Diet Peach Snapple

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast. We are killing it online.

Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons 3 to 7 on WSJS. Our first guest of the day at ACC kickoff in Uptown Charlotte will be North Carolina football coach Mac Brown, who will be dropping by in just a few minutes. Prior to him arriving though, WD just filled out my ACC predictions for this year. That is my ACC championship pick and my ACC Player of the Year. And this is the theme, WD. Clemson going to win the ACC again.

That's not a shock. But Miami is going to play Clemson in the ACC championship game. So the U isn't back because back would be at least winning the ACC.

That's not what I'm saying. The U is number 2. That is the mantra for this year. The U is number 2 every year there is a dark horse in the ACC championship game. Even though there isn't a Coastal Division anymore, it's worth noting that the media guessed the Coastal Division champ wrong 12 of the last 13 years it existed.

Except yours truly. Getting North Carolina right last year. Getting Pittsburgh right. The only one out of 150 to pick the Pitt Panthers.

Big time flex. Miami is not going to be picked by a lot of people. 6th best odds to win the ACC as we currently sit. But they have talent. They have more talent than most teams in the league. Florida State, they're the trendy team.

There's no doubt about it. But you should always fade the trendy team once this time of year rolls around. Other than Clemson.

Because they've earned the benefit of the doubt. Ask Miami a year ago. And it feels like a lot of people aren't picking them because they got burned a year ago by believing in the hype.

The U is back. All that and Mario Cristobal's first year. North Carolina when they were preseason number 10 in the country. There was all that hype and it didn't work out in Sam Howe's final season. Usually the talent, the productivity is a year later, arrives a year later than the hype. All the recruiting stuff that's talked about, everybody expects that to reveal itself in wins and productivity right away.

But that's just not how it works. For North Carolina, we saw them reap the rewards of that recruiting a year after all that hype happened. With Drake May emerging. And a lot of other great players emerging for a coastal championship team a year ago. That's why you should worry about Texas A&M and the SEC this year. All that hype a year ago, they didn't meet it. But there's still a lot of talent that came from that recruiting that was still coming down the pike. And that's why Miami, which had all that hype a year ago, is dangerous now. Especially with an offensive coordinator change.

They bring in Dana Holgerson's offensive coordinator from Houston, which leads me to the other hot take I have related to this. My ACC Player of the Year is Tyler Van Dyke from the Canes. Not because I think he's better than Jordan Travis, or certainly better than Drake May, but this is not about who the best player is.

It's about who exceeds preseason expectations the most. That's what the awards become about. Just ask Coach K. He might be the best basketball coach ever, depending on who you ask, but apparently the last 22 years he was in the ACC never voted once the ACC Coach of the Year. Is that because at no point in those 22 years he was the best coach or had the best season?

Of course not. That's just not how these awards work. So if Miami gets to the ACC Championship Game, like I expect they're going to, the reason they're going to be there is because of Tyler Van Dyke and the fact that he exceeds the expectations that are set before him.

It's going to be a lot harder side by side with him for guys like Drake May and Jordan Travis to meet the expectations that are set before them. So in review, the U isn't back, but the U is number two. The Clemson Tigers are my pick to win the ACC. Miami will be the runner up. There's no coastal division, so I don't know if that really counts for anything. I honestly don't even know if you get a trophy for it.

And Tyler Van Dyke, my ACC Player of the Year. Now we're welcoming in the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels, Mac Brown, is joining us live on set here. And I'm being told that we're the last of his Radio Row interviews. This could be pretty tiring for you, can it? You get excited. You get excited about the season. You get excited about seeing people. It's fun to talk about your team. I'm proud of these guys. And I want to tell people who they are and let people know who they are and get to know them.

And that's what today's about. I've been told you're up to 40 to 45 pounds loss. You look great, Mac.

Thank you. I've lost 40 and I'm trying to get 10 more. I'd like to be 50 down.

And before we start the season, I've kind of capped it at 40 here. So I've got to take another step and move forward. What's your secret? Do you have a cheat thing that you enjoy?

What's your secret to getting there? No, I'm fasting so I don't eat from 8 tonight until 11, 30, 12 the next day. Then I'm eating a lot less. I'm not snacking. I'm not eating sugar. So I've cut out a lot of things that I really liked to do this.

So it hadn't been fun. But I would tell people that I started diets all the time and I'd get frustrated after a week to 10 days because I didn't see any progress and I'd quit. And it took about a month before I saw any of the progress.

So you got to hang in there and you got to keep doing it. Remind me, wasn't there like a beverage or something you say you had every day? Yes, that peach snapple. I had about six of them every day and now they've cut me to one. Do you already have your one?

No, I haven't had my one. Here we go. I told you I had a surprise for you, Matt. That's it. I'll drink it now. Thank you. I went to three different stores this morning to try and find Zero Sugar Diet Peach Snapple.

That's it. I've never had one of these before. I'm going to give it a shot. You're going to like it.

Okay. How did you find or discover, see Roy Williams had the Cokes, which became Diet Cokes and he was gifted the machine in his office. How did you discover as I try it Zero Sugar Diet Peach Snapple?

Well, they were the Rodney Long's beverage company sold them and they were in our office and they were in the refrigerator and I started drinking them. I started liking them. This is good.

It is really good. Like I said, the hardest part of my day now is to cut back to one instead of six. I'm going to have one today, Mac. I'll take this on the plane with me home. You enjoy that. That is a gift.

Thank you. See, you give so much to the media on Media Day. How many people are giving back?

You're the only one that's given back. So I will say that without question. One thing I appreciate about you is you have great awareness of where your program is at at given points. And I remember when we were sitting here and you had all the hype two years ago and you were number 10 in the country. You said that, you know, we're not in the place yet as a program where we can lose Diami Brown and Daz Newsome and multiple draft picks at running back and it not show on the field.

And it did. Well, you lose a lot of skill talent again. And you have a great quarterback, just like you did a couple of years ago in Drake May. Are you at a different place now after a few recruiting classes from 2021 where you feel comfortable saying we can replenish that a lot easier?

I am. You take you've got a lot of good receivers on the team that have played because Antoine Green got hurt and missed four games and then didn't play in the bowl game. So we really miss five. And then Josh Downs didn't play in four games. He got hurt and opted out of the bowl game. So Gavin Blackwell didn't even play in the Oregon game.

So a lot of other people stepped up and played. And then you add Tez Walker and then you add Nate McCollum, who are two really, really good players. I'm excited about the additions that we're going to have at wide receiver. What's the next step for Drake May? We've seen him take so many.

It feels like in a short period of time, but it is such a small sample. What's next? And talking to him after the season, he and I both agreed he can have better footwork in the pocket. He can step up.

Sometimes he gets sad ways and leads into a sack. I think that's the biggest thing. And for him to continue to have confidence and not be so hard on himself because he really beats himself up and presses himself so much.

And I do that as a person, so I get it. But we've all got to look at the good things he's doing and what he can do to take a next step and be positive instead of the things that he's not doing well. Do you want to see him run more or less this year? I'd like to see him run less, but I love seeing him run out of the pocket when there's nobody open and he scrambles. I don't like to see him with design runs. He's too valuable for us as a quarterback and as a passer right now. I thought we ran Sam Howell too much his senior year.

I didn't like it. So I'm planning on using the running backs and the receivers to run the ball and use him to throw it. Mac Brown's with us on WSJS. You're talking to an area I know you know very well. Winston-Salem, Greensboro, High Point. I look at your roster.

There are guys all over the place from there. When you're looking at the offense, though, was there any rhyme or reason why the last month of the season there were some struggles there, turnovers, some lack of productivity? Did you notice something on film that defensive coordinators, the ways they were defending you guys at the end? Yeah, I thought people caught up with us and were double-teaming Josh and taking him away, Josh Downs, and we didn't run the ball as well at the end. So people were dropping eight some and blitzing us more, and I didn't think we handled either one very well.

So we've addressed that this spring, and I think we're in a better position moving forward. Have you talked – I know you tell me how much you learn from other coaches that you have at North Carolina, and boy, do you have so many great coaches to speak with. What lessons have you learned from Hubert Davis? What things have you talked to him about after he had a disappointing season, because I'm sure you can relate to having high expectations and not reaching the goals that you wanted. Yeah, we all try to lean on each other, and I love Hubert.

He's doing a great job for us, and he had what I had a couple of years ago where it just didn't work for whatever reason. And you learn from it, and that's what you do. People get frustrated. We can't get frustrated. We've got to learn, and we've got to make sure it doesn't happen again.

And Hubert's a second-year head coach, so I've learned, and he's learned from me, and we're learning from each other that transfer portal's different, NIL's different, you've got to coach them different, you've got to manage them different, and you've got to make sure that you get the right combination of guys. Last thing for you. See, since we're streaming on YouTube, Twitch, Twitter now in addition to being on the radio, tell the people on Radio Road how well-dressed I am compared to the rest of the radio folks. Well, you look like you're the only one that came to church today, because you've got a jacket on, you've got a suit on, and everybody else is pretty much just here. Does that mean you're preaching?

That means you're preaching, because you've got the draw. Mac, over the years, thank you so much for all you've done for us, and thanks for making time for us today, and enjoy your Diet Peach Snapple. I will. Thanks, shout-out to the Harris Teeter here in Charlotte that I was able to find.

Thank you. Dave Doran with us here on WSJS. It's seldom that you get to double-digit years at a school. Have you had time during the offseason to reflect on all the time you've spent in Raleigh? Yeah, you know, obviously you're starting to kind of notch up on some of these lists, and eighth tenured in college football, someone said to me today, and I was just like, wow, that doesn't even seem possible, you know.

I still feel like I just got here sometimes. So it's a blessing, you know, to be able to say that you're at a school this long in this profession. It's, as you know, a profession where not a lot of coaches do that, or they're not afforded the opportunity to do that, right?

And we've built a program that's had sustained success, and so we're very proud of that. It's not something that's ever talked about publicly, but privately among football coaches and basketball coaches, that's something when you guys are considering jobs, you look at, right, just talking about the stability of the school and how much of a chance you're going to get even if you have some down years, right? Yeah, I think you have to look at everything if you're considering moving, you know, picking up and going to a new place.

I mean, unless you're out of a job, then maybe you don't look at that stuff as much. But, you know, for me, in my time in Raleigh, I've had some opportunities to go, and there's a lot to think about, you know, not just the program and the boosters and the president and the AD and how many coaches have made it, you know, however many years. You also have your wife and your kids and school systems and what the town's going to be like to live in. And, you know, there's a million things that go through your head, and we're fortunate, man. We live in a great place.

Raleigh is awesome. I've had the same chancellor the whole time, Randy Woodson, has been a great friend. And, you know, I've had two different athletic directors, but both very successful athletic directors with Debbie Yau and Boo Corrigan.

Dave Doran with us here on WSJS. The last time I saw you before you just walked up here was a picture of you smiling, as big as I've ever seen you smile, with Phillip Rivers at that NIL event recently. What do you and Phillip Rivers talk about when it's not Wolfpack football?

You know, I don't get a lot of time. Phillip's busy. He's a head coach at high school.

Alabama. Has nine children, one on the way to make ten, and so his life's pretty packed. You know, when we talk, we catch up on what's going on with the team. He's been kind enough to speak to my team now twice, once in person, once on Zoom. And he's just a great alum. I mean, the guy loves NC State. He's passionate about our program and pulling for him and his program.

And now he gets to coach his son, you know, his youngest son, or his oldest son Gunner is the quarterback at his high school. The most disappointing thing about that picture, though, was that it was just waist up of you guys. I was wondering if either or both of you were wearing cowboy boots.

Both. That was a Western night, you know, so a lot of people were commenting on my hat. But we had a big NIL fundraiser with Scottie McCreary, and it was a lot of fun. And Chandler James, the other musician, they're both North Carolina homegrown guys that are NC State fans, and so they played some good music.

We had some fans and raised a bunch of money, and I'm very thankful, you know, to our collectives that helped us with that event. When's the last time you were out on the water, and what did that catch look like? Fishing or on a boat? Fishing. Had some great fly fishing in May up in Boone, and really two good days up there fly fishing. Went to Montana and fly fished at the end of July, and didn't have the same kind of luck. Had some tough weather the day we were there, but went deep sea fishing in the Big Rock tournament as well this offseason, and another tough day of weather.

But, you know, usually when you get out it's very, very fun just to be out there and relaxing. At the Blue Rock, did you run into catch 23, Michael Jordan's boat? The Big Rock.

The Big Rock. I saw his boat. I didn't run into it, but I saw it.

It's beautiful. Yeah. I'm glad, even though there's the NC State North Carolina thing, you didn't ram into his boat. No, I mean, I have so much respect for him and what he's done. I grew up, you know, a big fan watching him play for the Bulls, so great respect for Michael Jordan and what he did in his career and what he still continues to do professionally. Dave Doran with us here on WSJS.

Be honest with me. How bummed were you to learn after Sam Hartman announced he was transferring, that he was transferring to a team that was on your schedule? It's just what it is now, man, and we have another guy I have great respect for. Sam's a great competitor, tough, smart, you know, had good games against him, won some, lost some, and so I know he'll be a formidable guy there at Notre Dame. I'm not sure how he feels about, you know, playing us, but he had some good receivers to throw the ball to at Wake Forest, you know. I mean, he definitely is probably going to miss throwing it to a couple of those guys. Those guys were pretty good.

They really are. How do you feel about your skill talent on the perimeter for Brendan Armstrong? Yeah, I'm excited to see these guys at fall camp. We have a lot of guys that need to step up and kind of grab some spots now that Thayer Thomas is gone and Drake – or Devin Carter, our other receiver. So, you know, there's two positions that opened up opportunities for a bunch of receivers, and Keyon Lassayne is back. He's made a lot of plays.

Trent Pennix is back. But there's eight or nine guys now in that room competing to get on that football field. So that's an area that we need to see who the guys are still, and that will be part of our training camp. I feel good asking you this question because, again, you've been here now more than a decade. When you're in Greensboro or Winston-Salem, have you figured out like the hot spots to grab food when you're out on the recruiting trail?

Because every year I look at your roster, Dave. I see High Point, like Isaiah Moore. I see Greensboro. I see Kernersville.

I see all over the place, you know, triad guys. Isaiah Moore is from Virginia. Oh, who am I thinking of? That was a linebacker. Jermaine Pratt. Jermaine Pratt, thank you. Yeah, Jermaine Pratt. He – that guy pretty good.

He is good. I mean, reason to watch the Cincinnati Bengals. You know, usually what I'll do if I'm not eating at a player's house, which is what I usually do if I'm out recruiting, is I'll go do a home visit. If I'm not allowed to do home visits, I'll ask either the recruit or the coach where I should go eat, and I don't have a place I have to go.

You know what I mean? Like there used to be a diner in Greensboro that I really liked. I think it was called the City Diner maybe or the Metro Diner. I can't remember. It was over by the hotel there that we stayed at, the Marriott. But I don't think it's there anymore.

I tried to find it at the last coach's clinic and it wasn't open. Pandemic, man. I'll tell you what, Elko came up to me because he obviously was in Winston-Salem.

He was like, man, have you eaten at Bibbs recently? Man, shut down in the pandemic. That's happened in Raleigh in some of your spots probably. Yeah, as you know, a lot of things have closed. Some things have kind of made their way back though. Good to know. Dave Doran, here's to ten more years at NC State.

Yeah, that'd be unbelievable, right? I don't know if I have ten more years left in me, but I'm excited to be here and look forward to what this year has to bring. Thanks so much, Dave. We'll see you down the line. Thanks for having me. Go Pack. Instead of just talking, why don't you listen?

That's why you have people call in. Listen for a minute. Ah, welcome back to the Happy Circle. The Drive with Josh Graham. Wake football coach Dave Clawson going to join our set in a minute or two. One of the things that he is known for is being outspoken and being a measured voice when talking about issues in college football, which is why I so appreciated him this morning speaking about tampering, which a lot of coaches have talked about.

It's another thing that I'm appreciative for, that he is stopping by our set right now on WSJS. Coach, you know where you're at, Winston-Salem, Greensboro. Oh, yeah. Home base. Triad, baby. Wake Forest territory.

That's it. Go Digs. And there's a lot that's changed in college football this summer, and you are always so thoughtful at figuring out the different ramifications that might come from different changes. We were speaking with Alberto Riveron earlier this week about the impact of the clock not moving after first downs, and he says it'll be kind of an impact in the aggregate when you get rid of seven to nine plays a game and over 12 games or so that might be a game's worth of snaps you lose as the playoff expands.

When you hear, given especially the way the offense runs as efficiently as yours does, that the sticks, even when they move the clock won't stop, what do you think of versus a coach? The game is shortened. They're taking plays out of the game.

I get it. I think the reason they're doing this, though, is they're not going to eliminate the commercial breaks, and that's how the game is getting so long. Again, I think in some ways it's good about taking the wear and tear off the players, but it also is less plays, and so there's going to be some guys unhappy that may not play as much as they would. We've gotten used to a certain amount of plays in a game, so it's just going to be an adjustment, but I do think it will help for the overall health of the players. Offenses just may speed up and try to get the same amount of plays in. Whenever they make these rules changes, there's always a way in coaching to deal with it.

The teams that like to take the air out of the ball and slow it down, the game just got shorter, and for the teams that like to go fast, they're just going to find a way to go faster. Two years ago, you sat here and you said, if I was wearing my Wake Forest hat, I'd say that the 12-team playoff model is good for us because there's more access, but if I wasn't wearing that hat, I would say it's not great for college football. Now that we have more clarity on what that model is going to look like and the details, has your view on the 12-team playoff evolved at all? Again, I'm glad that they're doing it because at Wake Forest, we'd love to make the playoffs, and our opportunity to make it at 12 is better than it is at 4, but there's two sides to it, right? Now you've just extended the season. You've made it longer.

You've added games. Again, overall, I think it's good, but whatever the possibility of a 17-game season looks more and more like an NFL season. How does that affect, you think, non-conference scheduling going to the 12-team format? You know, I think in some ways it might help it that there will be more competitive games because really in college football now, you can lose one game, and if it's the wrong game, you're out of it, and yet with taking 12 teams, there's going to be a two-three loss team that eventually gets in there because their losses are going to be quality losses to good teams, so I think with that, you know, teams might be a little bit more aggressive scheduling out of conference games against better teams as long as they don't increase the conference games across the board. Do you think high-quality group of five games are more possible when you're talking about the consequences, perhaps shortening for, as you put it, losing the wrong games? I think about the history of the Wake Forest App State series, for example.

Yeah, and again, it's how are games valued? You know, if App State in the last few years has been better than a lot of Power Five teams. The Sundell, very good conference. Yeah, so they've been a great conference, and some of the AAC teams that we've played, like we played Tulane, and they were a really good football team, and so historically the Power Five team should be better because they have more resources, more facilities, more media money, but there are some schools that are group of five schools that are very invested in football, and they're very strategic, and they've had great programs, and App has certainly been one of those group of five programs, so there's certainly a number of Power Five teams competitively that probably aren't as good as App has been lately.

Now their ability to sustain it, they've sustained it for almost 20 years. Dave Clawson's with us here at WSGS. We're at ACC Kickoff Uptown Charlotte. Your quarterback, Mitch Griff, has dazzled us earlier with his baseball knowledge. He's a huge fan of the game, probably the way Dave Clawson was 40 years ago following Dave Parker and those Pittsburgh teams. We are family, baby. All that.

Forty-four years ago. But I know you are a huge baseball fan this summer watching the Deacs. Every home game they had during the NCAA tournament run, I saw you out at the couch. What did you enjoy most about that run that Tom Walter went on? Because your entire tenure at Wake as the head coach, which is a lengthy one now, has been shared by Tom Walter's long tenure as well. To me, the best memory is just being happy for Tom. You know, I almost find myself when you're at a school so long, you root for coaches as much as teams, and I just think Tom Walter is first-class, A-1, just a first-class human being. He is so easy to root for because of what a great colleague he is, the way he does things. He is so easy to root for, and I root for every team at Wake, but Tom is a special coach and a special person, and I was just so happy for him and his staff after all the years and investment that he's put in. Mac Brown was sitting here about an hour ago, and he was talking about things that he learns from all the coaches he has available to him, whether it be football colleagues like yourself or other sports. He's talking about Hubert Davis, for example. When you're at Wake amongst these great coaches that John Curry has put together, and Curry was just telling us like six ACC coaches of the year in the last two years and yourself included in that, are there things you learn from other coaches?

Absolutely. That you could apply to your program? Tom Walter and their pitching lab and how they develop pitchers and the science and the technology. Steve Forbes and his ability to get guys to play right away for him. It's just amazing that he brings in guys that were basically pushed away at other schools, and he brings them in, and he's got consecutive ACC players of the year. What do you think the secret of that is, finding a way to make that transition easier for guys, especially since you're in the age of the transfer portal now where you're having to do the same with guys coming in? Yeah, I mean it's like going back to Bobby Meuse, our soccer coach, and Kim Llewellyn, our women's soccer coach, or Jen Averill.

We got such good coaches at Wake across the board, and they each have their separate challenges because of their sport, but it really is collectively I think a very high IQ group, and you've got to learn to adapt, and that's why as coaches, we can't come down here and complain about the portal and tampering and name image likeness. I mean it does no good. It's here to stay.

So you've got to figure it out, and you've got to adjust with it, or you're not going to survive. Do you think tampering is here to stay? Yeah, it's here to stay, and do you blame the players?

No. I mean why are they going to go to the portal unless they know they have somewhere else to go? Who would do that? It'd be stupid. I mean the whole system right now is broken, so I don't blame a player.

Why would they leave a school and leave a scholarship unless they know they have somewhere else to go? You wouldn't. And going back to Walter in the pitch lab, did you at least check to see if there's something there for quarterbacks when it comes to... No, I didn't. I mean we have a great facility, and we have strength coaches, and we have a director of high performance, and football is a separate sport. That thing is set up to be a baseball pitching lab in time, but just the way things are now.

It's just so busy that when you branch into those other areas, you almost need other people to do that research for you. But knowing what they did, it's certainly something we're going to look into. I asked you this question at the spring game, and you said you wanted a little bit more time to think about it, this being the 10th year you're at Wake Forest, and not a lot of coaches get opportunities to remain at a place as long as you have. What are you most proud of in your nearly one decade as Wake Forest's football coach? I just think the consistency in the program, the continuity we've had. I still feel, Josh, in this era that it feels like college football is being professionalized, that we still run a college program that we're trying to develop these guys as players, as men, life skills.

I think more than anything you become grateful. You're grateful that you were able to be the head coach at such a great school at a time that they made an institutional investment in football, and grateful that I've had a staff that's chosen to stay. These are very talented coaches that have had other opportunities, and for whatever reason they've chose to stay at Wake Forest. The staff and the players are the reason that we're having success. I'm just lucky to be part of it. That's the front nine, though, Dave. You've got the back nine now that you're on at Wake Forest, too. This is the start.

You're making the turn, to use the golf analogy. We'll see about that. I would love to do this for a lot more years, and hopefully we'll continue to be supported in a way that we can be successful.

But the only way you get to stay in these jobs is if you win. I don't know if you've noticed this, Dave. We'll close with this. I've spent the last ten minutes not asking you about Sam Hartman, not asking NIL, Magnificent Seven, anything like that came up. What were you asked most today? I understand I'm the last conversation you're having of the day.

What was the question you were asked the most today? I think the biggest thing is just people love to dig in on the Sam because it's a national story and then ask how the offense and Mitch's skill set and how it will be different. I think more than anything that there's this narrative around our program that we lost all these players. When you look at it, we lost the second fewest players in the country in the portal. So instead of it being a positive story about look at all the players Wake Forest cap, the nature of media and newspapers and the Internet is to focus on the negative.

If you look at all the players that could have gone other places that had other offers that stayed, I felt that we came out of this whole year in the portal in really good shape because of who didn't go in. We'll push back against that and make sure we try to do things the right way. Dave Clawson, thank you for being here and for everything.

Yeah, you're welcome. We'll see you. Our studio just moved five minutes down the road from campus, so we'll be seeing a lot more of you. Sounds good, Josh.

This is very exciting stuff. Cade Klubnick, Clemson quarterback joining us now, radio row, ACC kickoff in Uptown Charlotte. But is it Cade Klubnick or is it Jordan Spieth that's in fact joining us?

Because more than a few people have pointed out, huh, Cade Klubnick kind of looks like Jordan Spieth. And where's Jordan Spieth from again, Cade? He's from Austin, Texas. He's from Austin, Texas.

That's where you're from too. Jordan Spieth and Cade Klubnick ever been in the same room? I've actually never heard that we looked alike. That's a first. So, no, we have never been in the same room.

Someone in your traveling party might have pointed that out to me earlier today. I'm not going to rat anybody out. I would love to hear after this. I don't give up my sources. I don't do that. But when you're the quarterback at Westlake High School in Texas, do you ever get a chance to engage with some of the high-level names who played the same position you did once upon a time, like Drew Brees, like Nick Foles, correct? Yeah. No, yeah, I've been blessed. You know, I've been able to talk to Drew a couple times, going back to like fifth grade. He ended up holding a little seven-on-seven tournament and invited my brother's team and stuff. So got to meet him there for the first time and just over the years here and there. But then I've known Nick Foles for a while. He's been a great mentor to me, just all throughout high school, recruiting process, starting my first year in high school, and then even getting here, just asking for advice and just been a great mentor to me and somebody I've looked up to a ton. And then obviously Sam Ellinger, you know, played quarterback with my brother. My brother was one of his leading receiver in high school. But he's been a great mentor to have. I remember just talking to him before I got here. And, you know, like how do I attack this year? What are some tips?

Just ask for all types of advice and just things I didn't know. It's been great to have those mentors. Where does Dabo Swinney keep the Roy Buss part, the rest of y'all Buss? You aware of this?

No. Okay, this used to be his way of motivating you. That's like, you know, Clemson's part of the rest of y'all, like even though they went to the playoff all those consecutive years. I only point that out to say, Dabo strikes me as the type of coach who will use every means necessary to motivate guys. With that in mind, has he ever pointed to some of the doubt that a lot of people seem to have about the Tigers this offseason in the last couple of years as a means of motivating you guys?

Yeah, I would say here and there. Honestly, like I think it's kind of been amongst our program. I feel like last year we were trying not to have a bad year again at times. And this year we just have a grittiness of it doesn't matter who's in front of us, we're going to try to go beat them.

And we know that we can. And we almost have an underdog type of mentality this year and I'm super excited for these guys. Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnick is with us here. You're on in Winston-Salem.

You're on in Greensboro. Winston-Salem, by the way, is KJ Henry's town. He went to the same high school as Chris Paul in our backyard. And in Winston-Salem, I've heard rumors about the Dabo Swinney in-home visits. In fact, I think KJ Henry's mom cooked something up for him and then one of the legs of a chair fell out and they were worried that Dabo got hurt and it might have cost KJ. Good thing KJ ended up on campus.

Good things happened for both KJ and for, I think, Dabo and Clemson. What was your first in-home visit with Dabo Swinney like? Yeah, it was great. He, I can't remember exactly when it was, but, you know, of course my dad got on the smoker and smoked us up a big old 25-pound brisket with all the good sausage, everything else. So I know he enjoyed that, so had some Salt Lick sauce with it. It was a good time. You've got to ask him about it next time you see him.

I will because he strikes me as somebody. We were talking about golf yesterday, Dabo and I, but I don't know what he would say in terms of smoked meats, what he prefers when it comes to, obviously when he's trying to land a recruit like you, brisket's going to be the answer that day, but you're here in the Carolinas, Kade, where it's the land of Bojangles and, you know, pulled pork. Yeah, that's one thing I miss a little bit from Texas is barbecue and Mexican food.

This is maybe the greatest transition you're going to hear all day in all the conversations that you have with people. Speaking of guys who like brisket in Texas, Garrett Riley, he knows, yeah, Texas pretty well, that guy. How many times have you been asked about Garrett Riley today? Over under 90-and-a-half. Oh, probably under. I would probably say like 50.

Fifty times? Okay. Yeah, what have you said? So like just recap it, summarize it so I don't have to – I'm being lazy. I don't want to ask an actual question.

Man, to be honest, I'm so excited. Do you got it on a note card, like the right thing? I've kind of just got it memorized by now.

Got it. Well, fire away. His confidence, his confidence in the swagger that he brings, the energy that he brings, it's infectious to their program right now. And to our offense and to me, it's – I love it. I love it.

We hit it off right off the bat and I'm just – I'm so excited for the explosiveness that he's going to bring. I have a homework assignment for you. Okay.

Can you remember this? I'll try. Okay. So do you know he spent time in the state of North Carolina? I did.

I did. I'm an East Carolina graduate. Yeah. I got to know Garrett a little bit when he was there and I got to know his brother Lincoln when he was there. And he also spent time at Appalachian State too. Eastern North Carolina is specifically known for its barbecue.

Really? I don't know if Garrett likes that stuff. He was there for a long time now, Cade. I don't know if he prefers that or if it's Texas brisket that he likes more. So I'll see you a handful of times during the season. Maybe we can figure that out, what he prefers between the two.

I'll let you know. That's important. That's a big time question. It really is because Eastern North Carolina barbecue, W.D., he's nodding at me right now. He knows. Like I love brisket. Don't get me wrong.

But Eastern North Carolina, you got to get the good stuff, Cade. Right? Yeah. What's that spot called that you go to down there? Oh, Sam Jones Barbecue?

Sam Jones. That's what you got to get. They don't sponsor this, but they can. They can. They can.

They should kick club neck. Try to have a little fun today. Okay. Oh, yeah. I've been having fun.

It's been a blast. All right. I told them I made one suggestion to the league because I hope you're here next year. Ping pong table. Let's get it here. Oh, I will run up. I'll run it up every NFL locker room, including the Panthers, have ping pong tables in there. I'm pushing for it. So just know if there's a ping pong table next year here, I'm responsible. I'm going to I'm going to take how would you do that?

I would probably win it all. Really? Yeah.

I play a lot of ping pong. Okay. I'm right. Not to be cocky, but I'm confident. I like it. All ACC team cake club.

They just flew to the top of my ballot. But for ping pong. No, I'm saying that. I think that's conducive. I think great ping pong players are also great football players.

I love it. Actually, I think kickers and punters probably really good at ping pong. Well, it may not make a difference. Okay. That's a good point.

Cake club that could work them. Receivers are pretty good. Yeah. You and Antonio Williams getting at it.

Bo Collins. Specter. Well, yes, Specter goes well. All right. Yeah. Okay. Thanks for doing this. Awesome.

Appreciate it. That's cake club name. This is really exciting. We're at ACC kickoff.

Weston, uptown Charlotte. And the head coach of the Boston College Eagles, Jeff Halfley, is with us. And I've stumbled upon some ACC incredible history that you guys are going to make this year, coach. All right.

Let me hear it. You guys are going to become the first team in the history of the Atlantic coast conference to have a season in which you do not play a North Carolina school. How about that? Huh? It's never happened before.

Yeah. Cause we've been in the Atlantic. So the only time you guys are going to play in the state of North Carolina this year is the ACC championship here in Charlotte.

I like you already. That's the only time it's going to happen, but some good history is that does that bum you out at all? Whether it be no Bojangles in your future or anything of that sort, not playing in the state of North Carolina? Well, I always like coming to North Carolina. Um, weather is always great.

Pretty quick flight. Um, I didn't even think about that. I mean, last year we came down to NC state. Um, yeah, so didn't think about it, but Hey, I'll play whoever they put on the schedule and wherever they tell us to play them.

So, so I'll be okay for a year. I'm sure we'll get them back. I'm sure we'll get a bunch of them back to following year. Next week, a player you coached both at Pittsburgh and with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is going to be inducted into the pro football hall of fame. Some guy named Darrell Rivas, who turned out to be quite the player.

He's going into Canton. What's more satisfying as a coach coaching that guy at the early stage of his career in Pittsburgh and seeing him develop or getting to catch him in the middle of his prime with the Buccaneers as his DB coach? Uh, probably being around a young guy in college, um, and seeing, watching him and seeing him develop and all the great things that he did. I mean, Darrell's probably the hardest working player that I've ever been around. One of them, um, most talented corner, um, man coverage I've ever seen before, and he deserves it.

Competitor, um, great human being. So that's a special day. Those are the special moments, right? When you, when you see a guy get rewarded and you see those accolades.

So I'm glad you brought that up. We got Rondae Barber, too. I coach Rondae in Tampa, so he'll be going in, too. So congratulations to Rondae and to Darrell.

Uh, just very fortunate and blessed to be around two guys, coached two guys, and learned from two guys that are, you know, going to be in the Hall of Fame, which is, you know, the biggest honor you could have. What's next Saturday going to look like for you? Are you going to watch from afar, or are you going to figure out a way to get there? No, I won't be able to get there because of camp. Um, we'll be in it pretty deep.

So, you know, I usually try to tape all those and watch them, and, um, so I'll make sure to watch it and wish those guys good luck. Jeff Halfley's with us here, Boston College coach. Since you were a defensive coach in the mid-2010s in the NFC South, I gotta know how high up on the list Cam Newton was of guys who gave defensive coaches a headache trying to prepare for it. Yeah, I mean, that was, those years in Tampa, it was kind of before the NFL.

Guys were running the ball and moving around. I'll never forget the first time he came out of the huddle and I saw how big he was. He looked like an NBA forward.

I was like, oh my God, who is this guy? And the way he could run and throw it and how hard he was to tackle early in his career. Gosh, he was so hard to defend. I remember the next time we played him a year later when we went down there, I was like, oh boy, he showed up again. He was tough, man.

He was really tough to coach against and play against. What were you telling your DBs if he got to the second level? If he got to the second level, we're going to wrap and roll and get him down on the ground.

Don't take that guy up high, that's for sure. Jeff Haffley, you're with us. You don't know this, but I'm your biggest fan in North Carolina because I did a television interview a couple years ago and for some reason, when you say the words Boston College, your face contorts in such a way that it became like a viral internet meme in North Carolina. So any time you guys do something, somebody fires off a meme of me making a scrunchy face. You got to send that to me, I like that.

Okay, I'll show it to you. And then every time you're mentioned on the show, the drop of me actually saying your name on television plays. It sounds like this. Boston College? Yeah. I love it.

You should know that any time you guys do something ever, this is what I get sent. That is crazy. That's it. Isn't that the ugliest face you've ever seen? I wouldn't call it ugly.

I work in radio, you could say it. I don't think it's ugly. I think he's just really intently talking about Boston College. Boston College.

Now if it's negative, then I think it's really, really ugly. So there it is. So how'd you get into this? When did you start doing this? I did this about, well, Boston College or just radio?

No, just radio. I've been in it, you know, this is, we just celebrated five years in Greensboro and Winston-Salem. Congrats. And then before that, I was at East Carolina for a couple of years. That's awesome. Doing radio as well. So you get into it. You got a good radio voice. Got a great radio face too.

What a combination. Well, we're actually on YouTube, Twitter, and Twitch too. So now we actually have the video element of things. So they can see, I tried to bring it. You look around Radio Row, Coach.

You don't see a lot of people wearing jackets. Yeah, you're one of the best dressed guys around here, to be honest with you. Right. Put that on the ESPN scroll.

Bottom of the screen, Jeff Halfway says that Josh Graham is one of the best. Yeah, now that I'm looking around, you might be the best dressed guy in Radio Row. I didn't bring a tie though. You're the one with the jacket on. It's tough to find a color that will make everybody happy when it comes to ties.

Or black. Jeff Halfway. Oh, by the way, there it is on the scroll. Jeff Halfway says Josh Graham is the best dressed on Radio Row. Whoever's doing your stuff back there is on his deal too. That would be me. Emmett Morehead said that his look, his flow inspires him. Like Will's got his hairdo.

It's Patrick Swayze's ass. You and Emmett should get together and figure that out, man. We plan on it. We're going to make it happen.

In December. That's right. Yeah, we'll be there, man. Emmett, we'll see if we can get it to look as smooth as yours. His looks a little ratty compared to yours.

I'm going to have to. Where is he right now? Oh, there he is. Top two, not two.

Remember. Top two, not two. That's Emmett Morehead's quote. Emmett's beard's pretty cool though, huh?

That's what I said. Jeff Halfway, you're pretty cool. Thanks for dropping by. Really appreciate it. No doubt.

That's Jeff Halfway, the head coach of the Boston College Eagles. All right, man. See you later. We'll be right back.