Naked Daron

So glad to have you on this Wednesday drive. You are listening to WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad, where it is good just to be back in this chair.

Thanks to the Wake Forest crew, Stan Cotton and Dave Gorin yesterday for pinch hitting WD the day before that while I made my annual beach getaway before football really gets fired up. Speaking of which, we're two days away from the Carolina Panthers dress rehearsal preseason finale against the Detroit Lions at Bank of America Stadium. And after two lukewarm outings that we saw, it might be time to temper expectations for the Panthers this year.

Maybe just re-examine those expectations and adjust them just a tinge. Because you have to remember how new all of this is. We're talking about a new head coach here. We're talking about a rookie quarterback. We're talking about an all new staff.

But what isn't being talked about enough is just how much is different pretty much everywhere else. Short of the offensive line, which, by the way, is the one unit that's getting criticized the most during the preseason. Carolina Panthers have overhauled every other position group. The offensive line is the one area they did not overhaul.

Just think about it. You traded away DJ Moore, so you had to bring in DJ Tark and Adam Vielen and Jonathan Mingo. Running back.

No more Krista McCaffrey, who was here at this time a year ago. No more Deontay Foreman, who really was playing well under Steve Wilks. It's now Miles Sanders' show in the backfield. You think about defense. Yes, you have Brian Burns on one edge, but on the other edge, we'll see what Justin Houston has. We'll see what exactly you get out of the rookie DJ Johnson out of Oregon. And the secondary Von Bell welcome to the party.

That means that Jeremy Chin could play closer to the line of scrimmage in theory. It's a lot that's new, and football is the ultimate team sport. Chemistry, continuity, timing, those things matter more in football than you could argue pretty much any other team sport. And I say all that to say there's going to be growing pains. We're already seeing that in preseason where things look clunky. Things don't look like they're gelling beautifully yet. That takes time. That takes repetition.

That takes familiarity, continuity, and all those things that I just mentioned. And it's also important to remember that while fans are really hoping that this year nets a playoff appearance, that's not really what this year is about. Frank Reich's job is not on the line here the way that Dennis Allen's job might be at New Orleans with the Saints or former Tar Heel football player Arthur Smith, who's the head coach of the Falcons. There's not as much urgency for Bryce Young than there might be for Derek Carr, who's a veteran who only has so many more swings at it, or Desmond Ritter, who this might be his one shot to prove he's a franchise quarterback before the Falcons go in a different direction. There's not as much urgency for the Panthers this year. And really what this year is about, it's not the playoffs, it's Bryce Young. It's about figuring out whether or not you hit on that pick. Because if Carolina made the playoffs and Bryce Young still, we don't know whether or not he's a worthy first overall pick or a franchise quarterback, regardless of making the playoffs, this year's a failure. You need to make sure you hit with that pick because you gave up multiple first round picks in order to make that pick. And you can't win unless you have a certain level of quarterback that you've acquired.

You learn that one way or another in November or December. That's just another reason why there was no doubt with this staff and all that commitment Carolina made to get to the number one pick that Bryce was going to start right away. That's what's most important this year, even more important than a playoff appearance. So what should the expectations be? This is not a 10 win football team.

Let's start there. I hear some Panther fans getting a little bit too excited in saying that it is. This is a 10 win team. We're going to make the playoffs all that.

That's not what this team is. Now there's a range. The low end is six. The high end is probably nine.

That's what this football team is going to be barring catastrophic injuries to Bryce Young or to Brian Burns or the offensive line, you name it. The low end is six. It would surprise me if Carolina won fewer than six games. It would also surprise me if they win more than nine.

So there's your range. High end nine, low end six. What's most likely is winning seven or eight.

And I have them at eight. And I think that could be good enough to win the NFC South, especially if there's a tie somewhere factored in there and you're talking about an eight, eight and one football team. That's how bad the NFC South is. You can win probably the division with eight, maybe nine wins. So after two preseason games that were underwhelming, to say the least, it is time to temper expectations for the Panthers and talk about what this season is actually about.

What's most important for this football team? On Twitter at WSJS radio, if you want in on today's show, that's where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch. WD's out.

DJ Turner is producing the show trying. Making it happen. Can't live up to those will Dalton expectations, man.

Taking calls at 336-777-1600. See the phone lines lighting up as happens whenever you're getting to the Carolina Panthers. And you're also talking about the ACC being a busy day as well. We'll get to Darren Vaught and ask unusual questions and answer unusual questions in just a little bit, because the big ACC news of the day is that ACC University presidents are broaching the issue again. The issue being Stanford and Cal potentially joining the conference and also SMU as well. This is after NC State, North Carolina, Florida State and Clemson shot down the idea. But if one of those schools change their mind, that will be enough to add those West Coast teams to the ACC. And it's just important to remember that this is the last year of college football as we know it. This is the last year that college football is going to look the way that we've seen it pretty much most of our lives. Now, it starts with the Pac-12. This could be the Pac-12's final season.

Now, the obvious reason that is because all these schools are being poached. Eight of the 12 are going to leave after 2023. This started with USC and UCLA a couple of years ago, or I guess that would have been last year.

Crazy how much time passes pretty quickly. And who knows, maybe you're talking about 10 out of the 12 if this ACC news comes to a head. The history of this conference, the Pac-12, it goes back to 1915.

We're talking about 108 years here. And this year, there are a couple of schools in this conference that could compete. USC obviously with Caleb Williams, the Heisman Trophy winner coming back and Lincoln Riley, our guy at the helm.

Washington brings back a quarterback with prolific numbers, but they got tough news out in Seattle today where they're starting running backs, likely going to be out for the season. So that's the Pac-12 end of it. Also, you have this being the last year for Texas and Oklahoma. They're about to leave the Big 12.

And this will end the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State Bedlam rivalry, at least for now. Same way we haven't seen Texas-based Texas A&M for the last dozen years or so. They're going to join the SEC. And this is just going to be another example of the SEC running away from the rest of the sport. When you factor in the Texas title with Mac Brown in 2005, the SEC will have 14 of the last 18 national champions. Their schools will have 14 of the last 18 national championships in football.

That's how dominant they are. So no one's really close right now. And with Texas and Oklahoma added, that gap is only going to expand. It's something we talked about with John Curry or Stan and Dave talked about with John Curry yesterday on the show, how things are changing. And he knows it too well because in addition to being in the SEC at Tennessee and here at Wake, he was in the Big 12 the last time there was a big expansion cycle.

Here was the Wake AD on the show. I spent eight years in the Big 12. I was there at Kansas State when Colorado left to go to the Pac-12, but now they're back in the Big 12. So this is something that just in terms of college athletics for me personally, having seen all this, certainly having grown up on tobacco road, remember what it was like when there was seven schools in the ACC and eight schools in the ACC. And those were great days, but those days aren't coming back.

They're not. And this year in college football is one where you should be present for it. Try to be present. Don't be so reflective about what the ACC was at one point or what college sports were at one time and be doom and gloom about the future. Realize that this year in college football, with the Pac-12 being in the position it's currently in and Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 to the SEC, enjoy what you got while you have it. And the other thing is this is the last year of the 14 playoff, which you might say, well, Josh, come on. The playoff has only existed for close to a decade now. And while that might be true, four teams still kind of felt unique to college football.

It's such a small number. It didn't really feel like Sundays. It didn't feel like what you're used to in the NFL. Next year, 2024, when they expand to 12, it's going to be the first time college football feels like the NFL. It feels like it's closer to what you see on Sundays than what it's been, which was different, which was unique. And I think you lose something with that while at the same time, hopefully gaining something while being able to factor home environments, college campuses into the playoff format, which I think is necessary, which I think is going to be a positive, but still different nonetheless.

So enjoy it and realize with week zero starting in just a few days, what we're seeing in 2023, it's going to be the last year of college football as we know it. Darren Bhatt, he's going to join us to talk baseball and we'll ask unusual questions too. One question I had baseball-wise for him, how many World Series contenders are there right now? We know the Braves are there. My beloved Orioles are there.

How many teams are there in that conversation? We'll ask Darren back. I knew it was going to be a good day this morning when humble brag, brush some dirt off my shoulder, finished first out of 192 on my Peloton ride today and within five minutes knocked out my immaculate grid for baseball, which reminds me, Darren Bhatt's now joining the show who we rely on for baseball expertise and expertise for random things and unusual questions. Your chance to win tickets to go see Disturbed in just a bit, they're going to be, did we figure out if it was Raleigh or Charlotte? One of those two places on September the 6th. I think it's Raleigh because I think that was the show that got hit with a thunderstorm and I had to reschedule. That's right.

So if you want tickets to go see them in Raleigh, 336-777-1600, don't call now, don't call now, but your chance to win tickets in just a bit by saving that phone number. Darren Bhatt now joins us. So let's talk baseball for a bit, Darren. You look at the list of teams right now who can win a World Series, who are capable of it.

Is it a long list? You know Atlanta is going to be a wagon, a tough team to put out in any type of series. My Baltimore Orioles have the best record in the American League. How wide is that net for you right now among teams who are capable of winning a World Series?

It's tough to put a specific number on it because there's a lot of teams sort of on the cusp of what could be a potential World Series run. Let me stop you then. How about we do this another way? How about I say a team and you tell me if they're a World Series contender or not? Let's do that and we'll see where we end up.

Okay. So Atlanta. I mean, no, they're the favorite. Baltimore. Baltimore for sure. Dodgers. L.A. is, well, I mentioned Atlanta is the favorite. They're the hottest team of those right now. And so the Dodgers might be the actual favorite. Tampa.

Yes, but it's going to take a pretty extreme turnaround. Seattle. I like Seattle a lot.

I'm such a Seattle believer. Yes. Okay.

How about anybody in the A.L. Central? Yeah. There you go. See, I didn't want to go team by team in that division. Try to save us a little bit of time here.

Houston Astros. Yeah, for sure. Always. Rangers. Maybe.

I don't think so. Okay, we'll X them out. Looking back at the National League, you got Atlanta, you got the Dodgers. Is there anybody else you would add?

Not really. I think we can rest assured it's going to come down to those two in the A.L. And then in the American League, I didn't mention the Toronto Blue Jays. I didn't mention your Boston Red Sox. Anybody else you would bring up in the American League? Jays as a fringe candidate. Right there with the Rangers, or do you like Toronto better than the Rangers?

About on the equal footing. Okay, then we'll put an X on them. So right now, your level of confidence, Darin Vaught, that one of these 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 teams, Atlanta, Baltimore, the Dodgers, Tampa, Seattle, the Astros. What's your level of confidence one of those teams is going to win the World Series?

I would take, I would take like what? It's one of those two has probably like a 70% chance, or one of those six has like a 70% chance of winning it, which I mean, for baseball feels pretty high, right? I'd take 90%.

I'd take 90%. I think it's a one out of 10 that somebody that we didn't name there is going to win the trophy based on what we talked about. Yeah, I think that's fair.

That's fair. I just, I'm giving clearly more credence to sort of the wackiness because some of those teams that we mentioned are going to have to win a one game playoff scenario, undoubtedly. And that then decreases their chances, of course.

And like, there's still time for somebody to get it right. Like I mentioned to the Rangers, who knows? I'm not a believer currently. They might get white hot in this last month or two of the regular season and then change everybody's mind. I don't know. I'm giving, I guess I'm just, I say that I'm, I'm giving a little bit more credence to the possibilities that baseball is kind of wide open every year.

It's not the Stanley Cup playoffs, but it's right there with it. It's probably wise to do so when you consider what the Nationals did in 2018, how they got hot and what the Atlanta Braves did when they won the title a few years ago and the Cardinals, both the titles they won in the last 20 years. So I think you're right to do so that way. Are you ready to answer some unusual questions? Always.

Always. Let's do that, DJ Turner. Fire it up. Last week, guys, everybody made it out that I got mad at Josh and I left the press conference.

That's not right. I thought it was an unusual question and it's okay. It's time for unusual questions with Josh Gray. And I told DJ to come up with an unusual question that we could get to in a second, but to help DJ a bit for what these might look like.

How about I start with this, Darren? I watched Barbie for the first time a couple of days ago, and there's a song sung by Ryan Gosling playing Ken in this movie that has been stuck in my head the last two days. So much so that I put it on my Amazon music playlist because it's not just catchy. It's a banger. It's called I'm Just Ken. It's fantastic. It has me thinking, what is an original song from a movie, a song that's either in a movie or was written for a movie that you jammed to, that you love?

If you need a second to think, I can give you an example of one. Me and W.D. were going to the Panthers preseason game a couple of weeks ago, and on the radio, the Frozen song by Idina Menzel, Let It Go came on. That song is unquestionably a banger. It is the La La Land soundtrack. Speaking of Ryan Gosling singing, I got a handful of those songs that I still listen to every now and then. I felt that way about there was another musical that I really liked, that I felt the same way about, given how good the music and the movie was.

But those are just a few to think of. You know what? I got one. I got one.

This is me from the Greatest Showman. Excellent. Banger. Absolute banger. And to boot, there's a pop punk group, New Found Glory. They covered it.

So we got both versions. Danger Zone. Oh!

Top Gun. Kenny Loggins. That's the banger. Kenny Loggins has about three or four of those.

I think he did one of the songs in Caddyshack if memory serves. Kenny Loggins. That's excellent work on your part. What's your unusual question, Darren?

I'm going with a change up here. There's been a car alarm going off outside of my apartment. Basically, since CJ called me a few minutes ago. And my question is, how long do I let it go on before I open my mind to the possibility that it's my vehicle and I need to go out and check on it? Do you not know what the car alarm on your car sounds like? No, I can't say.

I've enacted it very often. So is it an alarm or is it a horn beeping? Oh, it's the horn, right?

It's the horn. We've been talking now. We've been talking for nine minutes now. You've been on the phone with us for nine minutes and you're telling me that throughout this call that this alarm is still sounding?

Yeah, I think so. Okay, I want you to approach it right now while we're on the air. That's what I want you to do. I want you to check on air whether or not this is your car and I want you to investigate whether or not. That's what I want you to do.

I want to hear this alarm. I don't believe you. I'm a little tied up. Hold on. This is like the radio equivalent to photos or it didn't happen. He's tied up.

Really? This is not a landline. No, his phone might be dead. I'm both side tasking.

His phone might be close to dying and he's plugged up to the wall. Just admit it. You don't have any clothes on. We all were thinking, just admit it.

Also a factor. We were all thinking it and now we figured that out that Darren Vaught does radio interviews with no clothes. My ear is at the window.

I've got eyes on some of the lot and it does seem that maybe it has stopped, but it was going for a while there. Understood. Now, do you... I guess that was a great unusual question and we learned a lot about Darren Vaught, who's currently joining us naked answering unusual questions. DJ, what's your unusual question? All right, so this is totally off the wall. Please.

Do you think you could possibly be friends with a clone of yourself? Whoa. Ooh. See, why can't you be here every week? WD be asking us like what our favorite topping on hot dogs are and here you are. I was about to make the joke, DJ, that the expectations were very low because WD is pretty awful at this.

He's really bad at it. That blew it out of the water. That's great. That's great. Okay, so it's a clone of yourself. I'd like to think that I'd get along with the clone of myself, but then again, I can be a bit much taken in long periods of time and I don't know if another version of me was nearby, if that would go well. I'd like to think so if the conversation turned to like movies or something like that and you're literally having a conversation with yourself. I'd like to think so, but I'm uncertain. I'm leaning no, but I could be talked into it.

What do you think? I think by nature, this is a no. Just because you're talking about having a conversation with yourself, how boring would that be? You get the same thoughts. That's kind of what I do every day from three to six though.

Right. That's your job, right? I'm a routine guy, so I get on my own nerves when my routine is interrupted. Like I get irritated, so I know I couldn't deal with the clone of myself. I have a hard time dealing with myself. This does sound like the type of question Will Ferrell playing Harry Caray would ask on SNL in the 90s, hey, if there was a clone of yourself, do you think you'd be friends with it? I know I would.

It does sound like that. We're all guys. How often do you switch out your bath towel?

Some real he hems here, if you know what we're saying. Bath towels. What's acceptable?

In your brain. Once a week. I'm good. Yeah. Once a week. Once a week. I'll do a load of laundry weekly, basically, for them. Yeah.

He only has one towel. You should have gone. No, no, no.

Yeah, I do laundry once a week, so I got one. We're learning so much. Wow. DJ is, I would say he's undressing Darren. I would say that DJ is undressing Darren, bottle and air, but we've already learned your undress.

We've already learned that. Um, Darren, unusual situations with Darren Vaught. Darren Vaught, I just realized that the unusual questions voice is on unusual questions for the first time.

I just realized that's something that just happened. Darren, I don't think I'll have another opportunity to say this as a way to cap an interview. Usually I just say, have a great week.

Thanks for doing this. Sure. Put on some clothes, Darren.

Look, not if I don't want to, in the safety of my own home, respectfully, only if I want to. I respect that. There he goes. There goes Darren Vaught. Respectfully, we'll say bye. Let's go, baby.

Kind of like this. Let's go. Let's go. The drive with Josh Graham, Mike, the course, he's all the same sports writer from the sporting news will be here in about 15 minutes. We'll get to what all this conference realignment has meant for college basketball. More specifically, where the ACC standing is. Maybe the big 12 right now is the preeminent college basketball conference when you talk about the additions of Cincinnati and Houston to that league.

And you already have Kansas and Baylor who have won national titles in the last few seasons. So that's something we'll get to if Mike, the course, he plus we'll get his thoughts on Barbie and Oppenheimer. He's our resident movie snob that we appreciate his perspective on such subjects. I do not appreciate Chris Sims' commentary on the Bryce Young subject. He has a radio show where he was espousing some Bryce takes based on the first two preseason games. And here were those takes. As a fan, as a football guy, and you know me, I go, I'd still sit there and go, I can't believe this is the number one pick, right?

And I am a little bit of also two times like, you know, 50 drunks at the bar or whatever watching like, and not that they're always right or whatever, but just like my wife's watching. Who's this quarterback? Yeah. Who is the first pick? They, this was the first, he's the first pick of the draft. My wife couldn't tell who the best pick in the draft was or who the number one pick was based on his physique. So that guy must mean he's not good. Take your wife to a Golden State Warriors game, assuming she knows nothing about basketball and ask her who the best player on the Warriors is, is the best player on the Warriors is been gone for nearly a week, give me a break.

I doubt she's probably going to point to number 30. I doubt it based on his physique. Also Chris Sims, same dude who said this a few years ago about the draft that had Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Justin Fields and Mac Jones in it again, just a few years ago, quote, Zach Wilson is clearly the number one quarterback in the draft to me.

There is some separation. Zach Wilson's a really, really special football player from every aspect and angle. The only negative I can come up with here, I wish he was a little thicker. I think he was a little, I wish he was a little bigger, but I don't think that necessarily matters in this day and age in the NFL. Hmm.

Well, how's that turned out? Zach Wilson, better than Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, better than Justin Fields. And also it didn't seem to bother you talking about lack of size for a quarterback. But now with Bryce Young, that's suddenly an issue. The preseason returns on Bryce Young are positive.

What we've seen the last few weeks. If you are pushing back on that, you have to compare what Bryce is doing versus the other rookies that were taken in the first round or even the first three rounds. If you want to bring Will Levis into this conversation, Bryce Young has not made the air quote rookie mistake yet. He hasn't held onto the ball too long on these sacks that we've talked about. He hasn't missed open receivers. The one that you could pinpoint was the Jonathan Mingo throw on the first third down that he had against the Giants. But when you watch the all 22, it was a good throw. Jonathan Mingo stopped running his route.

If Mingo continued, that's a huge play. And with his speed, who knows, maybe he's taking that the distance. He hasn't thrown an interception yet. CJ Stroud can't say that. Anthony Richardson can't say that. Will Levis can't say that.

No other rookie quarterback can say that. So the fact that Bryce hasn't turned it over yet already shows you he is a net positive as a player. That's true.

Well played. He's a net positive because he's not a negative. He's not a liability. He's not like Ryan Gosling in Remember the Titans. He's not a liability to what you're trying to do.

He is not going to give away games for you. You already have that in Bryce Young and he plays like he belongs. Focus on the placement of some of these throws. If you go back and look at the snaps against the Giants. He had two throws that really stand out. The one where he fell down and had the presence of mind to get back up knowing he had a free play throwing it downfield for Adam Phelan, even though it was incomplete, the way he placed that football was putting it in a place that only Adam Phelan would have a chance to make a play on it.

There's no chance for the defensive player to do so. And also he didn't seem so frazzled. He fell down on a play.

He didn't just eat it. He grabbed the ball. He tried to make a play and he nearly did.

So that stands out. And then speaking of Adam Phelan, there was another third down where he threw it left sideline close to the flat to Adam Phelan and where he placed that football. That's what got them the first down. If he threw that behind him at all, if he hit him right on the spot, then he's going to be tackled right on the spot, probably be short of the sticks. But the fact that he caught it on the outside shoulder and placed it the play where he did. That's why it was a first down. That was an NFL caliber throw and the size.

It hasn't revealed any problems yet. Yeah, it stands out. You have to get you got to get used to a 5'10 quarterback being out there.

When I watched it in person, that was one of the first things that stood out to me. But show me the batted balls that we've seen the last two weeks. I haven't seen them. Show me him getting broken in half by somebody.

Sounds like a wrestling reference, but God, oh, with the Lord is my witness, he broke a man. I haven't seen that happen yet. Turns out he took hits at Alabama and his, you know, the throws have not been batted down at all. So it shouldn't really concern you at this point that he hasn't had a touchdown pass or he hasn't led a touchdown drive. You might be thinking, why haven't there been these huge explosive plays down the field?

The answer is obvious. They're not running these combination routes down the field for him to complete these type of balls to. The furthest he threw it was to Adam Phelan on that broken play. And the only reason Adam Phelan was that far downfield running that route is because it was a broken play. Frank Reich and Thomas Brown and Jim Caldwell, they don't want to show you on film any of these combination routes down the field that you could potentially game plan for. So that's why most of the throws that Bryce has available to him, most of the routes, pretty much all of them are these outs, these slants, these cuts, these bubble screens, because that's just basic stuff.

It's not these double move, deep balls for Jonathan Mingo or Phelan or for Terrace Marshall or for any of them. So when the offense is being run, it's going to be a different type of evaluation for Bryce. Also the offensive line is still getting adjusted.

Let's give them a break for a second, by the way. Everybody's crushing the offensive line because of how well they played last year. Let's not forget that when Steve Wilks took over for Matt Ruhl, he simplified things. He said, we're going to run the football and we're going to make things incredibly simple for the offensive line. And the reason why the protection numbers look so good for the Panthers last year with this O-line is because they didn't throw it that much.

They were a running team. Your pass protection numbers are going to look a lot better when you're running the ball 65, 70 percent of the snaps. It's a lot more difficult to run an offense where you need to pass the ball more. And it's a lot more difficult to protect if you're an offensive lineman for pass pro than it is run protection.

That's just plain, plain and simple. And we're seeing the first offensive player taken in the off the board in the draft last year, Iki Iquanu, out of state having some issues with pass protection. That doesn't mean he can't figure it out and that doesn't mean other guys can't figure it out. But that would explain why the offensive line over achieved last year. It's because Steve Wilks ran a simplified offense that was run heavy, a lot more run heavy than pretty much anybody across the NFL. And while you can win some games in a bad NFC South that way, you're not winning a Super Bowl that way. And the Panthers aspire to win a Super Bowl with Frank Reich and with Bryce Young. And that's going to require you to throw the ball more.

And when that happens, it's going to be more difficult to try and protect if you're one of these offensive linemen. So the returns that I've seen, contrary to what Chris Simm says, they are positive. DJ Turner, I was out at the beach for a few days before we get to Mike DeCorcy here. And I put together a quick guide of things to do when you're bringing your dog to the beach. This is important. This should be interesting. Nobody prepares you for this. They don't tell you that your trip is going to be different when you have a dog with you than when you don't. So just a few things to consider for those who might not have considered this subject. Number one, you're likely not going to relax much at the beach. You're not going to be posted up reading a book like the book that we inspired that Ryan McGee said to us. Welcome to the circus of baseball. I thought that might be the case.

I might have a chance to read. Not so much with Willow the dog, Willow the dog running around. We gave her like a 50 foot leash. She took advantage of that, started running towards children and other people always had to keep an eye on her.

Didn't really have much of a chance to react. Plus the bathing process at the beach. You got to make sure you have that taken care of or else your car is going to be a disaster or else your home is going to be a disaster.

You're likely not going to relax much. That's number one. Number two, mornings and evenings.

Those are your friends. You don't want to show up with the dog at noon when everybody's at the beach. You want to show up at like 9 a.m. before people show up.

You want to show up at five, six o'clock when the beach is cleared out a little bit. And by the way, it's a lot cooler at those times too. So that way you could spend more time at the beach because dogs can get hot a lot easier. Something I hadn't considered until, you know, having Willow the dog there. And lastly, seek out restaurants with patios.

There are more of those than I think than you might think there are. Every other restaurant I saw had patios, but planning ahead of time, that's something to do. So that way Willow the dog can sit on the floor on the patio while you're enjoying your lunch or dinner. I hope this has been helpful. Very helpful.

There you go. Don't plan to relax much or reading or sleeping on the beach. Mornings and evenings, they're your friends.

And seek out patios, restaurants with patios if you plan to bring your dog to the beach like I did with Willow the dog. To review Barbie and Oppenheimer, plus, you know, share his observations about realignment, the hall of fame sports writer, Mike, of course, he joins the show next on the drive. I want to hit this conference expansion stuff from a different angle. There are the reports from ESPN and from Sports Illustrated that the ACC is revisiting talks with Stanford, Cal and potentially SMU, or I guess university presidents are meeting have met this morning, broaching that subject again after we learned four schools a couple of weeks ago pushed against it, NC State, North Carolina, Florida State and Clemson, those schools. Mike, of course, he's now joining us from the sporting news.

We'll get to Barbie Heimer in just a little bit because you are our resident movie nerd and we appreciate you for your insight on that. Let's focus on basketball for a minute with this. The last few years, the Big 12 has been a better basketball conference than the ACC has. Kansas wins a national title, Baylor wins a title, and they've gotten more teams in the tournament and deservedly so they've gotten more teams in. But now they add Houston, who is a perennial Final Four contender or has been under Kelvin Sampson. They add Cincinnati, who obviously has a lot of history as well. They're adding Arizona and Arizona State, who obviously have basketball pedigree, too. When you look at where things stand with realignment from a basketball perspective, how close would you say the ACC and the Big East are right now to the Big 12 is basketball conferences? Well, I think you have to remember that the Big 12 also loses a significant component. As Houston comes in, Texas and Oklahoma go out the door. And Oklahoma was in the Final Four as recently as 2016 and produced a national player of the year. Texas was in the Elite Eight last year and had to collapse to miss the Final Four, and they did.

Obviously, Miami went. So, look, I think the ACC, as it stands now, just needs to get better. But I know one thing that isn't going to make it better, and that's adding Stanford, Cal, and SMU. I mean, what are they thinking? I mean, this is just the worst idea I've ever heard in regards to this stuff. This is a great league that's looking to do what, exactly? I can't even imagine where this idea came from or why anyone thinks it's a good idea.

University presidents, you know the answer to that. You're talking about people that don't care as much about sports or have as much understanding as, say, the ADs and the coaches do, and they look at Cal and Stanford and say, look at those institutions and those endowments, and yeah, we want to be a part of that. And also, it's peer pressure, too, looking at what the other leagues are doing. It doesn't make it right, and certainly I'm with you. I agree with what you're saying.

But that's why this is happening. Well, what the other leagues did, Josh, what the other leagues did was they said, OK, where are the best sports programs? Let's go get them. And so, I mean, I don't mean best in terms of accomplishment. I mean, Stanford's got a tremendous athletic department in swimming and baseball and soccer. They're tremendous.

I mean, a lot of the women's national team players just came back from the World Cup, including the best player for this particular team, Naomi Garma. They're all Stanford products. So it's a terrific athletic program, but it's an athletic program about which very few or comparatively few people care. They ranked tenth in, excuse me, ninth in Pac-12 football attendance in the period from 2015 to 2020.

I was just looking at some stuff today. It was them, then Cal, then Oregon State, and Washington State. Gee, what a coincidence. Who's left? The ones that no one goes to see them play. There was a great anecdote that was taken from the athletic in an article that I read about Stanford and their trouble getting people to pay attention to their football program where McCaffrey, Christian McCaffrey, who should have won a Heisman, and if he played somewhere other than Stanford, maybe he would have. He went out and he played in a game, I can't remember who it was again, he rushed for like 235 yards. And he went back to his dorm and everybody looked at him and said, where have you been? Like they didn't know he even played. That's what you're up against.

Why would you do this? It's just, it's mind boggling to me why you would want to put your basketball program, your basketball team on a plane to Stanford to play a game that 4,000 people will attend that won't draw a huge audience on television. And then you add in Cal, which hasn't been good. I mean, they had the great period when they had Jalen Brown for a very short period of time, but they've been a disaster for about the last half dozen years.

I don't mean like, just like not good. I mean a disaster for much of the last half dozen years that they just, it's just, I just cannot get with this at all. Mike DeCorcy with us here, Hall of Fame sports writer from the Sporting News.

Let's get to more important stuff than all this conference expansion, though. Barbieheimer, I had a chance to finally watch Barbie in the last few days. So that's where I'll begin. I think this is a movie that gives something to everybody. There's no sex or kissing or I mean, it's kind of crazy, not even kissing in this movie at all. And no cursing as far as I know.

So it is friendly to take the kids to. You have a lot of jokes, including a stinging Godfather joke at the end of the movie that particularly stuck out to me and Gosling's performance that made it a lot of fun. I didn't go in with the highest expectations. I didn't expect it to be that thoughtful, even though Greta Gerwig directed it, it exceeded my expectations.

Did it exceed yours? Yeah, I think it's fantastic. I think it works on so many different levels. The one, the one disappointment for me is that as much attention as Ryan Gosling is getting for his performance. How about some love for Margot Robbie and much more difficult role for her than Ryan Gosling? You're absolutely right. I think she had to. And I and it's I think she just did a tremendous job and isn't getting enough credit for it. I think that too many people look at that as as easy for her.

And I don't think that's true. I think it was a tremendous performance. I thought the script was really insightful and funny and bright. And I thought that the visuals were amazing. I said when I tweeted out that it's the most inventive movie I could remember. Well, I wasn't thinking hard enough because obviously everything everywhere all at once was the most inventive movie I think I've ever seen in my life.

So my frame of reference should have gone back six months. But it was it's as inventive as just about everything short of that. And and I couldn't recommend it highly enough. And Jamie Lee Curtis's win at the Oscars and all the wins that that movie had at this last Oscars should give optimism that a movie like Barbie can net some wins as well when it comes to the Oscars. Getting to Oppenheimer, Barbie is going to make more money because it's IP. You can take your kids to it. It's not three hours long about a scientist.

But I think Oppenheimer has the potential to really clean up when it comes to awards. And I think this is a movie. It's my favorite Nolan movie.

And I don't say that as being someone that's present, you know, just a prisoner of the moment. I went multiple times, watched it on the biggest screen possible. It still had a lot of things on rewatch that had me thinking about a ton of different concepts. I think this has the potential to be an all decade type of movie.

And when we talk about is being a classic. But I'm interested in what you thought of Oppenheimer. Things were a lot higher for that than Barbie. How do you how did it hit you? Yeah, they were very high for me when I went in.

I went in on the second day that it was open, or third day, it was a Sunday, I believe. And it certainly reached every level of expectation I could have had. I certainly felt like I walked out of the theater, having seen the best picture of the year. And not that not that I meaning like when I saw when I saw Unforgiven, it was a summer movie, Krista, the the Clint Eastwood picture that came out in the 90s. I walked out. I walked out with a great movie. I said that's the best that's gonna be the best picture that that there's just there's no way somebody's beat that deserves got nothing to do with it deserves got nothing to do with it.

Mike, of course. The fact that that one. Yes, yes. There's a certain movies that you walk out and you say, Yep, that's it. And, and this was one it just was so well done. And so and so important and tells us tells a story that I'll be honest with you, I didn't know. I mean, I was never I never I didn't was never taught in history that Oppenheimer went through what he went through after what he did for the country. And and I expected maybe, like going in, I knew that there'd be a lot about the project and all of that.

But maybe there would be a post chapter about, you know, what it was like to have done what he did and the concerns about the future and all of that, but I didn't know the story about what he went through with the government afterwards. And that's why I think this movie is going to have staying power, it's going to be viewed at as like, hey, this is a historical document, because a lot of it is accurate. Like when you look at the deep diving again, like 78 79% of what it portrayed is accurate. And it kind of reminded me as you were describing it as like my reaction to watching Dunkirk. I didn't know the full story of Dunkirk until I actually watched the Nolan movie. So it's just interesting that you bring that up.

Yeah. One of the things that's interesting is that when I saw Dunkirk, that was a movie I do have a affinity for World War Two history. And so I was really looking forward to that. And there was a lot about it I loved, but I couldn't hear half of the dialogue in the movie. And that was my criticism of it. And I came, I read something, I think on maybe on one of the one of the fan critics on Rotten Tomatoes was complaining about that with Oppenheimer, I did not experience that at all with Oppenheimer.

So I don't know exactly where that happened for that for that particular person. It's not a problem in this movie, the dialogue is very much easy to understand. Although it's obviously got some complex concepts, they make it digestible for those who are not nuclear physicists.

It's just a terrific movie and the performances, again, Killian Murphy was magnificent, Robert Downey, fantastic, lots to recommend in the movie. Oppenheimer, coherent. The ACC adding Cal and Stanford in the SMU, not coherent. That's what you need to take away from this conversation. Mike the Corsi, it's just good to hear your voice. As soon as I got done watching Barbie the other day, I felt I needed to hear Mike the Corsi's thoughts on it. And it just fills me with joy that both of us like these movies that everybody was talking about and they both deliver. Like you have all this hype and they both deliver.

They both knocked it out of the park, absolutely. Thanks so much for doing this, buddy. We'll talk soon. All right. We'll see you next time.