Ball For You (10-6-23)

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast.

Three internet sensations, guys! Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons, 3 to 7 on WSJS. We've made it to a Friday Drive. It is WSJS NewsTalk Sports for the Triad, where it's not just a football Friday today. Tar Heel Basketball transfer core Mac Ryan will be with us at around 4.30. The voice of Charlotte FC, Will Pelogic, will make his weekly visit on the show later this hour. And Darrin Bott will be in studio later to break down playoff baseball, the divisional round beginning tomorrow.

Plus he'll answer some unusual questions. However, we must talk about last night. The Carolina Panthers were catching strays all over the place. From Al Michaels in the booth, DJ Moore, he goes for 230 yards, catches a few touchdown passes. The Bears win the game.

He almost single-handedly won the game for Chicago. And because of that, Carolina now is the only team without a win in the NFL. And to add insult to injury, who leads the league in rushing yards right now?

That would be Christian McCaffrey. Both DJ and Christian, popular players on the Panthers, of course, and traded in the last year. Which led to many reacting today by saying, what were the Carolina Panthers thinking? How bonehead of the Carolina Panthers to trade away these players? Clearly, they don't know what they're doing.

These are mistakes. If you gave David Tepper and Scott Fitterer the option again to make the same trades the way that they did the last 12 months, I think they'd do it every single time. I don't think they'd do anything differently. I think they make all those trades over again. And the McCaffrey trades a no-brainer. He was a luxury item. That's what running backs are.

They're really good ones. If you don't have a rookie, a quarterback on a rookie deal, and you're paying a running back all that much, I'd be skeptical about the way that you're managing the salary cap. And Carolina had this expensive player at a position that is not a premium position. And they were not in a position to win anything. They were still kind of in rebuilding mode. They weren't really close to contending. So running backs, as we know, don't have a long prime.

They don't have a long shelf life. So if the Panthers weren't all that close to winning while Christian was on the roster, it made no sense to have Christian on the team. And to move him when his value was still high enough to get something in return was the best play for Carolina. And when you look at the deal Carolina made in the middle of March in order to get to the number one pick, the bedrock in terms of compensation in that trade was what Carolina got back for Christian McCaffrey. So that trade doesn't happen if it's not for the trade of Christian McCaffrey a year ago, which then brings us to trading DJ Moore. The Panthers would not change anything about that Chicago trade. Even after last night, given everything we know right now, they don't change a thing. Because they traded up to the number one pick, they moved up eight spots to do so, which is not an easy thing to do, and they got their franchise quarterback. And in order to guarantee, you get your guy. You might be thinking, oh, Josh, they could have got CJ Stroud if they moved to number two rather than number three.

You don't know that. When you move up, you don't know what the number one team is thinking. You can't trust that they're going to have a different evaluation than you do. You needed to get to the number one pick to take any of these guys and ensure that that guy is there. So Carolina, philosophically, it made sense for them to get to the number one pick to try and get their guy at quarterback. And you still give up DJ Moore rather than Brian Burns and Derek Brown because the latter two play more premium positions. And if you don't believe me that those are more premium positions than wide receivers, look at the free agents that become available each and every year and count the number of all pro receivers that are made available each year versus all pro defensive tackles and all pro edge rushers. You just don't see the latter two become available for the same reason you don't see that often tackles, left tackles become available.

Those are premium positions. Wide receiver, unfortunately, kind of like with running back, is not one of those. So Carolina would do that over again. Now if Bryce turns out to be a bust in the worst case scenario, if it was the right wrong decision to take Bryce Young, that doesn't make the trade dumb, it makes the choice they made after the trade dumb. The only way you look at Carolina making a terrible mistake by trading DJ Moore and Christian McCaffrey is if Bryce Richardson and CJ Stroud are all busts, which I doubt they're going to be. Don't knock the trade to get up to the number one pick.

If Bryce doesn't pan out, knock the fact that they took Bryce rather than Stroud. That's completely fair game. But the thinking, the philosophy of getting to the number one pick and the reason you do so, that's all sound.

That's all wise. And Carolina does that again. On Sunday, Bryce Young, he needs to be smart while also taking shots. Usually those two things don't go hand in hand with each other. Frank Reich was talking about that earlier today, and here was Frank on Bryce Young taking more shots downfield. There's no question we're looking for more explosive plays, but what we've talked to Bryce about it, we can't force those. You can't force those. That only leads to bad things.

They will come. We have had opportunities that we've just missed, if we had been executing a little bit better, not had so many self-inflicted wounds, we would have our share of explosive plays right now. There have been enough opportunities. We might not be leading the league in explosive plays, but we have had our opportunities.

So what's the answer? The answer is stay to what we're doing. Trust our guys, trust our system, trust our scheme, and trust yourself. Panthers, Lions, we'll see how many shots downfield Bryce Young ends up taking. It's still very early on in evaluating him. We'll eventually get to the place where you put them side by side with CJ Stroud and see if they make the right choice.

But there are some things to criticize that are dumb, and it's dumb to knock the plan in place philosophically for getting up to the number one pick just because DJ Moore turned out to have a big game for a Bears team that's now won one game. And the Christian McCaffrey trade too that will allow for you to get to that number one pick. On Twitter, at wsjsradio, if you want in, that's where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch. Will Dalton, the executive producer of this show, W.D., tell the people where we're going to be this weekend. We're going to be in Chapel Hill. We're going to be up there for Carolina Syracuse, and I would imagine Tez Walker's first game as a Tar Heel. Oh, he's going to play. Getting to that game. It's important to remember, based on what we've seen through the first month of the season, the past does not apply to this North Carolina football team.

The past does not apply. Since Mac Brown has returned, games like Syracuse at home tomorrow would be very concerning. They have been very concerning. The same reason a couple of years ago when they lost to Florida State inexplicably is three touchdown favorites. It's a trap game, Miami's on deck.

This is a game that historically, or at least since Mac has returned, has been a problem. Carolina, oh, their first ranked opponent is next week. Maybe you might overlook Syracuse. Coming off the bye, Carolina is only one in four since 2019 in the games that follow that. But the root of Carolina's success this year has been their maturity. It hasn't been spectacular quarterback play carrying the team.

It's been maturity. It's complementary football. The offensive defense playing well together, special teams. The last time we saw Carolina play, they had that punt return for a touchdown at Pittsburgh, bringing back Ryan Switzer vibes. They handle success well. You follow a win against Minnesota going on the road and handling your business and winning by multiple possessions. It kind of reminds me of Mac's Texas teams.

More talent. And then when they got old, they were very mature and the bye week didn't affect them. Everybody's going to point to Carolina's record after the bye since Mac's return to Chapel Hill. Mac was 37-1 after the bye at Texas.

So I actually think it's better to compare this Carolina team that's ranked 14th in the country to Mac's Texas teams in the way that he handled them than the Carolina teams we've seen in the past few years. And getting Tez Walker back, that's going to put Carolina over the top two. Keenan is going to explode if Tez Walker scores a touchdown. They're going to explode anyway. Why are they going to explode anyway? Just when he comes out onto the field, they're going to explode, I mean. Got you.

Yeah. We'll see if Eric Church is on the field wearing the jersey, the whole deal. The Heels are going to handle Syracuse.

They're going to win this game because the pass does not apply to this Carolina team. North Carolina 38th, Syracuse 21. Cormac Ryan, one of the newest Tar Heels, joins us now.

Basketball season right around the corner. And I've forgotten about this. We've watched him play a handful of times at Notre Dame all these years. And I didn't realize that you started your career at Stanford. So Cormac, how does it feel to have attended three ACC schools now?

How's that feel? I'd definitely say it's kind of a funny bit. I think it's funny where life takes you and kind of the road. Basketball especially has taken me a lot of places.

And so I'm excited to be down at Chapel Hill. People joke, they say, oh, you're probably the first guy to play on three ACC teams. It might be true. You never know.

I don't know the stats on it. But I'll tell you this. So far, Chapel Hill has been unbelievable.

And this place is truly a special place. After that news drop, though, have you and Harrison Ingram been telling people who will get a chance to experience it just how great Stanford's campus is, maybe giving some food recommendations? Yeah. I mean, Harrison had a little more recent exposure than I did.

Feels like it was forever ago that I was out there. So I might have some dated info. But yeah, I'm sure the dynamic of the conference will definitely be different for a ton of reasons. But it'll be interesting to kind of see how everything plays out, even nationally, with the whole conference realignment stuff. Yeah. I think you might have been at Stanford back in the Bush administration.

I'd have to go back and check how long ago that was. Cormac Ryan is joining us here. What initially was more appealing about North Carolina for your final collegiate season? The life experience piece of it for playing it a Blue Blood or the basketball fit?

Absolutely the basketball fit. That was first and foremost for me. And getting to know the staff, getting to know the players, kind of seeing the vision and the way the team was coming together was really exciting for me. And obviously it's a historic program. So it's a great place to be affiliated with, to be a part of the family. But basketball comes first and we've got a lot of excitement and we've got a lot of goals for this season. We want to win a lot of games. And that was definitely at the top of my list is where can I go to have a big impact on winning and winning at the highest level?

And this checked all the boxes. North Carolina guard Cormac Ryan with us here. We saw large numbers this offseason of ACC to ACC transfers. And obviously you were one of the more noteworthy examples, Jalen Withers, your teammate too from Louisville to North Carolina. How instructive were your past visits to Chapel Hill with Notre Dame in choosing to play at North Carolina? Yeah, I mean, obviously it's a program I've been familiar with having competed against them for a while.

It's a program everyone's familiar with. It's a historic program and it wasn't necessarily like an intentional let's make the switch right away. It just came about naturally and I think through the recruiting process and looking at the options that were on the table and getting to know the coaching staffs and kind of the players and all the criteria you look for in a new school, it just made a lot of sense. And it just so happened to be in the ACC, which is a program I've played against and now I'm thrilled to play for. So it wasn't as simple as, wow, I heard how great SupDogs or He's Not was upon arriving when I was in here last time and I need to be there. It wasn't as simple as this food was really good the last time I was in Chapel Hill and now I need to live here. It wasn't that.

No, believe it or not, it was not that simple. Cormac Ryan with us here. Either on Franklin Street or in the locker room with the guys, how many times has it been brought up to you the last time you played in Chapel Hill, the flagrant foul that had you toss from the game? Surprisingly, not a ton.

It really is water under the bridge. I'm a guy who plays hard and I think it's funny how life works, just ending up here and we spoke about it a few times jokingly and I think getting to know these guys and building the chemistry that we have, we really gelled together on and off the court. So it's been awesome getting to know them and having them get to know me and we've really connected which is a super big part of being a successful basketball team is really liking the guys you're playing with and I really do feel like we have that and we trust each other and we hold each other accountable and so that's something that we're really excited to kind of build on and continue to showcase as the season gets started. I'm going to limit the things you can praise freshman Elliott Cadeau to one thing. I'm going to limit you to one thing you can praise him for rather than going through the laundry list of things. What's one trait or thing that stands out about him since unlike you, we haven't had a chance to see Elliott play?

Yeah I would say his passing. I think he's an elite passer. Obviously a lot of people know that. He's a super highly touted guy but he's the real deal. He's a tremendous passer. He's got elite court vision and he makes our lives easier. As a shooter, I love getting the ball on time and on target in rhythm and he's great at doing that. He feeds our bigs, he pushes the tempo, so we're really excited to have him. Like you said, we're all super excited to see what he can do and start getting some live action here coming soon and so he's a competitor and we're excited to have him with us and grow together towards our goal of competing and winning games.

I see what you did there. Live action. It's live action, Tracy. Yeah, we know Cormac. We get it.

Live action. Actually, you have that next week. Have you met the sixth man of Tar Heel basketball, B-Dot, yet? Have you been introduced to Dot? I have.

I know B-Dot well, actually. He's a good dude. He was a groomsman in my wedding and yeah, he's an interesting cat and we'll see how hyped he gets the building next week at live action. Since it is last thing for Cormac, Ryan, kind enough to join us here. Since I understand today was Carolina's media day, what was the number one question you were asked?

What was the thing you were asked numerous times? Yeah, that's a good question. I think mostly just about coming together with the team and how we've got a lot of experience and we've got some new faces, we've got some old faces, kind of how that's all gone. The answer to that is it's going great. Like I mentioned earlier, we've really built a good chemistry on and off the court. We've got a lot of guys who are really talented, but also talented in different ways that complement each other and build a really cohesive unit from a basketball standpoint and so it's something that we all saw early in the recruiting process and also it's been great to see it kind of come and build towards as the season's starting, putting it all together.

Cormac, thanks for doing this. We'll meet face to face sometime soon. I got to know, since you're a Massachusetts guy, does that mean Red Sox, that's what you rock with baseball-wise or are you not a baseball guy? No, I'm really a New York guy.

I went to high school in Massachusetts for a couple years, but I'm born and raised in New York City, so I root for the Mets, I root for the Jets. It's a tough life, honestly, but it builds character, I'll say that. Yeah, oh man. So I guess you probably were together with your teammates watching that Monday night game when Aaron went down, right? Yeah, man, it's tough to even talk about. I was there. It was a great win, but man, it was bittersweet. Sorry to end things on a low, but thanks for spending the time with us. We'll get to know you more throughout the season, Cormac.

Alright, thanks. Take it easy. Ding ding, boys. School's in session. Let's go, man.

You're on The Drive with Josh Graham. What a week it's been. Thanks to the folks at the Carolina Classic Fair who came by to say hello, who signed up to win prizes that we'll announce next week on the show, who came by to join us on the show. Great stuff that we had at the fair. Next week, we're going to be broadcasting live from Kid Brewer Stadium.

It's live action, Tracy. Tuesday when App State faces Coastal Carolina for that Tuesday night primetime game that's going to be on ESPN. Now let's recap the rest of the week in a segment we call Keep It Simple. Five words or less. It's simple, man.

That's all Josh gets to tell you where your favorite teams are at. It's as marvelous and as simple as that. Let's keep it simple. Okay.

WD has some things to throw my way. We try to keep it as brief as possible because I tend to gas bag sometimes and be a bit long-winded. It happens. But before we do so, we figure out who's in the club on this Friday and get a dance break in here. I'm a man! I'm 40! Rah, rah, rah!

Tradish. Hey, lady. You looking for some biscuit?

I got little glasses that blink. Help! Bang! Bang! What are you doing? You look fat as ****. It's live action, Tracy. In a book. Busy day in there.

You look fat as bleep. Aaron Rodgers, too. Panthers line coach, James Camp, and excellent. Didn't know he was in the club. Oh, yeah. Didn't realize that.

What do you have? Panthers falling to 0-4 against the Vikings. Carolina should have won that game.

That's the first time this year I've said that. That's a game Carolina should have won. You're at home. You're up 6.

You're at the plus 28. Your kicker has already made a 56-yarder in midway through the second half, or midway through the third quarter, I should say. Bryce fumbles the ball away.

It's returned for a touchdown. If Carolina gets points on that drive, and it looked like they should have, I don't want to excuse Iki Iquanu either for having the illegal man downfield just to play or two before the fumble happened. If they get points on that drive and they're leading by 9 or leading by 13 or 14, this defense is not blowing that lead. Carolina's winning the game, so you can frame it however you wish. Oh, Bryce didn't blow that game or whatever. If Bryce doesn't fumble the ball, if he holds on to it on that play, I believe Carolina wins that game.

They should have beaten the Vikings. Notre Dame beating Duke. Felt good for Sam Hartman.

I just did. Being down on the field and seeing that comeback, the fourth and sixth team where he converted, and seeing how much of a Duke crowd that was there and how much notoriety surrounded Notre Dame going to Durham. College game day in town, Kirkherb Street calling the game Kirkher Street, and the game being on ABC and Primetime. All I could think was, wow, that's something Wake Forest couldn't give to Sam. It's not a shot at Wake Forest because no other team in this state could give that to Sam Hartman. Very few programs across the country could give that to Sam Hartman. But that was an iconic moment in Notre Dame history.

At least in recent history. Going down the field, going 95 yards to beat a ranked opponent in primetime at a game game days at, that fourth and 16th play, if Sam Hartman never makes it to the NFL, and I do think that's a possibility, he doesn't make it, he has this, where he gets the high level of exposure that, again, not many programs can give him, and he has that type of moment in primetime that he's going to be remembered. His career is going to be remembered. I felt very good for him watching what he did. MJ Morris getting the start for NC State. Dave Doran is not quitting. No he's not. And you know, good for him. Good for Dave. You know, we want to put MJ Morris on ice because we got Brendan Armstrong and we weren't able to redshirt him next year.

Believe that. If Brendan Armstrong's not working out, how can you look Peyton Wilson in the eye in that defense and say you're doing everything you can to help these players, and then not play MJ Morris, who might be a better option for NC State. Again, if he's not, if things continue to go south and he can't solve the problems that State's having, then bench him after four games and still keep the redshirt on him and bring Brendan Armstrong back. If you don't beat Marshall and if things look south at that point.

But at least say, at least you can say to these seniors and guys who have been around that you tried. That you tried your best and did everything to save and salvage this season. Because the way the defense plays and has played, they deserve that.

They deserve that and they might only need just a little bit of a pick-me-up from the offense. Our visit with Rod Brind'Amour. Stanley Cup. It's Stanley Cup or bust.

It sounds ridiculous to say because it's so hard to get there. But when last year you made it to the Eastern Conference Finals and had the second best record in the sport, and you made it to the Conference Finals without Andrei Svechtikov in the playoffs and without Max Paschke ready pretty much the entire season, and you upgrade by adding Dmitry Orlov, the best defenseman on the market, to make an already great defense even better on the blue line, and you still have guys entering their prime like Svecht and Aho in the whole deal, how can you not say it's Cup or bust? I mean, we posed that to Brind'Amour this week and he said, oh yeah, Vegas having us as a favorite? That sounds about right. That's what we expect it to be. That's a good thing. That's not the way most coaches would answer that question.

They'd say, oh, we don't pay attention to that. That doesn't matter and all these things. Not Brind'Amour.

Yeah, that sounds about right. And that's the way it should be for the Hurricanes after making the playoffs five straight years and winning the divisions three straight. So it's Cup or bust for Carolina. The start of the MLB playoffs. Don't break my heart, birds.

I'm looking right into the camera that you can watch on YouTube, Twitter and Twitch. Don't break my heart, birds. Now, it does kind of have a this is just icing on the top type of feeling where two years ago they had one hundred losses and hadn't been at the playoffs in seven years and now they've won one hundred and one games and won the ALEs.

It does have that icing on the feeling, icing on top feeling, but I'm not going to lie. If they lose tomorrow at home to Texas with their third starter in, when you have one of the biggest days in the history of that city, entertainment wise going on. That'll sting.

That'll really hurt. So don't don't break my heart, birds. That's all I ask. And lastly, our time at the fair this week. Oh, wow. Only five words on that. Yeah.

Pick your favorite. Pure, beautiful, delicious southern sustenance. Punch it home. That's it. Those are all the adjectives that are vacillating in my head right now.

That's what I got. Sustenance. Pure, beautiful, southern, almost a decadent sustenance. You talk about all the stuff you can eat. That's terrible for you, but it goes down nicely.

Does. So enjoy the last few days of that out on the fairgrounds in Winston-Salem. One more dance break.

Keep it simple. Whoever. Mr. Johnson. Whoever's in there.

We have. I got little glasses. Hey DJ. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. We heard you. Hey.

We heard your TV. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. You ready? All right, do it.

Do it. All right. Listen up.

It's the drive with Josh Cray. Will logic. The voice of Charlotte FC Joining us now on WSJS. Charlotte FC season is winding down.

Let's get into the Panthers first before we get into soccer related matters. The Panthers injury report for Sunday dropped. Dante Jackson questionable for the Lions game. He told me in the locker room he was no doubt going to play regardless of what his situation was.

But players are always going to say that it seems like that was on Sunday. He said that in regards to a leg injury I believe he's dealing with. And then you have Austin Corbett returning to practice but not going to return to play this week. He is out not going to play according to Frank Reich. Xavier Woods as expected out as well.

Could be a lot worse on this injury report. Willie P, how much of a chance do you give the Panthers in Detroit? Well if I could tell you how well they'll run the football I'd have a better idea because I feel like a lot of what happened last year might be taken into this year's particular game plan. They ran for 320 yards in that Christmas Eve game at Bank of America stadium last year and I'm wondering if Frank Reich might try to take a page out of that part of the playbook and just kind of go straight ahead. I wouldn't be shocked if we see more Chuba Hubbard on the field. I know that Miles Sanders appeared on the injury report during the week with that groin injury and I do feel like you know it could be a situation where you know Hubbard's been the better runner and I feel like he just hits the hole straight ahead.

I almost feel like this is a scenario where you got to trust that guy a little bit more because he's got more effective yards. I think we also saw Laviska Chenault the run game too as well and you know if you feel like that continues to work I feel like you have to utilize it. I know that the teams have changed year over year but I still feel like that's a pretty good game plan.

That's one of the few things that does travel well in the NFL is that a vaunted run game could definitely do that and the Panthers haven't really shown the same of commitment to the run like they had in the opening week of play against Atlanta when they ran it pretty well in that contest. Last night the Panthers were catching strays from Al Michaels the Christian McCaffrey graphic DJ Moore going off the Bears you know winning the game because of DJ making the Panthers the only winless team so predictably today has become kind of a referendum on the last year of decisions that the Panthers have made the McCaffrey trade which allowed for them to make the trade in order to get the number one pick that involved DJ Moore. I'm of the belief that you would do those trades over again if Carolina had the option today are you do you feel the same way? I feel like those trades are what helped you get the number one pick in the draft and your pick of the litter at quarterback now I obviously know that there are a lot of people who are looking at Bryce Young and there's already a referendum on him after four games which seems ludicrous. Hold on one second though you're right like if you want to make have that conversation I can disagree with it's way too soon to have that conversation that's the that's the decision you should criticize not the decision to get to number one right? Right that's the thing I feel like and I think that still is yet to be determined I feel like you can't have one without the other I mean you saw what this team did with both those guys there and no quarterback and I know people want to try to sit here and say oh well you know you could have just stayed pat at eight and had those guys in tow and not had the ability to really choose your own adventure at quarterback you would have been left with what was left over and it might have been in fact Anthony Richardson but you know I go back to this from the offseason I don't think anybody was angry at the Panthers going up and getting number one you could have qualmed with who they took and again I understand that that's still something that's to be determined but I feel like we were championing that move even with the burn of having to give up DJ Moore it's not as if you know Andy Dalton with the as the quarterback we're making these guys flourish I don't think he would be so I feel like at the end of the day you have to feel like this has got to play out a little bit more before you you know start giving the Panthers you know worst organization of the NFL titles I feel like this is still the opening portion of this process and those who are trying to already you know champion the Panthers as being clowns I think are being a little too short-sighted yeah I wish I could just keep these tweets and and keep tabs of them because many of these same people that are saying now all the Panthers are clown shows for making this trade if Bryce Young pans out to be good they're gonna be saying how great of a decision it was to do these things you can't have it both ways the McCaffrey trade allowed for them to trade for DJ Moore and obviously DJ allowed for them to get the pick and it can work out either way too I mean you saw the weirdest thing I keep looking at San Francisco and how they are going to have given up a lion's share to go up and get Trey Lance and get absolutely no shade for it because they were able to replace him with a guy like Brock Purdy who is Mr. Irrelevant and they were a team that I feel like a lot of people think could be ticketed for the Super Bowl so in that aspect you look at that situation and feel like man if they didn't hit on Brock Purdy you know they'd be the laughingstock of the league right now for giving up all they gave up to go up and get Trey Lance so at least in my end I look at this Josh and say you know there's still a lot to be played out I understand that Bryce doesn't have the kind of help I do feel like it is a little short-sighted to try and go out and and spend more draft capital on the number one wide receiver I think under part might be trying to speed up the clock a little bit too much on them but I do feel like people who are trying to already declare Bryce Young a bust things of this nature I feel like is incredibly premature well pelagics with us here voice of Charlotte FC and speaking of Charlotte FC my sources tell me and my sources you that you visited with ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips did you tell him I said hello I did we talked a lot of baseball our producer Matt is a big Rangers fan so we talked a lot of baseball playoffs he was wearing his Rangers playoff sweatshirt as well and then I brought up the Orioles and he's like oh you know I love Brandon Hyde and story that you and I have shared both on air and privately as well so from that aspect he didn't say that you guys are going to the World Series yet though I know that was one thing that that you were wanting to know he didn't mention that particular part by name but I did drop your name as far as that goes but it was really cool to see him you know I spent a little bit of time talking to him obviously from podiums but never really got a chance to have a one-on-one conversation with him and nice dude I hope that this plan for the conference and him goes the way that they want it to go because we know it can go sideways pretty quickly if a couple of these schools with their Val for lawyers can figure out a way out of the grain of rights and really turn this thing upside down I hope they're able to get some more money infused into the conference because I really do like the ACC and and fact that it's literally two blocks from where we call games at Charlotte FC I feel like it's a good thing to have in our town I know that you guys are angry that it's no longer in the triad but I do think it's a good thing for the league going I'm just glad that you drop my name the correct name and not what jim once called me at the end of the day jeff yeah well that happens sometimes on the way out what was the highlight from hornet's media day this week there's a lot of optimism I feel like from their perspective they really love their team going forward the preseason win totals 31 and a half and you won 27 without miles gordon lamello and ubre I feel like yeah the ceiling is the roof if 31 wins is where you have to get I think they feel that they can surpass that get themselves to a play in game they feel like the injuries really hurt them a year ago and I do feel like they they are a lot deeper they feel deeper now than they have been in a long time I feel like Brandon Miller is a big part of that equation they think he can help them right away I think it's still kind of in question what they're going to do with their starting lineup once miles bridges suspension is up to I think there'll be some interesting pieces especially if they can stay healthy and it could more resemble what the james marego led squad looked like two years ago before they lost in the play-in game in indiana I do feel like maybe they can get to that level maybe even surpass it a little bit if they can kind of learn some of their late season mistakes like they had over the previous two years three years ago I should say how did it feel to call a match where charwood fc got three points it was awesome I mean I feel like from their perspective they needed that victory from an emotional standpoint krishna tansio called the chicken soup for the soul but it's just one part of the four-pronged basically mini playoff that charlotte fc has they get a big one tomorrow night in chicago muscle memory from a year ago where they were two down to chicago at halftime came back and got three in the second half and that was part of the playoff push as well down the stretch of the season so I feel like they can take some good solace from that hopefully it's a different result in terms of not having so much pain to get to it but if they can get three points against chicago they still control their own destiny as far as the playoffs go yeah they're only four points back of chicago only two points back of that eight nine mark that's very key for you know where you want to be in terms of and they got the games in hand so basically if they went out they're in there you go will pelagic we look forward to hearing you in charwood fc you and jess we'll talk to you next week always good to see you and talk to you josh appreciate you it is a rhinestone cowboy friday this is chevelle and with darren vaughton studio with us i am reminded that we have three pairs of tickets to go see chevelle at skyla credit union amphitheater this is for next thursday three three six seven seven seven one six hundred chevelle and three days grace next thursday the first couple to call in right now the first couple of callers at three three six seven seven seven one six hundred will get tickets to that show darren vaugh i didn't realize those two were still doing it there you go are they still making new music i did sorry that noise i was moving the mic that's what i do when i come i don't know if they're still making new music together you can find out next thursday night three three six seven seven seven one six hundred the first to call in the red chevelle that was the one that was the one that was like a jam people just that's circa what like 08 circa 2008 you're our baseball expert voice of usa baseball acc baseball etc and before we get to unusual questions i think we should go series by series and you let me know what your general feel is for them and it starts with the game at one o'clock tomorrow in baltimore we learned today kyle bradish will be the game when started hashtag as expected against texas your feel on oriole's rangers i gave up on texas very early to the point where i did not think they were going to make it to the post season no john gray no max jerser no jacob de grom who got hurt a while back yeah i think this what they have done with all of those injuries can be viewed as a success even though toward the beginning of the season with the new acquisitions including last year's acquisitions it may have been kind of like world series or bust i can just see them falling off at this stage oriole's through to the alcs yes who will they play it's the astros the defending champs against the twins this is this is the team i have circled as being the upset the team that knocks off the team with home team home field advantage i really like the twins can i tell you my favorite mlb story in a in a season that has been full of awesome mlb stories i think my favorite is royce lewis has finally been healthy to be the star that he is like such a likable guy affable really hard working former team usa guy so we've had him on the the usa baseball pod back in the day when we were still doing that um it's impossible not to root for him but i think it's the estros okay i think it's they're just too good they're just gonna wanna go top to bottom i just didn't want to go all chalk and that's why i went with minnesota there oh yeah you just wait you just wait then we get to the national league rematch of last year phillies braves the phillies knocked off atlanta a year ago went to the world series can philly do it again they can they will whoa and the narrative for another year will be about the braves and comparing this braves team to those of the mid 90s or the 90s that ultimately got one in the mid 90s i think i think we're gonna end up rehashing that with this edition of the braves because they've got a huge long window like they're gonna be good for a long time i just there's something cooking with philly man i i think they might win the whole damn thing there you go orioles phillies potential rematch the orioles haven't been to the world series since 83 where they beat the fills that might be something interesting to follow getting to the final ld uh or yeah lds matchup you have the i mean corbin carroll and the arizona diamondbacks visiting the dodgers who are so good and no one's talking about them it feels like how that's that's the funny thing about the dodgers being good it was like okay yeah they slumped a little bit maybe in june and then you look up mid july it's like oh they're they're on pace to win 98 games with that pitching staff getting they've won 100 games we're not talking about the dodgers it's the dodgers i i love the the dbacks and how like they have become good and like corbin carroll has is this central storyline within the league um zack gallen had his best season at the big league level ever the former tar heel so like they're they're good they're they're here to stay for a handful of years i think but um yeah i'll take the dodgers and fills in the nlcs again it sounds like you got the fills in the world series it sounds like you have them winning the world series who do they beat what is your world series prediction i'm going phillies over the orioles dance we're gonna be singing dancing on my own into the into the the weeks after okay we're gonna be doing it phillies orioles book it on darren's part that just means i'm gonna be going to a world series game courtesy of jim phillips right jim right right okay you wouldn't renege on that jim would you right jim right we will we will pull this clip we will pull this clip oh it's you said this clip i thought you were going to play it oh no i'm like this this clip of josh staring into the camera saying right jim i thought you were going to play the clip promising it oh we have that very very very intimidating me with the barbie sweatshirt jim now let's get to unusual questions last week guys everybody made it out that i got mad at josh and i left the press conference that's not right i thought it was an unusual question and it's okay it's time for unusual questions with josh graham i'll start we have a soda machine here in our office at wsjs like hold up clarification like a vending machine or like a soda stream that makes the soda vending machine wouldn't that be so cool it's not like what we needed that it's not we needed that yeah it's it's bring the syrup and you make your own flavors by mixing a bunch of them like the old-fashioned drugstore it's a vending machine okay all right and i realized i didn't have any cash or any coins on me so i wanted to ask somebody in the office hey do you have like a buck 50 and change to get it done and i realized i didn't want to ask wd i ended up asking our general manager tom hamilton because in my head dissecting why i did that i don't think people under the age of 30 have change will for sure does not i think actually i do i think it's an indictment on us this is not an insult on our elders i wish we all did carry change but i i'll put it to you like what is the prime like demo of somebody you would ask for change if you can only ask one person it's a it depends on the circumstances too though like how desperate are you for the change is it is it merely a soda are you trying to i just want a soda like a phone call i mean a phone call seems dramatic because that isn't a thing anymore because we all have cell phones but like yeah all right okay i'm putting myself in your shoes you want a soda yeah you're in a building that has people of all types of backgrounds they're a see i do the prime person you're asking for change i also don't know if describe them if it is for her most properly age-based i'm not saying it is i said demo i i didn't say no i know specific age i i said in this instance like with picking tom over yeah over wd it was age-based but it doesn't have to be in the demo question i think i probably regularly would have asked like will or or other dg show interns it had we just been in the studio and and dg first though yeah because that dude doesn't doesn't even carry a wallet to this day he's just got like a wad of stuff man if it's a phillies orioles world series dg and i holy bleep we'll go to war oh that'd be fun i it'd be fun independent of that but answer the question uh i think young to middle-aged and broke because they got cash on them like i don't know like an intern type is gonna have cash on them understood how about what's your unusual question all right you guys both were privy to um emo jimmy butler on the miami heats media day right yes we were okay so he's got he's got the hair ironed out or whatever teased or i don't know technically how that's gonna be his headshot for the entire season which is a thing right because he had the long dreads last year that remained a headshot to the point where networks were using an old headshot in shows with him because they were tired of being part of the joke or being joked on as a result so that's part of it look i get it it's a bit jimmy world is or not jimmy world jimmy heat world i'm getting ahead of myself like he jimmy butler is was not listening to jimmy eat world right yeah so rather than ask you what i think he he would have listened to in his emo heyday the memes were everywhere what was your favorite jimmy heat world was one of them i've got a number in the in the in my brain right now ball out boy ball out boy was good i loved it someone just simply uh tweeted or posted on x whatever a photo one of the promo photos and it said cuz tonight will be the night that i will ball for you cuz tonight i will ball for you over again who sings that does that fall out boy no oh that was um my chemical no no no no no no stop stop hold one sec if i had a third guess i'll get it right it's um who sings absolutely oh all american rejects right that's what i was thinking i think it is that was like more mainstream yeah what that's not them let's see how far we've come no that was that was the matchbox 20 comeback that's not even emo what are you what am i doing you're all over the place friday this one might be an emo deep cut this one might be an emo deep cut because it did not receive a lot of interaction when i tweeted it out it was a photo of jimmy and it said hoop is what we aim for do you remember the band cute is what we aim for they had they had a song that blew up temporarily called the curse of curves i don't but the hair was perfect for that so cute is what we aim for the hoop is literally what jimmy butler aims for i thought it was okay i thought it was pretty good but apparently not enough of you watched fuse tv's top 20 countdown after school do you think jimmy butler is actually a fan of emo music no way that we well hold one second i like is does he have boy genius on in his car is it these days i don't know if last second steph curry and jimmy butler the same paramour show and steph can't make it onto the stage no no no and jimmy has to step in at that part does jimmy butler finish the lyric the way that steph did can he finish the misery business lyric like you don't even think he can go that far misery business i don't think he yeah he might know the words or if he's not a fan at all did he see the reaction to the jimmy or to the steph curry stuff and think oh that's what i need to do i need to do something emo because i saw well because how popular it was when steph was on stage i just think he's heavily heavily heavily online and so he sees the memes with people playing well there's the one that goes crazy on tiktok and it's not all american rejects singing the song but it's the just a random dude singing cause tonight will be the night that i will fall for you fall for you so i think he's just very very heavily online he sees the emo resurgence that's happening and as he told there was the video that leaked or whatever from there you can't call it a leak it's a media day video but someone was taking video as he and bam out of bio were getting their photos taken and bam couldn't control himself from laughing and jimmy's just like this is my halloween that's what he said that's great do you have something very quick wd uh what's the difference between a sandwich and a sub jesus i asked that earlier this week it's a great question because i said yeah i told people what i had oh yeah i have this sub it's like no that's a sandwich i had a jason's deli sandwich and they're like oh no no or i kept saying it was a sub and they were like no that's a sandwich i don't know what the difference is i don't know why we gotta rehash these semantic food issues all the time with you i think that's a good question though i think it's a good question though i think i experience this i think it's to be categorized as a sub it's got to be a particular shape it's going to be oblong to be a sub oblong i agree oblong to be a sub a sub is a sandwich a sandwich isn't always a sub submarine it stands for submarine think of the shape of a submarine i agree like a hoagie is not like on a round loaf bun i hate it and the sandwich is like stacked you're right but right but wd didn't have the vocabulary that you did i sure don't oblong but i agree with everything he said yeah it's about the shape it's called a submarine sandwich this is easy and that's been unusual questions darren thought