It Doesn't Have To Be Tradish (8-3-23)

Yes, Josh Graham has opinions. There is nothing that entertains the audience and the masses more than me being bothered. And yes, he's got attitude. Really, none of the game made sense to me. And that's exactly why you love him.

When this all gets sorted out, I think you and me should get an apartment together. You're on The Drive with Josh Graham. You are on a Thursday Drive, WSJS, new stock sports for the Triad, where we are broadcasting live from the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro and hiding from the rain inside Margaritaville.

So throughout today's show, we're going to have updates from round one of the tournament here at Sedgefield, starting with the tournament director Bobby Powell joining our set in about 10 minutes. But before we get to him, the Carolina Panthers held their FanFest at Bank of America Stadium last night. And it was just the latest example of Bryce Young working through some stuff, some growing pains, if you will, and trying to get the rookie mistakes out now.

So that way, we're not seeing a lot of those when the season starts a little over a month from now. Here's what happened. It looked like he was bound for a perfect night in front of the fans with about 15 seconds left in the 11 on 11 drills at the very end. Bryce was locked in. He was 11 for 15 passing. And he had a back shoulder touchdown throw to Terrace Marshall Jr. Taylor Zarzor was broadcasting at FanFest on WFMY last night alongside Steve Smith.

Taylor's going to be a guest on today's show at around 5.30. And then, late in the 11 on 11, he fired one up, looking to make a play late. It was tipped.

It was picked. And that was his fifth interception in five practices, one interception per day for Bryce Young, which has led to some because of who he is. Number one pick Heisman Trophy winner to ask some questions to already have some concerns.

Obviously, it's way too soon to have real concerns. But when you dive into the context of it, those interceptions make a little bit more sense. Take last night. Frank Reich, he wanted to test the defense at the end, wanted to see if they were ready for receiver streaking down the sideline. And the good news for the defense was they were ready, and they picked off the pass on a deflection on a tip drill.

So here was Frank Reich after the practice, breaking down exactly what happened there. No, you know, you get in those situations at the end, and you know, you got 15 seconds left. So what do you want to do? You want to take a shot into the end zone? Well, that's what the defense is going to do, you know. So sometimes it's just good to take your medicine, kick the field goal with 15 seconds to go. And then, but then you got to kick off. But in this situation, sometimes what you find is, man, I feel like we're in midseason form right now.

This is good stuff. You know, sometimes you want to see, is the defense going to screw it up? I wanted to see what our defense was going to do.

So I said, hey, let's just go out there. Let's just run four verts, see if the defense plays the wrong coverage and then just and we'll throw it away. And then they got a pretty good rush and I put them in a hard position. You put them in a hard position, and that's what Frank Reich is trying to do with Bryce now. So that way he can figure out what exactly where he is in his preparation. All indications are he's exactly where he needs to be. But when you dive further into the context of some of the other picks on day one, it was a miscommunication on a timing route. The wide receiver wasn't where he needed to be.

Day two, sometimes you just have to tip your cap. Shaq Thompson made a play. That guy's a veteran. He's the one guy left off into defense starters from that Super Bowl team in 2015. It was a bad pick on day three through behind the guy through late. Frankie Louvou picked off the pass two days ago. Late ball first day when they were wearing pads. He stared down the receiver rookie mistake.

And then last night, Frank Reich just described what happened there. There is no rhyming or reason. There isn't one specific thing that is a common thread in these interceptions. It's not like his height is an issue. And that's why they're getting deflected or balls are getting batted. That's not what we're looking at here.

So it's way too early to overreact to those types of things. What you should listen to is what veterans are saying about Bryce already. It seems clear that Bryce has already won over this huddle. Listen to center Bradley Bozeman glowing when talking about Bryce. It might be a Bama thing, too. Bradley's a Bama guy and Bryce is a Bama guy.

So maybe there's some of that there. But here was Bozeman after the practice. From the very jump, I think one of the most impressive things when he first came in is, you know, as a rookie coming in, there's a lot going on.

There's a lot being thrown into this. He comes in. Coach gives him the call. He turns around and looks at us, just pure confidence, and just rattles off the call right back to us.

And I was like, okay, let's see how this goes the rest of this day and the whole rest of the week. He just crushed it from the beginning. So, I mean, he's came in and just absolutely dominated this role that he's been in. Everything he's been asked to do, everything that's been put on his plate, he has stepped up to the plate to it. He's a star.

Just trust it. Most years, there's at least one of these quarterbacks that's that. The Panthers had their pick of the litter. They chose Bryce. It's Scott Fitterer.

It's Frank Reich. They both saw it. They were aligned in it. They traded up. They got the guy. He's already named the starter. Mistakes are going to happen. You live with it.

He's getting those mistakes out of the way now. On Twitter, at WSJS Radio, you can chime in on the show. That's also where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch. W.D., for people who aren't watching on video right now, how would you describe my backdrop, what you see behind me right now?

Well, we've got our big WSJS banner back there. You see the Margaritaville signs right behind you. I just saw a dude in a golf cart drive. He's probably a lot further behind you. The first tee is right behind me. There goes another golf cart.

Yeah, the first tee is right behind me. Margaritaville starting to pop, and I think I saw a peek of the sun. We'll see. Breaking news.

There might be the sun. By the way, if you come by our setup, we have Tim McGraw tickets that we're giving away today and tomorrow. He's going to be in Charlotte and Raleigh next year.

We will announce a winner today at the end of today's show, and we'll do the same for tomorrow. So drop by, say hi. We'd love to see you. Our team would love to meet you as well.

Just give us your name and phone number and throw it into one of these nice little Margarita pails we have sitting in front of us here, and you will be signed up to go see Tim McGraw for next year if we draw your name, shifting things a bit. After yesterday's bizarre Board of Trustees meeting, Florida State now has a dozen days to inform the ACC if they plan to exit the conference by next year, in the next year. You shouldn't hold your breath on that for reasons we've talked about on repeat time and time again for months, but also because nobody's coming to their rescue. It certainly won't be the SEC. There's this thought that the SEC is just going to take Florida State because they want them for competitive reasons.

That misunderstands. What a lot of people misunderstand about how this works now is the SEC isn't really in charge of things here. The ACC really isn't in charge of things here. ESPN owns both of those conferences. When you give a conference, or each school in a conference, 30-plus, 40, 50-plus million dollars in the SEC's case per team a year, you own that school.

You have the power, and thus anything that happens has to be cleared with them. And you've got to remember the SEC runs the SEC, or ESPN runs the SEC network, and they run the ACC network. And if you haven't been following, you have all those layoffs at ESPN. There's a rights deal coming up with the NBA sometime soon. The last thing they want is to have to deal with another ACC negotiation and an SEC negotiation because Florida State left from one conference to the other.

This is something that Chip Patterson brought up on the show from CBS and the Cover Three podcast yesterday. It is not good business for ESPN for Florida State to leave the ACC and go to the SEC because the ACC and ESPN are 50 percent partners in the ACC network. The ACC is fully in bed with ESPN, and so you are weakening one of your properties. And how much is Florida State really adding to the SEC? They already play a premier game against Florida that's going to end up on ESPN. They regularly, as they will this year against LSU, play in massive non-conference games. So you're weakening one side, and I don't think you're really doing a major change to the other. The Big Ten, they're a team that – they're a conference that, as you fans keep mentioning, they're going to want us because they haven't tapped into this market yet and they've already gone out west.

Why not go down south? That's still a hail Mary, too, because they don't want to deal with the grant of rights that goes through 2036. They don't want to deal with that. That's going to be a battle for them. And it's also going to be a fired shot across the bow to ESPN, too, that I don't think they're going to want to deal with.

So without a savior, Florida State, they're not going to be able to get out themselves. You look at the grant of rights, you're talking about $30 million a year, 13 years, that this conference has left on that grant of rights. That's $400 million if you put that together.

It's a math equation. It's not the exit fee. They're not going to want to touch that. To kick off our two days live at Sedgefield, we welcome in Wyndham Championship tournament director Bobby Powell, next. And now, on with the show.

Back to the drive with Josh Graham. Our first guest from the Wyndham Championship, our live broadcast today and tomorrow, rounds one and two of the tournament, is the tournament director of the Wyndham, Bobby Powell, that's joining us. And Bobby, prior to becoming the tournament director, you were the director of operations here for many years. How many tournaments is this for you now? How many years have you been here?

This is number 20, believe it or not. Congratulations on 20 years with the Wyndham Championship, which means, I guess, you have a pretty close relationship with Forrest Stokes, too, in addition to Sedgefield, right? Yeah, that was my inauguration into this event. So, I was at Forrest Stokes starting in 2004, and then we moved over here to Sedgefield in 2008. So, yeah, I had a few years under my belt at Forrest Stokes. I don't think we've ever talked about this on air, but you are a Kansas graduate, yes? Yes, sir.

Wow. Rock Chalk Jayhawk. Rock Chalk. We need to figure out a way to get out to Lawrence, Kansas next year, where North Carolina, for the first time since 1960, is going to be playing on campus at Lawrence. And then, a little bit easier drive for Bobby Powell.

Yes. Kansas is going to visit Chapel Hill for the first time ever in 2025. That'll be a fun home and home. So, were you super into basketball when you were at Kansas? Hard not to be.

Hard not to be. Roy, when would you have wrapped up school day? So, I finished in 1995, so I was there for sure during the Roy Williams era. You know, traditionally, we're not great at football, but I actually had a voyage to the Aloha Bowl in 1992 as well as a video cameraman for the football team. So, that was fun.

It's not bad a setup over that way. It might look a lot like what we see right now at Margaritaville here in Greensboro, but I got to imagine Roy, every single time he visits with us, talks about Sedgefield and how much he loves Sedgefield and any opportunity he gets to play in the Pro-Am. He takes advantage of that. He told us one time how he wouldn't name the Pro, but he embarrassed the Pro when he was playing at the Pro-Am. That's Roy Williams' side of the story. Do you have any good Roy Williams stories regarding his love of golf?

I do, actually. So, when I was at Kansas, I was working in the sports information department, and my boss knew that I was into golf. So, after practice one day, he wanted me to do a little sidebar piece in the next game program on Roy's affinity for golf.

So, he sent me out, and if you know Roy, he's like meticulous down to the minute with the way he scripts his schedule. And so, I stopped after practice, and he's always in a hurry, especially during basketball season, and I said, Hey, Coach, Dean wanted me to ask you about your three favorite golf courses to put as a little sidebar piece in the next program. And he actually stopped his very brisk walk, which told me that, yeah, golf got his attention. This is probably like in January.

It was 15 degrees outside in Kansas at the time. So, he said, Okay. He said, I'll go reverse course for you. So, he says number three would be Pebble Beach for obvious reasons. You know, it's the most beautiful place in the world as it relates to golf. Number two is Prairie Dunes Country Club, which is, you know, for people in this region of the country, they may not know it, but it's annually ranked in the top 20 in the country. It's a great Maxwell design. It's hosted some U.S. women's, I think U.S. senior open, and some amateur events.

It's hosted pretty much everything except the U.S. open, just because it doesn't have the length, but it's phenomenal. Link style course. You feel like you're in Scotland when you're there. And then he said number one is Grandfather in North Carolina.

Now, keep in mind. Black Mountain, North Carolina. Yeah, so keep in mind this is 1993, 94, something like that. I had never been to the state of North Carolina at that time, so I'm sitting here thinking he just compared some golf course I've never heard of to... Pebble Beach. Pebble Beach and Prairie Dunes.

And so, okay, you file that away and so be it. So, I don't know, however many years later, 10 years later, it must have been the year that he was doing his book tour when he wrote that book. My boss, Mark Brazel, had a claim to fame where they actually went to the same high school.

Mark actually broke his single game assist record at T.C. Roberson High School. So, we knew each other a little bit. He had come play in the Pro-Am a few times and so I went to go... I bought the book for Mark for Christmas and I wanted Coach Williams to autograph it to Mark. So, I said, hey, Coach, you may not remember me.

It's been a number of years and he's really good with people and he did remember me. And I said, I just had to tell you something and keep in mind, I had probably two months prior to me seeing him on this book tour, I had got to play Grandfather for the first time in my life and it was like the middle of October, I mean, just the optimum time to play Grandfather. And I said, when you told me that that was your favorite golf course, I thought you were nuts.

Just the name of golf course I'd never heard of in the same breath as Pebble Beach and Prairie Dunes. And he looked up at me and he said, you know, to this day it's still my favorite. That's great.

Yeah, it was kind of a fun little connection there. That's fantastic. We'll be joined by Bobby Powell, the tournament director of the Wyndham Championship. For those who might be in their car or planning to be here tomorrow or even stopping by for the latter hours today, what's the latest weather update? I'm going to ask you to put your meteorologist hat on for the remainder of the day and also what you're expecting tomorrow. I am not a meteorologist, but I can regurgitate.

But I did stay at a holiday. Yeah, I can regurgitate the forecast a little bit from what the PGA Tour, they actually have a weather person on site actually here during the tournament. And so basically what they're saying is on and off, little drizzle, nothing severe, nothing real heavy rain. I mean, look, if you look out in the fairways, there's players in shirt sleeves.

Most of them are. It's not so bad that you're needing to wear a rain jacket. I'm in short sleeves and I haven't had many issues today. Yeah, so it's a little drizzle in and out. I think I heard one of the broadcasters on the telecast say it's that annoying rain, which means it's just wet enough to kind of be annoying, but not really, you know, we haven't stopped play at all.

You know, that's been the beauty of it. There's been no lightning, no issues to stop play. It hasn't been hard enough rain to make it puddle up on the greens or in the bunkers or anything like that. So it's just kind of that dreary, non-August feeling type of day, to be frank with you. How might it expect play tomorrow, you think, this weather today? Well, I think from what they're saying is there's little chances here and there, kind of, you know, other than the cool temperatures, kind of a typical August day for the most part. I think tomorrow temperatures will get back up a little bit. It might be a little bit muggy, chances of spotty storms, but the weekend looks great. Yeah, and you think about the course, though, it's probably going to play softer than you would imagine, which could affect scoring.

It could. I think that can go one of two ways, though, because, you know, if you watch a little bit of the early round coverage, my gosh, if you don't hit it in the fairway, good luck in that rough. And so, you know, if you look at the history of this, that's typically been the players that win are the ones that strike the ball reasonably well.

They don't have to be long, but the guys that keep it in the fairway and putt pretty well, those have been the winners of this tournament the vast majority of the time. Obviously, you would have loved to have defending champ Tom Kim here who had the withdrawal due to injury, a top 20 player in the world. But when you look at your field without Tom Kim, 15 of the top 50 in the world golf rankings are here. It's now top 70 that make the playoffs. How have you seen that affect the field this year, you think? Well, really, really, really, really good, because that 125 number is the number that was burned into our soul for a long time, that magic number that not only the players need to get in that top 125 to retain their card for the next year, but also to advance into the FedEx Cup playoffs. So there was multiple reasons for that 125 number being so vastly important. Then we hear a year ago that 70 is the new number, and we looked at this on paper and thought, this can only help us.

And until you actually get here, you never really know how much it's going to help us. But we saw it last week when the field was finalized. I think at one point late last week, other than a couple guys that were injured, we had every single player ranked 46 through 100.

And that may not sound like a big deal, but that's really amazing. So the depth of our field, you know, from a household name perspective, you've got guys like Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama, Justin Thomas, Matt Kuchar, and Gary Woodland. You do have a lot of those guys and some young stars like Sam Burns and J.T.

Postons playing well now, and then some of our fan favorites like Brant Snedeker and Webb Simpson. So you have all that, but really the depth of the field, if you just want to look at like a pure world golf ranking or FedEx Cup ranking, that middle to back half of the field is extremely strong, way stronger than we've ever had it. Yeah, and some of the names you mentioned, Hideki Matsuyama within 15 spots of that cut line. Shane Lowry, Justin Thomas, Thor and a group together, they're kind of right there at that top 70 cut line. Those are guys you might not get five, six years ago before the playoff where you guys were put on the schedule, but also with the top 70 even last year. Yeah, and that's a good note because it seems like every year we do get one of those guys that whether they were hurt or they had a bad year or for whatever reason, maybe they're a little bit lower in the rankings. I'm talking about some of those household names. So we've had Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler and Tiger back in 2015. So we've had those guys that fit into that silo, I guess if you will. But again, and to your point, that 70 number now is way better than 125, and then that 50 number is better than 70. So you have to get into the top 50 FedEx Cup points in order to get into those elevated events in the future.

So that's a really big deal for these players. Thank you for making the time for us. Thank you for allowing us to be here as well. Rob Goodman does a great job with things. You can go off and enjoy a loaded land shark or something now.

Not quite yet. I got a couple more hours to go, but it looks like there's plenty of people in here doing that already. Yeah, there's no doubt. Bobby Powell, thank you for being here. I appreciate that. Thank you.

Clara Goodwin is here from Fox 8, which means Nicki Minaj bumps on the show. They know me too well. Too well. All too well, should I say.

That's what we call a tease. All too well. Right now 336-777-1600 if you want to go watch The Dash on Saturday. First two to call in, get tickets to go see The Dash, a pair of tickets. So all too well. Taylor Swift reference. Ten minute version. Ten minute version only. We'll do the ten minute version of a Clara Goodwin interview for this segment.

And Taylor Swift announced, did you see this WD? Is this her? She's on a date. She's on a date. She's on a date. She's on a date. She's on a date. She's on a date. She's on a date. She's on four dates today. Did she? And coming back to the U S a baby.

And I'm looking at it. Did we get a ride? Rock stadium in Miami. She's going to the super dome in new Orleans. Going to Lucas oil stadium in Indianapolis. With concerts.

Nope. David Tepper. He was concerts. You're mister Concerts. He got music.

You brought live music to Charlotte allegedly. David Tepper does not do many press conferences. If he does one sometime soon.

If I'm not there, I expect Clara Goodwin to be there. These are the hard questions. These are the people want to know. Genuinely.

Well, Josh, did you see this? There was something that came out about the economy of and like keeping Sam going in a recession. And Barbie. She's bringing millions and millions and millions of dollars into these cities and hotels and you know, restaurants and all these things of the city she goes to. It's like the Charlotte, Charlotte, DC.

I think they're the only two stadiums in the entire country who will not host her. But the point I'm making is David Tepper is a competitive guy. He works in the world of business. He is an amazing guy.

The Panthers lose. I want to know how ticked he is to be mister concerts again. Go to concerts. Point that out at the presser and get passed up not once but twice by Taylor Swift. You can't get a Taylor Swift concert to Charlotte. How?

Like you look at some of them. They're hosting Super Bowls. Indianapolis too. That's a great city. Kansas City got Taylor Swift dates. You're telling me Arrowhead Stadium? Cincinnati. Cincinnati gets Taylor Swift. We don't get Taylor. How?

How Sway? Make it make sense to me. Because I can't.

I gotta imagine. Anyway, you went to one of these shows, didn't you? I did. I went to Atlanta. I considered she's playing in Amsterdam on my thirtieth birthday and I really thought about it but I I didn't I didn't buy the ticket. I got like the verified fan for Amsterdam. I was like, maybe let's go to the Netherlands and then I thought about it for a second. I was like, ooh. Is that during football season?

No, it's next summer. Oh. I thought, should I fly to the Netherlands for Taylor Swift?

I considered it. I didn't do it for Taylor Swift. I did a New Orleans trip every once in a while. It's right before Halloween.

You got Taylor Swift, you got Bourbon Street, you got Halloween, like, what a trio there. Come on now. How's your day been here thus far? Today? Very wet. Yeah. Very, very wet.

No, it's been good though. We're talking to some of the, I was talking to the caddies actually. That was my my angle for today. Cuz the caddies, you think. So, they have a bag, whatever. They have all this equipment but you add on, by the end of the day, the caddies, you know, between from their wet towels, from umbrellas, and just how they kind of work all this rain equipment into their job. It's actually very interesting. What did you learn?

I learned that there's a lot more that goes into it than I thought. You know, between wiping off every single ball, wiping off every single club, between, you know, holding the umbrella, where the umbrella goes. You only got two hands. You think about it.

You think that's enough and then once you have some clubs, you got towels, you got balls, you got umbrellas, you got, you know, your sheets, you got umbrellas. So, I wish I could turn the camera right now and look at this very dramatic Jenga game that's being played in front of us where it seems three people are terrified to approach the set as it's starting to lean to the right. I might just grab the camera. Yeah, give it, give it a run here.

Give it a shot. That's what we do. That's what. Oh my. Oh my. Oh, she's going for it.

It's pretty amazing. She's going. That thing wants to go. Jenga.

We lost her. Jenga. Jenga. Yeah.

So, it's done. There's there's few things worse. See, the best part is the worst part of Jenga where you just have that sound of them all falling. Especially when you feel Jenga and the blocks are louder. And I felt especially bad for her this time because the band stopped playing, right? Oh, that's terrible.

So, that's all you have in the situation. That is probably the best bar game. Uh Jenga cuz a lot of places and breweries now have a ton of games whether it be board games, Jenga. I really like the one where you're trying to like you have the the ring on a on a string. Oh, that's a good one. You try to hook. That's a good one.

Have you seen the giant one? That's good. If you lose at Connect Four though, you're a child. Are you though? Everyone, someone has to lose.

Well, do they? You love chocolate milk. You should be great at Connect Four. You are. Hi, you love chocolate milk? He loves chocolate milk, Clara. Oh my god. Nesquik. Oh.

Look, I can't even drink milk cuz my stomach just hurts all day. What about you who's? Chocolate drink. I thought about asking them. They have this well stocked, you know, drink, drink machine or drink cooler.

I got like some Gatorade here for example and I thought it'd be great if we had some you who's. Okay, Josh, normally, I get this usually different. It's a little rainy. It's a little breezy.

Normally, it is like 90 degrees out here. Yeah. Can you imagine walking in however many holes you're walking and coming in and thinking, wow, you know what I really want? No, I don't want this ice cold drink. No, I don't. I don't. I need chocolate milk.

Josh would be that guy here. It's stocked full of soda. How is it any different? I mean, sometimes you need a little caffeine, you know. Soda, soda after hot. Don't even compare the two.

I wouldn't grab a Sprite ten out of ten times. Not a, not a, not the same thing at all. Kenny Chesney is a summer country artist singer and I don't remember him referencing Doctor Peppers and Mountain Dudes.

Yeah, he probably, he probably couldn't pay him enough. He's referencing you who's on the, on the beach, you're drinking you who's if you're making the Kenny Chesney's. I think you're on your own on this one, Josh. I'm sorry. Didn't you have you who's at your wedding? No.

Or the. No. But my, but my groomsmen did pull me aside about an hour and a half before I got married and this was a surprise. We walked to like a one of these ballrooms that were on the campus of this resort we were at and it was five glasses sitting there for a long time. The middle of the glasses was a huge Nesquik container and a two a a two liter of milk. We had some chocolate milk before I went out. So, Josh had chocolate milk and I had Baja Blast margaritas.

WD, who's the winner here? Come on now. Yeah. You can never go wrong with a Baja Blast. Come on.

Baja Blast margarita. Let's go. It's not even a competition. We are going to win. We got that going our way.

You should be proud of me, WD. Over the last hour, the Orioles have been playing. It's the debut of Jack Flaherty as an Oriole. Haven't even checked the score. Haven't even. He's too busy checking Taylor Swift's tour.

He is. Give it time. Give it time. That that game's going to come on. The birds.

Birds. Yeah. I I'm probably not. I've got so much going on.

It's like, nobody's jumped on the Jenga game since that Jenga game ended a second ago. But I'm sorry. I was commanding the conversation, commanding the room on that issue. What? What are some other great? I think you scared them out of it, Josh. What?

No, no, no. What are some other great bar games? Other great bar game. I like like the actual board games like or the I love ping pong. I mean, I want a ping pong championship in seventh grade but I want to say that I have made an official suggestion to the ACC and I think they've agreed with me.

Talking to like high level execs that we need ping pong at ACC Media Day. Oh, I thought you're going to say like at a competitive level. I was like, I mean, no. No, no, no. No, just for us.

Yeah. Not even just for us but for the players or coaches maybe even. They could compete in and oh, my gosh.

By fast operation basketball or ACC Media Days in a couple of months. I need to see Mac Brown and Mike Elko in a ping pong. That's all I need to see. Everything that's like you see it. He made, he made two suggestions.

One was the ping pong table and the other was he thinks the grant of right should be like in a case somewhere. National treasure like. Yeah.

Classic case where the trophies are at the top of the escalator. Oh. Yeah. Oh, everybody's going to ask about it. It's a it's a it's a it's a page and a half. They they literally laughed in my face. Just point at it.

It's all the Florida State but just point out. We're going to we're going to post a legal document. Yeah. What a flex that would be. Yeah. That'd be great.

Now, now it'd be trolling Florida State. Get a dart board in there. Get a get a pool table. Let's have it all.

Let's just get a whole. Air hockey. Oh, air hockey. Wd.

Why did I think of that one? That's right. They can't they can't do it. They can't do it because now it'd just be too much of a troll of Florida State. It's all it would be.

Can't do it. Uh when can we catch you on television? Five o'clock in about an hour. Um we're going live at five, live at six, tomorrow, all weekend. It's going to be a party. I am living at Sejvold Country Club this weekend and I could not be more thrilled about it.

And I will be drinking my Gatorade and not having one singular beer. Oh, maybe after my shift. Do you know what a loaded Landshark is? I don't but I did have plenty of Landsharks last year. I'll tell you what a loaded Landshark is. I'm nervous. You walk up to the bartender here and you ask for a loaded Landshark. They hand you a a Landshark and say, take a sip. Okay?

Okay? And however big your sip is is key because after you take your sip, they take it back and then however much left is in there, they fill with tequila. Oh, I can get behind that. Shake it up and I'm ready to go.

Maybe I can get behind that. The Margaritaville folks are looking at me and giving me two thumbs up. Telling me this is excellent promotion on my part. Maybe after my shift, Josh.

Well, we'll try that and see how it goes. Clara Goodwin, thanks for being here, friend. It's a party. Oh, it's a party. Fox eight watcher on the TV at 5 o'clock and 6 o'clock and all throughout the weekend. And go sign up for Taylor Swift and verified fans.

Do that. Closers. And this is the drive with Josh Grah. We're starting to get some clarity on the Carolina Panthers defense. Last night, the Panthers had their Fanfest at Bank of America Stadium and one of the things we've wanted to do is see what kind of chin going to be used this year. When we met Panthers DC, Adjiro, Evero, at OTAs, and when he was first introduced, he didn't give us a lot and that's putting it generously.

He was protecting that information as if it was the nuclear codes while we were all thinking, really? We're going to figure it out when training camp gets here and we can have a general idea. There are only a few of them in a jet pack and have him do some things.

That would be fun though. Could you imagine if you had one player on the field, you can put a jet pack on? It's good. It's good.

It's good. Would you use like the offense gets one player in a jet pack? The defense gets a player in a jet pack. Could you imagine Tyree kill with a jet pack? Give that guy the ball.

That's scary. See what you could do but then Jeremy Chin, you'd have to put him in a jet pack. I mean, maybe we should introduce this. That's what I'm saying. But I only said that to say that it's not like you can do that. So, why is there so much mystery? Why are you trying to protect that?

Jeremy Chin referred to himself as a safety and then was more expansive about what his role is going to be when asked about it yesterday. I mean, when when someone asks, like if I'm out somewhere and somebody asks me, I just, I just tell him, I play safety. It's a lot simpler that way. It's a lot easier for a more refined audience. a nickel, a dime, but you know, I feel like there's there's so many, I feel like that just kinda puts it in the box a little bit. Um I mean, there's so many areas that, you know, Vero will move me around the field. So, just saying, I'll just be a nickel.

You know, it doesn't really do it justice. Maybe not but listen to what he said today than what he actually said. The big question this offseason was whether he would be a DB or more of a linebacker in Everose defense. He didn't mention anything about being a linebacker. I'm a nickel, I'm a dime. I tell people I'm a safety.

It's a lot easier to say that. He says he works with the DB's coaches. He works with the safeties coach.

He's not dealing with a linebacker. So, he's a DB now. He's a DB now. He's a DB now and there are a lot of different places you can line him up to play him but that linebacker room, speaking of linebackers, it's gotten a bit crowded. You've got, you added Dion Jones this week. He's going to be more of an inside guy. Not really going to be helping when it comes to the edges like Brian Burns, Marquise Haynes, and the recently drafted DJ Johnson but it's Dion Jones joining Shaq Jones.

So, what about this name Wd? Let's talk about Kamu Grugier Hill. Kamu Grugier Hill.

Nailed it. He's been picking off passes left and right. He had the pick of Bryce Young yesterday. Had to pick the practice before that.

I had to dive into this background because I didn't know who this guy was before a couple of days ago. Since he was in Philly when he was a championship team against the Patriots, he spent his first six, first three or four years in the league in New England. He's bounced around a bit. Four teams in the last five years but Frank Reich was in Philly when Kamu Grugier Hill was there. Knows how good of a player he can be and he said, listen, even though we already got Frankie Lou and Shaq Thompson, if you ball out, we're going to give you opportunities.

Here with Reich. We'll talk that through. EJ's going to give you opportunities to play. This is why we have training camp. You know, guys will make plays. Like you said Darren, they catch your eye and you find ways to get them on the field and that's just it. We don't have, you know, we can have role players.

You know, it doesn't have to be tradition, right? I mean, you can bring guys in to play specialized roles. You know, we do that on offense all the time.

Defense does that. So, you know, we'll hold one second. Yeah. Did you hear what I heard there? I need to be completely disarmed.

I was not ready. Frank Reich is not the type of person who I believe is in his 60s now that I expected to say the word. Do we have it? You know, it doesn't have to be tradition, right? Tradish. How do you spell that word?

T-R-A-D-I-S-H. I mean, that's how I would spell. I actually don't think it's a word. It is not a word.

100%. Frank Reich turned 62 this year. Tradish. It doesn't have to be tradition.

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times. It does not have to be tradition. It doesn't have to be tradition.

No. It doesn't. Like, this is what I told, this is what I told my sister last weekend when she was getting married and she was getting engaged and then a month and a half later, get married and have breakfast, the day of the wedding with my husband who.

It doesn't have to be tradition. It doesn't. That's that's what I told her. It doesn't have to be that way. No. Like, it, you know, it it it sometimes you do things a little bit differently.

You maybe, maybe you ask your sister. It doesn't have to be tradition. No. This is just evidence of that. Frank Reich is with you on this. It doesn't have to be tradition.

Oh, that's what Florida State's AD and what their university president is essentially saying all this history and being in the ACC the last 30 years, we can. It doesn't have to be tradition. It doesn't have to be a thing now. Break away from those traditions. It doesn't have to be tradition.

I did way too much fun with that. Oh, another thing on defense is the corners. They're healthy. Dante Jackson's back at full speed. In fact, DJ Chart has some swagger. We've gotten to know him a little bit.

Great personality. He might be the new Robbie Anderson of guys at the time. He talks. Despite his swagger, WD and how fast he is talking about his batting rating and such. The one guy he said might be faster than him is Dante Jackson and consider that given the fact that last year, he had an Achilles injury. So, coming back from an Achilles, he is back at full speed. JC Horn.

He's dealt with him. Back. Playing last night. Practicing at Fan Fest. CJ Henderson missed the first padded practice early in the week.

He's back as well. So, there are some good signs. There's some things coming from training camp that are very good things. Jeremy Chin us knowing where he's going to play. The fact he's going to be a DB. Not really going to be played in the line backing for at all.

That room getting crowded, the way he's playing. So, shout out to him. Write that down for your immaculate grid. I haven't done mine today but if you have Panther, Eagle, Houston, Texan, he's played for like five different teams over the last few years.

You can write all that down. But the corners, they're healthy. That's a great sign too for the Carolina Panthers.

So much going on, man. We've got Mark Brazel that's dropping by. You want to say hi to Mark? Mark. Mark Brazel. Mark, Mark Brazel.

For years has been here. Hey, Mark. How are you? We're doing great here at the Windham Championship. You know, this is year six for us. Wow. Thanks for being here. Yeah. You've been a few more though.

I have. Twenty-two to be exact. Bobby Powis is telling us 20 years. For him, he's been 20. I think this is your 20th year. Yeah.

It's your 20. But how's your day look with all the weather? We've been doing fine. You know, we've got a lot of good weather to do. Hopefully, you get it all in. Looks like we will and you try to start freshness Friday.

Yeah. How do you think it's going to impact the course tomorrow? Probably a little softer but you know, we I guess there's still, we gotta, I gotta look at the forecast for tomorrow. I guess it's maybe a little bit like this but I know Saturday and Sunday look better so, we'll see what we can do. I'll take it. I'll take it if the the weekend is a lot. Oh, yeah.

I'll take Saturday and Sunday. Yeah, I mean, in the end, it's going to be a nice leader program. Let me update that real quick for people who might not be following or it might be in their car right now. Adam Scott, is it five under and he got some company in the last hour or so. Yeah.

With folks on the course. Um in fact, he's just been overtaken. Russell Henley's.

I just, I just, I just watched this 15th thirty. Bobby Powell's pick. Oh yeah.

He was on the record. Russell Henley. Yeah. Seven under. Did you have a pick on the record?

Uh I did. I had my first four under par for today. I gave out Sung J M. He hasn't flown up the boards yet but Billy Horsell's a guy to always keep an eye on. He's a three under for today but getting to the top of the leaderboard again, it's Henley and he's followed by uh Andrew Novak and Adam Svensson at six under par. Adam Scott. Adam Scott's at five under right there.

You know. Oh, you have another six? Yeah, another six. Svensson and Novak are both at six now.

Uh that now that the rain has stopped, you're just seeing these low numbers get. Yeah, they're playing, they're playing. Yeah, they're playing. Yeah. You know, Taylor's Arzor, right?

Very well. Yeah. He's about to join us. PGA Tour Radio, Carolina Panthers TV Voice two. So, we'll step aside and be joined by Taylor's Arzor. You have time to join us a little bit later, don't you?

Mark Brazel hanging out with us here. So much going on at the Wyndham. Make sure you stop by Margaritaville. We've got Tim McGraw tickets that we're auctioning off or we're raffling off, we should say.

Yeah. And um we're going to maybe throw down some loaded bars or join us next. It's the drive with Josh Graham. WSJS We are here at the Wyndham Championship. Round one in Greensboro. Inside Margaritaville.

People hiding underneath cover here. It was great weather last night in the city of Charlotte. As our next guest knows who is doing the television for Panthers Fan Fest. You also know him on PGA Tour Radio as well. Our friend Taylor's Arzor is joining us. You are top billing by the way. Taylor's Arzor then Steve Smith on the preseason and Fan Fest broadcast. You should just know him on PGA Tour Radio USJS. That's the case, Taylor.

You might be the only one, Josh but thank you very much. Um I love my guy, Smitty and we had a blast last night. It was great to be back together and uh there's a lot of excitement around the Panthers going into the season. I think every team tries to act like they're excited going into the year but I think the Panthers have legitimate reason to be excited this time. Yeah, when you look at Bryce Young's night, he was at the very end but Frank Reich said he was more trying to test the defense and see how they react and they passed the test tip drill interception. We saw some of the back shoulder fades to Terrace Marshall Jr.

If I take Bryce Young off of the board, what storyline has been most fascinating to you for one week plus of training camp? The experience and professionalism that the Panthers have with them. They have a more than qualified NFL head coach and Frank Reich. They have a more than for offensive analyst and Jim Caldwell and quarterbacks coach and Josh McCown. Uh Jiro Avero, their defensive coordinators and up and coming star in the NFL and uh they have Dom Capers as a senior defensive analyst. They're just surrounded by a bunch of guys that are more than qualified to be doing their job on the NFL.

They've done it fairly at the last staff. I think that this organization has got some corners in the past and it's reared its ugly head and this time they cut no corners. They found a staff that is truly one of the better staffs you'll find in the NFL and I think because of that, the Panthers are set up to be very good the next few years. What's something that Smitty had had pointed out either on the field or on some of these practices that really sent your antenna up that really perked your ear that they have athletes all around Bryce Young. They've got an athlete in Bryce Young playing the quarterback spot but that they also have a bunch of athletes around him. Miles Sanders comes from the Eagles after over 1200 yards last year. Laviska is this catch all receiver that can run out of the back.

They can, you know, run jet into the back. They've got a dangerous athlete. DJ Shark is one of the fastest receivers in the NFL. He comes over to the team this year. They just have a lot more speed than I, than they've had in the past and that's something that Smitty certainly has made note of and then I think the other thing is just the improvement of the offensive line.

Most notably, Charlotte's very own Iki Iquanu. Of course, the NC State product had such an incredible collegiate career and he was able to do that. But now, um, I think that you're gonna see in his second season in the league, a big jump.

Those are some of the things that Smitty has noticed. I always like to pick his brain, Josh, and see what he's thinking and the last couple of days, those are some things he's been really excited to talk about. Taylor Zorzur is with us here.

You know him, Panthers preseason, TV Voice was the doing fan fest with Steve Smith last night. PGA tour radio as well and since you can maybe hear some of the stuff that's going on in the field, but still, where we're at, round one of the Wyndham Championship, who do you favor this week out of these two categories? Guys who are not in that top 70 cut line like an Adam Scott who shot very well here in round one, five under, maybe a Shane Lowry, Justin Thomas, all of them on the outside looking in and also in a group together I should throw in there or guys who we've come to know over the years, like a Billy Horshall who went three under the day or Sungjae M and many of the other South Koreans who played this course so well. Like what category do you look at more favorably? The guys who are very desperate on the outside looking in or the guys we've known to play this course so well in past years?

Yeah, I usually go the horses for courses route, Josh. You know, I don't know that I know that JT Poston didn't get off to the best of starts, but he's so good. He's one of the greatest performances I've ever seen on the PGA Tour four years ago when he won when he never made a bogey in 72 holes. He's an outstanding putter. He comes from Hickory, so he's very used to these kind of conditions. That's I would look in that that way for somebody that has had a lot of great experience in the past.

Typically, you would say someone like Webb Simpson for the same reasons, but Webb has not had the best of seasons, but I typically go with a Margaritaville. I've done plenty of broadcasts from where you are right now. It's one of the best party environments you have on the tour. This this the community, the Triad has done such a great job supporting this event. I don't mean this as a shot towards my town in Charlotte, but Charlotte feels much more like a national or international feel they're going to have a designated event again there next year. The Windham Championship feels like a great tournament, and I mean that is a compliment to both tournaments in Charlotte and in Greensboro.

It has its own identity. It's been so well supported by the community and I love that it has the strongest field. It's had certainly in the 21st century, and I'm hoping that with only the top 70 players making the playoffs moving forward, Josh, this is a sign of things to come that next year and years moving forward. We're going to see five or six guys that haven't had a great year, but we're going to see five or six guys that haven't had a great year in Greensboro because the community and the way that Mark Brazel and Bobby Long and everyone involved in that tournament have run it.

They deserve it. Give me a pro tip for anybody listening who might be going tomorrow or on the weekend. What holds a camp out at how to approach said field from a spectator perspective? Yeah, that's that's a great question. Um.

I'm going to give you an example. If you're a golf nerd and you want to see just the undulation on the course, there are a couple of spots on the course where if you hit it above the hole, you have almost no chance of getting it anywhere near the hole, even if you're 10 ft away, like the 10th hole, Josh if you hit the ball above the hole on the 10th green there at said field, just watching players try to figure out how to get their next shot close to the hole is virtually remarkable. I mean, it's amazing. I mean, it's like eight years ago, Jordan Spieth played this miraculous recovery shot there two years ago. It's cool just to see the touch that these players have so that if you want to get nerded out on golf, that's where I would say if you want to go to the best area where they have that beach. On the 15th 16th hole, watching people try to go for the green and two on 15 and that's on a short par for the 17th.

That's a great spot to watch the golf. I love this tournament. My wife is pro am many times in it.

We have a lot of experience with this event. My favorite moment ever have to tell you Josh was when Tubby Smith when he was coaching high point, we played in the program together and Nick Taylor was our pro and he did not play well that day and you could tell he didn't really care what his score was and Tubby was like, oh, this day, Nick Taylor goes out and shoots like 62 and Tubby sends me a text like, oh, now he tries and I'm like, well, coach, it is the real tournament now. Yesterday was just the pro am and he was like, well, it was the real tournament for me and you. It was great to see how competitive Tubby got in that pro am but I have a lot of great memories of that tournament.

Roy Williams wouldn't tell me the pro but he said one year at a pro am he embarrassed a pro out here made it to the pro am game. So, Taylor, thanks for doing this. We look forward to seeing you next week. I'm sure some people will pay attention when the Jets and some guy named Aaron Rogers is in Spartanburg and you got that preseason game next week. We'll see you at Bank of America Stadium next week. I can't wait. That's going to be a lot of fun, Josh. Look forward to seeing