September 3, 2025 • 10 mins
Panthers beat writer Darin Gantt joins the show to set the scene for the opening week of the NFL season, as he talks about the state of the OL going into the game against Jacksonville, he talks about the unique challenge preparing for Travis Hunter, expectations for Bryce Young, & more
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
High upon the.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Growing places. Tomato of Monday Faces.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Cannot deny, cannot deny that app is hot, Hot, Hot Baby.
What a performance in down Logan's debut at the Bank
on Friday night. I Will Forever again was singing background
on that sounds like a Partridge family did that song.
I will forever love that cheesy app State anthem, and
(00:57):
it feels very poignant today after what they did in
week one, and with one of app State's finest grads,
Darren Gannatpanthers dot Com, joining us on the show, DJ
congrats on your red hot app State squad. Baby.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
I appreciate that. And when I hear that song, I'm
like tom cruising risky business. I'm dancing around in my
underwear and sunglasses. You know, security I think is being
called because I think they frown on that here at
the stadium. But yeah, I just can't help it. That
song moves me.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Oh that is hilarious.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Man, What are you surprise that song didn't chart on
the Billboard one hundred. To be honest, against.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
What did you think of your squad?
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Man? I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
I feel so dumb, we I think, and and the
better should feel dumb too. Because people bet that down
from nine a half to turn you can just get it.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
That sentence stop right there at the I feel so dumb.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
I was trying to bring that. I was trying to
bring other people in with me. What you had to
You had to love that performance. What a debut for
dal Loggins.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Man? Sure. I mean if somebody asked me last week
you know what I thought was gonna happen, and I said,
we're gonna stop you and Cec who's our quarterback? I
have no idea. I mean, it's just it's Appalachian State football.
That's what we do.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Okay, all right, all right? I like and he's playing
a cool We're finally to panther game week here. What's
your feeling on on Ikey DG. I know we're gonna
get No. You might go Canalis and refer me to
the injury report that comes out later today, but like,
do you have a gut feeling on whether or not
he's going to be able to go? And do we
know for sure that Nyman is next up at at
(02:33):
left tackle and not Christiansen.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
The gut feeling? I see what you did there.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
I didn't even try.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Yeah, and your gut was correct. I am going to
refer to you to that injury report that'll be on
Panthers dot com later this afternoon. You should stay tuned
for all the latest on that. I mean, we'll see
Ikey said the other day he was feeling better. And
guys have returned in eight days from similar surgeries. Other
guys have returned in three from similar surgery. So you know,
(03:03):
I think, as John Fox would say, all appendixes are different.
So we'll we'll just see whether he's out there on
the practice field, you know that kind of stuff. It's
two be determined practice a little bit later this afternoon,
so we'll have a better idea this afternoon. And once
you check out that injury report on Panthers dot com,
you'll know much more.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
We spent the entire offseason talking about the wide receiver
depth and how deep this group was, and then a
lot has changed since we last talked to you. How
worrisome now is the depth of this receiving core with
feeling gone and the Cocher injury.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Well, I mean, when a guy gets hurt, it's going
to miss time. That's obviously a concern, especially as well
as Jalen had played in camp, and as good as
he had looked throughout, I mean, he it was a
different aspect he brings to the game. And I think
if you would have told people, you know, in February,
if Adam retires or whatever, Okay, you're rolling into this
year with two first round picks and Jalen Cocher in
(04:00):
the spot, I think people have been like, oh, okay,
we can work with that. That's that's something, especially when
that new receiver is a guy like Ceteroa mcmillet, who's
you know, got the opportunity to be a big time threat.
You know, he's a big, tall, long receiver of long arms,
catches everything. So I think you would think that's pretty good.
And then to get whatever you get out of Hunter
(04:22):
renfro and has come back seems like a pretty good deal.
I mean that it could be a lot worse. They're
just depending on those first three guys a lot. Now.
I mean, you've got a David Moore in reserve, and
all David Moore's ever done in his career with Dave
Canalis is make plays when they didn't make plays. I mean,
he's not a it's not like he's a seventeen game
starter or anything like that. But when he's called on,
(04:44):
he stepped up. So I think until Jalen gets back,
you're kind of hoping for the best out of the
rookie and hoping he steps up and becomes a big
time player. But I think they still like that depth
even with that move last week.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
We were talking earlier, and I'm sure we'll talk about
it more over the next couple of days. But it
is kind of fascinating that the Panthers are the first
ones in a regular season game to go against Travis Hunter.
And I know he was banged up and missed the
last couple of preseason games, but apparently he's going to
play both sides of the ball. It's but it's a mystery.
Jacksonville's keeping it a mystery for a reason. Do you
(05:21):
have do you have a feeling like on what we'll
see and how they'll use Travis Hunter and and and
I mean it's it's going to be I mean, it's
going to be fascinating that we're first up on the
t box against him.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Sure, and you know, again in the first game, I
don't know how much of an effect it will have.
The thing I wonder about what Travis Hunter is what
he looks like in week sixteen, sixteen seventeen after playing
one hundred snaps a week. I mean, because you know,
you can play one hundred snaps in college, and that's
different because you're playing against the higher grade of guys,
(05:56):
you know, covering faster, stronger, bigger receivers, going up against
more physical, better corners. So I just think it'll be
a long term thing. But in the short term, he's
an interesting, uh puzzle feeds for people to use because
he can get at you a lot of different ways.
And I mean there's so much unknown in Jacksonville, brand
new coach, brand new coordinator, brand new you know, part
(06:18):
how are they going to line him up? But I
think you know, if I was, you know, if I
was came playing against a Hunter, I would send people
deep against him when he's playing defense, and I would
you know, get up on him when he's on the
line of scrimmage. And you know, certainly the Panthers have
some physical quarters at JC and Mike Jackson who are
more than willing to do that.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
What's your expectation level, Darren for j T. Sanders in
his second year.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
I think that you know, it's wide open for him.
I mean, he's gotten so many reps in his last
two training camps, his two training camps when other guys
have been out injured, and he's got the opportunity to
make that thing is gone. I think, you know, he
is a guy who can make plays, and I think
that does take some of that pressure off what you
(07:05):
were talking about earlier with the wide receivers, because he
is a guy who can get downfield and make things happen.
I mean, he's he's an athletic guy. And then Tommy
Trimble is coming back. I mean as a secondary, you know,
target at that position. Tommy's the guy who makes some
things happen. So I think they look at it in
the totality, but at the end of the day, I mean,
(07:26):
this is still Dave Canalis and I want to be
suffered about run at the ball. And oh, by the way,
there's Truba Hubbard and Rico Daldell, a couple of thousand
yard backs. That guy's here for a reason. You know,
I anticipate it's going to be kind of that broad
based offense the way it was last year when we
saw Bryce Young playing the way he played.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
We're talking with Darren Panthers dot com who apparently has
put pants. I've been told by source of the stadium
bone he has put pants back on. He is no
longer dancing and the pants are back on over there nights,
you know. Could I tell Darren Mack what you that
during the break about him?
Speaker 1 (08:01):
What's that? We were talking about Cologne's last segment and
he asked, what coloone you wear? And if it's Bojangler Colone.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
That's right, that's right, all Bojangle, just a you know,
a little Bojangles, little dab a Duke's mayo right under
the chin. Maybe some step that gets me, that gets
me right.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
I figured to be into that. I figured he would
be maybe a little high life behind the ear, you know,
all right? DG. Well that was I got to say. Okay, defense,
on the defensive side of the ball, they see someone
that they went up against. Last year. Liam Cohen did
an amazing job in Tampa as the coordinator, and Tampa's
offense stuck it to us a little bit. The Panthers, though,
(08:40):
have re stocked up on defense, and I'm not quite
sure Cohen has the same amount of talent you know,
in Jacksonville on offense as he did in Tampa. What
do you think about the matchup week one for this
for this defense, what's you're feeling?
Speaker 4 (08:54):
I just want to see. I mean, we've talked about
this all all season, and we talked about everything all
all season. That's why this week's such a relief, because
all these abstract concepts become concrete realities, and it's like,
we think that what the Panthers did this offseason by
investing in Bobby Brown, Turshell, and Ward to go with
a healthy Derek Brown is just going to stabilize everything.
(09:16):
I mean, to me, that's gonna be one of the
stories of the season is how much progress they're able
to make defensively based on that. I mean, if they
get the same kind of return out of defensive line
fortifications they did out of offensive line the year before,
I think people ought to be pretty happy and things
ought to get better because listen, I mean, you're not
(09:36):
just adding people, You're not just adding dudes. Much in
the same way you go out and sign an elite
guard and Rob Hunt, you get Derek Brown back on
the field, and I think the simple act of putting
Derek back in the middle of everything makes everything behind
him better. So you can have questions about linebacker, safeties, whatever,
But when that front is stable, when they are better
(09:58):
at stopping the run, I think that's just got a
trickle down effect for the rest of the defense.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
All Right, he is Derek Gann. A Texter points out
DG is brilliant. He deflected max question like any coach
would do, and then promoted his content in the same paragraph.
So there you go. You pulled it off, baby, you
pulled it off.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
It's almost like I've been doing this for a minute.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
I know you know.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Cant is not my first rodeo with the man.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Thank you, coach Fox. I cannot trick the wily vet
into giving up the goods. We will. We will see
what happens today with the injury report and Ikey and
who's playing left tackle, and you can read all about
it on Panthers dot com. Thank you, DG. Appreciate you brother.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
You got it boys. We'll see y'all.
High upon the.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Growing places. Tomato of Monday Faces.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Cannot deny, cannot deny that app is hot, Hot, Hot Baby.
What a performance in down Logan's debut at the Bank
on Friday night. I Will Forever again was singing background
on that sounds like a Partridge family did that song.
I will forever love that cheesy app State anthem, and
(00:57):
it feels very poignant today after what they did in
week one, and with one of app State's finest grads,
Darren Gannatpanthers dot Com, joining us on the show, DJ
congrats on your red hot app State squad. Baby.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
I appreciate that. And when I hear that song, I'm
like tom cruising risky business. I'm dancing around in my
underwear and sunglasses. You know, security I think is being
called because I think they frown on that here at
the stadium. But yeah, I just can't help it. That
song moves me.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Oh that is hilarious.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Man, What are you surprise that song didn't chart on
the Billboard one hundred. To be honest, against.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
What did you think of your squad?
Speaker 4 (01:36):
Man? I didn't know.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
I feel so dumb, we I think, and and the
better should feel dumb too. Because people bet that down
from nine a half to turn you can just get it.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
That sentence stop right there at the I feel so dumb.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
I was trying to bring that. I was trying to
bring other people in with me. What you had to
You had to love that performance. What a debut for
dal Loggins.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
Man? Sure. I mean if somebody asked me last week
you know what I thought was gonna happen, and I said,
we're gonna stop you and Cec who's our quarterback? I
have no idea. I mean, it's just it's Appalachian State football.
That's what we do.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Okay, all right, all right? I like and he's playing
a cool We're finally to panther game week here. What's
your feeling on on Ikey DG. I know we're gonna
get No. You might go Canalis and refer me to
the injury report that comes out later today, but like,
do you have a gut feeling on whether or not
he's going to be able to go? And do we
know for sure that Nyman is next up at at
(02:33):
left tackle and not Christiansen.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
The gut feeling? I see what you did there.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
I didn't even try.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Yeah, and your gut was correct. I am going to
refer to you to that injury report that'll be on
Panthers dot com later this afternoon. You should stay tuned
for all the latest on that. I mean, we'll see
Ikey said the other day he was feeling better. And
guys have returned in eight days from similar surgeries. Other
guys have returned in three from similar surgery. So you know,
(03:03):
I think, as John Fox would say, all appendixes are different.
So we'll we'll just see whether he's out there on
the practice field, you know that kind of stuff. It's
two be determined practice a little bit later this afternoon,
so we'll have a better idea this afternoon. And once
you check out that injury report on Panthers dot com,
you'll know much more.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
We spent the entire offseason talking about the wide receiver
depth and how deep this group was, and then a
lot has changed since we last talked to you. How
worrisome now is the depth of this receiving core with
feeling gone and the Cocher injury.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Well, I mean, when a guy gets hurt, it's going
to miss time. That's obviously a concern, especially as well
as Jalen had played in camp, and as good as
he had looked throughout, I mean, he it was a
different aspect he brings to the game. And I think
if you would have told people, you know, in February,
if Adam retires or whatever, Okay, you're rolling into this
year with two first round picks and Jalen Cocher in
(04:00):
the spot, I think people have been like, oh, okay,
we can work with that. That's that's something, especially when
that new receiver is a guy like Ceteroa mcmillet, who's
you know, got the opportunity to be a big time threat.
You know, he's a big, tall, long receiver of long arms,
catches everything. So I think you would think that's pretty good.
And then to get whatever you get out of Hunter
(04:22):
renfro and has come back seems like a pretty good deal.
I mean that it could be a lot worse. They're
just depending on those first three guys a lot. Now.
I mean, you've got a David Moore in reserve, and
all David Moore's ever done in his career with Dave
Canalis is make plays when they didn't make plays. I mean,
he's not a it's not like he's a seventeen game
starter or anything like that. But when he's called on,
(04:44):
he stepped up. So I think until Jalen gets back,
you're kind of hoping for the best out of the
rookie and hoping he steps up and becomes a big
time player. But I think they still like that depth
even with that move last week.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
We were talking earlier, and I'm sure we'll talk about
it more over the next couple of days. But it
is kind of fascinating that the Panthers are the first
ones in a regular season game to go against Travis Hunter.
And I know he was banged up and missed the
last couple of preseason games, but apparently he's going to
play both sides of the ball. It's but it's a mystery.
Jacksonville's keeping it a mystery for a reason. Do you
(05:21):
have do you have a feeling like on what we'll
see and how they'll use Travis Hunter and and and
I mean it's it's going to be I mean, it's
going to be fascinating that we're first up on the
t box against him.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Sure, and you know, again in the first game, I
don't know how much of an effect it will have.
The thing I wonder about what Travis Hunter is what
he looks like in week sixteen, sixteen seventeen after playing
one hundred snaps a week. I mean, because you know,
you can play one hundred snaps in college, and that's
different because you're playing against the higher grade of guys,
(05:56):
you know, covering faster, stronger, bigger receivers, going up against
more physical, better corners. So I just think it'll be
a long term thing. But in the short term, he's
an interesting, uh puzzle feeds for people to use because
he can get at you a lot of different ways.
And I mean there's so much unknown in Jacksonville, brand
new coach, brand new coordinator, brand new you know, part
(06:18):
how are they going to line him up? But I
think you know, if I was, you know, if I
was came playing against a Hunter, I would send people
deep against him when he's playing defense, and I would
you know, get up on him when he's on the
line of scrimmage. And you know, certainly the Panthers have
some physical quarters at JC and Mike Jackson who are
more than willing to do that.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
What's your expectation level, Darren for j T. Sanders in
his second year.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
I think that you know, it's wide open for him.
I mean, he's gotten so many reps in his last
two training camps, his two training camps when other guys
have been out injured, and he's got the opportunity to
make that thing is gone. I think, you know, he
is a guy who can make plays, and I think
that does take some of that pressure off what you
(07:05):
were talking about earlier with the wide receivers, because he
is a guy who can get downfield and make things happen.
I mean, he's he's an athletic guy. And then Tommy
Trimble is coming back. I mean as a secondary, you know,
target at that position. Tommy's the guy who makes some
things happen. So I think they look at it in
the totality, but at the end of the day, I mean,
(07:26):
this is still Dave Canalis and I want to be
suffered about run at the ball. And oh, by the way,
there's Truba Hubbard and Rico Daldell, a couple of thousand
yard backs. That guy's here for a reason. You know,
I anticipate it's going to be kind of that broad
based offense the way it was last year when we
saw Bryce Young playing the way he played.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
We're talking with Darren Panthers dot com who apparently has
put pants. I've been told by source of the stadium
bone he has put pants back on. He is no
longer dancing and the pants are back on over there nights,
you know. Could I tell Darren Mack what you that
during the break about him?
Speaker 1 (08:01):
What's that? We were talking about Cologne's last segment and
he asked, what coloone you wear? And if it's Bojangler Colone.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
That's right, that's right, all Bojangle, just a you know,
a little Bojangles, little dab a Duke's mayo right under
the chin. Maybe some step that gets me, that gets
me right.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
I figured to be into that. I figured he would
be maybe a little high life behind the ear, you know,
all right? DG. Well that was I got to say. Okay, defense,
on the defensive side of the ball, they see someone
that they went up against. Last year. Liam Cohen did
an amazing job in Tampa as the coordinator, and Tampa's
offense stuck it to us a little bit. The Panthers, though,
(08:40):
have re stocked up on defense, and I'm not quite
sure Cohen has the same amount of talent you know,
in Jacksonville on offense as he did in Tampa. What
do you think about the matchup week one for this
for this defense, what's you're feeling?
Speaker 4 (08:54):
I just want to see. I mean, we've talked about
this all all season, and we talked about everything all
all season. That's why this week's such a relief, because
all these abstract concepts become concrete realities, and it's like,
we think that what the Panthers did this offseason by
investing in Bobby Brown, Turshell, and Ward to go with
a healthy Derek Brown is just going to stabilize everything.
(09:16):
I mean, to me, that's gonna be one of the
stories of the season is how much progress they're able
to make defensively based on that. I mean, if they
get the same kind of return out of defensive line
fortifications they did out of offensive line the year before,
I think people ought to be pretty happy and things
ought to get better because listen, I mean, you're not
(09:36):
just adding people, You're not just adding dudes. Much in
the same way you go out and sign an elite
guard and Rob Hunt, you get Derek Brown back on
the field, and I think the simple act of putting
Derek back in the middle of everything makes everything behind
him better. So you can have questions about linebacker, safeties, whatever,
But when that front is stable, when they are better
(09:58):
at stopping the run, I think that's just got a
trickle down effect for the rest of the defense.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
All Right, he is Derek Gann. A Texter points out
DG is brilliant. He deflected max question like any coach
would do, and then promoted his content in the same paragraph.
So there you go. You pulled it off, baby, you
pulled it off.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
It's almost like I've been doing this for a minute.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
I know you know.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Cant is not my first rodeo with the man.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Thank you, coach Fox. I cannot trick the wily vet
into giving up the goods. We will. We will see
what happens today with the injury report and Ikey and
who's playing left tackle, and you can read all about
it on Panthers dot com. Thank you, DG. Appreciate you brother.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
You got it boys. We'll see y'all.
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