Hayward Fault

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast. We are killing it online. Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons 3-7 on WSJS.

So glad to have you on this Tuesday Drive. It is WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad, where today's a pretty big news day across the NFL because it's cut day. Teams have cut their teams down to 53 and there's a lot of other stuff. Talking about players being on the pup list, trades for conditional late round picks all over the place, fans and teams nervously projecting what's gonna happen on the waiver wire, so a lot of fun. Focusing specifically on the team in Uptown Charlotte though, today's moves indicate that the Carolina Panthers are playing the long game.

It's year one for Frank Reich. Bryce Young is a rookie, so the urgency is not in the same place elsewhere in the division, say the New Orleans Saints level of urgency is. Dennis Allen needs to show something. Derek Carr's not a rookie. His window is closing, so the urgency level a lot higher on the bayou or even the Atlanta Falcons. Prove it time for Arthur Smith as a head coach. It's your chance to prove you could be a franchise quarterback if you're Desmond Ritter.

This seems like this year is his opportunity. That's not the case for the Panthers. This year is not about contending and Scott Fitterer is building the roster accordingly and here's an example of that on cup day. Several vets were among those who were cut, including 30-year-old Eric Rowe at safety, 31-year-old Justin McRae at offensive guard, 28-year-old linebacker Deion Jones might have been the most surprising cut that the Carolina Panthers made. Meanwhile, Carolina made a trade for whom? A seventh round. They sent a seventh round conditional pick to bring in a 24-year-old receiver.

24 years old is what you should be looking at. Carolina is playing the long game. They're looking towards the future. Frank Reich, he's trying to clean house and instill his program and find his own guys to build the organization around and in doing so he's cleaned house of many of the Matt Ruhl guys. Different head coach, different standard that players might not be able to live up to or might not fit well. In the culture of five of the 22 cuts today were Matt Ruhl draft picks, including Shai Smith, Keith Taylor, and Brandon Smith, who went to Matt Ruhl's alma mater, Penn State. And this is kind of a quiet move today. Amid the trade and all the cuts, Carolina announced Austin Corbett, their starting right guard, a Super Bowl champ, he's going to start the season on the pup list, on the physically unable to perform list.

And here's what that means. If you're on the pup list, you've got to miss the first four games of the season. Which means the earliest Austin Corbett can make his season debut is against the Detroit Lions on October the 8th. Now we knew for months that Austin Corbett wasn't going to start the season, but maybe we thought it'd be one game or two.

A full month to open the season? This is another sign of the Panthers saying, we're going to be patient. It's not about making the playoffs this year.

If they make the playoffs, great. Urgency, it's lower than it is for some of the other teams in the NFC South, and that is fine. The way you need to think about this, if you're a Panther fan, look at the 2011 Carolina Panthers. New head coach, new quarterback. The Carolina Panthers went 6-10 that year, and it was a successful season.

Why? Because they knew what they had in Cam Newton. Ron Rivera set the foundation for what became the keep pounding, win with defense, building around Cam Newton, what ended up being a Super Bowl contender. 2011 was the start of that. Then you saw it ramp up, 2012, 13, 14, 15. You saw it ramp up. Carolina, you saw it ramp up.

2015, you saw it ramp up. Carolina is starting that process. This is the beginning of that process. So don't set the expectations as if Carolina doesn't have a rookie quarterback and a coach in his first year here. Carolina is playing the long game, and they're trying to set the foundation for the long term.

This year is not about making the playoffs. It's about setting that infrastructure and figuring out what you have in Bryce Young. All of this, obviously, with so much being new, can take time. On Twitter, at wsjsradio, if you want in.

That's where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch. Will Dalton is the executive producer of this show. Wd, this is something I wanted to ask you since you watched Point Break for the first time earlier today. You've also watched Any Given Sunday.

I have. And you watched Remember the Titans. So rank these quarterbacks in order. Sunshine, Ronnie Bass, Johnny Utah, all-conference quarterback from Ohio State, won the Rose Bowl against USC before blowing out his knee. So pre-injury Johnny Utah and Steven Willie Beeman from Any Given Sunday. Who's the best of the three? I think third.

Unfortunately, it has to be Sunshine. Yeah, he's in high school. We haven't quite seen him at the collegiate level yet.

What that's going to look like. I will put Utah second. Also, he came in halfway through the year, so small sample size, too. Steven Willie Beeman has got to be number one on the list. If we're talking pre-injury, I think it might be Utah.

And also, he's a lefty, beat scene. You could see. Yeah, it looked like he had a bit of a chooch. But I think I'm with you. Those are the top two quarterbacks of the bunch. Shifting the conversation to college football, but not Big Ten talk.

No, Johnny Utah. Utah, give me two. Other than Florida State, LSU, Sunday, night.

You can make a strong argument. North Carolina, South Carolina and Charlotte is the best game of week one. That's why college game days there.

We've been talking about this for months on end. Now it's game week and we're a few days away from this game. And it's suspicious that North Carolina is favored in this football game by two and a half points right now. North Carolina is the favorite when you look at Vegas odds. It's under three points, so you know, it's kind of tight, but North Carolina.

J.C. Horn probably would not send you that cash app since he's a Gamecock alum. And I think I'm with him. I don't think North Carolina should be favored in this game. It doesn't surprise me that they are.

It's Mac Brown, it's Drake May, Vegas trying to play perception of the public. North Carolina is ranked in the top 25, but you've got to remember these two teams, there are some similarities, but they were trending in completely different directions at the end of 2022. And I'm of the belief that stuff can translate from one year to the other. North Carolina, for all the good, is going to be winning the coastal division in the final year of the coastal. Having Drake May emerge, they lost their last four games of the year, and that included two bad losses at home to Georgia Tech's third string quarterback and to NC State's fourth string guy.

That's not good. And Drake May was not good in those games. Meanwhile, South Carolina had two of the best wins, probably their two best wins they've had in a decade at that school, in the same month. Beating Tennessee, and then winning on the road in Death Valley at Clemson, that's what South Carolina did at the end of last year.

And the heels? When you talk about offense, sure, Drake May's coming back, but they have to replace an offensive coordinator. And while South Carolina has to do the same thing, I have more confidence in the weapons around Spencer Rattler right now than I do the ones surrounding Drake May. Drake May does not have a Juice Wells Drake May does not have a Juice Wells to throw the ball to right now. Spencer Rattler does, and they're already trying to replace Josh Downs and replace Antoine Green. And Mac Brown was asked today if there was any update on Tez Walker, and they said, nope, they still haven't heard from the NCAA whether or not he's going to be eligible. And the game is this week.

So here is Mac Brown on the challenges of that. This is something that we're dealing with we haven't dealt with before. So Tez was really down after practice yesterday. And he didn't practice with as much confidence as he has been because he's not sure if he's going to play. We got to have a game plan with him and one without him. And that makes it difficult because you want your quarterback to be throwing to the guys he's going to throw to in the game and we're not sure who he's going to be throwing to.

So it's a very difficult situation for us that it's this late and we're still not sure. And that's a preseason all ACC receiver. Then you get into North Carolina's offensive line hasn't been good in years.

What makes you believe that this year they're all of the sudden going to be good? I get South Carolina has their questions too, but we've seen many of these guys for the Tar Heels already. And unfortunately, as many guys as they've had on that defense who are high star players, many from the triad, Ra Ra Dillworth and Travis Shaw, who's going into his second year. And I can go on Tony Grimes, who's a Virginia kid that was a five star. These guys haven't translated that to the defense being good.

So when I look at this line, I just think they might have the wrong team favored that in this battle of Carolinas and Charlotte that South Carolina probably should be favored in this game. Joining us from his compound in Cartersville, Georgia, which is right behind or right outside the city of Atlanta is West Durham, which is fitting that you're there in Atlanta, West, because every time I see you, I just want to give you a hug the way that those fans hugged Ronald Acuna Jr. out in Colorado last night. A lot of things. That could have been a lot of things. Do you think there was a meeting today of game ops at Coors Field? I'd imagine so. How many game ops meetings do you think we've had at Coors Field today?

How many do you think they had last night and how many do you think they've had today? And how many other ballparks or sporting venues in this country you think have had a meeting today? It's the first thing I thought of this morning.

Yeah, those meetings. Nice hat, by the way. Thank you. Got the ACC gear on. Perhaps we can get into some Atlantic Coast Conference talk in just a bit. But speaking of Atlanta, you call the Falcons on radio.

Cut Day is now behind us an hour and a half ago, all pencils down, cut down to 53. And that's where the Panthers open up in Atlanta 12 days from now. And there are plenty of fans today wondering why Carolina cuts vets like Dion Jones or Eric Rowe and a few others. But to me, I just think the urgency level for a first year head coach and for a rookie quarterback, an organization with that, is different than Arthur Smith trying to prove something at Desmond Ritter in Atlanta or even New Orleans with a veteran quarterback like Derek Carr and Dennis Allen, who needs to prove something this year. What do you think about the Panthers and where expectations seem to be very high for a team where so much is new? When am I going to see Miles Sanders? Do you know? Week one.

Okay. Week one, you'll see him. I've watched Carolina. I watched some of the preseason game.

The first one. Who was that against? The Jets.

The Jets. Yeah, I watched some of that. And then I watched the other night almost start to finish because Matt Ryan was doing the game with Andrew Catalon and Tiki Barber. I thought it was very good, by the way. It was good. Aside from Icky Ikhwanu's name, everything else was great.

Yeah, well, yeah. I was glad to see him get started the other night. I think he's got an incredibly bright career ahead of him. I think that the Panthers are actually in a really interesting spot. I like Mingo wide receiver. It's still not DJ Moore, but it's Mingo. Ironically, the two receivers that the Falcons and Panthers took in order, what, four years ago, now neither are on the roster.

Calvin Ridley and DJ Moore. Yeah. I thought that hit me the other night watching the game. I think Bryce is such a savant.

I think I told you that, though. I mean, he's such a smart guy. The way he uses his feet in space, he'll make you account for him on every snap, even though you probably don't have to two thirds of the time, right? Because he's either going to hand the ball off or shoot it to somebody.

And you say shoot it. He never he never puts the ball in danger, though. Yeah, he's really he's really smart in terms of where he throws the ball. I think he's very disciplined.

I think he is Frank Reich are pretty. From what I can tell in a preseason game, I think they're pretty much lock step. Um, I, I think the game a week from Sunday is going to be very entertaining. And I'm going to be surprised if it's not close. Let's put it that way. I think Atlanta, a lot of people here are, you know, well, they didn't play enough in the preseason and yada yada.

And it really does not concern me at all. I think they've had an incredibly physical training camp. They need this week, this by week that the league is now built into the schedule Josh Atlanta does to get healthy. So, you know, again, I think it's going to be a really competitive game. But I think a lot has to be accomplished by these teams in the first six to eight weeks in order for them to have that opportunity that you and I talked about in the past to have many of these teams in the first few weeks that you and I've talked about in the past to have meaningful football in the month of December, for sure. Let's get into ACC expansion.

West Durham joining us. Oh, wow. We're going to do that first. Okay. We're playing games. I games are always fun too, but no, let's not.

No, but there are many different ways to have this conversation since this thing's been dragged out so long. I think we know kind of the financials that the ACC is trying financials, trying to gain revenue. We know that's the deal.

But the root of this is and this is the part I can't get past. Why is this happening right now for the ACC? Why like what is the incentive to expand right now?

Like at its core? Why is the ACC motivated to expand? I think revenue has something to do with it. Certainly. Why is that?

Well, because it's main breaking news in the last 18 months has become a talking point in the room of athletic directors and specifically the one in Tallahassee. No, no, no, no. He just happens to be the one you hear from. Sure. Okay. But I think I told you this.

There's a there's a small cadre of people, small cadre of ADs. Look, I Michael offered I have great respect for he's always been very nice to me. I've enjoyed my conversations with him. He has chosen this path publicly to talk about Florida State and their disenchantment with the ACC.

We had Drew Weatherford on our Sirius XM show EJ Mangal and I did and he gave us a very prepared, thought out plan about deficits and financials and all this. I'm glad you bring up Drew Weatherford because what I wanted to get at is whether it's Florida State or somebody else, Drew Weatherford, I think, gave away the game when talking about the success initiative that was discussed at spring meetings. He said, what's this going to net us? Five, six million dollars when we're talking about 30 million that other schools are going to be making more than us in the SEC and the Big Ten. So what I think about with what you're going to get in the best case scenario from Stanford and Cal, if the motivation is we need to keep schools happy by giving them more revenue, is it going to be enough to keep anybody happy when it's all said and done, when options actually become available? Well, you have to think about, number one, the two implications. Let's go back to your original question.

Why is it happening now? Because I think this is the ability to create more revenue right now as opposed to create revenue in two or three years. That's number one. So the ability to create revenue starting next year, remember, we still don't know what the college football playoff contract is going to pay. OK, that's the other thing. Everybody's expanding and grabbing television money. And I'll follow up with that in a second. Don't forget me to remind me that we need to discuss the timeline on the TV money, which is something that never gets discussed.

But I happen to believe is real. So the first thing is the ACC sees a way and a path to create revenue. Notre Dame has been rightfully and wrongly accused in this process because they're the ones that are playing Father Flanagan. They're trying to save Stanford, their longtime football rival, who they've played a grand total of thirty five times and a majority of that since the mid 90s. OK, a longtime football rivalry to me is Virginia, Carolina, State Carolina, Duke Carolina, Wake Carolina, those that have been played 100 times, not thirty five times. OK, that's my statement on Notre Dame.

OK, in California, the let me make sure I got the number right. The deficit right now at the University of California and their athletic department is four hundred and seventy five million dollars on a one hundred year bond. OK, their stadium went through a renovation and something out west that is called and I wrote this down just so I could Seismic Retrofit. You want to Seismic Retrofit is jargon, Cal, the Cal football stadium is built on the Hayward Fault. You may remember the World Series between the A's and the Giants when the San Andreas fault caused an earthquake.

Eighty nine. The next one that is expected to create an earthquake is the Hayward Fault, of which the Cal football stadium is built on top of. So you haven't heard that yet in this discussion, have you? See, this is we're bringing you stuff. Hayward fault. Hayward fault. Let's go. Right.

And 50 percent of the four hundred and seventy five million dollar debt went to the Seismic Retrofit of the stadium. Why? Why couldn't you? Here's a thought.

Tear it down and build a new one. Oh, no, we're not doing that. OK, so Cal has right now. In athletics, a responsibility to pay off on the one hundred year bond, by the way. Not a 30 bond, not a 50 bond. Josh, you know, bankers in Winston-Salem and Winston-Salem still very much a banking community. You need to get somebody on to talk about a one hundred year bond. Yeah. Can't wait to get one legacy federal credit union stadium on Thursday night. We love our banks. Well, maybe Kathy Pate would be willing to talk to you about one hundred year. She's going to be going out of the gate.

She's going to be on the motorcycle Thursday. And rightly and rightly so. But Cal is a mess financially. Stanford, meanwhile, has thirty six billion dollars in its endowment.

I said billion dollars. Yeah. So if Notre Dame wants to save Stanford and the ACC sees a path to make this work, that's fine. Now, let's go back to the television thing I was telling you about. Yeah.

When you said that I had it written down, I wrote this down. Are you talking specifically about there potentially being a bubble that burst in television? I absolutely am talking about that because according to my research, the Big Ten contract expires in twenty thirty.

Yeah. It's roughly going to pay one hundred million dollars for every school. It's an eight point five, eight point zero five billion dollar ticket. Essentially, it's what the big tens agreed to. That contract expires in twenty thirty and twenty thirty one. The big twelve contract expires. Apparently, the big twelve, although we don't know all the writings and the clauses in it, is going to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty two million dollars per school per year in the big twelve, even with their recent expansion. OK, so the SEC will expire in twenty thirty four. It's going to pay anywhere from seventy five to eighty five million dollars a school every year till twenty thirty four. It's a contract that's written at seven point one billion. And we all know the ACC deal expires in twenty thirty six. And again, most of the people publicly don't account for the boost that the ACC is going to get in a couple of years, which will push their deal, depending on who you ask, into the forty million dollar range. And you mentioned the playoff where we're trying to figure out what the payout is going to be for twenty four, twenty five, the last two years of this agreement, or actually I think it goes through twenty six before before you have maybe other television partners can get involved.

That is correct. Goes through twenty six. And we don't know what twelve teams is going to look like in terms of what the payout is.

Well, just remember this. When we left the BCS, when Florida State beat Auburn at the Rose Bowl, that was one hundred and eighty six million dollars. The first contract for the CFP was four hundred and seventy five million dollars. And somewhere the estimate is this year, the BCS, the CFP will pay upwards of eight hundred and a half.

OK, so eight hundred fifty million dollars. Now, we're only playing three games next year. We're talking about playing eleven games, including four on campus venues. And it is my understanding the discussion point for the new college football playoff contract is going to start somewhere in the one point two billion dollar marketplace beyond twenty six.

I don't know that I know we're talking about the first for the first three years. And then that's before you can get competitors involved, right? Well, you know, I mean, ESPN has the rights out to twenty six. Yeah, but there still has to be a negotiated eleven game format.

Understood. OK, so it could go to one point two billion. But at one point two billion, while Burke Magnus said on Richard Deitch's podcast, we intend to be aggressive about college football.

Everybody's got their ceiling. But West Durham with us here, I got to throw this at you. OK, what's your level of excitement for the game being played at a legacy federal credit union stadium Thursday night between your mighty Elon Phoenix, Elon and the Wake Forest Demon Deacon? I'm excited for Tony Triciani in the program.

I'm excited for Jen Straule, the new athletics director there. It's always good when Elon can play an ACC school in these games. OK, they played other teams in the past. They played Ohio. They played Wake Forest. Obviously, they played Carolina once. They are play they played Georgia Tech. They are playing Wake Forest. And then the next two years they're going to play Duke. And right now they do not have a twenty six game on the books. I would hope that one of the ACC schools in the area would consider playing.

I love that you said in the area because I was about to make the stout the Cowen Stanford joke. Yeah. Elon, let's go. I think I think the one thing you have to look at with with the game is what's the reality of the game? The game for me is about how Elon can show with Matthew Downing, a quarterback who replaces Matthew McKay, who was there last year, transfer from NC State, Montana State. Where is Elon offensively with Downing? You know, I'm excited about the run game with Hillman and Dixie. I like their I love Chandler Brayboy at wide receiver.

As you all know, this is the only school I can talk about where I don't have to, you know, hoist flags. Right. I am I'm really interested to see where they are defensively. They were pretty good on defense last year. Wake will present a big challenge for them. The the linebackers have got to play well because I think it's the kind of game where I think Mitch Griffiths is going to be in the top half of ACC quarterbacks.

I don't know if Wake Forest is going to be in the top half of the ACC, but I think offensively Mitch Griffiths will. Hey, I heard the national media say over the weekend that Sam Hartman's pretty good. Yeah, I should have checked in should have checked in here about four years ago. We could have told you.

All you people that were wrapped up in Jamie Newman a couple of years ago. Where are you going to be this weekend? Blacksburg, Saturday night, Old Dominion at Virginia Tech. It's a game that the home team has won each of the last four meetings. Yeah, that's going to be one of the games that they bring the road crew to from the.

Yeah. Well, everybody's going to be in Winston tomorrow Thursday and then Saturday in Blacksburg and then we'll have us. We'll have a group in Orlando on Sunday night and a group in Duke on Monday night.

So that's cool. It's a great way to start and I'm hating that I'm not going to be able to be at the game in Winston. Originally, I planned on stopping in Winston-Salem to go to the game and then drive to Blacksburg afterwards, but I've got an opportunity to accomplish some things prior to our game on Saturday.

I need to do on Thursday in Blacksburg. Well, if plans change and you're able to go to a legacy credit federal credit union stadium. It's just a legacy stadium.

I mean, unless they're a paid sponsor of your program, I would say it's a legacy stadium. Nah, I like saying the full thing, Wes. Do you? Are they a sponsor?

No, they're not. You and Kathy Pater, are you guys close? Is she going to like wave at you when she rides out on the bike? I'm trying to ride the motorcycle, Wes. Trying to figure out how to get on the motorcycle.

Trying to figure it out. Secrets out. One, one. Yeah, you got the press. You had the press there. So we need to talk about Point Break today since WD watched it for the first time earlier this afternoon.

Surf's up, dude. We'll get to that next hour. We also need to think about movies for WD potentially for next week. You can tweet us at Josh Graham show. If some write some in the YouTube chat, I'm sure WD will pass that along to me. Feel free to do that.

And you can tweet us at WSJS radio. But before we get to movies, college football playoff picks. It's time.

I have my four in front of me here. Let's see how gloriously wrong we're going to be. And we start with the team. I suspect will be the number one overall seed in the college football playoff yet again. And that's the Georgia Bulldogs.

But they repeat more on that in a bit. They still have some dudes, even though they're replacing Stetson Bennett. They still got McConkey out live. They still have those two incredible tight ends, including Brock Bowers, who's going to be a first round draft pick. And their second team is better than three quarters of the teams in the SEC. Anyway, so the Bulldogs with their schedule, which is cake, not going to lose more than one game. They are my SEC champs and they are the number one seed in my college football playoff prediction. Number two in my playoff standings, the Clemson Tigers. Welcome back, Dabo Sweeney.

Welcome back. Garrett Riley, who last year was the offensive coordinator for TCU, who made the run to the national championship game. That's going to lift this offense.

Cade Klubnick is a dude. This is the best I've felt about their skill position players since the last time they were in the playoff with Trevor Lawrence at the controls. Really like Williams out wide, love the tight ends. You got Will Shipley at running back and you have a great offensive mind as the puppet master in Clemson. And you have no concerns about the defense, their schedule. They can afford to lose a game and still get into the playoff since they're at South Carolina and they at South Carolina and they have Notre Dame as well coming to Death Valley. Maybe an undefeated Clemson team, if not a one loss Clemson still could have them as the number two seed in the standings. Number three in my standings, LSU. They might be a team that barely gets in as a second SEC team, but to avoid having a SEC championship rematch in the semifinal, we have them as the three seed. Really like this LSU team.

Jayden Daniels is back. They have talent everywhere. Brian Kelly's a great coach, obviously. And playing in the SEC West and facing Clemson or pardon me, Florida State to open up. You might be talking about a two loss team getting in this year if it's LSU, that two loss team.

I wouldn't write that off. They're my third playoff team. And then a team outside of the top 10 sneaking into the college football playoff for the first time, the Kansas State Wildcats, emo! K-State in the playoff. It wasn't TCU that won the Big 12 last year.

Remember that. It was K-State, Chris Kleiman, an excellent coach. All that guy does is win, whether it's at the FCS level or in Manhattan, Kansas. They have Will Howard back at quarterback.

This is my sleeper. When you look at their schedule, it's pretty cakey. And with the exception of going to Austin and facing Texas, I'm not going to be the guy to pick Texas because how many people have said Texas is back and has been wrong over the last 10, 15 years. K-State wins that game. K-State, maybe even with one loss, assuming they win that game in Austin in the playoff representing the Big 12 conference, which then brings us to our semifinal matchups.

Georgia all over K-State. The dogs facing the Big 12 again in the playoff, maybe not going to be as lopsided as the national championship game was, but Georgia winning comfortably. LSU, Clemson in a rematch of the Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence playoff game, that national championship game from a few years ago.

And I think it'll be the same result. The LSU Tigers sneak past Clemson, the ACC just happy to get back to the playoff and Clemson to get back onto that stage. We have an SEC championship rematch in the national title game, LSU Georgia.

And since I have the Bulldogs winning the SEC, I'm going to have LSU winning the rematch and winning a national championship. Because when it comes down to it, I don't think Brian Kelly got enough credit for what he did in Notre Dame. A lot of people think it's just easy to win at Notre Dame, not with those academic standards, not with what you're inhibited by, who you can bring in, who you can have transfer in with credits.

You don't have those same restrictions in Baton Rouge and you have a ton of resources. That's why Ed Orgeron can win a national championship. That's why Les Miles can win a national championship. The last three LSU head coaches have won national titles. And Brian Kelly, other than Nick Saban, I think is better than the last two to win them. So give me the LSU Tigers with Jayden Daniels and company winning it all in the college football playoff.

That's my prediction for this year. W.D., let me know if there's anything in the chat in terms of movies we should throw your way. I was thinking about football movies with the NFL beginning next week and us having college football right now, but we've covered a lot of football movies. You've watched Any Given Sunday, yes?

Big fan of that one, yeah. Gotcha. You've also watched Remember the Titans. I did. You covered that.

Let's see if there are any others we haven't covered. Oh, Keanu Reeves was playing football as Johnny Utah, number nine, in Point Break, which you watched today. Have you watched The Replacements? Who's in that?

Gene Hackman is the head coach. It was shot in Baltimore and Keanu Reeves is playing Shane Falco at quarterback wearing number 16. I haven't seen that, but I've seen, I know of this. W.D., I don't want to hear you telling me.

Well, I've got to give some explanation here. I know of it because I haven't seen Keanu Reeves in a football movie. Yeah, well, Johnny Utah, he's a football player.

Well, yeah, but there's no... He was all Conference W.D. They beat USC in the Rose Bowl.

Yes, they did. That's right. Ohio State. Might be the best quarterback in a movie. Just saying.

That scene on the beach that's totally realistic. Everybody totally plays under lights and plays a full 100-yard game where you're throwing blocks and playing on the offensive and defensive line. Everybody does that. So you haven't seen that.

Have you seen Varsity Blues? No. W.D., you have a button for this. Oh, that's right, I do. I haven't had to use it in so long because I've been getting better at this. Gosh, man, you're the producer of this show.

One job to play sounds. Well, I've been doing better at this. I haven't needed it as much. Okay. Out of those two, I pick Varsity Blues. Give it about a 10. 10.

I've seen Blue Mountain State. Not a movie. Actually, there is one. These are submissions from Morgan and Carmen in our office.

They've sent us a ton of movies. I've narrowed it down to two. Clueless. Well. Alicia Silverstone. 10 Things I Hate About You. Who's in that?

Heath Ledger is in this movie. I'm trying to remember. Well. Okay. Then that'll be the choice that we throw out there. That's a good one.

10 Things I Hate About You. We'll do Varsity Blues. I'm thinking bank robbery movies now.

We made you watch Heat. Yes. Pacino. The Dark Knight kind of counts as a bank robbery movie because of the opening scene. What else have we made you watch bank robbery-wise? The Town. Oh, yeah. The Town.

College soccer. Have you seen Hell or High Water? Well. Den of Thieves. Came out in the last five years. Gerard Butler.

Yes. I saw that in theaters. Great movie. It was. I'm proud of you.

Very proud of you. Have you seen Inside Man? Spike Lee.

Denzel Washington. Yeah. We did that. We did Inside Man? I'm telling you, we've done a lot of bank robbery movies. I feel like we've done that genre more than anything. The Equalizer 3 is coming out this week starring Denzel. I feel like we need to get a Denzel movie in here. Have you seen Equalizer, the original? Well.

I figured so. So we need a fourth from the audience to throw at W.D. So tweet us at WSJS radio or you can chime in on our YouTube channel as well if there are any submissions in the live chat for us to get to. And then we'll establish it. We need one more movie to include, to shoot us some options of things that we could purvey. And we'll make it a democracy this week.

A democracy for people to choose. I'm open to a lot of these suggestions that are out there. Right now we have it narrowed down to 10 Things I Hate About You, Inside Man, Varsity Blues. Actually, no, you've seen Inside Man.

Inside Man we've seen. And Equalizer. So we have Equalizer, Varsity Blues and 10 Things I Hate About You. This is The Drive with Josh Kraft. As Darren Vaught joins the show, ACC Baseball, etc., podcast and does a myriad of different things. High school football in the Queen City this time of year and high point basketball is not too far down the way. We have been expecting a huge ACC headline at some point today.

And I believe we've got it, Darren Vaught. It has been released. ESPN will broadcast ACC football games and New Year's six bowl games this year at movie theaters. This is part of a theatrical distribution agreement with Theater Sports Network. ACC football games are going to be broadcast in movie theaters.

Somebody get Permar on the line to see if the Rialto is going to be one of these movie theaters and make it happen. Think of the possibilities where Nicole Kidman right before a movie is or right before a game starts is telling you about, oh, this is where magic happens right before you watch Pit facing Duke or something like that. Are you allowed to be on your phones during the game at a movie? So many questions that I have here.

We're the right radio show, the right show to discuss this. Is there an ACC game you'd like to watch in a movie theater, Darren Vaught? Any? I think any is my answer to that.

Any game? That sounds like a good time. The movies are back.

Barbenheimer changed everything. So Boston College versus Georgia Tech, you're in. Because of the novelty. Yeah, I think you could get me to sit down and watch that one. I think so. I think this again, this makes games that are otherwise unappealing a little bit more of interest. Okay, so let's play this out.

This might sound like an unusual question, but it isn't because of the headline today. If you have an unusual question, call us right now at 336-777-1600. And if you do call in with an unusual question, you'll have tickets for Wake's opener against Elon. You won't have to watch that movie in a movie theater or that game in a movie theater. You can actually go to the game.

It'll be a movie. Let's go Phoenix. Elon grad, Darren Vaught with us. I forgot about that already.

336-777-1600. If you want to win those tickets, just ask us an unusual question. It could be football. It could be something completely unrelated, but let's play this out. You go to a movie theater to watch a football game.

What are you bringing with you? When I go to the movies, I get the Big Gulp Coke and I get, I sneak in some candy. It's usually a sour type candy, but since it's football, does that change the menu item for you?

That's a good question. You know, working a Frank hamburger. I don't go to the movies often enough anymore to really have like a set routine, but you're right. Like when I was a teenager, I for sure, like you would sneak stuff in, right? You go to the dollar tree or the dollar store or wherever you get candy there because it's a third, a quarter of the price you wear cargo shorts were a thing then.

So you just, you just jam those pockets, all 18 of them with stuff. But see now, like the movie theater experience has changed. Like you can get a meal brought to you and like a beverage at a movie theater. So I think that You can have alcohol at a movie theater now.

Yeah. So you, I already know a game that I would like to watch in a movie theater. Like Wake Forest, when they go to Notre Dame for the Sam Hartman reunion, that's a game I have circled. I'm not going to South Bend for that, but I'll watch that game in a movie theater for sure. After last weekend watching Sam, yeah, movie theater, Wake Forest, Notre Dame.

I want to see the mesh point on the biggest screen possible. But see, now I'm questioning, do I do I actually want to watch a good game at the theater or, or, or do again, is the, is it, is it because of the novelty, right? Like the TV viewing experience at home for a football game is so good. Maybe it is BC, Georgia Tech.

Maybe that's the ideal circumstance. Oh, you mean Boston College? Oh, everybody.

This is such an interesting topic. I, I'm going to do this at some point this year, assuming that there are, you know, theaters participating in the greater triad area. I assume since it's the ACC, Greensboro will be involved. You watch, they're all going to be in Charlotte. Yeah. You watch Jim Phillips Choice.

Oh yeah. You know, we're just going to, why have them in Greensboro? We can just have them in Charlotte right down the road. We can, we can, we can do that. How about the assumption that people would drive from the triad to Charlotte to watch a game in a theater. That's, that would be true.

Just think of the corporate sponsors. Okay. Let's get to unusual questions. Last week, guys, everybody made it out that I got mad at Josh and I left the press conference.

That's not right. I thought it was an unusual question and it's okay. It's time for unusual questions with Josh Graham. Again, if you have an unusual question, you have tickets to Wake Forest Elon Thursday night, 336-777-1600. May I chime in real quickly?

Sure. I think I have gone throughout the span of us using that sound for this segment, totally under appreciating the, but that's okay at the end of what Roy was saying. Like it just struck me in a way that was way funnier than it ever has been. Oh, I'm glad you've noticed that. WD watched Point Break for the first time earlier today. He'll tell us about it in just a little bit, but that's a bank robbery movie. And last night fans ran onto the field and knocked over Ronald Acuna Jr. out in Colorado, which had me thinking about the scene and fever pitch where Drew Barrymore runs from the centerfield wall at Fenway all the way to the Red Sox dugout, essentially without being tackled by security.

It leads to the obvious question. Which do you think you have a better shot at pulling off running from centerfield of a major league baseball stadium to home plate or to a dugout without being tackled or robbing a bank? Which do you think you can pull off?

You gotta pull off one, Naren. So it might be the bank and here's why. You mentioned that the fans knocked over Acuna. No, no, no, no. It was the three security people. They're clustered as the second fan came. That's who Acuna actually tripped over.

Sure. So like they were on it, man. And I get it. He's a home run away from being the first ever 30 homers, 60 stolen base guy. And people stop acting like this is like a 20, 23 thing. Like, look at the video of Hank Aaron hitting his record home run. People are running with them from second to third base. This is something that's happened to baseball forever.

Forever. Right. And it's it becomes a thing that for whatever reason, guys get an itch and think that they're going to be the ones to successfully get away with it or not have consequences on the back end. It's it's you know, it's also not a 20, 23 thing that we need to stop sort of acting like it is the rules changes in Major League Baseball. Yeah, they've sort of brought the stolen base back. But I'm here's here's I'm normally clamoring over Shohei Ohtani things because he's normally like the first to do whatever. Acuna is about to be the first 30, 60 guy in Major League history. This is a game where like it was not uncommon for guys to steal 100 plus stolen bases in a season for a long time. Right. Like we brought those back and he's now breaking the record. It's different with Ohtani.

There haven't been two way stars. And that's remarkable. And of course, again, I give you that ad nauseam. But what Acuna is doing is you're still a buster and you're avoiding the question. I want to know, do you think you're like, OK, it's the bank. So are you going to be like that? If that's what the detail, the security detail is like it Coors Field. Yeah. Come on.

Go to like you try it at Yankee Stadium. You're not getting over the rail. I think I think he's right. I think it's easier to rob a bank just based on the movies where you can maybe pull the George Clooney. I forget what the movie is with him and J. Lo, where he walks into the bank and just says, you see that guy sitting over there with your bank manager? That's that's my friend. He's got a shotgun right next to his leg.

And if you do anything wrong and you act like that something's happening here, he's going to blow his head off or something like that. Give me the money right now and just have it be a nice ordeal and get in and out. That's the one movie where it actually seemed plausible or at least a lot more plausible than Drew Barrymore running from centerfield all the way to the first base dugout. Which do you think you could pull off? I think I could pull getting on the field of the bank robbery. Oh, I guess W.D. Allusive.

Good. I'm elusive. And, you know, I was a baseball player. So I might know where these security guards might be. So I'm pretty good at running in a straight line. OK, W.D., what's your unusual question? OK, so in Point Break, it's a bank robbery movie, but it's also surfing.

Yeah. So what was a skill or a hobby or something that you maybe wanted to learn growing up, but you never did? Like for me, I always wanted to learn how to skateboard and I never did. And I also wanted to get into boxing.

Didn't do that either. But what was the skill or a hobby that you guys never picked up that you wanted to? I was like I had a sketchbook and I would like draw a lot. Oh, yeah. But never really did anything with that.

Boarding is a good one. I mean, you guys know, as you could imagine, I wore skateboarding shoes all the time. Right now, Jeff Smith was never on a skateboard.

Yeah. What was the brand that Steve-O from Jackass sponsored for a while? It was Snow, Snow Shoes, but it was spelled S-N-E-A-U-X. I had a big, clunky pair of those. Oh, boy.

Skateboarding is a good one. Probably my answer. What's your unusual question, Darren? Do you guys know the numbers that identify each of your teeth? Like at the dentist, they've got that system. Only my number seven lateral incisor right here that was knocked out. And also because it was the same tooth that Ed Helms was without in The Hangover, which made for great Halloween costumes, by the way, because I was in high school at the time when that came out. I ask because I went to the dentist this morning and there's like another story within the story here. So forgive me if this is a little bit long-winded. I got a crown on one of my teeth.

It's the number two, as it turns out. So as this procedure was going on, Dr. Lisa, we'll call her and not include her last name, great dentist here in the triangle of North Carolina, she's like, hey, you remember the drill from your last crown, don't you? So like this is going to happen and this is what to expect.

But guys, I don't remember ever getting a crown. Sometimes they just do it. Yeah. Like you, you might be apparently some number of years ago, this woman just like, okayed it and was like, we're going to do this thing.

I paid for it. And she's like, well, yeah. Cause I asked, I was like, well, which, which tooth is it? And she's like, that's your number 18, sweetie without like pointing to a chart or anything.

But I was just curious, like, I just want to know which one is, which one is a crown, what to expect when I go about eating, like I have in, in my everyday life going forward. So she said, it's your number 18. I was like, okay, cool. Yeah. That sounds good.

That makes sense. Thumbs up. Keanu Reeves, point break thumbs up.

Oh, speaking of which on the way out, we got about a minute and a half here. We know swingers is one of your favorite movies. What are some of your other favorites? Like movies you've watched more than anything else? Ooh.

Like I've got some obscure ones, but like, you know, Goodwill hunting's up there for me. WD has seen that. Yes, I have. Yeah. So like maybe we go a little, a little off the board. No, no, no. Again, just let's, let's go.

I have seen Goodfellas. I'm telling you, we're making progress. Look at this. Ian Eagle walked up to him, sought him out in the press box a few weeks ago and said, what movies are you watching this week? I'm so proud of you. Seriously.

I am. It was right before dodge ball. I told him I was watching dodgeball.

He was super proud. Really quickly throw me some others, just rapid fire name movies off the top of your head. Okay.

Orange County. Have you seen it? No. Okay. Well, you guys know I'm a big Favreau fan, so we'll go with Chef. Well, I haven't even seen Chef. What's next? Chef.

Oh, what's next? No, you guys both need to watch Chef. You guys both need to watch Chef movie night.

We actually are watching the bachelorette tonight in the Graham household. Scrap it. Watch Chef instead. We can't movie. John Favreau's excellent. I love you, man.

Thanks for the time. I'll talk to you next week. Looking at some non Carolina Panthers cuts on cut day. Bradley Roby cut by the new Orleans saints.

That might be the biggest shocker in the NFC South. Meanwhile, we just learned in the last five minutes who the last three cuts on the Carolina Panthers were offensive lineman Cam Irving, corner Greg Maben, defensive tackle Taylor Stallworth, which means the Panthers, as of right now, plan to have five tight ends on their roster when they open up against the Falcons. It was a saying when the Panthers picked up Frank Reich and hired Frank Reich. Oh, he likes his tight ends, which is good because Matt rule didn't and Carolina didn't have a tight end. Catch more than 30 balls and Matt rules three seasons. Frank Reich, he likes his tight ends. Didn't think he liked them that much. Five tight ends, making the 53 man roster for the Carolina Panthers.

WD's movie this week. I wish Johnny Utah would have made the cut. Can't though with the knee injuries and such. Apparently, his knee went backwards.

It required two years of surgery. He didn't do it any favors in this movie either. Do we add Johnny Utah to the list of Ohio State quarterbacks who didn't turn out?

I think you have to. With Fields. Oh, wait.

Fields is actually pretty good. We're not going to do that. I'm not going to do that to Dwayne Haskins either. I'll leave that to Cowherd.

I'm trying to think. Arch Leister, Troy Smith, like Cardale Jones, the Ohio State quarterback thing. Did it start with Art or did it start with number nine, Johnny Utah, who was all conference?

Weird thing to say. At that point, you could have just made him anything like Heisman Trophy winner. All conference. Why do these surfer dudes in California knew who was all conference at the Big Ten from a few years before that? They knew about that Rose Bowl though. But that makes sense.

They beat USC in that Rose Bowl and they're probably California beach bums. That part makes sense. Let's get into a movie that W.D. watched for the first time earlier today.

Point Break. Unless you're talking about Star Wars. Obi Wan has taught you well. Movies aren't exactly Will's thing. I don't get it.

You want cocks at swine? But that's about to change because Josh can't stand it anymore. This is At The Movies with Will Dalton. What you liked, what you didn't like, best quote and a Rotten Tomatoes score.

We'll see if W.D. can get within five of the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. What did you like about Point Break? It wasn't a typical bank robbery movie. It was like bank robbery, but surfer dude movie. I couldn't figure out when Keanu Reeves character was going to finally reveal to the surfer guys who were the bank robbers like, hey, I know what you're doing and like how he was going to reveal that. And then like towards the end when the shootouts happen and they go up in the plane, like I didn't know where this was going. What you're describing is, this was supposed to be a dumb action movie. That wasn't. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger or one of these others Stallone did in the 80s that you would rewatch again, but you would agree this is really dumb and doesn't make sense. This was a smart, dumb action movie. Yeah, that's what it was. And that's what happens when you have a great director like Catherine Bigelow went on to do a lot of great things. Everything kind of makes sense. Like you can nitpick and say, oh, you can't actually jump off out of a plane without a parachute and pull that off. Finding Bodhi played by Patrick Swayze. You can't actually do that, but then Mythbusters actually had an episode and said, yeah, that actually checks out.

You can do that. Whoa, how about that? And Keanu Reeves character, you kind of buy it. I mean, John McGinley's line of young, dumb and well, you kind of know the rest of it. It kind of makes sense that that kind of guy would jump out of a plane and they flip the old cop with the young cop type of dynamic between the two, where it's the young cop teaching the old cop a thing or two. So this kind of did flip a lot of ideas on their head. So much of it actually made sense. It's like, oh yeah, well, why couldn't he catch him? His knee went out. Oh, Ohio State.

It was a two year injury. There was a lot of detail put into the details. A lot of effort put into the details. So I'm with you. It's a smart, dumb action movie. What didn't you like? When Gary Busey's character died, man, that was a blow. I hated seeing that because he was such a cool cop. Like he was with him. He was on his side and it had it had to be a shotgun.

Like there ain't there's no coming back from that. It's a cool guy. Gary Busey, not it's a cool character. Gary Busey, not the coolest guy.

If you want to get into some of that, it's all bad. You didn't know who Gary Busey was until today. You just told me Gary Bussey. I'm like, you clearly don't remember him in the firm, which we made you watch about a month ago where he was the the attorney that was killed in the office while Holly Hunter was underneath the desk in that movie. That's what I remembered him from.

Yeah. I was like, who is that? I'll tell you what I didn't like upon rewatching this last night. Laura Petty, Lori Petty. She's supposed to be the sex appeal of this movie. And she didn't do it for me. She's androgynous. Like that's a very 90s thing with the short haircut and the entire thing. She it's very androgynous.

It was an androgynous time. And also, it doesn't help that the first movie I think of when I think of Lori Petty is A League of Their Own. And I'm sorry, but when I'm watching this character and all I can think about is Kit from A League of Their Own, it's not really accomplishing what you hoped it would set out to do.

What are you laughing at? My favorite quote. OK, what is the best quote from Point Break? It was such a laugh out loud moment when that whole scene with the fight and then they were like fighting right in front of the lawnmower. Oh, yeah. And he put his face.

I mean, Gary Busey shooting the lawnmower. Well, and that's the thing. So he does that. And then he comes up on him with the gun. Speak into the microphone. Squidward.

Really? It's not even best line. It's best line reading from this movie because this is not the best line you can come up with. But the way Keanu Reeves read it, I am an FBI agent.

You got to go down, man. There's so many where I just laugh at the reading. And then, of course, if we're going to talk Gary Busey, it has to be him popping his head out of the driver's seat of a car and putting up two fingers to say, Utah, give me two. Give me two, Utah. Give me two of those meatball subs. Give me two, Utah.

Give me two. Yeah. Probably what I didn't like is how bad of cops they were. Like Keanu Reeves didn't bust anybody. The Wire movie.

And he's throwing his badge into the water at the end. The worst. All right. Rotten Tomatoes score. Let's see if you can get it within five point break. Eighty six. Seventy nine.

Close. And that's been at the movies with the W.D. Let me check this poll that we have out there right now for the next movie that W.D. is going to watch. Varsity Blues, 10 Things I Hate About You, Zodiac or Equalizer.

Those are the four options. And right now, Varsity Blues commanding a lot of the vote. Did anybody have some thoughts on movies to you? No, it was they hung up on me.

Oh, that was very nice. That happens sometimes. Hey, talk sports, sports guy. If talking about Johnny Utah isn't talking sports, I don't know what is. Give me two. Yeah, give me two. Utah, Utah. Give me two.