Give It A 10! (9-7-23)

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast.

We are killing it online. Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons, 3 to 7 on WSJS. of the NFL season. Tomorrow night, less than 17 or so hours from now, Kansas City Chiefs are going to kick things off against the Detroit Lions.

It's a game you can listen to on WSJS as the start of our six game football weekend. But let's begin with college football here and the North Carolina Tar Heels. Because Tez Walker is practicing this week, ahead of North Carolina's game with App, that's the Tar Heels home opener, and also because Mac Brown has spoken so confidently about Tez's case over the last few weeks, Tez trying to obtain a waiver from the NCAA, there seems to be this perception that Tez's case is a slam dunk and almost a guarantee that he's going to get approved when he meets with compliance officers tomorrow. However, if you feel that way, you don't know the NCAA the way that I do. And digging into some new details that we now have, you should not expect that the NCAA is going to do right by Tez.

You shouldn't assume that they're going to do the right thing. Tomorrow's video conference with this independent committee should be viewed as a Hail Mary, not a certainty. Because, according to Inside Carolina's Greg Barnes, who's an excellent reporter and will be joining us on today's show, dozens of documents and correspondences have been exchanged between North Carolina and the NCAA for months.

This is not something that just appeared on the radar screen three or four weeks ago when we learned about it for the first time. Looking at the timeline, Tez Walker knew he would have to apply for a waiver in order to play immediately in Chapel Hill. He thought it would get approved easier because the new regulations tightening criteria for relief was passed a couple of days after he arrived on campus. So he thought he had an opportunity to be grandfathered in since now the NCAA says that the fact that the coaching staff was fired leading to your transfer will now not be something that they consider. He decided to transfer to North Carolina before that became the preference or became part of the criteria. He thought he'd get grandfathered in.

Doesn't look like that's going to be the case. He knew he had to apply for a waiver and he did that back in the winter. So he knew he had to apply for a waiver and he did that back in the winter. The first waiver was declined June 19th. The appeal to that denial was then denied on July the 5th. New information was provided to the waiver by North Carolina.

Greg Barnes was outlining that medical documents included sending to the being NCAA we would assume for mental health purposes. That was denied on August the 31st. So this should be viewed as a last resort. No more information is being allowed in.

No more new information is presented. This is strictly another set of eyeballs, another set of people looking at this case and they'll vote on whether or not it should be approved and majority will win. That's what this is going to look like tomorrow and it's not a good sign that North Carolina is already hinting at legal action. However, as Mac points out here, legal course of action would come from Tez Walker directly, not the University of North Carolina.

I don't know the answer. I know from what I understand, he can have legal recourse, but we can't the way I understand it. So I'm sure there's people looking into that, but I just got to hope that they do what's right. I mean, he's not like a double transfer. He didn't play at the first school. So that's different and we need to see it's different. I look up and I see guys that are in their fourth school plans and his situation is just different.

There's pressure being applied from almost every single corner of our culture. Obviously, this being a sports matter, you have the coaches weighing in in a public way like Mac is, but how about the governor of the state of North Carolina, Roy Cooper? He put out a statement a few weeks ago, or a letter, wanting Tez to be eligible.

Country music star Eric Church was wearing Tez's jersey on the sideline at the game on Saturday. Lawyers are recommending if you don't get your way, not only should you sue them, but you should just play. Even if you're not ruled against the NCAA, defy them. Test them. Say, we're going to play Tez anyway.

What are you going to do about it? This seems to be the NCAA's position though, right? I believe Tez should be eligible to play. I agree with Mac Brown that this is different, but this seems to be the NCAA's counter to that. His time at North Carolina Central, which Mac noted he didn't play at, so it shouldn't count as his first school. Remember, the one-time transfer allows for you to be eligible immediately, but the second one means you would have to sit out a year before being eligible to play.

That's really at the core of this. The NCAA says that time at North Carolina Central counts because he didn't transfer until May of 2021, which means he spent the entire spring with the Eagles and seemed to be intent on playing, then transfers to Kent State, and then a few years later, here he is transferring to Chapel Hill, and the NCAA, based on Greg's reporting again, also seems to indicate that the timeline of him transferring to the Tar Heels aren't consistent with someone needing the transfer waiver for hardship purposes, whether that be being close to his grandmother or his mental health. It doesn't seem the NCAA believes it's that dire of a situation where they need to make him eligible to play right away. That's the position of the NCAA. You should expect that Tez Walker is not going to be approved by the NCAA here. That should be your expectation, even though North Carolina is preparing as if they're going to have him. He's been practicing all week. On Twitter, at WSJS Radio, if you want in.

That's why we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch. DJ Turner is the producer of today's show. DJ, what's your excitement level for Chiefs Lions tomorrow night? I'm pretty stoked about it. I want to see Dan Campbell do well. Fire it up. I want him to fire it up, and I would like to see a real barn burner of a game. Okay, we'll see if that's what we get. I don't expect it.

I don't know. No Chris Jones. We'll see about Travis Kelce.

A lot of interesting things regarding tomorrow night. We have some very good news on the Brian Burns front today. Brian Burns, listed as a full participant at Panthers practice today. We saw the video and the pictures of him in full pads.

After missing two practices, he seems to be a full go. And perhaps related to that, Nick Bosa just signed the most lucrative contract a defensive player in the NFL has ever signed. It is a five-year 178 million dollar contract according to Adam Sheffner. 125 and a half of that, $1.77, is going to be guaranteed money. It's a $170 million dollar deal.

I beg your pardon, but $122.5 million of it is guaranteed. Why does that matter for Brian Burns? The Panthers have been incentivized to want to get this thing done for months. They turned down two first round picks that the Rams wanted to send them before the trade deadline last year.

So they want to keep Burns around long term, and for good reason. He's an elite rusher. That's a premium position.

It's hard to find guys like that. And because they traded away Christian McCaffrey and DJ Moore, they have one of the top five cap space. Nope, there aren't five teams in the league that have more cap space than the Carolina Panthers do.

So they have the financial means. They obviously value him a ton. It seems like to me on Burns' side, they were waiting for this domino to fall because an agent would tell Burns, hey, when a guy like Bosa resets the market, even if you don't get as much as Burns or part of me as Bosa gets, you're going to get more than what you would have gotten prior to Bosa resetting the market. So don't be surprised with Burns being on the practice field today as a full participant and Bosa signing that record deal. If something gets done pretty quickly, like before the Panthers face the Falcons on Sunday, between Carolina and Spider Burns. Ding ding boys, school's in session.

You're on the drive with Josh Graham. WD watched Varsity Blues for the first time today. He'll tell us what he thought of that American classic when he pops into the studio next hour. We need to start thinking about movies for him next week.

I'm thinking comedies. Perhaps we can get to that in a second because yesterday we delivered NFC predictions, division winners. We predicted teams that were going to make the playoffs. Now let's do the AFC. DJ Turner, give me my music. Let's fire this thing up.

Yeah. Let's go. NFL starts tomorrow. Here's what we got with the AFC. The two best divisions in the NFL are the AFC North and the AFC East, which makes both divisions hard to predict.

Starting with the East, I've bought into the New York Jets. Maybe it's because of hard knocks, but last year they were not a bad team. They were a good team with a bad quarterback.

And sometimes that could be enough to cost you. Now they have a historically good quarterback and a historically good defense potentially. When you look at the edge rushers that they have and the types of players that they were letting go, they had six legit dudes that are rushing. And on top of that, the way that they drafted the last few years, it's go time for the jets. Maurice Hall, Garrett Wilson, the dudes that they've drafted are going to turn into star players. You have a great defense. You have Aaron Rogers.

I don't know what else you're missing. That's where I'm going with the AFC East. In the AFC North, the Baltimore Ravens are the pick. There's going to be some turbulence with the Cincinnati Bengals this year. It's not going to be as smooth as we've seen the last couple of years, even though Joe Burrow just told Adam Schefter, quote, I'm ready to go. As if there was any doubt that Joe Burrow is going to be playing in the opener the last few weeks. The Ravens have a happy Lamar Jackson.

They have a new play caller for him. They have some fun toys to play with, including Zay Flowers. I forget, do you have that Boston College drop in front of you there? Because Zay Flowers, an ACC legend, a guy I pushed with the Blitnikov, and, of course, a Boston College eagle. So we need to give him some love there, DJ.

I think that's only something that's fair to Zay Flowers. They also added Odell Beckham Jr. this off season as well. So, you know, no small thing. The Chiefs, there we go. The Chiefs, they're my one seed in the AFC.

Oh, Graham, you're going chalk. I mean, not much else to say there. It's Kansas City and ho-hum. They're going to win 12 or 13 games, so I think that's going to be good enough to be the one seed. The Jaguars are the biggest slam dunk for a division winner, though. The AFC South could be as bad as the NFC South. The only reason I don't think it's as bad is I don't think there's a team in the South that's remotely as good as Jacksonville is, as Trevor Lawrence really comes into his own and Doug Peterson is a Super Bowl winning coach for a reason. And you still have a lot of talented players all over that roster.

An easy team to root for, an easy division to win, and Jacksonville does that. However, there have to be some considerations of teams to bump out. Every year, there are six or seven teams that flip that are playoff teams that then suddenly don't become playoff teams.

You got to change things up a little bit. We did that with the NFC with three new playoff teams, which means three teams that made the playoffs, not being a part of it this year. I've got three in the AFC too. Already told you about the Jets and the Baltimore Ravens. I think the Pittsburgh Steelers are going to get in this year. Kenny Pickett, another ACC legend. That defense, really good. T.J. Watt, healthy this time around.

Mike Tomlin, all that dude does is win, have winning seasons with Pittsburgh. And they were really hot down the stretch, like seven and two in their last nine. Cincinnati, the Miami Dolphins, the last two of my playoff teams, mostly because they just want to make DJ happy. Of course, they were really hot down the stretch, mostly because they just want to make DJ happy.

Of course, thank you. He's a Dolphins fan, so there you go. But this is the biggest surprise that I have. The Buffalo Bills will not be in the playoffs this year.

What? I think either Buffalo or Cincinnati will miss out this year. Buffalo, we started to see it last year, some of the carnage and contracts disallowing them from being able to keep key players. They're quietly starting to get old a little bit in some spots. And the Stefan Diggs thing, a bit concerning to Cincinnati.

There's some reasons to be concerned, too. But Cincinnati gets in. Buffalo doesn't. And that's mostly a product of just how good this conference is, where one, a very good team, maybe two very good teams potentially will get left out. So there you go. The seven teams that make the playoffs in the AFC.

The Jets, Ravens, Chiefs, Jags is division winners and the wildcards Steelers, Bengals and Dolphins. Those are our predictions. Now let's get to movie suggestions. I think we go comedy. Well, let's pick a movie from the 80s. Let's pick a movie from the 90s. Let's pick one from the 2000s. Let's pick one from the 2010s. I've texted W.D.

like a slew of movies, seeing if he's seen any of these, and he's seen none of them. In the 80s, Beverly Hills Cop or Big? I'll lean on you, DJ. Which of these two movies you like more between Cop and Big? There's so many things that you can talk about back then versus today with Big. You want to do Big? Yes. Okay, so Big will be one of the four choices.

The 90s. He hasn't seen Austin Powers. Any of the Austin Powers movies, he hasn't seen Tommy Boy. Doesn't know what that is.

I'm leaning Austin Powers, but I can be convinced if you like Tommy Boy more. Nope. Yeah, let's go with that one. ShaggyVicious. Hey. Hello, baby. Oh, yeah. Okay, we'll stop that. Molly, Molly, Molly.

2000s. Forgetting Sarah Marshall or Superbad? I'm going to be forceful on this one, DJ.

I'm going to say Forgetting Sarah Marshall, just because that's among my favorite movies ever. I've heard you two whining and crying about that. You don't like it. It's okay.

That's it. Superbad. That one means a lot to me, though.

I can tell. I need Forgetting Sarah Marshall to finally win. I watched him literally almost cry. I really want to watch this movie. 2010s. This is the end of Bridesmaids.

Those are two of the best comedies of the 2010s, which is more an indictment on the 2010s than it is a compliment of these movies. This is the end. It might be the end of comedy. There hasn't been anything good since then. You think so? Yeah. I mean, there's Neighbors that came out that year and then nothing.

Nothing. You can't really joke about things anymore. Bridesmaids is a good movie all the way around. Bridesmaids? Yeah. Okay. We'll throw Bridesmaids in there at the very end.

So there you have it. Those are four movies that WD hasn't seen from four different decades, and you can vote on Twitter at Josh Graham Show and at WSJS Radio and pick which one he should watch. The original Austin Powers.

We're talking about International Man of Mystery. Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Bridesmaids. Those are the four options. Vote in the next minute or so at WSJS Radio at Josh Graham Radio. What are you laughing at? At?

Or it's Josh Graham Show on Twitter now. Right. Yeah. Got to let the people know. At. At me. In this case, do.

Do. Unless you're throwing new movie suggestions out there. I don't want to hear those right now. We got our four. Just vote on which of the four that you want me to make WD watch.

Welcome back. The executive producer of this show who is not producing this show today. That's because DJ Turner is in his stead. It's Will Dalton.

It is. Who just got finished watching Varsity Blues for the first time. That was his movie for this week. If you'd like to vote for his movie next week, among all the comedies that we've put out there, you can vote on our poll at Josh Graham Show or at WSJS Radio WD. I want to save the conversation for the actual bit itself.

So let's just dive right into it. Varsity Blues 1999 at the movies with the WD. To ask DJ, have you even seen Varsity Blues?

I have. Okay. So 1999, an MTV movie.

Yes. A flawed movie. But a lot of things that are good. A lot of things that are bad.

Let's start with the good. What did you like about Varsity Blues? I mean, I got to tell you, I had several things I liked about this movie. I think there was a particular scene involving Allie Lauder and whipped cream or something like that. The most iconic. Yeah. The whipped cream bikini is the most iconic scene from this movie.

This is pre-legally blonde Allie Lauder. Throw in a hundred. Uh-huh. And hundred and two. A hundred and two.

Okay. Like Fujinami yesterday for the Orioles closing things out. A hundred and two. But other than the obvious one, the other thing I liked about this is it very much reminded me of my JUCO baseball days, just because everything is so unhinged. Now I get it, this is high school football. Was there a Billy Bob on your JUCO baseball team? Is that true?

I mean, there were versions of Billy Bobs throughout some of those days. At a gentleman's club the night before a game until dawn? Yes. Coming into the game hungover.

Yes. So like, yeah, I mean, that's how good was your JUCO baseball team? It was fine. It was solid, but like a lot of JUCO teams kind of have those. It's like I said, that's why I remind me to ask Darren Vaught about it. He'll tell you, it can be a little unhinged with JUCO ball sometimes.

I just might do that. So that's what you liked about this. It reminded you of your JUCO baseball days. And the accuracy of like the parent rivalries with the dads and the beer can challenge.

It is true. Like the signs that they put out in front. Like when I lived in Texas for a while, parents did have those signs in their yard.

It didn't look like it wasn't the size of an actual billboard, but they had those signs in their yard. The thing I liked the most about this, cause I rewatched it again yesterday, the football. Paul Walker created the no huddle offense. Sorry, Mississippi Valley State, but this is how history works. Paul Walker with his injured knee and all, he created the no huddle offense to lead the crew back in the second half of that game. They deserve credit for that. What was it? West Canaan?

West Canaan was led back and they created the no huddle off. It's also the NFL didn't acknowledge the dangers of head injuries until like 2007 or 2008. This movie came out in 1999. So Varsity Blues, very forward thinking in that regard, depicting some things that were to come foreshadowing, if you will.

Pain meds and whatnot. Which is a good transition to what we didn't like about this movie. What didn't you like? There's two glaring things here.

The fact that there's a teacher in a high school allegedly in a small town that people don't know works at a strip club. No, that actually wasn't on the list. Okay. That does. Okay. That checks out for you completely. Don't tell anybody.

I'm just gonna tell the entire team and no one's gonna squeal on that. And everyone in this small town does not know that there's a teacher that works at a gentleman's club. Well, the internet wasn't, it wasn't around there. No, it's true, but it's a small town. Everybody knows everything about everybody except, oh, there might be a teacher teaching sex ed that also happens. And why, I mean, Moxon even points out, why is she driving a car that's that nice on a teacher's salary?

I mean, he's a, he's a high schooler. No one can figure that one out. Okay. So as much as I like the whipped cream sundae, whatever it's called, Darcy's the worst. Is she? Yeah. She was with Paul Walker's, Paul Walker's, Walker's character.

Yeah. And then the second he gets hurt, she goes after Mox because she was literally the second like they're in the hospital when she's already, but she's honest though. She's telling you the worst. She's just worried about, it's not about love.

She says she's worried about her future. She was, she was ready to join soon to be ACC legend, whatever his name is, Paul Walker's character. Yeah. He, she was ready to go to Tallahassee. Lance. Yeah. Lance Harbor.

Soon to be ACC legend Lance Harbor. She was ready. She was ready.

And she was honest about it. You know, I said what I liked the most was football with this movie. What I didn't like the most also football. Billy Bob didn't like football. Bob didn't report himself as eligible on that play, which he even acknowledged in practice. He said, I'm not an eligible receiver on this play.

They even acknowledge it. Also in that spot, seven seconds left, you're down three, kick the field goal. You already have extra points on the board. It's like an extra point length kick, kick the field goal.

Maybe if they had a coach on the sideline for the second half, they probably would have kicked, uh, kicked a field goal that would have made more sense. Okay. Best quote.

Come on. I gave it a 10. I give it a 10.

Ali Larter had some bangers too. I know what the worst quote of this movie is. Terrible Southern accent, the entire movie for Vanderbeek. I don't want your laugh. Pretty bad.

I don't want your laugh. Rotten tomatoes score. Let me varsity blues. Can you get within five? Let me try an 89 varsity blues comes in at 76. DJ even knew that's really high. That was really high.

76. I'm usually better at that. It's a very flawed movie. By the way, coach Kilmer. I mean, there's a line that wide receiver's not any good.

Like you're talking about tweeter. Okay. He's tough. She broke my heart. So I broke her jaw stealing, stealing a cop car. Pretty bad. Pretty bad. Good.

Tough guy stealing cop cars and punching women in the, in, in, in the nose or in the jaw. Give me the 10. And that's been and that's been at the movies with the WD DJ. There you have it. We did it.

We did. Yep. Varsity blues. You can vote on this poll in terms of comedies for next week that WD is going to vote on. I would ask WD's opinion, but I don't want it.

This is not like I want to see forgetting Sarah Marshall. Okay. We've talked about probably would be my vote too. This is its third time on a poll. Just throwing it out there.

That probably would be my vote too, but I don't want to sanitate or sanitize. Yep. Okay. You've watched a lot of football movies now. Yeah.

The program seen at the table. Yep. Remember the Titans. Any given Sunday. It's not a football movie, but there's a football scene on the beach where you watch point break a week or two ago.

Now you've watched this. So when you think movie quarterback, I'm going to put together my list, later in the show, I will reveal my five best movie quarterbacks, but who's at the top of WD's list movie quarterbacks. You have Ronnie Bass to choose from. You have Moxon or Lance Harbor in this movie. You got Dennis Quaid in Any Given Sunday, whose name I forget.

I think it might've been Cap. And you have Steven Willie Beeman. That's my probably top one. Ronnie Bass though, man. Lefty, Sunshine.

Sunshine. He's got a chooch. Can we forget about Joe Kane, the quarterback who had some beer drinking problems, but helped lead the program. Everybody remembers Omar Epps, but that guy slinging it.

I think Steven Willie Beeman takes the one from him. Flash Gordon saved the world. And he was the Jets quarterback, right?

Front cover of I think Newsweek or of Forbes. Saved the world, man. These are quarterbacks.

Paul Crewe, old Paul Crewe, new Paul Crewe. I'm just limiting it now to the movies that you've probably seen. Yeah.

These are all going over my head. We have made you seen this movie. Okay. Get out of here so we can continue getting to more important things than Varsity Blues. Goodbye. I don't know if there's anything more important to that.

Probably not. See it at the day. Oh, wait.

Wrong movie. 10. Give it a 10. There you go. Give it a 10. That's what I give this segment. All right.

I think all the levels are set. Show time. Now you're on the drive with Josh Graham. Fred Barnes from Inside Carolina will join us 15 minutes from now to tell us about some of the documents he's uncovered reporting on the Tess Walker story.

We should know by about this time tomorrow whether Tess Walker will be eligible for Saturday or eligible at any point this year for North Carolina football. I've worked very hard on this list I have here. This list matters to me. I've been working on it for about 45 minutes since WD was in studio telling us about Varsity Blues, which he watched for the first time. I have my five best movie quarterbacks of all time.

Let's start the list with Number five. Joe Cain, the program. Omar Epps gets a lot of attention for how capable of a running back he is. He's probably the world championship belt holder for sports movie actors. It's Omar Epps.

It's Kevin Costner. It's Adam Sandler, who's at the very top of the list for sports movies. Joe Cain, he was the one being projected as a Heisman winner until things went south and he had the alcohol issue and there's the seam on the train tracks you might have remembered but he bounced back and he helped lead ETSU or ESU to a bowl win at the end of that season. So we like to think he got things back on the track as he might not have won the Heisman trophy but he was going to be a high draft pick so Joe Cain's number five on the list.

Number four. We're going with Luke Harbor, not Jon Moxon. Jon Moxon, he defied his coach even if that coach was essentially a Nazi and Jon Voight in varsity blues. He was reading a book on the sideline rather than helping his teammates. I don't believe his heart's in it. You can't coach that. He has great ability.

When he's sitting down and he throws the ball to the referee standing at midfield, great god-given ability but his heart's not really in it. I believe Luke Harbor's heart in it and there's a reason why Florida State was recruiting him. Guy was set to be an ACC legend and on top of that his understanding of the offense when Jon Voight had the mutiny led against him he just is able to step in as a high school senior and coach a team and essentially create the spread offense with empty set.

That's what he did. The no huddle offense. Luke Harbor created that before Peyton Manning made that the most popular thing in the 2000s so yes he had a significant injury in which the way that they described it he hurt every ligament he had in his knee but with modern medicine you could bring that back and he's got a great understanding of the game and there's a reason why he was starting over Jon Moxon.

Number three. Steven Willie Beeman. Ahead of his time you might say Josh wasn't he a backup though to Dennis Quaid?

You didn't you'd knock you know Jon Moxon why aren't you knocking him? I don't think Al Pacino in the movie Al Pacino was framed as being this old school Lombardi type coach so of course he didn't want the running quarterback in 1999. Michael Vick had not become a huge thing yet in today's football. Give me Steven Willie Beeman and the way he's able to run it. The reason he's number three though is because he's probably not a good teammate. Probably not a good teammate and probably not like listening to coaches the way that you want to. You need somebody who's on the same page as the rest of his teammates and it didn't seem like everybody loved Steven Willen Beeman and it didn't seem like he was the best guy to coach either the most coachable guy but in terms of for all talent you've got to have them in your top three.

Number two. This might surprise you I got Johnny Utah number two from point break. Johnny Utah it was described that before he hurt his knee he was all conference and in the Rose Bowl beat USC which tells me they won the Big Ten and they won the Rose Bowl. Like Shane Falco also played by Keanu Reeves in the Replacements it said that he played in the Sugar Bowl and lost. If you're playing in the Sugar Bowl that means you didn't win the Big Ten. Johnny Utah won the Big Ten. He was all conference.

Yeah the coolest name too. Johnny Utah. That's what we're saying so Johnny Utah and the way he could tackle somebody on the beach chasing down Swayze.

Gosh great great mobile ability post injury just impressive stuff. I mean the guy was an FBI agent. Johnny Utah number two. Number one. The number one quarterback. This is going to be controversial.

Shuntzine Ronnie Bass is number one on the list and here's why. That movie is set in 1972. You're telling me that a quarterback with that type of mobility and the chooch he has as a lefty throwing the ball downfield and able to hit Denzel Washington in the head or Gary Bertier or whoever it was in the head all the way across the practice field. In 1972 you're telling me that a quarterback with that type of mobility and the chooch he has as a lefty throwing the ball downfield and able to hit Denzel Washington in the head all the way across the practice field. In 1972, I hate it when we don't compare generations the right way. We're talking about like oh man Andre Drummond would be just as good as Bill Russell in 1962.

Guess what? He didn't play in that time. Look at the type of shoe wear that Bill Russell's playing with. You got to the type of ability for Ronnie Bass. That's the best quarterback I've ever seen in a movie.

Plain and simple. He's got the hair. He's got the look. That's the guy that you want.

Shuntzine Ronnie Bass. That guy was going to be Joe Namath except he can run. So he's my number one quarterback in a sports movie. If you have issues with the list, 336-777-1600.

Don't at me though. That's the list. Let's hear from Wake Forest coach Dave Clausen. Honorable mention, Flash Gordon saved the world as the Jets quarterback. Made it to the NFL. He wasn't on the list either so really hard. Really hard to crack the list. Who was the quarterback in North Dallas 40?

I don't remember. Wake Forest is feeling the effects of the new age of college football. Probably more than any team in the state of North Carolina because Dave Clausen's offenses are known to run a lot of plays. So with the new clock, the clock moving after first downs aside for the final two minutes of halves, it narrowed down the types of the number of plays Wake was able to run against Elon.

They were at 66 on offense when usually they're around 75 to 80. So predictably Dave Clausen was not a fan of these rules. Yeah it stinks. Yeah it's like everything now is done for the TV show. So it's a TV show. You know it's just the hypocrisy of this of saying it's for player safety and then they you know throw on more games. I mean it's again it is what it is but we have the same number of players who practice the same amount of time and then they get to play less.

So not a fan of it but my vote doesn't count. Another way Wake Forest is being affected by television. 11 a.m. kick for Wake Vandy on Saturday. 11 in a three-hour window.

Here's why. And you know it's part of the reason why we're playing an 11 o'clock game because they want to broadcast four games this week. But again we're we benefit from our media rights quite a bit. It pays for a lot of our bills. The ACC network gives us revenue that we're able to do things for our players for. Get ready.

This might be the future. I was Clausen speaking about obviously the 11 a.m. kick. 11 a.m. 2 30 6 o'clock. Maybe a 9 30 p.m. kick might be coming for players on the east coast. In basketball they start at 9 o'clock why not 9 30?

You watch. They don't really ever roll it back. They only just keep steamrolling further and what's funny is games should be shorter right? Why aren't the games shorter? Well because while the game you're getting less action you might have noticed they plugged in some more commercials in the place that's been left at this game. So the games still last three and a half hours but there's less game time that we're seeing.

Not a coincidence. Greg Barnes he had access to documents exchanged between the NCAA and North Carolina related to Tez Walker. That crack reporter from inside Carolina is one of the best out there and he's going to join us to talk about what he's learned next. Greg Barnes of inside Carolina. One of the best reporters we have especially when he's given the space and the means to and the time to write investigative pieces such as understanding Tez Walker's eligibility case in the NCAA process on inside Carolina.

It's a free story if you'd like to explore that and don't have a 24 7 uh subscribership or subscription is probably the better word there. Greg Barnes let's get into what exactly you've uncovered. You have had access to some of the documents that the NCAA has received from North Carolina and perhaps some of the stuff that North Carolina's heard back. How would you frame Tez Walker's chances of approval tomorrow as he gets set for the video conference and how might that be juxtaposed versus the perception that's out there about what Tez is facing?

Yeah that's a good question Josh. I think everybody's a little bit apprehensive going into the meeting tomorrow primarily because they've already been told no four times. His initial waiver was denied, his appeal was denied, and then two staff reconsiderations when they brought new information both of those were also denied. So UNC and Tez Walker and his group believe that having an opportunity finally to kind of be face-to-face with the committee and this is kind of virtual because the first time he's actually been able to talk to them that will provide some humanity to the situation and it will allow him to address any questions they may have. I think everybody remembers back to August 8th which is when North Carolina really went on their PR blitz and saying hey this is what's going on we don't think it's fair to Tez and at that point he'd already been denied twice and so there was kind of a positive spin put on it then that they felt good about his opportunities and his chances and while when you look at the case matter he should have a good chance but just seeing how the NCAA has done and how the NCAA has voted thus far I think there's some hesitancy and and how things will play out tomorrow. There was the PR blitz initially that has then become like a blitz from all corners of culture politically Roy Cooper sending a letter to the NCAA and Governor Cooper the new or the Governor Baker the NCAA president and you have you know ESPN, Reese Davis on college game day during the broadcast in prime time last Saturday night lambasting the NCAA and of course Eric Church wearing Tez Walker's jersey they're kind of getting it from all corners obviously from legal perspectives as well where some are just saying defy the NCAA and play them even if they don't make them eligible.

What was the most noteworthy thing that you found you learned personally by having access to some of these documents? Well the number one thing is when the NCAA they changed the guidelines for multi-year transfers on January 11th Tez enrolled on January 9th so after he enrolled some of these rules changed and one of the new guidelines was very specific to physical and or mental health. So when you look at those guidelines they are extensive you've got to have documentation you're from your previous school you've got to have documentation from a licensed medical professional you've got to have a medical plan in place there's all these benchmarks that have to occur I mean has even submitted his grandmother's medical charts so they could say okay well he's not just making this up about his grandmother being in poor health he provided all of those things and yet the NCAA said yeah we saw that we don't think that's enough to warrant immediate eligibility and and to me that really goes to what we've dealt with with NCAA for a long time of kind of operating outside of their lane. It's one thing to say look we need to see this list of requirements to satisfy a mental health waiver. Well Tez did all those things and they looked at all that information he provided and said well that's still not enough you know who's the NCAA to be able to make any kind of decision on somebody's mental health and I think that was the most alarming thing that I saw.

Greg Barnes with us from Inside Carolina support work like his read the stuff that he puts out like understanding Tez Walker's eligibility case and the NCAA process inside carolina.com. So do you find that both tomorrow and documents you've read over the last few months in North Carolina's approach that the argument is more geared towards hardship talking about mental health like you were describing there more than the North Carolina Central case trying to debate whether or not his year his first school should count because he never played? Well I think it's threefold and I think the primary thing and this is because the NCAA has stated you know ever since they started making some of these rule changes with the transfer portal name image and likeness it's all about trying to figure out what's best for the student-athlete and because of that mental health is number one on the list. But to your point there's two other aspects one I already mentioned is the fact that when he entered the transfer portal in December and he talked to UNC about transferring to Chapel Hill there was an understanding that hey we have several pathways here for you to gain immediate eligibility for next year. He enrolls on January 9th, two days later the guidelines change that's you know that's the second thing besides mental health. That's retroactively changing things and applying it to kids who thought otherwise.

That's not how you go about doing those types of things. Then the other aspect as you mentioned is North Carolina Central and for those who may not understand North Carolina Central canceled their 2020 fall season decided to hold the season in the spring that ultimately was canceled. So Tez Walker was there for two semesters expecting the play, never did. He did go through spring practice and as soon as spring practice was over with he expressed in his initial written letter to the NCAA back in February that there was concern that Central may not have a full fall football season in 2021 and because of that he thought it was in his best interest to go ahead and transfer and he did to Kent State and what the NCAA has said is that because he practiced during the spring that forces the one-time transfer exception for Tez. That means his free year of eligibility was at Kent State and he couldn't use it for Carolina and what they also said is that his situation at North Carolina Central was not unique and I think the issue there is when you look at historically black colleges and universities and kind of what they went through with COVID that's a different ball game than the Alabamas and Georges of the world right especially financially and so to say it's not unique I think it's kind of missing the big picture of what's going on across the college landscape not just in sports but just overall. So all three of those are points that UNC and Tez Walker will try to argue tomorrow. Greg Barnes, I know you to be so even-handed when it comes to things and how you report stuff. It sounds like that every argument that you could argue against Tez Walker can be dressed down the way that you're dressing it down right now.

Is there anything though that I'm missing? Any point that the NCAA might have a contention that you buy? Well I think the the NCAA kind of what they have said is the fact that he expressed concern that his head coach was going to be leaving Kent State and then he entered the portal after that. His head coach decided to leave on August 8th. Tez Walker entered the next day and so what the NCAA has actually said is that the chronology of events speak to an athletic purpose for his transfer not a mental health purpose and that's what UNC and Tez Walker are going to have to explain more in depth and the way that they are going to frame it is hey he went to North Carolina Central which is only you know two hours from his home in Charlotte two hours from the support system. He left because he had concerns about the 2021 season being played.

He went to Kent State realized that he's way too far from home and therefore that's why he came back to play in the state of North Carolina. That's how they're going to approach it but the NCAA when you look at it just in terms of you know what exactly played out there are areas where you can say wait a minute is he actually doing this for a competitive advantage or is this really mental health and so those are just some of the stumbling blocks that they'll have to address tomorrow but those are also the reasons that the NCAA has kind of voted down his efforts dating back to June. Given how public this has all become, do you think that helps or hurts Tez Walker's case when you're talking about the NCAA who the purpose of doing all of this is wanting to tighten up what you noted at the top how loose things got with the one-time transfer and out of control things seem to have gotten with the portal? I guess a better way to ask it more pointedly is this do you think the NCAA is looking at this as an opportunity to make an example of Tez Walker and calm things down on the portal front? Yeah I don't think they expected Mac Brown to pull all of his strings so she's got a bunch of them with his five years at ESPN and as you laid out earlier I think it's been very effective. Now we know that in the past the NCAA has been swayed a little bit by PR. Will that play a role tomorrow? We don't know because I think the key distinction here is the NCAA staff, the ones actually employed by the NCAA in Indianapolis, they were part of the decision to deny Tez Walker a couple times.

Not every time though. You have a lot of these committees like the one that Tez will meet with tomorrow that are not NCAA staff. I mean the seven people he's going to talk to tomorrow all have roles at various universities in either compliance or the athletic department across the country so they are not NCAA staff. So it's a little a little bit different in terms of who he's going to be talking to but maybe that brings a little bit more of that humanity in play but it really comes down to what are you trying to do for student athletes? Like are you trying to enable them to have better opportunities? Not to completely sidetrack this whole conversation Josh but I have been adamant for from day one with the transfer portal let the kids transfer as many times as they won't let them play and the NCAA in August 2022 seriously considered letting kids do that. Graduate transfers can do that. They can transfer as many times as they want and play immediately but because the NCAA got a lot of pushback from its member institutions in other words from coaching staffs that did not want kids to be able to transfer more than once we're in this situation where you're having to check all these boxes just let the kids do what they want to do.

I don't understand why that's such a hard thing to accept and to allow at this point in time. Greg Barnes read his stuff inside Carolina it is fantastic reporting per usual from Greg. Let's close things on a on a high note here our producer Will has seen none of the good movies none of them and so every week we give him a new movie to watch and the four that we have it narrowed down to for him to watch next week are the following comedies Big the Tom Hanks movie from the 80s Austin Powers Forgetting Sarah Marshall and we're talking about the original Austin Powers International Man of Mystery Forgetting Sarah Marshall or Bridesmaids which of those movies stand out to Greg Barnes most? I think Forgetting Sarah Marshall's got to be top list. I think I'm with you man like I just got a text from Darren Vaught saying it's got to be Forgetting Sarah Marshall and I'm right there with you. Greg Barnes you and I we're aligned how about that 15 minutes of conversation of a couple guys who just agree on a lot of things I hope to see you sometime soon and it was good to read some of your work. All right well I appreciate it. Thanks Josh. There we go that's Greg Barnes inside Carolina.