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NC State sports podcast hosted by Griffin Cunningham, Stone Boylan and Patrick Simon of WKNC.
Unknown Speaker 0:00
Music,
Griffin Cunningham 0:10
welcome back to Light it Red and, I mean, welcome back, because it is the fall semester. This is day two. I like to think of it as SDOC. A lot of people say FDOC, but the SDOC is really like an FDOC. What are you talking about? What are you doing? I'm just saying like day two of class is really like another first day of class, because all the classes are still the same. Yeah, you got your Monday classes, then your Tuesday classes, and so forth.
Stone Boylan 0:36
Well, we got that, and then obviously I call it season two. You call it season three, because you did have two episodes before this, but I call it Season Two of light at Red. We got renewed. Don't know how we convinced some people, threatened some people, and you know, hey, they were like, Sure, we'll let you bozos back on again. So now you have to deal with us for a whole semester more.
Griffin Cunningham 0:59
Yeah, basically what happened was Stone was relentless about getting this podcast back, and so we are back for a full semester beyond that, at least, at least full semester, at least we're gonna figure that out.
Unknown Speaker 1:18
So today we're really just gonna talk about,
Unknown Speaker 1:22
I'm assuming what everyone is thinking is what's going on with our sports. We have new rosters, new schedules, because that's the whole point of the podcast. Even some new coaches, one new coach, I think just the one, yep.
Unknown Speaker 1:35
But we want to go through that fall lineup with you guys before we start really analyzing anything super intensely. So that's our plan for today. And I know stone, you have a lot that you have prepared for football and volleyball, so if you want to just jump right into it and talk about, did you want to talk about men's soccer first? Yeah, we can just go into that this first episode, like you said, just gonna be a quick rundown of kind of, all the fall sports. Obviously, football will require a little more diving into, just because of the, you know, interests in that, but we're still going to touch on at least every single sport that's going on right now. First ones we're going to do our soccer, men's soccer, is the first one that is going to be the only fall sport that does have the new coach, like Griffin just brought up. Mark Hubbard is replacing our former coach, George Kiefer. Is that you say Mark
Unknown Speaker 2:34
Kiefer? Kiefer is replacing him. He he's going to Grand Canyon. He got the job there. He was demoted,
Unknown Speaker 2:45
technically, technically fired. He was really nice guy. That was really cool. But, yeah, he had a 48 percentage, 48% win percentage. So you know, obviously good enough. Yeah, it only gets better. Hey, let's talk about Mark Hubbard instead of George Kiefer. Yeah, it's a business. Unfortunately, he's gone. But Mark was the coach for New Hampshire for five years, the or the nine years. The past time, nine years, he won five conference titles with them, and he also made the tournament every single year with them since 2017
Unknown Speaker 3:17
and he had six tournament wins during that time. So a lot of conference success, lot of tournament success, which really makes me feel good, because I feel like coaches who are in smaller schools, obviously you if they get a big job, you kind of hope they do good in conference, but them showing that they can win nationally as well. I think that's a giant positive for us. Yeah, before you talk about anything else the tournament is that structured similarly to, like all the other sports do we know? I think relatively, relatively, like a pool of, like, 64 teams. I don't know the exact number, but I do know it's not just New Hampshire going against crap as well all the time. They are lower schools that they go against, but I think you know them at least, showing that they can win. You know,
Unknown Speaker 4:07
in big moments, winner, winner, go home, like against all the other best teams in the world. Because in basketball, it's kind of like, that's what you're thinking of. Where you do have a coach, let's say that wins their conference. Let's say like, McNeese State, they made the tournament last year. They dominated their conference, and then they got blown out in the tournament game. And so, you know, I think them winning the tournament at least New Hampshire, let alone making it seven years. I think that's pretty uplifting for us. But yeah, in those tournament runs, I'm pretty sure they were like, mid tier seating, yeah. So it's not like they were, like, just scooting in. Yeah. So I agree. I have, I have high hopes for him. I'm not sure how competitive northeast football or soccer.
Unknown Speaker 4:53
I know in football, it's not competitive football. I would I don't know. I don't know what conference.
Unknown Speaker 5:00
Is the University of New Hampshire in I think it's, I can look that up right now. I'm not sure, but,
Unknown Speaker 5:07
yeah, I mean, the tournament success kind of says it all. I don't really think you need much more information as far as, like, what his winning percentage is and what you know what they can achieve together. And
Unknown Speaker 5:21
I know that. I know while you're looking that up, we wanted to talk about some players that we had our eyes on.
Unknown Speaker 5:28
Yes, right. Okay, there was one that he is on the ACC preseason watch list. Oh, is it so caramelko, yes. Do you remember last year when we went to that game and he was just, like, he was just one of the most aggressive players out he was you could watch because we, we went to one soccer game, like you said last year, and I feel like both of us, just like casually watching the game, you could kind of tell, like, Okay, this, this guy is really good, like, you could tell who the best players on the team were. And obviously, I forget his name, but the our best player last year, who is a senior, and now is gone. Oh, was there? I totally forgot his name. He was a really nice guy. Is it Luke hilly? There's Luke hilly, but there's another one who
Unknown Speaker 6:12
he was a super senior. He's a senior. So I did a guy who did a feature on, yeah, I did feature. I can't remember his name. Super nice guy. Stop making me look terrible, right? He was a super nice guy, but he was really good too. It was hilly him. And then, well, let's name drop him, right? You really don't want clearly, if I knew his name, I would name drop him. His name's Kendall, Edwards Kendall, yes, oh my gosh, he was the captain. I am bad with names. I'm so sorry. I'm terrible names. Anyways, I have to read off a script for names anyways, but
Unknown Speaker 6:43
after those two he was one guy that you were like, dang, like, This guy looks crazy. And he was a freshman. He was a freshman. Him, there were a couple of freshmen. I think there was one guy named UTA Toya. Is he still on the team? Do we know? I'm not one. Let me sure what? Go ahead and talk about caramelco While I look at the men. By the way, New Hampshire plays in the American East conference. So that's the conference they play in. But we only have one player from the men's team that's listed in the watch list, but he is a forward for state, so he's very aggressive, you know, close to near the goal. He's not really a defender. So I think most of our best players, at least the good ones were slightly farther back, so like defenders and everything, but we didn't really have a ton of full attackers, and I think Hakeem can really help us out with that. Like I said, named to the he or last year he was named to the all ACC freshman team, and after playing 12, all 12 games last year, he really got the hang of things in the last six. So the last the second half of the season, he scored four goals and had one assist. So actually really showed to kind of break out. But this upcoming season, it's definitely going to be, you know, kind of a new era, rebuild ish kind of thing. We are ranked 11th out of 15 schools for the ACC,
Unknown Speaker 8:01
and our first game is verse high point on Tuesday the or Thursday the 22nd so if you'd like to go ahead and see when men's soccer starts, it'll be this upcoming Thursday.
Unknown Speaker 8:13
Yeah, unit toy is not on the team anymore, so name dropped him. But Irvin Cruz is on the team, and he's a sophomore, and he's pretty good too. Yeah. So I agree, young guys, young guys, both sophomores, yeah, young team, new era. So I'm sure that coach will probably be relying on those guys a lot, but there are a couple of familiar names, like will Bute, Jarvis, Cleo Junior, nare, some of those older guys that
Unknown Speaker 8:37
you know should be leaders for the team and in the kind of the transition. But from what I've heard, there has been pretty positive feedback about how coach, Mark Hubbard is managing the team. Yeah, that's good. So
Unknown Speaker 8:52
honestly, come I'll be excited to you know when we go to a game or two, kind of just get to know him and see him, since he's the first new coach for the Fall sports so I hope he has, like, an accent. It just like when you talk, like something unique about him, like a New Hampshire accent. Oh, if he was there for so long, he picked it up. I don't know where he's from originally. I don't either, but I know that funny. Coach, um, Coach, what? Coach, what's his face? Kiefer had a, he had a New York accent. Yes, we've got to keep keep the keep it going. Get a New York accent, but he was so funny. It was really he was so nice. It was just really good. But now we can get to women's soccer. They've already started the year so far. They have a tie versus App State, and just recently they did lose at home to ECU one, zero, not, not the pirates. No, the pirates. So we are ranked 12th out of 17 teams in the ACC for women's. That's our projection, 12th out of how many 17
Unknown Speaker 9:51
that's worse than the men's. Yeah, little bit, little bit less, little bit
Unknown Speaker 9:56
towards the bottom. Santoro. Tim Santoro, our coach. He returns. He.
Unknown Speaker 10:00
Been there for this is gonna be his 12th year coaching women's soccer,
Unknown Speaker 10:04
but it looks like we're still in a reset, but we're hopefully in the second half of a reset. So feels like it started maybe a year or two ago. Hopefully we kind of get out of that soon, but I think what price still gonna look to be in that reset lower tier this year. But even if maybe, maybe we improve, maybe we get much better, we would be trying to make the tournament for
Unknown Speaker 10:31
the first time since, I believe, two years ago, because we had six consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, which that streak ended after the 2022 season. So Tim
Unknown Speaker 10:44
has been here for 12 years because he obviously had sustained success before. So I don't really have too many issues with him as a coach personally. I just know sometimes, if you don't win enough for long enough, doesn't matter what you did beforehand, sometimes they'll get rid of you. But I feel like he should be pretty good now, because we're, like I said, hopefully entering just this back half of a slight rebuild, I'll tell you what's wrong with the women's soccer team. Oh, what?
Unknown Speaker 11:09
They aren't scoring goals. I mean, wow, really. That might be a hot take, but that was a problem last year. And you know, what's even worse about that is there are two leading goal scorers last year, Jimmy Joseph and
Unknown Speaker 11:27
man, her name's slipping my mind. Oh, you can't remember names now, interesting. Okay, there's there. She was actually the leading goal scorer. Jay was like, second or tie, yeah. Anyways, I'll remember it later, and I'll feel stupid.
Unknown Speaker 11:41
They are both gone. So I'm interested to see who is going to step up. It looks like there are a few fresh faces on the roster this year, quite a few sophomores. So that's the thing, because last year, when I when I mean second half, I mean last year, we got a ton of freshmen that played a lot, and so now this year is going to be a lot of sophomores that play a lot. So hopefully next year, once they have two years of experience these juniors, can, you know, kind of turn these, turn these kind of 1020,
Unknown Speaker 12:09
L's into, like, three to two W's, because, like you said, we are not really scoring a lot, and that was definitely an issue last year, for sure. It was, it was Alexis Strickland, so if you're listening, I'm sorry, we had a sit down interview. Wow, uh,
Unknown Speaker 12:25
something. No, I'm I shouldn't have ragged on you earlier. I'm sorry. Yeah, man, no. Interesting names are hard. I remember when you do all this, yeah, yeah, that's, that's soccer. Do you have anything else to add for for soccer, soccer or anything? No, I mean, the more games we go to, hopefully the more we'll have to report back to our audience. Yeah, kind of, you know, get more in touch with the sport. But yeah, right now it's kind of hard to tell, like, who is really going to emerge as, as the best players or the leaders, or what, what the roles are going to be, or how the coaches are, yeah, function. So we're just kind of, yeah, women's soccer seems more of like a committee. Just see who's going to step up at this point. But like you said, we'll get more to you when we when the games kind of play out. And then we got volleyball. Volleyball, I think, in terms of the Fall sports, obviously football gets the most attention for everything, but I think volleyball was definitely solidified a second after they had some pretty impressive wins. I believe Louisville was the win that we had where they actually did light it red, and that was really cool. And what was the significance of that win? Well, obviously, it was Louisville. Was, I forget what they were ranked in the country, yeah. And it was, like, the highest we've ever beat. There was the highest ranked team I think we had ever beat, yeah, it was. It was unofficially that the program's biggest win, yeah, ever in terms of, like, actual recent rankings and stuff like that.
Unknown Speaker 13:49
Last year, volleyball was fifth in the ACC. The Wolfpack volleyball were and they were seventh in points, in terms of what they finished last year. This year, the current projections have them at number eight in the ACC, but they're very close to six and seven. So I'd say they're at least in the six to eight range. But I kind of feel like that's a little low, because we are basically getting all of our best players and starters returning, Ava brazard, Amanda rice, Jada Allen, Madison Williams, like all of those people are returning, which all of them were top foreign points and they were all leaders in other separate categories. The only one that is gone was our leader and assist, Kristen McDaniel, who,
Unknown Speaker 14:32
you know, I believe she was a senior last year, and she's gone. She transferred. I can't remember. I believe was a fifth year, like, a really big like, send off. Yeah. So she she is no longer here, but Naomi cabello was second behind her, so she will kind of step into that role and be the primary assist for the Wolfpack volleyball team.
Unknown Speaker 14:53
But in terms of what we could maybe expect, I mean, teams like Stanford, Pitt and Louisville are kind of.
Unknown Speaker 15:00
All in this tier one. They're kind of clearly looked at as the best in the ACC. Voice crack, this is the first time you also mentioned Stanford too. Yes, that's like a big deal that we haven't really talked about what? Well, Stanford's in the ACC now. Oh yeah, that is right. I totally forgot Stanford. Cow SMU, some of the dumbest crap. I think, Whoa. I hate it, dude. Yeah, I'm pissed. I hate it. I don't feel the same way. I don't like it. Well, I think it's cool. If you change the name,
Unknown Speaker 15:29
Oh, you don't want it to be the Oh, Atlantic coast. I'm going to California for the Atlantic Coast Conference matchup. It is stupid. Just change the name, which part of me is like, I like the old school stuff, where we actually had East Coast teams playing each other for the ACC, or whatever, and now the PAC 12 is gone, and it's really unfortunate. It was just people up top really not doing a good job with a lot of stuff, and it affected everything else. But I think it is cool in terms of we get more match ups. So from that perspective, it's good, yeah. I mean, as a fan of the ACC, I saw it as like a move to keep up with
Unknown Speaker 16:05
the SEC, which we need to, because we have rumors of Florida State, Clemson, Carolina, like maybe looking to leave and go to the SEC, yeah, which would be insane. So it was almost like Do or die, yeah. So we just had to pick up whoever. But I think each of them in respective sports will be huge. And obviously in this one, Stanford is the team there. But in terms of where we are, I think what with natural improvement, we can reach, like the top of tier two, which would be like the fourth or fifth best, best team in the ACC, which is around where we were last year. So if we can get to four, that would be improvement. But I think the biggest improvement would just be, you know, potentially getting some kind of big wins when it comes to the tournament, or when it comes to the ACC tournament or national tournament or something like that. But do you want to go into our coach and to give some notes on him as well? Luca, yeah. Uh, well, I mean, we were talking about earlier how he coached the Olympics in the 2020 Olympics, but I don't think he coached in the 2024 one. I'm not sure. I don't think so. I didn't find anything about okay, but he has a gold medal. Yeah. I mean, we were just thinking about Olympics because it was Olympic season not that long ago. But yeah, he, I don't think he participated this year, so Oh dang well last year though. I mean, for him personally, he had his first 20 win season as head coach of state. It was the first for NC State in general since 2017
Unknown Speaker 17:35
overall. He's got a 62 and 42 record overall, 39 and 31 in ACC play in our first game. That's not an exhibition. We have an exhibition game against Davidson, I believe, on this Saturday as we're recording this. But Creighton is going to be our first game, which is on the 30th. So we've still got about 10 days until volleyball starts. So soccer will start at first, and then we got volleyball. Yeah, football will start before volleyball as well. Because obviously, football is on the 29th the volleyball schedule every year. I mean,
Unknown Speaker 18:06
just as a sport, it's, there are a lot of games on the schedule, and I don't think conference play even starts. It didn't start until like October, yeah. So we've, we've got a ways to go with with that, but it's, it's Virginia Tech
Unknown Speaker 18:20
on September 27 Okay, well, we'll go and see those games. But volleyball, a lot of people are returning. I think they'll improve. So might actually have some optimism for volleyball this year. Did you mention Stokes? Guy? Stokes? No, I think she'll be good too. I don't. Oh, yeah, no, she, was, like, rotating in a good amount, and she's back as well as a starter, and she's, I think, a graduate student this year, and
Unknown Speaker 18:48
she's, she's a liberal libero, yeah, bro, that's a really important position. So I think having someone with the experience there is gonna, I mean, like you said, I they're really running it back with the roster, yeah, so, I mean, they're not going to beat Nebraska, but maybe they can be Louisville and Stanford. Who knows we did last year? We Louisville. So I think obviously we have really high we really freaking pit. Yeah, pit was bad. Went to that game that was bad. But we obviously from last year, we had really high highs and really low lows. And I think the older you get, the more consistent you get. So hopefully we can get consistently good. And that's kind of the coaching has to be there, right? Yeah, which I personally think it is. I feel like he has done a pretty good job. I agree. So that's volleyball, and then cross country we can quickly get into. Obviously, they've won three NCAA championships at the last four years, just casually throwing that out there, pretty crazy. But a lot of the best runners, which obviously the best one was Caitlin Tuohy is no longer with us at NC State, so we are going to have to see pretty much a rise from a lot of the other people that were on the team. The two ones that I'm mainly looking at are Grace Hartman, who's.
Unknown Speaker 20:00
A junior, and then Leah Stevens, who's a sophomore, both were the next highest runners who are actually, they were the next highest runners last year who are actually the only people that are returning that were in the top, you know, five for our cross country team, but they're still very much in contention for winning at all. They're just not really in the favored spot anymore. But, you know, I don't doubt that the coach is probably gonna obviously help them improve, and maybe, maybe we have a chance to potentially go ahead and win it all again. Would you be crazy?
Unknown Speaker 20:33
Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 20:34
I was actually, I mean, this is kind of related, but
Unknown Speaker 20:38
have you ever heard of the like the cup, the award that you get,
Unknown Speaker 20:43
like each school is, like, weighted across all the sports that they have, and then, like, as you excel in multiple sports, it ups your ranking. Yes, I think I have heard so I looked at that, and cross country didn't count for anything, but looking like, look, so there are a lot of sports that we don't have at this school hockey that aren't we getting a hockey team now I believe no. So the hockey team isn't becoming division one, if that's what you were asking. Oh, I thought they were, no, the club is getting a promotion. Oh, okay, which is cool, and we will talk about that at some point. But
Unknown Speaker 21:23
no, what were you saying before hockey? Oh, we were talking about the I don't even know what the name of the cup, what the award is. I just looked at it like the stats very briefly. And it just was unfortunate, because we were like, ranked, like 21st
Unknown Speaker 21:41
in the country, after everything that and we got so much, yeah, we had last last year was insane, like that was annoying. Well, maybe they'll add it, or maybe we'll just keep improving with all the other sports we have, hopefully, but that's the other sports that we have.
Unknown Speaker 21:56
And then we can quickly, or not, not fully quickly, but the second half of the episode, we can spend on football, because obviously that is, you know, we're in the biggest sports, the biggest sport for college in general, but definitely, I would say for us. Obviously, basketball was probably the biggest last year for NC State nationally, which was insane. Which, you know, I always think back. I don't know why, but it's always funny. I always think back to that sick moment when Dave Dorn was, like, talking up or talking to Steve Smith, and he was like, This ain't a basketball school. You can kiss my ass. Yeah? Whatever I was trying to remember the pre or like, the presser he did after that game. Did he he like, doubled down on it, yeah, he did. What did he say? Well, I don't remember exactly what he said, but I know Steve Smith, like, picked against them on game day because we were playing, I forget what team we were playing, but he was like, they're waiting for basketball seasons to start their basketball school. And then they we won. And he said that. And Steve Smith can kiss my ass, yeah? And then he's saying a basketball school, he said, but something like that. That was bullshit, yeah, I can't remember, but it was funny. It was totally correct and funny and awesome. And then I just thought it was kind of funny how then that year, we literally did something we haven't done in forever, and went to the Final Four and achieved an insane amount. But I would say, on a consistency basis, football is where it's at. For sure, we're in everything school. Yeah, we're in everything school. And I think where short kings, short King Steve Panthers legend.
Unknown Speaker 23:30
So where do you say Boo?
Unknown Speaker 23:34
Boo, don't disrespect my Panthers, Boo in the sense that they're bad. Yeah, we're we're bad. I know terrible, not that I really get better, but they're, they're bad. I promise they'll get better. That's football. At least they have
Unknown Speaker 23:48
DJ Moore and no and they don't to Hubbard and what, they don't even have DJ, oh, they traded him. Yes, Whoa, man, would you like me to at least have the trade? Yeah, of course, equally, yeah. McCaffrey. McCaffrey, pretty horrendous. They have Brian. Burns, still, yeah, Brian burns, though
Unknown Speaker 24:10
that they hate you. All right, they don't have Brian. Burns, I know I thought you're being facetious. I actually don't this. He's was on the team last he's a giant. He got treated the giant. Yeah? So they have no talent. All right, well, and their quarterback looked like he was going back to school,
Unknown Speaker 24:26
like fifth grade. Wow, you didn't see that. All right, that's enough. His hand back came down like his, yes, I know that's enough. Panthers disrespect. I understand, not that it's wrong, but I wonder where he gets his back to school supplies, back to NC State football. I think Funny enough, when we were talking about the Dave Dorn thing, I do think this could be the year where they kind of also hit the mark that all the other sports did, because last year was it wasn't a bad year, but if you really watched all the games, you almost got a headache all the time to.
Unknown Speaker 25:00
Because it was so crazy, up and down, like last year, the record was fine, but this I'm that's only the surface. No, I know it was so bad. There was it was so crazy. You didn't I don't know how we won, honestly, some of those games. A lot of credit to the coaching staff. But this year, I feel so much better about the roster we said that last year. I mean, I'm just being devil's advocate right now. I'm not, I'm not a pessimist. I'm just saying we're all like, oh Bruno from one talking about offensively specifically because defensively, like they were amazing. Yeah, about Casey Concepcion, podcast, paper, yes, Concepcion and now the football team, I think, could just follow along and hit these, you know, all time highs for the team that we have been trying to, kind of hoping for, which I think that's the goal, is the illustrious 10 wins. It's the illustrious double digit win season, and it's if we can get that, because we have not had a bowl game win since 2017
Unknown Speaker 26:03
we've had no 10 win season under Dave Doran, lots of nine, lots of eight, lots of nine. Win eight seasons under Dave, but no 10. And I would say the majority of the time, the roster was not really fit for 10 wins. So I'm not necessarily diminishing him or anything, but I do think things are changing for sure. There's they're going to be way more fun to watch like. We will have such a better time, a way more comfortable time watching them like, for sure. Not even a question. I I think that the the playoff expansion has made it like. I mean, when you watch professional sports, it's like, take the NBA, for example. You get to watch your team and like, you can always kind of have hold out hope that they'll make the playoffs, yeah, and have something to play for. But with college football, it's like, if you're not in a certain conference or your schedule is not a certain way. There is no chance you're making it into the play. You had nothing to play for but a bowl game. Yeah, for example, like hypothetically if the Florida team that, let's say Florida right now had the team they had back when they won the national title. We don't know if they would have even done that if they had today's schedule, because their schedule right now is insane. They play like seven teams that are in the top 20 right now, and it would almost be like your team is good enough to win it all, but you just can't, because your record is so hard. That's why I don't really like a lot of this sec and Big 10 stuff, because I feel it just makes it's going to make teams appear worse than they actually are, but I do think the product will be better because they're playing more team, more good teams, more often, but we're going to have, I think, a lot of conversations of a lot of people being like, well, this team has a better record, and they look blah, blah, blah, and it's like, well, it's going to be really weird to rank them, because this team might have three losses, but they have three losses in the SEC, where this team has one loss, But it's one loss or two losses in the ACC or the big 12. And so it's gonna make it a lot weird, but luckily for us, the ACC, I still think, is kind of your normal, like conference in terms of, like, you don't have an insane amount of really good teams all the time, but it's not dog crap or gone like the PAC 12. And so, you know, I think we're the, kind of the perfect middle there.
Unknown Speaker 28:23
But, I mean, just for, you know, the team itself, obviously, we took a gigantic offensive leap through the transfer portal. That was the biggest thing we did. And they did an amazing job. They had the 18th overall in terms of transfer class ranking.
Unknown Speaker 28:40
You know, we'll obviously get into a lot of the transfer players and stuff, because that was the biggest deal. But our offensive and defensive coordinator return, Robert and I and Tony gibson. Tony, I think, was a huge return for the team. I know he got some buzz as head coaching stuff or DCS, even in the NFL, a little bit I heard, or at giant programs like Georgia or Texas or something like that, but he's returning, so that's big for us, because I think, I think he's very good in a great pairing with Dave and then Robert, I know got a lot of hate, but I think he did a good job adjusting down the stretch of the season to where he just had to deal with what he was dealt and was like, Hey, this is Armstrong. This is MJ, like, this is what we need to do. But I think he did a good job really hammering get Casey the ball. Because we had an essay. The same thing, we had an episode where Casey had, like, his first really good game where, like, okay, hey, I don't really care if you have a history of hey, I stick with my plan. I do this, Robert. You need to get this dude the ball all the time. And he did that. He totally did. And I think it's part of the reason why we won some games, even if it looked ugly. So I think that's try to, you know, limit the weaknesses, yeah, embrace the strengths. That was so props to him. So I, I feel like this year it'll be better because he'll at least have a little bit less insane planning to do, because he's got more talent around him, more time to it. Yes, for sure, and that started.
Unknown Speaker 30:00
It's with the quarterback. Grayson McCall is going to be our new starting quarterback another year where we do have a transfer quarterback. I know last year I was, I was relatively excited for Brendan Armstrong, for sure, and he did disappoint for sure. I don't think he was horrendous, but he did so, I mean, it's realistic. You know, Brennan Armstrong stand all year I liked him. No, I'm saying I was a Brennan Armstrong strand Stan compared to MJ Morris people, okay, and I was totally right, but I understand, in general, if you look at it, you were like, This is not what we hoped we got from, you know, a transfer at Virginia who, when he came in, he obviously had a bad year, but going back three years prior, like or three years in a row prior to that, he was very good. And I don't want people to be scared, because Grayson's very similar.
Unknown Speaker 30:51
He's a transfer from Coastal Carolina three seasons prior to the very last year that he played 2023 he was, statistically, one of the best quarterbacks in the nation. How many years ago was this this? So prior to the 2023 season. So if you take out last year, three years in a row, so 2022 2021 and 2020 he played like he basically started when he was a freshman, and he was statistically one of the best QBs in the nation. And what happened every single year, last year? Well, I'll get to that. But through those amazing just to hype up the amazing seasons, yeah, two of those were 11 win years. He also set the NCAA single season mark for passing efficiency rating at 207.6
Unknown Speaker 31:34
and he did that in 2021 so his highs are insanely high. Last year was the first year with a new coach. He had a new coach in Jamie Chadwell, and or his former coach, Jamie Chadwell went to liberty, and when he went to liberty, they went 13 and one last year. So clearly the coach was a pretty big deal, but they lost close to Carolina. Lost a lot of guys. A lot of people followed the coach, but Grayson did not he stayed,
Unknown Speaker 32:02
and so a lot of talent was lost, and he played in seven games before he was knocked out, unconscious and suffered from a concussion, and then didn't play the rest of the year. Got it. So that's how he went down. And even before then, he wasn't bad. It was just he wasn't playing up to the strengths that he had. But he had a brand new offensive coordinator, brand new offense, brand new weapons, brand new everything. So I don't take an insane amount away from that, but comparing it to Brendan Armstrong, yes, Brennan Armstrong had great stuff. And then last the year prior to coming to NC State, he was bad, but the year prior to coming to NC State, with him being bad, he had a different injury that was lingering. And it wasn't just like some concussion that he had, that he ended up, you know, like Grayson concussion, didn't play the rest of the year, and now has 10 months of recovery for it, like Brennan kept playing through it. And so that's kind of why I feel at least a little bit he suffered.
Unknown Speaker 32:55
What was Brennan's injury? I forget if it was something with his ankle or leg. I can't remember, but I know, oh, I he did get injured. He got injured. But even at Virginia, they also were terrible. They had a lot of bad stuff going on. And that was the year I think those players passed away. I believe so. It was just bad everything. If you remember that for Virginia University, it was very sad. But
Unknown Speaker 33:20
now we have Grayson, and I think I'm, I'm definitely very optimistic for his season especially. I just prefer the way he plays, for sure, like I think you should expect a top three quarterback in the ACC and probably around a top 15 quarterback in the nation. Let's think that's what I think you should expect. But there's, there's going to be an adjustment. There's going to, for sure, be an adjustment. Prior to 2023
Unknown Speaker 33:47
there was a very little fall off in any sort of efficiency, whether he was blitzed, whether he was, you know,
Unknown Speaker 33:55
pocket was kept clean or under pressure.
Unknown Speaker 33:58
But the ACC is very different from the Sun Belt. So there's gonna be a lot of adjustments there with how fast the edge rushers are and and how fast the corners are how fast the linebackers move. It's gonna be an adjustment. But he's a capable runner, but he's a pocket passer for sure. Like, that's his bread and butter. But I think you should expect, like, ideal general quarterback play. That's kind of what it'll be. In 2021 he graded as the best deep ball thrower in all of college football. That was the season I was talking about where he broke the efficiency record, and he was second in 2022 behind Drake May, who just got drafted, obviously top three in the NFL. So I think you should for him at least. I think the biggest thing is going to be keeping him under like pocket, kept clean at least a majority of the time, and keeping him upright as most as you know, as long as possible.
Unknown Speaker 34:53
But if you if they do that, at least for the majority, it's going to look really good. But he obviously needs help. You.
Unknown Speaker 35:00
And obviously the biggest guy is our amazing receiver that we have. KC,
Unknown Speaker 35:07
you're supposed to say it, oh. Conception, that's not how you say it. Conception, yes. Seon, you're supposed to say funny way. But what a ghost favorite. Yes, that's who. He's insane. He's a stud. But we don't even, we don't need to go in depth. To be honest, this is more for people they don't know. Like, yeah, just listen to Him do an interview and then watch him play. He's amazing. He's insane. I think, I think he's in contention for being a top five wide receiver in the nation. And I'm not being a biased fan. I'm serious. I just hope that he's not taking hits like he was at the end of last year. That's the only thing that could derail him, because we've had receivers just in college history that have had amazing first year or first first and second year, and then, boom, they get injured and they fall off in their seventh round pick or something like that. His speed is everything, but he if he can stay healthy, him now, being a sophomore, he's on track to be a guaranteed first round pick in 2026 or 2027 whenever he declares.
Unknown Speaker 36:04
But he's here now, and he's an amazing he's not a, you know, traditional wide receiver. He's a slot, you know, give him jet sweeps. He ran the ball a ton last year, quick screens. And he can also go deep if that you need that. That's kind of what he is. Kind of like a tank Dell, if you needed to think of someone in the NFL, but the guys that we could get into, one that I'm very excited for, and I loved it when we saw it was Noah Rogers. Noah Rogers is a redshirt freshman. He's a former four star that committed to Ohio State. He's from North Carolina. And just what do you know about Ohio State in general? If you just think, Hey, I'm an NFL fan, what do I know about Ohio State? Ohio State, they know a wide receiver when they see one, oh, you're gonna say wide receive. I thought you're gonna say, like, freaking like, Dwayne Haskins. No, not their quarterbacks that it will that does play into it. Why do you think they have so many quarterbacks that don't work out in the NFL? Because the stuff around them is amazing when they were in college, and that's because their wide receivers are so good. I don't even need to tell you how many are in the NFL right now that are amazing. And three, just look it up. I mean, JSN was amazing when he came out, and I think he's gonna get better. Chris olave, Garrett Wilson, like, there are so many juniors gonna be the best. Marvin Harrison Jr, like he's gonna be insane. I mean, they, they have so many, they have a ton.
Unknown Speaker 37:27
But, yeah, I don't even need to explain to you why state wide receivers are good. But he was number two in the nation in terms of a recruit from North Carolina last year, which was top 40 overall. But he's, six to 200 pounds. He's like a real like, all around outside X, wide receiver or Z, either one. But I'm, I'm really optimistic for him. It'll be his first time getting real playing time, because he didn't really play at all because, obviously it was stacked last year with he's not playing over Marvin Harrison Jr, but he
Unknown Speaker 37:58
doesn't really seem to have any major weaknesses, at least in high school, but I think if he does, we'll at least see what it is in college, because we just don't have a lot of, you know, film, if any, on him, or particularly, you know, a lot of the stats that they bring out, they don't really show advanced stats and everything like that for high school football, right? So we'll kind of see exactly what he is. But based on a lot of stuff I read. It seems like he's just a really well rounded guy. And we talked about him on our episode about, did we do a transfer? I believe so. Yeah, he was one of the receivers we talked about. Oh yeah, Ohio State, big deal, sophomore. He's a redshirt freshman. Richard, okay, so he has not played at all, barely. You can play like, four games or something, and then be redshirted. So I don't know if you played at all, or maybe he did, but basically nothing to go off of. But he was a very highly recruited player in Ohio State. Got him, so clearly, if they wanted him, he's a big deal. You think he's day one starter. Oh yeah, oh yeah. The other guys I'm gonna bring up though, like, are getting a lot of buzz at a camp that I think could play alongside, but Kc is going to be in the slot, so we're looking at two outside receivers. So Noah Rogers is guaranteed to be at least one of the outside receivers, meaning I think he's going to play literally every single passing down, unless he's injured or they swap out guys. But Wesley Grimes is a junior transfer from Wake Forest. And then Keenan Jackson is a current freshman, brand new from Matthews, North Carolina, which is like outside of Charlotte. Both of these guys are getting very positive talks in camp that are probably going to fight for the other outside role, across from Noah Rogers, or Yeah, across from Noah Rogers, Grimes, the transfer from Wake Forest is probably going to start the year, but I think Jackson could gradually get more rotational SAP snaps, but he's probably not going to start, because he's a freshman, obviously, but I think both of those guys look really interesting, and that gives me a lot of optimism, because last year, it was basically KC and that's it. We didn't have a ton of great receivers out there.
Unknown Speaker 40:00
Um, Dakari Collins was the only one that wasn't bad, and he gives us good size. He's six five. He's a good weapon. I was gonna say, you don't think he's gonna be out there. He will. He will. But he is not listed as the starter right now. Grimes is listed as the second outside starting wide receiver, and Collins is right behind him. So he will be able to get some time, especially because he's big, so he'll probably go out there on deep routes and stuff like that, if they need if it's a clear law like third and long or something, he could play the fourth receiver, since he's six five. But they could also just run two tight ends, because there's two tight ends that we have now
Unknown Speaker 40:37
that actually look viable juice. Vereen is currently the backup. You have a class with him, apparently. So that's cool. You can't say that on the boy. Yes, I can't. No, you can. I feel like,
Unknown Speaker 40:50
if he drops the class,
Unknown Speaker 40:55
well, he's jumped the gun. He Griffin's class at least right now, but he's, he's for sure, going to get more snaps in two tight end sets, or even as a slot, because Casey can move around. Casey can be outside. So let's say Casey is outside across from NOAA. You could have juice in the slot if you'd like, if they have some kind of play for that, but his hands reportedly have gotten better. But I still need to see in game stuff, because, obviously in game, you need to show that your hands have improved. Because that was kind of an issue last year with juice. Yeah, a little bit. Were you around when I, I think it was the Notre Dame game. He had kind of a mini breakout, like he was the only source of offense, yeah, and that was the game that, like that tropical storm came through and delayed, yes. And
Unknown Speaker 41:43
I wanted to name the agromeck story. It was our first home football game we covered every year. And I wanted to call it wet and juicy. What to do? That's an amazing name. Oh my gosh, because, you know, it was wet, that's insane, but it got but they wouldn't let you do that. Nope, dang Yeah. And I couldn't imagine why that's that sucks. Yeah, I didn't. I don't know why that's such a good name. That's so funny, yeah, but he's one of the tight ends juice farine, and then Justin jolly is the other one. That's another transfer. He's from Yukon, and there's not, I don't have a ton of like crazy stuff to say. He's just a really solid receiving tight end, not a lead or anything, but he will be, say, a leader or not elite, not elite or anything, but he's, you know, he's a upgrade over what we have. So all around is just upgrades, receiving and then running back is also an upgrade. Jordan waters. He is a transfer. He played four years at Duke, and he's just a really consistent, good halfback takes command. I think he'll be like the full committee, or he'll take command and we'll, we'll kind of kind of shy away from the just literal committee we had last year. We just had like three different guys. It was whoever's hot got run now it's kind of Jordan waters. And then I think Kendrick Raphael is going to be the good backup that we have. So I wasn't there another back. There was another one. I believe they transferred. But Raphael was kind of listed far and away as the RB two. But there are some new,
Unknown Speaker 43:09
like, freshmen backs that we have, like, Hollywood smothers. Is there? I believe he was a transfer. That's who we talked Yeah, Hollywood Smothers, yeah. Duke Scott has gotten some good run, but he's a brand new freshman. He's gotten some talk in camp. So Hollywood or Duke might, might Hollywood smothers is kind of a receiving back a little bit. Yeah, that's kind of the most of the role. So he could get time, because, I hope he does, because waters isn't really and Raphael is elusive, but he's not a pure receiving back. So mothers could get some time. Sorry, not to interrupt you. But do you remember towards the end of the seat, like, Raphael was just like, lightning, and he's looking really good. He had, I don't, can't remember, but it was one game where he caught this one pass and just juked a guy, spinned off another one and ran it in for it was like, I think he did a Texas route. He like, did a slant or something on the inside, and he scored. I was like, dang, that was a great play. So he was someone we always looked at as, like, hey, this guy's actually pretty. He's He's a playmaker. And he didn't get, I feel like he didn't get the ball a ton, because a lot of times we just didn't run it a lot. He was doing, like, he was averaging over 10 yards of carry because he was getting point, yeah, 10 carries a game, yeah? And he started and was barely like, I know he was just like, every time he touched the ball, he was like, house call, yeah, I think he finished with over five yards per carry in total, but which is very good, but that's around close to what Waters had last year. So I think waters will, for sure, be the RB one, but Raphael will get some time for sure, and then we'll have some other guys in there. But weapons are just all so much improved. The only thing is, I think the O line is definitely the worst part, but it is all the same, except the center our tackles. I have a little more hope for jacarius peak and then Anthony Belton, both were not bad, but not great. Last year, I know we had a lot of issues with protection, but Armstrong, I think, created a little bit of those himself. I.
Unknown Speaker 45:00
On by kind of running first. But
Unknown Speaker 45:03
jacarius Peak, I expect more improvement from because it was his first year, starting last year, so I think he could be a pretty big X Factor if we want to see some improvement from this offensive line, since he's going to be a sophomore, and then the guards are the same, Timothy, McKay, Anthony Carter, neither of them were amazing last year, so you just got to hope for at least a little bit of improvement. The only thing is, we lost the center, Dylan McMahon, to the eagles. They drafted him, and we did, however, get a grad transfer from Notre Dame and Zeke corral, and he's about similar in skill level, so you won't see a ton of fall off there. You're obviously just going to have to get some rapport with his quarterback. So the O line. I mean, you could say it's the worst part, but it can't really get much worse, since everyone is returned, right? I agree with what you were saying, though about, I know that Armstrong got sacked a lot, but yeah, he did wait too long to get the ball out, or just look at one just go like, sometimes he wouldn't even really and sometimes he would run into a defender. When he run, he would run into his own line. Yeah? Sometimes he would have the line. He would have the play where he, like, Jukes a guy and gets a first down and like, dives for him, like, I'll do this. Crazy. And then another one where he's like, Yeah, throwing off his back foot. Dude was just doing this. It was too frequent, chaotic, yeah, too many times doing this. So I don't think the O line, mean, they were there, but it wasn't. Was not. They weren't ideal. No, we're but like, I like, I'm saying like, It can't get much worse than last year. I feel like it can only improve, because all the guys are together now it's just the leader is different at center, but a lot of times in college, I think more there's less responsibility on the center in college, because they are college guys, you know, whereas in the NFL, the center is the leader of the O line, like he calls everything and everything like that. We're in college, I feel like it's more the O line coaches and stuff. So it's not as big of a deal. But I think jacarius Peak, if you want to know anyone, is the X factor here, because if he can improve, that would make this offense very elite. Because that's the only thing holding the back is like the O line is an elite or like near the at least above average. We're kind of average for the ACC I'd say we're probably around mid for our O line. But offense for sure, step up. Defense is where we did take a step back, and that's obviously just because we lost the best defensive player in the country, and that's not hyperbole, in Peyton Wilson, who is now a Pittsburgh Steeler, obviously fell in the draft because of injury concerns, but I think he, even if he does get injured earlier in his career, still going to be a great pick if you get his kind of production, like, at least for five years, six years, like, doesn't matter. I've heard good things so far. Oh yeah, he's going to be a stud, for sure. Which that linebacker group is a little crowded, but it if he's good, he's gonna get on the field, so rooting for him, but we kind of have more of a committee, at least now, especially in the linebacking area,
Unknown Speaker 47:53
Devin van and Aiden white lead kind of, respectively, the D line in the secondary, they're both looking to Increase because they're projected now as like day three prospects in the NFL. So both of them as the leaders of their groups, are going to try and improve that. Devin van, I think, is going to be the biggest deal for me on this team. He had 32 pressures and eight sacks last year, which is good, but I think now he's going to have to improve from that, because Wilson's not here giving pressure up the middle and everything, and at least covering, for you know, broken tackles by running backs and stuff like that. But he's basically got all his eyes set on him as the leader in terms of pass rushing and run defending and all that. But she's definitely more of a pass rusher. But I think if you can just get to double digit sacks or so, maybe gets have some kind of turnover upside, because didn't have, I think, a single force fumble last year,
Unknown Speaker 48:49
which he is already in the leadership role. But I think he can prove why he's a leader by increasing his play and ideally, obviously, increasing his drafts to occupy this will be his last year here. So that's definitely our best defensive lineman, Brandon Cleveland, is he returns as a solid nose tackle. I believe we run like a three four, so he's kind of in the middle defending the run, and he's good. But other than that, there's not much upside or previous good production out of that. So there's not, I don't want to, like, dive into some random, you know, freshman that I think is going to do really good. And, you know, I It's, there's a lot of them, so it's kind of just, hey, who's going to step up? Because the starters we had last year, I believe it was,
Unknown Speaker 49:30
price was his last name.
Unknown Speaker 49:33
He wasn't amazing. But they have a lot of other guys, Noah Potter,
Unknown Speaker 49:39
Red hibler, like both of those guys, I'm pretty sure, were transfers last year so good that they got another year. But we have like, four freshmen that are coming in, so hopefully at least someone there commands, you know, a starting spot out on the other side of van, and then the linebackers is, like, I said, more of a committee.
Unknown Speaker 50:00
Caden Fordham, who's number 10, is going to take over Peyton Wilson spot. And I actually do like him to improve.
Unknown Speaker 50:07
He's in like, like him. I kind of, I like him. I don't like like him, but I like him to improve in year four, but he's not Wilson. So, you know, it's, it's, I'm not going to be insane and say he's going to be close to that. But I think in the last game I saw him, he was actually pretty good, and it was the bowl game where Peyton Wilson was gone. I'm like, huh, this number 10 guy is actually kind of stepping up. So we'll see what he does with a full year. And then the only other notable linebacker that I want to point out is Sean Brown. He was a safety last year, and he sucked in coverage. Was very bad, but he was very good tackling and run blocking and now and pass rushing, and now he's a linebacker, so I think he gained a little bit of weight, so that's good. So I think he might actually be in the right spot. And then Aiden white, like I said, leads the secondary. He's our cornerback one. He was good last year, but I don't know if you remember, in terms of this year, he was a bit disappointing, because he did take a step back. Because last year we were like, looking at the secondary as, oh, this is an elite group and everything, but Aiden white, like all statistical metrics, and even if you watched, he was not as good as he was in 2022
Unknown Speaker 51:16
last year. So he's still a CB one and is still good. But I think for him, he, you know, specifically, definitely wants to improve his stock, because I think he's actually projected as, like a round four player, and as a guy who, you know, I think the secondary did lose a little bit,
Unknown Speaker 51:37
he's gonna have more eyes on him. And I think he has the potential, because he literally was amazing, or very good in 2022 so I'm not sure what happened last year. Maybe it was a little bit of injuries, because he's had an injury in the beginning of the year, but hopefully he can do, you know, have some improvement, but he's solidified there, and then Brandon sis is getting a lot of buzz in camp. He's the only other guy that I saw. He was a safety last year. He played safety, and he's listed as quarterback two right now. He seems to have taken that job, so we'll see him in a new position as well. So two safeties getting moved to different areas at least makes me think a little better, because maybe they finally found the right spot for him, and they just weren't in the right spot last year. So maybe that helps elevate at least the floor of this defense, because guys are now in the correct spot.
Unknown Speaker 52:25
And then, you know other guys, Devon Boykin, he's gonna be our safety. He's still solid. We did lose Robert Kennedy, which sucked, because he was very good last year, but we got a transfer from Notre Dame DK Kaufman to replace him. He's not the same caliber as what's his name? Kaufman, K, a, U, F, M, a, n, okay, but he's, he's not the same caliber as Robert was, but he's kind of similar to Boykin. So we'll have to, like, fine bet guys back there, and then Bishop Fitzgerald is still there, and he's good depth, and he'll rotate in. So three safeties that are all solid, that'll kind of go in rotate out from that back area there. But aside from linebacker, I think the two other groups, obviously secondary and D line, have a lot of returning guys who have shown the ability to, you know,
Unknown Speaker 53:16
I think at least for NC State, some guys are moving to new positions, and other guys are saying, Hey, I've proven to do this last year. It gives us at least a lot of depth that we know, especially in the secondary, like we have seen a lot of these guys, so it's not kind of a mystery of who's going to do what, because they are now in positions that make them succeed. So that kind of makes me feel a little bit better about the defense. But
Unknown Speaker 53:41
to be honest with Dave and Tony still here, Dave Doran, Head Coach, obviously, Tony at DC, I'm not really too worried about the defense and the offense. Is only going to make it easier for the defense, so I think you don't have to worry too much about there. But overall, this is an upgrade. This is an upgrade for sure. Massive leaps were taken offensively, even if we did lose a little bit of pieces on defense, but if we could just quickly get into the schedule for the end of this episode as we're approaching an hour. Sorry, it's a long episode, but, you know, it's the beginning, so we got to get it. Get all this stuff to you, if we assume that we win versus teams that we should beat, which you know, obviously, Football is a game of matchups. There might be some games that are closer than others, and if it's a close game, anything can happen. But let's just say we win against teams we should the three big games are Tennessee, which is played in Charlotte, at Clemson and at UNC. I I disagree. What you keep saying that this UNC game is a big game, but, well, it is, because one, it's a rivalry, and two, it's but they're not, they're not what they were last year, but they're still, I still think any given Sunday, it doesn't really matter, because they're not terrible. If they were terrible, then they'd be fine. But they're pretty low in the preseason. I mean, six for ACC, around number six.
Unknown Speaker 55:00
Well, but like, they could still be a seven, maybe eight win team. I don't think they will, but it's very possible. And if we get to the point, there's been times in the end of the year where these teams get upset because it's a rivalry game, so that's why I think it's a big deal. But if you don't think it's a big deal, then we don't even have to worry about it, because that's 10 wins already. But I'm saying if, if we look at those three, since it is obviously on the road,
Unknown Speaker 55:25
if we win one of those, that's 10 wins.
Unknown Speaker 55:28
So that's the illustrious mark that we haven't reached in forever, and the big deal. And that's why I view this season as they can take and follow what all these other sports did and take this big historical leap or whatever, because I think the schedule helps a ton. Like our schedule is not easy. Air is not hard. It's it's very hard. With what you're saying, it's an underwhelming schedule. But that, I mean in terms of record, that can be a good thing. I think you said that it's an the team is upgraded, and it's all happening at the right time with the playoff expansion. So I think it's kind of the perfect storm for a deep run, which, by the way, hypothetically, if, let's say, you see, UNC is an automatic W, I still think, you know, I'm not saying it's an automatic. Let's just say, if you think that, if they're not bad, because you keep saying, I bring them up, there, it's still a possibility we lose to a team that we theoretically are favored against, because that happens all the time. Yes. So if we do that, we would still, obviously, you know, have to look at one of these games as a point of victory. And I think Tennessee and Clemson obviously are a little bit of a step above Carolina, for sure, yeah, in terms of importance for us, yeah, I don't want to put anything in the same arena as the Tennessee game. Yeah. Well, no, that's fine. That's by far the biggest game. Personally, I'm it is the biggest, biggest game. I if I had to bet a ton of money on it, I'm not sure if we do win. I'm just not sure. Clemson is also very hard because it's on the road Carolina. I would say for sure we win, but I'm just putting it out there because it's a rivalry game. It's on the road at the end of the year. But I think for us, at least, you know,
Unknown Speaker 57:11
odds are that we don't make the college football playoff, just being realistic, odds are that we don't, in terms of if the percentage is above 50 or not. But I think it's for sure there and in the possibility and the schedule helps a ton, because teams like SMU, Virginia Tech, Louisville, Miami, they're all in the same bubble as us, Clemson and Florida State seem to, at least pre season wise, be the ACC contenders. And then there's us, like five teams down there, right below them, but all of them are there too, but they're going to be facing each other and just bending each other up while we kind of, I think if we win the games, we need to win coast in and especially if we beat Clemson,
Unknown Speaker 57:53
that is the biggest thing, because Tennessee is the hardest matchup. But if we lose to Tennessee, it's not the biggest it's not like the end of the world, I don't it's gonna if we win it, it helps us a lot. If we lose it, it doesn't really hurt that much, yes. So it's a positive in that sense. But Clemson is the biggest. Is the most vital, because if we lose that game, it's like, dang it, like that really puts a hindrance on our college football playoff ability. But if we win that game, we're like, Oh my gosh. Like, we're in it, like we're right there with Florida State. And even if Florida State maybe beats us in the ACC title game, we could get in by losing the ACC title game. If Florida State is, let's say, number three in the country, or their quarterback gets injured, yeah, or, like, again, or something like that, if we lose to the number three or four team in the country, and we drop to a few spots, we could drop to 12 or 11 or 10, and we're still in the playoffs. I think it's just, I mean, the simplest way to put it is just win the ACC, get into the college obviously, that's it. But, you know, Florida State's obviously a very good team, and Clemson's hard, but if we hypothetically lose that, it we just got to really prey on other teams downfall. But it's still possible. It's still possible. Clemson didn't really add a lot in the pool. They didn't, that's what I was gonna say. They really didn't add a ton. And Florida State lost Jordan Travis and Keon Coleman. The roster so very good, but they did lose those two main guys, two big names I know. So I've seen a lot of people have us like number four in the ACC is a consensus I've seen
Unknown Speaker 59:20
behind Florida State, Clemson and who and Miami, okay, because they did get a Cameron Ward, who's a transfer from Washington State, who's very, very good, probably the best quarterback in the ACC. But that could easily be changed, because I think a lot of them are close, but I think with their schedule like, we could easily be three. So I think if I'm saying, hey, stone, realistically, what do you think we're going to be? I would say three in the ACC. Two is the ceiling. And if you were to say I would be going to make the college football playoff, I'm just going to put my hands up and say, I don't know, because that's really tough. Because when you get down there, we would be, for sure, competing with at least three other teams, and they might be in the SEC, and they would give them SEC by.
Unknown Speaker 20:00:00
Us because of the teams that they probably would have played against, so our schedule is going to be a help and a hindrance. It's going to be hindrance if we get really close and we get judged based on our resume, but it's a help if, let's say we easily get in, because the teams around us all ended up beating each other up and losing too many games to where we're like, Hey, we got this many wins, so we're in the ACC boom. Let us in, but I know the odds are in our favor, at least 100% but we're close. We're very close, and that's why I think there should be a lot of hype and optimism for this season, and it'll be so much better to watch, for sure. Should be fun. Tune in every week. I know I'm gonna be in in Charlotte for that Tennessee game. Gonna go on. It's a Thursday night game, home opener against Western Carolina. Should be a easy win. Hopefully, better be, I'd be, I don't know what I would do. I think we would have to maybe cancel the podcast. Hopefully, if we lost, that would be bad. But, I mean, yeah, that's basically the the main games. Other ACC stuff is, we got home game against Wake Forest, Syracuse, Stanford, Duke, so all, none of those really expect to do much. Georgia Tech on the road might be kind of interesting and Cal those would be interesting ACC games on the road. But, uh, other than that, we already told you the matchups you need to know. But season starts August 29 Thursday, and then September 7 on Saturday, is the Tennessee game. So keep your eyes out for that the coming week or two. But I'll do for me. Do you have anything else to add? No or anything. That's all we got. All right. Is that all we got? That is all we got. All right, so that's our that's our first episode. We will return in two weeks, and this has been lighter red See ya
Unknown Speaker 20:01:49
music in this podcast was Jonas hippers, king of sports and vibe and sneaky licensed under creative commons from the Free Music Archive.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai