Sneaky Athletic

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast.

Internet sensations guys! Tune in to The Drive weekday afternoons 3 to 7 on WSJS. Welcome to a Wednesday Drive. You are listening to WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad where we are live again, Uptown Charlotte, Weston Hotel, and we have a wonderful lineup of guests. That will be joining today's show. In about 10 minutes, Duke head football coach Mike Elko will be our first guest today. Later this hour, Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis, Riley Leonard from Duke will drop by as well. We expect a visit from Eric MacLean from the ACC Network, Mark Packer from the ACC Network, and who knows who else might be visiting our set. However, and wherever you are listening, we appreciate that or watching.

We are streaming on YouTube, Twitter, and Twitch. We begin with stunning news from the NFL. The Carolina Panthers have named Bryce Young their starting quarterback. Whoa! Whoa! How? This is stunning how the Panthers traded up to the number one pick and gave up D.J.

Moore in multiple ones and they intend to play the guy? I'm disappointed in you, W.D. Will Dalton, the executive producer of this show. What's up?

What did I do? Ever since I've introduced you to the Brent Musburger. I fully expected the shot, the faux shot to be the Musburger sound rather than the hip hop air horn.

Whoa! It's a little disappointing. At this point today, by the way, or I guess yesterday was Bryce Young's birthday.

He's 22 years old, his Taylor Swift year, if you will. It would have been news at this point if Bryce wasn't the opening day starter. Again, they traded D.J.

Moore and multiple ones to take this guy. Yeah, they plan for the guy to play. His strength is not the Cam Newton, Herculean, superhuman type of physical skill set. It's the mental part of the game. It's his ability to process and to grasp a playbook. And so it shouldn't shock you that that guy, the person with that being his skill who won a Heisman Trophy and played at the top level of SEC football. In the fishbowl that is Alabama, that's the guy who's starting right out of the gate. That's the guy who's named the day one starter of training camp. If anybody were capable of doing that, it's Bryce Young.

He's prepared. The Panthers, let's not forget, for the first time in their history, hired an offensive minded head coach to lead the way in Frank Reich. A guy who played the position. They broke the bank on the staff that Frank Reich hired. Why? You have an owner that's richer than anybody else. We're more than 13 billion dollars with a B in David Tepper.

Mr. Concerts bringing concerts right down the road from where we sit at the West Bank of America Stadium. That guy, you invest so you can bring in Thomas Brown from the Rams to serve in the same position he was in under Sean McVay. You can bring in Jim Caldwell not even to be a position coach, to be a consultant on this staff. All with the mission of having this quarterback ready. Here was Frank Reich this morning after making the announcement that Bryce Young was quarterback one on the process of getting to this point where now we all know officially. He is QB one. I always felt like Scott and I and coaching staff, you know, when we decided to pick Bryce, we imagined and saw the vision that we'd be standing here today saying he's QB one. Give him credit.

Frank Reich deserves credit for not subjecting us to the charade, for not doing what Matt Ruhl did a year ago. After bringing in Baker Mayfield and we all understood that Baker was going to be the starting quarterback for the Panthers. Not doing the two preseason games before we learned that Baker is officially the guy. We knew it was going to be Bryce out of respect to Andy Dalton, out of respect to all of us in the media and to the fans. Just let everybody know what we all already assumed and that is Bryce Young is the Panthers quarterback. It would have been news if he wasn't the quarterback day one.

On Twitter at WSJS radio, if you want in on the show again, it's where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch. There's a lot going on. If you're watching on video, you can see just a second ago, Patton Arduzi walking right behind our setup.

And it's funny. Right before the radio microphone turned on here, he remembered me as the guy who picked Pittsburgh. The one guy a couple of years ago, he looked at me and said, even you aren't picking us this year. I said, you're right, coach.

Sorry about that. The Miami train, though, you are on that leading the U train. That's right. The you, you are to the U-Haul. The U isn't back, but the U is number two. They're my runner up picking the ACC to Clemson.

So we'll have great guests all throughout today's show. The Carolina Hurricanes dropping some news today as well. Sebastian Ajo signed on his birthday, eight years, 78 million dollar extension. W.D., what's a better birthday gift? Bryce Young being named the starting quarterback or Sebastian Ajo signing an eight year, 78 million dollar extension that will give him an average salary of about 10 million dollars a year.

It's probably getting the bag, I would assume. Yeah, Sebastian Ajo got the bag on his birthday. And all I can think about is Tom Dundon. How often Tom Dundon was clowned for being cheap.

Oh, he's not going to pay. So Montreal tried to offer she Ajo a few years ago, which got us to this point where it was a short term contract and then the long term deal. Even back then, people said, oh, they're going to lose Ajo after that deal expires. After the season ended in the Eastern Conference Finals, Dundon on various outlets said, we're going to get Ajo done.

I promise you that we're going to get Ajo done. And that's exactly what he did here. And he, you know, all this runs counter to mainly what the folks up in Canada have said about this organization and about this owner for the last handful of years. Oh, they're cheap. They're not paying Brenda Moore what he's worth. They're not paying Waddell. Well, they know those people want to stay.

And Dundon's a business person and knows not to overpay if you don't have to. And they don't and they don't lose guys. They might lose some things off of the ice.

They might not spend when it comes to announcers like people we love, Chuck Caton and John Forslund, but they will pay when it matters to. Players who help the team win on the ice, like Sebastian Ajo, like. The year after Montreal tried to offer she Ajo, the Canes offer shooting Koki Niemi, who's been a key player for them the last few years, the Canes.

They're a legitimate contender and they're acting accordingly. That's why you bring in a Tony DeAngelo who might not even be a top four line defenseman when two years ago he was playing with Slavin on the top line. That's how good this blue line is. It's the best blue line in hockey.

You have so much depth there. Maybe Carolina is going to be OK, having seven high quality defenseman that all feel like their top four caliber defenseman on the roster at one point. They might not move Brett Pesci and they still have some contracts to figure out beyond next year that can be bandied about and talked about quite a bit. But the most important player on the team, the starting center, the top line center is getting paid like a top line center.

And you're going to keep them around for a very long time. It runs counter again to what's been said about Tom Dundon for years now. So while we're talking about ownership and critiquing the guy in Charlotte who brought concerts here and such, David Tepper were fair to criticize that.

We'll applaud it when it's necessary to. And, you know, we applauded Tepper for the way that he paid this coaching staff and equipped Frank Reich with all the tools to be successful. Tom Dundon, who began his ownership tenure with the Canes the same year that Tepper did with the Panthers, following through on his word. And this team, it's a legit Stanley Cup contender, which is a cool thing to see. Duke coach Mike Elko, our first guest on the lineup today.

And rumor has it he wants to talk soccer and baseball. Huh? That's next on the drive. For those who don't know WSJS, the home of Duke football. And we've been that's been the case for a few years now. So how about we welcome the head coach of the Blue Devils going into year two.

Mike Elko is with us. And here's what I've learned about you in one year of you being on the job. You don't wear suits all that often.

Most times I see you wearing hoodies like how often throughout the year do you wear suits when you guys make me dress up for things like this? I've learned big soccer fan EPL. Yeah, huge. It was always been a sports fan. And when you get on, you know, as a young coach, the only time we have is early Sunday morning. And so the only thing that was ever on TV Sunday morning was EPL.

And yeah, a long time ago, got hooked on it. Did you pick a team or do you watch the league? Yeah, I'm an Arsenal fan. I'll watch the league, but I'm an Arsenal fan. So Thierry Henry, probably that mid 2000s era.

Bird camp, over Mars. Yeah. Tonight, the big thing here at the Westin is when the United States soccer team plays tonight at 9 p.m. So does that interest in EPL expand to other soccer, like Lionel Messi scoring two last night for Miami or U.S. Yeah, I'm honestly I'm a sports fan. And so like it kind of expands across the board. But yeah, very familiar with Messi and what he's doing over there. Saw the free kick he hit the other night to win the game.

USA against Netherlands tomorrow night or tonight, rather, actually. Yeah. Yeah.

All that stuff. I think it's just any time there's sports on, it just interests me. And here's how I know you're a big sports fan. Last night at the Westin, I run into you. I'm wearing my Orioles like T-shirt.

And I noticed that you gave me kind of a mean look. And I remembered, oh, shoot, he's from New Jersey. He's got to be a Yankee fan. Yeah, it's got to be right.

Yeah, no, it's got to be. So, yeah, diehard Yankee fan growing up, went to a lot of games. First game at Yankee Stadium was David or Getty's no hitter on the Fourth of July. Yeah, that was the first game I went to in Yankee Stadium. How old were you? Shoot, that was, I think, 83. So I was six years old, seven years old.

So who's with you? Is it your dad? Yeah, my dad brought me to the game. So your dad probably at that point is trying to convey to you what exactly is happening.

Yeah, I have no idea. I have no and I couldn't understand the concept of a no hitter because he had walked people. And so there were people on base a few times during the game. And I couldn't I couldn't figure out, like, what do you mean it's a no hitter?

There's been people on base. So your dad probably that's probably one of the coolest things he's ever experienced. Not just taking you to your first game.

Yeah, David or Getty's no hitter. Yeah, for sure. That's pretty cool thing. Doesn't your son play baseball? Yeah. Yeah. So he's a college player. He's going to the University of Richmond this fall. And so excited for him. And that's a place that obviously you and Dave Clawson had to stop with.

Yes. So he was actually born when Dave got the job. Dave's first spring game that we were down there for was the day my son was born. So I missed the first spring game.

So, yeah, there's a lot of full circles going on in that. That's insane. Mike Elko is joining us. Duke football coach getting into your team. Obviously, Clemson's Clemson. And you have them on your schedule at some point, but you get them put on your opener. What are from a coaching perspective, what are the advantages of having Clemson as the first game?

What are the disadvantages? Yeah, I'm not sure that there's ever advantages of having Clemson on your schedule. Obviously, they're the they're the gold standard of success in this league.

Right. And the things that they've done, you know, Dabo has done a phenomenal job with that program. But having them early, I think, gets the attention of our guys through training camp. I think when you get into those dog days of training camp and the kids are getting tired and it gets hard to push through, we have a pretty big game to open with to kind of motivate them through that.

And I think that's important. And obviously, it puts our program on a national stage early in the year, you know, and we're going to have primetime Monday night football in Durham at Wallace Wade Stadium. And so that's something that we're really looking forward to and excited about. When do you start to expose them to Clemson? Probably not till we get into game week. I still think, you know, one of the things we've spent a lot of time on as a staff is just understanding that Clemson is still one of 12 games.

Right. And even though it's a big one, and even though people are talking about it and discussing it at the end of the day, no matter what happens, it still only represents one twelfth of our season. And so we've got to make sure that we're building volume, we're building base, we're making sure we're looking at every type of scheme that we're going to see on both sides of the ball.

And then when we get into game prep, towards the end of camp, obviously, is when it'll switch them no different than any other opener. Since I'm sure you're going to be asked about that game more than any other, let's actually get into some of the other games. Later in September, you have Notre Dame coming into Durham.

Be honest. How bummed were you to learn that Sam Hartman is still going to be playing college football, and he decided to transfer to a school that is also on your schedule? Yeah, I thought when we converted that second and long and ended the game last year that I had gotten rid of Sam and didn't have to see him again.

And so, no, listen, he's a great player. You know, we were fortunate enough last year to come out on the right side of that one, but I'm sure he'll have a great year at Notre Dame and present a huge challenge to us again. This is the first year without divisions, and your schedule, man, I don't know if this is something you use from a recruiting perspective.

I guess you use everything available to you. But the fact that you get your permanent opponents, our NC State, Wake Forest, and North Carolina, the other three in-state schools, that seems, from a viewer's perspective, to be a very cool thing. What do you think? Yeah, I think it's great for our program that we get those games. I think it creates great environments.

I think it creates great atmospheres. You know, we're excited for our fan base that we get to bring them good football games at home, and so that part of it is really good. Obviously, there's a part of you as a coach that wishes you played a bunch of teams that were projected to go 2 and 10 this year, and we don't do that much, but it's great to play those triangle schools, and we haven't played NC State in a long time, and that's wrong. They're 30 minutes away from us. We should be playing them pretty consistently.

Mike Kelko's with us. When you're a college coach, you know this as well as anybody, you're also a teacher of life, and you get different things that could be learning opportunities. The fact that Northwestern's on your schedule, a lot of coaches I talk to, it's just a reminder that this is an opportunity to teach guys what's acceptable and what isn't. Is that something you use as a tool when guys see something like that that's as big in the news as a way to say, hey, this is not the way this program is supposed to be? Yeah, and I don't know that we'll comment on specifically what happened because nobody knows.

Nobody really knows right, wrong, or indifferent what happened in that program, but I think it's another opportunity to just talk about locker room culture and the way we want to conduct ourselves and the way we want to treat people. I think one of the biggest things that we try to educate our kids on is, listen, when we get a college freshman, he doesn't necessarily have to be humbled. He's away from home for the first time. He's away from his family for the first time.

He's trying to figure out life living on the first time. It's a little different. You see the stories of the NFL rookies that have these multimillion dollar deals walking into a veteran locker room. That's not college. We've got a completely different environment and experience going on.

And so just to put your arms around kids and try to help them get through the transition is important. How much has that mindset evolved from the time you were at Princeton? What college football was and the viewpoints on how to treat people and how to act versus 2023?

Yeah, I don't know that it's changed. And I went to Penn, by the way. Let's make sure we get that. That's OK. That's OK. That's big rivals right there. So I just got to make sure I'm clear. That's OK. I just got to make sure we clear that one up.

No, no. Listen, you always want to treat people the right way. And I think our mistakes get blown up a little bit quicker nowadays because of social media and how prevalent that is and how much everything can get out there quickly. But I don't know that I've necessarily thought like, oh, now because I can get caught, I should act a certain kind of way. I just treat people the right way. I think that's always how I tried to be about things.

Yeah. And you've treated me the right way, despite the fact I'm an Oriole fan, despite the fact I said you went to Princeton. Like, I'm going to let you go before I get something else wrong now. But I appreciate the time. And in all seriousness, we carry Duke here on the station and we're looking forward to a great season. Appreciate you having me out, Josh. All right, let's go.

Oh, I'm so excited. And three, two, one, go back to the drive with Josh Graham. We got Eric McLean in the house, everyone. YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, radio.

Let's go. We're everywhere on Twitch. We're on Twitch now.

I need to look into that. Are you a video gamer at all? No. Well, I'm married. See, I am, too. And I don't play video. So no, I would be. You're going to be shocked to learn this.

Will Dalton, our producer, who you could see kind of there. Well, what's up, baby? How you doing, Eric? He is not married.

He plays video games and has a lot of Star Wars figurines. Congratulations. I do. Well, the last part might be why the marriage thing. No, no, no, no. I'm still going to have those things even when that when it happens, it's still going to happen. No, no.

It's going to be the scene like 40 old virgin where you have a girl coming over. Let's just take everything out of the house. That's embarrassing.

And then it's just the floor. Are you moving? Are you moving? Yeah, right. Well, we just got the we got a rough start. I didn't know that's where we started. You never know.

You never know. Top deck. I think Eric McLean might be the perfect person to recommend movies for Will Dalton. He has not seen any of the good movies. Top of like, what are your favorite movies? Top of mind. Oh, maybe better yet.

Like what movies have you seen more than any other? Well, okay. Well, that's difficult. Seen more like 300. Have you ever seen that? Well, yeah. I mean, I've watched that a million that Steve Forbes drop means he has not seen it. Yeah. So he has not seen 300. Fascinating.

Remember the Titans? I mean, I've seen that. I think I've seen that. Have we had that on the list? We have not. Well, he has not seen it.

Coach Carter. Never. Well, I'm not even allowed to say no at this point.

Just I have to hit the drop. That's why we have the sound. We have it because so often he just says, I don't know.

It's become bad radio. John Wick like. Have you seen John Wick? Well, oh my.

But I want to. I've been waiting to watch movies, though, like this might be a dumb exercise. Do you watch any? I watch more shows than shows.

Yeah, he's a show guy. Every week we make him watch a new movie. Oh, good. The only Denzel Washington movies he's ever seen are the ones that Steve Wilkes told him specifically. Right.

Wow. Training Day and John. I mean, you can just just watch any of his movies and you're good. You're in a great spot. I think next week's probably the week we'll have to do. Remember the Titans. Yes. He hasn't seen Remember the Titans. You need to. He doesn't know what it means when someone says left side. Not a clue.

Not a clue. Say strong. So that's what you say. That's what you say back. OK. Getting to every time I think of Panthers training camp and how hot it could be in Spartanburg, I think of scenes like at Gettysburg and the guys getting pushed. Thank you.

And remember the Titans. Bryce Young named the starter today. So what's more surprising, Eric? That claim that there are folks who are surprised at the announcement that he's the starter so soon or that this happens day one of training camp that the coaching staff didn't pull a mat rule and go to games without announcing the inevitable. Well, who else would it have been? Well, you could say right now Andy Dalton's the veteran. So he's the starter right now.

He's got to earn it. You know, do that. Exercise that charade.

What took so long is my question. That's why you draft day one of training camp. I would have been day negative one of training camp would have been the day before that I announced him as the starter.

But that is good. I mean, you want to see that. There were so many, you know, critiques about his size and obviously playing with the best football players in the world.

And now, you know, arguably he's not. It's going to be fascinating to see, you know, still in game and how accurate he is and all those different things. I'm fascinated to see C.J. Stroud, Bryce Young, who has the better, you know, first three years or so. How much do you like this Carolina Panthers offensive line? Icky Iquanu.

I love Icky Boseman. I figured you probably watched those Alabama guys. They pushed around Clemson for a few years. The thing is, they have they've addressed it right. It's been such a problem, you know, for so long for the Panthers and such a, you know, just a critical point. And you can't keep guys up. You can't get anything going in the run game. So, you know, I think it's vital, you know, that they attack that.

And obviously having a monster like Big Icky is definitely going to help any offensive line. What's the most interesting thing you've been told at Media Day the last two days? Hmm.

Like what have you learned? Did you see Riley Leonard's socks? Riley Leonard's about to roll up to our set in about a half hour. Is he really? Yeah.

Ask to see his socks. I'm not going to spoil the surprise. Wow. This is big. Get it on Twitch.

Shout out Twitch if you're watching. They are. I'm not telling you.

Okay. Other than that, honestly, man, I think the, you know, Coach Cristobal and how excited he was yesterday about his offensive line. That was kind of a preconceived notion I had coming in here just seeing the names and, you know, talking to some people close to the program that that was going to be a significant improvement. And literally he seeks me out. He's running across the room and says, you're going to like what you see in a couple of weeks because we're going down to Miami for the ACC summer football tour.

So that was very inspiring. And then really just the buzz with Florida State, man. I mean, it was back to when I was playing. And, you know, those guys were, you know, at media day. And I was with Jalen Ramsey, me and Jalen talking trash to one another. And, you know, the vibes of that is important. You know, to have another massive elite brand big dog who is playing at the level or hopefully playing at the level that we think.

That's important for this entire league. And, you know, I just can't wait to see him kick it off. I'm leading a campaign the same way I led the Pittsburgh campaign two years ago. And Pat Narduzzi still reminds me of that every time he sees me.

He's like, he actually pointed at me today. He goes, he goes, even you didn't pick us, did you? Like, I haven't filled out my poll yet. Sorry.

Probably not. Unfortunately, I picked Carolina last year to go to the championship game. I'm in on Miami this year. To what? To get to the championship game. Clemson, Miami. I'm saying, I'm saying, I just think my argument says, can I give you the, you know, there's no coastal anymore. I know there isn't. Okay.

Can I give you the case? Talent and productivity arrives a year after the hype with North Carolina. When we first started to hear the recruiting was after 2020 leading into the 21 year.

That's where you had the 10th ranking and they didn't get it done a year later. We saw them reap what the rewards of that. Drake May, that type of recruiting, those types of players.

And then Miami was the team last year. Sure. All the recruiting, Mario Cristobal.

Go look at what Cristobal did his second year at Oregon. Right. Yeah. I just was talking about that.

Yeah. So this year, I feel like it's weird with that much four and five star talent, how nobody's talking about them. And I feel like it's a media creation where a lot of people get burned by them a year ago. And you don't want to bring it back up again because you feel like you get burned.

Well, I think you just look at it. It's why did we get burned? We got burned because they decided to run an offense that they didn't have the horses for. We got burned because, you know, Coach Gaddis wanted to be a pro style offense with the RPO driven quarterback and it didn't work. And so, you know, from that instance, they messed up. I mean, it was totally by their own doing.

It could have been really cool. I mean, what did we see from TVD in the two games before he got hurt? He almost had a thousand yards passing in two games. I'm a big TVD fan. Yeah, he's electric. I just have questions at wide receiver. You know, you've got some young, inexperienced guys that are going to have to really step up. Colby Young, I believe, number four there has to be a guy. Xavier Restrepo, if he can stay healthy, you know, he's one of the favorite targets.

Roommate, one of the best friends of TVD. The run game should be improved because of the offensive line. But it's one of those things, you know, kind of what you just said there. I've got to see it before I go. That's how I feel about Florida State. I feel like I need to see it. Aside from, like, the Florida game last year, they still lost three games in conference last year. I need to see it. The three ranked teams that they played.

Really good. And they beat LSU. So, like, they showed something. But there's a difference between that and we're going to make you a top ten team. Am I saying Miami is going to be a top ten team? No. But am I saying they can get to Charlotte?

I think there's a large gap between one and whoever. Yeah. I think if you look at what FSU has coming back this year versus what Miami had coming back the year before, we thought they were going to be unbelievable. It's not even close.

Like, Florida State blows out of the water with returning production, all the pieces of the puzzle with head coach, coordinator, quarterback. So that's why I think that's a little bit different. Yeah.

Yeah. But it's going to be fascinating. It is going to be fascinating. The one thing, I'm kind of saving this, so sorry that I'm saying it here, for if FSU does slide, they lost three games in a row. They then won six games in a row. Five of those six games that they won was against what? Teams with losing records.

The sixth was who? A Syracuse team that lost six or six out of their last seven. So, I mean, the wins, we can peel it back and it's not like world beaters. But I think because all the talent, I think the experience, star power, all these things, they're able to take a really big leap. How big is that opening week? In fact, everybody talks about ACC versus the SEC in the context of LSU and Florida State.

But I'd argue equally as big is the game that game day is going to be at, right down the street, literally from where we're sitting. Sure. Last I checked, South Carolina did some things in November last year. Yeah. And North Carolina has that quarterback in Drake, Maine. You didn't have to talk about that. Oh, I was talking about Tennessee. Oh, perfect. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I wasn't going to bring up the other one.

That ugly orange, I appreciate that. Yeah, sorry about that. But that's ACC versus SEC, too, in a really big stage that they're playing on as well. I mean, it definitely is. But I think, you know, just from the national perspective, if North Carolina loses to South Carolina, it probably doesn't move the needle. If they win, it's fun for us to talk about, but I don't think it moves a national needle. If FSU does what they're supposed to, they will be in the top three after that game. They're going to be favored in that game against LSU?

Where it is. Yeah. Man, both those teams are going to be three teams in the top ten. I bet it's one and a half. Yeah. FSU minus one and a half. You're going to take FSU minus one and a half? Man, yeah.

Heck yeah. All right, where's J.C. Horne? Tell the people what to do, J.C. Horne, at FSU minus one and a half. Send me that cash out, family. Yeah.

That was him in the locker room while we were standing there yelling at Brian Burns. Perfect. To do what again, J.C. Horne?

Send me that cash out, family. After a ping-pong game. I love that. They keep a tally of who wins in ping-pong. There we go.

J.C. Horne wins. How are you doing ping-pong? I'm great at ping-pong. Are you?

Not compared to me. Oh. Honest question, ACC, I'm going to go up to whoever's necessary. All the guys in every locker room play ping-pong.

How do we not have a ping-pong table here? Yeah. Be an interview with somebody. Video tape that. You've got competitors. It's unbelievable. We do it. There's all the bosses right there. March over there.

Tell them. If you don't think I will. Go ahead, Josh. You've got the pulse. Let's go.

I bet you won't. I've got Jim Phillips on the show tomorrow. First thing that's coming up. Yes. Ping-pong. Even though I don't know.

How would you do that? I guess he could have something to do with it. You and Manuel.

How does that go? Against each other? Yeah. You think he's playing ping-pong? Yeah.

NFL for sure. He's a competitor. I'd probably smoke him. Smoke him. Smoke him. 21-10.

He scored 10? So, look at this guy. Whew. Put that up on the ESPN scroll.

Bottom of the screen. EMAC going to blow EJ Manuel out of the water in ping-pong. That's how it's going to be week four. Just remember. That's how it's going to be. It's in Death Valley. That's right.

Road show. That's right. No, we won't be there. That'll be game day. That'll be the big dogs. They're not sending the little team out there. Hey, look at that.

He's going to blow EJ Manuel out of the water. Yes. That's on the scroll.

It's there. I know you need to get out of here. Appreciate you spending the time. Yeah, man. Thanks for what you do. Appreciate you, brother. Look forward to seeing you out on the road. That's right.

Sweet potatoes in Winston-Salem. Come on. I can't wait, man. So, we got the big, you know, summer tour.

Cannot wait for that. And then, yeah, each and every freaking week, man, we're going to be live somewhere. Live action. ACC Network. It's live action, Tracy.

Whew. In the kickoff in Charlotte, we are being joined by a quarterback whose voice you're going to hear called quite a bit, whose name you're going to hear called by the voice of David Shoemate. That's Riley Leonard that's joining us.

This is the home of Duke football, WSJS. Let's start here. How many rushing yards did you have last year? You're asking the wrong guy. You don't know what your numbers are?

I have no idea. I know it's somewhere between like maybe like 400 and like maybe like 900. A lot.

So, it'd give you a 500 yard range. So, which backhanded compliment that generally is attached to white quarterbacks makes you smile the most? Deceptively fast, gym rat, or sneaky athletic? Sneaky athletic. Every time they hit me with that. You're sneaky athletic.

You guys have not watched many of my high school clips, but that one always cracks me up. Who's more sneaky, sneakily athletic? You or Daniel Jones? Ooh. I don't know. That's a great question.

Get them on campus. Let's run a race. Would you want to make it a 40 or a 100 yard dash?

A 100 yard dash? Okay. Because you know, you saw the video of him. I'm just kidding.

I'd like the 60 or 70 yard mark. No, you weren't. You weren't kidding. We saw the video. He can fly. For the first 60 yards.

Riley Leonard's going to catch him from behind at the end. That's good. No. Did you, um, didn't you, weren't you all state basketball in Alabama?

Do I have that right? Yes, sir. Yeah. You played on the all state team in basketball and I know this about Duke.

Small campus. Right. Which means you run into people who might be playing other sports. Have any pickup games ever happened where you're going up against the basketball guys? 100%.

100%. I'm really close with a couple guys because of a Bible study we do. So I tell them, like, hey, you guys are going to hoop, text me. But not in season, of course. I don't hoop in season. Well, I'll hoop in season like by myself.

I'll go shoot. I don't run five on five in season, but out of season, I've been able to run some, some good five on five games with those guys. Duke quarterback Riley Leonard's with us. We're talking basketball.

Everybody all throughout the days asking you about football and ask you about Clemson. I'm asking you about basketball. When's the last time one of these five on five pickup games happened?

I would say maybe a couple of weeks ago. Okay. Who's in this game? Um, Jeremy Roach. Yeah. Uh, Jalen Blake's. Um, and then like five other basketball players. Okay.

None of the big guys. So you actually have a shot. You're not like trying to body Ryan Young.

See, I'm pretty smart with it. I played against Paulo Bancaro my first week at Duke. He got us out into Cameron. Now I've been very smart about who I've played against ever since because he is nuts.

This guy's like guarding a point guard. Tell me about this game where you tried Paulo Bancaro. Tell me why you tried. You had to know who he was.

Everybody needs a wake up call, right? So I came in Duke. Oh man, I can hang with these guys. You know what I'm saying? Let's get, let's get out on the basketball court, talk in my trash. I left speechless.

I wouldn't, I humbly must say that. Did you guys play to 21? Did you play to 11? I think we ended up playing to like, to be honest, I can't even remember. All I can remember is getting bodied. I probably scored, but I definitely got bodied. That's all I did to know that you got put this up on the ESPN scroll.

Bottom of the screen. Riley Leonard scored on Paulo Bancaro. I think that is good.

That is newsworthy. I did not score. I'm not sure. You didn't score? Maybe not on him. I maybe scored.

But if, if Paulo's guarding me, that shot was getting blocked every time. What's the next step? You know, we were talking with Jordan Travis earlier, and he had a lot of great things to say about you and Drake. You guys were roommates at the Manning Academy.

Yeah, so that was an incredible experience. You show up, and you think there's going to be some animosity. But at the end of the day, like, we're all living the same lives right now. We're all, you know, fortunate enough to be starting quarterbacks in the ACC. So we're all just rooting for each other. I know that sounds like a lot of people want us to show up and just class. Well, no, I mean, you guys don't play against each other.

Right, right, right. So we're all just rooting for each other. Any time I turn on a football game, I'm rooting for the quarterback.

I just want to see a good quarterback play. So it was super easy to get along with those guys. I mean, they're so down to earth. It was great to just hear their perspective and how they approach the game and how they approach other quarterbacks because at the end of the day, we're all just, you know, here to support each other. You haven't brought up to Drake May anything about those two penalties that were called against you guys last year, have you?

No comment on that. We talked some trash, though. We talked some trash. Drake does strike me as someone who talks some trash. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He likes to bring it up here and there, that two-minute drive. But you could immediately clap back and be like, oh, you got some help by the third team on the field. No comment on that. No comment.

I don't know. They can't find quarterbacks, can they? Well, my media people can get mad at me. Okay, that's right.

We're not going to get you in trouble. What's, so speaking of the Manning-Paskin Academy, what's the next step that you're focused on as a quarterback? We already talked about sneaky athletic as hell, Riley Leonard here.

What's the next step? Yeah, so it's all the intangibles, right? So something I've been studying this offseason is how does a quarterback walk up to the line of scrimmage? I know that may sound like, what are you talking about? There are so many things.

Where does he put his eyes first? What are his checklists? I need to have a routine that I go through every pre-snap. How do I manage going to the sideline after a turnover? Who do I talk to?

How do we fix it? Those little things are things that I picked from Peyton and Eli. And not only that, but going there, I really learned how they treated everybody on staff. I mean, there was no one better person than the other. They treated everybody with respect. We're so kind to everybody, knew everybody's name, and that's what it takes to be a leader and especially to be a quarterback.

So answer some of those questions you posed, like where do your eyes go first? How do you walk to the huddle, for example? So everybody has a different routine, and it's kind of based on the offense that they run. So, for example, Peyton said he always identified the mic. Well, for our offense, we always identify the free safety. And then the front, and then we'll go into the corners.

It's all different, but it's cool to see the different perspectives from each one of those guys. Was that the highlight, getting to interact with Peyton and Eli? If not, what? 100%, that was the highlight.

And then just giving back. I mean, it reminded me why I play the game, just having 1,500 kids out there, 40 college quarterbacks, just going out there and having fun, hanging out afterwards. It's really just a blessing to be in the same category as these guys. Was this in the top ten of the most fun conversations you've had today? This is number one. This is number one.

This is number one. Let's go. You heard it here. We love it. We did it. We love it.

That's what I'm talking about. We did it. You can put that on the ESPN.

I will. Don't put the thing about officiating. Don't put the thing about getting a bucket of Paulo Bancaro and taking him into the paint.

Don't do that. But you could say this is the number one conversation Riley Leonard's had today. Oh, man. Number one.

No, really fun day. See, look at that. Riley Leonard's number one conversation today. That's what I'm talking about. We've got that up on our YouTube stream.

That's what I'm talking about. Appreciate you being here. Try to have a lot of fun today, Riley Leonard.

Absolutely. And we'll see you out for the first game against Clemson. Darn it, I mentioned it. I tried to go this entire conversation. There goes the comeback. It's okay. There it is. Have fun today, Riley Leonard. Alrighty.