WD Tries Not To Wreck The Porche

Welcome in to a Rhinestone Cowboy Friday drive.

You are listening to The Drive Without Josh Graham. I'm WD filling in for our guy who's down in New Orleans, DJ Turner on the sticks, or the ones and twos, or whatever you want to call them. Good to have you in.

Good to have you in. On the slides. Whoa.

The slides. See, that's the part where that was. See, that's the part where I would have that... Whoa. But I don't have it pulled up for you, so it's okay. Don't feel bad. No, I'm happy to have you all in here, whether you're listening on the dials, whether you're watching on YouTube, or whether you catch us on the podcast later on that we put together. Good to have you in. I appreciate it.

If you are on YouTube, get in the comments section. We'll hang out, we'll talk, we'll chit chat. David Glenn, he's going to be our guest at 5.30, a little bit later on.

There's a number of things I want to get into with him. Kane's Hockey, they actually lost, I believe that was their first loss of the year last night at the Seattle Kraken. I want to talk Tar Heel Football, Tar Heel Basketball. I want to talk Phillies, because he's a Phillies fan. Even though I think they're okay to get to the World Series, their NLCS Series with the D-backs got a little bit more interesting last night.

We'll get into all those things. Oh, and Duke Football, I want to talk to him about that as well, get his thoughts on the Duke FSU game. We had some football already last night. It was the Jags taking care of business against the Saints at the Saints. It seems like the NFC South is up for grabs right now. Maybe not so much for the Panthers, although I guess crazier things have happened, but not for the Panthers. The Saints, given the sound of their locker room last night and just watching Derek Carr and some of the interactions with players on the sidelines and him getting into it with Alave last night.

I don't know, I can speak from experience as a former athlete who played baseball all the way through college. When you have a bad situation in the locker room, and I don't know how bad it is for the Saints, I'm just saying it seems like things are kind of off. I'm telling you, that cancer spreads. Just like when things are great in the locker room, that also spreads.

There's just a vibe to it that you can feel. Who knows, maybe it'll be the Buccaneers that comes out on top this year. Baker Mayfield down there, I'd like to see it.

Because the Panthers, they're not going to be in the mix. I'd like to see Baker do well with Tampa Bay because I don't know how many people really gave them much of a shot coming into this year. But besides the point, what I really want to hit on very briefly from this game is watching Trevor Lawrence last night or in general right now, watching him should be proof that Bryce Young is going to be okay. When you take a look at Trevor Lawrence and Bryce Young's paths to the NFL out of college, I mean both of them were the elite quarterback in college football in their time. Joe Burrow kind of swooped in on that at the end of Trevor Lawrence's run, but you get the point.

Same for Bryce Young, elite quarterback for two years at Bama. Won the Natty. You jinxed Dave Pulaski. I know. I don't want to interrupt like that. It's gotten dark in here and all of a sudden I look out the window and it's raining sideways.

You know what? I was thinking it when we came back and I kept looking. I kept looking. I'm like, why is it dark out there? Because the sun was finally starting to come out.

It looked really nice out there. It is. We got Paige Grimsley here two and a half hours or so. And there's a storm brewing. And it's going to go down in Greensboro tonight. That's right. As the Guarleys visit the Pirates.

Why don't you make the promos like that? Something to think about. If you look at Bryce and Trevor's paths through college, very similar. Elite quarterbacks coming through college.

Not a great situation for Trevor Lawrence his first year with the Jags. I'll be the first to admit, that's one thing I'm not ashamed of, is to admit when I'm wrong. I don't care. I mean, I care, but I don't care what you think about me being wrong because, you know, I learn.

I'll figure it out. I thought that marriage of Trevor Lawrence and Urban Meyer as quarterback and head coach was really going to click because Trevor Lawrence being one of the elite college quarterbacks ever. And then Urban Meyer being one of the elite, one of the greatest college football coaches of all time. I don't know. Something about that dynamic. I thought they would get each other.

They would understand each other better. And I thought that was going to be awesome. Well, you know, we see that didn't work out. If I recall, I think Urban Meyer was fired, I think before the first year was even over, I think. But definitely after one season, he was fired. They went three and 14. And if you take a look through six weeks, which is what we're currently at now, we're at a bye week for the Panthers, they're 0-6. The Jags were 1-5, so not much better. And when you look at Trevor's numbers, seven touchdowns, eight interceptions. Eight. Eight interceptions. In fact, I believe the first game against the Texans in his NFL career had three interceptions. And I want to say he either had two or three more in the next game. I forget who they played. But you get the point. It wasn't pretty in Jacksonville at that time. And Bryce Young, so far, he's got six touchdowns and four interceptions. I believe that's right. Now, he's played one game less because he was out a game, but you get the point.

Very similar circumstances there. Now, as much as you may not care for Frank Reich right now, believe me, I'm a Panther fan. I get it. Yes, I cover sports for a living, but I'm not ashamed to tell you I'm also a Panther fan. I'm a Torrio fan. I'm a Yankee fan.

All that. Because I'm human. I've got teams I pull for. I've just learned to separate. I've got objective over here and I've got my fandom over here. And you just have to know and pick your spots and know when to put one away. So you may not care for Frank Reich right now, but he's a heck of a lot better than what they had going on with Urban Meyer.

I tell you that right now. So I say all that to say, looking at the way Trevor Lawrence started in the league, and I mean, heck, you could even say Joe Burrow with the Bengals, like how he started in the league. He dealt with injury his first year. Bengals, I believe, were one of the worst teams in the league that year as well.

Terrible O-line from what I recall. You know, then they go to the Super Bowl and then they go to the AFC title game the year after that last year. So and same with the Jags. They were in the, you know, when they really started to pop off last year, they made it to the divisional round. Now, I believe they're five and two. I think that's right.

I could be wrong on that, but it's something of that nature. They're doing really well and they're one of the better teams in the AFC. And so I think if you look at Trevor Lawrence, just give it time with Bryce. He's trying to figure things out. He's trying to figure out the NFL. And as good as the SEC, I mean, that's an NFL draft machine, but it's still not the NFL like the edge rushers he was facing in the SEC. A lot of those guys are at a bank right now working at a bank or working at Geico. I don't know.

They're not a sponsor of this show, but you get the point. It's a little bit different beast than facing NFL edge rushers like a Brian Burns or I'm trying to think of somebody else. J.J. Watt back when he was in the league, like those types of guy, T.J. Watt in Pittsburgh, those types of guys coming at you. So he's trying to figure it out with one of the worst O-lines in the league on one of the worst teams, probably the worst team in the league right now. He's trying to figure it out. Give it a little time. He's got a new play caller now. Six games.

Just give it a chance. You're on the drive with Josh Graham, WSJS. We welcome on our good buddy Connor O'Neill.

He is the publisher for Deacons and Devils Illustrated, and I believe he is currently in route to Cameron Indoor Stadium. Connor, hello. Good afternoon, WD. A little correction. I'm not in route yet.

Just got out of the shower to give you the TMI. Yeah, a little bit. I wasn't quite sure of my timing, so that's probably on me. Okay, so fake news over here.

My bad, my bad. But yeah, Connor, he's going to be heading out to Countdown to Craziness tonight, and you know, Duke, they're preseason number two behind Kansas, and so I guess the first thing I'd kind of want to start out with you, I guess in a generic sense, is like, is there anything tonight specifically? Not a whole lot's going to be going down tonight that's going to make a difference in the season, but what are you going to be looking at tonight and as we roll into the beginning of the season?

There are two main things for tonight. Number one is Kyle Filipowski's health. It always feels like there's a preseason health issue with Duke basketball. You know, last year it was kind of twofold with Dereek Whitehead and Derek Lively both dealing with things.

This year it's a little more camp down. Kyle Filipowski had double hip surgery back in the spring, so he's had a while to recover, but it's still, it's double hip surgery. It's not like he got some hairline fracture fixed. So I want to see how he moves if he plays in the scrimmage. The other thing I want to see is guard rotation. This is a different team for John Shire. He really at points last year only had one or two guards that he could really trust with initiating the offense and getting things going, and he has both of them back in Jeremy Roach and Tyrese Proctor, and he brings in two freshmen that are really good with Caleb Foster and Jared McCain. They're going to play differently this year, and a lot of that has to do with John Shire having a lot more lineup combinations that he can go with in addition to not having, you know, a seven foot one unicorn of a center that he had with Derek Lively last year. Well, I'm glad you mentioned that seven foot unicorn because as we know, Derek Lively, now a Dallas Maverick. I mean, he was a monster last year.

I felt like every game that I would cover over at Cameron every five minutes, he was swatting something into the crazy section. So how much is Duke going to miss his presence on both sides of the ball defensively and offensively? Yeah, I mean, offensively, they'll miss him for the lobs, but let me try to be nice here. Derek Lively's offensive game is probably better suited for the NBA when everything is a little more spaced out. You can just kind of camp under the rim, get some lobs from Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.

They're both known to throw the ball in the vicinity of the rim sometimes. It's really on defense that we just, we don't know what it's going to look like. Other than I guess if you want to take the games that Derek was limited or out last year, that's kind of a little bit what Duke will look like defensively. With Kyle Philipowski playing some fives, with Ryan Young in there at the five, they'll give Christian Reeves a shot. He was a sophomore last year and really raw, and he's had a year to develop. But you're just, there's no replacement for Derek Lively. I don't know if there's anybody in college basketball this year that could do the things that he did last year over the second half season. He was really the main catalyst behind their defensive surge and why they look like one of the 10 best teams in the country going into March. You don't find a replacement like that, even if they had been able to bring in a transfer or bring in a late freshman addition.

They just wouldn't have been that. Right now, there's nobody even remotely close to that defensively for this Duke team. How much of a step forward are you expecting to see from Tyrese Proctor?

Again, we talk about it all the time. He was so young last year, he should have still technically been in high school, kind of like what Elliott Cadeau will be this year. How much of a step forward do you expect him to take? I expect a bit of a step forward. I wind up being not as bullish on him as others just because he played at a really high level toward the end of last season.

I get it. I understand that some eyeballs turned away from Duke when they were 18-8 last year. They had lost some real clunkers. They went down to Miami and lost by 30 in a non-competitive game.

They lost to Virginia Tech when Virginia Tech I think was 0-6 or 1-6, something putrid in the ACC. So, not as many eyeballs were on Duke last year as they would normally be. When some of those eyeballs shifted away from him is when Tyrese really took over at point guard. That's when Duke found its stride offensively. I gave you Derek Lively as the catalyst for the defense. I think Terry Proctor was just as much of the catalyst for the offense.

Not to mention he played really well defensively too. He had a great game against Terquavion Smith late in the season in Cameron. I think he makes a big jump. I just don't think it's as big of a jump because I think he's already kind of started making it. The other factor to consider with Tyrese was he didn't get to Duke last year until about late August, so he didn't have the summer to develop. That on top of him being an early enrollee makes it really tough to catch up and have confidence going into the season. When you get beat by Kansas in your second game, or I think it was third game, but when you go through some of the early lumps, it was always going to take Tyrese a little bit longer to mature and develop into the player that he was going to be by the end of the season.

We saw that late last year. Now he's had an entire summer at Duke, so now I think you can really start building with him. We've seen some muscle definition. We've seen him bulk up a little bit. I would say that's where he's ready to take off. Connor O'Neill with us, publisher for Deacon's and Devil's Illustrated, now switching over to the other Duke team, the one that a lot of us are curious about this weekend, the best game in the ACC, Duke Florida State in Tallahassee.

So it's the question everybody's asking, Connor. What are you hearing on Riley Leonard? I really think it's day to day.

I mean, I'm going to just echo what Mike Elko has said. He's, it seems like been doing more this week than he was last week. He's been able to run around a little bit, throw the ball.

Of course, none of that can translate to what it's like to drop back on a third and seven and have Jared Burse bearing down on you. So I really think that, I mean, they're going to travel him down there. They're, they're going to have to see how his ankle holds up.

They're going to take whatever it is five hours before the game in the hotel lobby or whatever, whatever it may be to see, okay, you know, can, can we make this work? Can he protect himself? Can he be as dynamic as a runner as he needs to be to protect himself and to also let Duke's offense operate the way it needs to? I think that at this point that might be a coin flip.

And me and Josh, we've talked about this. Do you think the priority to get him back would be more so? And, you know, it might seem like an obvious answer in Florida State, but they've got another big one at Louisville next week. And so we kind of already know that most likely Florida State's going to be on one side of the coin in Charlotte. Do you think Duke, if it was too dicey, would hold him against Florida State and wait to put him in against Louisville? So that's, I understand that line of thinking.

I actually, there's part of me that thinks that way, too. Like, if you know going to Florida State and winning is already going to put you up against the eight ball and then doing it with a whatever percent, Riley Leonard, is going to put you further behind the eight ball, give him another week. If you win at Louisville and if you take care of business in other games and you win at Carolina, you're still probably in the ACC tournament, in the ACC tournament, in the ACC championship game on, I think it's December 2nd or December whatever against Florida State.

So you get under the crack at him. Theoretically, Riley Leonard is healthy for that game in December against them. And it's on however neutral of a field it would be in Bank of America Stadium. I'm sure it would be more Florida State fans than anybody else's fans. But yeah, it's an interesting question.

I get the question. I just have trouble feeling like that's the way Duke would approach it. I think you try to win every game possible. You don't think about, okay, well, we only have a 10 percent chance to win this game according to ESDN, FBI, BPI, whatever the Dick Vitale bald index is, the Jake Billis thing, you know, all that stuff. You try to win every game. It's the Herm Edwards approach for a lot of college coaches. So yeah, I think it's valid.

Just don't think it's the way that you approach this one. Now we saw Duke against NC State. You and I were both there for that one. And we saw Henry Bellen step in. And even though he only completed four passes, Duke was still able to handle their business against NC State. That was largely in part of their defense.

Also, the run was really good that day. And we saw this Duke defense push Notre Dame around a little bit. So on the flip side of the coin, assuming Riley Leonard can't go, it's too great of a risk. We don't want to chance it.

There's too much at stake. How would you feel about Duke's chances against Florida State with no Riley Leonard? Yeah, no matter who plays quarterback for Duke, I think this game is a Duke win only if they hold Florida State under 30.

And guess what? They score 42 points a game, and they're on a 12 game winning streak with six this year, six last year. And in all 12 of those games, they scored at least 30. Now, you know, you can get into semantics with they needed overtime to get to 31 against Clemson and probably should have lost if Clemson didn't have some online grad student kicking that day. But if so facto, Florida State scores a lot of points, and they are the most complete team in the ACC.

I don't think that is really up for much debate at this point. So, again, like we all want to talk about Duke quarterback and I get it because Riley Leonard has earned that he's one of the best quarterbacks in the ACC when he's healthy and even when he's a little banged up, but it comes down to a lot more than that. Like Duke has to close the margins with really good special teams plays, and their special teams was really good against NC State. And in the first half against Notre Dame it's probably one of the main reasons they lost that game. Their special teams made a few plays against Clemson and that was a big factor in them winning. Connor O'Neill with us here on WSJS.

A few more things for you real fast. What stands out to you on the Wake pit? I know not a lot is at stake for Wake at this point other than trying to extend that ball streak and right now it's not looking good. Yeah, I just don't know what it's going to look like for Wake's offense. I mean, we talk about Duke's offense piecing things together with possibly a backup quarterback. Wake might be down to their third string quarterback with Santino Marucci possibly getting the start. It's not trending in the right direction. I've looked at this year from the start as something of a bridge year, a year that would test Wake Forest's floor as a program, and that floor is a little bit lower than I thought it would be.

Last thing for you. You're the other massive O's superfan around these parts and we haven't gotten to talk to you since it didn't go so well and they got swept. I know Josh has lashed out against the format of the MLB playoffs as a whole and that's kind of how he's coping with the loss. Are you doing okay over there?

Yeah, there's no lashing out over here. If anything, this is one of the easiest playoff losses for a team that I really enjoy watching and I'm a fan of just because the future looks so bright. And, you know, I wasn't a believer in it going in, but I am after watching a team that won 101 games get swept. I think you need some guys that have been there before. And other than a select few, the Orioles had none of those guys.

So I think the experience pays off. I think that they know they need to trade for some pitching because they have a. Well, I mean, they just have way too many position players coming through the ranks. You can't play 15 guys in the in the opening day lineup there. So trade for some pitching and we'll be good. We'll be back. Josh can overreact for the next three, three or five months, whatever it is.

And that's why. Connor O'Neill, safe travels to Cameron tonight, and we appreciate it as always, my friend. Thank you, W.D. We are back on a Josh Graham list drive down in New Orleans soaking that up. Here we got a little bit of a rainy situation up here. I don't know what the weather's like in New Orleans, but we do have our guy, Dave Polaski, with us in studio voice of the high school football game of the week here on WSJS. Dave, how are you?

I'm good. Josh was having been years in Jackson Square, by the way. So I think the weather is fine in New Orleans. I saw this, you know, he planned this.

He saw the weather. You know what? I got to get out of here. Yeah. Let me just ditch up. Big game tonight.

Yeah. Page at Grimsley, seven o'clock coverage start. You and Drew Brackett will be on the call and it'll be a seven thirty kickoff, we hope. How's the weather looking? Well, I was just checking the hourly forecast and it looks like there might be one more burst of rain at around like six o'clock and then it might start to taper off around that seven o'clock, seven thirty range.

I'm seeing thirty five percent around seven o'clock and then fifteen percent at eight o'clock. So I feel like we're going to get into that home stretch whereby kickoff time. It might taper off to the point where you may have a wet field.

Yeah. But I don't think I think the fans are going to be OK. I think the players are going to be all right. And I think we're going to have a great night of football. How bad does it because I played baseball. You played baseball.

You know, you get a pretty decent amount of rain. They'll they'll can it. How how far will it go in football? I know soccer. It could do anything, it seems like, and they'll still play. How's football do?

Usually if there's a lightning strike within an area, then that requires a half hour delay once you get beyond the lightning. It just comes down to personal taste. I mean, a lot of schools ended up moving up their games to Thursday. The entire Central Piedmont Conference ended up moving up their games to to last night.

Mount Tabor beating Reagan and East Forsyth and West Forsyth both winning, setting up a great week 11 regular season finale for us between East Forsyth and West Forsyth for the outright CPC title, by the way. But yeah, it just comes down to personal taste. You know, there's TV involved with this game with Page and Grimsley as well. So that factors in.

But once you get beyond that, it's just a matter of whether or not these teams feel comfortable playing. And Doug Robertson is an old school football coach at Page. Darryl Brown's the same at Grimsley. The athletic director, Ethan Albright, played in the NFL.

He knows how to deal with bad weather. So, yeah, I mean, it's. I wouldn't expect anything less from these two particular teams saying, you know what? Let's just go out and play, you know, big rivalry. All the events that go on Spirit Week surrounding this Page Grimsley matchup. Let's just proceed as planned. And if players and fans get a little bit wet, so be it.

So getting into the game piece of this, what's I mean, big robbery. What's at stake for both of these teams tonight? Yeah, I mean, Grimsley is ranked top 50 in the country. Still, they have been throughout the season. They're eight. No, one of the last twenty eight remaining undefeated teams in the entire state. They're trying to clinch the Metro Conference title outright. They can do that with a win and a Northwest Guilford loss tonight. They could clinch at very least a share. And by doing that, you lock up at least one home playoff game. If they can end up running the table through the end of the regular season, then they would end up as a top four seed at the very least.

And possibly end up with home field advantage throughout the playoffs, which obviously is huge for Page. They're four and four. They've won four of the last five games. They are four and one in the Metro Conference. If they can win, they can potentially create a three way tie atop the Metro standings and then all chaos breaks loose. So, you know, you never know what's going to happen.

But there's a lot going on here. You know, Doug Robertson's done a great job turning this team around from an 0 and three start against a really, really tough nonconference schedule, a combined twenty and five record between Dudley, Reedsville and Mount Tabor. So that kind of battle harden them. And they've won some close games in Metro Conference play and put them in this position right now. Yeah, I mean, some of those some of those tough losses in the beginning of a season, I'm sure you've seen this year in and year out. They can they can shape a team. They can mold a team.

It can make or break for sure. So. Catch that tonight, assuming everything goes on schedule, that'll be a seven thirty kickoff and we'll start our coverage here on SJS at seven o'clock. You're also a Jets fan and you guys just knocked off the. Eagles, you dealt them their first loss and first time the Jets ever beat the Eagles in the regular season, by the way. I know.

I know. Isn't that crazy? And the Browns, they did the same thing in the night. It's funny because me and Josh, we were talking about this going into the weekend and he had a sneaky feeling. One of the two undefeated teams were going to potentially be in some trouble. I didn't think either one of them were going to have any trouble. Turns out they both lost.

Yeah. If if you end up if you ended up picking P.J. Walker in the Browns to beat the Niners and Zach Wilson in the Jets to beat the Eagles in the same weekend.

You should probably buy a lottery ticket right now and get in on that mega millions and powerball except for legend P.J. Walker. That's right. So how impressed have you been that the Jets I mean, they're still in it. There's still I mean, we got a ways to go. I don't know if I don't think we're quite to the midway point of the season yet. Probably getting close to it, but they're still in the wildcard hunt.

Yeah. I mean, the Jets are at the bye week now at three and three. And when they got Aaron Rodgers going into the season when the schedule came out, I thought three and three was probably realistic given the schedule. You had to play the Chiefs. You had to play the Eagles. You have all you know, tough matchups. The Broncos always give the Jets fits, you know, Buffalo right off the bat on a Sunday night to begin or a Monday night to begin the season. That's a tough stretch of games no matter who's at quarterback. So I was thinking if they can go three and three heading into the bye week and this was with Aaron Rodgers, I'm OK with that. And they're three and three with Zach Wilson. So now it's like you kind of reevaluate and it's like, man, this defense is actually better than I thought they could be.

Yeah, because they took down the Eagles without sauce. Gardner. And, you know, well, I didn't I didn't really. Oh, yeah. Sauce Gardner was out.

OK. In fact, there were the top two defensive backs. Yeah. And ended up winning. So, you know, the defense is really, really good. And as long as Zach Wilson doesn't crash the truck off the side of the road, then the offense has enough firepower to at least get by.

Kind of like what Mark Sanchez did in those back to back conference championship years. That's true. That's true. And it's going to lead up to so they're on a buy and then they got what the Giants. Yeah. After that, after that.

OK, so that's where it's going to lead up to. Now, me and Josh, we we had a disagreement on this because we saw Aaron Rodgers out there slinging it around a little bit. I mean, everything we've seen from Aaron Rodgers so far has been ahead of schedule any I mean, he did have like a newer, different procedure done, something called an Achilles speed bridge or something like that. Do you think it's out of the question that if they keep things afloat, Zach Wilson doesn't crash the Porsche or the Civic or whatever it is?

Could could we see Aaron like if they're in a playoff situation, the last game or two of the season, could he do it? I wouldn't bet on it. I think it would be so beyond what medical history has suggested. I know that I'm not sure a doctor would take a chance on that and clear him.

I mean, let's just talk from a from a realistic practical standpoint. You know, this is a doctor who would potentially be putting his job and career on the line. That is true. He says, you know what? Yeah, you're good for after three months after Achilles surgery to come back out there. Yeah, which is unheard of it is it is the I don't know it is unheard of and see, I tend to lean and Josh gets mad at me for saying this. I think if they're in a playoff situation, the last game or two of the season, he's going to try it. If on the page, he's going to want to he's going to try it when whether the team will clear him for reasons you just explained. That's a different man. I don't know that, but I think he's going to try it if they're going to want to. But you know, it's Aaron, we know how he is.

You and I want a million dollars too. I mean, there's some things that just, you know, that just aren't on the table right now. So I would be shocked, absolutely shocked if he came back this season. I mean, considering the hype leading into it and then four plays in that happens and you just think that's there's that the Jets going to just and if that were to happen to where he would come back and talk about a cherry on top moment for the Jets. I mean, I'm not one to think of cherries on top. You're not your jet.

You wouldn't be would you? I just want the ice cream in the bowl. You know, yeah, just get it in without spilling it. Right. Yeah.

Without, you know, having the container, you know, end up breaking open as I'm trying to get a scoop out. That's, you know, that's life is a Jets fan. Aaron, the cherry on top doesn't even come into the picture yet. Yeah, I get that. So you UCLA, you do studio work for Learfield for UCLA. They're going to buy this week. No, we have a late night kick against Stanford. Oh, ACC, ACC Stanford Cardinal. Yeah. Okay. And you said did they lose to Oregon State last week? Yeah.

Okay. I thought I thought that that's a tough place to play in Corvallis and they were really able to get to Dante Moore, who's a really talented freshman quarterback, but they induced three turnovers had a critical pick six at the end of the first half. Kind of put UCLA in too deep a hole to try and climb out of. They were able to run the ball successfully on the beavers in the second half and close the gap a little bit, but just just too little too late at that point. So now they're trying to bounce back against the Stanford team that's coming off that miracle comeback win against Colorado, the biggest winning program history from a comeback standpoint, being down twenty nine, nothing at halftime and beaten Dion in the buffs.

So you'll have UCLA Stanford. You'll be doing that. Yeah. That'll be a ten thirty Eastern kickoff. Okay. So outside of that act, well, after dark.

That's right. What? Because we got some good college games as we get Duke, FSU. You got them on Tennessee. What college game or games is going to have your attention? I'm very intrigued by that Duke, Florida State match.

Me too. This is Duke has never beaten Florida State kind of going along with that Jets Eagles thing. But this is the best Duke team that has ever taken the field against the Seminoles, arguably.

Yeah. So, you know, the last time Duke had a football team this good, it was probably in the Steve Spurrier days before FSU was in the ACC when they were still an independent school. So I'm very intrigued by that match up. The Penn State, Ohio State matchup is going to be off the charts. Everybody's talking about, you know, that's, you know, three against seven matchup, both, you know, both teams with equally contrasting good parts where Ohio State has that dynamic offense. Penn State has a great defense.

It's going to be strength versus strength in that game. Great atmosphere at the horseshoe in Columbus. And I'm really I'm really excited about that one. Dave Pulaski, thank you for being here. Have a good call tonight.

You and Drew. And hopefully this rain will die off in time for. Yeah, we'll try to stay dry. At least we're inside this week. Oh, good. Because because last week you guys were like, yeah, we're out. Yeah.

Outside for Oak Grove in Ledford. So this time we're indoors. Back at it on the drive with Josh Graham, a Josh Graham-less drive with Josh Graham. We welcome on one of our good friends of the show. He is a two time N.C. Sportscaster of the year.

He is the host of The David Glenn Show on the N.C. Sports Network. And again, just a great friend of the show and a mentor of Josh and myself. David Glenn, how are you? I'm doing great, Will. Always good to be with you, my friend.

Good to be with you as well. Now, real quickly, because I know we talked about this on the show earlier in the week, there was that piece that Andrew Carter for the News and Observer put out on, you know, the the ACC expansion voting and how N.C. State flipped from a no to a yes. And I'll be honest with you, I'm very much undereducated about things like this.

And one thing I've always admired about you, D.G., is you're able to take complex subjects and make them very consumable, a lot more easy to understand. So I guess I what was your read on that article? And do you think we'll ever find out truly why N.C. State flipped its answer? Well, I think we know some of the reason. And my first impression is that Andrew Carter is an excellent sports journalist. I've always known that. It takes a lot of legwork and requests and following up to get the level of detail that he did in terms of e-mails and texts and other sort of interior data that typically schools and university presidents and athletic directors aren't willing to share with the general public or even members of the sports media. So credit to him for just doing the grunt work. I don't I don't think in this particular case there was a massive amount of new information.

There was a massive amount of new detail. But one thing we know is that N.C. State was a no along with UNC, Florida State and Clemson for a long time because of what your listeners would probably think of as common sense. Right. How does something called the Atlantic Coast Conference add schools, Cal and Stanford in North California and SMU in Dallas, Texas?

It doesn't make it doesn't make sense. Right. And whatever money you make that's new for the ACC network or your TV deal with ESPN. Obviously, you know, you also have some new travel expenses because it's not like you're only sending your football team, you're sending your your non-revenue sports teams coast to coast now.

And that's that's bringing on new expenses. When SMU basically said, we'll come and not take any TV money for almost a decade. And when Cal and Stanford said, we'll come and only take a small share. Well, all of a sudden, the ACC's headaches, which are trying to keep Florida State and Clemson happy with this new pot of money that instead of being shared equally, it's going to be shared based on on field success. So just imagine instead of 14 equal slices, the ACC had already decided we're going to at least share some of our money for the first time in our 70 plus year history. We're going to share some of it based on, you know, who goes to the college football playoffs, who plays in a big bowl game, who makes the NCAA tournament and then advances in the NCAA tournament. Well, where does this new bucket of money come from? Well, with with these three new schools saying what they said, we'll come for nothing at the beginning and SMU's case, nothing meaning TV money.

They do get other revenue. And Stanford and Cal saying, yeah, we'll come under these circumstances taking partial shares. Well, all of a sudden, what didn't make sense started to make at least more sense enough to contemplate it. And to try to make a long story not quite as long. And it's hard to do that.

And I appreciate everybody's patience. But basically, Clemson, Florida State and North Carolina know that in a disaster scenario where teams start leaving the league and they start challenging the grant of rights and nobody's 100 percent sure how a lawsuit would unfold. In that scenario where the the old 15 team ACC or it's still that right now, if it drops below 15 members, there was a disaster scenario where ESPN could negotiate the TV money downward. That is the last thing any of these university presidents wanted to hear at NC State or anywhere else. And whereas whereas if that chaotic scenario happened and because of its football brand, Florida State would find a new home somewhere either independent for a while or eventually the SEC or the Big Ten.

Clemson, same thing. Big football brand. Lots of people watch on TV.

TV eyeballs translate to dollars. That makes them an expansion candidate for somebody or maybe a wealthy independent at some point. Carolina is is deemed kind of the plum of the ACC for a different set of reasons. It would be new geography for the Big Ten or the SEC if one of those leagues extended an invitation. Well, the other the other 12 schools are not sure if they would get an invitation from one of the big leagues. They're not sure that going independent would be lucrative enough.

So they're afraid of the disaster scenario. And if you grow to 18, even if one or two or three schools leave, that ESPN contract doesn't get reduced because you didn't drop below 15 members. So all these perfect storm of combination of factors happened. And NC State went from saying no way under those circumstances to wait a minute.

Maybe we can solve our short term revenue problem with these with this new money. Maybe we can buy some time and maybe pacify Florida State and Clemson for a while and get closer to our next TV deal negotiation. And maybe if we just stay together for another five or six years, at some point, we'll be in a position to raid the Big 12 the next time they have a TV deal up and their grant of rights starts to expire.

I know that's a lot of material to digest, but that's how many moving parts there were. And if any of one of those four elements were not in place, maybe NC State doesn't switch. But when all of those things changed, NC State went from a pretty solid no to the 12th yes that they needed and the rest is history. David Glenn with us here from the NC Sports Network.

Now I want to get to because we were together at the Carolina Syracuse game a couple of weeks ago in Chapel Hill. I feel like we still haven't seen Heisman, Drake May. Like he's been good, don't get me wrong, but I feel like we haven't seen that that what got him into the Heisman conversation last year late and then kind of coming into the preseason or coming pre this year. And although I will say after what we saw from Tez Walker against Miami with the three touchdowns, I guess this kind of slightly answers the question, but I'm curious to get your thoughts on it. Do you think Tez Walker being a piece of this now, do you think that could kind of boost Drake May back into those type of season long conversations for the Heisman?

It's possible, but it's going to be hard because remember what was it four games into the season and Drake May had five touchdown passes and four interceptions. Now I asked Mac Brown about this on the David Glenn show and he went into all sorts of detail about how, yes, that's true, but his QBR is even better than it was at this time last year. And of course the Tar Heels have a better running game. So, you know, Amari and Hampton, his star running back, leads the ACC in touchdowns. Well, when you believe your team can run it in from the one yard line or the two or the three or the four, Amari and Hampton, your running back is getting all those touchdowns and it sort of takes a bite out of what would have been probably last year when the Heels couldn't run the ball.

They would have probably been Drake May throwing into the end zone, maybe for a touchdown. So Drake is a win first guy and maybe Mac's best point is that even with those pinball machine numbers last year, when Carolina went from nine and one, and at that point Drake May would have been one of the three people invited to New York for the Heisman ceremony. Because his numbers were so big and the Heels were ranked so high at nine and one.

Well, they lost their last four games. And at nine and five, the same superstar quarterbacks numbers just start paling in comparison to some of the other candidates. You have to both post a, history tells us, to win the Heisman most of the time, I'd say a huge majority of the time, you need both pinball machine or video game numbers and you need to be on a winning team. And I mean a high level winning team.

There are exceptions to that rule in the history of the Heisman, but there aren't a lot of exceptions. So as long as the Heels are undefeated right now, and as you said, Drake May's numbers were getting better. Man, if somehow Carolina is 11 and one and playing in the ACC title game, or if they want to dream bigger than that 12 and 0 and playing in the ACC title game, I know that's hard to do. But you know, Tez Walker's back, Drake May's numbers are improving.

It's hard to look that far down the road. But of course there is a scenario where Carolina's ranked in the, you know, maybe even higher than their current number 10 and Drake May starts cranking out those numbers with Tez Walker. Absolutely a month from now, we'll have a much better idea whether Drake May can pull that off.

At least for now, we have to say that it's a possibility. Well, and to be fair, unlike last year, he hasn't really needed to be, quote unquote, Heisman Drake May for them to win games. I mean, between Amari and Hampton and British Brooks at times and their defense, man, their defense, like they really haven't needed him to be Heisman Drake May, have they?

You're right. And that's one of the biggest differences from last year to this year. Carolina, you know, there's 14 ACC football programs, obviously. Carolina was number 14 in scoring defense last year. They were dead last at 31 or 32 points per game. As you and I speak, Will, the Tar Heels are sixth in the ACC in scoring defense at about 21 points per game.

It is not easy to shave 10 plus points off your scoring defense from one year to another. So it's a credit, you know, obviously, Gene Chiswick was his first year returning to Carolina last year. And a lot of those players said that they said back in August that they understood what he wanted on defense way better this year than they did in their first year under defensive coordinator Gene Chiswick. Well, sometimes that's just player speak.

In this case, it turned out to be true. They know what they're doing. They have pretty impressive personnel with Cayman Rucker at defensive end. And, you know, I think you could see both Cedric Gray and power. Echols make, you know, midseason All-American teams at linebacker. That's two great linebackers. And Elijah Hussey is a brilliant player in the secondary. They didn't have that caliber of talent besides Cedric Ray a year ago. So, of course, they're a more well-balanced team.

They're more balanced offensively between the pass and the run, but they're also just way more balanced among the three phases of the game. You know, that doesn't mean they're going to go 12-0, but it does make them along with Florida State and some others, you know, the favorites to end up getting one of those two slots in Charlotte in early December for the ACC championship game. Getting to that other football team up the road there in Durham, they got an interesting one, what I think is probably the best game in the weekend for the ACC Duke at Florida State. Yeah. What do you think the chances are that we're going to see Riley Leonard this weekend?

You know, that's such a guessing game. And, you know, Mike Elko going into the NC State game, the Duke coach said Riley's day to day. He, of course, did not want Dave Dorn of the Wolfpack and his assistant coaches to know whether Riley was going to play or not. So, of course, Riley did not play.

Well, Mike Elko said this week he's day to day. He did say a few things that sounded a little bit more optimistic, but you know how coaches think if if Riley Leonard is not close to 100 percent, why would you throw him out there against Florida State, one of the better defensive teams in the ACC? Because remember, Will, how did Duke upset Clemson? Clemson, I know they're out of the picture and off people's minds, but Clemson actually played the best defense in the Atlantic Coast Conference. They've lost two conference games.

I know people are down on them. They play elite defense. How did Duke beat that elite defense? Because they had a dual threat quarterback named Riley Leonard who could make plays with his arm, but also had that, you know, tiptoe down the sideline long run against a very fast and strong Clemson defense. If his ankle prevents plays like that, why bother playing him against a similarly talented Florida State defense?

I don't know which way it's going to go, but you know this and I do as well. But with all due respect to Henry Beeland, the fourth backup quarterback, there is no way on God's green earth that you can beat Florida State in Tallahassee by completing four forward passes. That's what they did to beat NC State.

They were so sure they could beat the Wolfpack, right? They didn't feel the need to throw the ball more than 12 times and they only completed four. Two were for touchdowns, but that's a game you're more likely to see in 1923 rather than 2023 for four forward pass completions. You have a zero percent chance of beating Florida State if you complete four forward passes. And oh, by the way, Duke and Florida State have played 21 times in football.

You know what the record is? It's 21 wins for the Seminoles and zero for the Blue Devils. That's in the history of the rivalry. You don't see too many like that in college football anymore. David Glenn of the NC Sports Network with us.

A few more things for you on the way out here. ACC basketball is getting close. What are you looking at right now as far as what's got your attention? What are you most excited or fascinated to watch as we get close to the ACC basketball season? Well, as somebody who's been at this for 37 years, I'm fascinated by the idea that we're following a John Shire coach team and a Hubert Davis coached Carolina team. Because I go back to, you know, the Dean Smith years and the Roy Williams years and the early years of Coach K at Duke. So Hubert Davis has one of seriously, I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say this. He has one of the most unusual track records of a young, inexperienced head coach in the history of college basketball. Because two years ago he was walking a tightrope and somehow rallied the troops all the way to an appearance in the national title game. He was the national coach of the year two years ago. And last year, of course, was one of the worst collapses. Seriously, preseason number one to missing the NCAA tournament entirely. There had never been an example of that.

Never. So whatever your opinion is, just factually, that had never happened. That is a train wreck, right? So how do you go from national coach of the year to the guy who was captaining the ship when all those things went wrong? So how is year three under Hubert Davis and Carolina after those two bizarro world seasons? And then John Shire started with an ACC championship at Duke.

I mean, that's a heck of a start for a guy who's a lot younger than most head coaches and taken over a much more prominent program than most head coaches and yet didn't seem to miss a beat last year. I think Duke is going to be one of the top candidates to win the national title. I think Duke is the top candidate to win the ACC title.

And I think Carolina is in that top tier of teams as well. And given your place in our state out in the triad, I'm excited to see what Steve Forbes does with the Demon Deacons. I mean, I think, you know, Miami is going to be good. Virginia is going to be good. Obviously, the Devils and the Heels are going to be good to some degree. I think this could be the breakthrough year for Steve Forbes in terms of getting an NCAA tournament bid. It was sad to see, you know, Damari Monsanto is going to need some time to get into the rotation in December.

And that's a key player for the Deacs. But I think they have enough dudes and a good coach to at least make a run at an NCAA tournament bid, which is, you know, what every kid's dream is and what every ACC coach has, at least as one of his goals here in October. D.G., the last thing I'll say to you is I'm pulling for your Phillies, man. That was a rough one last night. You know, Josh is still mourning the loss of his own, but I know you still got somebody in the fight here. Yeah, I had promised Josh that I would root for the Orioles until, you know, except if they face the Phillies in the playoffs. So I lived up to that oath.

I did root. They're out. So, I mean, I guess I delivered on my promise. I have a lot of fans here in North Carolina who are Braves fans. So that was a fun thing from my perspective as a guy who grew up in Philadelphia. I think we're as good as any team left will. I think we're in the driver's seat against Arizona. Obviously, they could even the series tonight.

We'll see. I have dinner reservations in Winston-Salem, and I made sure to pick a restaurant that had a TV behind the bar because I got to see how my Phillies are doing. And as someone who, as a little kid, was there in 1980 when the Phillies won the first World Series ever in the history of their franchise, I was there in person with my dad as they won it. And to this moment, it's one of my favorite sports memories of any kind. Man, it would be sweet to see them do it again. And even if they don't, I'll say this. This is one of the most exciting Phillies baseball teams I have ever seen as someone who's been a fan of theirs literally for 50 years. Even if they don't win it all. I mean, man, they are fun to watch.

And they're especially fun to watch when a lot of my friends and relatives up in the Philadelphia area are there to watch them at Citizens Bank Park. David Glenn, I appreciate you doing this, man. Thanks, Will. Keep up the good work, my friend.