Speaker 1: Hello, welcome to this week in the Atlantic Coast Conference,
the podcast for All Sports Discussion dot Com. This is Jeff.
You can follow me on X at Talkin' a c
C Sports. That's at t A l k I N
A c C S p O r t S. Your
moderator is Matthew and you can follow him on X
at All Sports d A c C. That's at a
l L S p O r T S d A
c C and that is also our site Twitter account
for All Sportsdiscussion dot Com. I'm going to turn it
over to Matthew now as he introduces our guest, and
we're all ready to we're all ready to speak, Matthew.
Speaker 2: Yes, all right tonight we have a great return guest
and James Curl, who you can follow on Twitter at
at James Curl. He's been a great friend of the podcast.
Let me spell that Twitter. I'm gonna call it I'm
ever gonna call it X. I'm sorry, I'll call it
Twitter at James Curl. That's at JA MA sc U
r l E. Again, that's at j A m E
s c U r l E. He's currently at pac Pride,
which is the two four to seven Sports North Carolinas
State fan site. It is not affiliated with a university,
and boy, he has an incredible history at several other platforms.
Welcome tonight, James, and welcome every night that you've been here.
You've been here for panels, you've been here as a
guest co host, you've been here as a panelist. You
have been at mister Everything for all sportsdiscussion dot com
when it comes to NC State and the ACC. So James,
welcome and thank you for spending your Sunday night with us.
Tell us a little more about yourself, James. I know
you were at other platforms before you were at two
four seven sports. The floor is yours. Thanks again for
spending your Sunday night with us.
Speaker 3: Sure, I appreciate you guys having me back as always. Yeah,
I mean, you know, lifelong State fan, went to school there,
covered the team with the student paper and a variety
of you know, freelance jobs. Then started a podcast in
twenty eleven called the Riddick and Reynolds Podcast and did
that for five years and then took a break for
a bit, and then Corey at Pack Pride reached out
to me and said, hey, I'd love to you know,
do a weekly show with you, and we were able
to fire that up. The crazy thing is that we
are honing in on having done almost as many shows
Corey and I together through Pack Pride as I did
with the first podcast around. So it's been a you know,
I've podcasting still in some ways feels kind of new,
but I am one of the lucky for you who
kind of jumped in early and started doing it way
back in twenty eleven, and so it's kind of wild
to see how big the space has grown over the years.
But you know, I've been podcasting with you guys since
the Riddick and Rental States, so you guys have been
around quite a while in the game as well. So
always always a good time to chump on and talk
some in C state sports with you ACC sports, even
when my team's not doing so hot.
Speaker 2: Well, thanks again for joining us, And I'll mention one
other thing that maybe some of our listeners might not remember,
but I know you do.
Speaker 3: James.
Speaker 2: You also were part of a brief Google hangout when
that was hot within the Triangle, right, Yeah there was.
Speaker 3: It was sponsored by a local barbecue chain called Smithfields,
and yeah it was you know, it's me and Dimitri
Ravanos and Ben Swain and Maryland Payne. I think it
was part of it at one point in time. You know,
there's a just kind of a neat, little collective of
some of the local triangle media, traditional and non traditional outlets.
And that was a lot of fun too. It's, you know,
kind of wild to think how many years has been,
but that was a that was kind of when Twitter
and podcasting was kind of all peaking around the same time,
and it was it was a really fun thing to
be a part of. And I had a lot of
fun with that. I would print up these fake locations
in the back of my wall and pretend like it
was rural North Carolina, you know, like the Leaning Tower
of Pisa and all that nonsense. You know, it was
it was a great opportunity to just kind of cut
up and have a good time covering sports.
Speaker 2: I have a heck of a good memory, don't I.
Speaker 3: James, Indeed, indeed.
Speaker 2: All right, right, let's get right to it, man. This
is We're reviewing ACC football week six, and we're going
to preview week seven tonight on the podcast along with
some national college football. So we want to first discuss
ACC week six who was the most disappointing ACC football team?
And Week six? And on the flip side, who was
your most impressive ACC football?
Speaker 3: Well, I don't have to go very far to find
my most disappointing team. I think they reside in Raleigh.
Just a really tough loss to Wake Forest in a
game where we started slow and then came back and
led by ten in the fourth quarter and then just
let slip away there at the end. You know, I
just we have struggled all year long offensively, trying to
figure things out. Defense has not been hot either, but
we looked much better defensively against Northern Illinois the week before.
It felt like maybe we were getting on the right
track there. But you know, Grayson McCall gets knocked out
of the game pretty early, which sets up Wake for
an easy touchdown. And you know CJ. Bailey, who had
started the previous two games, came in relief and looked,
you know, decent. I would say thankful that he had
had some opportunities to come in and was not exactly
coming into the situation completely cold. But just you know,
Wake had just had a really down year defensively, and
you felt like this was going to be a game
where in c State could get things going on the
offensive side of things just never could and you know,
to give up, you know, some late scores there to
you know, you know you're up thirty to twenty again
in the fourth quarter, you give it too late touchdowns
and it just really was miserable. It was a miserable
experience to watch. You know. My dad had come up
for my birthday and we watched a you know, the
game together. You know, that was a rare thing. Me
and my dad never really watched State games together. And
it was funny because we'd come back to take the
lead and I could feel it, as in a State fan,
I can feel it when things are starting to go
south and it's going to be bad. And he's sitting
beside me, he's like, no, it's all right, James, look good.
They've they've taken the lead. They've got this in hand.
Everything's gonna be fine. And I wasn't like mean or
angry or poudy about it. I was like, no, this
is I got a feeling. I just know I know
this is going to go south. And he thought I
was silly, And then by the end of the game,
I ended up being right. So the lesson for my
dad is trust the lifelong State fan when they know
when things are going to go south. I would say
we had to be, you know, right there at the
top of the list of disappointing ACC teams. I mean,
Florida State continues to disappoint, but that's not really a surprise.
I mean, maybe Louisville losing, but SMU has shown that
they're a pretty good football team based on what they
did against Florida State the week before. You know, maybe
you could say it was BC, but you know, I'm
I'm always going to kind of start looking from the
inside and work my way out. And it's it's really
hard to find a better contender for most disappointing team
than the CEE State.
Speaker 2: This way outstanding comprehensive answer. And I am glad that
you brought up Louisville, James, because I have noticed something
about them in the last couple of games. They can't
defend a more quarterback to save their lives.
Speaker 3: James, Well, it makes me wish we had one. I
don't know, Uh, it's there's just you know in I
l and the transfer portal has really shifted so many
pieces around. Uh, and it will always unless there's major
sweeping changes to in I L and or the portal coming.
I think it's going to be this way that you know,
you just every year is going to be a new
a new resetting of your expectations for a team. It's
going to be harder kind of you know, figure out
like like again, thinking of NC State as an example,
you know, Tony Gibson, our defensive coordinator, somebody that's been
you know, in high demand, uh during his time here
in NC State. We've made, you know, a lucrative offer
to keep him here, which I think is a wiser
because he always puts the defense out there that does
an excellent job of stuffing stopping excuse me, stopping the run.
You know, he starts there and then kind of allows
his playmakers behind to go to work. And this year,
just defensively we have and you know, obviously you lose
a guy like Peyton Wilson, you're gonna take a step
back defensively, but just pieces that have been here before
are underperforming. Guy. We didn't really bring in a whole
lot through the transfer portal, but we didn't necessarily lose
a whole lot either. It's just I really expected this
defensive unit to play. You know, if last year was
an A or borderline A plus effort defensively, especially from
the linebacker position, I expected to get like a B
or B plus from this unit this year, just knowing
the track record of Tony Gibson and his defenses, and
just really hasn't performed that way. And guys are missing
their assignments and gaps. I mean we saw that in
one of the touchdowns laid against wake Forest just you know,
once you know, Demon Claiborne got past the line of scrimmage,
he was untouched. And it's just because there was you know,
guys were missing assignments that weren't covering their gaps and
just uncharacteristic. And again I'm pinning that on Nil and
the portal maybe in some ways, even though, like I said,
we didn't have a whole lot of defections and we
didn't really add in a whole lot of pieces. But
I just feel like every team is resetting now on
a year by year basis, and it's going to be
harder to kind of anticipate that. Like, Okay, you're facing
off against NC State, Therefore, you know that you can
expect this on defense and this on offense. Especially on
the offense. NC State just really has not developed any
sort of identity and we're now full halfway through the
season and then we still don't know what we're doing offensively.
It's frustrating.
Speaker 2: An outstanding takes. So let's go on the flip side.
Who are your most to Who is your most impressive
ACC Football team of the week for Week six?
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know, it's hard to put. You know,
you got to give Miami credit for coming back in
the game where they were dead in the water. They
continue to find ways to win in the last minute.
I know, heartbreaking for you guys letting that game flip away. Yeah,
so I'm sure that's you know, not how Miami chooses
to play these games. It just is working out that way.
But you do have to get them credit for doing that.
In what I think is going to be, you know,
a big challenge for any team that has to travel
to calor to Stanford is you know, going cross country,
dealing with that element of playing a conference opponent against
a team halfway across the world. You know, Clemson continues
to look really really strong. I mean it ended up
being a sixteen point margin. But I watched some of
that Clemson game early and just Florida State had nothing
and Clemson just looks, you know, really really strong. I
am as surprised as anybody by that fact, because I thought,
based on how Kate Glubnick looked last year, that he
was just going to be, you know, be minus at best,
and he has really taken another step forward and they're
doing things offensively that I didn't anticipate. Virginia gets kudos
for beating a Boston College team that I have thought
highly of. You know, Pitt, I thank you for being
Carolina first and foremost. I appreciate it always whenever Carolina
takes a loss. But you know, they are undefeated and
finally sneaking into the top twenty five. It took forever
for the AP voters to catch up to the fact
that Pitt was undefeated. But you know, they are a
team that I'm interested in seeing how they continue to
develop because you know, they brought in as their offensive
coordinator the coordinator from Western Carolina, a team that we
faced earlier this year, and I think that kid is
He's going to be a name to watch as an
offensive coordinator. Talent. I not to go off too far
on a tangent, but I'm seeing Pitt do things offensively
that I kind of wish Dave Dorn would allow Robert
and I to do offensively. I don't know if it's
that Dave Dorn is not uh is like handcuffing an
eye or or what, or just if he's if he's
telling and eye that he wants to do things a
certain way or has certain expectations. But you know, it's
now a decade plus here at NC State, and just
it feels like, regardless of who the offensive coordinator is here,
we we tend to have, you know, the offensive coordinator
seems to be coaching with ankle weights on for whatever reason.
And you know, Pit or excuse me, patent ordoozy almost
kind of Pitt and ardoozy. You know, he's a guy
who notoriously likes to play old school football, and it's
it's exciting to see that Pitt is able to break
out of that with the right hire. So I don't know,
I don't know if that's wishful thinking that Nancy State
can have a similar fortune reset offensively in the future
at some point. But you know, there pitt Pit's looking
really good, so, you know, and kudos to Georgia Tech
for beating a Duke team that, you know, again undefeated.
I think they were probably the weakest of the undefeated teams,
especially among the conference teams. But you know, it's it's
not you know, it's not worth or it is worth
acknowledging the fact that Georgia Tech did get a nice
win against Duke as well. So that's kind of my
rundown on it there. I don't know if that answered
the question adequately or not, but I did.
Speaker 2: It was hell Hella comprehensive. Is Metallica would say. The
one thing I had too is that I mean, and
you brought this that before you're going to the going
to the West coast. I thought that that win that
Syracuse got over a u n l V team, which
was kind of a very sneaky road trip. Un LV
was in the top twenty five. Getting that win an
ot was a pretty bit, pretty big for that for
the Syracuse Orange and they if they keep finding themselves
winning James and Jeff, they could find them. They could
also find their way back into the top twenty five
like Pitton SMU.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Syracuse is gonna be. I think that's who we
face next week if I'm not mistaken, and I'm not
looking forward to that one bit. I mean we're hosting them.
But yeah, Syracuse is I think exceeded expectations with their
first year head coach, so it'll be a tough one
when they come to town next week.
Speaker 2: And they have a sneakingly underrated, really good quarterback. He's
a study, He's a stud. Jeff, you're upread.
Speaker 1: All right, thanks, Matthew James. Which ACC football game are
you looking forward to the most in Week seven?
Speaker 3: Well, outside of our matchup against Syracuse. You know, you know,
it's not a huge It looks like, I mean, unless
my math is wrong, here looks like we've only got
twelve teams in action, and that includes Notre Dame, which
is not really an ACC team. So maybe it looks
like this is where kind of the week where a
lot of the buys fell. So you know, I'm trying
to spot a game here that might be tricky or
upset potential. I mean, cal traveling east to face Pitt.
I mean, there's a potential that that could be a
nutset special. Looks like Pit's only three and a half
point favorite there. You know, it'll be interesting to see
if cal can respond to letting one slip away like
they against Miami, especially after the high of hosting Game
Day and all the excitement around the calgorithm and being
kind of the in some ways, the focal point of
the sport for a weekend. You know, I don't think
Louisville should. You know, they're going to be trying to
bounce back, but I think heading to Virginia could be
tricky for them. I don't see Stanford beaten Notre Dame.
I would love to see Georgia Tech get a road
win against Carolina. Obviously, you know, based on the way
Clemson has played, I see no reason to expect that
Wake will give them much of a fight. I mean,
it looks like the line based on ESPN's website is
twenty and a half, which you know, you're talking three
touchdown favorite on the roads. Is you remarkable? So yeah,
I might be looking at those, you know, the Pit game,
and maybe that Virginia game is one to keep an
eye on. You know, Syracuse is a four point favorite
against US. I would love to have faith that we
can give them a fight and bounce back. And maybe
we will. I mean, if there's anything that being an
NC State fan has taught me over the years is
that when you expect the least, you get the most.
So who knows, maybe my expectations that we're going to
get drubbed by Syracuse at home means that we're gonna
win by three touchdowns. Who knows?
Speaker 1: All right, Very good, James, Which ACC team could be
on upset alert in Week seven if they're looking ahead
to a game on their schedule or otherwise just sleep
walking on the field.
Speaker 3: Well, I kind of mentioned it. I think Pitt would
probably be the best candidate, you know. I think again,
they're favored by three and a half points, which you know,
if if the conventional thinking is that you know, home
field is worth about three points, you know in a matchup,
it means that you know, Vegas thinks this is going
to be a pretty close game with just Pitt being
a half a point favored on a neutral field, you know.
The the I think one thing that's yet to be
determined with these teams that we've added from the West
Coast is you know what sorts of patterns, if any,
emerge with the teams that do have to travel far,
you know, like you know, obviously you know, for the
East coast teams, they don't. They have to travel west
much less frequently than the West coast teams have to
travel east. So does a Cal start to you know,
do we see you know, a trend to merge where
you know, they overperform at home but underperform on the road.
Same for Stanford. I don't know, so I think it'd
be interesting to see if Cal is able to give
Pittsburgh a fight. But I might hone in on that
Pittsburgh game is the one to watch for potential upset.
You know the others, you know, Clemson, like I said,
favored by almost three touchdowns, Georgia Tech is a road
favorite bye nearly a touchdown, six points. You know, Louisville
is a road favorite against Virginia. I guess, so that
might be the second option there is that you know,
Louisville loses to in a row by losing to Virginia
on the road. Yeah, I think pitt would be my
top choice for a team that needs to be on
up so alert, especially since they are undefeated and just
now sticking into the top twenty five. You know, team
finally feeling like they're getting some respect in the eyes
of the national media for the season they've had so far.
It feels like a place where you're a team is
right for the picking for being upset.
Speaker 1: All right, James, let's step out of the ACC for
a bit here. Which national FBS game are you looking
forward to to most in week seven? And we're wide
open with this question. This can be Power five non
well not power four, but this can be non Power
four game, a non Power four game. You could even
have an FCS matchup here and then give us your
winner of the games you're looking at.
Speaker 3: Well, I, you know, tend to be kind of hyper
focused on State and the A C C, so I
don't you know, I don't really have a whole lot
of rooting interest outside of of those two properties. But
just scrolling through the matchups that we've got here, you know,
the Ohio State Oregon obviously a two three quote unquote
conference matchup now between Ohio State and Oregon, but that
one will be a probably the game of the week.
It looks like it's gonna be on NBC, which is
kind of interesting. I guess it's part of NBC's Big
Ten package. You know, that's probably the most anticipated matchup,
you know, just based on teams in the rankings. You
also have the SEC game of the week, I would
guess you could say with Old Miss heading to LSU
Night games in Louisiana or always a fun time. You know,
Florida's facing at Tennessee. Tennessee's coming off off of that
loss to Arkansas. But you know, it looks like Tennessee
is nearly a three touchdown favorite there. So I don't
expect the you know that you know, traditional matchup to
be a very close one, you know, I you know, again,
I don't really get too wrapped up in a whole
lot of the ongoings. You know, I don't want to
turn this into a whole discussion about NIL on the
portal again, but you know, the conference realignment as well
has really made it hard to kind of feel like
you have a firm grasp on all of these traditional
matchups that have kind of been subjugated to all of
the shifting sands of you know, with the conference re
alignment and in IL and the transfer portal, there's just
a lot of shifting sand all at one time, and
it's just it's hard to, like, I don't know that
I'll ever get to a place where I feel like
Ohio State Oregon is a conference game. It's weird to
even think about cal pitt as a conference game. It
took me years to get to a place where I
felt like Syracuse NC State was going to be a
conference game. I guess it's just it comes with aging
and having memories of things the way they used to
be or the way they were. But I really don't
get all that wrapped up in the big matchups outside
of the ACC, just because, in a lot of ways
is as hard enough as it is just to kind
of keep tabs on the stuff closer to home.
Speaker 2: To be honest enough, I will be saying this. I
probably will have my James on the Red River shootout.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the yeah. I mean, it'll be interesting again
with Alabama losing and Georgia having lost two weeks ago.
You know, Texas is now being number one. That's always
a you know that that game always carries a lot
of weight and importance behind it. I still haven't for
so long, I was used to Texas having high expectations
and then failing to meet him. It's weird seeing the
one beside Texas in their name. I just I don't
know they they are one and probably deserving, so they
certainly have looked very strong as a team the last
couple of years. But I still am waiting for the
other shoot to drop for Texas for some reason. So
who knows that maybe Oklahoma gets a huge win on
that in that matchup. And I mean, I'm again I
guess the the hey all bets are on environment that
we live in means that now I can see odds
posted on every one of these matchups and seeing that
Texas is a fifteen point favorite oaha over Oklahoma. Not surpriser,
excuse me, but I just I would be shocked if
Texas just runs away with it. I think Oklahoma puts
a lot of eggs in that basket, so I wouldn't
be surprised that that game was a lot closer.
Speaker 2: Excellent, take go ahead, Jeff, all.
Speaker 1: Right, thanks Matthew James. We're going to have this next
segment is called our open mic segment, and we have
two open mic segments going on here, but this first
one is going to be reserve just just for our
guest here, and then what do you have?
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 1: What's what's on? Your mind. Maybe it's more something about
n C State. Maybe you want to take a little
further with with with N I L. Uh, just just
take it in any direction you want to go.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, you know, as it relates to to N
I L and the portal, you know, I think it
would be nice to roll back the ability for players
to transfer unlimited number of times, you know, after the
first one. I think it started out with N I L. Obviously,
you know, I'm I'm a proponent of N I L.
I think it's great that these players are able to
earn some you know, money for you know, performing especially
in a sport like football, Whereas we saw with Grayson
McCall this week, you know, you're a vicious hit away
from you know, your college football career ending and potentially
having lifelong you know, impacts as a result of it.
So I have no qualms whatsoever with you know, these
guys earning some or you know, at least sharing in
some of the revenue opportunities that are out there. I
think I think by combining in IL and an unlimited
transfer portal where guys can just lead come and go
every single year, I think that combination really does open
the floodgates just a bit too much for my liking.
I would be fine with keeping in IL as it
is if you allowed a player to transfer once and
not sit out a year, But beyond that, I think
you should have to sit out a year. You know. Again,
I think if a player goes to a school, even
if they offer nil money, if it's not the right fit,
or if the coach leaves, or if there's a change
or something happens to where you're not the right fit
at your first destination, by all means, you know, find
a new home and you shouldn't have to sit out.
But this it feels like we're in a spot where
a player can continually shop themselves after every season on
the open market. And you know, I feel like if
a player were to you know, leave their first spot
go to a second home, I feel like that that
coaching staff and that fan base that invested in them
coming to their school should feel reasonably certain that that
player will then be with them for you know, the
next couple of years or even three years. You know.
I again, I want to give players the ability to
have some mobility in their destinations. If the first stop
coming out of high school, when you're young. You know,
you're you're trying to make a decision on a sign
and day. That's obviously very tough for a lot of
these players, and you know it's an easy one to
flob right out of the gate. But if you've gone
to you know, your first destination for college and spend
a year there in the program, you realize it's not
a right fit. Transfer somewhere else. But then let that
be a place where you start to establish some roots.
And you know, if if for whatever reason, it just
isn't a right fit the second time, it has to
be enough of a bad fit for you to be
willing to sit out a year for you to then
go to your third destination. That would be my only
take on things where they're at now. Again, I don't
want to punish kids for making money on their name,
image and likeness, and I think they should have the
ability to have a little bit of mobility without penalty.
But I think the current environment where we're in now
just means that, you know, like in NC State's example,
you know, we got a guy in in case he
concepts you own. You know, he came to inn Cy State,
He's performed well. We you know, did you know, maybe
put forth a lot of nil effort to keep him
here at NCY State, But now you know, there's I
wouldn't be surprised if the season continues the way that
it is, if he looks to leave to go elsewhere,
you know, And it would be a shame if he
finds himself in a position where he's bouncing from the
school to school year after year. I'm not saying that
that's Casey's personality per se, but just trying to think
of an example close to home where a guy might
be shopping himself even after he's been at a spot
for a while. I want to kind of try to
eliminate that from the sport if possible.
Speaker 1: Good stuff there, James, Matthew. I'm going to turn it
over to you as we close out the podcast with.
Speaker 4: Our last sept Microphone number two, James, And like the
way we've changed our podcast up with giving people an
opportunity to see what's on their mind.
Speaker 2: What's on your mind James again, Segment two.
Speaker 3: I you know, I guess the other thing is that
you know, basketball season is getting ready to tip off
here in Raleigh, and it'll be interesting to see what
the wolf Pack looks like the year coming off a
year like they had at the end of last season.
You know, an ACC title for the men, you know,
final four runs for both the men and the women.
You know, I'm not. I'm in that weird spot where
I have a team that is a defending ACC champion
and Final Four participant that like, what sorts of expectations
do you have coming off of a season like that?
I will tell you that I'm not. I don't have
any illusions that we're going to go right back to
the Final Four this year or even repeat as ACC champions.
I'm hopeful for that. It'd be nice if that happened again. Certainly,
I think that that's ultimately where I think every NC
State fan wants to get back to, is a place
where they are one of the premier teams in the
ACC like they were in the eighties. But I think
it's highly unlikely that's the case, just because of the
fact that it wasn't like NC State last year was
a strong team wired to wire in the regular season
and then went on a tear. You know, they were
honestly one of the most disappointing teams in the conference,
and then suddenly figured it all out at the last second.
So it's not exactly a recipe for success. It's easy
to replicate. So I'm not putting any money down that
we are going to repeat as ACC champion or that
we will find ourselves back in the Final four. But
I do think it would be with any expectation for
us to be a solid, competitive team that is going
to give teams fits. You know, it'll be interesting now
being the team with a target on our back because
for so long we were chasing teams and you know,
now will be the It's it's kind of like whenever
an actor actress wins an Oscar uh as Best Actor,
anytime they're in a movie after that point, it's you know,
when they do the trailer or the preview for the movie,
it's you know, uh starring best Actor, Tom Cruise or
what have you. And I'm like, it's, uh, so in
C State? Now is uh tonight's matchup against Final four
participant in C State. I don't know, it'd be interesting
to see being in that position, how how this team
will respond, how the coaching staff will respond, and and
kind of like what we talked about in the first
half of the show with football, you know, the portal
and n I L and the shifting sands of all
of the players, movement, players moving around, and conferences. Realigning
means that it's really hard until you kind of get
into the thick of it to know just how good
of a team you're going to have. So fingers Crossed
will have good seasons both on the men's and women's side,
but would not shock me in the least if if
we are a middle of the road team on the
men's side, I think the women's teams should should be
pretty good. I feel really good about Wes Moore and
the job he does as a coach on that side
of things. But uh, from a men's side, I would
not be shocked by our regression to the mean.
Speaker 2: If you will excellent analysis, excellent open mic. I'm going
to use my open mic to ask both James and
James and Jeff here are questions. James, from your perspective,
at least, I no, you live in North Carolina, how
is how's the federal government dealing with the natural disasters
there in the state, Because I'm my understanding is that
they that the federal government seems to be doing pretty
well seems to be doing pretty well and out to
people down there that need help. Obviously, there's a lot
of people that need help in North Carolina. Do you
know anybody who's affected by that? Do you have friends
and family? It seems everybody has somebody who's been touched
by that natural disaster. I just wanted to get your
take on how things were going there in your Steed Well.
Speaker 3: Obviously is tragic what's happened out west. It's funny because
I just a week before the storm rolled through, I
drove through one of the towns there, near Chimney Rock,
the town of Chimney Rock, which is adjacent to Lake Lure,
which was one of the scenes from the movie Dirty Dancing.
If any of you old heads remember that one, you know,
I drove through there and cruise to the town and
took it all in, not knowing that less than a
week later it would be wiped out by the flood.
And it's really just tragic everything that's happened there. Asheville
was hit extremely hard, and you know it, I thankfully
you know, my sister who lives in the western part
of the state, they were in a spot fairly high
up and their town of Franklin was not impacted nearly
as badly as some of the ones that were in
the lower lying areas. You know, the thing about you know,
immense rainfall and flooding is that when it takes place
in the mountains, it's usually in you know spots where
you know, the valleys between these peaks are where these
towns are built. You know that the riverside locations is
where there's enough flat ground to set up a little
town or build some houses and things like that. And
so really the only places where you found people living
and residing is right along these rivers that were suddenly
engulfed and flooded. So it kind of concentrated the population
right in the worst possible areas for flooding. And because
of the limited amount of you know, pathways in and
out of these communities, it's very difficult to get to
these folks. So I know that, you know, there's a
lot of folks who have you know, volunteered and and
you know some folks who have you know, gone so
far as to volunteer up you know, their services with
you know, private aircraft like helicopters to go in and
try to rescue folks. I do know that the governor here,
Roy Cooper, has you know, done, by my estimation, an
excellent job of coordinating with the federal government to try
to get assistants. You know, I think there's unfortunately, we
live in times where there's a lot of misinformation that's
been going on. We've seen several you know, Republican congressmen
kind of call out a lot of misinformation and disinformation
from folks who are trying to point fingers of blame
at the federal government and the state government for not
doing a better job. And I think, you know, they
thankfully are not playing politics in a moment like this,
and they're saying, look, you know, these sorts of sharing
this type of information, this misinformation is hurtful, not helpful,
and I you know, it's one of those things where
it's a moment where people are hurting, they're frustrated, you know,
and I'm sure that they would love to be able
to as they're struggling to find ways to get food
and gas and get back on their feet. They want
to have a scapegoat and someone that they could point
to and blame for not getting the job done sooner.
But I don't know that we will fully have a
handle on just how comprehensive the damage and destruction was
of this event until probably, you know, years down the road,
there are most likely still people who are trapped without
power and sell service and food and clean water that
we just haven't been able to get to or discover.
You know, I'll give you a quick example. You know,
I've worked for a large financial institution here in North Carolina,
and after the storms took place, they put sent out
a you know, kind of a company wide email blast
and text blast to all of our employees saying there's
still a good number of employees that are on accounted for,
so please mark yourself safe. I mean that that is
something that's never happened in my time being here this
at this company. So that kind of gives you an
idea of just how far flung some of the folks
are that have been stranded and affected by this. And
I'm praying that everybody within our organization is accounting for
before it's all said and done, But I know that, unfortunately,
there's going to be a lot of folks who are
are not They're they're lost, and so I think the
federal you know, if we're thinking of FEMA and the
local government and their coordination. I think they've done as
good a job as can be expected in extremely trying circumstances.
Speaker 2: Excellent take Jeff, how are people doing in South Carolina?
Speaker 1: I mean, I would say in South Carolina that the
worst is probably largely behind most of the South Carolina.
Over the last three or four days, power has become
available to the majority of customers in the area. There's
definitely some some folks you know that are that are
still dealing with a loss of power, maybe damage to
their to their homes. Actually, a friend of mine is
his father's home was was totally destroyed by a tree
falling on it, very very unfortunate. There's definitely a number
of cases like that in South Carolina. But if you're
looking at it as a whole, I would I would
say more or less things have returned to relative normal
for for most of the upstate. Definitely, not not all,
not not everyone. So I don't want to give the
impression that it's over by any means, but I think
it's it's on the road to recovery and in the
right direction. That there wasn't quite the infrastructure damage at
the scale that happened in the mountains of North Carolina
where whole communities were basically destroyed, and and even that
Lake Loure area like as as James described, Actually there's
there's people that we know in my day job that
commute from there, and I've seen pictures from from Lake
Loure and it's every bit as bad as what they say.
This is not an exaggeration. This is that that bad
in the mountains of North Carolina. So, you know, I
would ask anyone that's out there listening if you have
the opportunity or the means to donate somehow to the
to the hurricane victims, either through your local church or business.
There's national organizations that you can easily find online. I
mean definitely they need help, and anything that you can
offer in terms of a donation, either monetarily or you know,
with with can goods or anything like that, they're gonna
be able to They're gonna definitely be able to use it.
Speaker 3: And I'll add that just to kind of bring this
full circle, bringing it back to Nil. You know, there's
a story this week about the efforts that Davin Van,
one of our defensive linemen, his family, you know, his
mom and dad own a moving van or a moving business,
and along with the you know help of his dad's business,
he was able to use some of his NIL funds
to help organize a relief drive, you know, organize you know,
a gathering up of supplies to take out West using
some of those moving vans. And I think he initially
scheduled I think maybe two maybe three loads to go
out there, and it ended up being I think it
was at least six trucks worth of goods and supplies
that their family was able to take out West to
deliver to those folks. And so I think if you're
someone who's always been skeptical of you know, kids being
paid to, you know, play college sports, I would say
that there are examples like Davin Van out there who
used this monetary game that they've been given by playing
the sport to do some really good things with it.
And he didn't hesitate to use the you know, the
funds that he's been given through the NIL home to
put it to good use and to help some folks
in dire need out with. So, you know, we may
be having a down football season, but I feel really
good about the character of the team, the players, that
are on it, and guys like Davin Van especially make
me proud to be, you know, pulling for a guy
like him on my squad.
Speaker 2: Outstanding James, Jeff, what do you got for us man
ACC football? We could have a lot we could have
if Syracuse gets ranked. How many are going to be
in the top twenty five, Jeff.
Speaker 1: Hey, Well to today, there are four ranked ACC teams
in the top twenty five. And following the results of
yesterday of Pitt moving to five and zero with you know,
that blue collar effort taken out North North Carolina and
then SMU with that really solid performance at Louisville, Kevin
Jennings just really taking hold of that offense. I put
out a post that said, these two teams need to
be ranked, and fortunately the pollsters, I don't know if
they listened or what, but they did recognize that those
are two teams that need to be in the top
twenty five. SMU and Pitt are now ranked. Clemson right
there on the you know, in the edge of the
top ten. I know they're at least ten and one pole,
and Miami moved up, I knowed up to six and
one pole after that comeback victory. Over Cal last night
where they trail thirty five to ten in the third
quarter and cam Ward just he was unreal. I mean,
I know they're going to talk about the you know,
the controversial you know, non targeting call in that game,
but cam Ward he looked like the best player in
college football in the fourth quarter. I mean, he had
over two hundred and fifty yards of offense in that
fourth quarter. Three t these just an unbelievable comeback. And
you know, that was just a tippity iceberg of what
happened yesterday. Just an unbelievable day in college football, which
kind of remind us of of why we enjoy it
so much. I mean, Vanderbilt knocking off Alabama, Minnesota beating USC,
Arkansas beaten Tennessee. You had the unbelievable atmosphere, the elect
atmosphere of game day out in Cal. I mean, man,
hats off to the to the Cal fan base. I mean,
that's a six am start for them, and they showed
out on game day and then had to sell out
crowd for the game that was you know, ten thirty
star at Eastern Times, seven thirty, you know, prime time
for them. But you know, my rant topic and I
blogged about this is I mean, yeah, yesterday, I couldn't
help but think this might be one of the last
times we have such a meaningful Saturday across the country before,
you know, Greg Sank the SEC commissioner, and Tody Petiti,
the a Big ten commissioner, you know, basically just destroy
it all. I mean, I really believe that that if
they get their way with the multi auto bids that
they're trying for, which is obvious, you know, complete nonsense
if you actually watch the football games. I mean, you know,
as great a victory as that was for Vanderbilt, and
I mean I was rooting for Vanderbilt to win that game,
this is a team that lost to Georgia State, Minnesota
lost to North Carolina with their backup quarterback, Washington who
beat Michigan. You know, they lost to Washington State. Arkansas
lost to a three and three Oklahoma State team. I mean,
it just shows, you know, the parody that's out there
in college football. But these two are going to try
to frame the college football playoff at such a weight
that that's going to be so weighted, so heavily in
their favor as to make results of yesterday absolutely meaningless.
You know, now with Alabama and that loss, I mean,
they should have dropped farther than what they did. They
fell to seven, but at least they have to now
kind of you know, they have to kind of sweat.
They don't have a lot of margin for error even
in the SEC, you know, to lose another game even
to make the top the top twelve. But if you
if you set them up with their four auto bids
plus you know, they're the normal consideration for their at
large bids. I mean we're talking five six teams each
from the from the Big ten and the SEC. You know,
they could have ten teams of the twelve or fourteen
team playoff in the future if they get their way,
which would absolutely ruin college ky. I mean, I'll tell
you right now, if they get their way, I'm checked out.
I'll get I'll just watch NFL football to get my
to get my fixed. And that's kind of as great
as yesterday was. I just couldn't help thinking that those two,
you know, are attempting to destroy what is wonderful about
college football and college athletics. And we've already talked about Sankie,
you know, trying to you know, stuff out the the
you know, mid major and low major uh conferences in
the NCAA tournament. I mean, you have to admit he
is absolutely a ruthless SEC commissioner, and and he's gone,
you know, way beyond just trying to promote and and
market his league. I mean, he's just he basically just
wants to take over and destroy Kydle's athletics as we
know it, and uh, you know, hopefully the rest of
college athletics, you know, kind of kind of joins up
and then pushes back against them, because I think if
they get their way, the nationally you'll start to see
a pushback on what those two are are are attempting
to do. But man, if they if they get their way,
it's gonna it's gonna destroy college athletics as we know it.
Speaker 2: That was That was very comprehensive, Jeff, go ahead, James, No, I.
Speaker 3: Just I was just going to agree with with Jeff,
is that, you know, I think this idea that just
because they're the Big ten or the Big or the SEC,
that they're entitled to each get four slots automatically within
a twelve team playoff, it's pretty ludicrous. Uh yeah, they
you know, to I guess to their credit that they
are ruthless in their you know, the way they operate
and and the the links that they are you know,
willing to try to stack the deck in their conference's favors,
and you can't argue with the results so far. I mean,
they've certainly done an excellent job of you know, setting
the table for their current conference, you know, the teams
within their conference for being successful. But I think the
thing that really frustrates me is this, and I think
it kind of speaks to what Jeff was saying, is that,
you know, they speak of their conferences as though, well, yes,
these teams are in the SEC, therefore they are better.
And I don't think anybody's arguing that, you know, the
best teams in college football typically come from those conferences.
But it shouldn't be assumed that because team A or
B is in that conference that they are just naturally better.
They there are going to be up up years and
down years for those two leagues, and they're gonna be
years with the ACC has you know, a slate of
teams that performs better than expected and should be you know,
should have just as much right to getting multiple bids
into the playoff, and if you set the thing up
to where the Big ten gets four teams, the SEC
gets four teams, and then the rest the scraps are
fought amongst the rest of the league. If the Big
ten the SEC have down years in one of those
years and they've got eight bids between the two of them,
and the ACC has a year where they overperform, or
the Big twelve has a year where they overperform, or
how how fair would it be if you know the
fourth SEC team or the fourth Big ten team is
clearly inferior to you know, uh, an ACC team that
gets left on the outside looking in. You know, I can't.
I can't argue with a commissioner doing everything they can
for the benefit of the league, but does feel like
the sport needs to have some means to push back
on some of the efforts that these guys are taking
to stack the deck in their favor.
Speaker 2: I'm with you, and I you know, I in part
I think you could find something like this headed the
Congress if they feel like there's some sort of if
there are inequities that are not favoring other teams, and
you could find somebody in But I'm not an attorney.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: I won't say that, right, but you probably could find
somebody out there that would say that this is an
anti competitive sort of thing, anti competitive thing, and try
to revote, you know, try to try to say that
this is some sort of an antitrust issue.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it makes the system setting the system
up to me where you know, if you have you know,
your conference champion, your highest rank conference champions get an
automatic bid in, and then you have at large bids
that are you know, equally accessible to the remainder of
the conferences. I mean, we could argue and debate on whether,
you know, the second team from the ACC is better
than the third or fourth team from the Big Ten
or the SEC, but at least if if those teams
aren't just handed those positions automatically, there's a debate that
can be had, and a selection committee can step in
and say, Okay, we felt like the ACC on the
whole this year was a song of conference than usual,
and therefore we're going to give the you know, the
second or third team, you know, the loser of perhaps
the conference title game, gets an opportunity to get into
the playoffs as well, ahead of the fourth team from
the SEC. I just think that that seems to be
a more fair system, you know, by by allowing conference
champions to have auto bids. I think it's a nice
way to ensure that the winning the conference still matters.
And then if you throw it open to you know,
the you know, the remaining slots are then at large spots,
then I think it's just a more equitable way for
you know, ACC or Big twelve teams that have great
years that don't win the conference champion still have a
shot at getting in if if things get set up
the way that Jeff outlined with the Big ten in
the SEC, to where you know, two thirds of the
bids are ordering automatically just granted to those two leagues
and everybody else gets the scraps. That that does seem
you know, uncompetitive in a way that's worthy of being challenged.
The problem I guess for college football is that there's
not really a governing body it really oversees it all.
You know, it's conference by conference. There's not really a
league or a body, and we know the n C
DOUBLEA itself is kind of feckless. You know, there's not
really an overarching body that kind of governs all of
high level college football. It's you know, the strongest teams
and conferences kind of determine the rest of the you
know things, And it's the TV networks obviously that are
deciding where this money is all going, and it's usually
going to the SEC or the Big Ten. There's just
not a lot of leadership at the top to kind
of step in and prevent conference commissioners from the SEC
and Big Ten from dictating things for the rest of
the sport.
Speaker 2: That's an outstanding take, outstanding take. So I'm gonna ask
one question for my little open mic before we go.
James Jackson Blake, is he gonna make the Carolina Hurricanes roster.
You know, I've been talking to you for weeks and
weeks and weeks about it, about it, and I'm hearing
that he may have a real shock to make the
roster down there.
Speaker 3: Well, you know what's so funny is that I got
an opportunity to go to the It wasn't the last
preseason game against Nashville, but it was the one against
the Lightning here in Raleigh a couple of nights ago,
and you know, I was watching play on the ice
and then there was this guy that I didn't recognize
who just it was one of those kind of eye
popping moments where a guy just the speed on the
ice relative to guys around him just seemed, Wow, this
guy is just noticeably faster than everybody else. And I
like squinting the look at the number, like fifty three, okay,
And then I looked up and it was Jackson Blake.
And I didn't put two and two together, but I
will tell you he flashed in that moment, and I
was like, this kid has something. So he made an
impression on me in that moment. And I don't know
that that means that he's a lot to make the roster,
but he caught my eye during that preseason game, and
I would love it if he landed and stuck on
this team because I think and I was listening to
the postgame radio coverage as we were in the car
leaving the stadium, and he got a good amount of
mention from the broadcast crew about doing things not just
on offense, but just doing little things defensively, hustle, plays
the things that you know a guy like Rod Brendamore
really values that I think could endear him to landing
a spot on the roster, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.
I'm hopeful that he's a guy that can make the
squad because if he can skate with as much speed
as he showed me in that moment, he'll be somebody
that is going to be difficult to handle for a
lot of teams.
Speaker 2: And he's This is the moment that makes everybody on
this podcast feel old, of course, because he is Jason
Blake's son.
Speaker 3: Now I don't know who Jason Blake is. You'll have
to educate.
Speaker 2: Jason Blake played for the LA Kings and is the
also went to the eris North Dakota, and he's significantly older.
Of course, he's he's he's he's Jackson's father and uh uh.
And he played a different position. He played a defenseman
at the University of North Dakota and with the Kings,
and so his son is playing a wildly different position, right,
I mean, this is a this is I mean the
way hot. I mean, you guys have seen this, right,
like the way hot and it's probably the same with
every sport. The way hockey has changed now it is
a speed man sport. And you just talked about Jackson's
speed because you know, like once you hit thirty one,
most I mean for most players, your career is done
in Coyle in in the NHL. It's because you can't
keep up with anybody anymore on this on the speed aspect,
very rarely are you going to see anybody that's above
thirty five in the league anymore because you just can't
keep on up from a speed perspective. So if I
had to guess, and if they needed a speedster on
that roster, on that roster with Carolina, you know, he might,
he might, he might, he might make the vote because
he's he tends to be the fastest person on the eye.
Speaker 3: I would say he was that guy, uh in that
preseason game, you know. And and if that if and
Rod's a smart guy, I'm sure he knows it's a
uh it's it's a speedsters league. So if he's looking
to add some speed, I think Jackson was good to
show it to him.
Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to it. James,
thank you so much for joining us on the All
Sports Discussion ACC podcast and spending your Sunday evening with us.
We loved having you on the show and we'd love
to have you again sometimes. Thanks so much for spending
your time with us.
Speaker 3: Of course, uh, I will look forward to the next time.
I'm on all right, have a great week, guys, take care,
See you guys.