Got The Dog In Me (11-2-23)

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast.

Three internet sensations, guys! Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons, 3 to 7 on WSJS. You are on a Thursday drive. It is WSJS, News Talk Sports for the Triad, and it is a game day for Duke and Wake Forest tonight in Durham.

You can listen to the game on WSJS. We're also doing Graham's gambling a little bit later this hour. And this was a game we were going to play at Wake Forest plus 12 and a half. However, in the last few hours, that number has shifted mightily to Wake plus seven. Something's up.

And here's that something. This is going to be a three or a four point game in the fourth quarter, and the Deacs are going to have their shot to win on the road at Wallace Wade Stadium. And upsets in the air on what is surely going to be a bitter cold evening.

Temperatures supposed to stay in the 40s. Wake Forest has a shot to win this game. The real reason for the line movement is that Duke's having quarterback problems. Riley Leonard hasn't really looked the part since coming back with the high ankle sprain, even though Duke was leading in the fourth quarter in Tallahassee, wasn't really because of Riley. He hasn't really been able to use his legs. Last week, they were shut out at Louisville, 23 to nothing.

And it sounds like to me a short week following that is not what the doctor ordered for number 13. And the part that makes this incredibly anonymous, if you're thinking, OK, you don't have Riley Leonard, that's one thing. Does that shift the line a full touchdown almost? Riley Leonard's backup quarterback, Henry Beelen, the fourth is likely out too.

So freshman Grayson leftist, come on down. Don't expect a lot of points tonight. Duke's defense is really good, but just like Duke, Wake's defense can win this game by itself. The lack of complimentary football for the Deacs this year, in other words, given how bad the offense has been for them this year and how much, how underwhelming we'll say Mitch Griffiths has been, that's completely overshadowed the fact that this might be the best defense Wake Forest has had since Mike Elko left for Notre Dame seven years ago. That's how good they are under Coach Lambert. And they got some dudes. They got a couple guys who are going to be playing in the NFL in that secondary. It's also significant that amid the 41 to 16 loss to Florida State last week, despite pressure that they faced from the Seminoles with Jared verse, among others, Wake Forest didn't turn over the ball. That's the recipe tonight. Don't turn over the football, lean on your defense, field position game, cold night.

You know what? We weren't going to play this game because of this line movement, WD. Screw it. Give me the Deacs, an early taste for Graham's gambling after we went 5-0 in college last week, 7-2 overall. Give me the Deacs to pull off the upset. Wake knows that their bowl streak is hanging in the balance. You do have NC State at home. You have a game at Syracuse to close out the season. Clausen knows this opponent better than anybody.

Working with Mike Elko for more than a decade, it probably bothers him to no end that they lost last year with Sam Hartman at quarterback, first time that Elko and Clausen went head to head as coaches. Give me Wake Forest. They get the key turnover that leads to them winning this game. They'll be down 13-10, 14-10 in the fourth quarter, and they will get the touchdown, likely aided by a turnover, to win this game, just like they did against Pittsburgh at the end in Winston-Salem. We're going Wake Forest 17, Duke 13. Yes.

Do that cash-off. Yes. We're taking Wake. 21X at WSJS Radio, if you want it, that's where we're streaming video, in addition to YouTube and Twitch. Will Dalton, the executive producer of the show, W.D., would you like to give the people another taste, not necessarily of the picks variety, but of the useless Panthers sound that you've curated that we'll get to in just a bit? Would you like to do that?

Oh, I'd always like to give a sample of that. Here was Bryce Young on what went into his Nelly Halloween outfit earlier this week. Full transparency, it was very last minute. I'm really bad at planning, so I knew about the party for a while, and I was like, I don't know what I'm going to be. Something's going to pop up, and a couple of hours, actually, before the party, I was still looking for something. Luckily, I was here, where I was able to supply a lot of it from the training room, which was great.

Full transparency, that's kind of where it came from. Bryce Young, slacker, just like many of us, 336-777-1600 if you want in. He had the Band-Aid underneath his eye.

He had the white Air Force 1s. Really did appreciate that from Bryce Young earlier this week, but we'll get to more of that Panther sound in just a little bit. Let's start off the show, our first call of the show.

Dave and Clemens once in. Dave, are you with me on the Demon Deacons tonight? What's up, JG? Thank you for taking my call. I wanted to talk a little Dave Clausen if you got a second.

Hey, I'll tell you what. I remember, 2018, Wake had a ton of injuries, and they went into a Thursday night game in the month of November against NC State. I was there. Don't say NC State! Don't say NC State! Don't say NC State! Don't say NC State! It was against NC State, and all I'm saying is, I wrote that Wake Forest team off. You can't get to a bowl game with a team this banged up and this, you know, this unfunctional, dysfunctional.

You can't make it happen, and they figured it out, figured out a way to get to a bowl game. At that point, I stopped doubting the man. Are you still going to doubt Dave Clausen? Josh, I think they were a 21-point underdog on that Thursday night game in Raleigh. Yeah.

Yes, I do. I feel like they don't have the quarterback, obviously, and I feel like the regional I was calling to, do you think he's got one foot out the door with all these Big Ten openings coming? Michigan, possibly, with Harbaugh? Michigan State? Northwestern? I mean, we're talking about big time, big money, schools. Do you think he's got one foot out the door, possibly, towards the end of this season?

Now you're asking the right questions. Thank you so much for the phone call, Dave. Two years ago, when Wake played Duke, we asked this same question, with Wake Forest being ranked in the top ten and David Cutcliffe, things not looking good in Durham. It felt like this was going to be the final time that Dave Clausen and Mike Elko faced each other at Wake Forest and Duke. I feel pretty comfortable saying tonight is going to be the last time that Mike Elko and Dave Clausen face each other at Duke and Wake Forest, respectively. It's kind of like a hedge, but I'll say that one of the two coaches coaching in tonight's game will take a job at Northwestern, Michigan State, and who knows, you bring up Michigan, Jim Harbaugh, if he takes an NFL job, that might be something that's open as well. There's my hot take for today, that one of these two coaches coaching tonight is not going to be coaching at the school they're currently at at season's end.

So there you go. It's been a difficult 24 hours for the college basketball world. Just this morning, we learned about the passing of Tar Heel legend Walter Davis, who was 69 years old, and right after we got off the air last night, the general, Bob Knight, died at 83. When you factor in the sideshows of his career, talking about Bob Knight, his legacy is the definition of complicated. But when you narrow the scope to just basketball, there is no modern day coach who had a great impact on the sport than he did. He was the coach a generation of coaches wanted to be.

Brilliant on the floor and given the license, given the amount of rope to be unapologetically themselves in the media, on the bench, how they deal with their players almost to a detriment. And you could see some of that in Jim Calhoun and Jim Boeheim and many others that came up and really rose to prominence after Bob Knight really took a foothold in Indiana. Nobody was more polarizing than he was until a man that he mentored, a coach he mentored, surpassed him. And that was, of course, Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. Bob Knight was Coach K's Coach K. K ushered in a new era of basketball coach, CEO-like, less personality, and influenced the next generation of coaches, the coaches that we're seeing coming up right now. I think because of Bob Knight's connection to Coach K, I think that that tree, the way that it looks, is probably the greatest coaching tree in college basketball and puts him in that Bill Walsh category for college hoops.

Three stats really define the success of Bob Knight. He was one of seven, make it one of four coaches to have ever gone unbeaten in a season. One of four coaches to do that. He's the only one to do so in winning more than 30 games and nobody has done it since his Hoosiers in 1976. He's one of three men to win a title as a player at Ohio State and then win one, of course, at Indiana as a coach, win multiple.

And lastly, this one's crazy to think about. In his entire career at Indiana, he only coached one player who would go on to make an NBA All-Star team. You talk about the talent that he had, but one guy, that's it. Can you name that player, the one Indiana Hoosier that Bob Knight coached that went on to be an NBA All-Star?

Who was it? Isaiah Thomas, one of the greatest ever. And so was Bob Knight. Though coach, a greater impact on college basketball than him, obviously you can get into a lot of the stuff that ended his career. He was a man of a different time. That sounds like a cop out, but it is especially true when talking about him. But Bob Knight, today's not the day for that. He's 83 years old and he's an absolute legend in the sport that we all love.

Let's get to some Carolina Panthers sound. Bryce Young, he dressed up like Nelly for Halloween. And he said it was kind of like a last minute deal that he put together. But it was amazing how many people reacted to the photos from Bradley Boseman's Halloween party and asked, who is Bryce dressed up as? It's almost like kids in their 20s and younger don't know who Nelly is or didn't get the outfit. Bryce, he's in his early 20s still, and he pushes back on that notion completely. Yeah, I saw like some replies that were like, what is he doing?

Better than that? Really? Well, as a spokesperson for, I guess, for 20 year old people at, so I feel like I don't feel like that reflects all of us. I like to think we, I like to, a lot of people when I got there, I got a couple of questions. I think a lot of people got it. Like I had the white forces on like, I feel like a lot of people got it.

The band, everyone was like, oh, the band-aid gets like, if I had the band-aid, I guess I could be a couple of people, but everyone saw the band-aid and was like, oh yeah, like that wasn't my experience. Good on you, Bryce. Yeah, you know, again, at that point, you know, Bryce usually doesn't like taking a stand. He's tepid. No, go after the zoomers.

Do it. He's a zoomer. Go after him and say, no, we know who Nelly is. You know better. That's how I feel when WD uses his age as an excuse for not knowing about who Nick Nolte is or any of these movies that we make him watch. Whoa!

That's it. Don't say, oh, well, I'm 27 years old. That happened before I was born. Bryce Young. You know what year Bryce Young was born?

Do you? Is he 22 or is he 20? Oh, no, he's not. He wouldn't be 20.

Ignore I said that. He's 22. 20? Yeah.

He would enjoy like a bud heavy if he wanted to. He's 22, right? He is. He was born in 2001, which means if you go through the Nelly catalog, Bryce Young, I don't think was born when some of these number one hits dropped for Nelly or it would have been pretty close to it. Yeah. Country Grammar came out in 2000.

Ride With Me came out, I think, a couple of months before Bryce was born, but he still knows who Nelly is and in 2023, the year 2023 of our Lord, he's dressing up as Nelly for Halloween. So, no, I don't want to hear any of the excuses anymore, W.D. You talking about, oh, I don't know this movie.

You know what the excuse is? I'm just not a movie person. Well, I just, I wasn't a movie person until I got here. No, this applies for basketball stuff, too.

You gave me that look. Oh, you expect me to know who Isaiah Thomas is? I know who Isaiah Thomas is.

Or that he went to Indiana, coached by Bob Knight. That piece I didn't remember. Right.

I expect you to know these things because I hold you to a high standard. I know the piston Isaiah Thomas. Do you? Yeah.

Name another piston from that team. See? Shut up.

Don't use your age as an excuse. This is on you. You didn't watch the bad boys' pistons 30 for 30? Come on, now.

I did not do that. Bryce Young needs to do a better job with the Halloween outfit. This is probably the time where Colin Cowherd would say, I want a quarterback who doesn't have a good Halloween costume. He's more focused on the game.

That's about the time that you might hear that, but there he is on his Nelly outfit. Frank Reich, Sunday, coaching against his former team. It's crazy to think at this time a year ago, Frank Reich was still the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. They fired him, I believe, week 9, week 10 of last year. I didn't realize until now, Shane Steichen, who at one time was a quality control coach under Reich, so there is a relationship there, retained the Colts DC Gus Bradley.

So Frank Reich hired Gus Bradley to be his DC in Indianapolis beginning last year, and Gus Bradley is still there. So there's an interesting element to that. Reich did his best to sit on the fence when asked about whether or not facing a team that fired him a year ago motivates him more. In this particular case, yeah, it always means a little bit more, but it's not, for me, it's not more, for some people when that happens, it maybe means more in a vengeful way. I don't look at it like that.

I don't look, I've never looked at it, you know. Motivated? Yes.

Motivated? Yes. But it's more, yeah, it's just a different perspective. It's a different perspective, but it's both can be true. It's just another game, but it also, you know, you understand it's a different dynamic.

I think both of those things can be true. Give me the part where he's asking himself questions. Motivated? Yes. Highly motivated? Yes. What else do you want to know? I'm answering questions that you haven't even asked yet.

Frank Reich, that's about as interesting, Frank. Motivated? Yes.

Highly motivated? Yes. Do I want to beat their brains in with a stick? Yes. Do I want to fist fight Jim Irsay at the 50 yard line? Yes.

How far was he going to go? Uh oh. That's a lot more interesting than Thomas Brown was when asked his thoughts on facing the Indianapolis Colts this week. Yeah, I mean, you know, numbers and numbers, the tape is a tape, I think when it comes to this league, week in and week out, I expect to have everybody's best. They have great coaches like we do.

They have really good players like we do as well. So preparing to kind of more so focus on ourselves and our improvements and ready for the opportunity to go against them. I'm not going to touch that one.

It just makes me want to fist fight. We have to go back and watch the tape. This is the purpose of doing the useless coach segment and trying to turn, you know, crap into something. That's true. Well played. That is the purpose of this segment and framing it that way. Like listen to this one more time.

The question was, hey, how do you feel about the opportunity Bryce Young has to face the Indianapolis Colts this week, given how banged up they've been? This might be the world record holder in Guinness, not Guinness. Is it the Guinness? Yeah, it is Guinness. Oh, the Guinness World Records. This might be the Guinness World Record for most cliches and useless sound in a 15, 20 second clip. I mean, you know, numbers and numbers.

The tape is a tape. I think when it comes to this league, week in and week out, I expect to have everybody's best. They have great coaches like we do. They have really good players like we do as well.

So preparing to kind of more so focus on ourselves and our improvements and ready for the opportunity to go against them. No, I'm not going to touch that one. The tape's the tape. Really? Game is the game.

We have to go back and watch the tape. Oh boy. Talk about. Oh, yeah. The opportunity, you know, it's nuclear codes, man.

You got to guard them. Unbelievable. But then again, completely believable. Just like this headline. This might be the funniest headline I've read all day. And this is being billed as like, oh, another damning update on Jim Harbaugh, his situation. According to Pete Thamel of ESPN, sources, this is the headline. Big 10 coaches urge action against Michigan in a call. Yes, a vast majority of the Big 10 coaches expressed their frustrations with the ongoing signs, signal stealing investigation into Michigan in a video call with Commissioner Tony Petitti last night. This is according to ESPN.

The call took 90 minutes, included nearly an hour without Jim Harbaugh, who hung up after the regularly scheduled Big 10 business to allow the conference's coaches to speak freely about the NCAA investigation into Michigan. Hmm. So you think, so you say that the Big 10 coaches who are competing with Michigan are advocating for something that might knock down Michigan and knock them down from potentially winning the Big 10 of which they're all competing in? I'm stunned. I'm just picturing. You think?

Frankly stunned. I'm just picturing Harbaugh hanging up the phone when we get to this point to click. Uh, by the way, just, you know, can we just acknowledge they shouldn't be allowed to win. You know, what's not.

Caller has disconnected. Oh yeah. Hey guys. Do you honestly think that this Big 10 commissioner that just got there is going to start the nuclear fire like reaction going to start, is going to take Michigan out of competition when that is their primary chance of winning a national championship and making a ton of money for the entire conference? You think he wants to touch that with a 39 and a half foot pole?

He just got there. Hey, let's take Michigan out of competition in a way that's completely unprecedented. No shot.

Zero. Right here on WSJS, we're a couple hours from airtime of Duke Wake Forest. You're going to be hearing a lot from this guy with basketball, football overlap on SJS, the voice of the Blue Devils, David Schumate joining us from the stadium. This is the part where you play meteorologist, David, what you are looking live at Brooks Field at Wallace Wade Stadium. Describe the temperature and what exactly it might look like when 730 arrives and we're kicking the ball off. Well, more specifically, I'm looking live at a closed window because I still got short sleeves on. So just to be totally honest, it's like 50 ish right now, but the sun's out, so it's still kind of warm. But I think we're going to be low 40s, upper 30s by the time we kick this thing off.

So no rain, though, no moisture. It's going to be crisp and cool. And it's November. Right?

Get after it. Let me think of the best way to ask you this question with a point spread line moving about five points in the last day or so. How many quarterbacks do you have written down on your chart in front of you?

Well, obviously, there's three on scholarships. So we'll start there, Riley Leonard, Henry Bielen and listen, I know there's been some reporting and stuff on social media. We get coach about two and a half hours before kick.

We'll do our pregame interview and know some more there. Hopefully Riley can go. Obviously, he's been dinged up a little bit the last several weeks, but I think they feel confident with whoever they put out there. Obviously, saw Henry Bielen win a game against NC State and Grayson Loftus, a Gaffney product has got a cannon for an arm.

So they got options. Obviously, it's not an ideal situation and the injuries, unfortunately, are not limited to the quarterback room. They've had injuries along the offensive line. Nicky Dalmolen, the tight end has been dealing with some stuff and one of the corners, Miles Jones as well. So everyone's dinged up this time of year.

No one's going to feel sorry for you. But yeah, injuries have been a big part of the storyline. What do you enjoy about the Wake Forest Duke series? Well, I mean, there's the proximity, right? I mean, everyone likes to talk about the state championship if you want to look at it that way. The Blue Devils already beat NC State, got Carolina coming next week. But also there's some familiarity there and similar minded schools with high academic standards and obviously there's recruiting battles that go into it. So it's just fun.

It gets a little chippy. But I think that comes along with the territory and obviously last year, we're getting close to that. You get some good games as well. I remember in 17 when the Blue Devils went to Winston-Salem, needing a win to get to bowl eligibility. We were able to pull it off. And then last year, on senior day coming from behind, Riley Glinard finding Samir Hagen to make it 34 to 31. So there's been some really good games in recent memory. But yeah, the proximity is obviously the biggest thing.

David Schumates with us. Both these teams lean on their defenses. Wake's offense has struggled a great deal, a lot more than Duke's offense has.

But with Riley Linnards, even as he's played the last few weeks, he hasn't really looked like the pre-injury Riley, which is to be expected given what he's trying to play through. How many points do you think wins tonight's game? Well, as you probably have already talked about, 20 is the magic number, right? I mean, the Blue Devils are 5-0 when they give up less than 20 points, 0-3 when they give up more than 20 points. And I think Wake 4 is just 4-0 when they score more than 20, and 0-4 when they don't. So there you go.

It's fairly simple. And Duke is giving up 15 points a game. So I mean, the defense has been playing really well. Even last week up in Louisville, it got off to a bit of a rocky start with those two quick touchdowns, and Jordan played so well at running back for the Cardinals.

But after that, just three field goals allowed. So I mean, I don't think it's any secret tonight for both Duke and Wake 4 is this is going to be a defensive game. You touched on the weather at the top, right? It's cold.

It's going to be clear skies. It's November. So physical game. Let's get after it. Let's play a little defensive football. Now that we say all that, it'll probably end up being 45-42 or something crazy.

Probably. David Shumate's with us on Twitter at DukePBP, joining us at Wallace Wade Stadium. Last night at Cameron, we saw Duke's exhibition. What has stood out to you from your vantage point watching this team in exhibitions, but also, I'm sure, being privy to some practice and obviously the coaching staff? What are some things that have stood out to you as the lead up of the season, the final countdown is on?

Well, there's so many different things. I mean, last night was obviously impressive. That was a really good team they played in, UNC Pembroke, and beat them by 45 and controlled the game. It's a team that's going to be number eight in the Division II preseason rankings, probably going to go back to the NCAA tournament. So to control the game right from the outset, to me, there's a bunch of different ways you can look at it, but we'll talk about different stuff as the year moves on, but the backcourt certainly jumps out in the depth in the backcourt. Starting three guards last night, Jerrard McCain, the freshman, gets to start alongside Tyrese Proctor and Jeremy Roach, you know, Caleb Foster coming off the bench is so good. So I think it's going to be one of the deepest backcourts in the country, and Proctor last night, for those that don't know, it was 14-2 out of the gates, and he had four threes like in the first two or three minutes, ended up with five on the night. When he shoots the basketball like that, and I think this is a team that's going to be able to shoot it from a bunch of different spots, it just changes how Duke can play offensively, and obviously going over 100 points is a positive sign, because last year, you were talking about defense on the football side of things, it was historically a good defensive basketball team for John Shire.

I think that will still be there this year, but I think offensively they're going to take a step forward. The four starters coming back, you mentioned that McCain started last night, Jared McCain. Is it him and Caleb Foster that are kind of jockeying next to each other to try and get that fifth starting spot, or do you feel pretty comfortable saying that when the season starts Monday, you should expect McCain to be in the lineup? Well, it's funny you say that, because talking to Coach Shire last night, he was saying, we got six starters, and coaches don't like to be put into boxes, so I think Caleb Foster's right there, and I think one of the things that's cool about this team that I have noticed about being around practice and kind of seeing them hang out, obviously, Jared has a huge following on TikTok.

I'm not on TikTok, you might be, so you might know all the different things he's doing. I am. I'm not either.

I'm not either. But they're close, and they're tight, and I don't think they worry about who starts and who doesn't. They know they're all going to get significant playing time.

I mean, I'd throw power in there. Obviously Stewart, what he can do with his standing vertical, breaking Zion's record, and he had a monster dunk last night, so all these guys are going to contribute. Obviously Foster's going to be in the mix, wouldn't be surprised to see him start at some point, but right now they're rolling with McCain as that fifth starter. Not a bad week to be at Duke. You get a home game against Wake and a rival. You had, obviously, a good exhibition.

I don't know if you're privy to the same rules that coaches are when it comes to recruits, but you land the number one player in the country. You were probably there at countdown the craziness when he's there and he looks like a kid in the candy store. Not a bad week to be in Duke land, it sounds like.

No, for sure. I mean, you're right, I can't talk about it, kind of like the coaches, but I see the same stuff that you do and countdown was cool. And I got to see it, I was actually down in Tallahassee for the football game, I got to watch it with everybody else.

Yeah. And then you mentioned the cool week on the recruiting front, but also, obviously the opener on Monday with Dartmouth, but then like, how about next weekend? I mean, Arizona comes in, you got 12 versus two on Friday night, then head across the street to battle for the victory bell and then jump on a plane to head to Chicago to take on Michigan State on Tuesday night in the Champions Classic.

So, I mean, it's loaded here at the front end of the season for basketball, but getting warm for football as well. It's going to be a fun week. Who's on that Arizona team?

I can't think of anyone in particular. David Chumay, I'll see you later on tonight. Have a great call. We'll be listening to it on WSJS. Thanks for the live report from Wallace Wade.

No, appreciate it, thanks for having me on. There are a lot of so-called sports talk guys who don't do anything but flap their gums. Yeah, exactly. But not Josh Graham.

He doesn't even like gum or flapping, for that matter. He's so talented. You're on The Drive with Josh Graham. We are rolling, man. It's been 10 weeks of handing out picks each week. Eight of them winning weeks, or I should say there have only been a couple in which we had losing weeks, because there are a few 4 and 4s in there, or going 3 and 3, those type of thing.

Last week, 5 and 0 in college, 7 and 2 overall, over 500 at 36 and 34, right where we need to be, trusting the process. Got eight to give out right now in Graham's gambling. If you're not gambling, come on now, let's talk some money. You're not trying. You are so money. You don't even know it.

But you do. Let's play some bets. I'm gonna make you rich. This is Graham's gambling. Two for tonight. Let's knock them out pretty quickly. In derm, we're taking the road team. We're trusting Dave Claussen. I've only taken the Deeks twice this year, WD, and both times I've taken them, they've come home with a win. Let's see if we make that 3 and 0. Wake was a 12 and a half point favorite, or 12 and a half point underdog when I woke up this morning. Now the Deeks are 7 point underdogs. Duke seems to have some quarterback problems. Wake, pulling off the upset.

I might like them out right, but in this context, we'll just take them plus a touchdown. It's a short week for Will Levis. His first road start is in Pittsburgh.

Think of a few places that would be more palatable to make your first career road start in. The Steelers should be okay, bouncing back from a loss at home to the Jaguars. Lay the small, tiny 2 and a half points in order to get the Steelers against the Titans. So tonight's in the books. WD, somehow we got two more picks for tomorrow night.

Boston College is at Syracuse. You know where we're headed here. We're getting points here? How? Why? Georgia Tech, by the way, getting points from Virginia. Virginia's favorite against Georgia Tech.

I had to lay off on that. We're not doing that. She says every time I bet against Virginia, it goes poorly.

She's probably right. So we're staying away there. But no, we're not staying away from the Eagles, who put up a lot of points against a bad UConn team last week.

Don't look now. Going into the season, WD, we said Boston College was going to exceed expectations, and that meant getting to a bowl game. A win tonight would make BC Bowl eligible.

I think that's what they'd do, or pardon me, tomorrow night. They're two and a half point underdogs. I think they win the game.

Castellanos, a little banged up in the game against UConn, but he came back at the end of that game. Syracuse looks like they've quit. They've been blown out by everybody the last three or four games.

They shouldn't be giving points to anybody. So on general principle, we take BC to beat Syracuse, but we'll just take the two and a half for this segment. Also tomorrow night, Colorado State is getting a full seven at Wyoming. Here's what I know about Wyoming.

And we learned it with App State going up there earlier this year. Things always get weird in Laramie. Every single game is weird and close. That's played in that stadium, in that town. It looks like it might even be windy in Laramie.

That's just way too many points. I think CSU is a legit football team. They're the better team in this game. I get it's on the road. We're going with the Rams of CSU plus seven at Wyoming. Last college game.

It's weird. Only one college pick for Saturday, but it's a big one. Bedlam. It's the last time Oklahoma State and Oklahoma are going to play for the foreseeable future with Oklahoma leaving for the SEC. I so badly want to take Oklahoma State plus six at home in Stillwater.

Gundy. I'm man. I'm 40.

Now he's pushing 60. I can't do that after Oklahoma was beaten by Kansas last week and the bounce back factor of that. So here's what I'm instead going to do. There's no way we're going to say goodbye to Bedlam without it being both teams scoring at least 30 points in the game and it being a shootout. Just the points in Bedlam. How's the total? Only 60 and a half.

Somebody explain it to me as if that makes sense. We're going over 60 and a half in Bedlam, Oklahoma. Oklahoma State. Send me that cash out, family. To Sunday we go.

And on Sunday, boys and girls, we like NFC South teams. Do you like it? Do you like it?

No? Well, I love it. Taylor Heinecke is getting the start for the Atlanta Falcons against the Vikings and Atlanta is still laying four and a half points.

How's that possible? Well, quarterback on the other side is former BYU quarterback Jaron Hall. There probably isn't a team in the NFL that leaned on its quarterback more than the Vikings leaned on Kirk Cousins.

So I've entered a saying. Jaron Hall going on the road for his first career start after Kirk went down. Probably not going to go well for the Vikings. Atlanta, decent home team. The Vikings, meh, against the run and Atlanta likes to run it quite a bit. Atlanta minus four and a half against Minnesota.

Send me that cash out, family. The Carolina Panthers were three point home underdogs against an AFC South team last week. And how'd that go? The Panthers won the game on the field. Now they're facing another AFC South team at home and they're getting two and a half points. We're going to do this again. Let's run it back. Panthers plus two and a half against the Indianapolis Colts in the Frank Reich Revenge game on Sunday.

Send me that cash out, family. And the last pick we have here. I'm running out of breath with all these picks.

This one I had to be talked into, W.D., but we're definitely pulling the trigger. Patriots minus three against Washington. Washington's pass defense, not very good. They're going to Foxboro. And that pass defense was bad before they waved the white towel, waved the white flag and traded away Montez Sweat and Chase Young.

I think that Mac Jones is going to be more comfortable than he's been in a while. Remember, a couple of weeks ago, he carved up Buffalo's secondary, dropped nearly 30 points in the game. Let's not forget Bill Belichick tortures young quarterbacks. Sam Howell, first year as a starter, going to Foxboro against Belichick. I don't like his chances there. Patriots minus three against the commanders.

Send me that cash out, fam. So in review, tonight we're on the Deaks and we're on the Pittsburgh Steelers. Tomorrow night, Boston College plus two and a half at Syracuse.

Boston College. Colorado State plus a touchdown in Laramie. Only one on Saturday. It's the over in Bedlam and on Sunday, Atlanta minus four and a half against the Vikings. The Panthers plus two and a half against the Colts and the Patriots laying a field goal against the Washington commanders.

Send me that cash out, fam. Seven and two last week, we're going with eight picks. Feels like it's probably too many.

I don't love the board the way that I did a week ago. There are a few I'm in love with. The Bedlam pick, absolutely. We're in on that. The Panthers, love that pick, too. The NFL ones, I feel pretty good about. And then the over in Bedlam. The rest of them, we like enough that we'll just fire them off.

Trust the process, trust the criteria. That Patriots-Commanders game is just going to be... stink. We love it, though.

We hate it, but we love it. This song's been a bit of a victory anthem. For now, the World Series champs, the Texas Rangers. This is higher by Creed. We still have one more pair of Creed tickets to give away for Charlotte next July.

It'll be pretty obvious what the queue is to call in for that in just a bit, 336-777-1600. Right now, we're being joined by Creed fan, Voice of USA Baseball, ACC Baseball, et cetera, host, our friend, Darren Vaught, unusual question-answerer as well. The Rangers made history. Most road wins ever for a playoff team, 11-0. It seemed fitting that they won it on the road. Almost as fitting as the fact that we have Creed tickets to give away the day after they win a championship. How are you going to remember this Texas championship team, the first ever Texas Ranger champ?

It's a good question. I don't know that it's one emblem that I'm going to remember these guys by other than maybe Corey Seeger cementing himself as one of the great World Series players of all time, a multi-time World Series MVP now. He's just the second position player ever to do that in addition to Reggie Jackson. The two pitchers, by the way, to have done that, Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson, so pretty incredible company for the North Carolina native Seeger to be in.

I think there's a resiliency to this team. If the Diamondbacks had won it, it would have been the most unlikely World Series champion ever. This Rangers team, I actually heard Bugshami give this on the national radio broadcast during one of the games. The Rangers were the first team to ever make it to the World Series, guys, while having more blown saves than saves in the regular season. Chapman was not that good this year.

No, I mean, absolutely not. Josh Spores, Virginia hero of the 2015 College World Series, was the one who ended up closing it out last night in the final game. I don't think that there was a formula in the bullpen for them in the same way that there was for even Arizona by the end of the year, by the time they picked up Seewald.

Last night, you knew it was going to be Ginkgo. You knew it was going to be Seewald for Arizona. Texas has kind of mish-mashed their bullpen for the most part. There's a resiliency to that that I think forever going to associate with this team.

The Rangers now are off that list of teams that have never won a World Series. It's five teams long now. And the good news is... Three, oh no, is this the cue to call, yeah I think so, I know so, I don't know why I said I think so.

I just heard the news today, with arms wide open, oh this is you, under the sunlight. Oh, it's actually Scott Stapp, 336-777-1600, myself and Ben Jacobs, former Panther long snapper. We need to bring Creed bombing back. In the locker room, if the Panthers beat the Colts, I'm going to go up to J.J. Jansen and be like, yo, you were on the team in 15, you want to bring the vibes back? You can start Creed bombing people in the locker room. Bring it back.

Let's bring Creed bombing back. I was going to say that the five teams that have not won a World Series now, three out of the four actually look pretty good at the moment. San Diego has spent quite a bit.

They seem to be trying to compete now. You have the Milwaukee Brewers, who made the playoffs. The Tampa Bay Rays, obviously, have been pretty good in recent years. The Rockies are the one exception.

They have not looked awesome. And the Mariners are in the group as well. They're the only team to not make the World Series. I've been high on the Mariners the past couple of years.

I think they could possibly make their first World Series in the next handful of years to sort of get into that streak a little bit, although it might be a while before one of these teams actually wins the World Series again, who knows? Let's get to unusual questions, why don't we? 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. Okay, unusual questions.

Since we already have given away the concert tickets, you don't have to call in in order to win those tickets. So let's just fire off on this. Darren, a little bit chilly the last few days. I just need to know, what is the key temperature number for cold weather gear to come out of Darren Vaught's closet? Is there a number that you look at and say, yep, now I'm bringing out the barber jacket. Yep, now I'm going pull over with the cold weather gear atop. I think there are tiers to this, right?

Like so you're in a quarter zip. And I've got a barber jacket for the Duke game tonight that starts in less than two hours. Yeah, there have to be tiers for me because I'm a big time layerr and layer things, so there's a temperature at which it's like, okay, hoodie. But I might wear shorts with the hoodie. There's a temperature at which it is, okay, a nice long sleeve shirt that I might wear shorts or full pants. I said cold weather gear, which means you're not wearing shorts. So like, what is the tier where it's pants and it's layers, plural. I think, I mean, I think you're probably sub 50. Okay. So if it was 55, nah, I'm good with just a jacket.

55, I might do hoodie and shorts depending on the occasion. I'm with you. I think if there's a five in front of it, I'm not layering it up. If it's before, if there's a five under it, like we're sub 50, then I'm probably going to layer it up like tonight. That's the plan.

I think I'm with you. WD? I'm always a big fan of layering. But at what temperature?

I think I'm so weird when it comes to what I wear in certain temperatures, I'd probably say I would layer up in a 70 degrees, maybe 68. I get it. With pants? Maybe. Again, I'm weird.

Yeah, you are. For the look? For the aesthetic? For the, for the look. For the look. Okay. I get weird looks about this.

Because that's a very weird answer. I'll let you. Hold up.

Oh, he wants more. 70 degrees you would wear, like what's an example, like a hoodie with a jacket over top of it. 70 degree weather?

You know what? 70 was a bit extreme. Very much so. I will say 68 is the cap that I would wear. Take two degrees. 70 was a bit extreme. Let's knock it down two degrees. Yeah.

It's the same thing, Will. I would, I would put on maybe a hoodie. With flannel. Did you say 68 because you're a child and didn't want to say 69?

You know what? Well no, because 68, a couple notches down from 70 felt better than just one. You actually took it there?

I appreciate it. What temperature is your house set to? Me? Yeah. 69. Just give me an unusual question.

What is your favorite room in your home? Ooh. It's unusual, right? I like this. Yeah. I actually like this question. Darren is giving a physical like recoil net to it. He did not like that question much.

No it was too unusual for Darren. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's like, is it your bedroom because that's where you sleep? Is it your living room because, or like where the television's at? Like your den area because that's where you consume a lot of entertainment? Or is it your kitchen because that's where a lot of the magic happens slash dining room? See, I'm a big living room guy. Big living room guy because that's where the big TV is. That's where all the Star Wars stuff is.

I'm, well, I'm with you. I think it is like the living room, den type area because I also enjoy, I have a comfortable couch. I enjoy sleeping on my couch sometimes, not like to go to bed, but sometimes like a power nap. Oh yeah.

All about it. And I keep the blankets right there at the end of the couch so I could just pull one of those over and get, get a couple of Z's, so to speak. I spend a lot of time in there watching games and such, so I think I'd probably say that's my favorite room. Then you got the Peloton room.

Hmm. I think it's the den. I think it's the den. I think it's my bedroom. Guys, I like sleep.

I'm rarely here if I'm not just like sleeping. I think it's the bed. All right. There you go.

What's your unusual question, Darren? If you guys ever bought something, I don't know if this applies to, you got to go back a ways cause like as seen on TV items. Yeah.

Oh, oh, oh. Oh, have I ever bought as seen on TV? Like a ShamWow? Have you ever purchased something that is it, you might not have bought it by the number on the infomercial or what have you, but it is an as seen on TV item. No, I haven't.

I'm trying to think. No. So I was trying to think of the way to ask this because I don't know, I don't remember it being an as seen on TV, but I think there were similar infomercials. Well, the modern day seen it on TV is Instagram now. It's like an ad that's pushed to you on social media. My wife and many others seem to see things on IG and purchase it like, look at this dog collar for Willow the dog, that type of thing. I haven't ever really done that either except for a bachelor t-shirt that I bought that ended up being the picture, me wearing it ended up being the picture on my dating app that my now wife liked in order for us to get connected on the app.

That reminds me, I recently got pushed. Good purchase. A graphic t-shirt that I almost, almost on the spot bought for you. What's that? It's got the big board at the dining section of Costco. And it's the hot dog.

And it says, the shirt Josh says, I got that dog in me. Why did you give me that? That'd be a great Christmas gift.

I'm not kidding. I may or may not have like bookmarked the post for future gift giving. So I hate that I just revealed that to you.

I'll act surprised if you do, in fact, give it to me. You should know last night that I went to Costco with my potato chip bag in hand and ate a hot dog. And a couple that I knew from church saw me there and they said, Oh, look, honey, he brought his own potato chip bag. What a pro.

What a pro. I hate that. And then someone at Costco said, Hey, Josh, and was not a listener of the show.

They just knew me because I go to Costco every week. I hate that so much. It's true. You being lauded for that. I hate that. I hate it. I got that dog in me. He got the dog in you.

That's been unusual questions with Darren. Since we're pushing things ahead now that baseball season's over, Major League Baseball, I've heard a lot of chatter over the last couple of weeks about college baseball. Heard it down in Baton Rouge when I was at LSU, how excited they are.

Well, mostly because they learned where I lived and they were like, Oh, how about that baseball game? Oh, that was pretty cool in Omaha. And yes, that was a very cool baseball game. Not cool for Wake Forest, but one of the best college baseball games I've ever watched. And a lot of buzz in Winston-Salem with Chase Burns, the Tennessee transfer and such. Is Wake Forest going to be preseason number one when that time comes in baseball? It's between them and LSU. Again?

I think so. The Tigers have just reloaded with more transfers. Thatcher Hurts going to be back as their ace. But you mentioned Chase Burns from Tennessee to Wake Forest. They got Seaver King, the potential ACC Player of the Year in my mind from D2 Wingate. Wake's going to be good. But LSU is also going to be very good again, too.

So I think they will be one and two in some order. I was at an Irish pub in New Orleans and said something about Wake baseball. And they go, oh, Bennett Lee, Michael Massey, lost both those guys at Tulane. Whoa.

A lot of ties between Wake Forest and New Orleans LSU type baseball down that way. Darren, appreciate you spending the time, my friend. We'll talk to you next week. Sounds good. We'll talk to you next week, guys.