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NC State sports podcast hosted by Griffin Cunningham, Stone Boylan and Patrick Simon of WKNC.
Griffin Cunningham 0:10
Welcome back to Light it Red our second episode of the semester. I'm Griffin, and Stone is here with me.
Stone Boylan 0:16
Si,
Griffin Cunningham 0:18
there was a moment there where we thought stone might not make it. I guess stone is a pretty fitting name instead of stones. Stone had a hospital visit last week or this, yeah, last week,
Stone Boylan 0:33
Thursday, Thursday.
Griffin Cunningham 0:34
Yeah, he he was neutered. Almost Just kidding, close. We had a close encounter. Do you want to talk about that at all?
Stone Boylan 0:44
I don't need to go to detail. But basically, just had an accident.
Basically going on my bike. Some guy was backing out much slower than anticipated, so I had to change course. Went over pretty sizable rock and all my force on the handles were like in breaking but the rock kind of put my wheel in the air, and so it turned 90 degrees and just literally shanked me, like right in my pelvis, maybe like a fingernail away from my dick. Oh, nailed my left testicle, and I've never felt more pain in my entire life,
and it was horrendous. The wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. It was absolutely terrible. So but, and I had to get stitches for the cut. There was, like, a cut, like, right?
Just, it was so, like, a fingernail, way, it was so close, it was pretty deep. But they had to get, like, it's nine stitches. Two of them are, like, the dissolving ones that go, like in, and then seven are, like on the outside. And then, luckily, I didn't lose anything, so I'm good. It's just a little bruise. But he said I was, like, super close to just not being able to have kids. So get lucky. But
Griffin Cunningham 2:06
so it was the your your bike, the handlebar on your bicycle, yeah, like, the when you literally,
Stone Boylan 2:12
it was like, they said, the clothing, like, blocked it from being even worse, because it's, you know, it's not like, I had to pull it out. It was just, like, it just compressed so hard against the bone, just created a cut in I was like, it's called blunt force trauma. Yeah, it was terrible. I was, like, on the floor for like an hour, until the ambulance finally came and I just had to sit in like one position, just on the ground, bleeding. Yeah, it was terrible. I've never heard more people touch my nuts in my life, like they had to go check everything. Like, well, they had to do X ray on my pelvis bone or whatever, and all the bones around him to see if I broke anything. Then they had to look at my left nut and be like, Is it fine? Is it? And they were looking at for a long time, and I was like, shit, is it like, gone? Like, am I gonna have to chop it off or whatever? But they're like, No, it's fine. And then I did the stitches. So it happened at like 12, and I got the stitches at like six, so it was just open and just hurt for like, ever, yeah, and I've been on more pills in the past five days in my life, like ever.
Griffin Cunningham 3:23
Well, yeah, you told me about that, and I was so confused that what really happened. So stone got got by stone. Sounds terrible,
Stone Boylan 3:32
yeah, or rock, whatever you want to call it, and I couldn't go to the game,
Griffin Cunningham 3:36
yep. So we will mark this episode explicit our second explicit episode. Thanks, stone. Well,
Stone Boylan 3:45
it's hard to talk about the injury with,
Griffin Cunningham 3:47
I know. Yeah, it's kind of just like one of those things where you really like sugar coat, like, what actually happened? It's just a male anatomy. I guess I don't know this special area, but I like how you were transitioning there. So, yeah, you couldn't go to the game. I was supposed to drive you to the game, and you got injured, so I went by myself, watched you. Watched from home. You were texting me while we're watching the game, and, yeah, we're gonna talk. I guess. Did you do you want to jump into football
Stone Boylan 4:24
now? And pretty funny transition, yeah, so
Griffin Cunningham 4:27
let's just, let's talk about the game against Western Carolina and then, and then we'll talk about what we expect this upcoming Saturday. On what day is Saturday that written here.
Stone Boylan 4:41
I have no clue, well, in loss,
Griffin Cunningham 4:43
and I mean Saturday, but it's no, you mean the seventh, yeah, so, yeah, September 7. So we'll preview that game. And, yeah, why don't you just go ahead and tell me, tell me what you thought about the game against Western Carolina, and I'll tell you what I thought. Um.
Stone Boylan 4:59
Yeah. I mean, it was kind of disappointing, to be honest. I don't know. I know the, I think the, this is one of the games where it's like the box score doesn't really tell the full story, which can happen a lot, not every time. But I feel like this, this case is definitely there. I think my biggest takeaway was probably just having to do some of the transfers that came in which I do think is good that we have questions about the first game for brand new transfers coming in, rather than guys who've been there a while, because I think those are the people that are going to need the most time to kind of gel anyways. But McCall was a little disappointing. I think even if you just watch the game, I feel like there were maybe like six throws that you were just like, that's behind him, that's too high, that's off, like, what? And sometimes they would, they would come down with a crazy catch. I think Noah had, like, a really great catch on the sideline. That was a little too far. But I mean, there was, I think Grimes had one, yeah, Grimes had one. But there's like, Casey's over the middle, and luckily, he hit him enough to where he, you know, obviously it insane game, we'll get into that, but to where it's like, literally just behind him, and it's like, barely he was able to get it. I'm like, that's just not it. That's gonna be a pick, if it's not Western Carolina. And he did have a pick, he literally had to intercept where it was just miscommunication through too far bang interception. I think it was like he was doing an out route or something, and he did a Zig. So I don't know who was in the wrong or if you just overthrew it, but little disappointing. But it feels like in the second half he they kind of just calmed him down a little bit, and then he was fine. But I feel like overall, you know, hopefully that's not what we see normally, but even if we get that all the time, it's better than last year, for sure.
Griffin Cunningham 6:45
Yeah, I'm glad that you could see that on TV too, because watching it live, I was like, yeah, like, he's not hitting his guys. It's very obvious on the interception. I it was interesting to hear, like, what you had to say and what some other people had to say, because what I saw was it was his fault. He was looking at his receiver the whole time, and then the defender was able to jump the route. But then people who watched it on TV said that the receiver ran the wrong route, so Well, I don't know.
Stone Boylan 7:16
Yeah, this part of football where it's hard to really know, unless you're with the team, because or you ask them after the game, which is, you don't really want to ask them, like, Hey, what happened to the one terrible play you did in a win, you know, in a game where they won, but it seems like staring him down. That's a good point. You definitely don't want to do that. And he did, so that's a no no, anyways. But I think it was just a miscommunication on what route he either he thought the receiver was gonna run or what the receiver should have ran. And it was just a literal difference between a zig and an out. So an out is just like three or two steps, and then you go out, and then a zig is where you come in for a little bit, and then you take a step out. And I guess the broadcast, I had initially thought like, oh, they just messed up the route or overthrew it. But the broadcast had mentioned that it was probably a mistimed route, and that he was technically, if he ran a route that he thought he was going to run, it would have been fine. But even then, I think if he did it, he's he overthrew a lot of heats tends to, I guess, overthrow it at an under throw. So even then it would have been a hard catch, I think, for for the receiver to make anyways, but yeah, they got that pick. But I mean, he, you know, wasn't bad, like he bounced back, and we obviously won the game, and there was no problem, because he found KC, which is a pretty good game plan to do, but yeah, that's kind of my main thing is that he was a little disappointing. And I think he was just barely off in some throws. And then I think our running back waters, he at least in the beginning, I feel like there were so many times where he just got nothing carries, or like I had the ball like I think there was one of them. I think we went for it on fourth down. And he easily just could have gone in the middle, followed his blocks and got the first down, but he decided to go outside, and he just wasn't faster than the Western Carolina cornerback. And boom, fourth down done, like, turnover. And I was like, What do you like? That wasn't really it. So he obviously, even if you again, look at the box score, he had like, 100 plus yards and a touchdown. Looked like a great game, but, you know, I think especially in the first half, if you watch, he wasn't as efficient or effective as we kind of hoped. But for both of those guys, I think it's at least it's good that's them, and not someone that we know has been on the team for a while, because they need to get used to the offense and playing different guys anyways, especially Grayson, because he's, you know, playing higher competition now, which we'll see soon. But other than that, I think they came back and they were good, but the receivers, at least, I was really excited about I thought they were amazing. They were really good. Yeah,
Griffin Cunningham 9:56
yeah. I think you're making some great points, and I agree with them. Uh, obviously I covered the game, so I talked to a couple of the players, as well as Dave Doran, after the game. And one of the the biggest notes that I left on my paper was that, yeah, like they left me wanting more. Oh yeah, they were trailing up until the fourth quarter, which is not what you want to see Western Carolina is an FCS school, which, for those of you who don't know what that means, it basically just means they're not a power four school, nor are they a mountain west. They're basically just a tier below all of the schools that you probably know about for sports. And then, yeah, I like, I agree with what you're saying with the stat sheet issue too is you look at Grayson, McCall and Jordan waters, our two graduate transfers, and you see, for Grayson, let me get my stat sheet out here, 318
Stone Boylan 10:59
yards and three touchdowns with over 50% completion like that. Seems like a great Jordan waters, 123 yards, 6.2 yards per carry. Two touchdowns like those seem amazing. But yeah, it was, didn't feel like that, at least, I don't know, watching it,
Griffin Cunningham 11:13
yeah. So yeah, what I was gonna say was a lot of those numbers came in the second half. And yeah, especially with waters, he his yards per carry ended up being 6.2 and it really looked like it was going to be a lot lower than that on his 20 carries. But yeah, he ended up breaking a couple, but he had a 50 yard touchdown in
Stone Boylan 11:35
the Yeah, the fourth quarter was it wasn't even the second half. It was just the fourth quarter. We had 21 points in the fourth quarter, and we are the lowest scoring quarter was actually the third quarter. So like, like, you said we were losing, I think, going into the fourth quarter. So that was pretty scary. I feel like they kind of waited to turn it up. But yeah,
Griffin Cunningham 11:54
it was, uh, it ended up being 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter that sealed it for them. It was a 38 to 21 victory, which is on paper, very convincing, but people who watch the game, they say, you know, the quarterback doesn't look like he's there. I talked to Grayson a little bit after and he said, Yeah, probably not. My best performance. Dave Doran said that it was good that he was able to this. I mean, and I like that. Dave said this. He said, You can lean on your guys when you need to. And you know, as a viewer and as a fan, it's like you don't want to be the first game against a kind of a easy win team. You want to see a little bit from everybody. And those aren't the games where you want to see you having to rely on your best players, however, which we kind of did, which is what happened, and what is what Dave Dorn said, however, it's good to see that that is an option, and especially with Casey Concepcion, if you want to talk about his stats and what you saw from him,
Stone Boylan 12:57
it's I it almost sucks, because you don't want to go so in depth, because Everyone knows, but it almost feels like you're not doing feels like you're not doing him justice, because it's just, what can we even harp on or say anymore of like he's clearly the most valuable player on the team. He had nine catches, 121 yards, three touchdowns. Literally had all three receiving touchdowns for the team, which was a for people who are rooting for team success is a little disappointing, because that means he's at least it seems like we're going to be so relied on him. But Justin jolly, our tight end looked Jolie or Jolie looks pretty good. He had 75 yards, five catches. Noah Rogers didn't have a ton of production, but he had some great catches, and Wesley Grimes looked solid as well. In playing time he got, and then at least running like Dylan Hollywood smothers and Kendrick Raphael, like I liked both of them when they were on the field and running. So those would be good change of pace packs. So that's at least good for, you know, guys that are going to be on the field that, you know, maybe won't get the ball as much as KC, but are going to have to be there because, God forbid, something happens to Casey, or a team finds a way to, you know, obviously he's going to get way more attention defensively. Now, some other people need to step up, but I'm not freaking out or anything. If you were to get a meter in 10, would be freaking out. One would be not I'd be at like a four. It would have liked to be lower, because obviously, you see other teams, like the team we're going to play in Tennessee, they're whooping these teams. Like, it's not close. It's like 62 to zero, or something like 69 to three, yeah. Like, you know, that's what we want to see. But you know, 3821 looks fine, but losing in the fourth quarter, or going into the fourth quarter is not what you want to see. But offense, you know, like we said, Just transfers, McCall waters, seems like, hopefully they can just kick it up and get it, get it on. But defense, I think, was also kind of disappointing. They led up 361 yards and 21 points at home versus Western Carolina. I just don't think that's it's just not it. It's just not really acceptable. So I will say at least, giving him a little bit of slack. Caden Fordham, our starting linebacker, replacing Peyton Wilson, literally got out in four plays for the targeting call. So that was pretty unfortunate, but not really too many people to highlight. I will say for at least maybe someone who I'd like to see more of was Aiden white feels like there were a few times where, at least when I'm watching and they get a big play, I'm like, Oh, who's on him? I was like, oh, Aiden. Like, what are you doing? And back then, even the after game stats with pff reflected he would not grade very highly, so the eyes did not deceive us there. But then at least a little bit of positive news. The defense had a few people, I guess rotating in, because the D line, besides Devin van and Cleveland, are pretty set everyone else around him, and the D line is kind of an interchangeable red hibler. He had the most pressures on the team. He had four pressures, and he was pretty good. So if we're trying to find you know that other guy besides Devin van, or Devin van, who's gonna produce some kind of pass rush help, Red hibler had a pretty good game, so maybe he, maybe he does something there. Yeah, I
Griffin Cunningham 16:11
think they have a lot of confidence in the defensive line. Van is a captain. He's been there for a long time. I think he's probably the most senior player on the team, or close to it, yeah. So a lot of attention on him as far as, like, pregame stuff. And I know we talk about him a little bit, but yeah, I agree. I think the defense didn't hold up very well against this team. Credit to Western Carolina and their offense, though, Cole Gonzalez and AJ Colombo were clicking the whole game and kind of gashed us a little bit. So I'd say the positive way to look at it would be, you know, it's the first game of the season, and it took us three quarters of football to finally figure out how to play offense.
Stone Boylan 16:54
Maybe that fourth quarter is like, Hey, we got it. We're good now. Like, that was just our kind of stuff. We'll take improve, take
Griffin Cunningham 17:00
the momentum case into the game against Tennessee. Now, the negative way to look at that would be, oh my gosh, we should have had the lead the whole time every other team that is in the top 25 besides like Florida society's teams that aren't in the top 25 right as of, as of the September 3, the teams that played week one that had kind of squash opponents, beat them by like 40 points. So we were really one of the only teams to not I think there
Stone Boylan 17:32
were a few, I guess, like Michigan State. I was watching that game. They were close at some point with them, but you know, like you said, ranked teams, so
Griffin Cunningham 17:38
playoff caliber teams, yes, wasn't really us. Did what they were supposed to do. And so the and I would say Tennessee is a fringe playoff caliber team as of right now, yeah, and they absolutely destroyed Chattanooga, which I honestly don't know how they profile, compared to Western Carolina, but on paper, it's similar in there. Chattanooga is in Tennessee. Western Carolina is in North Carolina. I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure it's an FCS team.
Stone Boylan 18:08
Yeah, it. I mean, obviously some are better than others. I'm I think, when I was looking at rankings, very briefly, Western Carolina was one of the better schools that, you know, because you have like North and South Dakota, state, which both historically, are very good. They weren't on that level, but they were pretty good. But you know that, obviously he's bringing up Tennessee, because that's who we play next. And you know, when you looked at our schedule, that was definitely pretty easily for both of us, the hardest game of the season, and I think one that we, you know, not trying to be, you know, did Debbie downers or anything? Yeah, pessimistic. But that was kind of the one game where, like, yeah, I don't think we're gonna win this one. And I would have liked to have the same confidence going into this game in terms of us destroying a team like Western Carolina and then playing this one. But I think that performance only solidifies my opinion that, hey, this the odds are against us in this one. And you know, I mean, they've got some great talent. Obviously the SEC, I think in general, is the best conference right there with the Big 10. But, yeah, it's in Charlotte, so relatively neutral site, I would say. But I don't have a lot of confidence for this one. Are you feeling different or anything? Yeah,
Griffin Cunningham 19:31
let's I mean, just to counter you and your negativity, I will say that as someone who's going to the game, I want to see a good game. As someone who went to the game against Western Carolina, I'm not complaining. I saw a good football game, a competitive football game, I guess I should say. And I mean, at the end of the day, that's really what you want to see. I guess the teams would like to see blowout wins, and so would the AP poll. But I mean. NC State's so ranked number 24 right? Tennessee is ranked number 14. We've seen crazier things happen. I know Tennessee's good. I know that. I know that their quarterback is getting a lot of hype, Nico. I'm not even going to pronounce that last today. I'll know it after Saturday, not today.
Stone Boylan 20:22
They got a literal probable top five pick, James Pierce, Jr, who's a dresser like
Griffin Cunningham 20:27
I get it. Our offensive line is is older and experienced, but they're probably not going to be able to hold him unless they double team them. Yeah, but it's hard to analyze, really, what their team is. They're in the SEC. We don't want, I don't watch a whole lot of SEC football. I probably should be, as I've gotten more into college football, but these numbers are inflated because they played a bad school. Yeah,
Stone Boylan 20:54
I mean, they're, they're probably the top team in tier two, maybe the bottom in tier one for the SEC which tier one would include the Georgia's, the ole misses, the the banners, and then the tier two? I think you could have Tennessee and Missouri are kind of the top of that. Or maybe if Tennessee is better than some of us think maybe they're the bottom of tier one, or something like that. But what about you say LSU? Oh, yeah, LSU is in there. I don't think they're tier one, but LSU is tier two, for sure. Well, I mean, they, what, what were they ranked before they're lost at USC, I don't even, were they in the top 10? I'm not even, I'm not sure they were even in the top 10. I've
Griffin Cunningham 21:37
picked the preseason rankings with a grain of salt, though. You know, like Florida State,
Stone Boylan 21:41
which we can get into that, but just know that they SEC is very good and very deep, and is even a Vanderbilt, yeah, which game we can honestly just get into the changes. Now, the only other thing we want to mention for football is just the ACC, because the landscape looks pretty different now for who's gonna could we because we get a guaranteed team in the playoff no matter what is it guaranteed? Yeah, we get a guaranteed team. It's just who it's gonna be and what the path is to get there. And I think we should be very excited, because I think it got a whole lot easier, because Florida State was obviously projected to be a good school. I thought they'd be good. They'd be like, Hey, this is a team that's going to, pro, you know, be in the championship game. Are they going to win it? Maybe, maybe another team comes up and beats them. But I'm pretty confident Florida State will be like, at the top, you know, three or two, whatever. That doesn't seem to be the case at all. Now they literally lost their first two games, and both of them were ACC schools, first one being Georgia Tech, and then the second one being a game that wasn't even close against Boston College. Now have Billy O'Brien coaching them, but Boston College doesn't really have any notable like, Hey, watch out for this guy. Players, honestly, that, you know that I know of, I mean, they've had Matt Ryan in the past. Is a flowers, but that was like, okay, yeah, wow. That because we were kind of thinking like, is Georgia Tech just better than a lot of us think? Or is Florida State worse? I think this confirms Florida State is totally worse than a lot of people anticipate. And I think the biggest reason is DJ oyunga Laleh, their quarterback, who used to be literally the number one recruit at a high school. He was ranked above CJ Stroud, went to Clemson, disappointed, went to, I believe it was Oregon State, maybe a different school. Yes, organ state, and they did good for what their expectations were, and then gets his reputation back up. Florida State gets him, and now it's been terrible, a
Griffin Cunningham 23:45
meme today or not even a meme just like someone's opinion, it was Jordan. Going from Jordan Travis to djele is the biggest downgrade from at the quarterback position in college football history, since Trevor Lawrence to dju, which is, I
Stone Boylan 24:04
mean, she, I don't know what he was rated. I mean, that's the thing. He was rated very high because his intangibles are crazy, because of his size and everything. But, yeah, you could just watch the games. You could tell something is off, not it, but Florida State, I think they're, you know, they have other harder games. You know this, these weren't their two hardest games in the schedule, so I can safely say that they're probably out. Clemson is, you know, obviously had a loss against Georgia, but the first half was, you know, a really close, defensive battle. It was at Georgia. Second half, they took over. I don't my opinion of Clemson hasn't changed a ton. I think they are ranked caliber team, but they're one that we could beat, because they got literally zero transfers last year, and we beat them last year. Yes, we beat them. So I don't think it's impossible to beat them at all. I think, you know, we are very much up to the task there and then Virginia. Tech lost to Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt's the worst SEC team, and they lose to Vanderbilt. That was pretty for someone, at least, who you know. I don't know if you do this, but if I watch certain games where I don't have anything on the line, I kind of root for our conference, you know, because I want them to be viewed in a higher light. That sucked. That was terrible. Virginia Tech being like, they returned almost all their starters, their quarterbacks, getting a lot of hype. They were getting a lot of hype, and they lose to the worst SEC team. I think that is the biggest thing in terms of maybe the ACC, you know, obviously in terms of the public, the public eye is just going to be viewed less. And I think that both helps us and hurts our chances, because it helps in terms of, I think we control our own destiny for sure. In terms of, we can make the college football playoff, it's totally possible, because Florida State's out of it. It seems like some of these other teams might be interrupt tech, very disappointing, but you still got Louisville, who's ranked slightly ahead of us. You know, you have Miami, who seems to be the leader, and you're gonna have to get through Miami to get there, which is gonna be tough. But, you know, I don't think they're impossible, but I think we control our own destiny. Because I think the teams that are above us right now, aside from Louisville, which Louisville will have to get through their schedule, is Clemson, which we brought up, that's gonna be a huge game. And then now Georgia Tech, because we are playing Georgia Tech. And if they are for real, which, you know, again, season just started, it's hard to say if they really are, because they were kind of in the middle. But hypothetically, let's say they are for real, you know, in terms of a good team. That's going to be a tougher game because it's at Georgia Tech, but we had mentioned earlier with our schedule, we put ourselves in a pretty great position to at least make the ACC title game to contend for a playoff spot, which most likely will be against Miami, but that's going to have to come with a Clemson win, or if we lose to Clemson, Clemson is gonna have to lose to some other people, which is very possible. But, you know, I think it's just weird looking at ACC now, just two weeks later, and it just looks completely different.
Griffin Cunningham 27:16
Yeah, I think, I think we'll find out if Georgia Tech and Boston College are for real. I mean, I think good coaching goes a long way. And, yeah, and Boston College has an elite coaching staff right now, so that's good for them. I think it's it's good. It's a cycle, you know, the the bad teams eventually get better, or that's the idea, right? And so Clemson's been at the top of the mountain for so long, and I'm not I'm not upset that they're not representing the ACC right now. And then Florida State had their moment, and obviously their their defense is not where it needs to be. They lost Jordan Travis. Lost Keon Coleman, big offensive talents,
Stone Boylan 27:59
and you can't Trey Benson. They
Griffin Cunningham 28:02
lost Trey Benson. They're running back. You can't just replace that
Stone Boylan 28:05
in a season, unless you're BAM or Georgia or something like this. You're right, but, but we're they're not. They're not.
Griffin Cunningham 28:12
And yeah, right now the U Miami is soaking up all the glory in Florida. And yeah, I agree. I think as of right now, they look like the powerhouse in our conference, and it's going to run through them. Fortunately, we don't play them. Yep, like Stone mentioned, we play Georgia Tech and we play Clemson. So those are probably going to be our two toughest games. They're both on the road, and those are probably our two toughest in conference opponents. Carolina doesn't look like they're gonna Yeah,
Stone Boylan 28:44
they lost their quarterback for the year, so doesn't seem as hard of a game now.
Griffin Cunningham 28:48
So we don't even have Boston College on the schedule. Yeah, if they're anything, we didn't even have to go through them to worry about that. I
Stone Boylan 28:54
mean, I think it's what Stanford or Cal. I don't even think we have to do. We have to play SMU. I don't even think we have to play them, because they get a lot of hype as well. Of hype as well. We don't have to play Louisville either. Man, you tested me like we are. I know we play like Louisiana.
Griffin Cunningham 29:09
So I have, I do have the schedule? Yeah? We play la tech, Northern Illinois, Wake Forest. Who is not good? They're fine, yeah? Syracuse. Not good. Syracuse, that was it. Then there's Cal on the road, Stanford at home, Duke at home. Not good. Then there's Georgia Tech on the road, UNC on the road.
Stone Boylan 29:27
Before that, Georgia Tech, those could literally be, like, one through five of the bottom of the ACC, like, that's literally what could happen.
Griffin Cunningham 29:35
Wake Forest, Syracuse, Stanford and Duke. Those
Stone Boylan 29:39
could literally be I mean, it's possible those are the four worst, right there. Maybe with more state, they're
Griffin Cunningham 29:45
that bad. I mean, yeah, no, the schedule is very good, and I will, I mean, don't discount the Tennessee game yet. You know, like, no. I
Stone Boylan 29:56
mean, anything could happen. I'm saying Tennessee. Oh, the moon totally. Absolutely, I'm
Griffin Cunningham 30:00
just saying no one will get Georgia Tech or Boston College's second thought based on
Stone Boylan 30:04
what I've been given and what I've seen and what I know, I just personally, you know, if NC State's plus six and a half, I'm taking Tennessee minus six and a half, then that's well, what are your betting records? Because
Griffin Cunningham 30:19
that might be good. I
Stone Boylan 30:20
mean, they're fine, they're positive, but I'm not crazy. I don't bet a ton, so I'm not crazy betting or anything. I just, I'm not avid better all the time. But I just saw like, NC State Opening is plus six and a half. I'm like, really, like, I feel like, I don't know. I just think SEC is so good. SEC is so good. And when you go to a stage, really scare me. Why? Why would I pay out of state crap to go there? Plus I don't like any of their schools they I can respect them and not like them, you know, yeah, tennis, but you know, again, anything can happen. Be excited, yeah, no, hopefully it's a great game. I would be so happy if we lose by a field goal or touchdown. Like, okay, this is this. We look great like, you
Griffin Cunningham 31:04
will say also, aside from the matchup itself, this is probably the highest profile game that we've been in since I've been at this school. I mean, you want to talk about the Carolina season finales around Thanksgiving time. That's fine, but yeah, those, this is the Duke's Mayo classic. It's a big deal pops up bowl, but we didn't have, wasn't a player, and it was also against Kansas State, so they're not and the other game, the other bowl game two years ago, was against Maryland. Yeah, this is the best team that we've played out of conference in in a hot minute, yeah, like at least three years so, and it's College Game Day, yeah? I think, right, it's the first time college game game day has been an NC State game since Clemson two years ago, when Devin Leary was the quarterback. Yeah, geez, big deal. So, I mean, I just hope it's a good game. I'm driving over to Charlotte, so I don't want to drive over there for nothing, for a blowout, and see all the, what's the, what's the reporter's website that I told you, smelly guy sports.
Stone Boylan 32:12
Smelly guy sports.
Griffin Cunningham 32:13
We don't want to see smelly guys sports. Com crying. And, yeah, we
Stone Boylan 32:18
have a,
Griffin Cunningham 32:19
I'm not elaborating on smart guy
Stone Boylan 32:22
sports, yeah, you just had to, you know, it'd be, it's,
Griffin Cunningham 32:26
it's a running gag, but it's real. Look it up. Look up the domain, smell my guys sports com. Stone has Stone Cold Stoneheart sports.com
Stone Boylan 32:35
Yeah, not.com but,
Griffin Cunningham 32:37
well, you gotta buy that search Google. You just, yeah, basically, you can have any sports website if you put something, something sports.com yeah and yeah, smelly guys sports.com is actually available if anyone bang wants to claim that stone, maybe you
Stone Boylan 32:54
could. Yeah, sure. BS, well, even if we, you know, closing out on football, even if we lose the Tennessee game, we got la tech, Northern Illinois, and then in between those is Clemson. So two of the biggest games of our season are coming up in September, so make sure you're going out and checking out.
Griffin Cunningham 33:13
You know who went to LA tech? Who I don't know. I was trying to say there's forget to be relevant. No, I actually, I was making a joke, but then I remembered, like, I think they had a women's basketball player that went there that was really good. Who is a coach now?
Stone Boylan 33:33
Ellie, Theresa Witherspoon, no. You know who did go there? Who
Griffin Cunningham 33:38
basketball player? P marovich, no, he went to LSU.
Stone Boylan 33:44
We'll just, you know Mr. Mr. Car Malone
Griffin Cunningham 33:49
car. La tech, yep, not
Stone Boylan 33:53
a great guy, but he, from when I looked up, he did
Griffin Cunningham 33:56
go there. I want to know who the women's basketball player is? It not
Stone Boylan 34:00
Teresa Witherspoon, no,
Griffin Cunningham 34:04
Google, oh. KIM MULKEY, yeah, yeah, she's the head coach of LSU, Yeah. KIM MULKEY, yes. There's the connection, the Pete Maravich, he went to LSU, right? I hope he went to LP. Maravich, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, yes. So there's the connection. I'm talking about LA tech. I know you're talking about LA tech. I was saying was Pete Maravich, the guy that went there, but it was Kim. Oh no, yeah, but they both have LSU ties, yeah, yeah, right. So I was on track, Yeah? KIM MULKEY, yes. We remember KIM MULKEY from March Madness. Well, that's who we heard. We Washington Post story that got leaked. Or she's like, don't listen to Oh yeah. Remember, that was weird. You can look that up if I don't even, I didn't even read it.
Stone Boylan 34:46
But if we do episodes every two weeks, then that game will be passing, or would have already happened. Yeah, would be la tech. So don't need to go into that one if. Expect a win. Better be we're focusing on Clemson, but after that, yeah, next episode be Clemson. Jermaine, the agromech
Griffin Cunningham 35:09
editor, he asked me if I was going to Clemson today or not today. But if I was going to Clemson like the game to the game, yeah. Like, pay me extra, like I'm not driving to South Carolina just for for no money. Money got honestly, the very weird take. I
Stone Boylan 35:31
want to go to games, but I honestly feel like it's worse on the road, just going to a game, especially if you go on the road, because you gotta, obviously you're away from home, you gotta travel. You gotta if you're staying there, you gotta pay if you're not, you just gotta immediately get in your car, drive so far back. Like, I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I feel like I would like to go to a game, but I'm not trying to go to majority games in person, unless it's our circumstance, where you're a student, and you go there and it's like, Hey, I get a free ticket. Is the only time I can take advantage of this. But like, if you're watching other sports, I don't know, I feel like I almost prefer going and just watching it from home, because there's way more comfort there and you see the same product, and maybe you don't experience certain stuff, like in person, but I feel like you almost get more info even just by watching it. And obviously, you know, you get more just by sitting up top, like we do when you go and cover a game, because you at least get a full view, just like the announcers do. So, yeah, I see what you mean. If you're going on the road to Clemson, definitely try and get another bag, or more at least? Yeah, it takes more out of you. I don't even
Griffin Cunningham 36:44
know what we'd use it for anyways. No, I agree. I agree. Best seat in the house is the couch. Yeah, you be honest. You get professional analysis, but it's dumbed down for the casual viewer, and you don't have to go anywhere.
Stone Boylan 36:59
Yeah, hang out, see every people. If you want, watch it alone. If you want, you can go to a bar, senior home, yeah? I
Griffin Cunningham 37:06
mean, even as a student, I still prefer to watch games from home. Yeah,
Stone Boylan 37:10
I partly do. I still want to go to as many games, just because, again, it's the only time you can but, and both of us have one year left, but, uh, yeah, that's even, that's football, hopefully Tennessee, we get a win. La tech, expect one. Then we'll preview Clemson. After
Griffin Cunningham 37:25
watch the party, there are watch parties going on for this game. Go to it. Oh yeah, for sure. Hang out with your friends and watch this game. It's a big deal. All right, soccer. Stone, you did an analysis on men's soccer, right? A little bit. Yeah. Did you want to talk about men's soccer? And then I'll do the women's soccer. Yeah, I think
Stone Boylan 37:42
women's has, seems like they've been a little more exciting in terms of potential outlooks than men's, but still, don't want to dumb them down or anything. But, you know, they've been men's soccer, been doing some stuff. They are undefeated two and, oh and one. They had one tie. They had wins over high point in Florida, Gulf Coast. Every time I think of Florida, Gulf Coast all I think it was NCAA Tournament when they won as a 15 seed. That's the only thing I think of. But they got two wins over them, and then they had a two to two tie over JMU. So I guess JMU is making noise at soccer as well. And our ACC opener, our first game in the ACC is verse Cal on Friday, September 6. I would say that'd be a good game to go to if you want to see a soccer win, because Cal is two and two, and two of their losses are to Denver University and Loyola Marymount. And neither of them seem to be like, I don't know, crazy at soccer for the men's so not sure Cal is going to be a crazy problem, at least we hope not. But that starts that Cal game starts a home game run with the next four games all being at home, and none of the next three opponents. That is after Cal, with all four games being at home. None of them in that stretch are power four conference teams, so I think it's like UNC Wilmington and stuff like that. So it's very possible that we start off the year six, oh and one, which then would hopefully ideally put us in maybe some ranked spotlight for the men's soccer. So that'd be a pretty great start for the brand new head coach over there. But again, we haven't played anyone of super substantial, you know, caliber. So the JMU won. It was not really supposed to be a tie. It was kind of like, hey, they kind of really played well, and it was on the road, so maybe that was part of the reason why. But ACC opener versus Cal, that'll probably tell a lot, because it'll be the first game versus an ACC opponent, and even if they're bad, we still want to see some good play and ideally a win. But men's soccer, keep an eye out. Maybe they'll start being ranked soon.
Griffin Cunningham 39:57
Yeah, it's a it's definitely nice to see. See something positive out of that program after. I mean, I've been here for three years and it's been not much. Yeah, Coach fired. Yeah, well, that was at the end of it, but even before that, it was just like not winning a lot of games. So I'm content. I'll probably try to make it to that Friday game against Cal So, but, uh, if you're, are you doing with men's soccer? Yeah, I transitioned to women's soccer there. Women's soccer is, is a developing story here. I think we see the we see the team start out and just look terrible, absolutely awful. I talked to other reporters, and they're like, yeah, they're like, in a rebuild, and, like, Coach Tim Santoro doesn't have anyone to score any goals. Like, they're just playing conservative the whole game. They have no offense. They have nothing. They're not going to win games.
Stone Boylan 40:57
Which, yeah, I mean, when we I think a few games happened when our last record, and did we score a single goal? I
Griffin Cunningham 41:03
think maybe the one. Okay, so I don't remember when our episode came out, but they did not score a goal on their first two matches. Yeah, I think Yeah. So. And then they lose one to two to one against Campbell, yeah. So they're losing to App State, East Carolina and Campbell, right? Those are low tier. East Carolina is especially low. I'm just saying that because I have a friend that goes but those are all North Carolina schools that are not supposed to be anywhere near NC State, Duke or Carolina, or even Wake Forest, but they're beating our women's soccer team up, and so it's a bad look. We go to VCU right Richmond, Virginia, VCU on the road. We get a five oh, victory on August 25 and that came out of left field, obviously, as a casual spectator, a fan, a student, a reporter who doesn't go to women's soccer games. It's surprising. I'm sure if you ask any of the players or the coaches, they'd say, no, no, we knew that was coming. So credit to them. Kudos to I think it's Annika wohner. She's a senior this year. She's been on the team for a long time. I seen her name pop up here and there, and in the past, there's just been a lot of talent. And I believe that, if my memory serves me correct, their leading goal scorer last year was Alexis Strickland, and Jay Joseph tied. And I think they scored four a piece, maybe five. I'm pretty sure it was four. She won. Her has scored two goals in the past two games they've played, so she's already tied. Wow, the amount of goals scored leading last from last year. She's obviously leading this year and goals scored, but they've already hit that mark in what was predicting to be like worse than last year. And last year was a huge step back from the year before. So they beat VCU, five to nothing. They beat Charlotte, one of my least favorite schools, three to one at home. And yeah, she scored two goals in both those games.
Stone Boylan 43:19
So, I mean, yeah, eight goals in two games combined. A lot. We had one goal in three games combined right before a very
Griffin Cunningham 43:27
drastic turnaround. And I don't know, I mean, I don't know how good Campbell, ECU and App State are, but I assume they're probably around the same level as VCU and Charlotte, relatively, probably. So I think this is an internal fix that they made, or an adjustment, rather than the competition being easier. So I'm, I'm so happy that that they were able to, at least, you know, get those goals on the season, whether or not it turns into a successful campaign. I don't really. I mean, they've already met the goals scored mark from last year in five games. So I don't know. And I think they're one. Their record is two, two and one, yeah, so not, not terribly bad. They they have some wins, right? So their season right now, they had a ranked matchup against Colorado that was canceled. It was scheduled for September 1, yeah. So that game gets canceled. I don't believe they rescheduled it. What they did? Doing anything, they added an additional game against George Washington,
Stone Boylan 44:40
September 15, so that was the game that's added to the schedule. It's kind of disappointing because, yeah, you can come in a set on a rank literally, like, Okay, wow, they completely changed the tide. Now let's see what they do against the ranked team, and now you just replace it with someone who's just not ranked at all.
Griffin Cunningham 44:56
Didn't even get the matchup. And I'll also also disappointing. Uh, is they were ranked. NC State was ranked, yeah, 25 so that Colorado matchup was supposed to be, uh, top 25 matchup. 22 Colorado versus 25 NC State, the matchup doesn't happen. They don't play a game. They haven't played a game since August 28 they fall out of the top 25 and
Stone Boylan 45:19
they're not even in the other receiving votes. They're not receiving That's how quick, I guess stuff changes. It
Griffin Cunningham 45:24
does go pretty. There are a lot of games, but, yeah, they, they won't play until the eighth against Rutgers on the road.
Stone Boylan 45:31
Yeah, there are 11 schools in other receiving votes. So they're, it's currently not even in the top technically, like 40.
Griffin Cunningham 45:41
They just, they just dropped off radar. They didn't play a game for do anything I like. I do think it's ridiculous. I don't think it's gonna matter long term, but as of right now, yeah, they they shouldn't have. They lost their entire position. Yeah, they didn't come on, they didn't lose the game. They didn't give up a goal. Yeah, clearly they didn't play. And it wasn't their fault. It was inclement weather, because we had hurricane Debbie.
Stone Boylan 46:07
They were either pushed up too high in terms of like, oh my gosh, this is it like? I think people maybe viewed those two games as like, oh my gosh, they're here, or they either were like, completely just forgotten about because they just like, oh, I have all these other teams I want to vote for, because that's normally not supposed to happen, like at all. But you know, our next games is Rutgers on Sunday, who is not ranked, and then after that is William and Mary, and then the George Washington game you brought up. That's within the next
Griffin Cunningham 46:39
week, we'll have an episode around the time of the George Washington game. And then, yeah, they'll start conference play against Cal on September 9.
Stone Boylan 46:47
And then, unfortunately, Stanford after that. Who is Stanford's number one? Number one in Nick I was gonna
Griffin Cunningham 46:51
get to that. Yeah, ACC and women's soccer. I know we talk about football and how the ACC is kind of like under the thumb of the SEC and the Big 10, yeah. And in soccer, we have number one, I guess so. Number one is Stanford, number two is North Carolina, and number three is Florida State. Number four is Virginia. That's the top four. And then the next one is Notre Dame. And then we have
Stone Boylan 47:18
a little bit lower tax Clemson, which are 21 and 25 Yeah. And then us, I guess not there. But Wake Forest is has receiving votes. So that's like eight teams that are in contention for the top 25 from one conference.
Griffin Cunningham 47:35
Pretty good, pretty good in women's soccer. And I mean, Stanford's always been good in women's soccer. They just happen to be the ACC now, so and so. I mean, Carolina has been good, yeah, they've just, they've always been our toughest opponent. And we don't, we don't play them into
Stone Boylan 47:51
No, we actually don't play them at all period, yeah, got away with weirdly, weird, but we actually don't play them at all. Like,
Griffin Cunningham 47:59
maybe they were like, we'll give them Stanford. But, you know, yeah, I'm looking, if we see any of those other teams on the schedule,
Stone Boylan 48:05
Notre Dame, we do play right after Stanford. Looking primarily Virginia, Virginia. We play Virginia Tech, Clemson. All of those are ranked wake forces and other receiving votes. So it's a pretty competitive ACC schedule that. But no FSU, no, that's the only one. But I mean FSU, number one, number two and three, they get a lot of chances to prove themselves versus what looks like a pretty competitive conference. So yeah, we'll see if, like this is a sustained success from these two wins, or maybe it was just lightning in a bottle, and maybe they can capture it at another point in the season, or something like that.
Griffin Cunningham 48:40
Yeah, either way, just very out of left field with the goals scored. So that's all I have for women's soccer. I think, think we've kind of hit all our points here really quickly before we wrap up. I want to say that agro mech, NC State's yearbook is having an early bird special ends on September 11, so it's 40% off. So get that. It's an expensive book. It's gonna be your best discount, and it's worth it, because stone and I both contribute to that book. The sports editor, stone is a staff writer, and we work very hard on the book to bring you the best sports content and overall content. So give that a look on Balfour's Balfour calm. I believe that's all we have. So thank you for light or watching light it read, and thank you for letting it read, thanks for letting it read. We'll light it red on Saturday against Tennessee, bang. So yeah, we'll, we'll, we'll be back in two weeks. Thank you guys. Go back music in this podcast was Jonas hippers, king of sports and vibe and sneaky licensed under creative commons from the Free Music Archive. You.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai