Hey "Yeah"! (3-1-24)

This is the DRIVE Podcast with Josh Graham. I love it. I need it.

Couldn't live without it. You can hear the DRIVE weekday afternoons 3 till 6 on WSJS. We've made it to a Friday DRIVE. It is WSJS, News Talk Sports for the Triad, where it is March and tomorrow presents an enormous ACC Hoop Slate. WD is going to be at North Carolina NC State in Chapel Hill.

I'll be at Duke Virginia at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Both are games that we'll get to shortly because we must first talk about the most important game in the ACC this weekend, and that's the one in Blacksburg. Even after beating Duke, there are still Wake Forest doubters out there. Wake's kind of responsible for that being the case with the way they played at Notre Dame, but the things that we hear. They can't win on the road. They still aren't getting in.

All stuff that's been said ad nauseam. There aren't going to be any more doubters after tomorrow though. Because the Demon Deacons are beating Virginia Tech at the castle, and they're going to do so impressively.

As we saw in the first meeting, right before New Year's on December 30th, this is a total mismatch. The Deacs dominated the Glass with their size from Efton Reed and Andrew Carr, but the big thing in that game was Hunter Salas and Cam Hildreth's perimeter defense that limited a team that wanted to take a lot of 3s to only take 16 in the game. So don't expect big nights for Hunter Couture and Sean Padula tomorrow.

Let's also not forget, that was before Damari Monsanto was healthy, before Parker Fredrickson started to take off the way that he has. Wake has more depth than Steve Forbes has had at Wake Forest, and there's going to be more urgency with this game tomorrow than anything Virginia Tech can match with. Wake is going to have the urgency. They're the one on the bubble.

Everybody knows it. And they're certainly ticked about the way they played Tuesday in South Bend. Meanwhile, what's Virginia Tech got to play for? Virginia Tech's not getting into the tournament unless they win in DC. They're coming off not one, but two demoralizing double-digit losses, and in three of their last four beaten-handedly. It's not going to bring the same thing Wake Forest will. This has been pent up, just like when Wake got their second road win, which was at Georgia Tech.

Oh, they're off to a terrible start on the road. Then they heard enough of that that they took all that energy out on Georgia Tech and blew out Damon Stoudemire's team. You might see that tomorrow against the ACC's other tech in Blacksburg.

Expect Hunter Salas, who had his worst game of the year, to respond with a really good game tomorrow afternoon. And plus, Steve Forbes and Mike Young, who go way back to the SoCon. Young was at Wofford, Steve Forbes at East Tennessee State.

Forbes has had Mike Young's number of late. He's beaten them three straight times. The last time Wake Forest lost to Virginia Tech was Steve Forbes' first year. And what's kind of crazy about this, this is also the first time that Wake and Virginia Tech have met in three years past the month of December. The last few years, they've played in December and that's it.

This is the first time in three years that they're meeting later in the season than December. Give me the dekes by double digits. We'll call Wake Forest by 12. You can reach out to the show on X at WSJS radio or just give us a call.

336-777-1600. Will Dalton is the executive producer of this show. W.D., what is Hayes Permar's theme for today when we play skips or plays with Hayes? It's going to be a March themed skips or plays.

See what you did there. How about we get to the NFL? The NFL Combine continues in Indianapolis where Carolina Panthers coach Dave Canales has been on the circuit on a ton of shows.

He's spoken several different times over the last few days. And reading between the lines on his comments, it's becoming clear Canales understands Carolina's problems from last year and already has an idea of some of the answers to fix those issues. Let's start with the offensive line. He recognizes Carolina needs to have a power run game because that's what best suits this offensive line.

Frank Reich and Thomas Brown tried to fit square pegs through round holes and the results weren't very good. Also, the injuries didn't help as well. When we were joined by Dave Canales on this show, he went on talking about we're going to be us and we're going to see what best fits us. And we'll run an offense that we best block in and the best one that helps us move the ball. And yesterday, here was his reasoning for keeping Icky Ikhwanu at left tackle this year. And that's what he did well, you know, coming out is just a mauler and the run game. And so just continuing to be able to pile on that from a strength standpoint and then just the nature of what our concepts are, our pass game. You know, we're really committed to getting the ball out. This is going to be a big emphasis for Bryce. Get the ball out, get the ball out.

We're going to be on a clock every single time in the spring, every single time in camp. That's not something that's going to be new or original to the Panthers. We did this in Seattle.

We did it in Tampa. I'll be a crazy stickler about it. I'm selling to Icky. I'm selling to Mote and I'm selling to these tackles, guys. Be aggressive. We're going to get the ball out so that you can just be sound in your technique. We don't have to chase things so we don't hang them out to dry.

Icky Ikhwanu, we're not going to leave you out the dry. We're not going to put you in bad pass pro situations where you're having to hold up so long when you don't have healthy guards next to you. Carolina had 12 different offensive linemen start for them last year, 9 just at the guard spots.

Icky Ikhwanu at left tackle, he's a mauler in the run game and that's what he's talking about. We want to run the ball. We're going to get the ball out quickly.

We're going to allow you to be aggressive. This is music to offensive linemen's ears. But what about Bryce?

What about helping Bryce? There are going to be more pre-snap creative formations under Dave Canales than what we saw a year ago. There's this misconception that just because you're an offensive guy means that you're creative offensively. Frank Reich ran a dinosaur-like offense last year.

That was easy to figure out. Dead last in pre-snap motion, not really putting a lot of pressure on defenses, forcing them to adjust pre-snap. Not a lot of stacked receivers, not a lot of RPO. You can expect that that's going to change under Dave Canales. Jonathan Jones, our buddy at CBS, asked Dave Canales, what is one thing you saw on tape that you thought in watching that tape, I can fix that?

And this is how Dave Canales responded. Offensively, we have some great pieces, but it's about marrying the runs to the play actions and to the boot game that really wasn't a focus and an emphasis of what they were doing offensively. So I think that's a simple starting point there. And then just the timing and rhythm of the pass game. Let's get the ball out quicker. Let's get number one and number two open on a more consistent basis for the quarterback. We have to work harder as a staff. We have to really challenge ourselves to bunch, to stack, to motion, to get matchups so that we can have the first or second progressions available sooner so that the protection isn't as much a factor. There it is. Pre-snap motion.

Pre-snap things that we can scheme up to open first and second options for Bryson to help him out. Tampa Bay did that. They did run the ball and they were committed to that. Halfway through the year, they were averaging 66, 76 yards of rush.

They finished the year at 96 because of that commitment to the run and the way that they scheme things open for Baker Mayfield is why he was so bad with the Panthers two years ago, but last year had a career year getting to the second round of the playoffs. That's what Dave Canales feels he can bring to the Panthers, but there is a label that Dave Canales pushes back on. He says, please don't lump me in with being an air quote wonder kid like the Ben Johnsons, the Bobby Slowicks, the Sean McBays of the world. I'm 42.

You know, I'm not 32. This is not like flash in the pan, you know, young wonder kid, you know, whiz whiz guy who's doing the next, you know, offensive. He's the next offensive guru mind or anything like that. I was like I was in a spot that learned good football for a long time.

So now let me go put these principles into practice. I just felt I felt a readiness to this. He may look like one of those younger coaches. He may look like a kid, but I'm 42. I'm not 32. I've had I've been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. This is not I was in Seattle for more than a decade. I've served in so many different roles.

So don't let me in with that. I've earned this opportunity. There's a reason why I'm in this spot and it's become clear. Dave Canales, he understands the Panthers problems and he's starting to provide some of those answers publicly. The Drive with Josh Graham only on WSJS. Been thinking about Kevin Keats today about facing North Carolina and facing Duke. Two games in three days, tomorrow in Chapel Hill, Monday at PNC Arena. And a lot of people think that his job is on the line.

It very well might be. And what I'm reminded of is when I first started to do media stuff, when I first started to bug guys like Hayes Permar when he was producing David Glenn's show about a decade ago, it was always a popular talking point among NC State fans. Man, the key is to have a sustained coach in place when Coach K and Roy Williams retire.

So that way we can then make up ground. We might not get to where Duke and Carolina have been or where their programs are under K and Roy, but we can make up ground on them when those guys retire if we have our guy in place. And Kevin Keats was hired the 17-18 season, and he had five years of runway before both K and Roy were both gone. And yet here we are. NC State probably not going to make the tournament.

Kevin Keats is on the hot seat. And in years two and three respectively at North Carolina and Duke, both Duke and Carolina are in the top ten right now. Duke won the ACC last year. Carolina went to the Final Four. Duke went to the Final Four in recent years. Hayes Permar joins us now.

We'll play skips or plays in a moment. That to me, if you talk to State fans, probably the root of the frustration they have with Kevin Keats, because he's been an all right coach, not a bad coach by any means. How do you think State fans feel about Kevin Keats?

What do you hear? Well, they're reaching what my friends Otis and Gillio would probably refer to as like syndex fever, of like even worse than not liking him or hating him. It becomes very obvious when somebody's like, this guy's got to go. Like UNC with Larry Fedora a couple years ago was like, all right, he's getting kind of annoying, he's saying weird things, and he's losing.

This guy's got to go. Keats has not reached near that level, but he's almost reached the apathetic level, which sometimes could be even worse, right? I do think too much is put into, in general in sports, we try and claim that there's some perfect formula of timing when there isn't. I get your point. You're not wrong in the way that you portrayed it, is that people were describing it as if NC State could set up with the right coach, if they're booming when the other two are having to figure some stuff out, that might be a time to pounce. But I just feel like that's much like when teams talk about going through the process or long-term tanking, you're banking on a lot of things that you can't control and trying to manipulate them with the few things you can, rather than sticking to principles of things that you can control, like hiring good people with not just the right offense but the right demeanor as a person, whatever those things are. Not just building your team around, can we find the ideal quarterback, which is going to be a little bit of luck, as we've seen, right? Some teams are lucky that they got the 15th pick, and the two bums that were the highest rated went ahead of them, and they picked the quarterback left under the board, who ended up being Patrick Mahomes. I'm not sure the Chiefs wouldn't have taken one of those other guys given the chance. We ascribe too much to the – so if you're building your whole franchise around finding the perfect quarterback, you might miss some things that it's like, really, let's just make solid decisions in everywhere, and then when we have the chance to get a quarterback or luck, our second-round pick is now a superstar. So, yeah, anybody who thought, let's try to time this just perfectly and hire a coach that then will take over when Roy and Kay are gone, because those people couldn't have factored in a pandemic and things like that that were going to alter all life as we know it, sports and beyond.

So, yes, I do worry that we're almost hitting the – even if they made the tournament, even if they were two or three wins better than they are right now and made the tournament as they still reached an apathetic state, it's tough to snap out of. Haze Permar is with us here. It's time to play a March-themed Skips or Plays with Haze. 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. Feels like 06 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. Permar, have we done this before?

Hold on, hold on. Before we even get to Skips or Plays with Haze, I got beef. I got beef with Graham, well done, excuse me. I got beef, I got to air with Josh Graham.

Why? Because you're going to play it off as, look, last week I was a little flaky. I couldn't come on our normal time, although I was very flexible.

We have a kind of normal time, but I'm very flexible. But last week I was a little tough. I had some emergencies in my life.

But you're just going to pretend like you, like, ignore the fact that you didn't hit me up at all early in the week or it would have been our normal time. You get a court storming in your corner of the basketball world. Oh, no. And everybody who's talking about Wake Forest, you've got coaches, ADs, the commissioner probably came on.

I don't know, like, Adam Silver probably came on to talk about what they do. He did, he did. That's what he gets.

Wow. That's what he gets. His phone's breaking up. That's what he gets.

That's incredible. You know, Adam Silver's breaking up your line right now. You probably had Matt Jones from Kentucky Sports Radio on. I mean, like, everybody came through when Josh had, like, cornered him. He knew when he had a hot topic that was in his corner in his wheelhouse. He had the court storming. He didn't need little old time-filling Hayes Fermor to do some skip to plays with Hayes early in the week. And he totally ignored me. And then Friday, he's like, he tries to pretend, like, because it's March.

He's like, oh, Hayes, I'm so excited, it's March. Yeah. That goes out of Silver again. Yeah.

Well, I, that's all 100% correct, and I have no notes. Hayes Fermor, Hayes Fermor just, he just shot an arrow directly into my heart, and I have no response. This is like Achilles. I was hit in the heel.

I got hit in the heel. Okay, what's the first song? I want everybody to know what time it is. That's all I want to know.

542. That's right. Okay, what do we got?

All right, our first song in our March-themed Skips or Plays is Ants Marching by Dave Matthews Band. He wakes up in the morning. He wakes up in the morning.

His teeth bite to eat him. He says the moment never changes a thing. Matt Rule's favorite band. Oh. Is it? This is a play.

This is a play for so many reasons. It's like, it's, it feels like the most Dave Matthews voice Dave Matthews song. There is, like, if you're going to do an impersonation of Dave Matthews, you do it to this song, because it's like the easiest one to get it right. And then, I feel like this is the first Dave Matthews song I ever heard. Like, maybe 1991?

Were either of you guys born then? I don't even know. I feel like I heard this song in 91, and you heard them, and it sounded like, like, Rusted Roots, Send Me On My Way or something. Yeah, yeah. You thought it was just going to be a one-hit wonder.

It was like, oh, this is a quirky little, it's a cool little, yeah, it's a little 90s song. I wonder if this guy will do anything. And then, 30 years later, he's Dave Matthews. There he goes. That's a play, and let's see if W.D. is a really good producer and has a Matt Rule sound queued up to make us laugh.

He has to go back and watch the tape. Yeah, there you go. Happy Christmas, everybody.

I wasn't ready for Merry Christmas, everyone. That's great. Do you still have the Matt Rule bank of clips? That makes me smile. I have it all. Do we have Gary Hahn queued up?

I just want to know, just in case I want to go in that direction. Let's go to the sidelines. Tony Haines. Yeah. Okay, yeah. Hey, Gary Hahn, One More Week is the voice of the pack.

You know, it's going to bump us up. Okay, what's the next one? The next one, I get a little creative with this, so this song was number six on the Billboard Top 100 this week in 2004, so 20 years ago. Hey Yeah by Outkast.

Might be a hot tape, but that's my favorite Outkast album. Hmm. Maybe a top ten, but I got two questions. One, what was the March connection to this song? March 20 years ago. Yeah. Oh, it's when it came out? Okay, okay.

Number six on the Billboard Top 100 this week, 20 years ago. Okay, and then did you call it Hey Yeah? Yeah. Did we check the tape on that? No, he didn't call it Hey Yeah.

I wasn't going to say anything. Hey Yeah. Like, he's stepping into songs. It's Hey Yah. It's Hey Yah.

Hey Yah. Great memory of this. I went to a fraternity party, one of my younger friends around the time this came out, and they just played this song over and over and over and over and over again. And it was one of those things where you're like, when they're playing it back to back or back to back to back, you're like, oh, this is kind of funny. Then the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth time, you're like, this is dumb. Come on, just put another song.

Then it comes back around, like time 12, 13, 14, you're like, hell yes. Let's just do this song the rest of the party. And that's what we did at the play.

Hey Sperma. The reason I was asking, did we do this already, is because I think I know where WD's heading with this third one. Just, just play it if I'm right. Yeah. Let it rip! Cause you know my take on this song, but it's not skips or plays with Josh.

I think we've definitely had this discussion. When I say it's like a Christmas care. Like it's like a good Christmas song. Where the bar is different where they're not, it's a great song. Because it's a great Christmas song, it's tripped over into another level of song. And as long as it's this version of the song, I'll give it a play. That's a play. Hey Sperma. Not a good song.

Any song would be great with those highlights in the background in that spot. That's all I'm saying. Hey, before we get out of here and make sure Gary Hounds ready, did you guys discuss the awkward graphic that they put up on the ACC network? Oh boy. ACC coaches who happened to be black. I have.

Let's go to the sidelines, Tony H. Hold on, hold on. I did see that. Happy Black History Month.

Oh wait, it's March now. I was trying to be open minded. Like is that a reference to a movie that I don't get? Like it's a level of like obviously they know that people are going to talk about it, but they've got.

Or was it just that weird that they put ACC coaches who happened to be black? I don't know. But my bigger question. Go ahead.

It did have a weird tone to it. Let's just say that. Yeah. What was your bigger question?

My bigger was like how mad was Hubert Davis to be on that list? Let's get Gary Hounds. Anyone? Yeah. Hayes Burmar, we'll talk to you before Friday of next week. Yeah, hit me up. You're loving me now, aren't you? You're going to love me on a dead Tuesday next week, aren't you? That's the plan.

No wait, we're doing our show from The Joel on Tuesday, so I'll hit you up on Wednesday. Alright, we'll talk. We'll talk.

We'll see. Hayes Burmar. Skips her plays with Hayes. Always a good time when he drops by. I want to give a shout out, W.D. A hashtag special shout out to my dentist. You know who you are today.

Okay. Because the last time I mentioned on the show that I had like, remember the day that I had like my mouth worked on? Like I had like a filling and I did the show that day and things were a little wonky. You don't remember this? Vaguely. I'm using that on air and apparently three or four people in the office are huge fans of the show and they were just eating it up. They're like, oh, this guy's numb. We did that. We did that to that guy's mouth. Carry on.

Where's he at? I appreciate them a great deal. They know who they are, but that's the special shout out for them. There you go. I got a nice report. Nice teeth today. Good for you.

Nice teeth. I'm just imagining them making all these different show references while you're in there. It was great.

Yeah. They find the opportunity to talk sports. So we get done and my dentist sits down and starts talking to me about Arsenal soccer. We're talking about soccer and we talked for about 10 minutes and I'm like, oh, by the way, are my teeth OK? He's like, oh, yeah, yeah, it's fine. I'm like, you would have led with that if they weren't fine, right?

Because how great would it have been if we just had the Arsenal conversation? My teeth weren't good. And it was, oh, by the way, your teeth suck.

We need to see you in a week and maybe. I'm like, why didn't you tell me that 10 minutes ago? Yeah. I guess it's a good sign for your teeth if the dentist wants to talk Arsenal soccer with you for 10 minutes before he tells you about the state of your teeth.

I get some of that. My dentist is a big Toriel fan, so I can relate. Shout out to him as well.

Dr. Searles. Shout out. Boom. Let's go, baby.

What, kind of like this? Let's go. The Drive with Josh Graham. Willcologic will be here 15 minutes from now. There are new college football rules expected to be passed, according to Ross Dellinger, who covers college football about as closely as anybody from Yahoo Sports tomorrow, though. NC State, North Carolina, in Chapel Hill, the next three days are Kevin Keats' last stand in the triangle. It begins tomorrow, a three-day stretch, where tomorrow it's facing the Tar Heels, and then Monday night the Blue Devils come to PNC Arena. His fate will be decided in the next two games. That quick turnaround, if he wins one of the two and wins a game in D.C., or is at least competitive in the next two, wins against Pitt, wins in D.C., gets close to 19 or 20 wins, he has 17 right now, that might be enough to keep his job after an NCAA tournament appearance. If he loses out, though, it's not going to be favored in any of these games.

Tomorrow, at Carolina, home against Duke, at Pitt, if he loses out, it's going to be a little harder to defend. But here was Kevin Keats a few hours ago on the challenge of facing North Carolina and the meaning behind this game. It's a great opportunity for us. In the world of our conversations of quads, it's a great opportunity. It's a good rivalry game. It's a good opportunity for our guys. And so, you know, just gotta go play.

You know, I don't know if it's, hey, just go have fun because we're the only ones that believe, but that's the only people that need to believe anyway. Some are bringing up yesterday that State might not be able to fire Kevin Keats. Why? Because when the NCAA ruling came down during last season, or it might have been the year before that, if scholarships were limited in any way, and they were, he had a clause in his contract that immediately triggered a two-year extension over the what was already agreed to. So he's under contract now because of that two-year extension through 2028. That might sound like a deal breaker to you.

It shouldn't be. Let's do some simple math here. This is not so simple if you went to East Carolina University like I did, not a math magician. W.D., where do you own a degree from? I actually don't own a degree. That answers a breaking news. That explains a lot.

Explains a lot, unfortunately. Kevin Keats makes $1.35 million a year. He's set to make that number for the next four seasons after this one. If you multiply $1.35 million over four, that gets you to $5.4 million. That's the buyout total for the remainder of Kevin Keats' contract. $5.4 million. Remember, Jimbo Fisher was just paid $75 million by Texas A&M to not coach there. Oh, Josh, that's SEC money. That's football.

Okay. Danny Manning, in the uncertain time of May of 2020 or April of 2020, during lockdown, was paid $17 million by Wake Forest, reportedly. More than three times this number. You're telling me State can't afford that? Of course they can, if they want too bad enough. And that's up to Kevin Keats over the last few games. Kevin Keats' last stand in the triangle beginning tomorrow. The problem is, North Carolina really wants to win this game too. And that's why North Carolina is going to win. The Tar Heels, they won the first meeting in Raleigh. Harrison Ingram had more rebounds against the Wolfpack than any other player in the history of the series.

19 boards. Plus, Carolina, they understand it. Their next two games are at home against non-tournament teams, NC State and Notre Dame. If they win both those games, they're guaranteed at least a share of the ACC title.

And that's pretty good. And if Duke were to lose against Virginia or NC State the next couple games, and Carolina takes both these home games, then they sold possession of first place in winning the ACC in a direct line to getting a number one seed in the NCAA tournament. So Carolina has a lot to play for and that's why Carolina wins this game. And I think Carolina wins by a lot.

I think Carolina wins by close to 20 points tomorrow night at the Smith Center. Before we get to the new college football rules and Will Pelagic, the voice of Charlotte FC, dropping by for a visit. A reminder that funds raised by the YMCA support programs like YMCA Literacy, which provides students school supplies and new clothes. Teen membership, providing students with a free membership and a safe place to go after school. Live Strong at the YMCA gives cancer survivors a safe place for physical health, to work on their physical health. And of course, yearlong memberships for families in need. March the 4th, Monday, is YMCA their annual day of giving.

To give, visit YMCANWNC.org. WD, you know what today is, right? It's the first day of March. Which means you can start funding your legal accounts now that you can start placing bets for on March the 11th. We can legally send you that cash app, fam. We really can.

Starting March the 11th, but today you can start funding those accounts. It's a very exciting time. College football is turning into the NFL.

This is something that people said for a long time with the transfer portal and it's become free agency with NIL, but in past years you can still roll your eyes at that and say, come on, it's not nearly the same thing. Last year, we learned about the running clock outside of the final two minutes of halfs. That's something that we've seen in the NFL.

The clock not stopping after first downs. That was a new rule that was passed. Today, three new rule changes to mere Sundays are set to pass according to Ross Dellinger of Sports Illustrated, or pardon me, of Yahoo Sports.

Two of these are good. It was tried out during bowl season and now is expected to be part of things in 2024 college football. Helmet mics for quarterbacks and a defensive player and sideline tablets are going to be allowed to be used.

A lot like Sunday. And that's a really good thing. Good reviews after what we saw during bowl season.

This one might be a bridge too far. There's going to be a two minute warning implemented for college football games. That's an NFL thing. And what we learned with college football games, they're going to be shortened. It's going to be a better product. The games aren't going to run crazy long. Last year, that's what we were sold. Instead, the games were shorter, but they made commercial breaks longer. So it was kind of nefarious. No, well, while the game's shorter, you're still going to be sitting here for the same length of time watching these games because we're just going to fill these spots with commercial breaks because we're greedy.

I won't say what type of people they are, but you kind of get an idea. Now we're adding an extra. We're building in another commercial break. Two minute warnings for the end of the first half and the fourth quarter of games. Great.

Just what everybody was asking for. And don't forget, the playoff expanding to 12 this year and they're already, before even playing 12, what are they trying to do? Expand it to 14. Last night, Jay, how many playoff teams make the NFL playoffs? Oh, 14.

Interesting. Too many playoff teams. NFL is king. But the problem is the NFL is king. College football isn't in that sense. And one of the reasons college football is number two, it's not just because it's football, but because it's not the NFL.

It's something different. A popular critique of college basketball from people that love the NBA is this. I can't watch college basketball anymore because it just looks like a worse version of the NBA. Guys are jumping from team to team and they're trying to run the same stuff and just not doing it as well.

So the college product was just a worse version of the NBA product. What we've seen as that's happened in the last five years mostly is a growth in women's college basketball. And the things that people who are starting to watch women's college basketball more and more, the thing that they keep saying is this feels like the college basketball that I've loved from watching in the men's game. I know the players. They're not leaving immediately.

They stick around. Pretty much all of Kaitlyn Clark and her teammates came back from the Iowa team and LSU with Angel Reese and we're seeing it with the ACC. That resembles something that's different than what you would get in pro women's college basketball or certainly with the men's game that's now just mirroring the NBA game. I wonder how far does college football have to go from the product that people already really loved in trying to chase something that looks like Sunday's before people start saying, you know what, I don't like it as much. It's a similar question that's being asked about NCAA tournament expansion. How far do you have to go before people say, nah, I don't think so.

I don't think so. 96 teams might get us to that point. I think it would. People already say the regular season doesn't matter in college basketball.

That would just be the finishing number on it. Virginia Tech and Wake Forest, wouldn't it be a big game tomorrow? Why? Because both teams wouldn't be in. There'd be no stakes. None.

No incentive. Yeah. So, Mike DeCorsy wrote a great piece about that yesterday. I encourage you to read it, the sporting news. When Will Pelagic joins us from the Queen City, we'll hit on the Bryce Young smear cane pan that we've seen the last few months. And of course, talk about the 1-0 Charlotte FC soccer team.

That's all next on The Drive. Before we get to our first guest today, App State Basketball. Regular season finale tonight.

They're receiving votes for the top 25. Our buddy Darren Vaught calling this game. Darren did Greensboro Sworn Basketball Wednesday. Yesterday had ECU Memphis and Greenville America.

Now he's up on the mountain in Boone. And I've just been told that four tickets have been dropped off in our studio here. And someone said, hey, just if anyone wants to go, let us know. They can have these tickets.

Okay. So 336-777-1600. If you want to go to the home center and help the Mountaineers get a home court advantage. 336-777-1600. The first to call and get those tickets. Wanted to pass that along. From one voice in our state, Darren Vaught, calling that game to another, Will Pelagic, voice of Charlotte FC joining us now. This is a home and home where I was on your show on WFNZ in Charlotte earlier today. And now you're here on this one.

Who do you think won the first game of the doubleheader? I'd like to think that I did only because I have that potential sensibility about me, but I feel like you're leading this one. So go right ahead. Okay. There it is.

So Willie P won. We'll get a split. Yeah. Yeah.

We'll see if I can get a split. That's right. You know, a lot of teams. That's what I love about ACC basketball.

And there are fewer of those games where it's, oh, you got us at your place, but we're going to get you back at our place. There is no doubt who won the first match of the season for Charlotte FC. Won the nothing winners last week. Other than the one marker, what was the highlight of the season opener at the bank? It was the way they played defense, Josh. Dean Smith brings a much more simplistic model of defense than the previous manager.

Really, the previous two managers made. It's more about the ball. It's not necessarily about man marking. It's not even really about zonal marking. It's flowing toward the ball.

It's cutting off passing lanes. And the highlight for me was that New York was not even really able to be very dangerous with the ball at their feet. Most of their possession was confined to the neutral third and their own and their own half. They did get a couple of chances, including one that was kind of point blank range. But their opposing DP, Sante Rodriguez, sent it over the bar.

But outside of that, Christian Kalina was rarely tested. And those are the kinds of games you like if you're a fan, even if you're only having to cling to a 1-0 lead. Charlotte got the goal in the eighth minute and then held on to win that game.

Won the nothing Charlotte Vancouver tomorrow at 7.30. Since it's the NFL combine going on right now, usually there's a lot of chatter when everybody in the league is together. You see that at the Super Bowl. But usually that chatter is more focused on the teams that are, you know, playing in the Super Bowl.

And then when you get to combine time, that chatter is a little bit mixed where you hear people expressing opinions about the previous class and things of that nature. And Bryce Young, he's taken the brunt of criticism related to the Panthers. This is something that I've been thinking about, trying to figure out what is more of a catalyst.

So I'll put it to you. What do you think is the bigger catalyst for the Bryce Young criticism this soon? The Panthers record last year or the performance of C.J.

Stroud in Houston? What do you think is a bigger catalyst for the Bryce criticism? I think honestly it is Stroud. The fact that Stroud had such a great season and they got to the playoffs and he won Rookie of the Year. And the fact that it seemed like a lot of the initial thoughts that we were getting maybe kind of centered around Stroud. And we now know why those were centered around Stroud, because the Panthers had fashions of going up to number two and taking Stroud because they thought Houston was going to get the number one overall pick. But again, we all know what ended up happening. The Panthers ended up going up to one and they were able to get that pick done by themselves. That was a three team deal that was being talked about in place. And it would have put Chicago up at the one spot. Panthers down at number two and Houston would have been down back at number nine.

So at least in this sense, I look at this, Josh, and say, you know what? If Stroud would have had a similar season to Bryce Young, maybe this conversation somewhat tempered. But I do also feel like Panther fans are also tired of the waiting and the excuses they've seen and dealt with labor pains.

They want to see the baby. And no, I'm not making a comment about Bryce Young's size. What I am saying is that I do feel like so much about last year just did not work from the wide receiver position not having a number one, from the offensive line not having really anybody you could be feared outside of Taylor Moten, and also the coaching staff just either not having a plan or trying to shoot Bryce Young into a plan that very much did not fit. I have much more faith in Dave Canales and his ability to do that.

But of course, I think it all has to happen with personnel as well. But let's just pretend we live in a world that CJ Stroud didn't exist and there wasn't a quarterback to take number two overall. I feel like if Bryce has the season that he has and there isn't that CJ Stroud element to it at all, I feel like the conversation is a lot different. It's a lot more blame on the staff than Bryce. And it's like, it's only been one year.

What could you expect? So I think I'm with you. I think the catalyst is CJ. I think that's changed the way it's talked about. And I agree with that. But I also think, too, this is not to completely absolve the last staff of completely bungling the launching point. That's the part of it that I feel like is still also frustrating is that, OK, you know, there's a camp of people who wanted CJ Stroud. And then there's the other camp of people of how did we get this so wrong? And I think that they're both kind of yelling at loud voices and almost yelling over each other.

But no one's happy. LOUD NOISES! Will Pelagic is with us here.

You moved away from the mic to do that one. Yeah. I'm a pro at this, you know, trying to win, trying to get the split and the home and home visits with Will Pelagic joining us here. On the way out, something on the Hornets real quick. W.D. is a Hornets fan. He's bummed out because he thought the Hornets were good. Post deadline.

Now, I don't think... They played a good team. Well, here's the thing.

I think there are layers to this. Charlotte pre deadline, bad basketball team, 10 and 41. Post deadline, beating a bunch of bad teams, which means you're not a bad team anymore. I just don't think they could beat good teams, which means they're not good. They're just they're not bad. I think that's the best way to characterize Charlotte. They're neither bad nor good, which is an improvement off being terrible.

Well, I think I would stop down on the on the whole. They're not just not bad. I think they have beaten some some OK teams.

Indiana. And they've and they've been in some other good games, too, as well. My biggest thing is they're never going to be able to, at least without Mark Williams, stay up to a team with any appreciable level of size. They play Philly tonight. They get an advantage with not having a beat in the lineup. So it's a scenario where if they had a beat, I wouldn't favor them in this game. But without a beat, I feel like the Hornets have a decent shot. But teams like Milwaukee, the Knicks and others that have size, Philly with a beat.

It's a it's a hard, hard road for them because they just do not have the ability to match up. Willie P, good to see you. Have a great call for Charlotte FC Vancouver this weekend. We'll talk to you next week. Thank you, boys.

Appreciate it. Did I get the split? Hold on one sec. I got to know before we let him go. Did I get the split? Yes. Yeah! There goes Willie P. We'll let him George Costanza being nice, sucking up to the host on the way out.