A Good Christian (8-7-23)

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast.

Three internet sensations, guys! Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons, 3 to 7 on WSJS. Welcome to a Monday Drive. You are listening to WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad, where when you attend a golf tournament, there are several different approaches you could take to watching an event. You can choose a player, maybe even the leader to follow.

Maybe you can float around. Just walk through the whole course and take in whatever action you happen to stumble upon. Then there's the strategy of finding a spot on the golf course, a single spot at a single hole, and planting yourself there, hopefully in the shade, and then you just watch all the guys cycle through. You remain in one spot as all the players in the final round roll on by if you were at Sedgefield yesterday.

This is my favorite strategy, and if you adopted it yesterday and chose to camp at 18, boy were you rewarded. The prevailing memories we'll have for this year's Wyndham Championship all happened on the 18th hole. And it wasn't just about Lucas Glover winning the tournament.

That's also where Russell Henley collapsed once again for the second time in three years. In 2021, you will remember, he had a three-shot league going into Sunday. Then on the back nine, he had not one, not two, but three three-putts, including one on the 18th hole, that if he would have hit the second shot on, he would have been part of that lengthy playoff that we saw that year.

Yesterday, he was looking for redemption. And right after the weather delay subsided, he birdied 15 to give himself a one-shot lead over Lucas Glover with three holes to go. It looked like Russell Henley was going to get this done. He was going to bounce back. He was going to be the story.

It was going to be a redemptive tale at the Wyndham. He had not bogeyed a hole the entire round through 15 holes. Then he bogeyed the final three.

Here he was after collapsing yet again, speaking to what went wrong after that weather delay. Yeah, I just never got comfortable. Felt a little jittery out there. Just never got into a good sync with my swing. Felt kind of rushed from the top of my swing.

Just didn't do a good job of handling the restart. I don't know. I mean, yeah, I don't know.

I mean, I'm nervous because I care, but I'm not really sure. He wasn't sure. He was jittery.

He was nervous. It seemed that delay had him thinking about 2021, and he melted down the stretch on those final three holes. 18 was also where Justin Thomas came a quarter inch away from making the playoffs. Justin Thomas might not have participated in the Wyndham Championship if the number was still 125 that you had to crack. Remember the Wyndham, the last regular season event on the PGA Tour schedule before the playoffs.

Now you have to crack the top 70. And Justin Thomas needed a birdie on 18 in order to crack 70. He would have been the 70th and final player to make the field, and it didn't look good off the tee box. He hit it into the pine straw area. The view was not a good one towards the hole.

There was some tree blockage. When he hit the shot, he nearly fell down. It was an incredible drive to get it close to the green and over the little walk through portion of the 18th hole the players take in order to get towards the green. It was an amazing shot just to give him a chance at birdie. And then when he pulled the chip shot out and drew it close to the hole, it bounced right there a quarter inch away from going in. And Justin Thomas, who once played, who first played on this course when he was 16 years old, fell onto his back thinking, I gave it everything I had here. I just couldn't get that shot to drop.

I just couldn't get that chip to go. And shortly enough, he finished 71st. Top 70 make it. He finished 71st. He was that close to making the PGA Tour playoff. And this snaps an eight year run for Justin Thomas of consecutive playoff appearances. By the way, the last guy who did make the field, Ben Griffin, is a North Carolina guy, 27 years old, who went to the University of North Carolina. He's a Tar Heel.

Then you have Lucas Glover. You're on the 18th. You get to see a champion crowned if you choose to camp out on the 18th hole. And he got the break of the tournament on 18. He at this point did not know Russell Henley was set to bogey 18 and give himself a little bit, giving Lucas Glover a little bit of a cushion. He hit one like Justin Thomas way left. It looked like it was destined to going beyond the cart path. If it didn't hit a cart, you got a security guard manning the cart and he was hit by the ball. And it ricocheted back towards the green or back towards the fairway. It was a fortunate bounce that he got. And then he saw Russell Henley bogey in the hole, which allowed for him to lay up and comfortably win the tournament. But what a break he had.

All the stars aligned for 43-year-old Lucas Glover and on the green, it was a memorable call by Jim Nantz on CBS with a memorable celebration with Lucas Glover's family as well. Here's how that sounded. Go ahead and make it. Turn, turn, turn.

That's what he does. The man from Greenville is a winner in Greensboro. You won! Daddy, you won! Daddy, you won!

You won! Can confirm that Daddy won. That was Lucas Glover Jr. It was the first time that his kids got a chance to see him win in person a golf tournament. And since he's from Greenville, his daughter's wearing Clemson gear.

She's in tears hugging Dad. A really neat scene. The 18th hole. That's something we're going to remember for a very long time.

What transpired at this year's Windham Championship. John Dell, the preeminent golf expert here in the Triad, will join us in about 20 minutes in studio from the Winston-Salem Journal and the Greensboro News and Record. Make sure you're subscribed to our podcast. The best of podcasts, iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor. If you're already subscribed to, thumbs up to you. YouTube as well. Search The Drive with Josh Graham. That's where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and on Twitch.

However, and wherever you're choosing to consume the show, we appreciate that. Will Dalton is the executive producer of this show. Will, do you have your Panthers-Justin Houston jersey ready yet? You already got that in the mail? Not yet, but give me a minute.

I might have one for you. Happy Panthers Jets Week to you as well. Joint practices Wednesday and Thursday and then the Panthers' first preseason game Saturday at Bank of America Stadium.

We'll talk Panthers in just a few minutes. After starting the tournament as heavy favorites, which was to be expected when you win three consecutive Olympic gold medals and two consecutive World Cups, the U.S. women's national team was eliminated in the round of 16 yesterday by Sweden. On Twitter, or I guess it's called X now, Balani Jones, friend of the show, made a passing comment that is perfect and true. He said, this feels a lot like 2004 in Athens for USA basketball. And that's exactly what this is for USA women's soccer. This World Cup was their Athens because in either case they reached a point where their success was taken for granted. Where success wasn't really celebrated at this point, but it was expected. If you didn't win it all, it was seen to be an object failure. That was the reaction to the 2004 Olympic team and for the men's basketball program, USA basketball.

And that's the reaction we've seen for USA soccer ever since yesterday morning as well. And in both cases, coaching held back a talented team, a team that was more talented than any other team in the world. Larry Brown was the wrong coach to manage all those egos.

Look at all the stories about his run in with stars, including Allen Iverson with the Sixers in the early 2000s. Larry Brown was the wrong person to massage egos and figure out how to play all the players together, play all those stars together. Then you got Vladko, the head coach manager of USA women's soccer, who all along, as we've noted, and Carly Lloyd criticized for much of the tournament, mishandled this team.

They sat back. They weren't very aggressive offensively, which kept teams in the game that might have been less talented. He did not use his substitutions properly. He didn't utilize many of these young players that he chose to put on this roster over veterans. And that's probably going to cost him his position as the manager of this team.

That's just how it works. Just like Larry Brown wasn't going to get a shot at a redeemed team situation, Coach K got that shot and ran away with it. And there is a lot of redeemed team potential for 2027 for USA soccer. We invest more than pretty much anyone else in the world in women's sports. And we have so much talent and now we have motivation.

Now you have your chip on the shoulder to try and get this thing done. So this World Cup was Athens for the US women's soccer team. Let's hope four years from now, wherever the Women's World Cup is going to be, they haven't quite decided the site yet. There still is a chance it could be some games played in the United States, by the way.

Let's hope that 2027 is like Beijing, like Beijing was for the men's national basketball team. You know our next guest as being a member of the Panthers radio network since the inaugural season in 1995. But this year, Jim Zocchi will also be calling ECU football games on the radio. Very exciting stuff. So it's official.

Put it on the bottom of the screen on the ESPN scroll. Josh Graham and Jim Zocchi, both ECU guys. Is that cool? Is that a cool distinction for you, Jim? Well, you've been at it a lot longer than I have. I'm excited to jump on board with Pirate Nation here, Josh.

But I know it's obviously near and dear to your heart where you kind of got your chops to broadcasting and all of that. So really, it's just an honor to be able to have a chance to jump in and get this opportunity with ECU and Pirates football. It's on the rise right now with Mike Houston. Maybe we'll circle back to Pirates at the end of our conversation, but there's so much going on with the Panthers that we need to get to. We spent, it felt like, the entire offseason wondering who the Panthers were going to line up on the edge across from Brian Burns. And yesterday we got that answer with Justin Houston, who had nine and a half sacks with the Ravens last year. How far are you willing to go in assessing the importance of this signing? Well, yeah, it's very important, obviously, because, as you know, it makes it just so easy for other teams to either play away from Brian Burns or double team Brian Burns, and now they can't do that.

So you'd love to have that combination. Now, I don't think I was predicting the type numbers for Houston coming to India, nine and a half sacks with Baltimore last year. But rotationally, again, he's 34. I think he'd be a specialty guy, four times a Pro Bowl player in this league, obviously. And I wouldn't even necessarily say they're done, because once you get to the end of the preseason and those roster cut downs, you know, there's gonna be some big names that have been popping out there for various reasons, whether teams are overloaded in a position or they just, you know, salary capitalized, whatever the issue may be.

So I wouldn't rely on it. It may not be as explosive of a name, a big name as Justin Houston, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Panthers don't add to it at the end of the preseason in another way. Jim Zocchi with us, Panthers Radio Network. There were reports over the weekend that Bryce Young is going to start Saturday's preseason game against the Jets. That'll be at Bank of America Stadium after the two joint practices in Spartanburg. Since Bryce Young is a rookie still needing snaps, how much should we expect to see Bryce and the ones on Saturday? Frank Reich will not tell us.

So the answer is we don't know. My guess would be, if you say a quarter that's gonna be close to right, I would think, I think it'd be more than a series. So I would think something around a quarter just to get him out there, get some chemistry going, because he is going to be a starting quarterback, says combination of you want to be safe, you want to be a bubble wrap and get all your starters to the regular season healthy, but he's new. And he does have to learn how to be an NFL quarterback in the first game setting here. So I think I'm going to do a decent number of reps in this first game and work out everything, the mechanics of handing off, obviously, and so forth, and some passing. But yeah, we know teams are very vanilla. It's hard to what they show. So I'd expect short passing and that kind of thing.

But I would say something about a quarter is going to be about right, I would think. Do you think the fact he is a rookie changes the calculus on how much he might play? You know, maybe compared to some other veterans that don't play much at all. Like it'd be interesting to see if this was Green Bay, I wouldn't be surprised if Aaron Rodgers didn't play. But because it's the Jets and he's new, I would think we'll see a little bit of Aaron Rodgers out there in a safe way. So probably changes it a little bit.

As you said, it's been different. You should know with the four preseason games about exactly how much the starters would go building to the third game and sitting out the fourth game or doing one series. Now with three games, coaches all handle it different. And to be honest, with the two days of joint practice sessions coming up Wednesday and Thursday with the Jets, that's going to be the heavy work they do. And probably a little bit less than the actual game on Saturday because that's how teams treat and kind of value those joint workout practices. From the outside watching, Jim Zocchi with us, by the way, he will be in Spartanburg where these joint practices are happening for the Panthers and Jets. Is it a lot more instructive even for the casual viewer or the media expert watching these joint practices versus preseason games? How much more instructive and interesting are watching the Jets and Panthers ones go head to head at these joint practices versus what we'll see Saturday night? I think it's very instructive and that's why the coaches value them and like them so much because they can agree upon and dictate all descriptive scenarios of what they're going to do. Whether it's working 7-on-7 or 11-on-11 individual drills, they can do red zone, they can do third down, they can just work on simple handoff plays. So this is going to be the kind of practices where they really work and fine-tune things they've been doing for a couple of weeks off training camp to get ready for the games. And so it will be very coordinated in that way. I think with Coach Sala and obviously Coach Reich, they're already in front of the chippiness and things that could happen with these guys. They just want to get some good work in.

Wednesday will be the heavier of the two days compared to Thursday. And then they'll actually start about an hour and a half earlier on Thursday just to get a little bit more of a break heading into the preseason game Saturday. If I took quarterbacks off the board, because you know the large media focus, it's probably even going to be a circus with Bryce Young and Aaron Rodgers being on the field, that's going to be the center of it. If I took them off the board, what matchup are you most excited to watch at joint practices? I'm excited to see, first of all, the Jets' defense is so good. Had this receiver's room shakes out for the Panthers, I think it's really deep. And so there may be other teams, obviously, that have guys that will go this year for 1,300 yards and 13 touchdowns.

I think this group is going to be more of a bi-committee group. It's a really complementary group with a veteran professional receiver like Adam Thielen. To me, DJ Chark has been one of the stars of, it might even be like your MVP, if you will, so far. He makes at least two really amazing catches every day.

Brings that speed component to it as well. Drafted Jonathan Mingo. Got to see what level Terrace Marshall's at, because when he's been given opportunities, he's been pretty explosive over his first two years. And then kind of that hybrid role of LaVisca Chenault. So I'd like to see in practice game settings over the next three, four days once we get down there and then the preseason game, how this receiver group and the chemistry with Bryce Young is shaped up against what should be a really good Jets' defense.

Jim Zocchi with us, Panthers Radio Network, also ECU football radio play-by-play this year. Do you need help with the barbecue and watering hole recommendations in Greenville, America? Do you need help on this front? I will accept help.

I've been getting help via Twitter. Beezle's coming up the most. Yeah. I've been seeing so far. And then, well, I hear the tones. I know you got something more to tell me about that.

No, see. SupDogs is like obviously the hot dog sports bar vibe. But what besides Beezle do I need to know about barbecue? So this is what it's like. I mean, you've been to Philadelphia many times, so you have people who will tell you, oh, if you're going to Philly, you got to go to Pat's or Geno's while the folks in Philly will not send you to Pat's and Geno's. So I would say the SupDogs, which I love, and Beez, which I love.

Don't hate on me, pirate folks. And there are a lot of them in the triad. That's the Pat's and Geno's of Greenville, where it's like basic association. The place that you need to go, my favorite barbecue joint in the world, with all due respect to Lexington, is Sam Jones Barbecue. Sam Jones Barbecue is the spot because and they've expanded the Raleigh recently, too. But Sam Jones Barbecue, that's great. And then if you need some drinkage, Pitt Street Brewing, that's a place that's opened in the last like five or six years. It's a great spot. You're not going to get a lot of riffraff from downtown unless you want to mix it up with the college kids.

Pitt Street Brewing, Sam Jones Barbecue. Those are the spots. I'm in. I'm going to do all of it. I'm going to do the tourist spots. I'm going to do the inside ones that Josh just gave me. I've got, you know, four months of football counting going down and practices there.

So I'm looking forward to at least a couple of times hitting each one of these. And again, hit me up with any other suggestions you all got out there because this is exciting. Yes. Hit up Jim Zocchi. He's asking for it.

That's what you need. The new radio voice of the ECU Pirate football team for this year. At Jim Zocchi on Twitter. You can hit him up.

S Z O K E. Really just feel good for you. Can't wait to listen to you both on the Panthers broadcast, of course. But the ECU broadcast as well, which I'll be dialed in on.

Congrats, Zoc. I'll see you this Saturday night. Appreciate it, Josh.

Look forward to Saturday and catch it up with you all season long. John Dell, Winston-Salem Journal, Greensboro News and Record joining us in studio. And this always happens when I say that news that we're expecting has has not dropped yet. Right.

As I'm talking about the news that hasn't dropped, it drops. According to several reports now, we have suspensions for that Guardians White Sox brawl from over the weekend. Tim Anderson, who started the fight and was knocked down during the fight. Six game suspension. Jose Ramirez, who delivered the punch that sent Tim Anderson down. That's a three game suspension for him. Is that Mr. Biaggy and Karate Kid?

It was. Terry Francona is getting a game for some reason. I don't know why.

But there you go. John Dell, anything local to add to the Tim Anderson, Jose Ramirez scrap? Former Dash shortstop. He played Winston-Salem Dash. I remember covering him. Good guy to talk to back in the day. And he didn't last long in Winston. Now that I think about it, he was moving up quickly. And he.

But by all intent, when I saw Tim Anderson, I was like, oh, that's the guy I used to play for the Dash. I hope he's awake now. I hope he is, too.

Well, I guess he doesn't really have to be awake for the next week or so. He's not going to be playing for the White Sox. This might be to use a baseball pun to inside baseball. But here's how you know John Dell knows his golf.

When they have one of these like media centers set up for us in the local media. John Dell has the position in the front row of the media center, like his established area that used to be commanded by a guy like Ed Harden or commanded by a guy like Lenox Rawlings, who, by the way, was there as well this past week. But John Dell sitting in the front row, having covered how many Wyndham Championships now? I think it's his twenty eight. This is my twenty eighth one.

There was a couple of years there where I didn't cover it, but adding them all up, it's been twenty eight. And it's been fun. I mean, you know, every year it's one of the biggest events in Greensboro, for sure.

I mean, how often does a professional event come to your your city or your area? So it's a it's a good event. And I think they've found their spot on the schedule. And it was a definitely, definitely a good week. They got a good winner. And you've talked about it, how good the field is. The field was. And I think that's going to continue as long as they keep it as the top 70 get to the playoffs. Then this is the pseudo playoff event so they can get into the real FedEx. You usually do a really good job of finding local angles to winners of a tournament.

And you've created you've built quite the Rolodex of people to speak to if somebody were in contention. I heard you asking about Jay Haas, the former Wake Forest grape, when the Greenville, South Carolina native Lucas Glover won. Is that the best local angle you think you could find to Lucas Glover's win? Well, I know that I just know Greenville is a small area. I got a buddy, a couple of buddies that live in Greenville and Jay Haas I've known for years.

You know, Bill House's father and Jerry's brother. And so I called up Jay just before Lucas was teeing off on Sunday and I told him I don't want to jinx the Greenville guy. So we laughed a little bit about that. Told me some good stories about Lucas just to kind of get some background in case Lucas won. And I thought he was really dialed in all weekend. So I figured he would he would win. I thought he would. And he did. He pulls that visor down. He's not going to he's not going to lose. But Jay was telling me that, you know, Lucas's grandfather, Dick Henley, former Clemson football player, brought them, talked to Jay and Jay was saying it was in our garage.

It was raining. And they brought Lucas, who's about 10 years old. And Dick wanted to know, what can we do to make, you know, to get his game better? Can you teach him? And Jay doesn't he doesn't teach golf. He plays golf. And so he said, Dick Harmon, I think, is who you need to go to. Swing coach went to Dick Harmon. He was his swing coach for years and years. And so Jay kind of gave Dick Henley, you know, Lucas's grandfather, some advice about how to kind of take a prodigy.

And what do you do next? And so and Jay's big advice to him was just let him play golf. Don't let him think too much. Just let him play golf and have fun. And I think that's what the grandfather did.

That grandfather would have turned 97 years old yesterday. Lucas Glover shared with us and he said it kind of felt like points of the round that felt like maybe there was things were just breaking his way. And he pointed to the sky afterwards. And maybe the best example of that is when you hit one way left on 18.

And it just so happens to hit a cart on the cart path, bouncing towards the fairway. And Lucas said on 15, he saw the rainbow that was there after the delay. And he said that that kind of was my grandfather. That was him.

And he said, he goes, I think I had a little bit more behind me down the stretch. And he did. And you mentioned the luck. I mean, Russell Hensley had the worst luck with that ball going into divot on 16 that led to a bogey. And then the good luck for Lucas was going off the cart that was parked right in a great spot. And it ricocheted.

And Lucas did say he'd probably have to lay up still, but it would have been a much more difficult layup if it would have landed where the cart was. We'll talk more golf a little bit later on. John Dell's hanging out with us from the Winston-Salem Journal and the Greensboro News and Record. John, you were out today.

This is the most John Dell thing ever. So you cover this entire golf tournament. You're there every day. And then this morning I try to give you a call and you don't pick up. And then you call me right back telling me you spent how many hours Winston-Salem State football practice today? Well, Winston-Salem State was supposed to start at 930. They started at 9. And I think they went till noon. Finally, they had their first practice because they don't play till September 2nd.

So it was their first practice. About 108 guys. It's the largest team I've seen in a long time. So Robert Massey's got his guys out there. And I went out there to kind of see what was going on.

And the access is very good there. So I just kind of was walking around getting some videos and just seeing how the guys were feeling. I didn't see anybody throw up on the first practice. So that's a good sign. But no, they got to turn it around. They've been kind of the really sluggish the last three or four years. And they need to win this year, especially in the CIAA. They're usually one of the dominant teams and they haven't been for a while. How many players did you say they had?

About 108 out there today. What's the weirdest part of their depth chart? Well, they have six quarterbacks.

What? Yeah, they have six quarterbacks. Six? Two are incoming freshmen. Two of them are sophomores that both played last year. And then two of them are transfers.

Are you sure one of them's not just B-Dots sneaking up onto the field and putting on Rams gear? Well, as a matter of fact, 15 years ago today, I don't know if it was the same day, I participated in Winston-Salem State's opening practice. They gave me a helmet and I wrote about it. I was a young 44 years old back then. And so 15 years ago, I wrote about going through my first practice at Winston-Salem State.

It was really fun, but it was hard. You could have been the fifth string quarterback out of six. Right, exactly. But no, they've got a transfer from Norfolk State and a transfer from John C. Smith. And I think the kid from Norfolk State has a chance to play, but this freshman that they've got from Shelby is 6'4 and can throw it.

You're blowing my mind, man. Six quarterbacks. How do they get reps?

How do they all get reps? They're six. It used to be a joke, like in the Not Another Teen movie and Blue Mountain State, you're the fourth string quarterback.

Six! Six quarterbacks. One of them was actually banged up a little bit already, so there was only five going through drills and everything. Maybe that's why practice was so long, but they all got their reps and they were all throwing. Chris Barnett, their new offensive coordinator, really knows what he's doing, so I think he's going to shape them up a little bit.

They scored 21 touchdowns last year, Josh, yet they had 21 turnovers, so that'll tell you how bad their offense was last year. It's amazing. I love the idea. See, this is with Winston-Salem State. W.D., I love the idea of, you know how they say, if you have two quarterbacks, you don't have one?

Yes, I do. How about six? How about rotating quarterback? We go every series, you get six quarterbacks, you rotate during a game.

So all of them get two, but it's like a pitcher. Like, oh man, I don't know how I'm going to match up against this quarterback. You've got to have like six scouting reports. Yeah, I mean if they all had different things they'd do well, maybe. I mean, it could work.

This is the coach's dream. Well, they're all right-handed. They don't have a left-hander. You've got six quarterbacks and you don't have a south pole?

They don't have a left-hander. That's remarkable. That's the stuff that you expect from John Dell, who's all over it.

Right down the road from Winston-Salem State, Wake Forest football was dealt a significant blow today. We'll get into that and circle back to golf as well as John Dell continues with us next. All right, I think all the levels are set. Showtime. Now?

Right now. You're on the drive with Josh Graham. John Dell in studio, Winston-Salem Journal, Greensboro News and Record. We got some ACC headlines to get to. One from the last hour. Pete Thamel from ESPN saying, sources. In the next 24 hours, there's two calls for the ACC to vet and have exploratory discussions and potential on the potential addition of Cal and Stanford. One is the ACC's athletics directors meeting and the other league presidents and chancellors.

Sail with the pilot to California. So two ways to look at this. I bet you those two meetings are going to be completely different. I bet you the ADs are probably not going to be for it at all because their perspective is going to be, OK, this is just going to cut the pie two more ways. These are not two schools that are going to add more than 40 million dollars of revenue, which is what teams are receiving right now.

So that's not going to make a lot of sense. And also you're thinking about the student athletes as well and travel and those types of things. However, the university president's piece of this might be looking at this as, oh, Cal and Stanford. Our academic standing could be added to by having these two prestigious universities attached to it. But my question actually would be towards those schools.

The second report that Thamel had or the second tweet, I should say, or X or whatever we're calling it. It's a fluid landscape for the four leftover Pac-12 schools. There's a myriad of options being discussed.

This is one of them. Would you, for the sake of your players and where college sports is at, look to join the ACC if you had that option or if the Big 12 came calling, want to go there for more geographic sense? I think it's whatever your options.

I mean, let's say those are the two options. I think you got to stay somewhat geographical because I saw this. Yeah, it is a big difference between NorCal and SoCal. But Arizona State, they were one of the teams to lead the Pac-12 to go to the Big 12 and they were getting a ton of heat.

Oh, man, think about the student athletes and such. And they posted saying our average flight this year is going to be two hours and 45 minutes. Our average flight in the Pac-12 or excuse me, that is the Pac-12. Our average flight in the Big 12 is going to be like 10 minutes difference. Well, and one of the things to think about even for basketball season is the kids are out of school for about a month and a half sometimes with the breaks. So they're not flying a lot during basketball season during that time out to California six times a week or whatever they're going to be doing. But still, I just think it's too far.

You just can't do it. But also the most important thing, again, you're already at a revenue gap. You're already at a disparity in terms of revenue. And Cal and Stanford is only going to make that worse.

How much are you going to gain? That's the other bottom line. A lot. Yeah. Those are not also winning football programs either. Maybe there can be a band game where the band's on the field with those two and complaining.

Great idea. Let me write that one down. The other ACC headline comes from Winston-Salem. And it's tough news for Wake Forest football. Donovan Green is going to be out for the next three to five months. That essentially means he's done for the year. Because three months from now, I'm not a math magician, but that is November. And you're talking about second week of November. And that's in the best case scenario. You're talking about two, three weeks left in the year. Well, and he's a Mount Airy high school, Mount Airy zone. And, you know, he had the I don't know if it's the same knee as he as what happened a couple of years ago where he was out another season.

So, you know, you don't want to hope it's the same. I mean, you don't you don't wish injuries on anybody, but that's going to be a tough rehab again. I mean, he's one of the nicest kids on the team I've got. And the best wide receiver. And you're already replacing A.T. Perry.

Yeah. And so that that's really going to hurt him on the field. You know, and I think, too, with with Donovan, he was a team guy. I mean, this is he enrolled in January of 2019 and he's been around a while. He's one of those he's kind of one of those leaders that, you know, every team needs. You know, Dave Claussen said that, you know, he's going to continue to be part of the team off the field because he's that kind of guy.

So I just feel bad for him because he's a nice kid. And, you know, obviously football injuries happen and it's just tough, especially, you know, a couple practices in. And then you look at the receiver's room.

Fortunately, wakes very deep. And you're talking about still having Jamal Banks in that room and Taylor Marin, who's going to be playing in the slot. So they should be fine. But it is understandable to have this be a bit unnerving when you lose A.T. Perry and him as you're also trying to replace Sam Hartman.

Yeah, it's going to be tough. And I think, you know, one thing with the with the wide receivers is, like you said, it's deep. And the the positive, I guess, is it didn't happen a day before the game before the first game or whatever.

So they've got some time to kind of regroup and, you know, get their get their starter back in there. Getting back to the Wyndham championship, which included yesterday and Lucas Glover, the winner. I mean, this I'm going to ask this question with all due respect to Lucas Glover. But what do you think was a bigger story yesterday? The two players who came up short, the storylines of Russell Henley and his history at the Wyndham and Justin Thomas, a big name coming short, coming up short of make cracking the 70 top 70 playoff and having that chip that didn't go right at the end. Or is it Lucas Glover?

Like, what's the bigger story of the two, you think? You know, I think knowing Lucas Glover since he played at Clemson and knowing the struggles he's had for 10 years on his yips and his putting problems. I mean, he was so bad, but he still won, which is amazing to me. And now he's got it straightened out. Won the U.S. Open in 2009. I actually covered that. I think that was Beth Page. It was the wettest U.S. Open in the history of U.S.

Opens. But he I think that's a bigger story. Everybody loves a comeback story. And for Lucas, I think, to come back this far and he had is really close to home for him in Greenville. And a couple uncles are members at Sedgefield. So his extended family was there. I mean, I just think it was it was a really cool story.

It's what makes the Wyndham, I think, such a good, good event around here is because we get these kind of cool stories. And I think Lucas overshadowed even the Justin Thomas and Russell Henson. He's going to win one time, I think, here in Greensboro. It's just he's got to get out of his head, I guess. How uncommon is it for an athlete to not only have the yips, but admit to having the yips the way that Lucas Glover has?

I think it's pretty common, but not a lot of people admit it. I think at one point he almost turned around and started putting left handed. He may have tried that and putted left hand. That's how bad he was. But this, you know, the long putter, I think he got together with Adam Scott a little bit. And, you know, he's not anchoring it because that's illegal. But he's you know, he's pretty close to it.

But he just it just gives him a different feel. And Jay Haas told me a little bit about that, too, and that he's come all the way back and it was his last resort. He said golfers do not want to go to the broomstick. They refuse.

A lot of them are stubborn. And finally, Lucas relented. And, you know, now he's, you know, I wouldn't be surprised who wins another playoff event if he wins one of these ones coming up.

I mean, that's how good he's playing. Let me take away Lucas Glover's finish and what happened with JT and Russell like I noted there. What was a highlight that you had of this year's win them championship, something you either saw firsthand and walking the course or something that was really cool for you to follow this week? Well, I got to go with D.J. Gregory and Webb Simpson. D.J. Gregory is an excellent story. D.J. Gregory, born with cerebral palsy, and he he he raises money, you know, for charity, for kids. And he walks with golfers all through the tournaments. And, you know, Webb, he's one of the nicest guys out there.

And then web shots, you know, seven under on Sunday. So I think he's back a little bit, but top five finish. Yes, that was for Webb Simpson this week.

I just think D.J. is a good he's a good dude. He means well. And, you know, he's done done so well for himself. And the tour really embraces him. I think that's one of the questions he had to start in Greensboro. His dad took him to a tournament when he was 12 years old and he befriended Jim Nance and Ken Venturi. And that's what started his love of golf, because his dad took him to the it was the GGO then or whatever it was at Forest Oaks. And he got to know Jim Nance and Ken Venturi. And from there, when he got a little older, you know, he was I think he was in a wheelchair when he was 12 years old. That's how bad it was. And is he no longer in a wheelchair?

No, no. He walks because I remember he was still in a wheelchair. I met him in 2010. And I just remember being so blown away by that guy. He's such a good dude. And I think that's that's one of the cooler things there at the Wyndham. And I'm I'm glad I did a little video with D.J.

and wrote a little note and talked to him. And, you know, Webb Webb really likes him. And I think it's really a cool story for the PGA.

Let me write this down for next year. Webb Simpson to win Wyndham like nothing. There was no there's no analytic, no nothing that says that dude should have finished top five this week at the Wyndham. And he does. His neck is better. He says he's he's playing a lot better. Now he's got nowhere to play. He's going to play about Webb's going to play for like five weeks in Napa, I think.

But he's he's found it again. So hopefully he'll be back. Maybe JT will join him. Yeah, you never know. You know, I don't know if JT is going to play anymore.

We'll see. John Dell, I know you've been super busy from this weekend and this morning with Winston-Salem State. We just appreciate you dropping by our new digs. Appreciate you being here. Well, and Thursday we take our son to UNCG and then next Sunday we take our older daughter back to college.

So my wife, we're looking at F.P. Nestor's here a little bit. Wow. Don't cry, Dell. Yeah, right. That's not me crying. Don't cry on me here.

All right. That's John Dell. Follow his work. Support his work. Read local. That whole deal. Great coverage of the Wyndham Championship and of Winston-Salem State football. Wait for us. He does it all.

It's The Drive with Josh Graham. WSJS. John Dell, Winston-Salem Journal, Greensboro News and Record, joining us in studio. And this always happens when I say that news that we're expecting has has not dropped yet.

Right as I'm talking about the news that hasn't dropped, it drops. According to several reports now, we have suspensions for that Guardians White Sox brawl from over the weekend. Tim Anderson, who started the fight and was knocked down during the fight. Six game suspension. Jose Ramirez, who delivered the punch that sent Tim Anderson down. That's a three game suspension for him. Is that Mr. Biaghi and Karate Kid?

It was. There it is. Terry Francona is getting a game for some reason. I don't know why.

But there you go. John Dell, anything local to add to the Tim Anderson, Jose Ramirez scrap? Former Dash shortstop. He played Winston-Salem Dash. I remember covering him. Good guy to talk to back in the day. And he didn't last long in Winston. Now that I think about it, he was moving up quickly.

And he but by all intent, when I saw Tim Anderson, I was like, oh, that's the guy I used to play for the Dash. I hope he's awake now. I hope he is, too.

Well, I guess he doesn't really have to be awake for the next week or so. He's not going to be playing for the White Sox. This might be to use a baseball pun to inside baseball. But here's how you know John Dell knows his golf. When they have one of these media centers set up for us in the local media, John Dell has the position in the front row of the media center, like his established area that used to be commanded by a guy like Ed Harden or commanded by a guy like Lennox Rawlings, who, by the way, was there as well this past week.

But John Dell sitting in the front row, having covered how many Wyndham Championships now? I think this is twenty eight. This is my twenty eighth one.

There was a couple of years there where I didn't cover it. But adding them all up, it's been twenty eight. And it's been fun. I mean, you know, every year it's one of the biggest events in Greensboro, for sure.

I mean, how often does a professional event come to your your city or your area? So it's a it's a good event. And I think they've found their spot on the schedule. And it was a definitely, definitely a good week. They got a good winner. And you've talked about it, how good the field is. The field was. And I think that's going to continue as long as they keep it as the top 70 get to the playoffs. Then this is the pseudo playoff event so they can get into the real FedEx. You usually do a really good job of finding local angles to winners of a tournament.

And you've created you've built quite the Rolodex of people to speak to. If somebody were in contention, I heard you asking about Jay Haas, the former Wake Forest great when the Greenville, South Carolina native Lucas Glover won. Is that the best local angle you think you could find to Lucas Glover's win? Well, I know that I just know Greenville is a small area. I got a buddy, a couple of buddies that live in Greenville and Jay Haas I've known for years.

You know, Bill House's father and Jerry's brother. And so I called up Jay just before Lucas was teeing off on Sunday and I told him I don't want to jinx the Greenville guy. So we laughed a little bit about that. Told me some good stories about Lucas just to kind of get some background in case, you know, Lucas won. And I thought he was really dialed in all weekend. So I figured he would he would win. I thought he would. And he did. He pulls that visor down.

He's not going to he's not going to lose. But Jay was telling me that, you know, Lucas's grandfather, Dick Henley, former Clemson football player, brought them talked to Jay. And Jay was saying it was in our garage.

It was raining. And they brought Lucas. He was about 10 years old. And Dick wanted to know, what can we do to make, you know, to get his game better? Can you teach him? And Jay doesn't. He doesn't teach golf. He plays golf. And so he said, Dick Harmon, I think, is who you need to go to swing coach went to Dick Harmon.

He was his swing coach for years and years. And so Jay kind of gave Dick Henley, you know, Lucas's grandfather some advice about how to kind of take a prodigy and what do you do next? And so and Jay's big advice to him was just let him play golf. Don't let him think too much. Just let him play golf and have fun. And I think that's what the grandfather did.

That grandfather would have turned 97 years old yesterday. Lucas Glover shared with us and he said it kind of felt like points of the round. It felt like maybe there was things were just breaking his way and he pointed to the sky afterwards.

And maybe the best example of that is when you hit one way left on 18 and just so happens to hit a cart on the cart path, bouncing towards the fairway. And Lucas said on 15, he saw the rainbow that was there after the delay. And he said that that kind of was my grandfather. That was him.

And I and he said, he goes, I think I had a little bit more behind me this, you know, that down the stretch. And he did. And you mentioned the luck. I mean, Russell Hensley had the worst luck with that ball going into divot on 16 that led to a bogey. And then the good luck for Lucas was going off the cart that was actually, you know, parked right in a great spot. And it ricocheted.

And Lucas did say he'd probably have to lay up still, but it would have been a much more difficult layup if it would have landed where the cart was. We'll talk more golf a little bit later on. John Dells hanging out with us from the Winston-Salem Journal and the Greensboro News and Record. John, you were out today.

This is the most John Dell thing ever. So you cover this entire golf tournament. You're there every day. And then this morning I try to give you a call and you don't pick up. And then you call me right back telling me you spent how many hours Winston-Salem State football practice today? Well, Winston-Salem State was supposed to start at nine thirty. They started at nine. And I think they went till noon. Finally, they had their first practice because they don't play till September 2nd. So it was their first practice. About 108 guys.

It's the most, the largest team I've seen in a long time. So Robert Massey's got his guys out there. And I went out there to kind of see what was going on.

And, you know, the access is very good there. So I just kind of was walking around getting some videos and just seeing how the guys were feeling. I didn't see anybody throw up on the first practice. So that's a good sign. But no, they got to turn it around. They've been kind of the really sluggish the last three or four years. And they need to win this year, especially in the CIAA. They're usually one of the dominant teams and they haven't been for a while. How many players did you say they had?

About 108 out there today. What's the weirdest part of their depth chart? Well, they have six quarterbacks.

What? Yeah, they have six quarterbacks. Six? Two of them are incoming freshmen. Two of them are sophomores that both played last year. And then two of them are transfers.

Are you sure one of them's not just B-Dots sneaking up onto the field and putting on Rams gear? Well, as a matter of fact, 15 years ago today, I don't know if it was the same day, I participated in Winston-Salem State's opening practice. They gave me a helmet and I wrote about it. I was a young 44 years old back then. And so 15 years ago I wrote about being, going through my first practice at Winston-Salem State.

It was really fun, but it was hard. You could have been the fifth string quarterback out of six. Right, exactly. I know. But no, they've got a transfer from Norfolk State and a transfer from John C. Smith. And I think the kid from Norfolk State has a chance to play, but this freshman that they've got from Shelby is 6'4 and can throw it.

You're blowing my mind, man. Six quarterbacks. How do they get reps?

How do they all get reps? They're six. It used to be a joke, like in the Not Another Teen movie and Blue Mountain State, you're the fourth string quarterback.

Six! Six quarterbacks. One of them was actually banged up a little bit already, so there was only five going through drills and everything. Maybe that's why practice was so long, but they all got their reps and they were all throwing. Chris Barnett, their new offensive coordinator, really knows what he's doing, so I think he's going to shape them up a little bit.

They scored 21 touchdowns last year, Josh, yet they had 21 turnovers, so that'll tell you how bad their offense was last year. It's amazing. I love the idea. See, this is with Winston-Salem State. W.D., I love the idea of, you know how they say, if you have two quarterbacks, you don't have one?

Yes, I do. How about six? How about rotating quarterback? We go every series, you get six quarterbacks, you rotate during a game.

So all of them get two, but it's like a pitcher. Like, oh man, I don't know how I'm going to match up against this quarterback. You've got to have like six scouting reports. Yeah, I mean if they all had different things they'd do, well, maybe. I mean, it could work.

This is the coach's dream. Well, they're all right-handed. They don't have a left-hander. You've got six quarterbacks and you don't have a south pole? They don't have a left-hander. That's remarkable. That's the stuff that you expect from Jon Dell, who's all over it.