My Life As A Zuccini (8-1-23)

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast.

We're internet sensations, guys! Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons, 3 to 7 on WSJS. We're on a Tuesday drive, WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad, where the MLB trade deadline is at 6 o'clock, and I'm going to do my best not to throw a temper tantrum about my Orioles doing next to nothing over the next three hours. Before I get too riled up just thinking about that, let's get to football. Yesterday, the Carolina Panthers signed former Falcons pro-baller Deion Jones, and the first impression of the deal was, he's a linebacker. Maybe he could be part of the answer for figuring out who's going to line up across from Brian Burns. However, the more you dive into the deal, the more likely the signing is just a flyer on a guy that used to be pretty good, who was available, and it's more obvious that the Panthers have not answered that big question, and still don't have a firm answer who's going to be on the edge across from number zero.

Still have to get used to him not being number 53. Again, Deion Jones is not that answer. There are some scenarios with his flexibility. You could talk about him being the middle linebacker and perhaps Frankie Louvou can use some of his pass rushing ability and playing the edge a little bit, but that's not really something you could bank on over the span of a season. That's Frankie Louvou playing out of position if you were to go that route. He was never much of a pass rusher. Deion Jones, he's had 11 sacks in his entire seven-year career. So while he's versatile, he's probably going to be playing inside, but don't just take that from me.

Here was Frank Reich earlier today out in Spartanburg saying as much. You know, I do think Deion has some versatility. I think we primarily see him as an inside guy, but, you know, I don't like the limit guys. You know, he certainly has enough experience and the difference. I'm not, you know, all the systems that he's, you know, systems he's played in, coaches he's played under. So I personally, I need to get to know his game a little bit more. Obviously, E.J. and the defensive staff will lead that effort, but excited to have him as experienced as versatility on the team.

Again, he's got to be ambiguous because there are scenarios. You can use them on the outside or use Frankie Louvou on the outside if you so should, if you so choose to do that. You have Shaq Thompson there in the middle as well, but this is not going to solve the second edge position. They are really hoping as of right now, either Marquise Haynes or D.J.

Johnson blossoms there. Haynes is the most likely guy to start as of right now. He's been banged up a little bit at the start of camp. He's missed the last few practices.

He wasn't out there when the Panthers put pads on for the first time yesterday. With D.J., there's a reason why they traded up into the third round to take him. That's not a low draft pick, and they had to trade up. They had to give up something in order to bring him in from Oregon. The buzzword around the Panthers defense has been, or the buzz expression, I should say, setting a hard edge.

That's something they've talked a lot about. And one of the strengths of D.J. Johnson is that he was a really good run stopper for the Ducks. So that might be enough to get him on the field quite a bit. But does that mean he could pass rush at the NFL level? Does that mean he could help Brian Burns avoid some double teams?

That seems a bit unlikely. The best option for the Panthers right now to fix this problem is in free agency. There are still some guys out there. Jadeveon Clowney, for example. Two states, one team, after all, for the former Gamecock. Yannick Ngakwe, the former Jaguar and Baltimore Raven. He's still on the market. Heck, bring Robert Quinn home. He's still available.

All of those guys feel like better options than Marquise Haynes right now. And another thing they need to get figured out on the edge is Brian Burns' contract. But the thing that's holding it all up is the fact that Nick Bosa still hasn't signed out west. He still hasn't signed his massive contract that's going to reset the market and probably make Brian Burns more money. So I wouldn't be that concerned about that getting done. The Panthers have plenty of cap space. They're not going to let a guy like Burns walk when they turn down two first round draft picks from the Rams last year in order to keep him on the team.

But that is something ideally you'd like to get done to save yourself some cap space that likely would make it more expensive after the season ends. On Twitter, at WSJS Radio, if you want in on today's show, that's where we're streaming video in addition to Twitter or YouTube and Twitch, however, and wherever you are listening or watching. We appreciate that. Will Dalton is the executive producer of the show. Fresh off watching Remember the Titans for the first time at the movies with the W.D. is on today's show. W.D. needs more of a thinking man's picture. Thanks, Ian Eagle.

W.D. will do that in about 20 minutes, right? We will. We will. But less than that, when are we going to talk about them birds? Oh, well, we're going to do that.

You know, put a pin in that. We'll get to that in a little bit, because the ACC preseason poll is out. Unsurprisingly, Clemson is your favorite to win the league again.

Also, not that big of a surprise. Florida State is the clear runner up in the minds of the voters. But something that might surprise you is that NC State was picked fourth in the ACC and they actually got one vote to win the ACC championship. NC State this year got a vote.

Which just furthers this theory that I have. It furthers its affirmation that the Wolfpack is the biggest mystery in the ACC this season. They were just picked fourth.

It's amazing to me that that happened. And a first place vote? Meanwhile, I had them seventh on my ballot. I was between them and Wake Forest. I had Wake Forest eighth. It is kind of disrespectful that the Deacs were picked ninth, considering how good they've been in recent years and how great of a coach Dave Glausen is.

But I had NC State just in front of Wake, but it was almost interchangeable between the two. So wouldn't it surprise me if NC State was picked eighth in the ACC this year? They were picked fourth. They were picked fourth! Nobody who's good in the ACC.

And NC State is good. Nobody has more variance than they do about what could potentially happen this year. They could win six or they could win nine.

That's a pretty wide variance of things that could happen that would not surprise me. It wouldn't stun me if they won six. It wouldn't stun me if they won nine. Who else can you say that about in the ACC? Nobody knows how this offense is going to look. Sure, Brennan Armstrong and Robert and I put up numbers at Virginia when they were together a few years ago, but they're not at Virginia anymore. And who's the best receiver that NC State has? Is it LeSain? Is it Porter Rooks? Is it their tight end, Pennix?

I don't know the answer to that. So there are real concerns after Jordan Houston. Do you have any depth at running back? At running back that you really like? Can you just afford to lose NFL level offensive linemen year after year?

Iki Iquanu two years ago. Last year Chandler Zavala, both Carolina Panthers. Is the O-line going to be the same? Those are a lot of questions to have about the offense and the defense.

Well, I think they're going to be pretty good because you could argue they were the best defense in the ACC last year, them and Clemson. Well, they lost some guys too. They need to figure out a way to maintain. Can you lose?

It's the ultimate question. Can you lose Isaiah Moore and Tanner Ringle and not take a step back and in fact be better than you were last year or be as good? That's the challenge that NC State has to answer.

And I'm not saying that they can't. I feel a lot better about the defense and know a lot more about the defense than I do the offense. Since you do got guys like Peyton Wilson back and Aiden White out on at corner, you got those guys returning. But you need a lot of things to break your way in order for you to get close to being a top five team in the ACC. You need the offense to click in a way that we don't know if it's going to. And you do need that defense to at least maintain, who knows, even be better than they were a year ago. A lot of ifs with NC State.

They're the biggest mystery in the conference this season. You're a Hall of Famer in my book, WD. Remember the Titans. This music, man. Undefeated.

Never lost. We'll recap WD's first viewing of Remember the Titans in just a few minutes. The news I continue to see on this trade deadline as an Orioles fan only becomes more infuriating.

First, I have a correction I have to make. Julian writes in and says, by the way, Justin Verlander actually isn't a rental. He's under contract through 2024, and there's a vesting contract or option for 2025. Not helping. Not helping me feel better. Also, another starting pitcher's on the move.

The Tigers trading Michael Lorenzen to the Phillies, according to John Morrissey. These types of things would really bum me up. But do you know why it's not going to?

Why it's not going to get to me? Somebody in the studio, hearing that I've been upset, in an effort to cheer me up, handed me a Kit Kat. Oh boy. And handed me a fruit punch Capri Sun. So you're not going to get me down. A Kit Kat and a juice bar. I got a juice box. You're like a second grader at lunch. You're not going to get me down. You know, like the...

I got a Capri Sun fruit punch flavor, which is the best flavor of Capri Sun. Don't get at me. You know the Kermit the Frog drinking tea meme? This is going to be your version of that. I'm going to have to clip this and get you a meme of this. You can't bring me down.

You can't. You can bring down the Pac-12. The Pac-12 is about the crumble.

Got Brett McMurphy posting the eyeball emojis. Arizona having a meeting that people don't know what that's quite about. There's a lot of smoke there that potentially Arizona and Utah could join Colorado and joining the big 12 conference. There are reports today that the ADs and university presidents couldn't agree to a new media rights deal yet.

So that's a complete mess. If they lose Arizona and Utah, it'll be interesting to see what happens with Oregon and Washington. Whether or not the big 10 would want them since they've already ventured out West with USC and UCLA, do they go to the big 12 conference? Does the Pac-12 exist or in an effort to exist, do they try to merge with the Mountain West at this point? Then you got the ACC swirl rumors that are swirling.

I got a text this morning. Is today the last day that Clemson and FSU are going to be in the ACC? No, no, no is the answer to that question, at least for another decade, regardless of how many times people like to bring that up. All this has to do with football, just like Remember the Titans, which is the best transition I can make for At the Movies with the WD. Unless you're talking about Star Wars, movies aren't exactly Will's thing, but that's about to change because Josh can't stand it anymore. This is At the Movies with Will Dalton. I've already said on this show that I am not a huge fan of the movie Remember the Titans.

You did. I don't think it's a good movie. Perhaps we can save that opinion for another time because you haven't seen this movie before and it's not At the Movies with Josh Graham, it's At the Movies with the WD. So since a lot of people really do like this movie, I want to give the movie an opportunity to shine here. So that's what this segment is about, At the Movies with the WD, Remember the Titans edition. This movie is now 21, make it 22 years old. 23 I think, came out in 2000. Oh, it came out in 2000, wow. So what did you like about this movie?

I did like the fact that when sunshine comes, which go figure, I would like the sunshine character. He was fantastic. He gets there, and the second he gets there, he puts a long, I don't know how many yards, 50, 60 yard dot on that dude's back.

He's like, yep, we got a spot for you. Yeah, and sunshine, Ronnie Bass, whatever the name of the actor is, there are a lot of young actors in this movie. There's the guy who plays Gary Burtier that would then go on to be in Sons of Anarchy. There's Ryan Gosling. If you would have asked anybody 23 years ago, hey, the guy who plays Ronnie Bass, he's Ronnie Bass, the guy who plays Gary Burtier, or the guy who plays whatever the name Ryan Gosling's character was, who's going to be the biggest star out of those three actors wise? Nobody sang Gosling.

No, not the liability. He turned out to be the biggest star out of the three, but really, we just talked about it a second ago. The music and Denzel Washington are the two things that hold this entire movie together.

If neither of those things are in this movie, if you have another actor, any actor, you pick any actor who's playing Denzel Washington's part, this movie's not good. It's not beloved. It's not being talked about on this show 23 years later. And the music, I think Obama used it for his campaign in 2008. Like, you can make a case. Maybe Obama got elected because of the Remember the Titans music. Who knows?

Can't rule it out. The music and Denzel Washington, both incredible in this movie. What didn't you like about Remember the Titans? Also, before we move on to that, as somebody who was a baseball player and an athlete, like I've heard a lot of motivational things and tactics and things that coach players only meetings and things like that. I don't think there's any better motivating thing to do than to literally take your team to Gettysburg and give them a speech in front of the graves. Didn't he say eight million people died? Something like that.

I think he might have been, well, falling in line for many things in this movie. I don't think his numbers might have been accurate. Probably not. That's probably not. He was going for bravado there. He's trying to make a point, I guess.

That's Denzel Washington. What didn't you like about this movie? While I like the Gettysburg thing, a lot of his tactics weren't the greatest. You're bringing up a good point because we need to talk about it.

Yeah, this is the glaring elephant in the room. Well, actually, that's the most accurate thing of this movie, is that Herman Boone is a jerk. Right. Because the team led a mutiny against him three or four years after that, that removed him as being a head coach.

That's something that you can find out by just doing a quick Google search. We won't do any more Googling in this segment, but I'll also point out, you know who the big loser from this movie is? Is every athlete that had to play in high school sports for the next 20 years after this movie came out and had to hear about how water makes you weak and that this is a good tactic for coaching. Coaches feel like they're really tough. Water makes you weak. It's like, oh man, you just remember the Titans too much.

This isn't good. Odds are, if you were being coached in football or soccer or basketball and the guy watched Remember the Titans, it meant really bad news for you at practice. I can hear all the boomers now watching this. See, that's what we need right there.

We need to clone that guy in cinema. Don't call people boomers. Don't tell me you're that guy. I'm not that guy, but you know what I'm talking about.

I know what you're talking about, but I'm not even talking about boomers. I'm talking about 40-year-old. I'm talking about 45-year-old who's a coach saying, you know what?

Fair enough. I see myself in this person. This is how you're supposed to coach because you just really like the movie and it's not really the best coaching tactics. What's the best quote from a Remember the Titan?

And is this your team or is it your daddy's team? Wow, that's what you pull? Yeah. You're overcooking my grits, coach. Attitude reflects leadership. Yeah. That's great.

Strong side! I don't even remember the context of John Brown Heim parts. I don't even know what that means. I mean, come on.

There's a lot. Make them remember the rest of their lives. That they played the Titans or something like that.

That's actually the worst quote in the movie. Really? Because it's sitting right there for Coach Yost to say, Remember the Titans. That's the title.

Sure. Remember the night they played the Titans this one time. Yeah, I guess it was a missed opportunity.

It was. What is the Rotten Tomatoes score for Remember the Titans? Can you get within five percent? This one feels tricky, but I'm gonna maybe shoot low here with a 78. People love this movie, W.D. It's 93 percent.

And that's been At the Movies with the W.D. This is it. You ready? All right, hold on. All right, do it.

Do it. All right, listen up. This is The Drive with Josh Graham. He's singing Keisha Coleslaw.

I can't remember what it's called. Yeah, he brought the house down. He brought the house down. It's crazy. Iki Iquanu showing us a side to Bryce Young that we haven't really seen in the press conferences.

W.D. always likes pointing out videos where someone's miked up around Bryce and Bryce says something funny or interesting like when DJ Chark was miked over the weekend and Bryce was caught cursing and got mad at DJ for not telling him that he was miked. There is an interesting side to Bryce that he doesn't want to show us what Iki was talking about there. The rookie talent show happens pretty much in every NFL locker room. The rookie gets on stage or in front of the entire team in a meeting room and performs some type of talent, juggles a lot of time.

It's it's singing. And Iki said there that Bryce Young sang Keisha Cole, which is interesting, especially for Bryce Young. Today marks the most we've learned about Bryce Young in a single day since he's become a panther.

Probably we learn more about Bryce today than the first three months he's been a panther combined. Bryce met with the media today and he confirmed that he sang Keisha Cole and he told us what song he sang to listen. It was just the song was loved by Keisha Cole.

It's a classic, you know, just a good song. I just tried to do my best impression. You know that that's all I just just tried to sing my little heart out. That's that's it.

I told you crowd, you know, crowd control. That's what it's what you got to bring to the table. You can't just, you know, that's a big performance. What else do you bring? You know, so that's I lack a lot in the singing department, so I try to make up for it with with the performance.

Yeah. Bryce Young would be great at karaoke because I'm a karaoke enthusiast, not a good singer. I am a karaoke enthusiast.

Half the battle is song selection, understanding your audience. And figuring out a way to get them all singing with you. And Icky said everybody was singing along with Bryce because he chose Love by Keisha Cole. If you're unfamiliar with the song, this is it. This is it and try to imagine Bryce singing this. Imagine Bryce singing this.

It's good stuff. So I can't imagine Bryce singing that. Can you imagine those notes? Release the tapes, Panthers. We know you got it. You got all those cameras. We know you have it on film. Panthers Blueprint season two. The talent show.

Release the tapes. But that's not it. That's not all we learned about Bryce. DJ Chark shared that Bryce Young last week was a DoorDash driver at Bama.

This was before he became the starter and NIL became a thing. And it seems like everything we learn about Bryce is secondhand. It's one of his teammates telling us something and then we have to go to Bryce with it.

Here was Bryce confirming that. I was, yeah, I was driving for DoorDash and honestly, I would have like a mask on and a hoodie and then I would only really accept the like drop it at my door orders. So for the most part, I didn't really get, I never really got recognized or anything.

But yeah, I mean, you know, it was before NIL. Crafty. You know that you're the number one recruit in the country. Bama fans might recognize you. Bama fans are a bit crazy sometimes. So just do the drop them off deal.

Do the ones that don't request, doesn't require you to go face to face with anybody. Okay. Speaking of fast food. There's no chance that Bryce Young eats Bojang. That was my biggest question mark when he became, he announced his partnership with the Panthers. He is a spokesman.

Here he was when asked about the partnership and what he eats at Bojangle. You know, it's a long standing tradition just to support that they've had for the organization. You know, it means a lot.

It's an honor for me to have that partnership and to be a part of that. And a Bo Berry biscuit is my go to when I'm there. I don't believe him. There. I said it. You looking for some biscuits? Yeah.

With Jake Malone, it was very believable that he was a fan. How do you not say any of the chicken? Why? Because Bryce Young is probably a vegan or something like that. He only shops at Whole Foods. But that clip does work in terms of like, hey, he's a big fan of Bo Berry biscuits. You looking for some biscuits?

Bryce Young. They have to do some commercials. Oh, you know they will.

I don't know that. Yes, they will. Do you remember your Cam Newton videos? I don't remember them doing commercials with Cam Newton. Didn't they? Yeah, they did.

I think. Tell me about them. Well, I don't remember them. I feel like I remember all of Jake Delobes. I don't remember Cam Newton having Bojangles commercials. I feel like somebody put one out a few weeks ago when we learned about the Bryce Bojangles. Do me wrong.

I don't remember it. I don't. And this is kind of my expertise. Oh, I know. I don't think he's eating a lot of Bojangles. Doubt it. And he chose the safe answer there.

But today marks the most we've learned about Bryce Young. We did do At the Movies with the WD a short while ago. Remember the Titans was that movie. We need to figure out what your movie for next week is going to be.

I think with the Jets being in town, the Panthers are playing the Jets in their first preseason game, you've got the Jets doing joint practices with the Panthers all next week. How about we make it airplane type of themed, which means we got to start in the obvious place. Have you seen the movie Airplane, the 1970s classic? No chance you've seen something in the 70s. I love Airplane. It's one of my favorite movies.

Don't call me Shirley. A little bit of a surprise. Okay, let's go through some other movies. Excuse me. Let's go through some other movies here.

What do we got? How about we try, have you seen Catch Me If You Can? Well. Hanks.

DiCaprio. Have you seen Bridesmaids? Well. Wow.

I don't know if that's so much an airplane movie, but there is a very memorable portion of that movie that involves an airplane. Have you seen Cast Away? I have. Well said, I'm sorry, well, it annoys Sarah Bradford. Every time we go out east to Greenville, America, and we pass the Wilson exit, I roll down the window every time. Well, I'm sorry.

Every single time. What else? How about Air Force One starring Harrison Ford, your guy? I've seen bits and pieces of it. Don't say that.

Don't say that. Well. That's all I needed.

Bits and pieces. No, that's nothing. Sully starring Tom Hanks. Well. How about Flight starring Denzel? Hmm.

Came out 10 years ago. He's a drunk pilot. Well. I wasn't sure about that one. Oh, this is one that has to be included.

Con Air. Well. We've discussed this before.

We almost put it in one of the polls a while back. Forget the name of the daughter. Madaris Tracy. Right. Madaris Casey.

You showed me the clip of that. Nick Cage. Yeah. John Cusack. Malkovich. Yeah, that's gonna be one of the ones we put on the poll.

Catch me if you can. For sure, too. We need one that's recent, last 10 years. Bridesmaids is just more fun than both Flight and Sully. And since you're a Harrison Ford guy, I will include Air Force One in that, too. So we've got a couple in the 90s, one in the 2000s, one in the 2010s.

I thought for sure you wouldn't have seen Airplane, but oh well. So vote on the Twitter poll. At Josh Graham Radio. At WSJS Radio.

The two places you can find this poll. Just fired it off. Which movie should WD be watching next week? That is, that involves a jet flying. I'm sure there are other movies we could have included, but I'm not gonna make you sit down for three hours and watch The Aviator.

We're not gonna do that. Oh, I passed by that one on YouTube the other day. Starring DiCaprio. Yeah. Is that a Nolan picture? No. Oh.

And don't say picture. I sounded like somebody from the 60s. Did you go see that picture? The new cowboy picture? Top way to sound like a tool is to sound like... Oh yes, have you seen the new Nolan picture?

Oppenheimer. Oh, just marvelous. A real firecracker of a movie. Oh, really love Emily Blunt.

Oh, she's a firecracker too, if you know what I'm saying. So yeah. Con Air, Air Force One, Catch Me If You Can, and Bridesmaids. One of those four movies WD will be watching next week. It's up to you guys.

You know what just warms my heart? 30 minutes till the Major League Baseball trade deadline. Seeing every American League contender make moves.

Like I just saw now. The Rangers added catcher Austin Hedges from the Pirates. Even though they already have an all-star catcher. We're just adding more.

Why not? We got our Aldis Chapman. We just brought in Max Scherzer. We brought in a couple of other pitchers on top of that.

Why not? We're just going to be super aggressive. The Rays brought in Savali from the the Guardians to add to their pitching staff. You have the Angels trying to convince Shohei Ohtani. We're worth keeping around.

You should maybe stay here. Here's Lucas G Alito that we just added from the White Sox. In addition to another guy who can help us. The Rays. I already mentioned Savali. Dave Verlander is now a Houston Astro traded from the Mets. Oh, wait, every contender except the team that's leading the American League.

That happens to be my favorite team. The Baltimore Orioles adding just bevies of talent, which just makes me feel great. It makes me feel great that the one guy the Orioles have with the sub 4-5 ERA just got sent to AA because he's pitched way more innings already this year than any other season that he's had in Tyler Wells. I say all this to welcome Darren Vaught to the show. How does the action at the deadline that we've seen change the way you view the American League race?

I think he froze on me. Yeah, just that type of day for me. The Orioles, they're not overwhelming him with your description of all that. No, it's just venting. That's really what it is.

Venting. I really was sold on the idea of getting Verlander. And I was sold on the idea of getting Verlander.

That was the rumor when the morning started. I was sold on the idea when I thought he was a rental. And then I learned that he's not a rental.

He's under contract through 2024, and there's an option for 2025. That sold me. It sold me that it would have been unbelievable for the Orioles to land. But of course, they don't do that because they're the Baltimore Orioles.

That's the part that's frustrating about the whole thing. We're going to answer unusual questions in a bit. We've got this poll question out there trying to figure out the movie that W.D.

is going to be watching for the first time. Con Air, Air Force One, Catch Me If You Can, and Bridesmaids are the option. It's a pretty close poll. Like 33% say Air Force One as of right now. And you can vote at Josh Graham Show and at WSGS radio if you want to chime in on this. Con Air is at 28%.

Catch Me If You Can is at 26%. So you can chime in on that. Now Darren Vaught is with us.

Can you hear me, Darren? Yeah, I got you. Okay, so how has the last 24 hours or really the last 72 if you rope in the Scherzer deal and what we've seen from the Rangers, how's that changed the way you view the American League?

Not a ton, honestly. Look, I get what you're saying about your Orioles. They're in first place for a reason. And I don't think it's necessary to just add just for sake of adding. Verlander back to the Astros is a big get for them.

It's somewhere he's comfortable. We've seen him reinvent himself multiple times already in his career. I think if anything, the NL has sort of made the bigger splashes. I'm not as confident in Max Scherzer to to rework his game in the same way that we've seen Verlander do for the Rangers. I just I think you're good. I think you're good, Josh. Okay, well, I'm still hoping that in the next 20 minutes, the Orioles figure out a way, a blockbuster to land Dylan Cease from the White Sox or, you know, I'll even settle for Jack Flaherty with the Cardinals, because, again, he would have a sub four five era, which the Orioles do not have currently on their roster right now, which is concerning to me. But you're saying I should not be upset. No, I don't think so.

Again, I Sivali to the raises a good pickup, but I don't know if that makes them far and away better or more dangerous, especially with the way that they've been sliding. Like you get come on now, you just got here. You don't get to be a Mets fan just yet, right? Easy with the overreaction theater. Well, I just think we just have so much that we could offer to someone and we have such a glaring need and it's we shouldn't be outbid if we really want somebody. That's the part that frustrates me. Maybe there's not somebody there that's worth like, I mean, you know what I'm saying? We don't have room for these guys. We don't have room. Like everybody plays middle infield. It feels like an outfielders that are top prospects, like only ones of pitching prospects. So it's like we don't have room for everybody. You got to win people when don't you have room years from now? Figure out what like what do you want to prioritize? Because you're this year, your years to come, you're going to figure it out.

Okay, how about we try to give away concert tickets Morris Day and the time going to be at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds Saturday, August 19th. All you have to do is call us and give and ask an unusual question. It could be sports related. It might not be, but we play unusual questions with Darren Vaught right now. 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 okay. It's time for unusual questions with Josh Graham. This is kind of related to my unusual question, Darren Vaught, but where do you stand on this poll of movie that Darren Vaught or that Will Dalton should watch for the first time? Con Air, Air Force One, Catch Me If You Can, or Bridesmaids? I have problems distinguishing between Con Air and Air Force One. Not because of like the content of the movie, but because of the title of the movie. Yeah, they might as well be the same. Bridesmaids is one of the greatest comedies of the last 20 years, I would say.

So I think for pop culture's sake, Will, you need to watch Bridesmaids. Okay. Wow. That's two votes. That's the one that you thought was least likely to win, right? No, Air Force One was the one I thought was least likely to win.

So of course it's the leading vote getter right now. That's the one I'm pulling for. That's the one that I might like executively nix at the end of this show. Oh, don't do that. I might just do that because I don't want to watch it. Because I don't want to watch Air Force One again. Don't make it a dictatorship like in Remember the Titans.

Don't do that. Okay, well related to that question, Remember the Titans is not a good movie in my opinion. That's my most unpopular movie take. What is your most unpopular movie take or a take that you have regarding a movie that you know is unpopular to the general masses? Ooh, I have plenty of these that like aren't going to necessarily land because they're sort of in the inverse.

There are a lot of movies people don't necessarily know of or like that I think are great and more people should know about. That qualifies, I guess. I got one. Okay. I got one.

Yeah, what do you have? The 2015 Oscar for animated feature length film was a robbery. Oh, wow.

A robbery. What was it? Zootopia was the winner.

Uh-huh. That Madagascar wannabe high budget piece of crap. Not a good movie. One of the most beautiful animated films, it's stop motion.

Originally, it was in French. It's called My Life as a Zucchini. A beautiful film. What? It was up for the Oscar and it got robbed. My Life as a Zucchini. Making an appearance on the show today. My Life as a Zucchini.

If you don't know, now you know, go find it, go watch it, cry a little bit. W.D., does that mean you have to ask the most obvious question as your unusual question as a follow-up to what Darren just said? What would that be?

If you were a fruit or vegetable, which fruit or vegetable would you be? Are you going to have that be your unusual question or do you got something better than that? I mean, I have something else. Is it better than that? Maybe I'll let you be the judge. You're probably going to say it's not. Okay, we can ask both.

Why not? Sure, rapid fire. Let's do this thing. If you were a fruit or vegetable, what fruit or vegetable would you be? Okay, let's let that ruminate.

What's your second question? What's the best toothpaste? I like the first one a lot more. Like the best flavor.

The best flavor. Do this every week, man. You're awful at this. You're really bad at this.

With toothpaste? Yeah, well, you're just really bad at coming up with questions that are very unusual. You just find random things. It's not unusual to ask like, well, random is unusual. You could do better. You could do far better. Just look at how great the question is of what fruit or vegetable are you.

Use something with fluoride in it. Let's move on to the fruits and veggies. I am a grapefruit for no particular reason. No reason. No justification. Well, no, no, no justification.

I don't have a good reason. I I'm a tomato because I'm a redhead. And, you know, I also really like burgers and that goes on.

You're not into labels because a tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable. Like it often is associated. Correct.

That's the that's the meaning I'm assigning to that. OK, we have tickets to go see Morris Day in the time. If you call in and have an unusual question. Three, three, six, seven, seven, six hundred. Let's go to Dave and Clemons, who has an unusual question. Dave, go right ahead.

What's up, guys? I don't want the tickets, but I just wanted to call in and ask what Major League Baseball player did you get in the batter's box and mimic? For me, it was Gary Sheffield. That was mine, too. I loved it. I loved the Gary Sheffield. What about you guys?

OK, but let me ask you this before you go, Dave. Did you actually do the bat swinging motion in games or was that just when you were like hanging out in the backyard messing around? Just hanging out. Yeah, I could never pull it off in a game situation. That's what I thought. Same here. Didn't feel right, but I'd practice that in the backyard so much. I just never could pull it off in a game situation. I understand it.

Thank you for the call. You know what's amazing? You guys know I've spent a lot of time at the USA Baseball National Training Complex this summer.

And for one of our youth tournaments, a couple of them, actually, Noah Sheffield, who is Gary Sheffield's son, has been playing in these tournaments. He does the bat waggle and everything. Oh, it's amazing. I've seen it.

He does. That really is amazing. It's awesome. What's your unusual question or what's your batting at or your batting stance first?

Yeah. So I for a good stretch of my teenage years had convinced myself I was going to try to be a switch hitter. I'm right-handed. I do nothing left-handed effectively, but I was like, I'm going to bat left-handed. And because of such, I tried to mimic Ichiro Suzuki with sort of like the drag when I did the drag. But also, you know, you hold the bat up, you tuck on your sleeve, and then you bring it down and around. Yeah, it's that's what we do.

See, I went through phases on this. In Little League, it was kind of a Manny Ramirez thing with and then kind of getting in further down the line. I like to mimic Ryan Howard.

Interesting. He also had the holding the bat out thing when he would step into the box. Darren, you know that. I'm sure his was a little a little lower, like a little more bent. It was it was wider than Ichiro. A little bit little squatty, little squatty approach.

Bigger dude. What's your what's your unusual question there? What's your biggest blind spot when it comes to pop culture?

My so here's the here's the reason for this. I know, Will, you've got a million of them. But Mike, so my girlfriend is from Southern California. Oh, she had no idea who the Carter family is. Are we talking are we talking like the old school Carter like the country music Carter family? Yeah, yeah. The original family of country music.

Yeah, yes. So she she is to preface. She's doing her rotations in southwestern Virginia near where I grew up and it came up in the office yesterday, the Carter family. And she had to tell me because she was so embarrassed. She did not know who the Carter family was. Someone asked her, do you like bluegrass? And she was like, was that is that a kind of beer?

Oh, wow, that's bad. Oh, huge blind spot. Take her to Merlefest next year. It's just culturally. It's just not not on her radar.

I'm serious. Take her to Merlefest. She'll she'll she'll learn. She's learning.

We're teaching her. For me, I'll say it's TV shows. So people will like reference characters from like Peaky Blinders or something like that. Or from Stranger Things or Game of Thrones. And some things are so popular that I can kind of understand like the references.

Like I can do it enough where I can understand second hand what people were talking about, like with Thrones or with like The Wire. But I've seen none of those shows. I haven't seen The Sopranos. I haven't seen The Wire. I haven't seen Stranger Things. I haven't seen any any of the shows.

So I have a huge blind spot when it comes to that. And also superhero movies. I haven't seen any of them.

I just don't care. I've seen Iron Man or actually I I saw the the original Spider-Man series and the Batman movies, but none of the ones that make up like the Marvel. Is that right? Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Cinematic Universe.

None of those except the original Iron Man. Mine specifically with TV shows is SpongeBob. Oh, so you don't understand escalators and eels last week when we were going down escalator. Yeah, so there are certain that certain references that have been turned into memes over the years that I sort of get, right? But no, I when you first made the reference, I had no idea.

Yeah, we were going down an escalator in Charlotte and anytime someone else is going back up, I say escalators, escalators, escalators, hoping that somebody else would come back and say eels. Darren had no idea what I was talking about. No clue.

There you go. And I don't need to ask W.D. because it's everything.

Actually, nobody knows this about me. It's it's movies. It's movies. Pretty good. Yeah.

All right. On that note, we'll figure out after a break what movie that W.D. is going to watch. Darren Vaught, thanks for the time, buddy. Yeah, you got it.

I'll see you guys later. I restrained myself during the at the movies with the W.D. segment. Where we talked about Remember the Titans and W.D. told us what he liked about it, and I didn't get into why I felt it was a bad movie. It's my hottest movie take. It's my most unpopular movie take. If you have an unpopular movie take that you would like to share, 336-777-1600 by all means. But I'm convinced if you disagree with me right now that Remember the Titans is a bad movie, that Remember the Titans is a bad movie.

By the end of this segment, I can get you to flip. I can persuade you that Remember the Titans is not in fact good, even if you think that it's an awesome movie. Let's get into why the facts ruin this movie. I'm not of the belief that you have to follow something to a T. I'm not of the belief that when you say inspired by a true story or based on a true story that you can't fluff things at all. I'm not of that belief. But in this movie, they push that to the limit.

They go over the top and they fluff things in a way that's completely unnecessary. W.D. Do you remember the name of the school? T.C. Williams, right? T.C. Williams. Do you remember the year this movie was set?

No. 1971. They went undefeated.

T.C. Williams integrated in 1963. Eight years before that undefeated season happened. You might remember the scene. Our opponents don't have to deal with what we deal with. We have to deal with this. Our opponents don't have to deal with this.

Every opponent T.C. Williams played that year had already integrated for years. Yet the movie paints it as if they're the only school that's integrated. And again, it's set in 1971. That's a really big deal. Here's another one. Herman Boone.

Not a great guy. Think about how coaching tactics have evolved with hazing and verbal contact or verbal conduct and such just in the last 20 years. Think about how far we've come.

How much has changed in our sensibilities just in the last 25 years on that subject. Now imagine how verbally abusive you have to be. How bad you have to be. How badly you have to treat your players. In the mid 70s for a team to lead a mutiny for you to be fired as the coach.

That's exactly what happened years after this championship season for T.C. Williams. Boone, not a good guy. There are players who are quoted saying, I don't think his tactics helped us win. I don't. No one believes that he helped them. Right.

And then there are some other ones that are smaller, but kind of a big deal. You remember the car accident? Oh, terrible.

Terrible, right? He missed the championship game, except the fact that it happened after the championship game in real life. Really?

Uh huh. Gary Bertier got in the car accident after the championship game, not before the championship game. He played in the championship. And then you talk about Yos' daughter played by Hayden Pantieri. Oh, she's the one coach's daughter that is so super into football because she's she's a coach's kid. He had four daughters.

He had four. Imagine how do you think Yos felt about it? The real Yos. Wait, you just have one of my daughters in this? This doesn't that's not great. And then there's the Disney pixie dust stuff like that's cringe worthy. It's what ruined the 42 movie about 10 years ago. I'm specifically talking about like the ending where they hold up the football.

And he says, you're a Hall of Famer in my book. It's just. And because it's Disney, you can't curse. So this is a movie that is missing a lot. Like nobody ever really goes there when it comes to racial racial like words, like racial slurs and slang and things of that nature, because it's a Disney movie. Denzel Washington seems like a coach should do a lot of cursing. Like he's fresh off training day.

He'd do a lot of cursing, like in real life. The real life coach Boone seems like a missed opportunity that that didn't happen with Denzel in this movie. And it's because it's a Disney movie with a bunch of Disney pixie dust and all that. The final play, here's an important question. How important are the sports scenes in sports movies? How important is the quality and the believability of the sports scenes in sports movies? To me, well, to me, it's what makes or breaks for the most part, the movie. Right.

Because it feels cheesy. Very great, great baseball in Boulderum, great hockey, unbelievable hockey and miracle. Yes. The football was not good in this movie. Like, let's just do you remember what happened in the championship game? Do you remember the final play?

Do you remember what it was? It was some type of like sweet play. They ran a reverse. And apparently all it took was sunshine to block two dudes. A massive block on one of them. Two dudes to go 70 yards on a run play. Two blocks, 70 yards.

We love sunshine. And here's another thing. T.C. Williams blew out everybody that year.

That championship game wasn't close. That was also fluff. So do they do this for like story purpose? Yes. OK. But it just doesn't feel necessary.

I don't think you needed like all the other teams not to be integrated. I don't think you needed that. I don't think you needed to lie about that. I don't think you needed to lie about Yos' daughter.

Like he had three other daughters. I don't think you needed to lie. Like the car accident thing. I don't think you needed that. What was the purpose of that? Well.

Do we know? Yeah. Well, just to, you know. To make it more. Yeah. Dramatic.

We're playing for Gary Bertier and all that. The stereo. All of that ruins the movie for me.

It really does. And the fact it was a Disney movie. Where Coach Boone, where Denzel can't cook fully. The way that Denzel wants to cook. Could you imagine if it wasn't a Disney movie? Denzel won this role.

Are you kidding me? Fresh off training day. So that's my hottest movie take. That's my most unpopular movie take.

If you've got one 336-777-1600 if you want in. Getting to the tiers of ACC football this year. Because the preseason poll was announced today. Clemson, favorite to win the league.

And Wake Forest picked 9th. Okay. I think there are four tiers. Four.

And here's how I separate them. First tier. The four teams that can win the ACC. Like has the talent.

Where if things break their way. You are capable of winning the league. Four teams. Clemson, obviously at the very top. FSU and Miami have the four and five star talent to do so. And I'll even throw North Carolina as the fourth team barely, barely cracking this group. Just because they have the recruiting and they have Drake May.

Quarterback play and ultimate equalizer in football as we know. So that is the top tier of the ACC. Clemson, FSU, Miami and North Carolina. Teams that can win the league.

The next group. There are four, I feel very comfortably, you're going to be in a bowl team. Like teams that are good. These are good teams. Not ACC title contenders, but they are good teams that are going to play in a bowl. NC State, Duke and Wake Forest are all there. All four of those teams. Confident you're going to be in a bowl game. And then there's Pittsburgh.

Shout out to Pat Narduzzi. Those teams are going to be in a bowl. You can put them in whatever order you want. It's hard for me to rank State, Wake, Duke and Pittsburgh.

You can put them in whatever order you please. That next four. Then there are three teams I just put in a category. Two words, who knows? These two teams, or make it three teams. Boston College, Boston College, Louisville and Syracuse.

Who knows? Louisville and BC have scheduling breaks. They got some quarterback play that we like. Syracuse the same way with Garrett Schrader. We don't know what the offensive coordinator.

We like Dino Babers. Q's the schedule, more difficult than Louisville and BC's. But those are the three teams I put in the who knows category. And then you have three teams in the unquestionably bad, I call it the poo-poo water tier. And that is the two Virginia schools and Georgia Tech.

This is another one. Put them in whatever order you like. Georgia Tech, Virginia, Virginia Tech. I don't know what order to put them in. It doesn't really matter. All three of these teams are bad.

So there you go. The four teams that can win the league, Clemson, FSU, Miami and North Carolina. The four safely going to play in bowls tier, State, Duke, Wake, and Pitt. The three who knows teams, BC, Louisville, and Syracuse. And the three poo-poo water teams, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, and Virginia. Any objections? I don't think I realized just how bad Virginia is going to be.

Yeah, they're bad. Like, I don't think I realized. They got a quarterback from Monmouth. We're all about- Mr. Musket. Yeah, Tony Musket. Well, it's a great name, but you played at Monmouth last year.

That's your quarterback. I'm with you. I'm fascinated by NC State, though. See, if gambling were legal in North Carolina, I think the win total is three and a half for Virginia. I'm going to take the under on that.

Whatever the number is. Send me that cash out, family. I think they're the worst team in the league.

I'm going to go under on that. That's it. And I hate it because they dealt with so much last year, and I married into Virginia fandom because of my wife. My wife.

But sorry, that's just the fact of the matter. W.D. We've got Bachelorette hometowns tonight.

You doggone right we do. Very excited about that. So I'm going to watch Orioles baseball. Going to watch The Bachelorette. Big night in the Graham household.