you have thoughts, 336-771600 is the phone number. Beth is on with us from Greensboro.

Beth, what do you have for us today? Still the greatest impression. Still the greatest impression that somebody has ever done to me. It made me feel so seen and insecure in the moment, but now I find it super funny. The hee-hee.

It's like Michael Jackson. Yeah. Thank you for that. You're our first phone call we've ever taken in our new studio.

Congratulations, Beth. I know. And I wanted to be the first.

I wanted to be the first because I have listened to you from the beginning. And you know that. Yeah. Like you.

This is a great, great show. And I love it. And kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You know. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway.

Yeah. Let me be the one to try to work the phone here. Thank you for the call, Beth. I hung up on that phone call. Look at you do that. You can do that now.

Beth, that's not to sell you short at all. It's just now I have the ability to actually hang up on phone callers. Yeah.

If this wasn't already a democracy. Here we go again. That was a bit rash.

I didn't mean for that to be the case. We're still figuring out new technology that's in front of us here. Very exciting stuff. You have covered the Carolina Panthers since the beginning.

Darren Gantz, one of those few Carolina Panthers beat reporter Panthers dot com Pro Football Hall of Fame voter to Musa Mohammed and Julius Peppers, both going into the Hall of Honor. We'll talk about them in a second. Darren, there's a there's there are several reasons why I love to have you on video for people to watch on our YouTube stream. In addition to hearing our voices on the radio for one, I get to see your face. That's always great.

That always puts a smile on my face on this Monday. But also, I get to this is the first time we've had you on since one of your favorite people gifted us. Some gear, some app state gear. So we got the head gear just for you, your beloved mountaineers for our conversation today. I appreciate that. I appreciate that.

That's that's a good addition. Classing up the joint. Clearly what I've called Julius Peppers. I remember I was sitting with Mac Brown talking about this a few years ago. He never had a chance to coach him at Carolina, but he did recruit him from Nash County. I've called Mac Brown love this term that I attached to him, saying that he is our state's Paul Bunyan, where it just feels like he showed up on the scene right before the Internet took off.

There aren't a lot of videos you can find from Nash County, but there are just so many stories. David Girard told me about a time where in Durham, he was a little older than him. He was playing pickup basketball. And they said that there's this freshman that is from Nash County that's coming to play some hoop with them. And everybody's like, come on, you brought a freshman in to play with us. And then he shows up. It's Julius Peppers. He's bigger than everybody and beats everybody down into the ground. Guys who ended up playing ACC basketball alongside Peppers just a few years after that. When you are asked for Julius Peppers stories, are you ruminate in your head with that being the prompt?

What's the first thing you think of? He's just different than all the other kids. I mean, he really is. And I think, you know, there there are so many highlights and we've been compiling them. And we're going to have a lot of stuff for you guys at Panthers dot com over the next week or so in celebration of this moment. But one of the things that always stuck out in my mind, a lot of people remember the 100 plus yard return in Denver when he finally trips up just short of the goal line, doesn't score, but he goes back 100 yards. The play before that, Jake Plummer, who is not an unathletic guy, was just trying to bootleg to the corner from about the one or two yard line. It was should have been an easy touchdown.

Julius comes from the backside of that play, comes around the formation, gets Jake Plummer from behind on a two yard bootleg. And he just he does things like that that don't they defy physics. I mean, I I remember Brinson Buckner called him the next evolution of man. He he just is he always was physically different than everybody around him from the time he was at Southern Nash to the time he walked off the field in the NFL for the last time. You know, if you agree with this characterization, when you when you say the word great, a lot of things factor into that. It can be influence. It can be how beloved you were, your involvement in the community and those types of things. But when I just focus on talent, was there ever a more talented Carolina Panther than Julius Peppers?

It's a short conversation. I mean, Cam Newton would probably be the only one who's even in that even in that realm, to be honest with you. I can't think of anybody else. There is nobody who is a first ballot Hall of Famer, though.

It's Peppers and that's it. Peppers is going to be a first ballot guy next year, right? He better be. I mean, he should be. You're part of the you're part of the process, so I'd hope so.

Yeah, I'm doing my best. I envision this being a relatively short conversation. You know, there's part of the mythology of that committee is for guys like Peyton Manning. You say his name and you sit down. I sort of feel like I could do that with Julius.

End of conversation. But I do need to point out to people sometimes, you know, there are only three people who have ever played this game who have more of the things we count than him. There are Bruce, Bruce Smith, Reggie White, Kevin Green. And, you know, Julius kind of very matter of factly, the last time I talked to him, we were talking about that list. And he said, I, I was a half sack behind Kevin Green for third. If I'd thought it was important, I could have come back and played another year and got another six or eight sacks. And it was just so matter of fact the way he said it.

But then you realize, yes, he could have done that very easily because of the level he was still playing at in year 15, 16, 17. Darren Ganz with us here. Read his stuff. Panthers dot com. One of the cool things you guys did, you compiled five Julius Peppers plays, which sounds like a really difficult exercise of like, hey, well, it's easy and tough. It's not hard to find five plays, but it's hard to narrow it down.

Five through two are pick sixes or Denver going 100 yards of being hawked down by Rod Smith at the two. I mean, if you were in that room, you could just stand up and say, how many defensive ends have several pick sixes? Yeah, he just and they were all amazed. One of the things that, you know, even guys who aren't easily impressed, like Steve Smith always talked about, you know, he said, I use Julius as kind of a growth chart.

He said, I would walk up next to him and look and realize how small I actually was. But Steve, now that's not to say Steve didn't get a little salty when they tried Julius as a goal line receiver, you know, four or what year is that? Was that 05? Yeah, 05.

It was 05. They tried him out against the Patriots and Steve was not happy about that. And I think he spiked his helmet taller than Julius was.

He was so frustrated when he came off field. But, you know, at the same time, Steve said the guy could have been a receiver. The guy could have been a tight end. He could have done whatever he wanted to. I'm convinced that Julius decided to play basketball in exchange for money. He would have been an NBA All-Star. I'm ghostwriting your takes to present to the room to help get Julius Peppers in the Hall of Fame.

You could also just say how many athletes were in Nelly music videos and the fact he's in the hot in there, hot in here music video is very important, too. But since you bring up Steve Smith, Musa Mohammed is the other name. And the way you guys rolled this thing out was you announced last Thursday there are going to be two new inductees.

So then we discussed, well, who's it going to be the next few days? And everybody kind of accepted. We do it for the people. We did that to support our friends in the sports talk industry.

Thank you. And most of the reaction, everybody had Peppers, it felt like on that list. Peppers is going to get in. But then very, very few included Musa Mohammed, which I think is perfect for him because it feels like since he was quieter than 89 and 89 might be the most beloved player in Panthers history.

Because of that, there's almost like this market correction the same way like Nicki Minaj market corrected Lil' Kim doesn't make Lil' Kim any less great. It's just it's easy to overlook how great Musa Mohammed was when a guy who probably is going to be in Canton is lined up across from you. Like you could make a case, and I have, that Musa Mohammed is the most underrated Panther there is when you consider in 2004, statistically, nobody was a better receiver than him. Yeah. And listen, one thing, speaking of course correction, quieter than Steve Smith is not the same as quiet.

Okay, let's get that cleared up right out of the top. This is still the man who walked out on the practice field one day after taping over the nameplate on his practice jersey and riding with a Sharpie D. Coy, you know when he didn't think he was getting enough balls thrown his way so he is still a wide receiver and those two personalities are a fascinating case study into themselves because you really had to borrow the parlance that the kids use you had two alphas in there, and you had two guys who were that guy, two hems in one locker room together, and there was some tension there between the two of them and, you know, we've got some stuff coming up in the next week or so for you that will kind of dig into that a little bit deeper but to hear both of those guys talk about it now. They didn't realize exactly what was going on at the time and they didn't fully appreciate the other one in there on time but now they've grown into close friends and, you know, it was just a little competition between those two guys early on because Steve does it in 2003, you know, gets hurt in the opener in 04 Moose has the year of his life and then Steve comes back wins a triple crown the next year and it's just constant jockeying between those guys to be the guy. This might be antithetical to my profession of sports talk radio but when you guys rolled this thing out, and we saw all the names that were submitted from fans of who they thought the two inductees were going to be. I was reminded of just how fine things have been with the Carolina Panthers, and I was reminded of when Marty Hurney was let go and Dave Gettleman was let go, and all the fan base said, these guys were terrible they were, they were awful and I'm like, you guys don't know what terrible and awful is like the Cleveland Browns, you in 28 years, you guys have been to two Super Bowls.

You went to the NFC Championship game. Look at all these great players you have like Sam Mills just got inducted to the Hall of Fame Steve Smith's gonna get in Julius the first ballot guy who's the first ballot guy who's the MVP that the Jaguars have had since entering the league in 95, the Browns would take your 28 years in a heartbeat. And it just goes to say like the Panthers like I'm reminded when Moose gets in and then the log jam of guys who are probably going to follow named Khalil and Cam and and Kuechly and Davis and all these things of just how good the Panthers have had it over 28 years, but don't tell a Carolina Panther fan that right i mean they they have had talented players and I've had other people on the Hall of Fame committee asked me you know this team had never, they've never had back to back winning seasons they've never won a Super Bowl. How come you keep talking in this room and I was like it's going to become more in the next couple of years like I said, Julius next year then Luke Kuechly Steve Smith I think eventually gets in and in terms of Hall of Honor. There are all kind of guys you could name I mean those all of the ones you listed plus a john Casey plus a Michael Bates plus a Greg Wilson, there has been good football talent here in Mayberry.

I just doesn't always necessarily translated on the field in the last couple years. I think the last couple years is put a bad taste in some people's mouths about that kind of stuff but one of the neat side effects of Frank Wright coming on his head coaches. It's okay to talk about the past again, you know you you've got this link to the past and, you know, hey look over there's Don capers he knew Sam Mills he coached Sam Mills many places so it's, it's neat to be able to dip into some of that nostalgia and, and you do recognize I mean, again, you could fill up a couple years if if Dave insist on doing Hall of Honor guys two at a time for the next little bit, you could fill up several years worth of twosomes that way you could go TD and Luke Kuechly you could go Greg Olsen Ryan Khalil Cameron Jarrell Newton's going to be in that conversation at some point when he's finished playing so yeah there's been players here.

Last thing, football wise for Darren Gantt here of Panthers calm. You guys had the blueprint YouTube series that was very successful, what was the most illuminating thing to you did you have a favorite part, or a thing that you identified and said, man is that good. Yeah, there's all kind of neat stuff I mean the wholesome Bozeman content, where he gets talking about his baby and starts crying, you know, because his son gets to go on this journey with him stuff like that to me one of the big one of the real messages that resonated through that thing is a how deep and talented that coaching staff actually is when you see those guys on the field and realize how much experience how much gravity they've got on that staff. But the other thing that to me comes through loud and clear is, it was always Bryce. It never really was going to be anybody other than Bryce young and, and I think when you get some of those behind the scenes books at draft meetings, even from February and farther back you understand that they were kind of locked on, not necessarily locked on they were doing the due diligence of course but it was always going to be Bryce, I'm interested if you have a theory very quickly on why hard knocks is having a tough time and finding a team that wants to do it, because my theory at least part of it is, why would we outsource this at this point to HBO when we can just do it ourselves the way that you guys have done it so well. I think that's part of it part of it is it's an incredible intrusion.

I mean, coaches always want to believe their stuff's top secret, and that kind of stuff and letting anybody else in your building I can tell you just from being in the draft room having NFL films guys in the room creates another layer of stuff and people and you know distraction, so to speak, but I think that's part of it I think the other part might be, is that hard knocks has kind of run its course it's no when it came out it was the only thing like it and again, when you look at Panthers blueprint and products, you know, other teams around the league are putting out, you know, we can all do this in some form or fashion. I got to know Luke combs concert. You went on that. I don't have tickets yet I was hoping you could hook me up. I mean, you have an office in the building who stops you if you just camp in your office for a week. Yeah, all I have to do you actually do have to be, we have to have credentials for the days leading up to concerts as security gets a little tight and as they start setting up it. Yeah, there's no just stowing away in the press box and hanging out for the night I wish I could do that, because that's probably the only way I'm seeing Beyonce when she's here in a couple weeks, you work in the building, and you went to the school man, like come on, like that has to get done in a heart. Yeah, I was just back here telling me to brush off some of that dusty money and just buy some tickets, you interviewed Darren, you interviewed David Tepper for this story, like, in the last few days, you didn't at least bring up to him Hey, by the way, app state guy just throwing that out there.

No. Okay, we're still in, you know, still working on that still working a few angles. Yeah, that sounds like a great show. Darren Gant, appreciate you spending the time with us we're actually breaking in our new digs and Winston Salem today we have a new studio. And, yeah, we're figuring all this stuff out, by the way, speaking of Winston Tell me all I need to know about this cat the Reds drafted in the first round, other than he has fantastic hair, he has outstanding hair. And he is. I mean when when the deeks, when he plays the deeks win every single game this year that he pitched.

Except the game that he threw eight scoreless innings in the College World Series on four days rest wake forest one, and the only reason he didn't win that game is because the guy he pitched again against also had eight scoreless, and the game went to extra innings at no score between LS way. I look forward to him joining the greatest team in all of baseball, seeing the World Series big boy Okay, yeah, that next time. Next time. There you go. That's Darren Gant joining us on. I forgot he was a red fan and went to the reds Oriole series. A few weeks ago, I forgot about that. Now back to the drive with Josh Graham. Mark's is going to be here in 15 minutes.

He writes for the athletic covers Duke of Carolina he was out at Peach Jam last week and over the weekend. The reason why my voice sounds downtrodden and why I sound a bit bummed out is because WD apparently has turned around some. I did this in good faith like if you keep doing this where you hit me over the head with something anytime I try to have fun on the air. It's not going to want to make me it's not going to want to incentivize me to continue having fun WD.

We have matchbox 20 tickets that we're going to be giving away and WD has prepared a drop for you to listen for in order to win those tickets later this hour. She says baby. It's 3 a.m. I must be alone there. You know, it's actually not usually yeah, usually my skin curls and I feel horrible anytime you do something like that this time. I actually don't think that's bad.

I don't think it's bad. She says baby. It's 3 a.m. I must be alone there. I'm going to write this down karaoke song 3 a.m. Matchbox 20.

How did I do there 3 3 6 7 7 1 600. This is not an invitation for you to call to win Matchbox 20 tickets for tomorrow. No, no, no, this is you being Simon Cowell.

Is that an outdated reference? Yeah, maybe but who's the Simon Cowell of 2023? I have no clue. Howie Mandel it maybe maybe that that's a little deep cut to judge it. Yeah, see if you can judge this, you know fan what I believe to be fantastic musical.

She says baby. It's 3 a.m. I must be alone there 3 3 6 7 7 7 1 600 if you would like to grade that musical performance later in the hour when you hear that next. So not like right now your that will be your cue in order to win Matchbox 20 tickets.

I'm no longer downtrodden anymore. We're in a new studio space. We're excited about that and I don't think it's that bad.

I don't think it's that bad of a recording personally getting to tonight. The NBA can learn a lesson from the home run Derby because unlike baseball or make it basketball all-star festivities baseball players and fans. They love their all-star game.

They love their all-star festivities and unlike say the dunk contest in basketball baseball players. Even the Stars they participate in the home run Derby, even if it requires some extra effort being asserted. Now you can criticize the fact that there are no Atlanta Braves participating tonight, even though they lead Major League Baseball on home runs and have a million guys participating in the all-star game, but Mookie Bats is going to go up against Vlad Guerrero Jr. in the setup tonight. That's a pretty big deal Mookie Bats. How many players in baseball right now are better than Mookie Bats? Let's talk position players.

How many? Shohei. Yeah, even though he's not technically a position player. I guess he is and he isn't right. We'll count him. Yeah, he's a better baseball player than Mookie Bats.

Okay, fine. Are there five? Would you put Aaron Judge in that category? I don't know.

Sure. And he's in the conversation or we'll even throw trout in there too. Yeah, even though he's had a bit of a down year.

There aren't five. That's the point I'm making. Who is the NBA equivalent to Mookie Bats in terms of being good? You're talking about Giannis. You're talking about, you know, LeBron.

You're talking about the top guy. Imagine if one of those guys participated in the dunk contest. Oh, it'd be so great. It'd be massive.

It would be blown up. But no. And you have Mookie Bats participating in the all-star home run derby.

And here's the thing. That isn't even the most compelling matchup that we have tonight. Vlad Guerrero Jr. going up against Mookie Bats.

In fact, I would argue it's not even the second most appealing matchup that we got. Now, if you're watching on our stream. Yeah, here it comes. Got the birds hat on. Won five in a row. 19 over 500.

No big deal. Adley Rutchman versus Luis Roberts. Pretty cool. Because Rutchman is going to be a future star in the sport. Luis Robert, kind of the same way. He's my all-time favorite Winston-Salem dash player. Ever. Love watching that dude.

He's awesome. In fact, I don't know what odds you could get on the home run derby if gambling were legal in North Carolina at this present moment rather than in January. I might have that in front of me. But Luis Robert might be where that might be where the smart money goes. And then you got Pete Alonso facing Julio Rodriguez. For those who don't know, Pete Alonso won back to back home run derbies going into last year.

And who was he beaten by? Julio Rodriguez. So you match those two together and Julio is at his home diamond in Seattle. So that is a compelling matchup. Luis Robert, Adley Rutchman, Mookie Betts, Vlad Guerrero Jr. That's fantastic.

And because of this, you know, I don't know why this is, but I believe this to be true. The baseball all-star game is the only all-star game that I care about. I don't care about the NBA. The NFL one practically doesn't exist anymore. Now they're just playing dodgeball or whatever the day before. Hockey, not so much.

That doesn't really matter so much. Maybe the all-star race in NASCAR is pretty cool depending on where it's going to be like this year at North Wilkes-Barreau. But regularly, that's not something that really moves the needle so much. Baseball all-star game does.

I don't know why. Just that sport specifically, seeing a collection of players playing together, I've always found that to be very cool. And that hasn't changed. And the fans love it. The players love it. The home run derby is fantastic too.

So I can't wait to watch that later tonight. I'll tell you this. We're not going to talk much college sports today because all the headlines are bummers.

All of them. You find me the college headline that's not a bummer unless you find it funny that Bob Huggins is acting like he didn't resign and he wants to be reinstated. If you don't see what's funny about that story, first off, then shame on you. Think about what Bob Huggins is even saying in the sentence. What is Bob Huggins saying again? What does Bob Huggins want from West Virginia WD? He wants to be reinstated. Now, I'm not an expert on administrative jargon and lingo, but in order to be reinstated, I think you would have to have resigned or been suspended and or fired, right? You would think. He's acting like, I didn't say any of this.

Well, why would you be in a position to have to be reinstated? Wow. We had not already gotten through this, so that's becoming an ugly situation.

Speaking of ugly situations, Northwestern, this hazing story, not great. Someone still needs to explain to me why the list is called the Shreks list. Now, I'm not making light of it because it sounds terrible, like what is being alleged here, but why Shrek? Why? No one's explained that part to me and I don't want to ask it on social media or else people are going to say Josh is just making fun of something.

That's not what I'm doing. I'm just trying to understand where Shrek and Donkey, where they factor into this. I know you're going to be shocked to hear this, but I've never seen Shrek. Did you just do the Jim Boeheim sniff into the microphone? I did.

You have a drop for a sniffing into the microphone, but also, more importantly, when you haven't seen a movie, you have your own sound for that too. We never had Steve Forbes in the studio in Kernersville. We never had him. Kernersville.

You didn't. It's a little bit too far, 15 minutes. Well, now, Providence Drive.

Hey, Steve. We're right up the road here. Five minutes. You'll probably hear us if we go out and yell outside the building.

Help! Five minutes. Well?

What's the excuse? No. We want, hey, Wake folks, get in here. Come hang out. Come on, sit on down. I feel like Chris Hansen. You don't even know who that is.

Nope. Take a seat. Take a seat. Somebody I'm sure Chris Hansen would have. This is about as good of a transition as you could ever have if you know who Chris Hansen is. Somebody that Chris Hansen probably would have been sitting down in front of. Larry Nassar.

Remember him? Oh, man. Yeah.

Apparently getting stabbed in prison. That's not fun, right? No. Now, it's deserved, probably.

Probably. But not exactly cheery. Not exactly the most fun thing on this Monday. So, I say all that to say, not a lot of college sports things are fun, except, except, Peach Jam.

There you go. Everybody converges to one place and we're hearing a lot about the Boozer brothers, the twins, Carlos Boozer's kids who are really, really good. And Cooper Flag and the next stars in college basketball.

There are always good stories that come out of Peach Jam. And over the last week, our guy, Brendan Marks from The Athletic, he was there. Has a story out for The Athletic today talking about that. Brendan's going to join our show to talk about some of the things he's heard and seen from Peach Jam.

Next on the drive. If you've ever traveled with the basketball team, when I was a play by play guy at East Carolina, I did for a few years. You get into a routine and one of the normal routines that you have is you always have morning shoot around before you have the game later that night. I am now seeing the importance of shoot around when you go into a new gym in a radio context because we're breaking in our new radio digs in Winston-Salem today. And I did not walk into this room prepared before that, so I'm not used to having a window over here. I'm not used to Will being to my right and things are just a little bit wonky.

But something that gives me comfort, like a warm blanket, is my friend Brendan Marks, who joins the show now from The Athletic. You were out at Peach Jam. You have a great loaded Peach Jam notebook that you and your colleagues have written that I just want to get into a lot of things regarding. Starting with how well represented were our local in-state schools at said Peach Jam?

Incredibly. I believe I saw all four head coaches had an opportunity to speak to all four head coaches, multiple assistant coaches from every school. So, I mean, this is the recruiting event of the summer. And even though the calendar has gotten crazier in recent years, you know, I actually talked to a couple of coaches who said they were anxious about being at Peach Jam because they didn't know what roster they would come back to when they returned to campus. Even in spite of that, coaches have to be here. It's an opportunity to see every elite player in the next couple of classes.

And so all of our local guys were there, for sure. How much of your conversation with Steve Forbes can be aired on the radio? Oh, five percent, maybe five percent. That's Steve Forbes for you. But he's always one of the more entertaining people to catch up with. What's either on the record or off the record? What's the most interesting thing you were told you think amongst being around all those people? Because to your point, if you're on an NFL beat, for example, going to the combine is always an important deal because everybody's together and everybody talks. And you get some stuff coming out of that that leads to a lot of headlines being there. What was a popular conversation point or something you found intriguing based on something somebody told you? Yeah. And this is something that we put in our notebook, too.

You know, I think the biggest thing is just not not to put a poo poo on and, you know, water down the product that I am covering eight months out of the year. But when you look at the players who were at Peach Jam, the players in the twenty twenty five and the twenty twenty six classes, compared to the players who are incoming college freshmen, the players who just got on campus this summer in the twenty twenty four class. There is a valley between those two. The twenty twenty three and twenty four kids are good. The twenty twenty five and twenty twenty six kids are incredible. There is so much more potential there. And so one thing that's been a hot topic of conversation is we're getting towards the back end of the covid year. The eligibility we're about to cycle out of that. I believe there's two more seasons with that going, which is going to overlap right in time with these incoming waves of tremendous high school talent. And so, you know, I think this is the first season in college basketball history where transfers are expected to score more than 50 percent of the points in the game. I think that's a trend that coaches are concerned about. We're going to see it continue at least for the next two seasons.

And then once the covid year cycles out and you have these two incredible young classes coming in, there's an opportunity for high school recruiting to sort of regain some of its value. Brendan marks with us from the athletic. Follow him on Twitter at Brendan R. Marks. I assume follow you on threads, too. Is that where we can find you? Yeah, I haven't been too active.

I've been a little busy lately. There's no doubt are the boozers, the twins. They're getting a lot of attention. Is it fair to expect those guys are going to go to Duke?

I honestly I would have said that before I had spent some time within the last couple of months. I would not say they're Duke locks. And I know Duke fans are going to be like panicking when they hear that.

And I think there is still a very good likelihood that ultimately that's where the boozers end up. Just because if you want to play somewhere elite, Duke's a really good place to do it. They're continually turning out pros.

And obviously Dad is very familiar with campus. I will say they made a very pointed effort this weekend to talk to all other coaches and to say publicly whenever they had an interview. If you are thinking about recruiting us, please do. We want to be recruited. We want to know what our options are.

We want to know what's out there. And so North Carolina, for example, Hubert Davis's courtside for all those games, Sean May and Brad Frederick. They were right there. Same thing with Kentucky. John Calipari.

He wasn't in town for very long. Made seeing the boozers a priority. This is going to be a battle of the bluebirds because these kids are definitely worth the battle. Again, is Duke one of the front runners? Absolutely.

But I don't think that we can say that it's 100 percent. We need to challenge Brendan Marks a little bit. I feel like I need to throw him off base a bit, try to get something else out of him. I feel like I'm just throwing you softballs right now.

How about this? You talked about how the twenty five and twenty six classes are superior to the ones we see this year and next year. Can you give me a player, though, in that you saw that's going to be playing college basketball in the next year that you feel pretty confident. Oh, this guy is going to be a player. And well, one of them, you know, talking of Duke targets, Dylan Harper Junior. You know, this is Ron Harper's son, his brother.

You know, Ron Harper was over at Rutgers for the last couple of years, sort of became a star at Rutgers. Dylan is like a six four, six five combo guard. He looks like a running back right now. He's already so built. And if Duke is able to get him, he's the number one player in twenty twenty four class for good reason. He's not necessarily an athletic freak.

He's not necessarily have the ceiling of some of those guys we were talking about. But in terms of like he could start a college game tomorrow and I'd have absolutely no worries whatsoever. So Duke is in really strong position with him. It's basically a two horse race between Duke and Rutgers for Harper right now.

And if John Shire is able to bring that one home, then it could be the makings of a special class in twenty twenty four. I need you to tell me if I'm a hater, I need you to tell me when it comes to Carolina, because I feel like with the addition of Elliott Cadeau and some of these transfers, they're going to be better. They're going to be an NCAA tournament team.

They're going to win an NCAA tournament game. If I had to guess, you're probably going to get to the round of thirty two. That's probably what they are. Round of thirty two.

Sweet sixteen. That's what I think they are. But then that is met with and I think Carolina and Kentucky fans are the two fan bases where this would check out that it would be an insult after missing the tournament to say that you're a tournament team that's going to be pretty good. But you're not a national title contender.

That's how I feel about North Carolina. It would stun me if they were a national title contender. Brendan Marks, am I a hater?

I don't think you're a hater. I but I also think that you are a little lower on them than I am. I think this team has a little more upside than I think you're giving them credit for. I mean, I think that this could be a pretty special offense. Well, where does that upside come from? Like where who's the guy that you think could emerge and then become a lottery pick or a top twenty pick maybe on this team?

Well, it's not that. And I think that that is what we had come to expect for North Carolina the past couple of years. We were waiting for Caleb Love to make that start.

That was the air. The reason why I think North Carolina has more upside is because of the cumulative talent and the way that I believe the roster has been assembled to play. So between R.J. Davis and Elliott Cadeau, North Carolina is going to have two of the best guards in the country. I would not at all be surprised if Cadeau averages six, seven assists the game, you know, by conference. He is that good. He is that special passer like the Kendall Marshall comparisons are 100 percent on point in times of his vision. And then I think, you know, in talking to the coaching staff this weekend, they've been really pleasantly surprised by some other guys. It sounds like Seth Trimble has made some really tremendous jumps. You know, they've been really working with him on being more aggressive, going to the basket. He's improved his shot a lot. It sounds like Jalen Withers has been a really nice athletic upside piece.

If he can sort of put some things together. That was the story with him at Louisville when he was on. He was on.

It's just about getting him to do that every single day. And obviously you still have our boy. Do you still have the satellite available?

Oh, it traveled from Kernersville. It's OK. Just making sure. He said, you know, Armando said he wants to pay ten thousand dollars to get rid of this. Like he said, he's so sick of it. He offered us ten grand to stop doing it and we're trying to give it to charity. So we're hoping that gets worked out so that the Armando drop goes away because he says he doesn't like the effort he put into that.

And he wouldn't recreate a new one for us. He said he'd rather pay ten grand. So that's fair.

Well, you know, if I had ten grand to pay off something I didn't like, and that would be a really nice way to solve problems. But I look at North Carolina's roster to get back to my larger point. And I see a bunch of complementary pieces that I think are going to fit really well together. You have a lot of guys who complement each other's skill set. Cormac Ryan, I think, you know, the big difference between him and a guy like maybe Caleb Love last year, there's huge differences. Cormac Ryan's a catch and shoot three point shooter. Caleb Love was a creating three point shooter. And I think North Carolina needed somebody like that who's willing to do that.

And he fits that role perfectly. So I think this is a team that could make like a surprise Elite Eight run that would not surprise me whatsoever. I like what North Carolina has done. I really do. WD put it up on the ESPN. I like that comparison. North Carolina could be an Elite Eight.

Put it up on the scroll. We'll see what will happen. Brendan Marks, appreciate you spending the time. It's good to see you.

And I encourage everyone to read you and your colleagues work at the athletic regarding Peach Jam, because if you look at a lot of the other college sports headlines, Larry Nassar hazing at Northwestern, Bob Huggins, a lot of bummer stories out there. Your story is not a bummer. Cheered me up in seeing your face again.

Cheers me up. You're like that warm blanket, Brendan. So thanks for the time.

I appreciate that. I don't want to be your warm blanket, but I appreciate you having me. There he goes. Yeah. You know, you don't get to control who's my warm blanket or not, because it's proverbial.

It's not like an actual warm blanket. But there goes Brendan Marks, the athletic. W.D. is beaming. Oh, he's so happy. Elite Eight, baby. Look at the smile on his face. Ah, Elite Eight. Now comes the moment you have all been waiting for.

All right, whenever you're ready. This is The Drive with Josh Cram. I love Disney songs. And you might be wondering why might we be playing when you wish upon a star? Well, let me tell you, because I think it's fair to say Saturday night was a mixed bag for Charlotte FC, especially for our friend who's a regular guest on the station. Our guy, Willy P, Willphologic, who when I Google Will's name, I'm looking on Google right now, seven different stories have popped up, seven different stories that have now called him the Mickey Mouse of broadcasting. Huh? It took one person on social media pointing out that when he is calling a goal for Charlotte FC, it sounds like he's been possessed by Mickey Mouse.

It took one person to do that in order to have him go viral viral from over the weekend. And this is almost like Austin Powers, which have you seen any of the Austin Powers movies? No. Well, there's a scene in Austin Powers where a guy with a mole. Moly, moly, moly.

Yeah, I showed you the scene where the guy shows up. And once you see the mole, that's all you can see now. And I fear that when you hear now with the context of him being called Mickey Mouse broadcasting soccer. That's all you can hear now. Let's find out together to see if it's accurate.

Here is one of the goals from Saturday night. All I could think about now is Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse. I'm looking on Google. Here are the headlines of all these stories.

I typed in Will's name. Is Mickey Mouse narrating MLS? MLS announcer turning into Mickey Mouse during a goal call. Who is the Mickey Mouse commentator in the MLS? This is great.

Daily Star in the UK. Football commentator possessed by Mickey Mouse as Disney icon hijacks his soul. MLS broadcaster suffers hilarious voice crack after goal, draws Mickey Mouse comparisons. I don't think that's a voice crack. I think it's just his voice. I did too.

He gets super excited. Let's hear another one to see if this is fair or not. Back for Bronico close to the halfway line. Now forward for Merum.

Merum close to the area. Square ball right side for Cambridge. A shot! He scores! The first ever let's goal for Brandon Cambridge!

And he equalizes for the crown in the 68th minute. Now, they're saying he sounds like Mickey Mouse. I'm not saying that. Oh, you're not.

They're saying that. Gotcha. We're just playing the sound of Mickey Mouse laughing. W.D. 's playing that sound.

I got you. I'm not playing that sound. You know?

Now, here's the ultimate question. Is this a good thing? Like, if you're Will, how should you feel right now?

I will tell you what I told Will over the weekend, that this is a great thing. I'd rather people know me for something than not know who I am at all. And if you know me as the Mickey Mouse guy, fine. Well, I mean, and also you're somebody who puts up clown memes of yourself. That's right.

And does a whole segment of it when you jinxed Wake Forest. You're following. You're reading. You're tweeting. You're doing that.

That's fine. I don't care. If you, just as long as you're consuming the content, I don't care if you like it or hate it. I hope you do.

I really do hope you like it. But if you don't. No, I mean, how is this much different than Eric Collins getting super excited and people always pulling those clips anytime there's an alley-oop dunk or a great play that Lamello makes? It's just him getting excited. And that's Willy P getting excited.

Which is why I'm surprised it took this long for him to like pop off like this. That's why it's great. Name another MLS announcer. Can't. That's it.

So that Willy P, you know, you're recognized as being this guy, even though if the reason you're recognized is because people think you resemble Mickey Mouse. Get into the team though. It's a mixed bag. Charlotte can't buy a win right now. Charlotte was up 2-0 in the first 25 minutes of this game. 2-2 tie.

Now, the good news is, this is why it's a mixed bag. They have not lost in over a month. But they also haven't won either. They have tied a lot. That's it. Every single match is a tie for over a month now.

And they have one more match this Saturday that you can listen to right here on WSJS by the way. Don't at Willy P on Twitter at Willy P style telling him that you think he sounds like Mickey Mouse. Don't do that.

There's plenty of it. Like he's hearing from a bunch of Brits who probably are saying with the thick accent like, Oh, you sound like Mickey Mouse, sir. You sound like him.

No, my accent's really bad. Then they have a month-long break after this weekend. And their next match after that is Inner Miami, which could be Leo Messi's debut in MLS. Buckle up, buckaroos, for that.

Yeah. Mickey Mouse might have to come out for that one. He'll be there. I had somebody just today in the office saying, Hey, we're going to blow up that game.

I don't think you need to when Leo Messi makes his debut in MLS. Something that's going on today. Rounds three through 10 of the Major League Baseball draft and a number of Wake Forest Demon Deacons are having their name called before we get to today. No surprises in the first two rounds. Rhett Louder, top 10 pick, goes number seven to the Cincinnati Reds. Brock Wilkin going 18th to the Milwaukee Brewers, Sean Sullivan. He goes in round two.

So no surprises there. Those are guys who were not going to be back, even though Sean Sullivan could have if he didn't fall or if he fell a lot further than he did. The bigger question, Seth Keener and Tommy Hawk.

Do you get some of those guys to return? It's going to be hard to imagine that Seth Keener is going to be back when he was taken in round three. And that signing bonus money and being in a pro system. He was taken by the Chicago White Sox. So, Seth Keener is going to be... Hey, good news, Deke fans.

He's going to be back in Winston-Salem. Just in a different jersey. Just not playing college baseball, if I had to guess. Tommy Hawk, this is an interesting one. Taken in the sixth round. Now, the way it was described to me, if you're a top eight draft pick, the amount of money you make playing pro baseball would exceed the money that you could even get in NIL playing at a top program like Wake Forest.

Could be wrong on that. And also, Tommy Hawk has the draw of his brother having just transferred in from North Carolina. But I don't know what Tommy Hawk's going to do.

Also, drafted Bennett Lee, the catcher who made that great play in the first LSU game about a month ago. Regardless of what happens, Wake's going to be okay. The recruiting is there.

The facilities are there. The coaching is there. And you do have guys who are back who are really strong players. Josh Hartle, he's back. Nick Kurtz, Brian Massey, Michael Massey, excuse me. Those are all players who are returning for you. So Wake probably will still be the favorite in the preseason to win the ACC.

Probably. Before we get to Graham's grades, another reminder that we are on YouTube. Search The Drive With Josh Graham on YouTube. Subscribe.

That's helpful. The best of podcasts, so a curated hour of what we do each day out of our three hours, edited by WD, is available in podcast form as well by Search The Drive With Josh Graham on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor. We're in our new digs. We're really excited about that. Next hour, Darren Gant's going to join us to talk about the new Hall of Honor inductees, that being Julius Peppers and Musen Mohamed. If you miss any of that, well, the podcast and the YouTube channel are good ways that you can watch back and listen back to that type of content. Being here that we're in the new building, just a lot of fun possibilities of things that we can do, and we're very excited that there have not been really any technical snafus at all upon us arriving.

And I say us, including The Morning Show, Jeffrey Griffin, and GP running things. It is impressive, like, when you watched all the boxes and things that were going on outside of our studio back in Curtisville, and just to think like, boom, and we're here and it's all set up. We're here. And that's due to a lot of hard work by people in this building. It is. And we certainly appreciate that hard work.