This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast. We are killing it online!
Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons 3 to 7 on WSJS. Jake Dickert had his introductory press conference at Wake Forest earlier today, and shortly after he got off the podium, we had a chance to meet Coach Dickert, introduce ourselves, and have a quick conversation with him. Here's how that conversation sounded from the Bridger Fieldhouse out of one of the end zones at a Legacy Stadium in Winston. You hear people talk about the challenges of winning at Wake Forest, but those seem to pale in comparison to some of the things that you've had to deal with at Washington State. How do you feel those experiences prepare you for what you're stepping into now?
Well, I'll start with this. Everyone I've talked to about Wake Forest described an amazing opportunity and that's what really excited me about this job first and foremost. But we've been through it at Washington State. I believe as a leader, your number one job is to stand on all that adversity and the foundation that you've built and kind of keep pushing through. So obviously the interim head coach process, obviously getting annexed out of the power floor, was something that was very different for us. But we united as a team, we led through all kinds of adversity, and we had great success at Washington State. That's a bank of knowledge that I'll take with me here to Wake Forest.
I'm excited about what we're going to do here in the future. How unusual was the search process for you when Curry's kind of sending feelers out per the blessing of Dave Clawson, but also saying, well, we're still going to try to keep Dave around? The search process from John was very clear from the beginning.
This is exploratory. And their number one goal was to retain Coach Clawson at that moment. And as things progressed, I was very abreast of what was happening here at Wake Forest. But the focus now is being here and on this team and excited to get started. Can we expect in this new age of college football that, like many programs, Wake Forest is going to have a general manager?
Yeah, absolutely. I think we've got to be able to navigate the future. And it's not just having a general manager. It's having a scouting department. It's having people that you rely on that can handle player personnel, can handle roster management in NIL, and then people that can just work in a scouting role to make sure that we're at the forefront of finding the right people for Wake Forest. So that's a uniquely detailed process, one we've been ultra successful at at Washington State. And we currently have four of the top 40 players in the portal right now.
None of those players had Power Five offers. So we have a process that we're going to stick to. And we're excited about bringing the right type of kid here to Wake Forest. How does it hit you that when you go into ACC spring meetings that you're going to walk into a room and be a fellow coach with Bill Belichick? He's going to be a fellow coach with me as well. So I'm excited about those opportunities and look forward to getting back on the field and competing. You said in the press conference you got a pretty important meeting once we're done chatting that you're going to visit with Demond Claiborne, who's riding in to meet with you today.
What's going to be your message to Demond, but really to other guys considering whether they want to enter the portal the next few days? My biggest thing is just really just to get to know Demond, get to know our players. I want to know what makes them tick. I want to know about their dreams and aspirations. I want to know what makes them who they are. I've seen the player on tape. He's an amazing player. I want to know about the person.
I want to know about what he values. So a lot of these conversations just aren't about football. They're about getting to know someone that has a trust and I believe a really strong bond here for Wake Forest. Last thing for you. I asked you during the press conference about your trip here and you got emotional talking about a special moment with your family. What were you thinking about there? You also said it was a Rocky flight as well. It's one of those moments where as a family people don't talk about these transitions and what it means for your kids and your daughter and your wife to leave a place that we were at for five years. So we're on to new adventures and we're excited about what it means and there's a little roller coaster at the end of the flight, but we're here, we're safe and we're just ready to get started. I was told by a source that your sons immediately were taken by the demon deacon on the motorcycle. Is that true?
Yes, but I don't think there was any rides. They wanted to drive it themselves and it's like slow down boys, slow down. I don't think they're slowing down. Right behind where you're speaking right now your kids are out on the field throwing balls. So I'll let you catch them. Thank you so much for the time. I appreciate it. Go Deacs.
Really do appreciate it. Jake Dickert spending the time with us and seems to be a good hire for Wake Forest. Certainly one that tells Wake Forest fans, Wake Forest donors, Wake Forest alums that, hey, we're not punning at all on competing nationally. That's something that we still intend to do at Wake Forest. Something we intend to do is to tell you about our friends at Tar Heel Basement System.
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They are the trusted local experts. We've got a couple of quarterback headlines that are in the news today. Locally, Duke quarterback Malik Murphy, he has decided to transfer to Oregon State.
Now, this might confuse some people. This guy went 9-3 at Duke this year. Is Oregon State a step up from Duke? No. But who did Duke bring in to replace Malik Murphy?
Darion Mensah, the quarterback from Tulane. This seems to indicate that Manny Diaz told Malik Murphy, it might be best that you look elsewhere because there are some guys we like out of the portal at that position. Cut throat business. Guys want to be treated like professionals?
Want to get paid? Well, don't be mad if coaches feel to use the same system to try to improve their rosters. You try to improve your situation, they try to improve theirs. And it seems that Duke has done it. In terms of what might have attracted Malik Murphy to Oregon State, well, don't forget that Washington State and Oregon State got that Pac-2 money, where they're sharing that entire TV deal that was once shared between all those Pac-12 members between both of them. Remember, Oregon State scheduled home and homes with App State and with Wake Forest and even paid Wake's buyouts to get out of the Ole Miss game in order to have Wake visit Corvallis next year.
So they got money. And it seems some of that money is going Malik Murphy's way. Then you get to the lawsuit of Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt quarterback, who made the argument, essentially, that junior college should not count against your four-year clock. JUCO isn't under the NCAA umbrella. So it shouldn't be counting against your eligibility if you play in JUCO. And WD, Diego Pavia, won his case. So Diego Pavia has a year left of eligibility.
And the ramifications of this could be very significant, not just because Diego Pavia is a really good player. But if JUCO no longer counts against your eligibility, are there going to be SEC or Big Ten programs that say, in an attempt to try to get older, how about you pay somebody NIL money to not play at your school, but to play at a junior college for a year or two. So that way, when he joins your school, the four-year clock starts. And hey, this guy's two years out of high school, and now his clock's starting, we're going to get older and better.
Dave Claussen's probably kicking himself. Man, why didn't I think to file this lawsuit? My teams were already the oldest in the country. You're telling me I could just recruit out of JUCO and get a bunch of guys who played two years out of high school already?
Why not do that? So Diego Pavia wins his lawsuit. Is he going to remain at Vanderbilt? That seems to be the indication. If not, is Bill Belichick going to have those binoculars looking all the way in Nashville?
Diego's way? You never know. The college football playoff begins tomorrow. First ever 12-team CFP. So how about we pick every single game that we expect to see and crown a national championship? Crown a national champion? These are the picks you can hold me accountable for.
Let's get it started. Game one, tomorrow night, Notre Dame Stadium, the Irish hosting Indiana. Neither had a ranked win this regular season, so we'll take the home team in a game that might be the most difficult one to read out of the four first round matchups that we have.
Give me the Irish, the team with more talent. Still, what a great season for former JMU and Elon coach Kurt Signetty. Saturday at noon, Penn State is going to whack SMU. Great season for the Mustangs. Great season in the ACC, but the Mustangs aren't built for the cold. Penn State is their superior.
They're at home. They win the game probably convincingly. Clemson, Texas. That is the game of round one of the CFP. The defense is going to be a big question on the Texas side. The matchup that will decide this game is Cade Klubnick returning back home with a Clemson offense that's been better than Clemson offenses we've seen post Trevor Lawrence against this front from the Texas Longhorns. This probably is the best defense Clemson's faced all year.
That matchup likely decides it. Clemson should be able to score, which means they'll have a shot to win this game. We're not going chalk in round one, so give us the upset. Give us the Clemson Tigers, even though they're facing the biggest point spread this weekend, to knock off the Texas Longhorns in Austin.
Which brings us to Saturday night. It'll be Tennessee at Ohio State, and this will be the final game of Ryan Day's head coaching tenure in Columbus because I like the front line of the volunteers to make things very uncomfortable for Will Howard. Give me Tennessee pulling off the upset against the Buckeyes.
That brings us around the new year to round two of the CFP. In the Sugar Bowl down in Nolens, it'll be Notre Dame facing Georgia. Give me the Irish with the uncertainty at quarterback for Carson Beck. This is not a banner year for the SEC, so they will not have a team in the Final Four. A lot like most seasons in college basketball, they won't have a Final Four team in football. Penn State, they're gonna handle Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl. Penn State might be the third. No worse than the fourth best team in college football. Boise State's not that. They played Oregon tough out of conference.
They don't have a great win this year. Penn State handles Boise in the Fiesta Bowl. Clemson, beneficiaries of drawing Arizona State, and where would they draw them if they pull off the upset in Austin?
Atlanta. The Peach Bowl will be Clemson, Arizona State. That building's gonna be all Clemson fans. And Clemson, a better team than Arizona State is.
ACC, better than the Big 12 Conference. Give me the Tigers to pull off another upset and get to the Final Four of the CFP. Tennessee, Oregon, that's gonna be an electric Rose Bowl. Tough first game, tough first draw for the Ducks, but they have the best resume of any team in college football for a reason.
They'll remain unbeaten winning their first game. That brings us to the semifinals. Notre Dame, Penn State.
Give me Riley Leonard over Drew Aller. I don't trust James Franklin in big games such as this. Notre Dame knocks off the Nittany Lions and they will face the Oregon Ducks in the championship Clemson's run. Their journey ends in the Final Four getting knocked off by Dan Lanning's team.
That sets up right around Martin Luther King Day. Oregon, facing the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. And as chalky as it sounds, we still like the Ducks with that flawless resume. Great wins, unbeaten record. They stay unbeaten. They win the national championship in the first ever 12-team college football playoff.
There you have it. WD, those are the picks you can hold me accountable for. Ohio State, or pardon me, Oregon beating Notre Dame in the national championship. It'd be a nice run by Clemson if it goes that way. You know? The winner of Texas Clemson's going to the Final Four. Yeah.
So if they upset Texas on Saturday, that's what you're gonna be looking at. This has to be one of the most unusual searches you've been part of. I've been part of some unusual searches.
One of the funniest lines today. Wake AD John Curry. I wonder what search he might be talking about there. This was a bit unusual when you factor in Dave Claussen giving John Curry his blessing to start looking at candidates vetting candidates before he ultimately makes his decision. And speaking with Jake Dickert earlier today, Dickert told us that John Curry first told him, this is exploratory. We're going to try to keep Dave Claussen as our coach. And then when Claussen told the team Monday that he was stepping down, John Curry was prepared, acted quickly. We had the Claussen press conference on Tuesday and then the hire made yesterday. He flies all the way from the West Coast to the East Coast press conference today.
And how about that? He still has time to work through the portal, work through his staff before ultimately filling out the rest of the roster. John Curry is the Wake AD.
He joins us here. I did think that was probably the line of the presser. I give you credit for it, John Curry, where you said that you've had some you've experienced some unusual searches. But how different was this football search given how efficiently it ran, how there were no leaks on the university and the athletics and the coaching end of it, given people that were starting to learn what Dave Claussen was considering and getting the guy you ultimately wanted? Well, thanks, Josh. It was they're all different and they're they're, you know, unusual or or whatever is kind of they're all unusual in some way. And every situation is a little bit different.
This is the 11th year, 12th time, I think, in my career as an AD that I've done it. But, you know, we've got a great team at Wake Forest. We've got an aligned university leadership group, our trustees, the university administration, legal counsel, athletics administration is there's all great alignment. And and that that really makes it possible to achieve what's the most important thing, which is the very best possible outcome for the student athletes. And so being able to shrink that period of uncertainty for our students was really important, is always really important.
You know, Josh, you and I have watched a lot of games and a lot of seasons. You know, this is my 31st year in college athletics. This is my 15th year as a Power Five AD or Power Four, whatever we are now. And but our student athletes only get like one chance.
And whether it's four or five or six years, you know, this is their only chance. And so we owe it to do everything we can deliver to deliver the best possible experience in that period of time. And I'm really pleased that we were able to move this thing along.
And a lot of people helped make that happen. So take me behind the scenes then of how to best present the Klossen decision to players Monday and what's going through your mind as an AD in terms of trying to figure out the best timing of landing your football coach, given what you already know in some of the background that you did. Well, the again, as I said this week, you know, this is a very selfless decision by Coach Klossen to make a decision, but also to be willing, while he processed an extraordinarily difficult decision, to not like hold up the whole university in that process.
Right. And to put us in the best possible position, if he did decide to step away, to be able to do what we said earlier in this call, which is shrink the period of uncertainty. And so that that really was very helpful once we were able to a certain, you know, in this job, you're always supposed to be transition preparation and all that kind of stuff is one of the things you're supposed to be doing all the time. And so, you know, as you pay attention to what's going on around the country, or, you know, you have lists that you keep and they change and people get other jobs or people get fired or whatever happens that it always evolves. And so it's just something you have to spend a little bit of time here and there. I don't spend a lot of time on it here because we have so much continuity with our coaching staff, but we were able to kind of identify a group that we felt would fit well, quite far as well.
And then, you know, try to assess, um, you know, with some outside help. I mentioned Chad Chatlows and turnkey earlier, you know, who might be interested in, you know, people can spend a lot of time, um, on people that aren't interested in jobs or might be interested in jobs in a different circumstance, but now there are where they are, they're not moving. They're paid really well.
The kids are in school and happy and their spouses are happy and stuff like that. So a big part of being efficient in a process like this is, is having enough information to be able to move really quickly to not just who could do your job, but who's the best candidate pool for your job. And you saw this year, um, you know, there weren't that many jobs open and you know, in two of the jobs, you know, West Virginia, uh, and at Central Florida, those jobs were filled with coaches who had been there before and had been there before and left in different circumstances. Coach Frost left to go to Nebraska coach, uh, Rodriguez left West Virginia to go for Michigan and then on the Arizona.
Um, so it, it, it is evident that, you know, it's, it's hard to get people to move, um, especially in this day and age when there's so much riding on the relationships, when you've got the portal and the NIL and all that kind of stuff. So it speaks to the strength of Wake Forest and the attractiveness of this region of the country, um, that we were able to attract, um, you know, a bunch of great interest, right? But then we got our guy.
John Curry, Wake AD with us here. You said today that in order to win at Wake Forest, you have to be able to overcome things. Jake Dickert obviously has been through a lot at Washington State. How much did that piece of it separate him from the other candidates you considered? Well, I mean, what, what I said, uh, Josh, you know, to be, to be more specific is, um, is that you've got to have experience in tough situations.
Okay. And that doesn't mean that, that, that wake is alone and having, um, you know, challenges. And I mean, there's challenges at every single kind of job, right? I mean, at the highest level jobs, you know, if you want to be the head football coach at Alabama, you better have some experience in tough situations because that's a tough situation there, right. To, uh, with the expectations, uh, and all that.
So, um, I do think scar tissue and having to navigate something and navigating it, you know, successfully, um, is, uh, is important. And, um, you know, coach Dickert had, had done that, uh, at Washington State and talked about that a little bit, um, in lots of different ways. And, and he has shown, um, that he's been able to, to identify a great players. You know, he talked about that today. I'm sure he may have talked about it in his, in his side interviews post post, but you know, he's identified great players, you know, out of two star and three star, just like Dave cloth and Jim grow before him that have developed into great players.
The challenge that they've had at Washington State is that, you know, they developed a, he identified and developed a great quarterback that, um, you know, obviously played against hooks at Miami this year, and then he's got another one now and, and, and resources, uh, resources matter, um, in retaining, uh, players like that. So I'm really optimistic. He's going to continue our tradition of identifying, um, really good players that come and value what we offer at wake forest and develop. And, um, you know, we've got a heck of, we've got a lot of great reasons we can retain those players. Uh, but now as we enter the rev share era, um, and I did say rev share era, E R a not E R R O R. All right.
That's for somebody else. Um, I think we're in a great position. Yeah. You, um, I asked you about revenue sharing earlier this week. You told me that wakes absolutely committed to, um, that cap of revenue spending, uh, sharing, trying to compete with the top teams in power for conference football. That doesn't surprise me at all. Is it your expectation given your connection and how plugged in you are with the rest of the country that most of the power four is going to be in lockstep of doing the same thing? Or do you think wake forest is going to have an edge in that regard?
Um, it's hard to say, Josh, I mean, different people are in different situations. We're really lucky here. We've got an incredible university, uh, you know, the most competitive admission pool in the history of the university, uh, again, this year, you know, there's great national brand, great leadership, great professors, um, you know, a national university, but also with, you know, a really strong North Carolina, um, uh, base, uh, right here. So all of that helps our situation. And we've got incredible donors like Bob McCreary and Ben Sutton and Alan Fox, and some of the other people I mentioned earlier. And then we've got a great fan base.
You know, this is also an opportunity to amplify things that people don't know about way far. So like there were the fastest growing brand in the power five, um, since 2019, um, you know, our attendance has been unbelievable, um, in football over the last six years. Uh, obviously our basketball tennis has grown again.
Um, and no, even today, you know, we're sitting there at a, at a press conference that we got a coach coach Muse, uh, just back from the recruiting trip about to go out on another recruiting trip, you know, with a great soccer program and Tony Bresky and lots of other folks. So a lot of advantages here at wake forest. And, um, and I believe that as you add that element to it, um, it's going to help us even more than, you know, different people have different, uh, there's some schools that have said they're, they can't, or they're faster. They choose not to do the full rev share cap. And there's some that just don't have the capacity and the resources for it. So I think, you know, more will than Walt, um, there'll be some, uh, variations, but, um, the most significant thing for white forest is, you know, the gap is not what it was.
Right. It's much more, um, even in, in hopefully the elements of the house settlement, including the clearing house, um, the cap enforcement are going to bring a little bit more sanity back into this whole thing, which ultimately is best for the enterprise and the student athletes. During your answer there, you did have me think of a problem though, because of how much the Olympic sports matter at wake forest and you have a great baseball program and you want to win in both basketball programs too.
How much difficult, how difficult is it going to be figuring out how to slice that $20.5 million pie? Well, remember now we've got, um, great donors and lots of sports and great constituents, lots of sports. And so for instance, in a sport like men's tennis, um, where we've won a national championship and tell under Tony Bresky, you know, we have a pretty significant portion of the annual operating budget of men's tennis comes from annual contributors and endowment. And, you know, I think just like in golf and other sports, we've been able to generate the revenues to fund those, um, those sports, um, a good part of the revenues and fund those sports. Um, you know, so we're not spending television revenue on funding as much television revenue on funding those sports. So, um, I think our set up and we're compact at wake forest efficient.
You know, we've got 18 total sports, 13 of them are, um, or we have 13 units cause six of our sports are men's and women's track and field indoor and outdoor cross country. And if you look at, uh, cross country under John Hayes, his leadership, he's ACC coach of the year, we won the ACC championship. And um, you know, we're not the highest resource cross country program in the league or the state, but we want it because we got the right coach and the right leadership mentality to close things out. John Curry with us here because of all of this, how quickly this happened. We didn't get a chance to talk to you after Dave Clausen's decision to step down. What struck me in that presser was just how emotional you got on Tuesday when speaking about him, speaking about his family, speaking about his staff. And you don't usually see that from a D's, especially if it's a coach that he didn't hire. I mean, this is your school, this is your athletic department.
What was the root of those emotions, John? Well, before I, before I answer your question, I want to go back to something you said. You said especially for a coach he didn't hire.
Okay. Don't ever think that, uh, let me rephrase that. In my opinion, um, an AD who doesn't believe or think about the coaches that he inherited versus the coaches that if he doesn't see them all or she doesn't see them all the same and be passionate about all of them, um, I don't think they're, they're doing the right thing for the university and their coaches. And so, you know, Ron Wellman hired some incredible coaches at wake forest and including two incredible football coaches, uh, this century and the coaching coach lessons we hired last year when he hired Jim Caldwell went on to coach the Colts to the super bowl. So pretty good coaches.
Right. Um, but you know, I see all of our coaches, uh, as our coaches and my coaches. And, you know, sometimes people will say, well, I think you just want to get his own coach in there.
And any AD who says that is not a very smart AD, uh, is, uh, uh, is not, um, it's probably not gonna be there that long. You need to support your coaches, uh, learn that from Ron Wellman, you support your coaches every single day until the day you make a change, if you have to. And, um, you know, we've got great ones at wake forest in terms of my emotion the other day. Um, you know, we, we pour into our, our, our university and our responsibilities. And, um, you know, one of the hardest things about the transition like this is we got a bunch of great coaches that, you know, that because there's a transition, you know, won't have jobs anymore.
It's Christmas or it's holiday time and Christmas time. And, you know, those are families that are disrupted and all that kind of stuff. And that's just part of the enterprise. Um, uh, and then, um, I really appreciate the leadership of Dave Klassen making this decision, uh, both in the manner he made it, but also recognizing, you know, just like you said the other day, that it was in his perspective, it was time. And, um, those are hard decisions to make and, um, uh, you know, knowing, you know, the impact of him and his family on this community, which will continue.
Um, but that's, that's, that's hard for anyone. John Curry, very well said, Merry Christmas to you and congrats on this search, getting it done as efficiently as you did. And I look forward to seeing you at a game sometime soon. Who knows? Maybe even women's basketball Saturday at three o'clock, since I know that's about what you're about to say. Let's, let's correct that. Tomorrow, tomorrow. Friday, okay.
Sorry. So parents got their kids home from school tomorrow, need to get them out of the house for a while. Bring them over to Joel Coliseum. It's a great scene.
Get them down close to the action. Coach Jed is working really hard to build a program and has student athletes that are really competing out there. So come on over. And, uh, like I said, at the press presser today, I might even buy you a roll the quad IPA. Boom. Love that.
John Curry. Thanks again for doing this. I appreciate it. Thanks, Josh. Happy holidays. And everybody be safe out there.
Darren Vaught. Frankly, I just want to jump right into unusual questions today because we have tickets to go see Keith Urban in Raleigh next May. I think it's actually March, March 31st, May 31st, May 31st. Are there 31 days in May?
I guess we'll double check that. Yeah. June's next. July and August both have 31. Hold on a sec. Let me count my knuckles. Yep. May 31st.
That is when this show is in Raleigh. I never understood that anyway. Oh, just count your knuckles. That's not a thing that I do.
Okay. Darren Vaught from USA Baseball, ACC Baseball, et cetera, Lottery Boy, ECU Basketball, High Point, all that. Voice of the Shrine Bowl does pretty much everything. We answer unusual questions each week. If you have an unusual question, how many pairs of these Keith Urban tickets do we have? Uh, we got two pair. We got two pair?
I need two per. Okay. Time for unusual questions. Last week, guys, everybody made it out that I got mad at Josh and I left the press conference.
That's not right. I thought it was an unusual question and it's okay. It's time for unusual questions with Josh Graham. Let's go to Josh and Clemons to get us started. Josh, what's your unusual question for us?
Actually, if you don't mind, I'd like to do two things and I'll make this as fast as possible because I know you're on a time crunch. Uh, after I heard about, uh, Claus and I called Brendan Chapman, who was a tight end, the biggest tight end I've ever seen in my life. He's six, five, 265 pounds. Yeah. Played for him. And he, he was pretty upset and it took me about 24 hours to speak with Greg Dorch.
They were both pretty upset, but I think picker is a good choice for Wake Forest. Yeah. Outside of that, uh, my usual question, if you could remember you, you've been on the air, I believe seven years.
That's right. Six and a half. Um, the news that came across about Boston in the last few days, the very first show that you ever had when you came on air, what was the top news sports story of that day? If you can remember, I can thank you so much for the call. I remember, well, the first show I did was ACC media day stuff where we had Clausen on. Oddly enough, we had Larry fedora on the first show and some others, but I'll never forget doing the audition show that was live on air. Like my audition was live on air from like six to 8 PM. And I had to, I was told I was doing it while I was in Raleigh four or five hours before I was set to go on air.
So I didn't have much time to prepare. I called Mick Mixon. I called Ed Harden. They both came on with me and what made it particularly hard is it was June. And the top thing I had to talk about two things was Carolina baseball, go into the college world series. And it was Gary Trent Jr.
Being a jackass, essentially talking about like his dad saying that coach K held them back and that that locker room was a little bit divided. So that those were the top stories I remember from doing that show that day. And I remember my mom calling me afterwards saying, how did it go?
My mom, you can listen to how it went. I think it went okay, but you can, this is the actual job interview. You can listen to enjoy. That is, that is a unique witty about this business, right?
I mean the, the, the interview that everyone has access to in, in real time. How about that? That's, that's wild. Yeah. What's your unusual question? All right.
So this is actually perfect. It just struck me because we're talking about giving away Keith urban tickets. And I had a conversation yesterday with my brother who is a song writer. He dabbled in some music and your twin who's named Aaron. No, this is older brother, not twin brother. Sorry. Yeah, no, you're good.
You're good. Um, and we were talking about Dolly Parton's. I will always love you and how that like made her living right?
Yes. But obviously it is not the most, it's probably not the most popular version of the song because Whitney Houston sang it and again made Dolly bunches of money later on. I happen to think that cop car is like one of the greatest love songs ever written. Keith urban didn't write it though.
Sam hunt did. So I'm curious, like, do you have a favorite one that, that a favorite song that is written by us? This is tough on the spot, but like a favorite song that you surprisingly learned someone else wrote.
Huh? Um, I'm sure a lot of people would say, I really like wagon wheel by Darius Rucker and I'll fist fight those people in the street. Um, honestly, I'd say can't help falling in love with you. I did not know was originally an Elvis song until around the time the Elvis movie came out and there were a lot of great covers of that. Um, that's, that's a good one.
Killing me softly a good one. Cause there were a lot of great covers of that and you can find Sinatra singing that and some others. Do you have an answer to this question?
I do. Uh, many people might think that, uh, Rihanna's we found love was written by her. It wasn't by Calvin Harris, but that's different because he's actually credited in the song. He doesn't sing Calvin Harris. That's like saying, you know, uh, got money actually is not a T pain song. It's a DJ college song or make it rain. Not a little Wayne song, but a DJ college song.
It's okay. Wait. So, so wait, Calvin Harris is in the song. No Calvin Harris.
It's, it's the same way. You don't hear David Guetta's voice, but that's a David Guetta song. Calvin Harris made that song. So David Guetta doesn't sing?
No. Oh, he's like a producer. Calvin Harris doesn't sing.
It's WD just learned something. He produced the song. Did he write the song? I don't know.
See, I, I would, I would probably encourage you to look into like, I don't know, like we have the technology. You're talking about the Rihanna song I just said, he wrote it. Okay. Calvin Harris wrote the song.
I think he produced it too though. All right. Okay. Well, that's not necessarily the same thing, but I mean, it's fine. Oh, allow it.
Oh, allow it. But like, you know, like people, people love Morgan Wallen cover me up. I think it's pretty well known now. Not his song. It's a Jason Isbell song.
Um, I heard a cover of, of sand in my boots. Is that the Morgan Wallen song? Yes. Did not realize, um, that was a song of his, but I recognized it and Rustin Kelly put out a cover of it recently. Yep.
Um, formerly married to Casey Musgraves. Um, awesome. Big fan of that.
Uh, so anyways, that's just the cop car got me thinking about it. Let's go to big Jim. Who's an advance big Jim. What's your unusual question? Hey, yeah. Since you've been so nice, I just wonder what you want for Christmas.
I love this. It's a great question. I should have asked the same way. You just asked that Jim. I should have asked Jake Dickert that question today. Since you've been so nice, Jake, what do you want from Christmas? Should have asked John Curry. In fact, I should ask every guest that question. You know what?
I want you to cut that just him and whoever we have on the show tomorrow or whoever else we have, who calls the show, I'm gonna say, Oh, well, wait a minute. Got one more question for you. Since you've been so nice. What do you want for Christmas to answer your question?
Don't be nice. It would be nice in the lead up to the holiday to like, you know, talk about what people want. That's kind of festive to answer your question.
Uh, straight cash homie. That's what I want for Christmas. Boom. That's always a good gift.
By the way, get your 84 jerseys out. Yeah. Uh, yeah. Straight cash. I think actually that's a George Bush quote too. Just cash.
I thought you were going to say George Bush said straight cash homie and I was like, Nope, that's not true. I don't think he did. Uh, I have an unusual question. I watched, um, the holiday last night. Cause that's the movie. WD is not going to wait till he's going to wait till like Sunday night to watch this.
Even though we only on Monday next week, he's going to procrastinate to the last minute. That's what he does. Um, good law is like a, like a Greek God in this movie. He is so handsome in this movie and he's even more handsome in the Talented Mr. Ripley. It just had me thinking us being guys, the natural place for this to go stereotypically is for me to ask who's the hottest girl in a movie. So I'm going to flip it and say, no, who's the most handsome guy in a movie? Like who's a guy that you're like, I'm sorry, I wasn't familiar with your game.
Like game respect game. Like it's like, wow, this guy's handsome in a specific movie. Yeah. Like who's the most handsome guy in a movie because the first two names that come to mind for me is Jude Law and Talented Mr. Ripley and I think qualifies in the holiday as well.
And probably like Elvis Presley, like early sixties and some of those movies like he's and you could, you could do, gosh, man, Paul Newman, those blue eyes. Are you kidding me? Wow. Game changer. Not a game.
It's a great question. Who's super handsome. W D I think a Timothée Chalamet and Dune. That's a pretty good one.
Not even debatable between these. That guy's like, what? He's like super small. He's like a small human being. Like the most handsome guy. If you're like, you look like a hobbit. He can't look like, okay. Austin Butler, Elvis. Are you only going to cite movies that came out in the last five years?
Maybe we're talking about the history of time. Well, we're talking about like Humphrey Bogart and Cary grant here, you know, you got nothing. Darren. I'll go on.
I'll go to the phones. I'm Dan. I'm trying to think if I've got an answer. I I'm thinking of Christopher Reeve as Superman handsome guy. Isn't there the trailer today? Yeah. The trailer for the documentary. I don't think it's a documentary. I think it's just a new Superman movie. Oh no, no, no. There's a, there's a there.
Is there a, is there a documentary on Christopher Reeve super slash man? Is that what it was? Maybe it's old. Maybe I just recently saw something on it.
There is a new Superman movie that is coming out that a trailer came out for today. Right. Which might have, which might have, have, um, inspired the mention that I saw for whatever reason of an old documentary.
Mike writes it. Only Josh would have this question. No, this is Josh thinking about the female listenership of this audience. I'll say this, I'll say this. Like we've had man crushes. We've all had man crushes. It's okay.
Ed Norton in anything love Ed Norton. Snack guys, a snack. Let's go to Stuart in Greensboro. Stuart, what's your unusual question? I'm going to bring you guys out of the gutter. Thank you. How about one sec before you bring us out of the gutter, let's have Gary Hahn help us get out of the gutter because that's what we do. Let's go to the sidelines. Tony Haines.
All right. Now, now Stuart, you can ask us a sports question. What current NCAA men's basketball coach that is currently an active coach in North Carolina is tied with Tubby Smith and Jay Wright for 646 career wins in NCAA men's basketball. Ooh, this is fun. This is fun, Stuart.
Yeah. Let me start thinking about coaches. Let's play this game because Tubby and McKillip were close, but he obviously is not coaching anymore. It's none of the ACC guys. It's not Mike Jones. Is it Stuart?
Bring Stuart back. It is not a D1 coach. Okay. Well, then that's my sports bandwidth. I'll tell you what. I know a lot about a lot of things, but sports bandwidth only goes to a certain point where somebody walks up to me and starts asking me about women's basketball players. I'll tell them, listen, love the sport to watch from time to time.
My sports bandwidth doesn't exceed that to that level. MLS soccer specifics. And I think the same thing applies to D2 coaches unless there's somebody that's a big name that I should know, Stuart. What is the answer to the question? Teach us something today.
The answer to the question is Guilford College's own coach, Tom Palumbo, 646 wins. You know what? The second he said non-D1, I should've known that. That's an old ODAC foe, Old Dominion Athletic Conference. Love it. Shout out to Tom Palumbo and shout out to you Stuart for teaching us something. There you go. WD, what's your unusual question to close us out?
Coming back to music, so I recently watched the Dua Lipa special on Paramount+. That neither of us knows about. No, Josh knows about it because I was talking about it yesterday. He brought it up. It ticks me off because he tells me that he wants to do these things that I ask him to do and he waits till the last minute. And then he's like, oh yeah, Dua Lipa has this thing on a streaming service that nobody has.
He had a countdown on his phone set for it. Did you get a seven day Paramount+, like trial just to watch this Dua Lipa? No, I already have Paramount+.
There's a lot of good movies on Paramount+. Shout out. And so what it is, it's Dua Lipa performing with an orchestra instead of a typical band and doing a lot of her songs that way. So give me an artist or a band or whatever that you think would be good with a different kind of music, whether that's like an orchestra or like with a different type of music than what they typically do. Hold on, does this count? Everything's better with a saxophone?
I think you could add a saxophone into literally every song ever created and it's better. It works. It works.
I'm going to try to defuse your argument some way, somehow. Try to find, country does not need a saxophone. Oh, it does.
Give me a country song that'd be better. Or Monica with the saxophone. It's like, I mean, it's like. You know what? I think you're right.
I think you're right. If I'm listening to Please Don't Take the Girl from Tim McGraw, what would make it better is, don't take the girl. I'm telling you. Give me a saxophone solo. I'm telling you, it's foolproof.
It's a bulletproof theory. An act could be better. I remember seeing Ben Vold's with an orchestra once, which is awesome. Coldplay would be awesome with a saxophone and also awesome with an orchestra.
So I want both. That's what I want. A saxophone and an orchestra. Yeah. An orchestra featuring a sax. That's what I want.
And for my Coldplay concert. There you go. That's it. We did it.
We perfectly answered the question. Every song's better with the sax. Literally every single one. You won't change my mind.
You won't. Blackbird. We need a sax solo.
Yeah. Iron Maiden. Like Metallica. If that's your flavor, throw a B flat alto saxophone in there and tell me it doesn't.
Billie Eilish and her difficult to understand voice. You could play that song. You can play that with a saxophone. Please tell me you've pulled Big Jim's Question. Do you remember Big Jim's Question, Darren? You've been a good boy. What do you want for Christmas? Since you've been so good.
That's right. Since you've been a good. Since you've been so good.
What do you want for Christmas? I'm asking. You want. You're asking me? Yeah. I forgot. I didn't let you answer the question.
Can I use my gift on you for a new camera? You're a little blippy today. Yeah, we've had some technical difficulties. It's been an interesting day. It has. We've been maneuvering a lot. And you know what? We got it done. We did.
Because that's the way it is. Even if it is a little blippy. It's fine. I'm seeing you.
I'm understanding you. Do you know what I say to you, Darren? I wasn't ready for my elbow to hit the microphone.
No, you pulled a me. That part wasn't planned, but I did hit the camera. The audio audience will be not surprised, I think, that in trying to toss a paper ball at the camera in front of you, you knocked your elbow against your microphone.
I did hit the camera, though, which is great. Darren, you know, I don't know if we'll talk to you next week, but if we do, I'm sure it'll be fun. Thanks for doing this. Of course.
Of course. Shrine Bowl on Saturday. By the way, 1230 pregame show. Kick is at one. We'd love to have you guys with us. Check your local listings. We're on like anywhere you could possibly want to watch us in the Carolinas.
