WHOA!

So glad to have you. On this Tuesday drive, you are listening to WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad, where don't look now, but we are 15 days away from the Carolina Panthers opening up training camp in Spartanburg. Two weeks.

That's it. So given that football isn't that far away, we're long overdue for a check in on Bryce Young. Because even though the Panthers have technically been off for nearly a month now, it's pretty clear that Bryce has continued to put that work in and he's making some strides. Since OTAs wrapped up, all the league chatter out there regarding the Panthers has reached a consensus on Bryce. And the consensus is this. Bryce is going to start day one. There's no doubt about it. There won't be a Frank Reich, Matt Ruhl-like deflection where Andy Dalton's getting snaps when everybody knows that Bryce is going to be starting day one, a la a year ago when they brought in Baker Mayfield, yet they wanted, out of respect to Sam Darnold, give him all those snaps, even though we all kind of knew what the deal was going to be.

That's not going to happen with Frank Reich. And this shouldn't really surprise you. Wait, Carolina is going to trade up to the number one pick and they intend to actually play the guy? Crazy. I know. But the way that Bryce has picked things up has really raised some eyebrows.

Listen to Kevin Clark from the Ringer talk about just this on the Ryan Rosillo podcast. His mental aptitude has been as advertised. OK, fine. He's a mental savant. He's a savant. That's it. He's processing so much and he's already got the install down.

It's been a hard install. That's what we know about Thomas Brown's offense. And guess what?

It's just not a problem. They're taking everything and throwing it at Bryce Young and he's just eating it all up because he's a savant. A savant. Put that into the same lexicon as student of the game. I probably take savant over student of the game. I think it's better. Would you rather be called a genius or a savant? Definitely a savant.

It's more sophisticated. Oh, yes. Pinky finger up.

A hundred percent. Where's my cup here? Pinky finger up. Hello there.

I'm a savant. In the last few days. Bryce Youngs also gathered his receivers together to work out. They were in Dallas at SMU.

Why? Because apparently the quarterbacks coach or the trainer they were working with is based out of there. And the guys that were gathered among them, Adam Thielen, Terrace Marshall Jr., Leviska Shanaup, even former App State running back Cameron Peeples was there.

You know who wasn't there though? Andy Dalton. Because at this point, Bryce Young gets it. He gets it. It's his team.

And he's acting like it. This is my team now. These are my wide receivers.

Hey, let's get together. Even though this is not NFL sanctioned and technically we're off, let's get some throws in. Run some routes.

Adam Thielen, Terrace Marshall, Leviska Shanaup. And that's exactly what he did. He's doing all of the right things.

All the things you want a franchise quarterback to do. Training camp begins in 15 days. Wow.

That's it. Two weeks. Football's that close. In fact, two weeks from today, we're going to be broadcasting from ACC football media days. Three day event now where we'll be talking to all the coaches. So if you're one of those summer people who's like, who hasn't really gotten the full summer experience yet, I hate to be that guy and say, football's coming.

Football's close, or at least closer than you might think. On Twitter at WSTS radio if you want in 336-777-1600 is the phone number. Will Dalton, the executive producer of this show coming over to the crib tonight to the Graham household. Yep. Bachelorette time. Getting the big screen. Not Major League Baseball time?

100% not. So the All-Star game, if you had your choice, what goes on that screen? It's Bachelorette. We need all of our efforts to get Braden out of here tonight. Yeah. It's gotta go. He's gotta go. Charity needs to figure that out herself.

She hasn't quite discovered that yet. But let's talk about, rather than talk about Braden and the Bachelorette, let's actually talk about the Major League Baseball All-Star game for a minute. Because this feels like the year it's finally gonna happen. Tonight has all the makings for something to happen that we haven't seen happen in what feels like forever. I'm of course talking about the National League winning an All-Star game. Tonight, it feels like the night. They have not won.

They be in the National League since 2012. You wanna know how long that is? You might just say, oh, 11 years, Josh. Cool. I couldn't do that math that quickly. I went to East Carolina. We covered this.

Okay. But in baseball terms, Chipper Jones played in that game. Derek Jeter played in that game. Josh Hamilton played in that game. Jonathan Papelbon played. You just look at these guys.

They're probably some Nickelbacks. How about this? Dan Ugla played in that game. Used him in my immaculate grid the day.

Really helped me. The AL is hurting a bit. They're gonna be missing four players, including three potential starters. You have the obvious ones, Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani who are not, or pardon me, Mike Trout, the other noteworthy angel.

Don't wanna scare anybody. Shohei is gonna play. Biggest star in baseball. But Aaron Judge and Mike Trout are not. And neither is Shane McClanahan, who if he wasn't hurt, might be starting this game over Garrett Cole.

Jordan Alvarez from Houston. He's not playing either. Meanwhile, as far as I can see, the only guy who'd be playing in the All-Star game from the National League that is unable to due to injury is Clayton Kershaw.

That's not a guy who was gonna start the game anyway. The National League has an opportunity tonight. I think they capitalize on it because they have the most dominant team in the sport this year, too, in the Atlanta Braves. Eight guys from the Braves are playing tonight. Eight guys are in Seattle, including the entire Braves infield. So yes, tonight is the night for the National League. It hasn't happened since 2012. But tonight, it feels like they are due. When our next guest was inducted into the Panthers Hall of Honor, he quoted an Avett brothers lyric during his speech, which frankly should put him into Canton in my book.

So since I saw the Avett's a couple of months back, our streaming audience can see I'm rocking a Merlefest hat since the Avett's performed there and that was a fantastic evening out up on North Wilkesboro at Wilkes Community College. The great Jordan Gross is now with us on WSJS. A day after we learned a couple of your teammates, Jordan, will be joining you in the Panthers Hall of Honor.

So let's go back to the summer of 2003. You're a rookie offensive tackle taken in the first round that had to line up against somebody who was pretty good. How long did it take lining up against Julius Peppers, who at that point was the reigning defensive rookie of the year, to realize this guy's a little different?

It took about three seconds and that's how long it took for him to knock me onto my butt for the first time. It was definitely a learning experience putting on pads against Julius Peppers and something that I will never forget that first training camp and quite honestly it was every training camp. Just the biggest challenge of my life physically for that career was blocking him for seven years. So obviously, he's more than deserving to be in the Panthers Hall of Honor. He'll be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in no time and just an awesome guy on top of that.

Really cool. Really cool for him. But did you have to tell yourself back then 20 years ago, Jordan, that all the guys you're going to be facing in the league are not quite like this person? Did it discourage you at all when you had to line up with him thinking as somebody who hasn't experienced NFL football yet, this might be what every team has? Well, my teammates at that time, some of the older linemen, my coach told me that he's not, you know, he's the outlier.

He's not normal. So that made me feel a little bit more at ease. But I did recognize sometimes throughout that first season, there were guys who were a step or two below Julius Peppers. When I had to go against Michael Strahan or Simeon Rice or Kevin Carter, Javon Curse, a bunch of, you know, great pass rushers in their own right.

It definitely helped having to have somebody I could battle with every day. So a really cool time for him. Jordan Gross is with us here on WSGS.

Do you find that you have better firsthand stories of Peppers or stories that are better that were told secondhand? Because there is a Paul Bunyan element to him dating back to his Carolina days or even back to Nash County right before the Internet started to take hold. Yeah, he's a pretty quiet dude, especially when he was younger. We didn't talk like hardly at all. I mean, literally, like didn't talk to each other and not because we didn't like each other. He just one of the most quiet people I've ever met in my entire life.

So we kind of stand there waiting for one on one or something to go against each other. And if I was if he was the best professional in the world as far as body control and how he could he could go full speed until the very last millisecond and let up. So, for example, if I was doing a pass rush in team or something and I started to tip over, he got me off balance. He literally stopped and like hold me up like I'm a little kid about to fall into the swimming pool, you know, and just like he he was so good at staying up. He never would touch the quarterback.

Never would do it. He would go full speed against me until the very last second. And when I was able to stay in front of him and block him clean in a one on one or whatever happened, it was it was like I'd won the World Series.

You know, it was pretty incredible. But my stories with him all revolve around physical feats that he had performed in front of me or on the team, you know, on the field when we were on the same team that are just unmatched. There's really not a lot of good stories for off the field stuff because he was just always a quiet observer. Are those physical feats most impressive?

The ones that we also saw on the field, like the Atlanta play or the Denver near pick six? Or is it something you saw at practice that maybe we haven't seen? There's no athlete that I've seen still that is big as him.

And as long as they're meeting like arms, legs, you cover so much space. But then also a change of direction and first was just phenomenal. I mean, it's exemplified by the fact that he played basketball at North Carolina, which is especially when he was there.

It was like the Mecca of college basketball. So he would do our one on one. So in training camp and during the season, you do one on one pass rush, which means I'm blocking and you're you're trying to rush to get to where the quarterback would be standing in a game.

And it's a big deal. Everybody's watching and there's everything, you know, a lot on the line and all that. Well, Pat would line up nice and wide where like I couldn't reach out and touch him. So what that forces me to do is I got to go back to cut him off.

I got to go straight back to cut him off for his line, you know, pass to get to the quarterback. Well, he'd take about the sprint hard for two steps, boom, boom, which would make me, you know, have to fly backwards fast. And then he'd start doing these jukes like Allen Iverson, like getting ready to do a crossover and you're not sure which way he's going to go, right? Like boom, boom, boom. He'd start chopping his feet. And what would happen to me as a young guy is that would just force me to like kind of get tall as I'm going, Oh God, what's he doing?

Right. And he's 290 pounds. This is happening in front of me. And then he'd either stick his outside foot in the ground and rip underneath and really flat and go that way or go around the outside. Or the worst option was he do that stutter, stutter, and they call it a stutter bowl, stutter bowl rush. And then he just takes two hands and just jam them right in my chest.

And you can imagine what would happen sometimes. So that movement, I never, there's guys that were fast, Von Miller, or, you know, you got like the young guys now like Bosa, but they're nowhere near as big as him. And so there was really no advantage that you can take against that guy.

Jordan Gross is with us here. We need to get to Musa Muhammad as well, who you played with after talking to our mutual friend, Darren Gant yesterday, I thought of the movie unusual suspects, which had that famous line, the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. And that's because Darren said, perhaps the greatest Testament to Steve Smith's personality was that he was so eccentric.

He made Musa Muhammad seem like a quiet guy. What's your favorite moose story? Oh man, my favorite moose story. That's tough. I can't, I can't tell you an exact time that happened to happen numerous times in different versions of the same story, but we had a play, you know, moose moose is well known for catching the ball, running routes, making plays, longest touchdown reception in Superbowl history, all that stuff. Right.

That's all great. But what I love about Musa Muhammad is he took a ton of pride in blocking in the run game. So especially in 03 and then, you know, the years after, but when we would run a play called Ted crack special, which is a toss play to Stephen Davis or Deshaun Foster, whoever the case may be. Well, the tight end would block down and then I would pull out in space. There's a famous Deshaun Foster run in the playoff game in 03 against the Eagles where he scored the touchdown. I'm in front, I cut blocks in front of him on pulling that same ball. What also is happening out there at the same time is you send Muhammad block in the corner or the safety, whatever the case may be. Well, when we'd call Ted track special, I always lined up in the next to boost. Every time we call Ted track special to my side, he would always look at me with a big old smile. Like, have me up like, let's do this.

Right. So he just took so much pride in like, I'm one of you guys. I'm blocking. I'm going to knock somebody down. And even we even got to be where he'd go like he was blocking the corner. And then he released at the last second and go, you know, ear hole to safety. And that would set the corner up for me to come right behind and just clean him up. So I just had so much respect for mood and had so much fun with him run blocking on those top plays because he loved it as much as we did. I take it that's abnormal that a wide receiver would be that Jack to block. He would be you know, he would just walk up with one guy and run him all the way into the water cooler on the other sideline and then get in a fight.

And we'd have to break it up different, different mentality, but still uniquely memorable. Yeah. Jordan gross.

He's with us here on WSJS. So getting to the current team real quick, we are 15 days away from training camp. And it feels like consensus ever since OTAs that the Panthers are going to start Bryce young right away. Guys in that building have gushed behind the scenes to me about how he's picked up a pretty sophisticated offense almost in a snap right away as a rookie. But let me bring the offensive line into this. How much do you think the quality of the Panthers line with all five starters return returning affects Frank Reich's comfort level in playing a quarterback early on?

Absolutely huge. It's very similar to when we drafted cam in 11. Right. And we had an old line with the veteran guys with some young talent who had already been in place. Having Ryan Khalil at the center when cam was drafted, Ryan was able to do a ton of the protection calls and the re idea of linebackers, which way we're sliding. Ryan took a ton of that off camp played. I would have to imagine that both men and Corbett and those guys are going to be able to do the same thing.

So it's astronomically valuable to have a veteran o line in front of a young quarterback. Number one, they should do a better job of protecting him. But number two is just he won't have to direct them. They'll be able to do that.

Take a lot off his shoulders and then just the confidence that comes from all that. It's going to be exciting to watch next time we catch up with you. We're talking three a Idaho football.

How's that sound? Oh, we got a big matchup coming up. We're playing it on the on the Smurf turf of Boise State second game of the year. That's a big deal out here. You know, it might be on ESPN. They're still finalized in the TV right now.

Jordan Gross. Thanks for the time, buddy. It's good to hear your voice. Ready? All right. Do it.

Do it. All right. Listen up.

This is The Drive with Josh Cram. One of the functions of this radio show is to push against the SEC hype machine that can get a little out of control sometimes. Now, nobody's going to suggest that there is a better football conference than the Southeastern Conference.

They've certainly earned that. But we will push back when that hype machine gets a bit out of control, saying SEC basketball is better than ACC basketball. Just look at how many teams will get into the tournament. And then, despite the fact they got three more teams in this year and three more last year in that matter, none of them are playing in the final four.

While the ACC has Miami there and last year had Duke and North Carolina show up. Sometimes you just got to check the SEC hype machine, because today I was reminded of sitting in this chair. Well, not specifically this chair, because today's day two of us broadcasting from Winston-Salem after being in Kernersville for seven years, doing Kernersville or you get what I'm saying. The studio was in Kernersville for seven years.

We were doing our show there for four and a half, nearly five years until starting here off Providence Lane, day two of us being here today. I remember a few years ago when Jamie Newman transferred out of Wake to go play for Georgia. At some point during the summer, at about this time, there was just something flatly preposterous said on SEC radio waves or on the SEC network or one of these blogs that's out there.

Pow! Might have been on his show. Somebody said, and then a bunch of other people agreed to it like thoughtless idiots, that Jamie Newman, this was the comparison that was made.

You can Google it, you can find it. Jamie Newman is a combination of Cam Newton and Jalen Hurts. Paul! Jamie Newman. I covered both Jamie from Graham, North Carolina, by the way, one of my favorite cities in the state. I covered him at Wake and I covered Cam Newton and never once did I think watching Jamie Newman that those two players were similar, but that's the SEC hype machine, which brings us to Joe Milton. Fire up the Rocky top if we've got it. Joe Milton is Tennessee's quarterback and there are stories out there saying, quote, he's the next Anthony Richardson.

He can flick a ball better out of his hand than Peyton Manning did. This is the type of summer content that you get courtesy of the SEC hype machine. Watch out. He's going to be a first round pick.

Ask and you shall receive. Now this makes me want to say good things about Big Orange and Joe Milton. I kind of feel bad about what we're doing now.

You fire up the Asporn brothers and all of a sudden I melt. I'm in. Okay, now get that out of here. Get that out of here.

I'm serious what I'm talking about here. Really what the problem is. It's not even Joe Milton's fault because again, he doesn't control the media, right? He doesn't control what they say. He doesn't control the fans.

He doesn't control all that. We understand that. The problem is as good as the SEC's teams are, they don't have a lot of good quarterbacks. So when you go through the list, like 24 seven put out a list today, the top quarterbacks in the SEC WD and they're trying to tell us that Joe Milton is right there near the top. Devin Leary, former NC State quarterback who's now at Kentucky.

Okay. They're trying to tell us about Spencer Rattler at South Carolina. Maybe Quentin Jefferson, the quarterback at Arkansas. That's the list. That's the list. How many ACC quarterbacks would you take before you take any of those quarterbacks I just named?

Well, obviously I'd take Drake May. Yup. Come on now.

Yup. And they would too. And they tried. And they tried to take Drake May. And I'm not convinced who's. Give me Riley Leonard at Duke over any of those quarterbacks.

Yeah. Riley Leonard. Give me him. I heard some people actually speculating about him potentially being a draft pick.

I thought he was really good. I would say Sam Hartman, but. By the way. Can we claim Notre Dame?

And by the way, put Brandon Armstrong in that conversation. Potentially. We'll see. Well, I mean. Okay. Yeah, maybe. We'll see. Sure.

Sure. I'd take Cade Klubnick just because of how he was recorded. Jordan Travis, without a doubt. Jordan Travis is the number two quarterback on the board. If he was in the SEC, people would be comparing him to a combination of Cam Newton and Jesus Christ himself. Paul!

Paul! No, but like, we don't have much sample size of greatness from Joe Milton. Like, all we have is the Orange Bowl blowout of Clemson last year and him throwing an actual orange 100 yards. I mean, he's got a cannon. Sure, he does.

But I guess there's the Anthony Richardson cop right there. You have a cannon, but you might throw it to Vanderbilt. A couple of times. Yeah. What's that game going to be this year? The new Vanderbilt game? Does Tennessee play Vandy this year? Let's see. No reason. Just checking.

And the other thing is, he doesn't have a lot of talent around him. W.D., I don't know if you know this, but I'm a Bullet in a Call voter. Is that right?

Yeah. And that means I focus a lot on receivers. Tennessee is losing Cedric Tillman and Jalen Hyatt, who are draft picks. And Hendon Hooker from the Triad, he's a special player. So the other thing with Joe Milton is it's not just we don't have a lot of sample of excellence for him. We also just have a lot of sample of not so excellent from Joe Milton because he's been around. He was at Michigan. Didn't take over the reins there. Now he's at Tennessee. OK, I'm not completely ruling the guy out.

I'm just saying, we're not projecting he's to be like a guy taken in the top five of the draft. That's what we're doing already. We're firing up that.

You want to take a guess who Tennessee's last regular season game is against? The Doors. Right there at old Rocky Top. The Doors are coming in.

Doors. That's great. So, yeah, the hype machine. It's just a little much. It's just a little bit much. Get that Rocky Top again. I just feel like this is this is all gone bad. I should have just fired up the Rocky Top.

Yeah. Where's that Paul? We're going to make music here.

I don't think these walls are soundproof here yet, by the way. They weren't ready for it before. Like looking in what's happening on the drive with Josh Graham. The drive with Josh Graham, only on WSJS. Being that I'm a Baltimore Orioles fan, I've been all in on Adley Rutchman, the player.

That's what captivates my interest. But last night it felt like the nation was introduced to Adley Rutchman hitting on both sides of the plate. They fell in love with his family.

The fact that his dad was throwing BP to him and also falling in love with. His sister, too, got a lot of attention. And during broadcast, I think we've evolved past the point where you can be red blooded Americans in that type of way on the air. You still have corners of the Internet. I think social media is still a function of that as well, where you can express that somebody stands out in that type of way and you can go viral in that type of way. But you don't really see that on the broadcast anymore, which led me to the obvious place of Brent Musburger during a national title game ogling at AJ McCarron's girlfriend, who they panned over to in a way that even though this is only 10 or 11 years ago, it might as well be 40 years ago, given how far we've come in terms of I guess it's progress in terms of social sensibility on what's okay to say on air, how we regulate things socially.

W.D. did not know about this clip. It's amazing to me that you didn't remember this, but let's go back to that back into the game. When you're a quarterback at Alabama, you see that lovely lady there. She does go to Auburn. I want to admit that. But she also this Alabama and that's AJ McCarron's girlfriend.

Okay. And right there on the right is D.D. Bonner. That's AJ's mom. Wow. I'm telling you, quarterbacks, you get all the good looking women.

It's a what a beautiful woman. Wow. He's AJ is doing some things right down here. A youngster in Alabama.

Start getting the football out and throw it around the backyard with pop. Yeah. Whoa. Oh, you guys seeing this? What down is it?

Second down, what's the score? Whoa. Whoa. You guys seeing this? Whoa. It's amazing.

That might as well be 30, 40 years ago. Whoa. Could you imagine? Like he said he next to Herb Street. I hear Herb Street's voice.

Could you imagine if Chris Fowler did that today? Whoa. No. Good old Brit, man. God bless him.

Yes. Now let's give away little Uzi Vert tickets. Let's give away tickets to go see the Eagles with Bob Seger in a segment that all that's required in order for you to win those tickets at 336-777-1600 is to deliver a hot fire take in Josh's out of his mind. Josh is out of his mind. Crazy fool.

Just tell him stories. He's out of his mind. I'll give you an example.

As we take these calls at 777-1600. W.D. It's still summer league season. A lot of eyes are on Victor web and Yama, the most highly anticipated prospect since LeBron. Brandon Miller from the Hornets and number two pick outplayed him.

Not by a lot, but did outplay him on Friday when they faced off head to head. A lot of people liked what they saw from Scoot Henderson before he got hurt. Those were the top three picks and seem to be the top three guys in this draft. None of those three players will win NBA Rookie of the Year. Josh is out of his mind.

Why? Ted Holmgren looks pretty good and he's eligible for Rookie of the Year because he didn't play last year. Also, some other guys. How about a guy who played for John Calipari last year? Cason Wallace looking really good for Oklahoma City for Dallas. Derek Lively from Duke. Just a few names to throw out there that are not named Victor Web and Yama or Brandon Miller or Scoot Henderson that can win the awards.

I'll go out on a limb and say none of the top three picks are going to win NBA Rookie of the Year. Okay, for concert tickets, we got Dave and Clemons. Dave, what do you have for me? Give me some hot fire. Josh, I got two.

I want to jump in on this opening segment you just did. Zach Wilson's mom is hotter than all the girls you've already mentioned. Whoa! Dave is... I'm not sure he is. I don't know what Zach Wilson's mom looks like. I'm trying to remember. I remember she was a draft sensation.

Like, let's put it this way. She was a lot better prospect, it seems, than Zach Wilson was in hindsight. What was your second take?

Bingo. I got a college sports take. Michael Penix Jr., the Washington Huckeys. Michael Penix Jr. is going to win Heisman. The Washington Huskies are going to be in the final four. Josh, they got the top wide receivers class in the nation. I know you know a little something about wide receivers. Keep your eye on Roma Duzi, Jalen McNellan, the top two prospect wide receivers out west in the country. Josh, I love this Washington Huskies team.

Expect big things, Heisman trophies, maybe national championships from the Washington Huskies this year. I don't know if Dave is out of his mind. That's a great take. Thank you for the call, Dave.

Stay on hold so we can get your information and you can win your tickets. That is a hot take, so it is worthy. He gets the game for sure. However, I really like where his head's at. See, I've been doing my studying for the college football season in the last few weeks. Washington is a team I've had circled a couple of times, so you might hear more about the Huskies on this show in a few weeks. And you're right, I am a bullet in a call. Did you know that, W.D.? Yeah, I've heard it.

Let's go to Joey and Thomasville. Why did you clear your throat into the microphone there? I don't know. That's a weird move. It is. Joey, tell me what you got.

All right, listen, this is a two parter, OK? Yeah. In honor of baseball and the All-Star game. I don't know if you know this, but the second, the third and the fourth batters are all Dodgers. We got Mookie Betts, Freddy Freeman and J.D.

Martinez. They are going tonight to go back to back to back in the first inning for a home run. And they're going to propel the National League to a long, long overdue victory over the American League.

And not only that, that will then propel. I know that I know the area we live in and I know everybody's fluffing on the brakes and I know they've got a great team and I know they're playing great. But the Dodgers are going to turn it up. They're going to turn up the heat in the second half. They're going to take over. They're going to get the best record in baseball. And not only that, they are going to get revenge on the Houston Astros in the World Series and catch it in a four game sweep. Joey, there you go.

There he goes on fire. Love the calls today. Can I hang up on the call there? Yeah, I can look at you. Oh, sure. You just covered it. Joey, can you call back? Joey, this is what happened when you pressed the buttons. I'm the one pressing the buttons there. I didn't mean to hang up on you.

Call WD back. So yes, he can give you tickets and such. That's my bad.

But that's what happens when you put technology in front of me here. Yep. I'm trying to figure out, as he was talking there, what type of odds I can get for not one, not two, but three consecutive home runs hit in a game tonight. Like JC horn.

I'd like to know what value I could get for something like that. Yeah. Should I deliver this take? I've got one more. I don't know if this is going to mean anything to you. You know what? Screw it.

We'll do it. Richard Curtis is a superior rom-com director to Nora Ephraim and Nancy Meyers, making Richard Curtis the superior rom-com director in film history. Josh is out of his mind. So I was putting it side by side today because I had way too much time on my hands during the summer. And I saw that this year is the 10 year anniversary of one of my favorite movies. It's a Richard Curtis movie called About Time. Rachel McAdams stars in this. Love Actually is one of Richard Curtis's. Bridget Jones Diary, Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral. All are classics. Put that side by side with When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Married.

Those are the three heavy hitters from Nora Ephraim. I think I'm going to take Richard Curtis in that. And I don't think enough people bring that up. So there's my take there. W. Did you have something on the way out? Oh, I do.

I do. So mine's NFL related. And my take is I think Stetson Bennett is going to be the surprise of the NFL season. What does that mean? W is out of his mind. It means I think before this season is over, he's going to be the starter on the Rams. Okay. And he's actually going to have some pretty nice highlights to get along with that. Their defense is going to be terrible, so I don't I don't expect them to do anything.

But did you see the reports that apparently the Rams tried to trade Matthew Stafford in this off season? Yeah, I'm just saying that I just need to know what that means. It was a cliche of I get it. I get it. He's going to burst on.

What's that mean? Well, it means nobody's talking about him and nobody really talked about him through the draft process. I think he might be a surprise.

I think he might be the starter before the season's over. And that's been a segment we call Josh is out of his mind. I need to know how many of those movies you've seen.

I'm going to go through them really quickly again. About time. Well, love, actually. Well, Bridget Jones Diary. Well, Notting Hill. Well, Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Well, When Harry Met Sally. I don't know. Yes. Yes. Did we do that one? That was a test. Yes. You've seen it.

It was Billy Crystal. I enjoyed that one. Yeah.

And Sleepless in Seattle. I don't think you've seen. Well, you've got mail. Well, that's incredible. Is it? You're one for eight on these movies that I really love.

Sorry. So perhaps we could pick one of those for you to watch next week. Josh Graham loves to talk sports.

He also loves to take herbal body baths to keep his skin supple and youthful looking. You're on the drive with Josh Graham. There are some topics on this show we explore that are hot button issues. They can lead to some emotional responses.

If you're going to call in during the segment at 336-777-1600, a couple of rules. Make it thoughtful and let's keep it civil because things can get out of control given how hot button of a subject this is. Nick Castellanos was asked who his favorite superhero was at the MLB All-Star Game over the weekend. And he said Scooby Doo. Then he got a bunch of pushback about that answer because they just moved it along. Oh, okay. That's your favorite superhero.

Move it along. A lot of people saying Scooby Doo, not a superhero. And unlike say the university president at Northwestern, Castellanos was ready for this fight. He was ready to push back and handle some of the public backlash that was out there in response to his take.

He stayed firm to his convictions. And here was his explanation for why Scooby Doo is not just a superhero, but maybe among the best superheroes out there. I mean, well, first off, he's a dog, right? And he can talk. Fair enough.

Okay. And he saves, he solves mysteries. So I think that a dog that can talk and helps people by saving, by solving mysteries, I think is a superhero.

Every angle I wanted to attack this at can be easily diffused. I think my initial reaction might be yours. Scooby Doo is not a superhero, but then the more and more I think about it. W.D., do you have a favorite superhero?

Yeah. Spider-Man. Mine's Batman. And at the core of Batman, he's a detective.

That's what he is. Like it's almost like film war where it's like he's a detective. He takes down bad guys and villains and everybody agrees Batman is a superhero.

Well, what's Scooby Doo doo? He solves mystery. He is a detective in his own right. But he doesn't have a Batmobile and a bat cave. Yes, he does. It has mystery written right on it, the mystery machine.

And he takes down villains. Why isn't Scooby Doo? I hear it like, do you need to be able? He did say Scooby Doo talks.

That would be the only thing I'd push back on. Or it's like, oh yeah, first off, he's a talking dog. Does Scooby Doo really talk though? Like he does say R-r-r-r-r-raggy. He says things like that. But does he really like speak in coherent sentences?

That might be the only thing that I might push back. Agree. On the Scooby Doo debate. But do you have to be able to speak in order to be a superhero?

336-777-1600. I'm really genuinely interested in what people have to think on this important issue. I don't think you need to be able to speak to be a superhero. I don't think. Because then you have the Guardians of the Galaxy folks. Not like, is Groot a superhero?

Yeah, I'd call him a superhero. Okay. How much talking is Groot doing? I don't know. Well, what's the one that doesn't speak in like a tree?

That's Groot. Yeah. Does he talk a lot? I don't know.

I haven't really seen it. He talks just as much as Scooby Doo does. I know he says I'm Groot. Does he say anything else? Yeah, he talks as much as Scooby Doo does, but we're probably going to say Groot's a superhero.

I venture to say. But isn't Groot like strong? Does he have like super strength? Okay. Is he a tree? I don't know.

Okay. So you have to have super strength or something. What's Batman's superhero? Being rich?

Eh, kind of. His super power is that he's rich. He's got batarangs and he's got weapons. Okay, then David Tepper. He's a superhero now because he's super rich and brings concerts to Charlotte.

You know, with concerts. I don't think it works that way. I'm with him. I think he's right.

Scooby Doo is a superhero. If I'm wrong and Nick Castellanos is wrong, why? 336-777-1600. I want to take a hard left turn for a second. Getting to the Northwestern stuff from last night. Amid ugly hazing accusations over the last week, Northwestern decided to fire Pat Fitzgerald last night. But if you think that this is the end of the story, he's fired.

Now the story is finished. You are sorely mistaken because there's about to be a serious fallout, significant fallout that comes from this one decision. For one, Northwestern is a more coveted job than you might think it is.

We've seen many of the reaction today. Oh, well, Northwestern, that's the best coach you've ever had. No one's going to want to take this job now.

You're going to be irrelevant. This year, they might be pretty bad because they weren't really good last year. But that is thinking maybe of five, 10 years ago when the power five actually existed and it was a legit power five where there was, you know, balanced power or semi-balanced power across the country. Nowadays, everybody it seems is trying to get to one of these two conferences, the SEC and the big 10. And starting next year, the first year that they introduce whoever the next football coach is going to be, when that coach steps on the field, that will be the start of the big 10 and its schools splitting a $1 billion television deal between their members, which gives them the ability to pay a coach what would be viewed in other conferences, the ACC, the big 12 and the PAC 12. Money that you would pay if you were serious about football in the sense of like winning national championships, you can pay that type of money now at Northwestern.

And here's the key without the expectation that you're going to win a national championship. So you can get paid like you're supposed to win national championships without having to actually do so. This is the misconception that people have when talking about the best jobs in college football. A lot of people go to the SEC schools that win a ton like Alabama. Oh, that's one of the best jobs in college football.

Is it? Look at what happened to Coach Curry in the late 80s when he won two or three games and I think 1989 and got fired in his second or third year, right? Like they were having a pretty good year. But at Alabama, if you lose two games in a season, it's a nuclear crisis we're talking about. Is that really one of the best jobs to take?

Texas very similarly to that. You know what's a really underrated job? One of the better jobs in college football? NC football. Hear me out, but Dave Doran is going into year 11 in Raleigh, year 11.

And he's won what? Hasn't even been to an ACC championship game, let alone won one and is going to collect on more than $5 million this year. How many places in college football can pay you $5 million a year for you for over a decade, not even to get to your conference championship game?

There aren't many places like that. Northwestern's like that though. And they could pay more than NC State can because of this TV deal. It's a place like this, and this is probably going to get aggregated, but oh well. This was always the type of job that would concern me about Dave Claussen potentially leaving Wake Forest.

I see some of them that are ridiculous. It's like an SEC job. I don't think Dave wants back in that environment after what happened to him at Tennessee the one time he wasn't in a air quote, smaller school, a mid-major or coaching at Wake Forest or an FCS in that matter. I don't think he has much interest in that. And he's probably turned down many of those opportunities, but Northwestern has the academics. Northwestern is in the Midwest where he spent a lot of time and Northwestern's in one of those two conferences. So this is one of the few schools that I'd look at and be fearful of them being interested in Dave Claussen because I think Dave Claussen might give it some serious thought.

Northwestern's a job that I think would be more coveted than you think. But getting into more of the fallout, the university president made the same mistake that Tennessee made with the John Curry fiasco a few years ago when he hired Greg Ciano. And that university president might face the same fate as John Curry because in either case they caved to public pressure. A football coach that will remain unnamed for this segment told me after that happened, when Greg Ciano had his offer rescinded and wasn't going to coach at Tennessee, when you empower the people behind their keyboard, welcome to hell. And that's what it seems this university president did. Because when that happened at Tennessee, they weren't going to let John Curry hire another guy because he just got there.

He didn't build that equity yet. And this university president's pretty new. And this AD's pretty new because Jim Phillips has only been the ACC's commissioner after leaving Northwestern for a few years now. By the way, he's probably got to answer some questions considering how long some of this stuff has been going on. What did he know about this? He should be asked that in a few weeks at ACC kickoff. I have tremendous respect for Commissioner Phillips.

Yes, we do. But don't be surprised that the university president goes down. If the AD goes down who hasn't been around all that long. And by the way, during this entire firestorm was out on vacation, he just got back today. Adam Rittenberg of ESPN reported.

I don't know, especially when you see the baseball stuff too. I don't think Pat Fitzgerald's going to be the final name to come down on the on the guillotine here. But we're talking Fallout again. Pat Fitzgerald, he's going to be okay in this equation. Because the six month long investigation proved that he didn't know what happened or at least could have proved that he knew what happened with the hazing stuff. And that's enough for him to get another job given how good he was at Northwestern. He won at Northwestern.

Took them to a Big Ten Championship game just a few years ago. So he'll go to Alabama, be a consultant or LSU or one of those types of places. And he's going to get the bump of being a quality coach winning at Northwestern and get a better job than Northwestern if he wants one even as early as next year. And on top of that, they can't fire him for calls.

So that's probably going to be 30 million in his pocket as well. So Pat Fitzgerald, he's going to be okay. Let's share with Hayes Permar what our theme is going to be this week.

Her skips her plays with Hayes. W.D. told us earlier it's All-Star themed with the Major League Baseball All-Star game being tonight. Does that mean it's got something to do with Seattle?

It does. We're going to do like artists about and just from Seattle. So there you go. I thought we were going to get Smash Mouth. I'm very excited for this. I actually that's a really good theme.

That's a deep well of options that you can go to. And I'm sure you're probably not going to feature any of the artists that you should, but we'll figure that out a little bit later on. Hayes Permar, I actually have another game cooked up for you because when you had a radio show every day, you had a segment that I like called Rightly Rated where you would figure out if something over the weekend coming up was properly rated, overrated, underrated, rightly rated, right? These types of things. So this week, summer topics, things that are going on had me thinking about overrated sporting events. And I'm just going to throw a couple of things at you and you tell me which of the two is more overrated.

You think you can do that? Yeah. So it's not just an overrated underrated or rightly rated on one item. It's one versus another. Which one's more overrated?

Correct. And we'll start with two that are going head to head tonight. See the Hornets face, the Portland Trailblazers and Summer League. You got the MLB All-Star Game. All-Star Game or NBA Summer League?

What's more overrated? I think it might be Summer League. All-Star Game has some legit history, maybe some hope that the pendulum will swing on All-Star Games in general and professional sports and we'll care about them again.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just a dreamer. But Summer League seems to like, the only thing we really like about Summer League is that like basketball is back because it's happening during the summer and sports have been done and then all of a sudden it feels like it's back in the form of Summer League. And I think that, I think that Summer League is more overrated.

It rarely delivers. Yeah. And one of the things that just is the worst with Summer League, you get 10 fouls if you're a player. So Victor Webunyama had a bad game on Friday night. Why?

Because Charlotte decided they were going to use all their fouls on Victor Webunyama to make sure they couldn't, he couldn't have the best game that he could, which isn't really like the product you're going to see when the NBA season gets here. Next thing, NFL preseason games or Wimbledon? NFL preseason games. I'm always taking exhibition versus real thing. Wimbledon again, it's got some history and nostalgia and I respect still playing on grass courts. I like, like there's, there's not much like in sports, the fact that one of the most major tournaments is played on a surface that like nobody plays on normally.

So Wimbledon got cool traditions to it. They're not, they're getting less stuffy on their uniform stuff. Again, exhibition sports are all overrated. So I'm going NFL preseason more overrated. I made Jordan Gross's jaw actually drop when I reminded him that we are 15 days away from in Panthers training camp starting. It's right around the corner. This one's just a fun one. That's not really topical, but I just want to throw it at you. Big 10 basketball or Army Navy game? God, out of nowhere.

Man, that is tough. The Army Navy game is heavily overrated. And do anybody thinks that's mean to the troops? The question is like, why isn't Army versus Air Force a big deal, right? Come on. Like that's the troops too. And nobody gives it the pageantry.

But wait, what was the other one? Big 10 basketball. Big 10 basketball. Nothing could be Big 10 basketball for being overrated. Win a title one time, Big 10, you stink. Even about like, you would think they would luck out just by the sheer size of their conference that they would luck into an NCAA title like Virginia won that one year. But no, they can't win anything. Big 10 basketball more overrated. To quote Scott Van Pelt, who used to be an ACC guy and now roots for the Terps in the Big 10, watching Big 10 basketball is like watching fat people get it on. So I'll just leave that there where it may, where it sits.

I'll leave it there. Now let's get to skips or plays with Hayes. This is what we call a hard left turn, like Gary Hahn and Tony Haines style where we're quickly grabbing the wheel and say, Hey, you know, let's, uh, let's go to the sidelines. Tony Haines. Hayes Permar is somewhat of a Renaissance man, an expert in the finer things, but he hangs his hat on music. He was like, Oh, six in busy with the sticks. Been watching big Mike and little trinket trip.

I just need a Zion and someone he can dunk on today. Hayes will decide if this music is smash or trash blows or blows. It's time for skips or plays with Hayes. Really was a hard left turn.

We're gonna try playing around. Yeah, but anytime a dead fish is thrown into the studio and we need to transition out of something awkward for whatever reason, it is good having that Gary Hahn class. So is that is that is that the Josh Graham? The driver Josh Graham's answer to. And here's a Castellanos with a high fly ball to left field. That's the sideline. That's the local. That's the North Carolina State of North Carolina version of the fly ball. That's also I don't even want to explain all the clips that we have here.

Okay, what's the first? I think Hayes just figured out what that was from. This is a great game to play of like, what moment that like this seems like a mostly throwaway comment.

However, it actually came at a moment of high significance. So you're you're not getting like, burn Lundquist. Have you ever in your life, you know, you get let's go down to the bird. I mean, let's go down to Tony Haynes.

But for those who know, you know exactly what the references do. I feel like we need to come up with more of these great, you know, understated moments in play by play history. I think Brent Musburger we have a ton of those today. There's Brent Musburger when he ogles it at Katherine Webb. W.D.

didn't know about that. We introduced that to him and here was we gave away little Uzi Bert tickets. In fact, into this segment, we'll try to give away another pair.

Kevin Harlan gave us one of the best drops ever reading a promo based in Philly, baby. I love this single. Money longer, money longer. It's Yeah, we really do need to do something with this.

What's the first song that you have, though? We get inside track. That's right.

So we're going to. Hey, I got a question. I got I got to ask. I got to ask, since you're giving away little Uzi Bert tickets, does it count that I've seen little Uzi Bert in concert if it was like two songs at Dreamville Festival? If somebody says, have you seen little Uzi Bert in concert? Can I say yes?

Yes, because you did see him in concert. OK. But if the framing of the question is, did you see a little Uzi Bert concert concert? No. Yeah. OK. All right. All right.

I don't think little Uzi Bert's from Seattle. So what do we have? Starting with Nirvana. It's a classic. Come as you are. I hope I'm not stepping on anything else, but I'm happy you went Nirvana and not Foo Fighters because I was pegging that you'd be that guy that would choose Foo Fighters over Nirvana.

Probably would. But I went the other way today. This album came out, I believe, when I was in sixth grade. And it was a force like none other. One of my favorite things about this album is the liner notes just had one line from each song. But it was always like a random line. It wasn't like the most famous line or the line that stuck in your head or the line of the chorus. And so like listening to the song to the sixth grader, it's always this. You read all the liner notes and then you would be listening to songs and then all of a sudden you'd hear one and you'd be like, oh, yeah, that's the one from the liner note.

That's one of my sixth grade memories of this. But, yes, smells like teen spirit was like nothing else when it when it launched. And this is, of course, a play. Hey, sperm are the second Seattle based skips or plays with Hey song is a personal favorite of mine. It's from Pearl Jam.

It is even flow. We might have gotten it wrong. I thought that your look is very Patrick Swayze inspired. It might actually be very Pearl Jam inspired. You look like you could be part of the band.

I'm dropped when I was in fifth grade, like I didn't know it at the time. You know, like when I'm sitting there in fifth and sixth grade, I'm I'm listening to the Beatles and being like, oh, man, that's when like rock was cool. And then I'm like, you know, recording Pearl Jam songs off the radio. But to me, it's almost just like pop because it's playing the same. I didn't really understand rock and roll, you know. And then as you get a little bit older, with a little more depth of knowledge, you're like, well, I kind of I kind of grew up in the era of Pearl Jam or Nevada. That's a pretty decent set of rock and roll chops right there.

But this is a play. Great album. Hey, sperm are Pearl Jam is one of those bands where, like, I feel like I wish they had only made like five albums.

I don't even know how they are right now. But their first three albums or if you count this album is the first one you wish they pulled a Billy Joel and just said, you know what, I'm not going to top what I've done. Yeah, I don't I don't need any more. I don't need any more fresh stuff.

And obviously, I don't really want that, like people that are artists that want to write and evolve or whatever. But I would have just been fine with the first three Pearl Jam albums, run out over and over and over again at every concert and just give me a live version of it every now and then they drop a cover of some other song or whatever. But that that's all we get for Pearl Jam is three unbelievable albums.

And then then walk off. I've never been a huge Pearl Jam guy just because of what they influenced afterwards. And it's just this sound that Eddie Vedder makes with his throat. That's just every act. Is that what Creed and Nickelback and all them were chasing?

Yeah, interesting. I never thought of it like that. Like it's just that sound. A classic example of like him on Saturday Night Live, like I can, you know, and I don't know what the kids would say about Saturday Night Live today about whether or not that's still a big deal for a musician to perform there. But like, you know, again, I feel like, you know, I knew what it was to look at teenagers seeing Ed Sullivan, seeing the beautiful Ed Sullivan. And you're like, oh, that's kind of cool.

But, you know, that doesn't really happen today. And then now I think back and I'm like, I remember sitting there just being blown away by Pearl Jam on Saturday Night Live and be like, that is a performance right there. What is the last one? Are we going to go three for three?

I think so. There was no way that Purple Haze was not going to make this list. Jimi Hendrix is from Seattle.

Purple Haze, Permar. I mean, look, I mean, we're obviously playing that funky music. This is one of those songs that I go through every now and then where like you hear it and your ears start to tune it out because you hear it so many times. You hear it at ECU Stadium. It's almost like a soundtrack of life song.

They come out onto the field, Haze, with purple smoke. It's as good as it gets. And a guy named Steve, who's a pirate.

Steve, the pirate, is the one walking him out. You can take this on for granted. You can be like, all right, it's that song. They play the beginning again. But then every now and then you wake up out of the days of just letting the song blow by you and you sit and listen to it again.

You're like, this is unbelievable. This dude just oozed rock and roll from his fingers. It's like he didn't even know how to play guitar.

He was like the emperor unleashing lightning bolts. Hendrix just unleashed lightning bolts on his guitar. It's not like he knew how to play the guitar. He just like existed and made the guitar make noise.

It was like that. It looked that natural. And you just listen to him and you're like, this is like him dancing with his guitar, not really even like playing. It's unbelievable how natural he sounds.

And it made for a great branding opportunity for me at Halloween when I used to take off all my clothes, paint myself entirely purple and then call myself Purple Haze for Halloween. There it is. Excellent.

We have one more piece of sound to play for you before we let you go. Nick Castellanos. He has taken a ton of crap over the last few days, not because of anything related to Tom Brindaman, but because he was asked who his favorite superhero was. And he said it was Scooby Doo.

And then he justified it by saying this. I mean, well, first off, he's a dog, right? And he can talk.

Fair enough. OK. And he saves, he solves mysteries. So I think that a dog that can talk and helps people by saving, by solving mysteries, I think, is a superhero.

I think I agree with him. Yeah, I'll go superhero. I mean, then Scooby Doo like they don't overemphasize his heroic qualities, but don't we see him like run super fast sometimes like his legs spin like wheels? Like we don't talk enough about his super abilities. You know, he'll jump. Sometimes he'll float in the air following a smell like that's how good it could be. Like I think he's got superhero qualities. And obviously, again, as he mentioned, he saved the day and he's a talking dog.

And as an owner of Two Great Dames, I fully sign off on Scooby Doo being a superhero. Great stuff. Permar, we'll talk to you next week. Well, see you, boys.