Pop-Tarts Are Mid

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast.

Three internet sensations, guys! Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons, 3 to 7 on WSJS. Welcome to a Tuesday Drive, broadcasting live from the Weston in Uptown Charlotte, ACC kickoff.

Yes, live action, Tracey, as we broadcast live from here today, tomorrow, and on Thursday. It's going to be a fantastic week, and the event kicked off this morning with ACC commissioner Jim Phillips speaking for about an hour. And, W.D., you will not be surprised to learn, Jim Phillips, not the most fun listen this morning.

Especially for folks in the Triad. Now, even though he didn't specifically talk about Greensboro when bringing up league headquarters, it was triggering. Folks in the media even cracking jokes. Is Josh Graham twitching somewhere? I was in the, going up the escalator, and it was Larry Sorenson who pointed out to me, I was thinking about you. I was thinking about you when they brought up the ACC.

Yeah, not thinking about that guy. Hadn't thought about Mr. Boeheim in quite some time. But, in the first couple minutes of his comments, he talked about the new league headquarters in Charlotte and how happy they were to be in the Queen City.

This is how it sounded. Let me start by acknowledging the city of Charlotte, our new conference home. Just a few blocks away on the 12th floor of the Legacy Union building, renovation work will soon be complete and our staff will be moving into this space in the weeks ahead.

Since announcing our relocation back in September, there has been a lot of positive energy between the city, the conference, and our membership. Remember how long that issue dragged on? Where we'll have this done by the end of the calendar year.

We'll have this done by the ACC tournament that following year. We'll have this done by spring meetings, and then there was still nothing to talk about. And as he mentioned there, it dragged out all the way until last September. What I'm being told is the same thing's happening when it comes to actually moving into the damn building. Because they were supposed to, this is my understanding, they were supposed to move into the new building a couple blocks away from here by the first week of August. Which, if you're looking at your calendar, is next week. That isn't going to happen. They're hoping now, by the start of football season, to have everything ready at the new league headquarters in Uptown Charlotte.

But, given how, what we've learned about how this issue can drag out, and how that timeline can change, I wouldn't be so optimistic about it. And all along in this entire process, the people that I feel for the most with this. Not just the folks in Greensboro who lost the league headquarters despite the fact they wanted the league headquarters more than anyone, and had the best offer as far as we could see on the table.

No, it's not just them. It's the employees that worked in Greensboro in Grand Hover. Who, many of which, are moving to Charlotte. Who can't move into their offices right now because those offices are not ready. So, guess what?

They drive back to Greensboro in order to work on a week-to-week basis. So, that's one thing from Jim Phillips. He closed his 30-minute opening remarks with a statement, a pre-prepared comment on Northwestern.

By the way, 30 minutes? Dear goodness. John Swafford, we used to make jokes about how long-winded he could be with his opening statements. He never really got to 30 minutes, though. That's what Jim Phillips does, though. It's the Jim Phillips administration that we're talking about. And here was the comment that everybody was waiting for in the weeks following him being named a defendant in at least one lawsuit, given the fact he used to be the AD at Northwestern. This is a very difficult time for the Northwestern community. And my heart goes out to any person who carries the burden of mistreatment, or who has been harmed in any way. During my 30-year career in college athletics, my highest priority has always been the health and safety of all student athletes.

As you know, with this matter in litigation, I'm unable to share anything more at this time. Now, this is the part where I'll be fair, and I'll defend Jim Phillips. What else do you want him to say? What is he supposed to say when he hasn't been in Northwestern in years, and he is dealing with a legal situation? It's not a joke.

It's a real thing. There really isn't much he can say. So he said that. Nobody asked any questions about it in the following 30 minutes where he had a Q&A. And really, there wasn't much else newsworthy to get to from him today. He talked about his Disney and ESPN partnership. You're going to be surprised to learn he's all in on Mickey Mouse. He's all in on his partnership with Disney and ESPN. Yeah. It'd be weird if he wasn't. Could you imagine? Someone asked about that.

Could you imagine him saying, you know what? Don't love ESPN. Not a big fan of Disney. Not crazy about it.

Yeah. Mickey Mouse, not a big fan of him either, or Minnie. Out on both of them.

I don't have one for Minnie. He said that Congress needs to help them out with NIL. That's plan A.

Good luck with that. There wasn't a lot of newsworthy things to get to from Jim Phillips. But while it hasn't really been a super newsworthy day here at ACC kickoff, there is quite a bit happening elsewhere in sports. Jim Harbaugh being slapped with a four game suspension to start this year.

This is in response to recruiting violations after a long investigation in Ann Arbor. And this is a big deal because Michigan is a legit national title contender. There's a reason why they were in the playoff last year. There's a reason why they beat Ohio State the last two seasons.

There also is a reason why it's a four game suspension. Because when you look at the schedule, and I say this as an East Carolina graduate, so pirate nation, don't jump down my throat. You're talking about ECU in Ann Arbor, UNLV in Ann Arbor, Bowling Green in Ann Arbor, and then Rutgers. Rutgers. Those are the four games that Jim Harbaugh is going to be suspended for.

So you could probably get by without him for those four. It reminds me a lot of when Urban Meyer was dealing with the situation, we'll call it, with his former wide receivers coach and the domestic abuse situation, and the way that he overlooked that and was hit with a four game suspension. Ohio State was just fine, got through those four games.

And I think Jim Harbaugh is going to be fine here, and Michigan is going to be fine. But still a big headline. Bronny James was rushed to the hospital after suffering cardiac arrest.

That's something that happened today. The good news is he's in stable condition. The bad news, obviously, this isn't the most important thing.

Just want to make sure that's known in case it isn't obvious. But we don't know what his future is going to be. We don't know how this will jeopardize his ability to play for USC this next year. He was set to become, and he may still be, the biggest star in college basketball this year because of who his dad is and all the storylines that are inevitable about LeBron's hopes to play with Bronny one day in the league and whether or not that means he's a one year athlete in college. That's going to be a big storyline to follow in college hoops between now and the start of the season. But the best news, again, is that he's in stable condition. And speaking of basketball, Jalen Brown got the bag today.

How about this? For today, for the immediate time being, when somebody asks you, I don't know why this would be a question someone asked, but let's just say hypothetically they do, who has signed the richest athlete or who signed the richest contract in the history of the NBA, the answer is Jalen Brown. He got the super max, and some are criticizing it. How could you give this guy the richest contract?

You had to. Boston didn't really have much of a choice with this contract situation. Boston, wow. WD, back in our Winston-Salem studios, firing off all the different sounders.

He's in Winston. I'm in Uptown Charlotte at ACC kickoff, so pretty impressive work. However, and wherever you were watching the show, we appreciate that we're listening to it. WSJS, YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, a lot of different ways for you to consume the show. But the reason why the Celtics had to do this is the reason why any team extends a superstar or anybody who's even viewed as a fringe superstar. What's the alternative? In basketball, OK, you don't give them the extension. What are you going to replace Jalen Brown with? You might not think he's deserving of the money. That's irrelevant. He's eligible for the super max.

You've got to give him the super max, or else he's going to go somewhere else. And you don't have anybody who's a better alternative to have in your building than Jalen Brown. The reality is you have a chance to win a championship with the way this roster is currently constituted.

We've seen that the last few years with the Boston Celtics. You have a chance to win in Boston. See, I was prepared. There you go. Boston, Boston.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have a chance, too, when Jalen Brown is on your team. That's why this happens.

And even though it comes at a great cost, that's something that you had to do. Our first guest here at ACC kickoff, among many that we are going to have over the next few days, he is not a player. He is not a coach. But he is the man in charge of the ACC's officials. That is Alberto Riveron, who joins us next. And now, the moment you've all been waiting for.

You're on the drive with Josh Graham. This is a conversation that I've been looking forward to all day today, as Alberto Riveron joins us, the ACC supervisor for football officials in the conference. And there's an ACC conversation to be had. There's a national conversation to be had when it comes to officials. Getting to the national conversation with the rule changes, we're looking at baseball cards that are sitting in front of us. A lot of baseball fans have applauded rule changes that were made this year to speed up the game close to 30 minutes on average. When you talk about the clock moving after first downs and some of the changes we've seen in college football, do you think it will have a similar positive effect from a viewing standpoint for fans? So one of the things you have to look at is in football, generally, when we change a rule or tweak a rule, number one is always player safety.

And number two are competitive issues. And in this case, even though it might, the experts tell us and the data reveals, because they've been looking at this for a couple of years now, that because of these changes, not stopping the clock on first downs outside of two minutes in each half, it will reduce the game by anywhere from seven to nine plays. And obviously, we'll see if it's right this year. But what we have to look at is player safety. Since now we're going to an expanded playoff system next year, we have to look at ways to hopefully eliminate some of the opportunities for athletes to be injured and player safety, exposure. And this will take away, if you multiply it over a year, I'm not a math major, but let's just say seven, seven plays per game. And they're looking at 11 games a year. That's 77 times less that they will be exposed to a potential injury situation. Pretty much a full game.

That's exactly right. So hopefully, this will cut down on injuries. And again, it will speed up the game a tad. But again, it wasn't for the fact of let's speed up the game. It was for exposure to our student athletes.

Alberto Riveron joining us, ACC supervisor for football officials. This is something we talked about with basketball during the season last year. It seems like, and this might be a product of social media, who knows, that officials have been right in the age of social media more than at any point in history that's trackable. But it seems outrage is also at an all time high, too, after games and things that become controversies and such.

Why do you think that is the case? You call it outrage, I call it passion. We all have such a great passion for the greatest game in the world, football.

And if you didn't have that passion, I wouldn't have a job. Maybe you wouldn't have a job in covering football the way we do. So you talk about officials being right, I'm going to ask you a question here. If you're an employer and you have someone that comes in to you on their resume, and they can prove to you that they are right under the stress and the situations that officials officiate, they are right over 95% of the time at this level. Would you hire them?

You would. But on that note, would you also, do you think there's a position or a responsibility for the league office to defend its officials in a public way? Because the NBA has its system where, night to night, there are some evaluations where you acknowledge some are on doing.

Sure. But you hope that in the math, you see fans see the transparency of how much more right they are than wrong. Do you think there's a place for more transparency in the way that the ACC delves into some officiating issues that may arise? Let's take replay, for example. One of the things that we're proposing this year is, especially with this new, brand new, technology-wise command center that we have here in Charlotte, we're asking the media to come in and we're allowing them the opportunity. We're pulling back the curtain and saying, you want to come in and see how we handle replay? Let's talk about it, allow you to come in, take a look at it. Maybe some live, in-game situations that we can expose.

Because I think it's fans, all they want is more, more, more. And the more we give them, the more we explain, the more we bring them in-house, the better off we'll be. So it's not just necessarily about admitting, yes, we were wrong in this past interference.

And that's going to happen. As long as players play, coaches play, coaches coach, and officials officiate, we're going to make mistakes. Now, we work hard at training and evaluating our officials to minimize those mistakes. And replay can help us in certain situations. But let's focus on how well we officiate the game, the same way the game is coached and played. Are we going to make mistakes?

I guarantee you we are. Are you pleased with the number of replays there are on a game-to-game basis? You look at it, it's less than two per game. Is that a good number for you?

I can't tell you what a good number is or not a good number. But remember, this is a game that live action is less than 15 minutes for the three hours and 12 minutes that we're running a game. So the less we impact the game and take away from that live action and the continuity of the game, the better off we are. Is there a place for replay in today's game? No doubt about it.

But we have to keep it in check and make sure that we use it accordingly and smartly. What's the number one question you've gotten from coaches about the rule changes this offseason? It really has pertained to the clock stoppage. The other rule that we had this year, remember it's a non-rule year for the NCAA. The other rule that we're talking about is that one team may not call back-to-back timeouts during the same dead ball period. That really hasn't been an issue. But they really want to know how we're going to administer the game as far as not stopping the clock and then starting the clock. They're very interested in the mechanic of that so they can make sure they get their plays in accordingly and keep the game moving.

Have you noticed officials talking about, going back to criticism that might be out there, is it a conversation within officials how much more accessible some of this criticism is? Because this is something I talk about with Ryan McGee, whose dad Jerry McGee, great book that was written recently about those two and their relationship in football. A concern that McGee's always voiced to me, Ryan, is why would you have any football officials when all they see from Pee Wee Up, angry parents, angry fans, constantly jumping on them. So that's an issue. And going back to McGee, we just closed our officials clinic yesterday.

As a matter of fact, I moved from one hotel to the other. And Jerry McGee is the one that closed out our conference, by the way. The president. The honorable Jerry. I mean, he's just incredible.

It is great when you look at the roles that many of these officials have. This guy's an idiot. You're blind.

You can't read whatever. This guy's a university president. Thank you.

Thank you. And again, it's unfortunate. It's fortunate and unfortunate. Fortunate in the passion that our game has developed all over the world.

Unfortunate in that we sometimes spend too much time. I mean, listen, you're not going to make a big deal. You're not going to make a big deal out of that bang bang play that that official makes without thinking about it twice, whether he gets into the end zone or not.

We just go to commercial or do our thing. However, if there's an iota of a doubt that that player didn't break the plane of the end zone, then we're really going to scrutinize it. That's today's world. And technology has brought us to that point. And I think is it good for the game?

Yes, it's good for the game. But we have to temper it in how we criticize the officials too. And that's an issue in that unfortunately, at the lower levels, we don't have the number of officials that we used to have because of that same situation. Alberto Riveron, I know you've been busy today. Thank you so much for making the time. And you know, I take some flack for being an official's apologists. I take some flack for that.

Just know that there are some people out there who aren't jumping down their throats. We'll take you all time. Thank you very much for having me. That's Alberto Riveron joining us.

ACC kickoff in Charlotte. He exits as Darren Vaught enters. Darren Vaught, who has just been moseying around the premises. Would you say that you've been working? What have you been doing? No, gallivanting, meandering.

Yeah. Those are all words that I would use to wandering, hobnobbing, lollygagging, a little bit of lollygagging. Well, I mean, there's a negative implication with lollygagging. I'm going to refuse in this instance.

But it's more neutral than that. I've been doing much. I blame our friends, Joe Obius and Joe Gillio, who are just walking around with packs of baseball cards from the 80s, like unopened packs. So I opened one up. And the first card I drew was a player that was a trivia question from Steve Forbes last month during the Wake baseball run. He said, Orioles pitcher, 20 game winner from the state of Iowa. Darren Vaught, can you name them? From the state of Iowa? State of Iowa, where Steve Forbes is from, too.

Let me see if I can give you any more stats. Yeah, he was an Oriole all throughout the 80s on that 83 championship team, right-hander. Yeah, he won 20 games in 84. I don't even, it's not Jim Palmer. I don't even have a good guess. That would be Mike Bottinger. Mike Bottinger. Mike Bottinger, shout out to Steve Forbes. Mike Bottinger from Super Raditz.

Bottinger, Bottinger? Bottinger from, Bottinger, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. While I'm thinking about thinking folks, like thinking Steve Forbes there, thanks to the folks at Crossroads Ford at Kernersville for helping us be here. Oh wait, Crossroads Ford of where? Kernersville. Thanks. Crossroads Ford of Kernersville, your number one choice for new Ford cars, new Ford trucks, new Ford SUVs.

You get the idea. And also, used cars in the triad. They make it so easy to buy, go see John and the gang today at Crossroads Ford in Kernersville. Great sponsors of us being here at ACC kickoff. The Carolina Panthers reported to training camp in Wofford today.

Everybody bring your own pillow. You'll hear from Bryce Young, among others, next on The Drive. It's The Drive with Josh Graham, WSJS. Our first player interview will be Garrett Schrader, Charlotte native, quarterback of the Syracuse Orange.

That'll be in about 10 minutes or so. Since he's not sitting right here at the second, at this very second, just note that the biggest headache that we've had at the radio station today, the biggest headache that we've had here at ACC kickoff has been Darren Vaught. Such a headache, WD. What did he do? Didn't he all get you some Pop-Tarts or something? We get on the air, and he's not here. He's here for us. We're on the air, he's not here. Throughout the day, where's Darren? He's just hanging out. Folks are stopping by.

Hey, for social media, let's get some pictures. Nope, Darren's not there. Where's Darren? Darren's eating lunch. Darren's trying to get in on the free breakfast. Darren's grabbing you name it. So I just wanted that to be known. He's just enjoying everything. I wanted to just point that out before we get to the Carolina Panthers clips.

I mean, just look at this right now. There he is. Here he comes. Here he comes. Here he comes.

If you're watching on the video stream, here he comes. Gallivanting. He's been saying so many nice things about you, Darren. So many nice things.

Darren is back. Lolligagging is just not the right word. What did you even grab? Show the video camera what you grabbed. That's for the radio audience, too. ASMR Pop-Tarts. It's the foil packaging of Kellogg's Pop-Tarts.

He was late to the segment because he was grabbing a Pop-Tart. What flavor did you grab? It's a pack of Pop-Tarts. They've sort of adopted my idea of the cinnamon brown sugar. They've sort of adopted my idea of the pile of cases of them because they're all in the foil. I love the idea of just a big pile of Pop-Tarts.

You grab one and you get what you get. I was told there was a toaster somewhere around here. I have not seen said toaster. I haven't seen it either.

I think it's over on that side where the league employees are. I can't eat Pop-Tarts unless the Pop-Tarts are toasted. Does that make me strange? No.

No, I think that's maybe most people's preference. They also, the cookies are out. That's not, why are you giving them the incomplete look of the cookie? Because I've just a big old chomp out of it. I've eaten about half the cookie. That's how good it is that I couldn't wait to present it for the video portions of our audience. I had to present it with a couple of bites in there.

Let's listen to some sound, why don't we? The Carolina Panthers reported the training camp today. It's always great how the Panthers reporting the camp, and I assume other teams are this way, how it's covered. Or I guess it's not this way for a lot of other teams because not all other teams are moving into actual dorm rooms. Like the Panthers are at Wofford.

It's amazing watching millionaires get out of their car the same way you look at your college age son or nephew walking onto campus for the first time as a freshman. Oh, I've got my pillows. Hey, Bryce Young, how many pillows do you sleep on? Hey, Derek Brown, did you bring your own blanket? You remember the candle thing last year? Oh, Robbie Anderson? Everybody was getting candles.

But yeah, Robbie, specifically. Burnsy, you on top, bunk, or bottom? Did you just call Brian Burns Burnsy?

Burnsy. I like it. That's something that you would do in a roommate setting.

OK, the sound can wait. What did your dorm room look like back at Elon? Were you on campus? Were you in a dorm at Elon?

No, Elon was grad school. You could still be in a dorm at grad school. I was in a shabby little studio apartment in Burlington, and my bed folded out of the wall. Did you ever stay in a dorm? Yeah, undergrad. I actually had a scholarship in undergraduate that required that I live on campus.

Now, it was in a small enough area to where there wasn't a lot of off-campus living options anyway. So I was on campus for four years, all four of my four years. How would you describe your dorm room?

First year, bunk beds, for sure. I was top. I was bottom bunk, which I thought was a good thing, until hijinks ensued. And at East Carolina, one morning I woke up, and I was saran wrap trapped in the bottom bunk. You would get that happen to you.

You would. The joke was that they always knew I waited till the very last minute. Like, I time things out perfectly. When I wake up, clothes are laid out. I put on my clothes.

I know exactly how much time it takes to get out the door and get to the class, and I'm never late. Well, this day I was late, because once I finally was able to pile drive myself through the saran wrap, which I did. I didn't try to rip it open. I jumped through it, because I had to try and make it to my morning class. I noticed that they individually saran wrapped my wallet, my shoes individually. My keys were all saran wrapped individually.

Love that. So it took extra time for me to get out the door. And unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it in class in time. In terms of the features in the room, I had two posters. I had a Pulp Fiction poster with Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta on it.

And I had a Coldplay Viva La Vida poster. Did you buy those from, like, one of the poster sales? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I had my roommate.

Rocky poster came from that. My roommate, first night we went out, one of my childhood friends, one of my closest friends, he projectile vomited onto the floor, which I didn't notice until I stepped in it, walking back, getting back later than he did that night. And I woke him up to clean it up. And his defense was, man, your Coldplay poster was weird, man.

That was his defense. Their heads were moving or something. It made him vomit. That's right. That's my college dorm room experience. Did you and your roommate or roommates do the thing where it's like, well, we can't have a pet, but fish are allowed.

No. See, we had fish. There was nothing live in the East Carolina freshman dorm room.

We had fish. Will Dalton, you strike me as somebody who would have something Star Wars related in a dorm room. I had many things Star Wars related in my dorm room. And now, see, I never had to live in an actual dorm. It was kind of like a suite set up. Yeah, OK, all right. It was S-U-I-T-E.

Correct, Suite Life. And it was immaculate. I'm very clean. I'm very tidy.

Believe that, yeah. My room was always like the community bathroom when we would have people over, which senior year was quite a lot. Everybody wanted to use my bathroom. What up? One of my teammates described my room, it feels like a home in here because I had a nice candle.

I had one of those little waterfalls over the rocks you can get at DJ Maxx. And Star Wars stuff. By the way. You just had pictures of words like my mother. This is me.

It's a framed thing atop the kitchen counter that just says home real big on it. No, but it was that type of vibe. Comfort. This is me having to do like the tap on my chest like after a quarterback throws a pick. Yeah, we know it was your fault as a radio host for this segment. Because I just realized I never explained why there are pop tarts all over the place here at ACC kickoff in Charlotte.

Well, I mean, also, we're yet to get to the Panthers sound. Yeah. We'll get to that later. I'm just I'm like if you need more detail as to the.

I already apologize for that. This is me apologizing for the lack of explanation for the pop tarts being here. They're the new the newest ACC bowl is the pop tarts bowl. Yeah.

That's the newest ACC bowl game. So to celebrate pop tarts. What options did you have cinnamon flavor. Well, OK, so like I said, it's more of a sort of a pile of them. So you can't tell until you rip into the packaging. But they had three boxes in the background. There was the chocolate fudge.

I think is that technically the name of the flavor brown sugar cinnamon and then strawberry. Get out of which had not been which has been added since this morning. Because initially that had to be the big we walked in. It was just chocolate fudge and brown that had to be the biggest pile. They were all in one pile.

It's like, oh, I was but I did not choose. That's why because they don't want the strawberry folks to feel that bad about it. But it's like the Neapolitan ice cream where everybody's dug into the vanilla and into the chocolate. And there's just a lot of strawberry ice cream there.

That's how I envision that going if there were three separate piles. My apologies for this segment. This one was for us.

We do want to show we must talk. Talk back to the drive with Josh Graham. Busy, busy day today. Day one of ACC kickoff in uptown Charlotte. Not too far down the road. West Durham, by the way, just now sitting down with us. Hello, everybody. How far do you think or how long do you think it'll take to get to Spartanburg, South Carolina, get to Wofford right now. You left right now. Sure. Day and a half.

I don't know if you're familiar with I-85 in the state of South Carolina. They've been working on that since Eisenhower. So training camp for the Panthers players reported today. Did they get all the images, all the videos of millionaires with pillows, with blankets. Box fans.

Yes. Candles walking into their dorm room, which leads to the obvious place. West Durham at Mighty Elon, what did your dorm room look like? Had a box fan as a freshman. Had a box hand for the first three years because our Chandler dorm did not have air conditioning. However, we enhanced our dorm room for my sophomore and junior years before moving off campus as seniors. And we moved into a double wide trailer.

But don't laugh, it was good. We lived in a double wide trailer my senior year off campus, right off Church Street, which is now four lanes. It was two back then.

A double wide trailer. How many people were in there? Four.

Four in a double wide. No, three. We had three bedrooms. Three. We had changed out one of the roommates graduating in December and another guy came in.

So we had three. What was on the walls? A paneling. Yeah, it was a panel. I think we had a beer poster, maybe something else. It was good. Mighty Elon, man, we were doing good. Which leg of the home and home that was announced yesterday between North Carolina and Kansas are you most looking forward to?

I can tell you which one my dad would have loved. Allen Fieldhouse. He never did a game from there.

Wow. My dad never went to Allen Fieldhouse. When I went to Allen Fieldhouse January 1 of 2005, Georgia Tech played Kansas there. I literally was on a plane after the game. The game went into overtime. And I flew to Seattle that night.

Falcons played Seahawks the next day. I flew to Seattle that night, got off the plane, and had a voicemail from my dad with the question, how was it? Is it as good as I think it is? Is that the only time you got a message like that? No, but I got a message about how good was it?

Is it as good as I think it is? And to me, Allen Fieldhouse is the best environment college basketball's ever been played in. See, Jim Harbaugh is in the news today, suspended the first four games, it appears, including game one against the East Carolina. What do you call them again? Well, now my friend Chris Edwards is doing the game. They're the Pirates. They're the Pirates. Shout out to Chris.

Congratulations on being the new voice of the Pirates. But ECU opened up in Michigan. You had a chance to do a game there last year as well. I did. I've actually stood on the sidelines in 1998 and watched Tom Brady in Michigan beat Levar Arrington in Penn State.

Wow. I stood on the sideline in Ann Arbor. And then last year, I did Michigan, Illinois on ESPN Radio. And Ann Arbor is on a bucket list. If you love college football, go to Ann Arbor. It's sensational. If you love college basketball, something last week, a lot of people in the Triad had reached out to be saying they enjoyed it.

Because of you, I'm sure. I tried to sneak up on this. Was at the Greensboro Coliseum, it was for the North Carolina Coaches Association, correct? Right. 75 years they were celebrating. And you were sitting at center court with some guys named Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams moderating discussion.

For 90 minutes. This was not televised. The FCC did not regulate conversation that you guys had.

What was the highlight of said conversation? Well, it wasn't televised live. It was recorded for television. OK. When it airs, I don't know yet.

But it will be out there. The highlight for me was, I think, people finding out. And we had almost 5,000 people who were at the clinic who attended the event. Big crowd. Yeah. For me, it was those people finding out just how good of friends Roy and Mike are.

That was for me. The highlight from a basketball perspective is no matter whether you coach Team USA, the NBA, storied programs like Duke and Carolina, or you coach Mount Tabor High School, the pillars and principles of success are the same. Teamwork, communication, all those things. Mike Krzyzewski said, and I've thought about this since then, in the last week, because I've been with people in business and doing some other things in my off season that lasted two weeks, communication is the lifeline to success. And you think about that, and where we are now where we're all buried in phones or online or doing something else, do we really communicate the way we should? And I thought when he brought that up, that was a terrific statement and very factual. And it's been funny because I shared that with some business people I've been with in the last week or so, and they all were like, wow, he's right.

I mean, I was with the guy who runs a company talking about, I'm doing everything I can to try and bring our people together now in the same room rather than have a Zoom call. So I think his point about communication was really good. Roy Williams told a story about recruiting character as much as you recruit talent. And he did not name the player or the prospect's name, but he said one time he was in the home of a player who they really wanted. And the player snapped back at his mom twice during the visit in the first 15 minutes, and Roy and his coaches got up and walked out.

Wow. So to me, those were the kind of little tidbits that I think the folks who attended the clinic and, by the way, Mac Morris, Phil Weaver, Joe Frank, all those guys deserve a ton of credit for making that thing go last week. And thanks to Scott Johnson, Matt Brown, the people at Greensburg Coliseum who did a great job allowing us to come in and record, basically, the first ever visit with those guys sitting down doing something like that. West Durham is hanging out with us here at ACC kickoff, getting to the football that we are expecting to see this year and limiting the scope to the state of North Carolina. I am very intrigued with, for different reasons, all four of the quarterbacks in the ACC or in the state of North Carolina that we have.

Which storyline is most intriguing to you? Oh, god, it's easy to say Carolina defense, isn't it? Oh, I mean about the four quarterbacks. Oh, the four quarterbacks?

Because for different reasons, it's Drake May, it's Riley Leonard, Brennan Armstrong, and two of them are guys who are familiar names and two are guys who are going to become familiar names. Well, let me say this about Mitch Griffiths, OK? Given who he's playing for, Dave Clawson and Warren Ruggiero, why don't we think he'll be good? Especially when you consider, you look at the history of Clawson's quarterbacks. John Walford started as a true freshman. Jamie Newman. Sam Hartman, true freshman. And then Jamie Newman, true freshman. This is Mitch Griffiths' third or fourth year in the offense. Yeah. That's unheard of for Dave.

And he started the opener a year ago. It's pretty good. OK, let's wait. VMI, come on, Wes. OK, but Warren Ruggiero's track record is flawless.

Really is. I mean, when you think about how good he's been at that position for that long, to me, that's all the success you need to see. I'm excited to see Mitch Griffiths get the wheel, but I think Drake May and Brennan Armstrong have sparkling resumes. And I think Riley Leonard's a pro, like a real pro, like one of those guys who won't have to wait around long, pro.

Like a guy at Duke a few years ago. Daniel Jones, absolutely. And you know what's not fair for Daniel Jones or fair to Riley Leonard to compare the two, but yeah, absolutely. Very similar players. Very similar, size-wise, athletic. We don't have to say sneaky athletic, like legitimately athletic.

No, legitimately athletic. I think that Drake May is going to get all the hype with Jordan Travis. I'll be interested to see if Jordan Travis is player of the year preseason. Jordan Travis, a playmaker now. Look at his numbers, his ratios.

Unbelievable. But Mitch Griffiths, to me, he's the latest example of a pipeline built at Wake Forest by Coach Clausen and Coach Ruggiero that I think you can bank on. You can almost bank on the Wake quarterback being a dual threat guy who can post numbers. Now, landscape's a little different for Griffiths. Walford, Newman, Hartman all came in with proven guys on the perimeter.

Wake has some, right? But on the whole, that's a point of emphasis this year. We talked to him. Replacing A.T. Perry. A.T. Perry is a major loss.

But you brought guys through that system before you have an expectation they'll bring you to again. It's a standard year for Wake. What's the standard for your quarterback with turnover?

What's the standard of this team? Now that you've been to a bowl game every year since 2016. Yeah, exactly. I agree with that. You mentioned Florida State.

Sure. I have no doubt that they're going to be hyped and you're going to see that reflective in all ACC rankings. They're going to finish second. That's my fear for them in the sense of, why is this different than Miami last year, North Carolina two years ago?

It just feels like this is the trendy team that is coming off the year where they had three losses. Sure. Also has a very difficult schedule where they have to go to death valley.

Sure. But at the same time, too, they're also in line that if they win that first game and lose to Clemson, they could turn around and win it again at the end. And all of a sudden, the ACC is looking at three potential teams as opposed to just two.

Hey, now. Put that up on the ESPN scroll. So you understand what I'm saying, though. Oh, of course. So three teams that could be in contention. You could argue the LSU game is more important than the Clemson game. Yes. Because LSU may be the second best team in the SEC.

Because there are no divisions. Right. Exactly. So anyway.

But yeah, I'm all about it. Is that the second team on your ballot? Who? Florida State.

Yes. And the gap is there because Clemson is a brand, and Clemson's been there for a decade. And really, the questions we have about Clemson are very limited compared to the questions we have about Florida State. Florida State's question is not Jordan Travis, not Jared Burse, not Jaheim Bell, not Keyon Coleman, not Johnny Wilson, not the running backs, not the offensive line. The question about Florida State is those guys backing those guys up. Because if injuries become a factor, like Raleigh, like Boston College a year ago, who does Florida State plug in?

Yeah. Clemson deserves the benefit of the doubt. I'm with you. But you've got to get better quarterback play at Clemson, and you've got to get perimeter play. And you got the guy who can help give you that with Garrett Riley.

And I like these receivers if Antonio Williams could stay healthy. There you go. We'll see. And by the way, they're the real deal on defense again. I wasn't just pandering to Cam Kitchens when he joined us about a half hour ago. I mean this.

Watch out for the Canes. Oh, yeah, because we hung. Maybe second. You were one of those guys that were running that parade out here last year. About? Miami.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I picked Carolina. I was one of the 15 people to pick Carolina. Oh. After Pittsburgh two years ago.

OK. Well, to me. My team this year is Miami. I'm leading the parade today.

OK. Beat A&M. Got to beat A&M. But I'm also believe, too, that it's a long bill for Mario Cristobal.

It's not a short build. That's a big piece of this. Absolutely agree with that. A lot of four and five star talent on that team. I just feel like in college, you mentioned A&M. They didn't meet expectations last year. Watch out for them this year.

North Carolina. It feels like the hype comes a year. I feel like the actual production comes a year after the hype when it comes to recruiting. And we saw it with Carolina last year.

We'll see what the defensive talent looks like this year. Durham, appreciate you being here. I mean, it's always great. It feels like football season is pretty much here. The fall's pretty much here when you consider Windham Championship next week. Yeah, Settsfield. Yeah. Good luck to everybody at Settsfield.

My buddy Rob Goodman out there, the czar of that kind of event. Have you ever shot well at Settsfield? I played Settsfield, broke 80. Yes. Whoa.

Yeah. They shot the ball well. That's basketball. Did I play well? Did I post a good score?

I broke 80. That's really good. Well, not the Settsfield today. This is Settsfield like 15 years ago. This isn't Don Ross Settsfield?

Well, it's not what they've turned it into. It's a much more difficult golf course now. But on the whole, it's been OK. Next time we see Roy Williams, we'll have to ask him about his day at Settsfield Country Club, where he's just sinking putts and making a pro look bad. Roy Williams. Yeah, I talked to JT Poston after he played nine with Roy at the Wells.

We'll get to that the next time at the full scouting report on Roy's game. Hour three will feature David Glenn and Darren Vaught dropping by. Oh, wait a second. We're going back to DG Sports Camp with Darren Vaught and Josh here in the third hour of the show. That's in hour three that starts. Lock and load, people.

Rip the knob off. The Drive with Josh Graham, only on WSJS. So David Glenn is here.

The Blues Brothers is playing. Man, that makes me happy. Darren Vaught is the former producer of The David Glenn Show. Will Dalton and myself were once interns for The David Glenn Show.

And in the last few minutes, we're introducing DG to Immaculate Grid. And of course, he's pulling out fantastic names as the Phillies are involved. Who did he just pull out? Sixto Lescano. Which is a fun name to say in a Baltimore-ese accent. Sixto Lescano.

Since I'm an Orioles fan, Orioles Phillies later tonight will hope not to have any fistfights. But Darren Vaught went nine for nine without a problem. Do you go nine for nine every day on these Immaculate Grids?

I have been eight for nine once. And that is because of a technicality. I guessed Danny Graves for a Reds player who hit at least a certain batting average, 300 I think it was, for a season.

And I happen to know that in a single season, Danny Graves, because we co-host ACC Baseball, et cetera, and we've talked about it, I happen to know for one single season, he went one for two at the plate with a home run. That's 500. That's 500. Technicality. Then I went to the how to play section, and they changed it to qualifying number of plate appearances or whatever the stat may be, innings pitched, if it's pitching. They changed that two days prior. Otherwise, I would have been nine for nine literally every time I played. We need an asterisk for that.

You were robbed. There's no doubt about it. We're going to introduce DG to unusual questions in just a bit. You guys have been roaming around the premises all day. What's the most interesting thing you've heard or been told as ACC kickoff begins? A lot of conversation, a lot of people I'm sure you guys have visited with.

Yeah, mine is a little bit off the beaten trail. It has less to do with the upcoming season, which, of course, is 90% of the conversation. The long story short is, whereas everybody knows the ACC is behind financially and Jim Phillips is tired of those questions and many others are as well, I always like to remind the fans that they're a part of the equation in ways that most people don't understand. The bottom line, for example, is that if you just took TV ratings for conference football games, meaning a conference member against a conference member, not interconference play, the 20 most watched games were all Big 10 games and SEC games. And it's not always Ohio State, Michigan.

It's not always Auburn, Alabama. There are just, frankly, more millions of people who make it a religious experience to tune into their Big 10 football game. We know it's not because they're always the best. They're not in football. The SEC is. So there's part of the greatness factor there. But the culture of college football is richer and deeper.

More millions of people care enough to watch regularly. That is not Jim Phillips' fault. I would argue it's not even John Swafford's fault. The ACC was known as a basketball conference for decades. It has had blips on the radar in football.

And I don't think it's a slouch. The ACC has won three of the last 10 national championships. The only league with more is the SEC, which we all know is the best in football. But nobody has a magic wand to change.

It took 50 to 70 years for the culture to happen. There is no magic wand to make more people care more about watching ACC football. And if you don't have more people watching, I don't care how good a negotiator you are. When you're talking to your TV partners, they have all those numbers. But what makes that most interesting this specific year is the fact that the Big 10 is no longer on ABC and ESPN. They start their contract with Fox, CBS, and NBC this season, which means the ACC has more prime slots available to them. It's why North Carolina, South Carolina, for example, opened the year. Even though they're both fringe top 25 teams, they're going to open on ABC, and the game's going to have college game day surrounding it. So if any argument against the ACC is in the way of, well, they don't get the promotion necessary or the time slots necessary for people to watch, that's not an excuse this year. Yeah, that matters. How good you are matters, right? Even the ACC's ratings go up in the years where there are more good teams, duh, right?

That's how you can overcome a little bit of a lesser culture. You guys were both around for the year that I consider the best year in the history of the ACC in the sport of football. In 2016, Clemson wins the national title under Dabo Swinney. Louisville's in the top 25.

And oh, by the way, Lamar Jackson wins the Heisman Trophy. Florida State finished in the national top 10 along with Clemson. Two other teams finished in the top 25. Virginia Tech happened to be good that year. So if you have two teams in the national top 10, five, and this is the final top 10, five in the final top 25, you win the Heisman, you win the national championship. And there were several other eight win teams. And I think they sent 11 of their 14 to bowls.

Wow. That's 2016. So we know it can happen. And there were a lot of good coaches in the league at the time. It was Jimbo Fisher at Florida State. It was Bobby Petrino at Louisville. Justin Fuente didn't end up panning out at Virginia Tech. But that was his best year, arguably his first year with the Hokies. And of course, Dabo's still at Clemson.

So it can happen. It's not like this league can't be there. And as Jim Phillips said, he thinks they're in as good a position as anybody not named the SEC in the Big Ten.

And I agree with that. Yeah, I think to piggyback off of that, one of the themes for the ACC in that particular season, and you alluded to a couple of them, was the quarterback play. I'm very intrigued by the quarterback class of the ACC this year. I don't know that it's that good. It dwarfs the SEC's talent.

But here's the thing. At that position. If I asked you who were the three best in this league this year, you'd leave some good people off. Yes. And you take all three of those players over the top guy in the SEC.

Probably so. With respect to Joe Milton and who else would even be on that list? I don't know. Devin Leary probably on that list. Let's, before we run out of time, get to unusual questions.

This should be a lot of fun. Last week, guys, everybody made it out that I got mad at Josh and I left the press conference. That's not right. I thought it was an unusual question, and it's OK. It's time for Unusual Questions with Josh Graham. Yeah, so we've got David Glenn and Darren Vaught here. WD, we still have concert tickets we could give away if someone wants to ask Darren and DG a question, right?

We do. We got some tickets to Disturbed. Yes, so they're going to be in Charlotte next Monday. And then the following week, they're going to be in Raleigh. So if you'd like to go to either of those shows, 336-777-1600, just ask us anything. An unusual question.

Darren, I'll let you show DG how it's done. Yeah, all right. So we've got some wax pack heroes floating around. Got some baseball cards. Those are the wood grain framed 1987 tops. My question would be, what set do you think of when you think of collecting baseball cards or opening a pack of baseball cards from your youth?

I think early 2000s tops. That's what I think of. And finding a pack that I remember I got super excited, had Roberto Alomar in it, and Rafael Palmeiro in an Orioles uniform. All right, well describe the card.

What's the card look like? OK. Like a gold border? Because that's 02.

The 02 tops. It was gold. It's one of those. It was gold, for sure.

You know exactly. I didn't know you could peg it down to the year. That's amazing.

Oh, I can. 02 tops. Did you collect baseball cards?

I did. I think of late 1970s tops. Yeah. And what I think of a little bit off your question is the really hard, flat piece of pink bubble gum would come in those packages, man. Like, you could cut the inside of your mouth with the end of the corner of that thing. It was rough and tumble bubble gum.

D.G.? And I used to always get Cincinnati Reds instead of the Phillies that I was looking for. So it was like the Reds beat us on the field, and now I got nothing but Pete Rose, Pete Reds, Joe Morgan, and Johnny Bench over and over and over.

That's outstanding. Right behind your laptop, there is a half-eaten sugar cookie, which has become a staple at ACC kickoff. There's also a Pop-Tarts container that Darren was enjoying that was cinnamon brown sugar. Brown sugar cinnamon. Brown sugar cinnamon. Sorry. That's a theme, man. I'm not a big fan of that flavor, which leads to my question.

That doesn't mean you can't learn from your mistakes. The bowl is the newest ACC bowl. Do you have a favorite Pop-Tart flavor? I think it's got to be. We've had this discussion. It feels like that's been a, maybe it's not been an unusual question. It sounds like something WD would have asked.

It does, because it's mind-related. How many flavors are there now? Enough.

There's so many. It's the host of Sur. I think he might be the best person to ask in the sense of, when you think Pop-Tart, what flavor comes to your head?

What does it look like? Well, what comes to my head would be strawberry. Yeah, a classic flavor. But my answer, in terms of my favorite, would be blueberry.

But I don't see them as often. I do like blueberry more than strawberry. Yeah, they still make those, for sure. Yeah, it's the grape I'm thinking of. The grape resembled blueberry, but it was purple instead of that deep blue. I'm OK with blueberry being the answer. Cookies and cream, though. People sleep on it.

Don't. Don't sleep on Miami, and don't sleep on cookies and cream. I'm fascinated by how many options there are now, because I felt like, as a kid, there might have been like eight, maybe, like a handful initially, probably. They do all the seasonal flavors now. There's like a gingerbread, but it's a limited time of the year.

Oh, you kids. They got fall flavors. WD, do you have something for David Glenn, Darren Bodd, and myself?

I do. What is your gas station order? So in other words, when you go to a gas station, like you need to stop or whatever, and you go inside, what are you getting? Like drinks, snacks.

What is it? Candy. When I'm driving, candy. I'm on the road a lot.

I've got a very, very specific order. I thought you might. I'm getting a rain, because I injected the caffeine into my bloodstream. I guess it's like an energy drink, a rain.

A very good one. Rain is the name of it. That's what it's called. R-A-I-N? R-E-I-G-N. Oh, got it. Rain.

Got it. So I grab a rain. In some cases, we'll grab a Pedialyte, because I've got to stay hydrated. That depends also on the convenience store selection.

And a lot of them, I'm a sheets guy, so stop at sheets. A lot of them have this very particular brand. It's a particular brand of meal replacement bar. And it's a MedRx bar. And there is a crispy apple pie flavor of that that I'll grab. Yeah, I'm the new gummy nerds. I've seen you with those.

The clusters, outstanding. And I usually get that in a big gulp soda if I'm driving. Credit to WD for this. I feel bad about my unusual question now. That's a great unusual question.

Well, what's the answer? So my answer is my go-to would be combos, the pretzels surrounding the cheese. Excellent choice. I don't have as many snacks as I get older as I used to, but I do like the combos. And then probably a little Dr. Pepper if I need just a little juice to keep me going or get me home or whatever.

I appreciate that. And real quick, I've been to Europe a couple of times not too long ago. The food you can get at gas stations in Europe is unbelievable. What are you eating in a gas station? In the United States, you mentioned sheets.

I grew up with what they call wah-wah in the Northeast. And there's a lot of good food options even as you're getting gas. And at some point, they kind of merge the concept where it's sheets is both food and gas. Over there, you get cuisine. You get cuisine.

Give me an example. What's something you could eat? I was just in Italy, and one of the tastiest things I think they have over there is called the caprese sandwich, which is the mozzarella cheese, the fresh, fresh tomato, the basil, and then really, really fresh bread. So you would think there is no way there can be a great caprese sandwich in a freaking gas station. You'd be wrong.

In Italy, there is. Love it. All right, close us out.

What's your unusual question, DJ? Mine is if you can only pick one or put them in order, given the beautiful diversity of our state, beach, lake, or mountain, or you could turn it into beach house, lake house, mountain house. I got you. I think I'm going to choose, and we're assuming this is the summer, right? Generally, the vibe.

It doesn't even have to be the actual thing. I'd say summer first. Or no, I mean, or excuse me, I'd say beach house first. Then I'm going mountain house, then lake house. Mountain house first. Ooh. I thought that would maybe be predictable for me.

From the mountains of Virginia, Darren Butt. We'll go beach second, lake third. Of course, I'm going beach first.

Everybody who's ever known me knows that's coming. I'll go lake second, and I do love the mountains, but that's just my third. For me, it's beach by a mile first, then lake. I'm with DJ on this. Then lake, then mountains.

He wouldn't be that forceful if you were in the studio. He feels confident saying beach by a mile. I love the beach. It's not close. He's there.

It's funny. I asked Rod Brind'Amour, beach, mountain, or lake, and he said lake house first because he's scared of stuff that you find in the ocean. I get it. Look, look, Rod, I get it. He loves boating.

He loves swimming, but the ocean freaks him out a little bit. I was cool with that answer. That's a good answer.

DJ, welcome to Unusual Questions. Thank you, guys. And thanks for being here. I appreciate all of you.

It's great to get the band back together. Darren, you're OK. Yeah, no, I know. When he's here. Oh, yeah, Darren, half the show just wandering around, and he's in the background of the screen just chatting. Chatting it up. Yeah, you guys have no idea what I was plotting back there. And then my wife's texting me things that people were putting in the chat saying that Darren's cute and Pop-Tarts are mid.

Back to back. That's what's in the text chat. Apparently, she said super fan was the word that she used. I've got a super fan in the comments. We see you. Hey, when Darren visits the Glen household, both my wife's friends and my daughter's friends both talk about how cute he is. So he's multi-generational, clearly. It's been pointed out on this show that he's a better looking version of me, which I accept. I'm cool with that.