Don't Call It An Upset

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast.

We're internet sensations, guys! Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons, 3 to 7 on WSJS. You are on a Monday Drive. It is WSJS, News Talk Sports for the Triad, where if you're an AppState fan, life's pretty good for you today. In an attempt to make things even better, though, Sean Clark will be joining the show at 5.35, fresh off the win over unbeaten JMU Saturday. Plus, we've got a pair of tickets to App Georgia Southern this week that we're going to be giving away in about 15 minutes.

Make sure you're around for that. Meanwhile, if you're a Carolina Panthers fan today, things aren't going quite as awesome. After yesterday's loss to the Dallas Cowboys, it's now an inevitability that Frank Reich and Scott Fitterer are both going to be fired.

There were even whispers it could have happened today. It is a wrap, because obviously massive changes are needed. Taking play-calling duties away from Thomas Brown isn't going to fix things.

It doesn't account for how bad things are and how bad things have gotten at 1-9. Yesterday was a season-low in yardage. If you're going to take away the play-calling duties from Thomas Brown because of a season-low in yardage on a Thursday night and a short week against the Bears, then you can't have at home with extended prep a season-low in yardage the week after that.

You can't do that if you plan to keep your job. And while that's happening, you're having to run silent count at home because there are so many Cowboy fans in the stands. And you lose the game by more than three touchdowns.

It is a wrap. The questions are being asked already of Frank Reich. Just a couple of hours ago, here was Frank saying that, hey, we get it. This is what we signed up for. These are the types of questions that get asked when you're not winning a ton. But he doesn't believe it's a distraction for the team. We talk about it in there all the time.

This is a week-to-week lead. And we all know what we sign up for when we get in this business. So I'm comfortable with that. Just keep working. Put your head down and focus on your work.

So I don't think that's not a distraction. It's just plain and simple. Frank Reich isn't the coach he was billed as when he was hired. The way he was billed, offensive-minded coach. First time the Panthers have hired a head coach with an offensive background in their history. Just think of all the possibilities with this quarterback.

And then it turns out you hired a dinosaur. Somebody that we talk about great coaches. In the state of North Carolina, you think about Mike Krzyzewski, for example, at Duke. What made him so great was how adaptive he was. He was able to coach until he was 73, 74 years old.

And took his last team to a Final Four because he was adaptive. Every year, he didn't have a set style. He designed a style to the personnel he had.

He adapted a style to the personnel. Not the other way around. Which is what's happening with the Panthers.

They're trying to fit a square peg through a round hole. With the way they run things offensively, that's an indictment on coaching. It's not creative. It's not good. It's not productive. And that's all an indictment on this guy who was supposed to be an offensive-minded coach.

So that's the Frank Reich piece. Scott Fitterer has failed too, though. He whiffed on two top ten picks. Now, I don't want to hear about, J.C. Horn's been banged up if he hasn't been hurt.

Send me that cash out, family. You gotta face facts. Even if he was healthy, it's hard to imagine that would have been a better pick than taking Rashawn Slater, the tackle that the Chargers took right after you. It's hard to imagine he's going to be as good as Michael Parsons has been, who ravaged Bryce Young yesterday. That was a whiff. And him being hurt, that certainly hurts as well.

Then, it's Iki Iguanu. Even if Iki becomes a plus player, or not a liability, you took this dude in the top ten. The standard is, when you draft a guy in the top ten, you want a Hall of Fame caliber player.

And that's not unrealistic to expect. Look at all the top ten picks that Marty Hurney had. Every single one he hit on, and they were Hall of Fame caliber players. Jordan Gross, Luke Kuechly, Julius Peppers, Cam Newton. Yeah, Christian McCaffrey.

Those are the guys who take in the top ten. And that's not who Iki's going to be. And Iki was the one getting turnstiled again yesterday.

It was a whiff. That's on Scott Fitterer. And the clock's ticking on Bryce. You can't waste any time when you have a quarterback on a rookie deal that you've invested this much in.

You're not supporting him the way you need to. That's on coaching. That's on Scott Fitterer as well. I don't know who was mostly responsible for the Miles Sanders contract.

Whether it was Frank who worked with him in Philadelphia, or Scott, or a combination. But they both failed on that. That was a disastrous contract. Someone has to pay.

And it's those two. And David Tepper is not going to make the same mistake again. He's going to learn from past mistakes. No more lame duck coaches. He said in the press conference after he fired Matt Ruhl a year ago that it was a mistake to bring him back for a third year. He's not going to make that mistake again.

Once he knows, and I think he probably knows now, they're going to make that change. And with Scott Fitterer, no more arranged marriages. No more, hey, we're going to fire a coach and then have that coach work with the GM who's already in place.

Or vice versa. Which has happened three or four times under Tepper's watch. Blow the whole thing up.

Reset the whole thing. And then make Jim Caldwell or Dom Capers, the interim coach, the rest of the way. It could still happen this week.

I don't think it will. But if I had to guess, I think yesterday is the last home game that Frank Reich has as the Panthers coach. The next three are on the road, starting with Tennessee this week. If you're looking at one in twelve heading into that home game on December 17th, I think you're talking about Jim Caldwell or Dom Capers as the head coach. After yesterday, it's become an inevitability.

It's green mile, dead man walking. That's what you're talking about here. Frank Reich, Scott Fitterer, it's a wrap.

It's a wrap for those guys. On X at WSJS radio today if you want in. That's where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch. Will Dalton, the executive producer of this show. W.D., did you decorate the studio today? Was that you? No, I didn't do this.

Who did? You know, I'm not sure. I need to find out. If you're watching, people have put Christmas decorations up in the studio.

And it's appreciated and I'm a little surprised that it's not W.D. who has put this stuff. Somebody beat me to the punch. Up in here. In college football, this has been a tough season for the state of North Carolina. The Tar Heels have lost three of their last four ACC games. Wake Forest is going to miss a bowl game for the first time in eight years. Duke's been fighting an uphill battle without Riley Leonard over the last month. And boy, don't get me started on my East Carolina Pirates.

Held Navy to ten and couldn't score a freaking point. Thank goodness for Rap State though. They have easily been the story of the football season in our state this year. And Saturday's win in Harrisonburg was a massive deal. But just consider where they were a month ago.

They were written off. The way we're talking about Frank Reich right now with the Panthers. That's the way that Sean Clark was being talked about by App State fans after the home loss in primetime on that Tuesday night against Coastal and then following that up with a loss to ODU. At that point, App State was 3-4 on the season.

3-4. A lot of people talking about missing a bowl game for a second straight year. And potentially making a coaching change off of Sean Clark. Since then, App State is 4-0 and the crescendo of that was a statement win against James Madison on Saturday with College Game Day in town. App State beaten unbeaten team. And they led most of the way. The Wright team won. App was the better team. JMU needed a lot of things to go right, including a 4th and 18th conversion in order to force overtime.

Here was Adam Whitten's call on the App State radio network. The final play in App State's OT win. Joey looks forward. Takes the snap. Here comes the rush. Joey throws underneath caught by Robinson at the 5.

Stiff arms at the 2. Yes sir! Yes sir! Touchdown! It's a touchdown! Kayden Robinson. The catch.

The extra effort. The run to the end zone. Kayden Robinson gets in and the Mountaineers have beaten JMU. The dream season is over. The Mountaineers reclaiming the throne here in Harrisonburg.

And that was a culmination of really the last month. 3 double digit wins before that and then you beat JMU that way. Just evidence that App State can't play any normal football games.

They're all drunk. The losses in OT to North Carolina. The freak fumble inside the red zone against Coastal. The blocked field goal when you're driving in against Wyoming that was run all the way back.

The first blocked field goal touchdown of the history of Wyoming Cowboy Football. It's been a weird, bizarre season. But App's going to play for a bowl and the story could get likely a lot better very quickly because I really do like their chances of playing in the Sunbelt Championship game. You think that JMU is going to lose back to back weeks?

I don't. Coastal lost to Army over the weekend. So give me JMU to take care of Coastal and App State honoring Armonte Edwards and retiring his number on Saturday on Senior Day. Give me the Mountaineers to beat Georgia Southern. If those two things happen, App State's playing in the Sunbelt Championship since JMU has that ban. They can't play in postseason play. App State's playing for a Sunbelt Championship. If they were to win the whole thing against Troy, I think it would be the opponent. Just one of the best stories in recent memory here in the state of North Carolina, football wise.

And they have so much coming back next year, including Joey Aguilar and all that. Just good story for a program that obviously has such great tradition, the Black and Gold do. So many things for us to get to on today's show, but with the Panthers getting smoked and five of our seven in state schools losing over the weekend, we figured some of you might have a bad case of the Mondays. And to address that right out of the chute, we're going to do weekly positivity on a Monday to lift morale across the Piedmont and give away some tickets to that Georgia Southern App State game on Saturday, next on The Drive. Here's what WD is telling me, we have one pair of tickets for App State, Georgia Southern on Saturday. And beyond that, we have tickets to Wake Basketball Friday afternoon, Black Friday against Charleston Southern. If you would like tickets, the first one to call and win gets tickets to Georgia Southern and App State. The rest of the winners beyond that wake hoops on Friday.

That make sense? 336-777-1600, all you have to do is call in on this Monday and tell us something good. Much needed weekly positivity, as I'm sure many people are having a bad case of the Mondays considering five of our seven FBS schools lost. Let's run down the list real quick. North Carolina at Clemson, who could have saw that coming? Duke at Virginia, another game that might have been in the bets on Friday. Wake Forest at Notre Dame, that was a tough one to watch. Charlotte at home against Rice, there was a McCaffrey scoring touchdowns in Charlotte, just not the one that called Charlotte home for a very long time. Rice winning that game against Biff Pogge's program, ECU losing 10-0 at home against Navy. And then you had the winners, shout out to App State for winning at JMU and to NC State, need to give them some love. The Wolfpack beating Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, same record as North Carolina now as they meet Saturday night, 8 o'clock kick, ACC Network, West Durham, Tim Hasselbeck on the call at Carter-Finley Stadium, a game that I will be at. Looking at our picks from the weekend, WD, 6-2, no big deal, 3-0 in the NFL.

Trust the process, am I right? We're pretty good when it comes to handing out the picks. Now let's try to cheer people up and give away some tickets, 336-777-1600. It is time for weekly positivity.

Oh, yeah, I want a freaking car and I want it right freaking now. weekly positivity brought to you in part by our friends at Biscuit King. Wow.

Gah. Normous. Biscuit.

Normous. Get yourself one. Three locations in High Point, one in Lexington, we love Biscuit King. Okay. Let's go to Scott, who's in Winston-Salem. Scott, tell me something good. I just made it out of the grocery store without breaking the bank. How much stuff do you generally get at the grocery store? Too much, too much these days. How many kids are we talking about?

Actually, my kids are grown, so just some stuff for my mom. Okay, that's good. I always have to fight the temptation of like grabbing like a snack of some like candy, something like that for me to enjoy while I watch these games and stuff. You're not tempted by any of that, are you?

No, let's just say I haven't, I've never met a cookie that I didn't like, so I know the feeling. Well, Scott, enjoy a game later on this week. Appreciate you giving us a call. There goes Scott in Winston-Salem. W.D., tell me something good with you. There's so many things, and that's crazy because I'm a Panthers fan. Settle down.

This is kind of wild. You're being very loud. But I'm excited. I'm sorry. I just told you to tell me one thing.

Okay, I'll tell you the first thing that's on my mind here, is the fact that I received a coffee earlier today. You were talking about our Graham's gambling bets. Yeah. There's only one on that list that matters to me, outside of the Carolina game, which didn't go well for my team. Wake Notre Dame. You had under 46 and a half, because you didn't think Sam Hartman was going to pour it on thick.

No. And boy, did they go over. They didn't go over by a ton, they went over by six.

It's good enough for me. Sorry, sorry I didn't expect Marcus Freeman to be a bleep hole and try a surprise on-site kick when you're up 24 to 70. Sorry I didn't think with a backup quarterback that they'd throw a 50-yard touchdown. I tried to tell you.

Against Wake starters. No, well, no, you did not tell me that. I tried to tell you this was going to...

I did. I hate Notre Dame. This doesn't sound very positive. I tried to tell you. But there's no program in football I hate more than them. They act like they're almost cursed. They act like they're Alabama. They act like they are Georgia.

I didn't want anything in 30 years. I tried to tell you. Notre Dame, unbelievable, getting a P's left and right, all these things, and then you're doing surprise on-site kicks against inferior teams. Tried to tell you they weren't going to take it easy on Wake just because it was Wake.

Of course I went 6-2 and that's the one that lost. Send me that coffee family. You did. Let's go to Sean and Winston's. Hi Sean. Sean are you there? I'm here. I'm here. Sorry I was picking my daughter up from school.

Oh that's fine. What's your daughter's name? Her name's Callie. Well hello Callie. Hello Sean.

W.D. wrote on my screen S.H.A.W.N. Is that how you spell your name Sean?

S.H.A.W.N. That's what he wrote. Is it because we have Sean Clark on the show W.D. that you're just spelling Sean like that now? It's possible.

No that's the correct spelling. How about that W.D.? Tell me something good. It could either be about you or Callie or something else.

What do you have? Alright so my something good is that yesterday I was able to go to my first Dallas Cowboys home game at Bank of America Stadium and it was wonderful. Me and my fellow Cowboys fans we just you know it's good to have a good home game you know really bring the camaraderie and the team togetherness and it just felt really good. It felt really good. For some reason I saw some Carolina Panthers. I didn't know Panthers cheerleaders traveled so that was pretty neat but it was great.

It was really it was a really great experience. Hello Sean. That's an excellent call. You got W.D. I'll let you deal with W.D. behind the scenes and see if he still gives you the tickets but there goes Sean with the sale.

Get out of here Sean. The one moment it really stood out yesterday was Tony Pollard was running through arm tackles for a touchdown like three arm tackles very explosive and there was a flag on the play and one usually it's a tall tale sign of who the call's against. When the crowd goes nuts hey and my first thought being where I was oh the crowd goes nuts it must be on the Cowboys.

And I remembered oh no no if the crowd's going nuts in this case that means the flags on the home team the Panthers the call stands it's a touchdown. Programming note this is good for us. Three live shows this week today tomorrow and Wednesday. Truncated show tomorrow because of Duke basketball being at home but that means that every segment we do this week is going to be like filet mignon. So enjoy that.

This has been Weekly Positivity. Planes trains and automobiles. That was the quote a quote I gave from that. You're going to watch that tonight.

Yes I am. You think of it watching that classic. You're going to have to take it up with Sean Clark when he joins us later that you didn't watch Fletch which he requested it might bum him out. Very well might. Let's go baby.

What kind of like this? Let's go. The drive with Josh Graham. Oh it's going to be great. I mean I've been doing some sit ups all week trying to get my body right. I got to have a shirt off. I got to have no shirt in the pool. Are you a snorkel guy?

No I can't swim so. There you go. Armando Bacott. Oh really?

Yeah. Armando Bacott, not a swimmer but he will lay out by the pool wanting to work on his abs he said. Getting the ab workout in. Making sure they look okay before the Tar Heels fly out for the battle for Atlantis. Their first game against Northern Iowa this week.

I believe that's on Thanksgiving Day on Thursday. They flew out yesterday to Bahamas. This was an all-timer from Bacott. We were there on Friday night North Carolina. Took care of Riverside. Not a lot of interesting things to tell you about from the basketball game. But Bacott after the game we were told he only has a few minutes so I wasn't thinking much of it. Thought he was just gonna you know mosey on out of there. Go in and out.

Go through the motions of an interview. He's done so many over the years who could blame him? Not the case. He said that he had a special incentive at the battle for Atlantis this week and here that was. If you can't understand exactly what's being said there. Armando says that he's trying to get to the championship game on Saturday.

So that way he and Roy can gamble on Friday night. I'd love to be a fly on the wall. I almost said I'd rather all I could think about right now is that really creepy Clay Aiken song from about 20 years ago called Invisible. You remember we had this conversation?

Yeah. Let me pull up the lyrics to this real quickly. I do remember we pulled this. I think I don't know if we pulled the song. Oh we did. Oh we pulled the song?

Yeah. Well Invisible by Clay Aiken. Not to be confused with Invisible by Hunter Hayes goes like this in the chorus. If I was invisible then I could watch you in your room. If I was invisible I'd make you mine tonight. There you go. It's wild. Couldn't make that today. Probably not but if I were invisible I would watch Armando Baycott and Roy Williams gamble.

Armando! That's exactly it. It's incredible. This does remind me. Remember when I think it was Ty Lawson got in trouble at the 2009 Final Four in Detroit because he was gambling with Roy? Oh I never heard about that. I want to make sure I'm not off on the details there.

See if you could look that one up for me. Ty Lawson, Roy and Detroit because there was a little bit of a controversy I think surrounding that Final Four regarding that and Roy took up for Ty Lawson. This will be Armando's second trip to the Bahamas as a Tar Heel. He was a freshman with Cole Anthony and Company in 2019 when they last visited and because of Cole's dad being somebody that's worked alongside Shaq before, has a relationship there, Cole Anthony and Armando Baycott made the trip to the Shaquille O'Neal home in the Bahamas. Here was Baycott. Yeah, so I actually went to Shaq's house in the Bahamas and got a chance to meet him and that was great. He told me he was a family and growing up that was my favorite part of all time so that was really cool.

I don't know if you can beat him this year but I hope to see him. Have you seen Blue Chips? Yes, I have.

That's a great little one. Talk about his acting. I have not.

I haven't gotten on that scale yet. If I get in the next season, I'll see him. WD actually gets that reference now. He's seen Blue Chips. Darn right I have.

Yeah. I have not seen it and he said that Shaq told him he was a fan of his? I don't... Either Armando's lying or Shaq's lying.

Armando. Why does he have to be lying? This would have been five games into his career at Carolina and Shaq's telling him that he's a fan of his? It's possible.

No. Either that or he was being nice. Or Shaq was at one of the games and I think actually Armando played pretty well.

Yeah. In that tournament. It was Ty Lawson, by the way. What happened?

Ty Lawson won about $250 playing craps. He did that. That's Roy's game. Yeah. And Roy defended him.

That was the story. Roy's a craps guy. So picture that on Friday night if Carolina gets that far in Bahamas. Roy, Armando playing craps.

Armando. Give me that gosh-out, fam. By the way, super weird Friday night seeing North Carolina wear the blue uniforms.

I liked it. Super weird. It's only the fourth time that's happened in modern Carolina basketball history. Hubert had it happen one time when he played against UConn.

He remembered every bit of it in an ACC Big East Challenge from back in the day. There was a game 10 years ago. There was the Duke Carolina game where they wore those bibs that were terrible. The Trey Jones game. Were you and I both at that game? You were not at the Trey Jones game, were you?

Was that the one that went like double OT? Yeah. Yeah, that was it.

2020? That's it. That was at that game. Yeah. So those uniforms were hideous. Really bad. I actually liked them, by the way. The bibs? I didn't mind them.

Gross. Yeah, so wearing blue, that was a little weird, but I didn't have any issues with it. But it did remind me to go up to Bubba Cunningham, as I did on Saturday, and say, hey, if you can go blue at home in basketball, why can't you go blue on the road against NC State wearing their home reds? And he said, I'm all for it. I'm all for it. Let's make it happen. But it does sound like that they would need approval by NC State. So it sounds like North Carolina's game for this, would NC State be game for it? I don't know. Boo Corrigan told me at the AD that he would be down for it last year, but that's not the guy I'm worried about.

I'm talking about Mr. Doran, that might have issues with it, it would seem. I'm seeing fans clamor for this too, by the way. Like a lot of fans, I guess because Carolina wore blue at home, it's kind of sparked it a little bit. Let's do it.

Blue, I mean, we saw USC, UCLA, and it looks awesome. They would be game for it if we can make that happen. But I doubt that it's going to happen, even though everybody wants it to.

It's just too good to be true. Real quickly, before we get to Graham's grades in just a bit, just a pure team loss yesterday by the Panthers. We haven't had time to really just recap the game real quickly.

To me, what it was, wasn't just one thing you could blame. I know people want to blame the O-line, people want to blame the quarterback, and certainly they are partly responsible, both units, but the defense didn't have a sack. The defense hasn't picked off a quarterback since the Miami game in garbage time, and that was before the bye week. So they deserve some blame too, and those penalties? Xavier Woods had two personal fouls in one play. And Eddie Pinheiro, to start that drive, kicked it out of bounds, giving it to Dallas on the 40?

You just can't do that and expect to beat teams that have more talent than you do. So the penalties were a problem, the O-line with the seven sacks, yes, Bryce, the pick six is on him. The deep, collectively, coaching, collectively was a tire fire. All of it.

All of it. It's the worst loss of the year so far for the Panthers to me. That's saying something. Because at least with the Bears game, you could say, oh, the defense did their job. And Bryce didn't turn it over, and the special teams had a return for a touchdown in that game, and it's on a short week. Even that, you can say, it's either this or the Colts game, because Bryce had the two pick sixes, but then the defense played really well. To me, this was the worst loss that they've had. Because there really is nothing redeeming, except maybe that the run game showed something for the first time.

They ran it for 110 yards in 85 in the first half, when on the year they averaged 90 a game. That's pretty good. That's positive. But that's really the only thing you can point to as a positive from this game.

There's nothing else. I tell you what, App State is coming in here single-minded, focused. They want to remove that 0 from JMU, but that's not going to happen this afternoon. I'm going with the Dukes. Aguilar looking over the middle. Touchdown, App State. And there's only one thing you need to know, and that's that the JMU are going to crush out State.

They would crush anybody this weekend. Aguilar over the middle. Tight end, wide open touchdown. I'm thinking Duke Dogg. Here comes the rush.

Joey throws underneath, caught by Robinson at the five. Stifvars at the two. Yes, sir! Yes, sir! And the Mountaineers that beat JMU. The Game Day crew gets the Sarah McLachlan treatment as we welcome App State football coach Sean Clark to the show. Sean, I have to imagine that there are few things more satisfying as a coach than winning a game that nobody gave you much of a chance to win, but you tell me.

It does. We're very proud of our football team, and we had a lot of confidence going into that game on Saturday. We had a little extra motivation in some ways. It was all about James Madison on College Game Day, the Pat McAfee show, and we related to the players as fast as we could. It was the best ammunition or pregame speech you could possibly give was just to watch ESPN on Saturday afternoon, Saturday morning. Oh, so you had McAfee with his shirt off, and the entire team saw that before they took the field. Oh, yeah. On Friday afternoon, the Pat McAfee show, as soon as it came on, we were sending out through our team works how we communicated with our players.

It was just like shooting bombs all day, all night Friday. So we appreciate the extra motivation, and I think College Game Day got that one wrong. But there is one guy I do believe, I'm talking to you right now, that got it right, and that was you two weeks ago with the text.

Yes, via text. I sent it off that I thought that you guys had a really good shot at beating JMU. We called for the upset last week, so I appreciate you remembering that. But I imagine in meetings behind the scenes, you had to have told them, Sean.

You had to have told McAfee and others. You guys were there. You had to have told them, guys, guys, we got this this week. What are you guys doing?

Well, they want to talk to me on the College Game Day show there at James Madison. But we told our team on Tuesday that when we win this game, I did not want to hear one person talk about us upset, because we matched up well with James Madison, and our kids are playing. It had gotten better the last five weeks, and we're playing our best football right now in the month of November. And again, we still have a lot of room for improvement, but I like where we are right now. I like how our kids are playing for one another.

They're playing the chip on their shoulder, and again, I like where we are. You're one of those coaches that implement the 24-hour rule, and even though you're not saying upset, that doesn't mean you can't enjoy beating a team that was ranked in the AP poll. So walk me through Saturday night. How much sleeping was there on the bus ride back? How did you celebrate that night?

Well, we got right on the bus, and I watched Ace Ventura for a second, and then watched that show with a five-hour trip back. But no, I had to return a lot of text messages, a lot of phone calls. Anytime you have a big win like that, then you're going to get a lot of text. I think I had 317 text messages when I got on the bus. And my wife had 100.

She was always right beside me. So we got back about midnight, and we were back here at 8 o'clock on Sunday morning. So I did get a really good chance to enjoy it. As soon as the season's over, I'm going to sit back and probably watch it on live TV. So again, it was a lot of fun. Again, I love this football team, and I love how they stand for how they do things.

We think it's the right way here at AP, and I think the best football is yet in front of us. Did the guys on the bus sleep? Was there much sleeping on that ride home? For the first hour, it was pretty rowdy. And after that, they were all knocked out in the back.

You had to try to get back there and say hello to them and talk. I was also watching some game tape, but again, after the first hour wore off, they were exhausted. That was a physical football game, and they left it all on the line for wrap state.

The bad boy for life video, your idea of your wife's since she was in it. I'll take credit for that, but our team's been through a lot this year. And we've won some close games. We've lost some.

All of our games we've lost, we've lost in the final seconds, or the final drive. And that was just to go show that things still come through the building of Carolina in the Sunbelt Conference. Sean Clark, AP State coach with us here.

You mentioned that. Given where your team was a month ago, sitting at three and four, and you had the doubters that were out there, what would a conference championship appearance, and potentially a Sunbelt title, if things were to break your way, mean for your group? It would be huge. Anytime you play for a conference championship, that would be big. But again, we have to keep our focus on Georgia Southern.

You could throw the records out the window right now. That's a rivalry game. It goes back, but way before I played here. And I know when I played here, weird times, we weren't as good, because the states were going to beat them, and vice versa. They come to Boone and beat us. So it's a great college football game. It's one of the best in all of college football, in my opinion. It goes up there with the Auburn Alabamas, the Michigan, Ohio States, and we're just very fortunate to be a part of it. Senior day, Saturday, 3.30 against Georgia Southern, as you're talking about.

We've given away tickets to that game on the show earlier. App State also going to be retiring Armonte Edwards, number 14 that day. Will you spend any time this week showing the guys Armonte highlights, or do you think when you go to App State, you already know how good he was?

No. Everyone knows who Armonte Edwards is and was. And I think when you think about all the great players that played here, the people you talk about, you think about, first of all, Coach Moore.

He's the one who built this program. Then you go to Armonte and Dexter Coakley, and the list goes on and on. So there's been a lot of great players here, but what he did for our program for the Michigan victory and the national championships, again, very proud of him, excited for him to retire that jersey that no one would ever wear again. Yeah, that's going to be really super cool, and not a lot of players have had their jerseys retired at Appalachian State. But Coach, you better, I want to assume everybody knows Armonte.

2007 might as well be 1977 to kids who were born in the 2000s. I mean, we'll get to the movies with W.D. in a second, but I want to be so safe to assume that people know about the guys that we once knew to be so great on the field. No, we've been fortunate in the last two years, he's going to come back to the mountain and speak to our football team.

And then we put him in a video this past year, and then any time we have a highlight video or fruits on campus, we make sure that that's spotlighted because, again, he is by far one of the best players ever, if not the best, ever put App State uniform on. Okay, let's get to the movies. I got good news and I got bad news.

The bad news is W.D. has not watched Fletch. I watched Fletch last night because I was just in the mood, threw Fletch on so many great lines, like when he's the doctor and all the fake names that he used. So many things are good about that. The good news is he's watching Planes, Trains, and Automobiles tonight. So Thanksgiving week.

We put them all on a poll and that's what won it, so we got to go with him. John Candy, Steve Martin, he is getting his 80s comedies fixed. Does that do anything for you? Well, I'm glad he's watching. It's a good movie, but again, we have to get back to some more classics, Ace Ventura, Major Pain, and then with Thanksgiving coming up right now, man, Christmas Vacation.

You have to get those movies to watch. This is key. When is it Christmas time for Sean Clark? For me, it's the day after Thanksgiving that you really start to fire it up.

W.D. has been listening to Christmas music the last three weeks. When is it for you? For me personally, it's about six o'clock on Thanksgiving day. We get the kitchen cleaned up and then sit on the couch, start a fire, and watch Christmas Vacation.

That's when it really kicks off. Double D is like Frank Ponce, our Office of the Coordinator. He's had Christmas trees in his office the last two months probably, so I hear it every single day. Hey, do me a favor, coach. When you get the team together at some point this week, make sure to ask, who's seen Christmas Vacation?

And be disappointed at the answer because it's amazing. W.D., I don't even need to ask. Have you seen? No, I haven't seen that one. He asked if, you remember last week? Oh, don't do that.

He asked if Chevy Chase was a woman. That is the creme de la creme, but when you think of Vacation, there's the original, there's European Vacation, then there's Christmas Vacation. Christmas Vacation is top tier for you? Yeah, numero uno. It has to be the best movie out there.

There's numerous vacations? Yeah. Do you even know what Ace Ventura is? No, and I'm not going to pretend to know what it is. I'm glad. I'm glad.

Okay. Do you know who Jim Carrey is? Yes, I know who Jim Carrey is. When you think of Jim Carrey, who do you think of? Or what movie? The Grinch and Mask.

Okay, well the Mask, okay. I can deal with that. That's okay. That's not bad. Okay, Sean Clark, you've done your duty. On the field, you took care of things. That's good.

Secondarily, Ace Ventura and in addition to that, Christmas Vacation. We're getting it done. That's awesome.

Is it about a pilot? Yeah, try to broaden your horizons here, Double D, all right? I'd probably appreciate it.

I'd need it. We are broadening it. We've come a long way. It's 57 movies, I believe it is, that we've done. He's watched 57 movies in the last year and a half, so we've done the Lord's work here.

Sean Clark, best of luck against Georgia Southern. Thanks for doing this as always. Man, I appreciate you guys having me on, and again, hey, happy Thanksgiving to you guys. We have a lot to be thankful for. I'm thankful for y'all's friendship.