Contiguous

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast. We are killing it online. Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons 3 to 7 on WSJS.

So glad to have you. On this Tuesday Drive you are listening to WSJS NewsTalk Sports for the Triad. One week from today, ACC Football Media Days will begin up the road in Charlotte. Today, we learn which players will be accompanying their head coaches to the Westin and Uptown. Predictably, a lot of quarterbacks. Looking at the locals that we have, all four schools will be sending their quarterbacks. Two names that you know. Drake May, you might know who that is, at North Carolina. Riley Leonard at Duke. And then you got two new starting quarterbacks at NC State and at Wake Forest.

Mitch Griffiths and Brennan Armstrong respectively. Since we are a week out from ACC Football Media Days, let's get to the three big topics. Since there are three days for Media Day now, see what we're doing here?

Three topics for three days that are going to command all the attention that are going to no doubt be obnoxious. And it starts with the Magnificent Seven. If you don't remember what that is, Brett McMurphy coined the term a few months ago when at ACC Spring meetings in Amelia Island, Florida. There apparently was close to being a large group, more than half the ACC, wanting to part ways. Figuring out ways to get out of the conference.

The Magnificent Seven, they were called. The only problem with that, let's say the ACC didn't exist right now. In the snap of the finger, there goes the ACC.

It just doesn't exist. Schools can go wherever they want. How many schools would immediately land somewhere else?

The answer is not seven. The answer is probably not even half of that. I don't know if you get to four schools that for sure would be landing somewhere else. So that would be a problem.

You wouldn't want to get out unless you know where you're going. And for pretty much the vast majority of the ACC schools, they probably would not have options elsewhere. Plus, it's a moot point because the grant of rights exists, which means the reality is, while this will be blustered about, while this will be talked about ad nauseam next week, and it's going to be obnoxious, it really is irrelevant.

As long as the grant of rights exists, which it does, and it will exist through 2036. So for the next decade, the way that the ACC is currently constituted will remain the way that it's currently constituted. And no one's going to poach them away because even while we're seeing Texas and Oklahoma leave to the SEC and UCLA and USC leave for the Big Ten. Why haven't those schools already joined those power conferences? With all the money those conferences have, wouldn't they just figure out a way with their bundles of bundles of cash to have them join right away? Oh, they have a grant of rights in those deals. They have TV contracts. They have already committed to those leagues. The SEC not messing with that. The Big Ten not messing with that either.

Turns out those are pretty ironclad. The second topic, the Drake May hype train. Oh, boy, we're going to get there because it's in his hometown. It's in Charlotte.

There's a lot of media from the state of North Carolina. That's going to be represented. He's going to be the preseason player of the year. You're going to have all this hype for Drake May. You're going to have some pro town, too. So you're going to have a lot of people that cover the NFL that are specifically interested in talking about him as a pro prospect.

That's going to go through the roof. Even though it's not a large sample size we have for Drake. He wasn't so great towards the end of the year against Georgia Tech and NC State and against Clemson. He wasn't so great in those games. That isn't to say he's not a good player or he's not going to be taken high in the draft next year. It is to say there are some questions and it's not a large sample size that we have for him.

And perhaps the most obnoxious topic is likely going to be this. Is Florida State back? A year after the other ACC school in the state of Florida had a similar question attached to them with Mario Cristobal at Miami and the U spending money. Is the U back?

Turns out they weren't. And I venture to guess Florida State probably isn't back either. Always fade the trendy preseason team. A year ago, it was Miami. The year before that, it was North Carolina. This happens.

It almost feels like every single year. Florida State's the trendy team fade the trendy team, especially when they might have the most obnoxious fan base in the ACC. On Twitter at WSJS radio, if you want in on the show, that's where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch. Will Dalton is the executive producer of this show. W.D. one week till ACC Media Days in Charlotte. It's exciting.

Ready to go. It is almost that time again. Buckle up football.

Yeah. And let's continue on football in the NFL. This is something I look forward to every year. Jeremy Fowler releases a story on ESPN where he speaks to a ton of NFL execs. That's GMs, that's scouts, that's coaches. And pulls them on specific players, gets them to rank the best players at certain positions. Now, we're not going to get into tight ends or wide receivers in this segment, but you can, I'm sure, find those. We're not going to talk about line play since it's sports talk. Let's get to the quarterback.

That's what people care about the most. Let's get to those rankings. A top 10 list was released yesterday.

And at the very top, you're not going to be surprised to find out. Patrick Mahomes is number one. At number two, it's Joe Burrow.

But this is the part that was interesting that Jeremy Fowler pointed out. There was a wide gap in the voting between those top two and Josh Allen at three. And there was a gulf between Josh Allen and the other quarterbacks that made up the top 10. Josh Allen was kind of in a tier of his own, which tells me. Oh, the league doesn't quite know what to do with Josh Allen yet.

We don't know exactly who he is yet. Is he closer to that top of the top rung of Burrow and Mahomes? Or is he going to be more like a Matthew Stafford?

A Lamar Jackson, a Dak Prescott, which is a guy that you want, but a quarterback that's more fine than all time elite, deserves to be on the cover of Madden on a regular basis, like he's going to be this year, like truly the creme de la creme at quarterback. This is the year that's going to be decided. And it feels like we should talk about the Bills more often, since they take all the Panthers. Brandon Bean, the general manager, was an assistant GM for the Panthers before becoming a Bills GM. Sean McDermott, Ron Rivera's defensive coordinator once upon a time, and many players on the roster checked that box, too. This is the year we learn who Josh Allen really is. And there are concerns in this story that are being voiced that simply were not being voiced in past years. Like, remember a year ago when the Bills were the absolute odds on favorite to win the NFL and they were just going to take the league over by storm? This year, you're hearing some critiques. This is something that was said by a scalp to Jeremy Fowler. His top 20 plays in a game are as good as Mahomes, but then Buffalo will go nearly a half and do next to nothing.

That doesn't happen to Kansas City. Close quote. Another scalp.

I think he got worn down mentally and physically at the end of last year. Uh oh. Some criticism. Some knocks. Let him not meet expectations one more year.

And then what are you going to hear, W.D.? You're probably going to see that stock come down even further, because I mean, I mean, last year they were overwhelming favorites. They blew out the Rams in L.A. Yeah. Oh, just give them the Super Bowl trophy already. So what does he need to do to meet expectations? He needs to win an MVP or to go to a Super Bowl. I'm not even going to say win a Super Bowl.

Go to a Super Bowl, win an MVP. Six of the other nine in the top 10 that was released by Jeremy Fowler did one or the other or both. He's done neither.

And when you look at two of the three that didn't out of those nine. They're on their rookie deal. Josh Allen no longer is. I don't know if the odds are in his favor to do this either. Like he's not on this rookie deal that makes things tough.

You got Aaron Rodgers in your division now with the Jets, the Dolphins. They're ascending. I don't know if they're getting worse.

I don't know. I think this is a year we're going to learn a lot about who Josh Allen really is. Am I really getting calls to do a five year anniversary?

Best wishes for Josh Graham. Is that what this has come to? Reminds me of the pandemic days when everybody had a birthday and they hit everybody else up. And we're like, hey, since so-and-so video for their birthday. Come on. Five years. I got to write a song for that or something. No, I refuse.

You'll just get a simple no-song message from me. And I have no doubt that this was the greatest five-year anniversary show in the history of Triad Sports Radio. Congrats, Josh Graham.

Keep up the good work. Typical Permar. Hayes Permar of Sports Channel 8. That's right on brand on what he's found to do. Robert Walsh, former producer of this show, who's now a producer extraordinaire in Nashville, which is kind of the center of sports right now when you consider they just signed DeAndre Hopkins with the Titans.

And you've got SEC media days that are happening there as well. So does that mean we brought Robert back in order to talk football and talk about national? Of course not.

No. Robert Walsh, welcome back to the show, buddy. You want to talk some baseball?

What the hell's going on? I'm ready to talk somebody, you know, out of anybody you could have on this show. Don't mind me.

I'm just smoking a cigarette on my back porch. Out of anybody you could have called to talk about baseball. You knew the one guy you needed to call was good old Bert. And I'd hook you up with some baseball knowledge. That is why I called you.

In fact, it's funny that Permar brings up going back to the pandemic because I don't know about you, buddy. But we did the proudest I've been of what these five years have been. Really, my radio career thus far is the three months of shows that we did together without having any live sports to talk about. We had to figure things out. So yesterday, DJ and I, we were going through some of the old things that we did. We had like the sports time machine thing where we went back in time this week, 10 years ago or 20 years ago. And there was another one. We had trading card war where we went head to head. We got trading cards and then we put guys into given categories.

But no example stands out to me more. Given how actual little you know about baseball, then the one team or the one league that was in action, while all the other sports leagues that felt like in the world were dormant, was the Korean Baseball League, the KBO. And in that team, in that league was a team called NC Dinos. Any relation to North Carolina?

Absolutely not. That's not why they're called NC. But that didn't stop us from claiming them. And every day on the show, we more you would showcase your hardball knowledge by telling us what happened with the NC Dinos Korean baseball team.

That's what stands out to be the most from, you know, the pandemic. So it's only fitting on the five year anniversary of the show. We bring you back to bring back one more edition of Dino Staley. To baseball. Come on, Andre.

We need mucho home runo. Hey, Robert. Oh, my Lord.

Did I make this or did DJ make this? I forget. But mucho home runo. I totally forgot about. It might have been a little complicated now.

But anyway, it's just because it happened in 2020. Don't mean I forgot anything about the diners, but it looks like the diners forgot how to play baseball. They're not in their winning ways. They were at the top of the standings last time we checked in on them. And now they're in fourth place. They're not doing too bad. They're sitting just a hair above 500. They won 39, lost 38.

I don't know how the hell you draw in baseball, but they got one draw. And they're actually coming off two games where they just couldn't do nothing wrong. They beat the Lotte Giants 11 to 2 last Wednesday. Last Thursday, they beat them again 13 to 3. They had the smack down on them Giants from wherever the hell they are in Korea. But if you think back to 2020, we had one hero that year, the MVP of the NC Dinos, Park Seok Min. He's still there. He's still hitting dingers, man.

Well, I mean, kind of. He's only hit one home run compared to 20. In 2020, this dude could not be stopped. His batting average was 300. He hit one hundred and nine home runs this year. Oh, he's only hit one. That's that's incredible. Like only one home run.

He's a 300 hitter back in the day. That's that's crazy. Yeah, we didn't even get any gear. It was a missed opportunity. Like they had an ECU pirate on the team at the time. And I don't know, man, it doesn't that stand out to you? Was that the segment that stood out to you the most about those three months of doing radio?

I don't know. That time that time machine was terrible. Oh, Lord, that was bad.

But we made it work. We had the first dance or what was that? Michael Jordan, the last dance, the last dance.

I hope you dance. Who sings that? Well, Dalton, who does sing that?

I don't know. Lord, this is the part of the music. This is the part you got to watch movies. Oh, wait. We now have a drop. Anytime he doesn't know something rather than saying, I don't know, because that's not interesting sound at this point.

We instead play this drop. Well, it's just Steve Forbes. Yeah. Celine Dion sings that song. I that was my.

Don't don't do the snap thing. Oh, I knew that. I was thinking about the girl who sung the Titanic song. Oh, and I couldn't think of it. You know what's funny?

I actually just played a game with you. It wasn't Celine Dion. It was it was Liam Lomax. I mean, I was thinking that's why that's why I was mocking you for doing the snap. Just hit the Steve Forbes sounder and call it a day.

I really thought it was Celine Dion. Yeah, I know you did. That's the point.

You don't know anything. All right. So that's one game. But while we're talking baseball, it's amazing. How did Robert get to two segments that involved him and the sport of baseball?

How did this happen? Well, this was the second one. Robert doesn't know diddly squad about baseball. Strike one. When Robert hears strikeout, he thinks all about his failed past relationships. Strike two. When Robert hears breaking ball, he winces.

Gas. Get the point. Right. While everyone else is swinging for the fences, Robert is simply trying to get on base. This is baseball for dummies. And if memory serves, you just tell us something you're curious about with baseball and we try to help you. WD might not know a lot about anything pop culture related, but he does actually know a lot about baseball. He played collegiate baseball, so he might actually be able to help you as might I be able to Robert Walsh. So baseball for dummies.

What do you have? Okay. First off, that's that's the image and I'm used to that. That's the genius that is Robert Walsh. That was some good stuff.

Gas. That's classic. Okay. Rather than me asking y'all about something about baseball, I wanted to pitch you something. I watched the home run derby and I'm going to be honest, I fell asleep before I saw Vlad win the home run derby. So I had a pitch for something and you guys just need to tell me if you think this would work to add a little bit of entertainment.

It shows you up a little bit, if you will. Yeah. So the home run derby, I think they should have a celebrity portion of this, but not to see which celebrities can hit home runs. I think they should have a bunting contest. You bring you bring in John C. Riley, you bring in whoever the hell else is a fan of baseball. You put some targets all out over the field and you see who is the best directional boner.

Would that be would that be a draw? Would you watch Will Ferrell try to bunt balls at the home run derby? Well, let me actually let me answer your question by also asking you a question and say, did you already know that they have a celebrity softball game? During home during All-Star Weekend for baseball. I had no idea. Is that televised? They used to televise. I think it's I don't know if they do it anymore, but I remember Jimmy Kimmel used to rake in the in the celebrity softball game. Kate Upton was pretty good.

Yes, she is. Yeah, I mean, Justin Verlander is her husband. So I mean, pitching wise, probably got some tips there.

Don't make it. There it is. No, but I think I think you might be on to something when it comes to bunting.

It's become a lost start in baseball. W.D., what would you think if it was like a what Robert just described, molded with curling where, like to a degree, you know how you have the target that you have to try and reach if you're, you know what curling is? Yes. Oh, curling. I thought you like arm curls.

No, no. Yeah, not for your biceps, goober. No, we're talking about curls. Yeah. Curling. No, I know what you're talking about, where they have targets.

Yes. So what if it was like bunting and you're trying to get close to the center and then some guys could try to knock yours out of the way? It's almost like a shuffleboard effect to a degree.

And you see what I'm getting at here? It's like bunting meeting shuffleboard slash curling. I don't know if a celebrity bunting contest would work. Would you like that in Major League Baseball, Robert? Would you watch that more than the home run derby?

I'm not going to lie. I stole this from Japanese baseball. And when they did it, it was electric.

The crowd was going crazy. It was it was nuts because it's not about seeing big buff men swing a bat at a ball. It's about seeing its precision. It's about it's about.

Exactly. It's touch. It's no it's no in the field.

And how your angle can play off the ball. I think Kate Upton will be a hell of a bunner. I think anybody that any celebrity you'd want to put in there, I'd watch it. Now, I'm looking at the celebrity softball game and this looks like one of the biggest drags of all time.

I think I'd rather watch a celebrity yard mowing competition than watch this celebrity softball game. Touch. Did you hear Robert Miles Sanders said that Bryce Young had lovely, lovely touch. And he also said that Andy Dalton was a future Hall of Famer. Mm hmm. Well, he's entitled to his own opinion.

What was better, Robert's reaction there or Steve Forbes's reaction whenever, well, Dalton doesn't know anything. Yeah. Yeah. There it is.

And that's been baseball for dummies. Hey, before you kick me off of here, did you ever get that money from Armando yet? But we're going to see him face to face. It's going to happen. So I offered to give it all to charity.

So we'll we'll see. Well, you know what they say, if you can't give it all to charity, you might as well keep it all for yourself. I'd offer him I would break into your studio. You have the master copy, but I think I could get a hold of it.

Armando for one thousand dollars. I will make sure. Lord, you know how I hate that. Yes. Oh, I hate that.

Armando, I can make it disappear for just a grip real quick. I didn't even say it. I know you did say it again. You did do that.

You did. You didn't even know five years, Robert. Five years. Like, remember, we thought he was going to be a one and done. Remember that. I know that was that was the twenty nineteen two thousand and twenty season.

The pandemic had not even happened yet. So really, it's been four years, but it's going to be five that this thing is just continued. But I appreciate you, buddy.

I appreciate you for making the time and for always playing along with our nonsense. Five years that this show has been in existence. We'll see how much longer we can go before I ultimately say the thing that will engulf it in flames.

I would be upset if you didn't let me say it, so hopefully you don't say it. Here's to five more years. W.D., remember where that dumb button is.

He was never voted most likely to succeed. You're such a loser. But then again, were you?

The very concept is unimaginable. You're on the drive with Josh Graham. Hey, Josh, Will Palanchuk here from WFNZ and the Charlotte FC Radio Network. I'm so happy to congratulate you on five years at WSJS. It seems like just yesterday you and I met for the first time at ACC Media Days, and it's been a whirlwind ever since. I'm so happy to see all the success that you've had in afternoon drive. I'm also happy that it's also led to you guys carrying Charlotte FC on the air and our weekly chats together. Hope everything continues to be successful for you and W.D., and we'll talk soon.

Appreciate you. That's really nice. It was last year at some point where we were invited to a match and we went. And Will was asking about us potentially partnering with Charlotte FC, and we brought that back to the folks here at WSJS.

And I didn't know what would come out of it, but something good did come out of it. And we're happy that Charlotte FC is part of our roster. We have a lot of neat things that we have partnered with. We carry ACC sports with Duke and we have some other fun things planned. We have high school football again that's on tap this year.

And we're very excited that Charlotte FC is part of what we do at WSJS. Speaking of our guy, Will Pelagic, though, apparently Russell Brand has a soccer podcast that he does. He's an interesting figure. When you think of Russell Brand, what do you think of as somebody who's younger than me, Will? Well, I know he's a movie star and as not.

Is he? He had like a few. There was a two or three year stretch where he appeared in some things, but really, what do you know him most for? Podcast interviews or like being on Conan or Late Night. So you see him on Late Night, you see him on YouTube, you see him on clips like that. He has become a bit of a political commentator in recent years. What he was most known for was not a movie role, even though his performance and forgetting Sarah Marshall as Aldous Snow and then and get him to the Greek after that. Incredible. One of the more underrated comedies of the 2000s.

Both of those movies, really. He was probably most known for being Katy Perry's husband. That's probably what he was most known for, because when you marry into that type of. You know. That type of marriage, when you get involved in that, that elevates you to a certain level. But that happened at a certain point where Aldous Snow and Katy Perry, their careers were just taking off and then out.

I said out of snow. Russell Brand and Katy Perry's careers were just taken off. And then Russell Brand's stopped from a acting perspective while Katy Perry's did not. That's the thing with Hollywood. When one person gets a lot more famous than the other. The marriage just never works. So you think that had to do with their split?

Obviously, I guess it happens. It's like I had forgotten they were together. It's like when we talked about a movie, Cruel Intentions, that came out twenty five years ago, which I'm sure you've seen. Cruel Intentions with Reese Witherspoon, Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Well, but. It was Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Felipe who were dating, and Ryan Felipe was a big deal at that time. Reese Witherspoon was just emerging on the scene. She had just done the movie Election Day at that point, too. Or it might have been just called Election. Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Felipe, they were married. A couple. Ryan Felipe's career stopped.

Reese Witherspoon's continued to take off. The marriage didn't work. Well, there are just many examples of that. And the reason I bring up Russell Brand again is because he was talking about our guy, Will Pelagic, who's been mocked in recent weeks, particularly by the British, because they say that he sounds like Mickey Mouse. That's not nice.

We don't mock people for how their voices sound. We don't do that. Now, let's hear what Russell Brand had to say on a soccer podcast about our guy, Willy P. Let's look at this U.S. commentator sort of graduating in Mickey Mouse over the course of a goal. On the right side, stepping over, sending it back for Lindsey. Which is back into the area for Sverdersky. One touch and he scores! Another one for Sverdersky!

And that one was more impressive than the first! They stayed in that register for too long. It's far too long. You can still go, oh, goal! And go there for a minute. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Don't stay there. Oh, man, actually, I like it here.

I'm going to stay like this for the rest of my life. It's pretty good. It's a pretty good impression by Russell Brand at the end. It's pretty good.

Good for Willy P. He's on the radar of a lot of people now. A Charlotte FC is in the midst of its one month break that the MLS schedule has. Chelsea going to be playing at Keenan Stadium tomorrow, by the way.

They're having their media availability right now. Chelsea is on campus. One of their players was just quoted as saying that, this is fantastic, that Chapel Hill and North Carolina's campus reminds him of High School Musical. I could see it. I got no other context, but that's what he said. Why can you see that?

Maybe you can help me out here. Well, I mean, I'm trying to remember the campus from High School Musical. Maybe he's talking about specifically when they went to college, but I don't know, I could see it.

Wildcats, Torrey Hills, I don't know. Ask me if I've seen High School Musical. Have you seen High School Musical? Wow, something I've seen that you haven't. Yeah, I haven't seen that. How about that?

I have no interest in seeing it, frankly, too. The Drive brought to you in part by our friends of Crossroads Ford of Kernersville. Where? Crossroads Ford of where, W.D.?

I think you're looking for Kernersville. Yes, they make it easy for you to buy a new Ford. It should be easy, right? Why would it be made hard? Why make it hard? Why all the games? Why all the gimmicks?

They got none of those. So visit John. Go see them today. Get a completely redesigned F-150. Days like this make me wish I had a big old truck with the AC on. Yeah, the best selection and the best prices in the tryout on new Fords, cars, trucks, SUVs, certified pre-owned vehicles.

They will get you taken care of. Crossroads Ford, kernersville.com. They are right off I-40, exit 203, highway 66. Kernersville!

Highway 66 in Kernersville. Let's get to some SEC Media Day sound very quickly. Here was Greg Sankey, the SEC commissioner, speaking about why they weren't able, during their league meetings in the spring, to approve a nine-game conference schedule for when Texas and Oklahoma join next year.

There were a lot of issues. So if you think about what we're going to see next year, we have expansion. We had two historically prominent football programs in Oklahoma and Texas, and not only prominent, but successful. We have the college football playoff changes.

Lingering questions about what that may or may not mean. Discussions about non-conference scheduling. And when I was asked in Destin about timing for the 25 decision, we could go out to Destin next year. The earlier we do that, the less pain we cause for the discontinuation of non-conference games. So it's about non-conference games. There are some schools that are locked into rivalries. Hey, if we play nine conference games that are tough in the SEC, man, it's not fair if South Carolina has to play Clemson every year or Florida has to play Florida State.

So on and so forth. So they still have to get that hammered out. I still think eventually they'll go to nine because you do want to play those rivalries every year. But we'll see on that. They have a couple of years of wiggle room before that becomes an entirely pressing issue. Then you have him being asked about whether or not expansion's done at this point.

And here's how he answered. Do I think it's done? People will say, well, I get to decide that. Right now it appears others are going to decide that before we have to make any decisions. And so my view is we know who we are. We're comfortable as a league. We're focused on our growth to 16. We've restored rivalries. We're geographically contiguous with the right kind of philosophical alignment. And we can stay at that level of super conference when you go bigger.

There are a whole other set of factors that have to be considered. I'm not sure I've seen those teased out other than in my mind late at night. Wow. Contiguous. What a word. When's the last time you heard the word contiguous used seamlessly in a sentence like that?

I'm not sure I've heard it once. Contiguous. You want to try and spell it real quick? C-O-N. Slow down here. Yeah. C-O-N. T. Yeah. I. Yeah. G. Oh, this is easy.

U-O-U. Wait a minute. Oh, no, no, no. Go back. No. G-U-O-U-S. Bang bang.

Would you just look at it? Look at you. There you go. Sharing a common border.

Touching. That's what contiguous means. All those words were.

It's a word salad. It didn't mean anything. Oh, another conference will probably figure it out.

If he felt someone that was worth adding, he probably would have added them by now. Except in the ACC because the grant of rights prevents him from doing so. That's just kind of where it is. You're on the drive with Josh Graham. W-S-J-S. Josh Graham.

It's Ryan McGee of ESPN, SEC Network, Marty and McGee. ESPN Radio and countless other projects and books that you have thankfully let me come on your program for the last five years and shamelessly promote, advertise whatever term you want to use. And thank you for your friendship. Congratulations on an amazing five years. And thank you for your unofficial.

It's not in writing, but it is written on my heart. Your co-authorship of Welcome to the Circus of Baseball. That's true. We did inspire a book among the things we've accomplished in five years.

Indeed. Early on McGee joking a couple of key people need to die. But if they die, I'm going to write this book consisting of stories. I've been telling you minor league baseball stories for years.

That book got written and published this year. It's kind of an amazing thing. Ryan McGee really do appreciate that. Now being joined by somebody I really admire as well, who hails from the capital city of Raleigh, North Carolina. It's Joe Giglio from the O.V.S.

and Jillio podcast. Joe, it's good to have you on in this time slot because at a prior stop, you were prevented from coming on during this time slot. We kind of were working at similar times. So it's good to see you. Thanks for making the time. What are you more excited about over the next two weeks? The ACC media days next week in Charlotte or the Wyndham championship in Greensboro the week after? I thought you were going to give me the choice of the open championship this week, because as you might know from listening to O.V.S and Jillio, my FanDuel account is now up and running.

It's just a short drive up to the to the border for me to reload. No, I'm definitely looking forward to the Wyndham. Definitely. And I'll be there Thursday to play in the media rounds.

I'm excited about that. But I love the PGA Tour. I love Sedgefield. All the history there.

As you know, I don't have to explain any of it to your listeners and your viewers. Such a great Donald Ross course and the birthplace of the ACC always will be so. Yeah, pumped. Totally pumped for that. You're going to be doing your podcast from there one day. We're going to be broadcasting from days one and two. They have a set up underneath a tiki hut inside Margaritaville.

Margaritaville? Yeah. It's going to be a real thing. And in terms of getting prepared from when betting is legal in the state of North Carolina, courtesy of this drop that we were gifted by our friend J.C. Horn on the Carolina Panthers, we are ready for that, too.

Send me that cash out, family. Yeah, we got to when that gets here, when that gets here, we will be taking full advantage. Let's talk football, though, before we get to the golf. They're going to be I think since there are three days to ACC media days now, three days, I'm going to give you three choices here in terms of the most obnoxious topic that we're going to be hit over the head with over the three days that we're in Charlotte. These are your choices.

Is FSU back? Drake May, the Drake May hype train. The Magnificent Seven. Those are your three choices.

Which are you least interested to hear about? I think the Magnificent Seven was a figment of our friend, our professional colleague. I'm blanking on his name. Brett McMurphy. Brett McMurphy. Brett McMurphy. I think that's a figment. Well, not a figment.

It's probably something FSU's athletic director said to Brett McMurphy, but I don't think in real life they've ever gotten together and call themselves that, if you will. I'm totally OK with any Drake May hype. I'm surprised we haven't start.

Well, we will start with the discourse once the draft starts, of course. But in my opinion, I'd rather have Drake May than Caleb Williams. I don't know why we think this is some sort of I've seen a lot of talking points with Drake May. Oh, he's going to be the second quarterback taken.

And I'm like, you guys will actually watch Drake May play. It's fairly remarkable. Looking forward to see. One sec. Let me put a pin in that for a second. Whoa. Yeah, that's a take.

Can I push back on it a little bit, though? Yeah, absolutely. OK, see, I view my problem with Drake May very similar to the problems that I had with Anthony Richardson in this past draft cycle.

And it's one of sample and that, OK, you we saw what you could do, your gifts at your best. We've seen that. And that's understandable how that can translate to the NFL. But then you lose to Vanderbilt with North Carolina.

They were so good through those first those first eight games. It's kind of hard to reconcile that, given the small sample with Georgia Tech, with the NC State and Clemson games towards the end of the year. Obviously, NC State and Clemson's defense is really good. But then the Georgia Tech piece of it kind of puzzling, too.

That's the only piece. It's the sample part that I have a problem with in terms of how we performed at the end of the year. Yeah, I mean, that's fair. But if Josh Downs catches the ball against Georgia Tech, they win the game.

And are you really thinking that much more or that much less of Drake May based on one drop at the end of the game? You know, I think you're right to look at it and go, what was it, 13 games? Yeah. Well, you want to see more.

The Bill Parcells rule, I think, was 30. So you want to see more. No doubt. But the pedigree is there. The accuracy is there. The arm talent is there. The size, the frame.

This is something that I'm going to keep coming back to. And of course, you know, Caleb Williams is not Kyler Murray. He's bigger than that. But I'm not blown away by Caleb Williams as a prototype NFL quarterback. That doesn't mean I don't think he can't have success because he's a better runner than Bryce Young, for example.

He's also a little bit bigger. But I'm just not. Give me your guy. I mean, it's your guy. Lincoln Riley is your guy. I don't I don't know why you don't even claim you have a picture. I can't tell right now what these pictures are that you have up there. But you should have like at least a voice message from Lincoln Riley or something. That's your guy, man. Yeah, I probably should just get the picture. I don't have it here, but it should be the picture of me, Lincoln and Kaitlyn like his daughter. Well, congratulations, first of all, for your for your tenure.

That is remarkable. But Lincoln Riley is your guy. It's true. But now the question becomes who in the NFL is actually successful of of Lincoln Riley's guys? He can get you there. He could definitely get you to Heisman. I guess Jalen Hurts is the answer. But do we count him? I don't know.

It's a vine vendor. On the on behalf of my guy, I take great offense to that. You're not you're not on the Florida State train, are you? I think Florida State is capable of winning the ACC this year, but it will require them going to Clemson to win that game. Exactly. Because Clemson is not going to win, not going to lose to other games. They're not going to lose at home to FSU either. Right.

So that's the conundrum there. Now, that's barring an injury. I also think speaking of Lincoln Riley, Garrett Riley, I think that's probably the biggest addition in the ACC this this offseason. Brendan Armstrong up there for NC State. But I you know, I think Clemson went out and got a really good one. I also really like their wide receivers this year.

Like this is the first time. Yeah. First time since since T. T. Higgins and all those guys are there. Antonio Williams and Bo Collins, that tight end that they had, that killed Wake Forest and that that double overtime game last year. I really liked him.

I think he's a junior now. They got dudes. And then I didn't even mention Will Shipley's name.

Yeah. We have a difference of opinion on their skill players. Your boy, your boy, Will Shipley. I know Wolfblood, 24 family members who graduated from NC State.

It's painful to think about. I think he's a really good college player. I just don't think he's a, I don't think he's necessarily a difference maker.

You don't see him pop. My standard for Clemson is Clemson standard, which is C.J. Spiller, Sammy Watkins, you know, that those home run hitters that they had, I don't think they have those guys.

And that's my concern. I do think Garrett's going to go a long way in fixing some of their problems on the offensive side of the ball. And obviously, Soul K. Klubnick, not a, not a secret that I wasn't a huge D.J. Uwe Ungolale fan. He decided to play his ass off against Wake Forest and NC State, though.

So, I mean, those are basically the only two good games of his entire life and decided to put them together in back to back weeks last year and lead Clemson to the ACC title. Oh, it's still on radio, too, by the way. I'm in the studio. I'm sitting here. You got to remind me.

Oh, no, you're doing you're doing fantastic. Joe. Joe. Jillio is hanging out with us. O.V.S. and Jillio.

No, if you want great entertainment, find the postgame press conference that Dabo Sweeney had after the Wake Forest game last year and him spending half of it grandstanding about how the media was wrong to ask questions about D.J. Uwe Ungolale. That that looks great in hindsight. Now, let's get the golf real quick. How many times does Rory McIlroy have to miss the cut as a favorite in a major before we stop? Vegas stops listing him as a favorite in major championships like he is this week for the Open Championship. The problem is he is the best golfer when he's on his fastball. I will argue he's actually better than Tiger Woods when he's on his fastball, better than Rahm and Scheffler.

Oh, yeah. Not even a question when he's on when he's on. And here's the most impressive thing about what he did last week in the Scottish Open. It's one of the few times I've seen Rory McIlroy start poorly and around and grind and mentally get through a round to finish the way they did, which was spectacular.

He normally he runs hot and when he runs molten hot like he did at Valhalla PGA Championship, you're like, OK, well, this guy's ridiculous. Right. But I think you have to make him the favorite in the same way that you can't with LeBron James, whatever NBA team is on.

You have to set you have to adjust those lines. Dallas Cowboys, Alabama football. You know, public money is is the biggest thing that you'll see in the gambling market. So it's not necessarily what the book thinks is going to happen. It's what hedges their bets. Because too many people, too many too much of the public money will be on Rory, particularly in a week after he just won a tournament in the fashion that he did, that you can't expose yourself with even an 11 to one number. Julia, give me one name that you have circled a couple of times this week for the open championship.

Yes. So I made a run up to New Jersey last week and once I was in Virginia, I downloaded that FanDuel app and the first bet I placed was on Danny McCarthy to win the John Deere. That didn't happen. But the second bet I placed was on the Hove, the young Hove, Victor Hovland to win the open championship. So that that is currently where my my wagon is hitched.

I really do like the Victor Hovland pick. That's pretty good. Follow him on Twitter at Jillio underscore OG support to stuff that he's doing as well on YouTube. You might be watching on YouTube right now.

It's just a couple of clicks away. Ovious and Jillio is the podcast. Welcome back to afternoon three to six terrestrial radio, Joe Jillio. It's good to see you. And I look forward to seeing you multiple nights next week. Can't wait. Josh, appreciate you having me on and coming back anytime.