Mr. Johnson

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast. Three internet sensations, guys! Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons, 3 to 7 on WSJS.

You are on a Thursday Drive. It is WSJS NewsTalk Sports for the Triad. We've got some NFL on tonight, so we'll get to that game in just a bit. Also, we've got a hardy eight on the card this week. The handout and Graham's gambling. Show me that cash out, fam! Make sure you're around for that. Haven't had a losing week so far this season through three weeks.

And who knows? That hardy eight might include the game of the week in our state, which takes place in Boone Saturday afternoon. The App State, East Carolina game is emblematic of the unique sports scene we enjoy in the state of North Carolina.

In other words, many of the things that are great about our state are also great about this series. These two schools represent two sides of North Carolina. Two North Carolinas, if you will. You have mountains and beaches. Eastern North Carolina, close to the water, and then up on the mountain. Grandfather, Black Mountain, Boone, that whole deal. It's two different types of North Carolina.

Which do you prefer? They're both the old North state. And even though they might seem diametrically opposed to each other or different, App State and North, App State and East Carolina are still so similar too. These two schools, even though one's on one side of the state, the other's in another part, and the topography is really different, they're still very similar, as ECU coach Mike Houston spelled out during his press conference this week.

I think these games are great. I wish that we could somehow figure out for all the FBS teams in the state of North Carolina to play. I think the two schools are very similar in that, you know, Appalachian State and East Carolina are both football schools with passionate fan bases. Their traditions may be a little different as far as the conferences and stuff we've been associated with over the year, but both have had a lot of success in their respective situations. So you have two schools, I think it makes sense for us to play. I know that Sean and I have talked about it. I don't know how much say he and I have in it, but we both think it's a good matchup. I think the more you square off against each other, I think it could become a pretty good rivalry. But just think about this. App State, East Carolina is the biggest football game in our state this weekend.

That might sound completely normal to you. But if you are an outsider, if you're not from North Carolina, that might sound crazy. We have not one, not two, not three, but four ACC teams in the state of North Carolina.

Four power fives. And all of them are playing this week, yet it's a matchup between two group of fives who don't really have a long history of playing each other, who are not in the same conference. Those two schools meeting is the biggest game that we have. And don't give me North Carolina, Minnesota. Go on StubHub and you can see how different the demand is for North Carolina, Minnesota, and App State ECU. They're adding seating in Boone just to accommodate it and everywhere I go. 100 a pop to get in, 150 a pop to get in.

You can get into Minnesota, North Carolina for 20 bucks if you want to. That won't stop them from calling it a sellout, but it won't be a legit sellout. App State, East Carolina is going to be legitimately sold out, and that's a sign of it being more important around here. That is the biggest game that we've got.

And that idea could be perplexing to someone on the outside. The state of North Carolina is a unique sports scene. I hear people say, oh, we need to get Major League Baseball in North Carolina.

I don't think the demand is there the same way that it is in Nashville or in Utah or in other places. Because as crazy as it might sound to an outsider, we have pedigree with our minor league baseball teams. There's a lot of history here, and we support those minor league teams. And you have all these colleges who have tremendous college baseball pedigree too. Wake Forest in recent memory, North Carolina with all the trips to Omaha, NC State baseball, East Carolina baseball. It's well supported, and people care about it. We just don't have the bandwidth, I think, to want baseball added to the mix, or not want it enough in order to compete with some of these other places that might vie for it.

We're different. College sports, that's the bedrock of what our sports scene is built on. Look at the states that have more people than the state of North Carolina does.

I think we're 9th, maybe 10th? If you look at the states that have more people, pro sports, that's the bedrock of most of those places, where all the people are at. This state has a ton of people, college sports matters so much, and it's not just the big boys that play in the power five, it's App State and ECU too. And as Mike Houston was spelling out, these two teams should play every single year.

Let's make it happen. There's so much history for both, and it's apart from each other, and neither are in a power conference, and that history still matters. Those national championships for App, the win at Michigan, the win in Texas A&M last year, the power five wins they almost got in recent memory. East Carolina had a similar identity in the 90s, knocking off Miami and tearing down NC State's goal posts. The Peach Bowl, finishing 9th in the country, going 11-1. In the last 10 years, Lincoln-Reilly calling plays, and ECU hanging 70 on North Carolina. It's rich football history that these two teams have. So other than NC State North Carolina, I think there is some terrain to be grabbed for the second best rivalry in this state, and given the passion that App State and East Carolina fans have, I think this could be the second best rivalry in the state if they would agree to play more regularly. If they would continue, this is the end of a three-game series.

Continuing that series into the future. This state, this game, is emblematic of our state's unique sports scene. On Twitter, at wsjsradio, if you want in, that's where we're streaming video, in addition to YouTube and Twitch, 336-777-1600. However, and wherever you are listening, we appreciate that, or watching. Well, Dalton, the executive producer of this show, W.D., have you finally purchased Amazon Prime in order to watch Thursday Night Football, in order to watch Vikings-Eagles tonight? Well... Come on, man.

I have not. Just purchase it and then write it off next year. You know what? That could be a tax write-off.

It is a tax write-off. Maybe I'll just do that with all my... Doing it in order to watch football. Maybe I'll do that with my cable bill. You produce a sports show. We talk about the NFL.

Just get a login, or better yet, listen to WSJS tonight, as we will be broadcasting it. Getting to that game, let me acknowledge on the front end of this that what I'm about to do goes against the rules of sports talk. This is bad sports talk. Let me just acknowledge that.

And here's what I mean. Eagles-Vikings is a giant mystery to me. I have no clue what's going to happen. And the sports talk handbook says that's no good. Pick a take, defend it to the death, even if you don't believe it. I can't do that.

This is my read. Something was off in Philly's win in New England. If you just look at the numbers, Mac Jones threw the ball 53 times. Philadelphia forced two turnovers. Philly's fresh off a Super Bowl trip.

New England? They rushed for only 75 yards. Yet Philly only won by five. And New England was in the red zone with the chance to win that game not once, but twice in the final five minutes.

That's a bit strange. Meanwhile, you might think, Josh, come on, the Vikings are going to Philly. The Vikings just lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That loss against Tampa could be a bit misleading. Minnesota should have won that game. They held Tampa to under 250 yards of offense. The Vikings beat themselves. You're talking about three turnovers of Kirk Cousins' pick, and I think Kirk Cousins fumbled it twice in the game. Fourteen rush attempts? That's it for Minnesota?

They could have very well won that game with all those bad things happening. I venture to say that's not going to happen for the second consecutive week, but then again, it's Thursday Night Football. You want to know what Thursday Night Football is? When you bake cookies and you see the directions and it says, cook it for 10 to 12 minutes, what do you generally do? How long do you keep it in your oven when you're putting break and bake cookies in your oven? 10 to 12 minutes. Okay, well, are you doing 10, 11, 12?

I'm doing 10. Thursday Night Football is like if you just take it out after eight minutes. That's what Thursday Night Football is. It's a little gooier, it's edible, tastes good. I mean, come on, it's still break and bake cookies. It's still a bunch of sugar and it's chocolate chips, but it's undercooked. It's gooey.

It's not as solid. That's Thursday Night Football. You can watch it. It's the NFL.

You know these guys. It's good. It's good entertainment, but it's lesser quality because it's a short week and you're cramming it in and there are more guys injured. The injury report is ugly for Philly. They're missing three starters. Fletcher Cox, by the way, not one of the three that are out.

Questionable to play for tonight's game. So my lean is, okay, I'm not gonna pick the game because I don't know. My lean is the Minnesota Vikings. Eagles, Vikings, a giant mystery tonight. Not picking it might be something we included Graham's gambling. It's not on my hearty eight. Maybe we can include it on nine.

I don't know. Vikings plus six and a half. Just giving that a quick look. It's The Drive with Josh Graham.

WSJS. Charlotte FC in action this weekend. We actually have two pairs of tickets to give away to this game and maybe a chance for you to win a pair of those tickets in just a little bit.

Will Pelagic joins us now, voice of Charlotte FC. And I know he's a real man because when he talks to adults, he's not wearing shades and a hat. And I respect that so much about you. Just a soccer T-shirt. That's that's about all I'll give you today.

I was so close to wearing a hoodie under a blazer with shades and a hat on today just because of Jay Norvell. You know, it's funny. It's funny you say that. I don't know if I told you we're going to Europe during the offseason.

And we've got tickets to one of Tottenham's games while I'm over there. And I unknowingly and unwittingly bought tickets in a very exclusive club level where the dress is smart, casual and like I want to support the team. But like they're very strict on the on the dress code. What is smart casual?

I don't know. Like, that's the thing. And like I think it was you can't wear trainers.

And I think trainers is the slang in British slang for for sneakers. And of course, it's in December. So it's like, you know, it's going to be cold. So like what what is smart casual when it's, you know, 40 degrees and bleak? You know, I have no idea what that means. So needless to say, I'm trying to find the best way to look smart casual.

But also, you know, as as David Putty once said, got to support the team. Smart casual, according. This is not something I'm directly reading from the Internet, just in case you're wondering, is an ambiguously defined Western dress code that is generally considered casual wear, but with smart components of proper lounge suit from traditional informal wear. I'm looking at pictures of this and yeah, like a long sleeve.

What you're telling me is I don't have it. No, I mean, like long sleeve flannel, like essentially just look at what Tom Brady's worn like to games over the last handful of years. And it's it's kind of that or like what Kirk Cousins wears on a regular basis. That's it's kind of what all these all these suits look like or yeah, like a long sleeve flannel will do or like the T-shirt where you have the button up denim. Do I look like somebody who's got flannel, Graham?

Yeah, look at that beard. You'd be great on a mountain. No, I'm going to the mountain this weekend.

I don't own any flannel. OK, so last week I need you for some optimism because I was pretty pessimistic about the Panthers going into last week. The worst fears were realized in a week one setting losing by two touchdowns. There are plenty of overreactions you're seeing across the league, even in Vegas where I mean, if the Browns played the Steelers in Pittsburgh a week ago, Pittsburgh's probably favored by three. The Browns are two point favorites on Monday night football going into Pittsburgh because of what San Francisco did when they went in there. What's the appropriate amount of stock to put into week one and specifically with the Panthers?

Well, I don't know if so much is the stock to be put in week one. The problem is that ever since then, the Panthers have gotten strings of bad news. There's the injury to Brady Richardson that has him out for the season.

He confirmed on his Instagram earlier today. There's the injury to J.C. Horn, which is going to have him out a significant period of time. And so as a result, it's not as if, you know, I take so much out of Sunday. It's knowing where Cheryl where Carolina's limitations are at those two positions. And one of the things that Frank Reich did during the preseason is that he really tried to figure out what he had in the backup part of this roster and the non top 22 part of this roster.

The unfortunate part we found is they don't really have a lot that you would like from a backup standpoint. So I do wonder what it's going to look like on the line, whether you move Zavala over to the left guard and have him next to his college teammate, Iki Iquanu, put Cade Mays or even Throckmorton on at the right guard. But again, there's a reason why those guys are swing guards and swing tackles and things of that nature. I do feel like Cade Mays could maybe do the job and at least give him something because he was very, very good in that fullback role last season. But he wasn't necessarily as strong during the preseason. And as for the cornerback position, I know they signed somebody off the Raider practice squad earlier today.

I don't know what you're expecting out of him, but it is going to be on Henderson, Hill and Jackson to try and supplant what you're not getting out of J.C. Horn once again being missing. Well, Pelagic with us here, voice of Charlotte FC. Charlotte FC can be listened to right here in the Triad on WSJS. We haven't heard a lot from Charlotte FC in a while.

Saturday will be the end of the two week layoff. How has Charlotte FC handled this layoff? What have they been up to?

Well, they look good. Two players have been in Europe. Both Karol Sviderski and Jera Ouranen both were in their international duties with their respective national teams. Sviderski with Poland and Ouranen with Finland. Ouranen played 76 minutes over the weekend in a match for them.

Also, Karol got an assist against the Faroe Islands, played in two contests. So they both come off with pretty good form. And I also feel like the entire team used the international break to really kind of get themselves form fit. I think that it's always difficult when you come off a good run of play and then you have to have a layoff of games. You always kind of wonder, you know, you want to be on the field next. But they've been very motivated. I saw them out of training yesterday.

And I have to tell you, they look silky smooth. And the one thing that's also encouraging is that everyone seems to be healthy. Like there's no one who I think in this contest is going to be impeded from playing on Saturday other than the guys who have long term injuries who we haven't expected back for a while. And that would be like Vinnie Melo and some other players of that nature. But outside of that, there's nobody from Charlotte's ledger that will be unavailable.

So that's difficult conversations and decisions for Christian LaTanzio. But I think the one thing also is it allows them to play that kind of form that they've seen over the course of the last three. They've had some of the best buildup that they've had of any point of the season.

And the unfortunate part about it is that they don't have the results in the last two to show for it. But they definitely have been getting themselves in the right positions and will look to try and do that again on Saturday night against D.C., who obviously is very motivated because of the playoff race implications involved in this one. Yeah, I was about to say, is this the biggest game of the year for Charlotte?

It is until they win Saturday and then the next one's the biggest game. Like, that's the thing. Whoa! Coach speak! Coach speak, Willie B! I'm just saying. Hey, it's the next game.

It's the way it is. It's the next game, so that's the biggest game. It's really, you know, that's kind of the way this looks for them because you do have a lot of games with Eastern Conference opponents here at the end of the season. You play Philadelphia. You play New England. Toronto is on that schedule.

And, of course, that team with that little Argentinian down in Miami, they got a couple of games against them at the end of the year, too. So every game, it seems like, is its own event right now. They've got $15 tickets today without any fees on them. I think the only fee you have to pay is the $3 processing fee for Ticketmaster.

But all the other service charges and fees are waived. So go on out to the bank on Saturday. It's going to be a lot of fun and hopefully a very intense matchup. Or, since you did Coach Speak there, I'm going to do something lazy. I'm just going to do, like, the hacky radio thing, where in order to get people to go to Charwood FC on Saturday night, I'm just going to do, like, call it number five! Call it number five!

Gets tickets to go see. You know, I'll make it easier. Call it number three! Because Will's staring at me mad, like, are you really going to make me go through five different calls here? He would do it. Call it number three! Three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one, six hundred gets tickets to Charwood FC Saturday night as they face DC United. So that's the lazy thing.

I could do something creative and fun together. That was very, very lazy of you, but I employ laziness. And he's proud of it. I'm a big fan of that. Call it number three!

Three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one, six hundred. Oh, he's changing it now. No, no, that's what we're going to do. I want to make it easier on you. Will Pelagic, I know they don't make it easy on you when you talk about, you know, you got a game on Saturday and then I'll see you at Panther Saints on Monday night. Be vigilant. A game on Wednesday.

Oh, and a game on Wednesday. Be vigilant. And then we'll talk to you next week.

We'll make it happen, pal. Appreciate you as always. There he goes. On Twitter at Willy P Style. It's the voice of Charwood FC. Joining us.

Three, three, six, seven, seven, seven, one, six hundred. WD drowning in phone calls right now. Don't fear.

If you can't get in right now, we'll have another pair that we'll give away later on in the program. Last year, we really looked forward to Thursdays. Like, we basked in coordinator sound each Thursday because that's when Ben McAdoo would speak with the media. That's true. Well played. This year, we don't have Ben McAdoo anymore. So, we're going to have to change our tact.

That's true. Well played. We're going to have a different tact when it comes to coordinator sound and we'll tell you what that is next. You're on the drive with Josh Graham.

We're going to have a different tact. We were spoiled last year. Not by great football.

Carolina Panthers were not all that good. But on Thursdays, Ben McAdoo would speak to the media. That's true. Well played.

It was a treasure trove that we'd dive into each and every Thursday. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, what's more important to you, the football, or how interesting they are off of the field talking to the media each week, this new crop of coaches and the new quarterback aren't the most personable. That might be the most delicate way to put it. They're boring. That's the less delicate way to put it.

But it's honest. So here's what we're going to do now each week. Rather than try to turn something that's boring and try to sell you as if it's interesting, we're fully going to embrace the boring.

That's it. Each week, we're going to play you sound from Thomas Brown, Panthers OC, and the Panthers DC, Ejiro Evaro. And we'll play you sound from Bryce Young.

But we're going to acknowledge on the front end this is probably the most boring and useless of the clips of the sound that they produce with their lips for 10, 15 minutes each week. So let's get into it now and see how this goes. Putting a bow in the Atlanta game, here's DC Ejiro Evaro giving us a quick recap of the game. The game kind of started off a little bit more pass. And then when they started running the ball more, getting more conservative in their approach, and when the score kind of started going the way it was going, there just wasn't a lot of opportunities. And we didn't play that many snaps on defense too. But yeah, we definitely got to get those guys involved and get Etor and whoever, Barno, Mr. Johnson, whoever's in there, we got to get them more reps.

Thanks. Hey, you know, when they started to take the lead, they started to run the ball more. Oh, let me write that one down. And it wasn't until hearing that I realized that the player that the Panthers traded up to take in the third round, DJ Johnson did not play a snap on Sunday.

Go to the end there. Did he call him Mr. Johnson? He was going through players' names, oh yeah. Involved in Etor and whoever, Barno, Mr. Johnson, whoever's in there, we got to get them more reps. Mr. Johnson. Do you think it's what he calls him? Mr. Johnson. Hello, Mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson. How old is this guy? That's what you call somebody when you can't remember their first name. Mr. This Guy? I don't, I think that's an excellent point. Yeah.

I don't, I think in the moment. Yeah. Azurro Evero forgot DJ Johnson's name. Etor and whoever, Barno, Mr. Johnson, whoever. Mr. Johnson. You're rattling off names, you're like, Mr. This Guy. How many 24-year-olds are you calling Mr. Anything? 24.

He's not only what, 10, 15 years older than they are. Mr. Johnson. Hello.

Tip of the cap to you. And whoever, Barno, Mr. Johnson, whoever. Mr. Johnson. Hey, what's happening? This is what they call me in Oregon, Mr. Johnson.

You're spot on. There's, he definitely in the moment just forgot DJ Johnson's first name. Bryce Young. He's excited for his first Monday Night Game, which is also his home debut too. So here's Bryce taking us through his game day schedule. Again, it's my first, it's my first opportunity to do that. You know, we have a plan as far as what we're going to do, you know, just schedule wise and what we're going to do with, with team stuff. But, you know, I'm going to try to do all I can to take advantage of it against an extra day. So, you know, adding to kind of that routine I have from week to week, you know, trying to find a healthy mix of adding and, you know, taking advantage of the extra day and trying to find, you know, trying to look for other things, but not just, you know, not just doing things that are counterproductive and going on, you know, while Goosechase is just down rabbit holes that aren't, you know, relevant.

Animals. I was in physical pain about halfway through that. The he's creating sounds with his mouth, but that are words and coherent sentences, but there is nothing, nothing. He took us down a wild Goosechase. He took us down a path where we're going down rabbit holes. I think as he put it there at the end, that's a price.

That's what he did to us. Why goose chases? What is he talking about? Oh, make sure you don't get distracted. Are you talking about going on YouTube and like going down a, an algorithm like rabbit hole? Oh man. I watched this one.

Comedian. And now it's taken me to this pretty dark place. Wasn't really planning to go. And all of a sudden I was watching about seven different videos that were 20 minutes a piece. And I forgot we had a football game tonight, went down a rabbit hole, went down some wild. It's a wild goose chase. We've got, we've got here. And it's not even like the games that late.

No. People were talking about, Oh, it's an eight 20 kick. It's a long day. Bryce Young played a national championship game. It started at eight 40. And on top of that, it's a seven o'clock kick. It's not eight 20 or two Monday night games this week, seven o'clock kick. Remember that Panthers saints playing accordingly seven o'clock kick on Monday night. Now let's get to Panthers. OC Thomas Brown, the Panthers. They need to take some shots down the field. They only had one attempt downfield more than 15 yards.

Here's Thomas Brown and what goes into taking those shots. We have built in concrete rules for everything that we do, but also you don't want to handcuff your players where they're playing as robots. So I'm not gonna talk about that play in general, in particular, but just overall to answer your question as far as how you activate stuff down the field, understanding my landmarks, holding space for the quarterback. And again, making them play with them plays there. Did he mean to say you can't keep something set in stone as if they're robots?

Is that what I heard one more time? We have built in concrete rules for everything that we do, but also you don't want to handcuff your players where they're playing as robots. So I'm not gonna talk about that play in general, but just overall. Stop it, please. I can't take it. I got it. We have a set of rules and plays here. It's in stone.

You don't want to have it so locked in as if your players are robots, like AI. What is happening over there? Talking robots. I am legend. Have you seen I am legend?

I have. I'd like that movie. WD is impressed. Well, how is a good movie reference?

Yeah, it's pretty pretty snazzy there, Josh. It's like it's like AI that he's talking about. Hey, you know, can't can't like treat it as if we're AI, but maybe one day, who knows? We're going to have robots out there catching passes. AI going to be that good.

It's eventually where we're headed. The segment hurts. That's all I could take. From Bryce Young. And Thomas Brown and Ejiro Evaro. And gosh, I can't remember the name of that defensive lineman that the Panthers traded up to take in the third round out of Oregon. Whoever, Barno, Mr. Johnson, whoever. Mr. Johnson. D.J. Johnson. Mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson. It's D.J.

It's not even hard to figure out. Two letters. OK, the counter program, we have Vikings Eagles on WSJS tonight. It's on Amazon Prime. You might be like W.D.

and not have access to Amazon Prime. So what are you going to watch tonight? The counter programming to the NFL. Not the greatest. There is ACC football tonight.

Yeah. And it's the U. They're ranked. What a big win for them last week. I might watch that. Oh, they're playing Bethune-Cookman. Miami's going to win that game by 50.

So you can watch that if you want. Miami by 50. On ESPN, Navy's facing Memphis.

Good grief. That's going to be ugly. It's not going to be as ugly as Miami Bethune-Cookman.

But it could be. Memphis is decent. Navy is objectively bad. Like, gross. They shouldn't have fired Kenya Matalolo.

This new guy isn't it. They're going to be running the triple. It's a game that's built to hurt your eyeballs.

Like, if that sound we just played from Panthers, coaches, and from Bryce Young were a football game, it would be Navy and Memphis. So those don't really sound like awesome options if I don't have Amazon Prime. What else is there? I don't know.

715 maybe? On Fox 8? Baltimore Orioles facing the Tampa Bay Rays? Birds lost last night.

Maybe I will get that Amazon Prime thing. Birds are two games up on Tampa, four game series in Baltimore. It's incredible. Like, this division, man.

Or the top half in this division. Yeah. Nervous. Very nervous. Last night was not fun. The Orioles got a gym, got through seven innings. He allowed one run on a home run by some kid wearing 67 on his jersey.

That's always a great time. When someone with, like, a 67, it's one to nothing, and the Orioles lost one to nothing. Not great. So, morale is not at its highest point as Tampa comes to town for a very important series, but that's some counter-programming, too, to Vikings-Eagles tonight. I had to double check to make sure we weren't getting Yankees-Red Sox, because nothing would make me want to fistfight more than us getting Yankees-Red Sox, a useless, meaningless, Yankee-Red Sox series, when the two best teams in the American League, who were separated by two spots in the same division, are playing each other in September. And that's the game that gets bumped.

But no. We have the right game tonight. So, you can enjoy the Oriole Birds, as you know I will be doing. Later tonight. It's that time of the week. Let's end that.

That time. Where we hand out some picks. Got eight on the card.

Let's not stall this any longer. It's time for Graham's Gambling. We hit on 60% of our picks last year. This year, we've done this three weeks now. Week zero of college football, week one, week two of college football, and last week was week one for the NFL. Haven't had a losing week yet. Four and three last week were nine and seven on the season. Got eight to hand out for this week. And let's get into it.

Starting with college, tomorrow night. Hashtag go ACC, old school, Maryland, Virginia, rekindling the old rivalry, the Cavaliers are getting two touchdowns in College Park coming off a close loss to JMU. So the Hoos are going to keep this close, right? Wrong. Maryland jumped out 38 to nothing against Charlotte.

They tightened it up. Biff's Bunch did in order to make that look competitive. Virginia is the worst team in the ACC. Tony Elliott, their head coach, making the wrong decision. But the quarterback he should be going with this week. There was that freshman who came in for Tony Musket and really moved it and gave Virginia a chance. He's not going to go. It's going to be Musket.

That's a mistake. Lay the two touchdowns and laugh with the Terps. Got a couple of nooners on Saturday in front of us here, including Wake Forest laying 14 at Old Dominion. But I'm not taking the dekes.

That's way too many to lay for a team going on the road for the first time who hasn't looked all that impressive the first couple of weeks. The dekes still could be in good position to pull out a win, but it's going to be a battle on the Tidewater. ODU, watch out. They're getting two touchdowns and we're taking the Monarchs in this spot.

This is the part where you play that J.C. Hornsrock. And we move things along to another ACC game. Florida State is at BC. Boston College.

And our beloved Eagles are getting 26. So is there any doubt? Is there any doubt who we're taking here, WD? Boston College.

Yes. Sleepy Nooner for the Knolls who might be looking ahead a bit to that game in Death Valley next weekend. BC plus a massive number. See me that cash out, fam. Last one for Saturday. Last week, we took East Carolina against Marshall and the Pirates lost by 25 at home. Now they're headed to Boone and they're only getting nine. So what should we do? Take the road team, of course. No corner. Pirates. Argh.

See me that cash out, fam. On to the NFL where we've got, yes, four more to go. Four more picks that we love and you'll probably hate. Starting with the Texans facing the Colts. It's two rookie quarterbacks facing off.

It's two rookie head coaches meeting. Give me C.J. Stroud over Anthony Richardson.

Give me D'Amico Ryans over Shane Steichen. And give me the home team that's laying a point. Last night, the Texans were getting a point. Suspicious? We like the Texans here.

See me that cash out, fam. Staying in the AFC South, the Titans are in the Central Time Zone. This is a geography lesson. They're going to be kicking off this game at noon local time Sunday afternoon. The team they're facing, the L.A. Chargers, will be traveling in from the West Coast to play at noon Central Time. Brandon Staley looks like he's probably the wrong coach for the Chargers long term.

Mike Vrabel is a very good football coach. The Titans almost won in New Orleans with three interceptions thrown. So, of course, we're going to take them with the three points thinking that Ryan Tannehill is not going to throw three picks again on his home field. Right?

Who really knows? But Titans plus the points anyway. See me that cash out, fam. Getting into the prime time game, Sunday night football, Dolphins, Patriots. Since picking home divisional underdogs worked well for us last week when we went 3-0 in our NFL picks. We're going back to the well and we're taking the Patriots plus three over the Fins.

See me that cash out, fam. And to cap it, my favorite pick of the NFL weekend, Monday night football. Not Panthers-Saints, but the other Monday night game, Steelers-Browns. The Steelers are getting two points at home against the Browns.

This is the biggest overreaction of the weekend. Cleveland handed it to Cincinnati. In Cleveland, Pittsburgh at home got waxed by San Francisco. If this was the week one game, Pittsburgh's favored by three, maybe four points. Now they're getting two?

I will say thank you, sir, for those two. And take them happily bet on Mike Tomlin to figure out a way to win this game in prime time against the Browns. See me that cash out, fam. So in review, college football, Maryland minus a lot against Virginia. Nooners, Wake Forest not covering. We're going ODU plus 14. Boston College plus 26 against FSU.

What are we doing? And my East Carolina Pirates plus nine and a half. Make it nine against App State. And then on Sunday, the Texans minus a point. Yes, we're taking the Texans minus a point. That's what we're doing here against the Colts. The Tennessee Titans plus three at home against the L.A. Chargers. And the primetime games, we're going Patriots plus three against Miami and the Steelers plus three. Plus two against Cleveland. Give me two. Feeling great about those. You're on the drive with Josh Graham.

WSJS. Now that the six mandatory basketball be dots joining us, I'm just going to give them the ball, let them run ISO and cook for a little bit on a on a few topics here. Do you have do you have your Colorado Buffalo's gear yet? Do you have the hat?

Some shades? Listen, I have been a two week lifelong Colorado Buffalo fan and I'm loving, you know, where we started and where we are now as a program. Loving it. I don't have any nail yet. But oh, man. Oh, man.

It should be coming soon. Oh, yeah. Make sure this this weekend that's going to be that could be a bloodbath, considering what that Colorado State coach had to say earlier today. Not right. Why would he poke the bear? Why would he do that? Poke the buffalo?

Yeah, I don't know. Poke the buffalo. I like it.

That's not not the smartest thing to do. Do you you strike me be that as somebody who watched your Dallas Cowboys win 40 to nothing on the road in New York and you're handling that with complete. Tempered expectation, you're not overreacting, you're not acting emotionally, he's waving a cowboy flag, as I say this right now. You're not going full bore megaphone cowboy, obnoxious fan, are you? Absolutely.

Why wouldn't I? I am a cowboy fan, aren't I? And, you know, people hate cowboy fans. So I figured this year, Josh Graham, instead of running from it, you know, Josh Graham, instead of, you know, wanting people to like us and us to be treated just like everybody else. Us cowboy fans have had to accept the fact and the harsh reality that we are not like everyone else.

We are a bit above the fray. We are the heels every time we walk into an arena, even when we're in our own. We are the NWO of the NFL. And this year, I'm just going to accept. Matter of fact, my folks, we got I want to do the NWO sign, but it's too close to the Wolfpack sign. So I can't quite do it.

We need a different sign because, oh, what a rush. Yes, sir. I love it. How about them cowboys?

Yeah. And you know what's going to happen, Josh Graham? You want to know what's going to happen in two years?

Josh Graham, two years. You're going to see something you've never seen before in your life. Are you ready to know what it is?

Do you want me to share with you and your audience right now? Yeah. It's going to be Coach Prime. And Chidor Sanders with the cowboy. But wait, wait. If the Cowboys are every bit what you're describing, they are this year.

Why is it Mike McCarthy still the coach? Yeah, yeah. But we're going to have a great year this year. We're going to take a historic run this year. Then next year, the wheels are going to fall off. I don't know how it's going to happen. I don't know why it's going to happen.

But Dak and Mike McCarthy, they're going to be the scapegoat and in comes Prom and Chidor and Booyah! Do you believe? Yeah. Do you believe?

OK, let's get to actually one more. The North Carolina Tar Heels really big news today. They hired finally somebody who is solely responsible for NIL. They hired a general manager, so to speak. His name is TJ Beisner, who ran Kentucky's NIL the last few years. And this was a big deal, I think, because NIL pretty clearly was a problem last year for Carolina, as often as Hubert was talking about it postgame with speaking to agents and things of that nature. Have you already started to pitch some NIL opportunities, some ideas to North Carolina players yet?

Like, how many do you have in the hopper? Well, you know, I got the four for four Wendy for R.J. Davis. You know, I think that's that's that's big right there. You got Dairy Queen, which is DQ. And I think you can do something with DK with Dairy King or Queen, something with Deja Kelly over there on the women's side of things. I think it's something that I'm not quite 100 percent having ironed it out.

I know there's something there with Elliott and just being a point guard on the last name, Cadeau is an awesome name. I have to figure out something there. And I want to know, hey, can can the sixth man get NIL deals? Is that is that a thing? Can the sixth man get NIL deals? Because I'm telling you, I would sell the hell out of some NIL deals, Josh Graham. You need to talk to TJ Beisner. That's his job.

I need to talk to TJ Beisner. That boy, Bronny James, I think he estimated to make six million dollars in NIL money this year, Josh Graham. Yeah, I think that's what LeBron gives Bronny for lunch money, too.

Works out that way. OK, now it's time for us to get the grammar school. Josh Graham has his own way of speaking. And just when you think it can't get any worse, Josh is going to attempt to learn B Dot's vernacular. I'm going to put one in the air. It's time for B Dot's Grammar School.

Nobody better than B Dot. Free game, during game, post game. Brought to you by Heritage Hardwood Floors. When it comes to flooring, they have no ceiling. At Heritage Hardwood...

Mighty. Sorry, my wife called me right there when I was... Ryan! Hey, Carla! Graham!

Live action, Tracy! Heritage Hardwood Floors! Yeah, Heritage Hardwood Floors! No, seriously, thank you, Heritage Hardwood Floors for always being a great sponsor for this ridiculous segment that I have no clue how it's been going this long, Grammar School.

Well, it's because it's educational and I don't have like a right or wrong question to ask you that you could be quizzed with. It's more something I just need to ask because there is that infamous clip of Governor Roy Cooper speaking in Greensboro and saying, Aggie Pride! And I did that earlier this week talking about Tariq Cohen signing with the Panthers. And some Aggie people said, no, no, no.

It's not for you to say because you're not an Aggie alum and also you're a white guy. Yeah, I didn't like that, Josh Graham. I didn't like that.

I didn't agree with that. There are tons of people. It's crack heads right now on East Marcus Street. Every year when the parade comes through, they scream Aggie Pride.

They never did a day on a campus. And it's white people. It's Indian people.

Hispanic people. All races go to North Carolina A&T State University. A&T State University is in the CAA. They're not even an HBCU conference.

So, of course, they are welcoming to white folks as well. Anybody can say Aggie Pride when you're rooting for the Aggies. I did not appreciate that. I saw that comment. Oh, you didn't appreciate that they were getting at me. You thought it was fine that I said Aggie Pride. Especially in the text that you used.

Tariq Cohen has come home to play for the Carolina Panthers. If it ain't nothing more Aggie Pride than that, that is it. So, like, you used it in the correct context. There should be no racial boundaries when someone wants to say Aggie Pride.

I thought that was BS like Sycamore and I did not agree. Aggie Pride? I was horrible the way you just said it. Don't say it out loud again.

It's a lot better when you just read it from me. Are we doing are we doing Jiho this year? I've never been. Is this the year? I don't know.

This might be the year. I saw your message and I started thinking about it. I wasn't 100% if I was going this year. But because you said that, I might have to make some things happen. I don't I don't have a lot going on that weekend.

So I'm just saying just throwing it out there. Josh Graham goes to Jiho. There might be some video possibilities.

Is it going to be like that Travis Porter concert? We could take WD with us. He could shoot video.

We could make a documentary. Josh Graham goes to Jiho. And we'll see what happens. Maybe go to the concert and see Sexy Red and see Skii. I saw Sexy Red with Woody Johnson and it's funny.

Woody Johnson actually has the more ridiculous of the names. Between those two. All right.

What do you have for me? Up first, what does it mean if someone tells you to stop the cap? Stop the cap. 3 3 6 7 7 7 1 600.

Are you serious? That was fast. Well, I forgot to mention we have tickets to go see Skinnard or ZZ Top tomorrow and ZZ Top tomorrow in Raleigh. And we have one more one more pair of tickets to go see Daniel Tosh on Saturday in Greensboro.

If you can help, you will win the tickets for the attempt at 3 3 6 7 7 7 1 600. Stop the cap. We got a low bar.

We got a low bar. They have to give you the answer. I just have to attempt to give you the answer. They just got to give you know, it's just being a lifeline. Being there for me is what a lifeline saves you. If it's the wrong answer, you both die. That's not a lifeline. That's death. Yeah, that's how that goes. All right. So yeah, I'm setting a pretty low bar.

Maybe next week we can heighten the bar if the audience proves that they can help me. Who am I going to here? Back to Mountaineer John. Mountaineer John, what's it mean to stop the cap? Stop lyin'. There you go. Stop lyin'. That's what that means. 100% correct. Stop the cap means stop lyin', man.

Just stop lyin'. Pretty good. Congratulations, Mountaineer John.

You can win some tickets or if you don't want tickets, the next caller to call in will win tickets at 3 3 6 7 7 7 1 600. OK. What's the next one? Shots fired. Shots. Shots fired.

Yeah. If somebody comes in and says, oh, shots fired. What does that mean? I think I know the answer to this.

What is it? Colorado State's coach Jay Norvell shots fired when talking about, uh, when I talk to adults, I don't wear a hat or glasses. I take my hat off and take my glasses off. Shots fired. And Deon's at practice a couple hours later saying, I was minding my own business, but now you done make it personal. Shots fired. Hey, not only are we going to give Josh Graham one bail for getting it correct, but we're going to use another bail for making it current to something going on right now in the perfect sense. Give him two points. Two points. Two points for yours. Two points for my boy, Josh Graham. Two points.

OK, what's next? Lastly, Josh Graham, what does it mean if someone says Jesus take the wheel? Jesus take the wheel. Let me ask you this.

This might have served as a great question, as a caustic question to start us since we didn't really have a real one. Who sings Jesus Take the Wheel? A white guy.

Carrie Underwood's the answer to that question. I was wrong even trying to guess the right race. Gender. You got the right race. I got the race, but what's wrong with the gender?

Sunday night football on NBC. She's got a song called Jesus Take the Wheel. That's right.

It's yeah. Jesus take the wheel. I'm just going to use Mark as I think I have an answer. I'm thinking the answer is Jesus take the wheel is you're just relenting control of the situation like I've had it. Jesus take the wheel. I can't take it.

I need help. Mark in Lexington. What do you think Jesus take the wheel means? I think you're exactly right. Jesus step in and take the wheel cause I'm out of control with my life. OK. How about we go to another Mark.

Mark in Greensboro. Are you with this? Are we all in agreement here? We're all in agreement.

OK. Good to know. So I'm going to go with that. Dot, are we all right? I wish I were all wrong. I don't like the confidence of the Marks.

Great radio. We got two marks. We got two marks myself. And I'm sure that is 100 percent correct. Get them some tickets if we've got tickets left. I don't know if we have any left, but give them some tickets if we do.

That's outstanding. Yeah. I bet you that a couple of marks here, you know, they're probably they probably believe wrestling is real. Hey, wrestling is real. And and the Dallas Cowboys are the NWO. Oh, what a rush. I just got to figure out a hand signal for my Cowboys nation so we see each other, we can greet each other like the NWO used to do.

I wish we had black jerseys in Dallas Cowboys so we could wear all black to games, whether that was home or away. For people who don't know, Dot's birthday is on September 11th. My birthday is on the 12th. How did you spend your birthday, Dot?

Oh, man. Sitting on the couch, remembering how the Dallas Cowboys whipped the wheels off the jacks. Do you realize that the Cowboys beat the Giants 40 to nothing? The Cowboys is the only defense that went last week that didn't have anybody score on them. The New York Giants are still waiting to score a touchdown. The Dallas Cowboys had scored more points before the offense got on. And some score, some teams had scored all day. Dak Prescott got me six points in fantasy football.

It was horrible. I actually lost that game because of him. And it didn't matter because the Dallas defense got me 60 points in one of my fantasy leagues.

Michael Parsons has two sets. And then you got your boy Diggs over there. Hold on this side. Who's going to throw to nobody? Toni Pollard running crazy. Cowboys Nation. How we feeling, baby?

How about them Cowboys? Yeah. Oh, what a rush. So in review, Dot spent the entire day on the couch rewatching the Cowboys game from Sunday night. That's how he spent his birthday. Go feed on. I love you, man.

Thanks for doing this. What you do for your birthday? Real quick. Sixty seconds. Brazilian steakhouse.

My wife had never been to one before. So we went about to pay a Brazilian wax. No, no, no. Stop. I don't stop with that. You you ever been to a Brazilian steakhouse? I've been to a Brazilian steakhouse and I've gotten a.