Marry That Squirrel (1-4-24)

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, where in 10 minutes or so, W.D. 's going to review his first movie of 2024.

It's the Denzel Washington classic Man on Fire. That will no doubt be fun. But before we play Blue Bayou or start talking about uncomfortable places to plant explosives, let's hit on the Carolina Panthers real quick. Thanks, Therese Davis, Jalen Milro, and Pat McAfee. The nation learned of the acronym L.A.N.K. over the weekend, which of course stands for Let a Naysayer Know. How'd that not make it into grammar school?

Missed opportunity. And while the jury is still out as to whether Bryce Young is going to be a franchise quarterback and let all his naysayers know, Bryce has proven he's not too small to hold up in this league. That is one thing you can take away from 2023. Bryce, he's proven he's not too small to hold up in this league. Again, he might not pan out due to lack of overall support, maybe overall talent level that he possesses, but it won't be because of his size, like so many said during the draft process. The naysayers got that one wrong.

And here's the proof. He missed just one game this year. It's still disputed if he actually got hurt for the Seattle game. My theory is he played on a Monday night. It was a West Coast road trip. His first long, his first short prep.

And it just so happened to be on the road. Carolina probably was playing it safe and decided to sit him out. If it was a game Carolina needed Bryce Young to play in, he probably plays in that game. We'll never really know for sure, but that's the only game that he's missed.

Meanwhile, Anthony Richardson can't say that. He's missed essentially his entire rookie season due to injury, had a concussion and then a shoulder deal. He's played more games, Bryce has, than C.J.

Stroud, who's missed a couple of games. Bryce Young's held up and none of those other two quarterbacks have faced the type of pressure Bryce Young faces week in, week out. Bryce has been sacked this year, 59 times.

That is second in the NFL. Chris Tabor says that this proves that physically speaking, Bryce is going to hold up. I mean, he's obviously very physically tough. I think he's proven that. The other area where he's extremely tough is mentally. You know, I mean, he has and I think I stated it two weeks ago after the Green Bay game, you know, when the mood was better, my thoughts on him haven't changed at all. He's a tough customer. He's a winner. He works at it. He has all the intangibles and really still like where he's going.

OK, cool, Josh. He's able to play every Sunday. That doesn't does that mean he's able to make all the throws, though, that's necessary?

Yeah. Did you watch the Green Bay game? Over 300 yards passing. Oh, but that was against a terrible defensive coordinator.

Got it, got it. How about the week before that when he was 75 percent completion against the Falcons and led that game winning drive? This is proof that his size doesn't hold him back in terms of throwing the ball. He's had six batted passes this year. Six. Six deflected balls in 15 games. Six batted passes out of 509 attempts. Six. That is tied for the 30th most in the NFL.

Oh, he's so small. Guys are just going to bat his passes down left and right. Just hasn't happened. Clearly, Bryce can make all of the throws. And off the field? This might not matter so much to you, but it matters to anybody who's in an administrative position in the NFL. Coaches it certainly matters to.

Could you have handled yourself better than Bryce Young has amid everything that's happened this year? All the losing. A coach being fired. An owner throwing a drink on someone. Bryce, has there been a controversy?

Has there been a TMZ video? Oh, Bryce Young's out. Oh, Bryce Young's throwing his money around. Bryce Young's getting in trouble. Bryce Young's got a DUI. Has there been anything resembling a scandal? Oh, Bryce said this in the media. Bryce said this thing. Oh, it's a controversy.

Has there been anything? Usually losing creates this. And at the age of 22, Bryce has acted perfectly in terms of how you're supposed to handle yourself as a franchise guy. Including absorbing blame. Absorbing responsibility.

That's what leaders do. Here was Bryce speaking about his season at large yesterday. I assess my season based off of the, you know, my job as a quarterback is for us to win games. Us to be, you know, to lead the offense, to lead the team to win games.

And obviously we haven't done that. So there's a lot of things that I have to improve on that we have to improve on. So, you know, it's not all bad, not all good. You know, there's stuff to build upon and there's stuff to learn from and to grow from. But ultimately, you know, the reason we're all here, why, you know, what the league's all about is winning games.

And I didn't do a good enough job of that at all. To reiterate, Bryce might not ever get the support he needs. Bryce might not pan out in terms of being a pro bowler or a franchise guy. The level of athleticism might not be enough. His talent level might not be enough. We'll see.

We don't know about that piece. But to quote Roy Williams, don't make up crap. People say he can't hold up physically. He's too small. He wasn't too small in the SEC. And this year he's proved, despite being sacked 59 times and being the size that he is, his passes don't get batted down. He's not missing games due to injury.

If he fails one day, it's not gonna be because of his size. That is one way in his rookie season he's proven the naysayers wrong. Letting the naysayers know, so to speak. On X at WSJS radio, if you want in, that's where we're streaming video in addition to YouTube and Twitch. With Alton, the executive producer of the show. W.D., before we get to your movie in about 10 minutes, not even, five minutes or so, don't we still have tickets to give away later this hour? We have one more pair for Wake Miami. About that. Massive game.

It is. On Saturday in Winston-Salem. In fact, after last night, the stage is set for this mega doubleheader that the ACC has Saturday afternoon. It starts at noon. North Carolina at Little John Coliseum to face Clemson. Yay!

Thank you. Tar Heels, they're coming off a road win at Pittsburgh. Clemson was beaten last night by Miami. Only their second loss of the year so far. What a matchup this is.

Number eight at number 16. North Carolina at Clemson. A massive game when it comes to ACC standings when it matters. Then at 2.15, after that nooner, it's the game we just told you about. Wake Forest hosting Miami. The Canes, they're 11-2. They're riding high. How about this? Without Wooga Poplar in the lineup, they drop 60 in the second half on Clemson.

Just shooting the lights out in Coral Gables. And a win for Miami would certainly have them back in that national conversation if they're not there already. A win for Wake Forest. If they win nine in a row and start ACC playoff, 3-0 and beat Miami, that put them in the national conversation.

That chatter's already started. Jon Rothstein, we sleep in May, already talking about Wake being a sleeper in the ACC. Seen folks at ESPN saying it. J. Billa saying Wake Forest is really good.

Last night on the broadcast, Debbie Antonelli. Aneesh Rath tweeting me saying, hey, don't write off the dekes. There's the chatter about Wake Forest. Can they back it up with a win against Miami?

That would be a big one. These are four of the top five teams in the ACC going head-to-head on Saturday. Duke's the other one, obviously, in the top five.

That's not in one of these matchups. They'll go to Notre Dame where NC State won last night. But nobody outside those five have a chance of winning the week. Talk about Wake, Miami, Carolina, Clemson, Duke. Those are the five best teams in the week. Best five teams of the week.

And we have four of them going head-to-head Saturday afternoon. What a great way to start the 2024 calendar year. Another great way to start off the 2024 calendar year, W.D. 's first movie of 24 being Man on Fire. 20 years old this movie turns. And W.D., I have an important question.

Do you think God will forgive us for what we've done? At the Movies with the W.D. next. At the Movies with the W.D.

Man on Fire. This is exciting. VDOT told us that this is a movie that made him cry. We'll get back to basketball in a bit.

Get to NC State's win last night, shortly. Action-packed movie. Because the calendar now reads 2024, this movie, 20 years old now.

So we'll get into it right now. Unless you're talking about Star Wars. Obi-Wan has taught you well. Movies aren't exactly Will's thing. I don't get it.

You want cuffs of swine? But that's about to change because Josh can't stand it anymore. This is At the Movies with Will Dalton.

OK, Will. I told you I really liked this movie. It's one of my favorite Denzel movies. It might be my favorite Denzel movie. I'd have to think about that for a little bit because I love Denzel.

He's one of those people that mean a lot to me. You've texted me that this movie exceeded expectations for you. It did. What did you like about Man on Fire 2004? I mean, Denzel's performance was just glaringly good. I don't know if this is offensive to say it might be. OK, give it a shot.

But we'll just throw it out there. I like watching Denzel Washington kill people. It was so, and you know what, it's interesting.

It's one of those things. If the Equalizer's on, Equalizer 2, Equalizer 3, which is now on Netflix, sometimes you just want to watch Denzel kill some people. He does a great job of that in this movie.

He does. And similarly to John Wick, that's one of the things I liked about that movie was, I guess, the violence and just all the killing and things like that. Is it too soon to say that John Wick kind of ripped off this movie? No, because I feel similarly.

Rather than a girl being killed, it was a dog. Essentially, they kind of ripped off Man on Fire. That's what John Wick is. Yeah, and it makes sense because I feel so. There's the club scene where you can't tell me that John Wick didn't rip off that club scene from Man on Fire where Denzel has the do-rag on. Yeah, hey, do-rag.

There you go. No, I feel very similarly about these movies. His performance was good. I mean, he was just a savage in this. It did feel like a version of Taken.

Denzel kind of being on the warpath trying to find, you know, I don't know. He was really good in this. The movie was very intense.

It was. Taken ripped off this movie too. There you go.

But it did kind of have a feeling of Taken as well. Also, something I learned in doing a little bit of homework as well about this movie, apparently Dakota Fanning, that's the little girl, the actress. We all know who Dakota Fanning is. OK, well, I don't. So there you go.

I do now. Apparently, I guess she was 10 years old. She was a huge deal in the mid 2000s. Maybe the greatest kid actor performance ever, this movie. Yeah, she was 10 and now 20. If that relationship isn't believable or doesn't work, this movie doesn't work.

No. And we're not talking about it 20 years later. The swim scenes, I just want an hour of that. I wanted an hour of Denzel coaching Dakota Fanning Olympic swimming style. Yeah, and that was another thing I had written down was their relationship in this movie. But now 20 years later, apparently they're starring together in Equalizer 3, because I haven't seen any of those movies.

So I wouldn't know that, but pretty cool. Apparently, the director was such a huge fan of Man on Fire that they tried to get those two together in Equalizer 3. So yes, there is a reunion. Also the bomb up the dude's butt. That was a highlight of it. I got time, but you don't.

I wish you had more time. What didn't you like? The ending was sad.

Well, let me pause. It was happy slash sad. It was happy that they got the girl back, a life for a lifetime deal. But it was sad, because Denzel had to go and ultimately die. I have the ending down too, not because it was sad.

Some things don't add up, and I'm talking about in terms of math. Why did Denzel have to die? A life for a life, like you said. We got shot. Last I checked, it was Dakota Fanning in exchange for the brother.

Why did Denzel have to go? That's valid. That's not explained. That wasn't explained at all. That's fair.

Didn't need that. And also, even after he was taken, this is movie making 101 here. Why did we have to put a date of birth, year of birth, end of birth to signify that he died at the end of this movie?

He's a fictional character. Why did we have to do that? Why did you have to kill off Denzel? Why couldn't it have been ambiguous?

He's looking out the window. You could have set up a sequel for this movie. You killed the sequel by putting it at the very end. You could have easily made this a sequel without having that there. Nothing's lost from this movie. That's a good point that you say that, because coming down the stretch here towards the end of the movie, I thought, is there a sequel to this? But then, of course, I've realized there isn't. Terrible.

But it's very valid. Also, making Mexico City look like the worst place in the world. And then they put up the graphic at the end. Thank you to Mexico City. Such a lovely place. Yeah. Thanks for letting us work here a little bit. Yeah, for two hours you made it seem like hell on earth. Thanks.

Mexico City, appreciate you from your old buddy, Tony Scott. What's the best quote? Creasy's art is death. He's about to paint his masterpiece. No, you can't say it like that. You've got to say it like Christopher Walken. I can't say it like him. Creasy's art is death.

And he's about to paint his masterpiece. That could be better. Yeah.

I wish he had more time. That's up there. I got time for you to hold. Great. It used to be a running joke with college buddies of mine.

We'd be like, do you think God is going to forgive us for what we've done? No. While they're just eating at a barbecue. All right, Rotten Tomatoes score. Ah, 90. Wow, 89%.

How about that? Here's what's great about Man on Fire, though, and why. We want to choose movies for the people. People say this movie's an 89%. The Tomato Meter, which is reviews from critics, gives us a 39%. Whoa.

Wide discrepancy between how this movie is viewed critically and how this movie is viewed by the people. Wow. We need to figure out a movie for WD next week. Feel free to shoot us some suggestions. We certainly welcome those. You're on the drive with Josh Graham, WSJS. We welcome any and all opportunities to talk hoops on this program. And right now, Jeremiah Tillman from the Greensboro Swarm joins us. Swarm at home next Wednesday, next Friday, next Saturday at the Fieldhouse.

For tickets, go to gsoswarm.com. All right, Jeremiah, let's get to you a little bit. Let's get to know you a little bit. You're a proud Missouri Tiger, right?

Yes, I am very proud. To you, they were making it happen back in the day. Around here, we're familiar with great college rivalries like Duke and Carolina, NC State, Wake Forest, many down the line. How would you describe Missouri's relationship with the Kansas Jayhawks?

I had to learn when I got there because I didn't know the history behind it. But my freshman year at Mizzou, we played with Kansas. And we had not played them in so, so long. I had people coming up to me I ain't never talked to, like, y'all better win that game, this, that, and the other.

It was crazy. The atmosphere on the campus was so crazy to actually defend them, playing against each other. So it's a big rivalry, obviously, that it's Mizzou and Kansas. But they take that stuff serious out there, diehard fans when it comes to Mizzou versus Kansas.

They ain't playing around. How's that come up between you and your fellow sworn big man who also went to Kansas, Marcus Garrett? Actually, yeah, we talked about that a few times when we first got on the team together. It was our jokes, though, but it wasn't that too serious. See, here's why I bring up your college days. I went back to digging circa 2015, 2016, because you're from the Midwest, Illinois, Indiana, that area. Do I have it right that North Carolina was one of the schools that had offered you a scholarship and that you were strongly considering? Yeah, definitely.

They came, they literally came to my house and was like, yo, we'll give you an offer, but you got to leave East St. Louis. I was just like, huh? Whose day? Is it Roy? Yeah. Yeah. What do you remember about that?

I'm interested now. He's in your house? He was in my living room on the couch. I was just surprised that he actually came to East St. Louis.

He pulled up. And I'm like, for you to even be here, it's like, wow. But he was like, yeah, man, we really like you. We take a chance with you, but you got to leave East St. Louis. And I was just like, I asked him why.

And the statistics behind all the good players that's there, never end up making it out. And I actually end up, my junior year, going to La Lamere because our school had went on strike. So it worked out well for me.

And then just like, boom, I even got the offer from there. And it was like in my top five when I made my decision. I'm trying to think, like guys who have come from that area to play for North Carolina, the first name that comes to mind is Caleb Love. Caleb Love, yeah, facts. Caleb Love, he Arizona now, obviously. But yeah, he definitely from St. Louis. Do you remember running into him? Who? Caleb Love, you're probably a little bit too old for Caleb.

No, no, no. When I go back home, Caleb Love, he's from St. Louis. We done worked out together multiple times. I didn't, yeah, me and Caleb Love know each other. So when Caleb Love hits the shot against Duke in the Final Four, what are you thinking? The city went crazy. The city went crazy. I'm like, bruh, this young boy right there, man, they have the city behind him because St. Louis, we take everybody serious when it comes to playing basketball, Jason Tatum, Staples, Bradley Beal, everybody. We got our, we behind. We stay behind each other when it comes to that. So yeah, when he hit that shot, the city went crazy.

While we're talking about the city, Jeremiah Tillman's with us here from the Greensboro Swarm. What is the quintessential Nelly music video? Like, when you think Nelly music videos, like, what's the iconic one that you're like, all right, that's the one. I need to show my kids this one day.

I need the shot. You said, OK, now that you say I got to show my kids, if I got to switch the song, I just say step down my Air Force one. When you're old enough, when you're old enough, if people say, hey, Jeremiah, it's an alien who just showed up here.

Hey, what is Nelly about? You got to definitely show them the Air Force One song, Stepping on My Air Force One. Yeah. You got to play that song.

That's the first one that's going to come to mind, yeah. Of course. Are you from St. Louis if you don't own a pair of Air Force Ones? You got to have a pair, bro.

And you can't, you can't, you can't learn more than, like, four or five times. Like, if I'm being technically correct, you don't need to have a pair. You need to have two pairs. You did your homework.

You did your homework, for sure. And you can only wear them, like, five times, man. You can't wear them too many times. And you got to keep a fresh pair on.

That's it. That's why they're so cheap. They only like $98. They're so cheap. Five times. You got to find them.

This is, this is in my, these are gems, like that have been dropped by Jeremiah Tillman today. So now you finally end up in the Tar Heel State. You didn't commit to North Carolina, play for the Tar Heels at that time.

Now you're here with the Greensboro Swarm. How much exploring have you done? How much have you had a chance to get to know the city that you now call home, Greensboro? I've been locked in, honestly. I haven't had a chance to do anything.

I'm either at the gym or at the crib. I haven't, I haven't had no time. Well, I have time, obviously, but I haven't made it a priority just to just go out and look and adventure out in Greensboro.

Like this, the start, this the top of my third year pro. I'm trying to stay locked in and go better places, man. I ain't trying to have fun right now.

I think you might've answered my next question. We're being joined by Jeremiah Tillman, the Swarm begin a four game home stand next Wednesday at the Fieldhouse, gsoswarm.com to get tickets. You guys have won three straight at home and you specifically have had success lately. What's been working for you? Honestly, when I first got to Greensboro, I was kind of heavy. So I didn't like the weight.

I didn't like how I was moving. And I would just been working from day one, just trying to get my body right in the best shape I can get in and just waiting on my opportunity for real. I've been staying patient, staying hungry, and just been working. And my opportunity came and I was ready. All that can speak for itself.

The most high God, I just been keeping him first and just staying prayed up, man, and just waiting on my opportunity. And when he came, I was ready. Can I tell you why that's impressive? Most people come to the state of North Carolina and live in the South and they're literally hungry and then they become heavy. It's not like they're heavy and then they get skinny when they show up.

They start perusing and they discover Biscuitville and Cookout and Bojangles and all this stuff. And they get heavy. I've been Bojangles all the time, though. I had to change my diet, though, because I was so heavy. I was heavy, man.

I was like 270. I ain't never been that heavy before. So it was hurting my knees and stuff like that. And I just didn't like the way I was moving because I like to be up and down the court. And I noticed like I'm running hard, but I'm filming. Look like I'm jogging. So I'm like, yeah, I got to change something up. So I just changed my whole diet. I started working a lot harder.

Just being in the gym, just being on top of everything when it comes to taking care of my body, honestly. Go watch Jeremiah Tillman, proud Mizzou tiger, not a Tar Heel. Perhaps playing with a Tar Heel in Leaky Black at times. In the Fieldhouse. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday of next week.

And then following Monday in the afternoon, too. It's good to meet you. Come to all of them. Come to all of them, man, please.

All of them, four people are. Make it happen. Jeremiah Tillman will give you a high five if that happens. Appreciate you spending the time and I hope continued success for you, man. I appreciate that, man, for real. We must talk.

Go ahead. Walk Back to the Drive with Josh Graham. We've got Wake Miami tickets to give away.

One more pair in just a few minutes. Thomas Brown speaking to the media for the final time this regular season. There might be an opportunity to catch up with them in exit interviews, or this just might be it. All these months, looking forward to every week, getting that notification, Thomas Brown speaking to the media and pouring over all the useful, insightful pieces of sound that he had for us throughout the year. We've enjoyed that.

In reality, we mean the exact opposite of all those things I just said, but we've found ways to create content out of it and today is no different. Thomas Brown, looking at this two and 15 season, two and 14, pardon me, that this season's been so far, maybe two and 15, he tried to resist being reflective, swatting away per usual. A question from our friend, Joe Person from The Athletic when asked about his next opportunity. Joe, if you are interviewing somewhere else or here, what would you say was your kind of best moment from this year or what would you hang your hat on? I appreciate the question, but again, I'm just going to be focused on today and as far as what I'm doing right now.

I think being able to be evaluated by the outside world, even here when it comes to future stuff or happy when it comes, but I'm focused on the Bucks and as far as our overall approach to them. Call me crazy. Nah, I'm not going to touch that one. Yeah, call me crazy. I don't think he appreciated that question all that much.

Nah, I'm not going to touch that one. Thomas Brown, looking at Bryce Young, subtly said that Bryce's technique needs to be a priority for him this upcoming off season. We've had a lot of issues when it comes to all of our overall fundamentals and techniques as far as being able to address that to kind of get better. But I think being, again, being a rookie quarterback in a new environment, new system, he's done a really good job as far as adapting and adjusting when it comes to him progressing from where he started, from a footwork and fundamental standpoint, but also, I mean, he's a natural throw at the football.

So being able to build upon that to kind of work on the lower body half from an off season standpoint. It's hard to find the usefulness out of that word, Salad, but there were some of it there, I assure you. You like that? Every time he says the word stand, standpoint, I don't like that, personally. I thought too much. Don't forget in the athletic story that was the bombshell from Diana Rossini and Joe Person last month. This was a point of contention. David Tepper feeling like the footwork wasn't where it needed to be for Bryce and then bringing that to Frank Reich at a weekly meeting and then not seeing enough progress after the Titans game. That's what ultimately led to the firing at that time of Frank, we can surmise. David Tepper had an opportunity in a press conference to tell us why Frank Reich was fired at that point, but he said, it's up for interpretation.

You know, with concerts. Yeah, so we will interpret. That's what we'll do, we'll speculate. And that's a good thing to speculate about considering the reporting on the topic. But what was interesting is I don't think fans or people on the outside, based on the conversations I have with people within the building, appreciate how much of a time crunch it is when a rookie quarterback is taken pretty much at the start of May and has to play three, four months later in September.

You can't, you have to pick and choose the things you work on. And knowing that Bryce was gonna play right away, Carolina made sure to prioritize understanding the playbook, understanding the nomenclature, understanding the language, the offense, all those things, rather than spending X amount of time on his fundamentals, on his footwork, on these types of things. It was discussed that that would be a priority in the first off season that Bryce has, first full off season after he's played games and has an understanding for how to call an offense, call plays out of the huddle, call plays with a mic in his helmet, the whole deal. That was the priority. I think often fans take that for granted and think that's something that should happen right away, but in reality, that takes some time. Thomas Brown's last question as Panthers OC was a simple one. What went wrong? And here's how he answered.

I mean, that's a loaded question. Maybe a good one for a last question, but I think as far as just the overall consistency, the communication, and us always continue to find the best way to put our guys in the best spot to be successful. I think anytime you have changes, change can obviously be good, but also take some time to adjust and adapt to, but that's a pretty in-depth combo we can probably have at a different time. I hope we have that combo one day, Thomas Brown. I thought you might. Really do hope. I'm gonna miss that guy. Not really.

Nah, I'm not gonna touch that one. Ejiro Everell, that's a guy I hope does stick around. The Panthers defense has been incredible, and the best player on the defense, the best player on the Panthers altogether, has been Derek Brown. He was not, though, selected as a Pro Bowler yesterday. He was selected as an alternate in addition to three other Panthers. Ejiro Everell took issue with this earlier today.

I just thought that was a miss. He's had a heck of a year. He's been so disruptive.

I don't think it's arguably. I think he's been a best-run defender in the NFL this year. He's done a heck of a job rushing the quarterback and creating pressures, the interception, the batted balls. There's been so much production, the leadership. He's been instrumental in everything that we've done, and I think that was just a miss.

I agree with that, but I remember when I was in Greenville, America. W.D., did I ever tell you how I became a Bilitnikoff voter? No, you didn't, actually. Okay.

As legendary of a thing that is, I think you should. Well, ECU became wide receiver U while Lincoln Riley was there, in that if you look up the career receptions list in college football, the number one player in terms of career receptions in college football was Zay Jones in Lincoln Riley's offense. But that's not the crazy part. The crazy part is, number two on that list, Zay Jones' college teammate, Justin Hardy. That's right, career receptions list. You only have one football to throw in that offense, just like everybody else.

You have number one and number two on the list. And I covered ECU closely, and Justin Hardy didn't get a fair shake when he wasn't named the finalist for the Bilitnikoff. Might've had some choice words to say about that at the time, ECU being overlooked and such. Zay Jones, he didn't win the award. I actually defended the Bilitnikoff's decision not to do that.

And then the next day I get a phone call while I'm on vacation in the Bahamas. And it's from the guy who runs the Bilitnikoff saying, you know what, with all these guys in the Carolinas, as they said, being pretty good at catching the football, we might need somebody like you to vote for the award, so that's how it happened. There you go. So anyway, the reason I bring that up is because Zay Jones did not win the Bilitnikoff even though he had more than twice as many catches than any of the other finalists. Like more than, ridiculous numbers that he's putting up.

But the reason why I had no issue with him not winning the award is because the team he played on was three and nine, right? It'd be like having, it'd be like being, you remember Emeril on Food Network? Bam, like one of the best chefs ever, Bobby Flay. And having the best recipes, best food, but you're in a restaurant that has cockroaches crawling on the walls.

Yeah, good luck. Yeah, it doesn't matter how good of a chef you are, the restaurant's not gonna work and you're not gonna get good reviews because of all the other crap that surrounds you. So Derek Brown, as great as he is, and it is an individual nod, we understand it, because he plays on the worst team in the NFL, not gonna get the benefit of the doubt, right or wrong. That's just how that works.

WD, first person to call in right now at 336-777-1600 gets tickets to go see Wake Forest play Miami Saturday at 2.15, this is a big game. Last night, I was watching Miami and Clemson and I asked the question on social media, not intending to offend anybody. This is always my favorite one. People say, oh, you're just looking for the attention. You're just getting the attention you sought out. Oh, you're just trying to stir it up. You're looking for those clicks.

Even though there's nothing for you to click on. I just asked the question, other than Duke in North Carolina, who we know are ACC contenders this year, both are ranked, and Miami and Clemson who were playing last night, is there anybody in the ACC that you could see winning the league? And even though I talk more Demon Deacons than any other host in America, I should, we're here in Winston-Salem, I go to the games. We talk Deacs year round. All the Wake Forest fans on social media came at me like dozens of them out of the woodwork saying, Wake Forest, and you're such a hater, how can you be in Winston-Salem and not say we have a shot at winning the ACC?

You can hold multiple thoughts at the same time. I think Wake Forest is the top five team in the ACC. I think they're an NCAA tournament team. I think they're a sleeper. I think they could be a sweet 16 team if they fully reached their potential and Damari Monsanto is the guy that he was before his injury coming back. I don't know if I could see a scenario of them going 16 and four to win the league though.

Right? To put in perspective how crazy that is, Jeff Teague never won the ACC. And Wake was number one in the country when he was playing for them. Ish Smith never did. Alpha Rukimino, Chris Paul never did. Last time they won the ACC was 21 years ago. Like it's okay to say maybe get to the NCAA tournament for the first time in seven years before we start talking about let's win the whole league and you're a hater for saying we can't do it, Graham. Right? So I put this out on social media to make things right. Do you know Wake Forest has a new beer that's gonna be at Fiddle and Fish called Roll the Quad Beer?

I did not know that. If Wake Forest wins the ACC, I'm gonna own up to this right now. If they win the ACC regular season, I'll let Steve Forbes douse me with the Roll the Quad Beer David Tepper style. He will gladly do that. David Tepper style, plastic cup, whatever means you care to. There it is.

It's not just a clown meme. If Wake Forest wins the ACC in basketball, regular season or tournament, fine. Both.

Either. Roll the Quad Beer on my head from the Wake Forest basketball coach and Steve Forbes, or pardon me, Stan Cotton says that he'll MC it. There you go.

Let's go. Do that. There's my commitment to that. I'll own up when I'm wrong.

No problem doing that. It's The Drive with Josh Graham WSJS. Big movie news just dropped. Michael Mann, who just directed Ferrari, starring Adam Driver, which I watched last week.

Loved it. Confirms Heat 2 is gonna begin filming this year. Apparently he wrote a book after the first movie came out. That was a sequel to the movie.

The movie never got made. Adam Driver is expected to be the star of this movie, or at least is in talks to be the star in Heat 2 as we welcome Hayes Permar to the show. Hayes, give me all you got. Give me all you got. I'm cold on Heat 2.

The action is the juice Hayes. I had to get it on. I'm freezing on Heat 2. Like, I think we're close. We'll never fully free ourselves from like the remakes and the sequels. You know, pop culture is just too, it's too easy to go grab something that you know worked and like you'll get a minimum. Like everybody's looking for the high floor, right?

Nobody's looking for the high ceiling. But I think we're in an era of shaking free maybe of the superhero retreads. And I'm hoping we'll get rid of the, it's one thing it's like if you got a hot new concept to do a sequel of that, but to make a sequel of something that's 30 years old where it's clearly, I don't know, man. There's very few remakes or 30 year old sequels that I'm in on.

And so I am cold on Heat 2. I'm excited for the future of movies for the first time in a while because this has been a great movie year and Oppenheimer did so well and Killers of the Flower Moon did so well and movies like Aquaman and Fast 10 or whatever flopped. So maybe there's gonna be more interesting original ideas that are made, but you're wrong on Heat 2 because Michael Mann doesn't really do sequels.

When he does, it's like aliens from Alien and it's fantastic. Or like another one is apparently there's a gladiator sequel type that's coming out that Denzel Washington is going to be in and you still got Ridley Scott making it. I'm in on that too. I'm freezing. I'm ice cold on Gladiator 2. Ooh, ooh, ooh. Gladiator 2 and Heat 2, I'm freezing on.

No love, I'm cold. We got, while we're talking movies real quick, which movie should WD watch for the first time next week? We got a movie that's 30 years old, a movie that's 25 years old, 10 years old, and five years old. Speed, Big Daddy, Gone Girl, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. That's not even close, it's Speed. It's absolutely Speed.

Do you follow Ryan Nonney, a great college football guy? He had a gig going for a while where it was like he was in charge of letting people know if Speed was on somewhere. I was like Speed looked like it was, I don't know, I feel like it almost kicked off the air of like, we're not gonna take Keanu Reeves seriously, are we? Like the whole time you're kind of laughing at Keanu Reeves as an action hero, and then you get to the end and you're like, no, that was really good. It was, we only knew Keanu as Bill and Ted, and all of a sudden it was like, all right, really an action movie? No lie, I remember going to Speed in the movie theater at Pleasant Valley Promenade in Raleigh, North Carolina. A buddy of mine had told me it wasn't even advertised, but it was like a preview, a week early even.

And I wish, I'll text my friends, we'll come up with it. We were 16 and Pleasant Valley like wouldn't let you in. It was an R movie. And you like, they used to be more strict about that back in the day. So we had to buy tickets to some rom-com.

We joked about it for years. I wanna go figure out what else was in the theater the week before Speed. And we all went in thinking we were just gonna like laugh at Keanu Reeves, the action star. And instead it was like, that was a great movie. And Sandra Bullock is hot, shout out ECU.

Speed is the easy answer. 46% of the audience agrees with you leading the vote. So yes, Speed is gonna be WD's movie. The only other one I heard was Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which I haven't even seen. Gone Girl? You haven't heard of Gone Girl or Big Daddy? No, no, no, no, no, no.

I'm saying the only one that would have challenged whatever. Big Daddy, not that great. Gone Girl, hugely overrated, wildly overrated. Not even a good movie. Gone Girl, not a good movie. But I have heard Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is good. I just need to get around to seeing it.

Yeah, you do. We have a big announcement that we need to make and we'll do that after we play Skips or Plays with Haze. That's a tease. Haze Permar is somewhat of a Renaissance man. An expert in the finer things. But he hangs his hat on music.

Love says God and he's no friend of Satan. He was like oh six, getting busy with the sticks. Been watching Big Mike and Lil Trinket trip.

I just need a Zion and someone he can dunk on. Today Haze will decide if this music is smash or trash, blows or blows. It's time for Skips or Plays with Haze.

I feel like teasing it. It's gonna make the announcement disappointing when we get there. What? But we'll get to that announcement after Skips or Plays. The reason why we need to do Skips or Plays now is kind of by the same notion of doing movies that are now 30 years, 15, 10, five, cause he watched Man on Fire last night which is 20 years old. Like we need- Wizard of Oz, 85 years old this year. There you go. W.D. says he has music that is 30 years old now, 20 years old, 10 years old. That is gonna make people feel old probably one way or another.

What do you have first? All right, we're gonna start off in 1994. The sign, Ace of Base. I saw the sign, and it opened up my eyes. I saw the sign, and it ended up ending without understanding. I saw the sign, and it opened up my eyes. I saw the sign, no one's gonna drag me up. Too bad. Great, one of the cool things about Ace of Base was like, they were nobody's favorite band, but they just had a different sound.

They just sounded different, and they were good. I'm more of a, Oh all that she wants is another baby. She's gone tomorrow.

That's more my speed, but this is a definite play. Shout out 1994. Excellent. Ace per mor.

I got a feeling W.D. only knows that song because of the movie Pitch Perfect. Have you seen Pitch Perfect? Well- Nevermind. I've never seen it. Well, it's featured in that movie.

Probably for- It's a great hook, or riff, whatever you call it. Let's go to 2004, 20 years ago. 2004. Great movie, great music year. I can already rattle up about five or six songs from that year. Skip, skip. This is like Josh Graham's High School, skip.

No, no, 2004 was the year of Usher, because the top two songs- And Usher's doing the Super Bowl halftime show in 24. Darn right he is. It's old man music. So let's just start it up. No. Ha, ha, ha, ha. You have to. No other way.

Kevin James and Hitch. W.D. knows.

Gotta move the legs side to side. Right here. It stays right here. Have a say in Scott Herring. He had me feeling like he's ready.

Watch out. This is a huge play. This is an all time banger. I mean, in 50 years from now, whatever Rolling Stone does, it's like, you know, best 100 songs of 100 years.

Like, yeah, it could be on there. It's a banger. Also shout out Usher. Did he get the Super Bowl because of his great performance at Dreamville?

I don't know. You tell me, but I saw Usher at Dreamville. He was awesome. The cool thing that set Usher apart from Drake and Lil Wayne and Lil Uzi Vert and J. Cole and whoever was the next night was Usher came with a band. He wasn't like playing just off like the tracks, playing on the speakers. They were playing the music behind him, which made a huge difference. He was awesome.

Still an entertainer. I was mad that people were hating on the Usher Super Bowl. That was mad. I'm all in for it. Well, forget you.

I have to check my language. I'm with you. Hey, I love it. I love it.

I love that you have two for two plays on that. Such a good song. Yeah. Now this is the year that makes me feel old. 2014, 10 years ago.

This is the year I graduated high school. Oh, yeah. Rude by magic. Great song. It is. My buddy and I used to have a bit with this song where we'd replace the word girl with squirrel.

Dominated in the summer. Marry that squirrel. Marry that squirrel, Hayes.

Come on, Hayes. Look, I don't want to be old guy here, but I just gotta say, I feel sorry for you, Will Dalton, that like these are the songs that you had in high school. Well, you know, I was rolling around with Nirvana and Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre. I could have went happy by Pharrell. That's worse, because it's Pharrell. That's terrible on your part.

We're skipping this one. Hate it. Happy by Pharrell. Terrible song.

And the mispronunciation is brutal on your part. People hated that song. I liked it. Pharrell's got better songs. Pharrell. He's got, Pharrell's got better songs.

We both did. Yeah, like Pharrell. It's PH, it's an F, so it's Pharrell. Oh yeah, Pharrell. Great songs like Porti Volare and Step Brothers. Pharrell. Pharrell has some tunes. Like Happy. With John C. Reilly. It's not the worst, but it's like, they wouldn't want to be the song that I'm like known by.

Like if Ace of Ace was like known for Happy, they'd be like, well, we did the sign though. Here's an announcement that's not going to disappoint. In less than two weeks, Wake Forest Basketball plays at PNC Arena at NC State. Hayes Permar runs the Rialto Theater in Raleigh. The drive is going to be broadcasting live. Live action, Tracey! It's live action, Tracey. From the Rialto Theater. Oh yeah. In Raleigh.

Look at that. Hayes, we're pulling a college game day. We're coming to y'all city. And we're going to do, we're going to do our show from there. Is the Washington State flag coming? Dude, no. It's not welcome, the Washington State flag.

That'd be great if I just got a Washington State flag to hang up in the background. What's the exact date? Because I forgot to put it on my calendar when we talked about it.

So let me make sure, this is so huge that I've forgot to even write it down. What date is it again? I think it's on the 16th of January.

That sounds right. Like 12 days from now. That's when we'll be there.

Hayes Permar doing skips or plays with Hayes. Live action, Tracey! It's live action, Tracey.

Inside the Rialto Theater. We're excited. Nah, it'll be a great time. We might even throw your name up on the marquee if somebody hasn't like offered me a big price to do it better. So we'll get some good Instagram shots and you'll excuse our mess. We're still a little bit under renovation, but we got cool stuff happening in the lobby.

But the stage and the house all looks good. We can't wait to have you guys down there. Talk a little ACC basketball. Talk a little DJ.

I'm sure you talked about DJ Burns all day today. I didn't even get a chance to talk about how awesome that was. The only thing I want to say about that was his post move is beautiful. I have made a post- Stop him from going to his left. I have made a post move that good, right? Like I am capable of that post move. If I had made the move that DJ Burns did and the guy flew by me, if I wasn't close enough to put it off the glass, I would have left that two foot or one foot short. Like I would have been the guy that was like only thinking about the move, like sick move, sick move. He's going like, you're wide open.

And then just, I would have gagged it so bad. So credit to Burns. He's got incredible touch. It was a great finish. We'll see you in a couple of weeks, Haze Permar. Can't wait guys.