September 2, 2025 • 44 mins
In the final hour of the show, Walker and Flounder talk to Hunter Bailey about a rough showing in the Duke's Mayo Classic for Charlotte, talk about just how bad the offense was last night for UNC and walk it off with 'What's on Tap' presented by Twin Peaks.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You were listening to the West and Walker show.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I just wasn't in the SpongeBob like that. I mean,
you were nasty looking up a cartoon. I couldn't get
into it. It's wes too nasty. Yeah, it's like we
get weird. I don't necessarily like animals being animated and stuff.
And then with SpongeBob and all that stuff, I just
couldn't get into it.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
And Walker, that takes like what sixty percent of kids movies.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Away from you? So like so like a cartoon that's different.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Only on Sports Radio ninety two point seven FM WFNC,
the SpongeBoy.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Just had a lot of ugly creatures. That's the best
way for me to put it.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
It was a lot of Joe creatures, the talking crab
that was ugly as hell. SpongeBob was ugly, Like I
couldn't get onto that. God, I couldn't get into it.
I think, ugly as hell. What more ever to go?
Speaker 5 (00:58):
On?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
West and Walker's Shorts Radio ninety two to seven WFNZ.
West not here for the last hour of the show.
He's on a call with the new crew now that
he's a part of ce W crew because he's going
to be working sidelines for the SMU Baylor game at SMU.
Very cool man. Gonna be his first time doing this
kind of stage of sideline reporting. So we're all excited
(01:21):
he's making it out here. Man tears, my guy, my brother,
where's Bryant? We're all happy making it big? Oh yeah,
you know, it's it's amazing. I can't wait. I told him,
I told him breaking news. We are going to have
that game on one of the three televisions at the
Marlow household. That's right, full screen and everything, not even
(01:42):
in the octa or in the foot little foursome boxes.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
It is a full screen game.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Okay, so you're saying it's graduating from quad box to
just full screen, but it's not middle screen.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I don't think so.
Speaker 6 (01:57):
Okay, there are some good games at twelve o'clock, but
it will be on a secondary screen. And who knows,
if it's a good enough game, it could matriculate to
that middle screen.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
So do you think Charlotte, North Carolina's going to be
good enough to be on the middle screen for you guys.
Speaker 6 (02:11):
I'm tempted to put Michigan Oklahoma on the middle screen
if you can.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Telling his team if each team plays like they did
in their opener, then that one's going to be ugly.
Let's talk more about the Charlotte's side of things. Hunter
Bailey from The Charlotte Observer, also host of the Highway
forty nine podcast. Follow them on Twitter at Hunter Underscore
Bailey forty five doing excellent work covering the Charlotte forty
nine ers as always. You know him by now. He's
(02:36):
a friend of the show. He's damned you're a family
member with the show.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Hunter. We appreciate the time. Man, how are you doing, Yes, sir,
doing good.
Speaker 7 (02:44):
Hoping for a little better game Saturday night.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Man, I know you are.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Oh yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I really am hoping for it, and I think watching
this Duke's Mayo Classic against app State, it was somewhat
similar to what people were expecting in North Carolina. I mean,
you can talk talk about the North Carolina game last
night at a much more macro level, right you times
that by ten, But it's not all that dissimilar to
what we experienced as Charlotte fans, where we thought we
(03:10):
had a shot. We're seeing the beginning of a new
era with a different coach here, somebody that we all
believe in, and they come out flat and the offense
has nothing for us. You had bad quarterback play, you
had bad trench play that Tim Albin raise his hand
high for and said, hey, look, we got to take
responsibility for that. Here's what I want to know, Hunter,
(03:31):
what are the things you still believe in with this
forty nine ers team this year? And what are some
of the things that you think, Yeah that they were
issues in the first game and they're going to be
issues the rest of the way.
Speaker 7 (03:41):
Definitely, So I'll start things you're so good about, things
you believe in moving forward. So special teams definitely a
bright spot on our looked good. You didn't want to
see him as many times as we saw him. But
so sifty fifty seven yards. I thought the kick coverage
was good. They're not going to give up game changing,
backbreaking plays. I think you're you're gonna need that defense.
(04:05):
I think what you're looking at there Conley, Obviously some
of the guys in the secondary had decent days, but
they really need the front four to find the twys.
And I think that kind of transitions me into what
are you worried about this team? And that's the trench
play We had asked asked Tim Alvin before the season,
what are the strengths of the team, and he said
(04:25):
he thought the O and D line were the biggest strengths.
So offense offensive line played seven different guys. They were
kind of slotting and reslotting a little bit. I expect
to see some more of that as they kind of
try and play to their strengths. I think we will
see more quarterback runs. That was probably what I was
most confused about watching the offense Friday night, is you
(04:47):
start a dual threat quarterback and he really doesn't run
much until kind of games out of hand. You want
to see more there because at that point we've talked
on this pod loftus having the better arm, the quarterback
transfer from Duke. If you're gonna keep your guy in
the pocket and not do a lot of design TV
runs or rollouts for anything of that magnitude, a little
bit confusing on why you would go with Harol. But
(05:10):
like I say, I think you're going to see more
of that this weekend with Harold going up against his
old schools. But man, they're going to have to figure
out trenches on both sides of the ball, and I
think I mean on the D line, they've played a
ton of guys, and I think that number is going
to start to dwindle as they kind of figure out
who's the best and who's going to rise the rise
to the top as far as getting to the quarterback
(05:30):
and potentially stopped in the run Hunter.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
We had Tim albinon Thursday or Wednesday of last week,
I forget, but we had him on last week and
I asked him about the patients that he would have
with whoever he names starting quarterback. I think we knew
at that point that it was going to be Connor Harrel.
He was bad in Game one, no way around it.
He did say today about an hour ago in pressed
availability that Connor Harold was going to start again against
(05:54):
his former team. As you just mentioned, Look, I think
he's going to have patients. I just wonder how much
with Connor Harrell, especially with all of us expecting Grayson
Loftus was going to be that guy. How do you
think this QB position plays out?
Speaker 8 (06:08):
Definitely?
Speaker 7 (06:08):
I think if they go on and they were as
stagnant as they were on Friday night, I mean, the
problem with the drives, man, is you had four false
starts or holding calls on first down. I mean, they're
just derailing these drives. When you think about the first
play of the season being a false start, that kind
of encasculates what their offense looked like on Friday night.
(06:29):
You're gonna need to minimize the self inflicted wounds, right,
They're gonna need to get guys like Sean Brown involved.
I mean, he led the team in catches last year.
He had one target for one catch and that was
the team's first first down in their third series of
the game. Didn't have another target after that. I want
to see more from him. You had a couple of
good things going on with the receiver room. Justin Olsen
(06:50):
played well and j Mason played well, but they tim
Ovins said it, they need the guys to round the
quarterback to help elevate his game. And I think we
saw Harold do a little bit too much late in
the first half rolling to his right. There's nothing there
burn the ball lift to see another down. You throw
a crucial interception and there in business add more to
(07:12):
the deficit going on the halftime. So you want to
see something there that has to be improvement week one
to week two. Because Alvin did say today he still
wouldn't be shocked if we see Loftus or even zach
Wilk in the future. So I think if it continues
to be stagnan our offense, we could see a switch.
But one thing I thought for sure was when Harold
(07:33):
left the game at the end of the third quarter
on Friday and I thought we might see a quarter
of Grayson Loftus. But I think with Harold being a captain,
being a leader on this team, he had the ability
the opportunity to get back in and get some points
on the board in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
We know aj Swan looked fantastic against the Charlotte defense
and being a first time starter for app State and
app State looked good overall. I do want to ask
you this app State offense versus Charlotte defense, clearly Appstate
offense came out on top. Is that going to be
more you think as we move on about what app
State is as an entity or is it more about
(08:09):
Charlotte not being good defensively the rest of the way.
What do you think that's going to be more about
as we move on?
Speaker 8 (08:16):
Yeah, I thought the.
Speaker 7 (08:16):
Miss tackles were a huge problem Friday night and I
think that's what you get when maybe you don't tackle
as much in camp or that just being the first
game of the season. Like I've said before, I'd love
to see a joint practice or anything like that in
college fooble to kind of see what you have and
get some of those tackling in ahead of week one.
So Charlotte miss ten tackles Friday night. Like I said,
(08:38):
they played a ton of guys across the defensive line.
We saw Vicbarius Connelly, he played really well. We saw
Kerry Grant with a bunch of open field tackles. But
it really felt like Walker that at State dictated the
pace of the game.
Speaker 8 (08:50):
I mean, the up tempo.
Speaker 7 (08:52):
From start to finish. At Charlotte, out of place, missing assignments,
and then they really just if you can run the
ball onto when you can, you can take whatever it is.
So Charlotte sent for quite a bit trying to see
if they could get out of the quarterback early. But
when they would send the additional maybe five to six
players coming, aj Swan would just dice them up. I
(09:13):
think that says more about Appalachian State. I think they
have a really good offense. They had guys step up,
and honestly, the scoreboard could have been more loftsided than
it was with a couple plays called back and then
obviously Conley's big play to force that touchback early. So
I think Charlotte's defense will improve a little bit. I
still think the linebackers Shay Taylor Cayden Schmidt, who led
(09:35):
the team with nine tackles, are going to be the
strength of the defense, but they need somebody on the
interior defensive line to step up and stop that run.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
What were the main takeaways from Tim Albens press conference today.
Speaker 7 (09:47):
Yeah, I think they know what they're faced with Saturday.
Like he said, Bill Belichick is a goat. Obviously wasn't
a goat like performance in Week one, you know of
the Belichick team will improve on that. So they're excited
for the game. They're focusing on Charlotte, not beating Charlotte's
like I said, just goes back to penalties, being behind
(10:10):
the chains, and just ultimately not having explosive plays. Man.
I mean, they gave up eighteen explosives in that game
Friday night compared to their offense, which produced just four.
So if you're gonna be stagnant behind the chains with
penalties and you can't have you're not producing explosive offensive plays.
It's not gonna be. We were gonna see the punter
(10:31):
more and more so, don't beat Charlotte, get the run
game gone. Get CJ. Stokes in space and did talk
about that being his first live action.
Speaker 8 (10:40):
And over a year.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Excited to have.
Speaker 7 (10:42):
Him back and getting the rust off there. So I
think we'll see more of c J.
Speaker 8 (10:45):
Stokes.
Speaker 7 (10:46):
Sounds like Henry Rutland will likely be out another week
as he recovers from a lower body injury, so it'll
be a little bit until we see that spark plug
on offense. But I do think there is another gear
that they can get to when they figure out who's
the right personnel packages make this plays.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Hunter Bailey Charlotte Observer, Highway forty nine podcast. Follow him
on Twitter at Hunter Underscore Bailey forty five. We're talking
about the Charlotte forty nine ers. So this upcoming game
against North Carolina, Bill Belichick the goat, looking for his
first ever collegiate win as a head coach. He might
just get it at Jerry Richardson Stadium. It's unbelievable that
(11:21):
we're here, Hunter, like I can't wrap my brain around it.
I do want to ask you about the environment. The
best environments in my head. Maybe you can think of
a couple of other ones, ECU, Duke app State, the
first ever game against Campbell. What does this one rank
you think at the end or once we see kickoff?
(11:43):
Is it going to rival those environments? Is it going
to be better? I mean, it's Bill Belichick we're talking about.
How do you expect it to play out?
Speaker 7 (11:50):
Yeah, I think it'll be hard to beat the environments
of Duke and He see you just based off of
how those games went and how I think.
Speaker 8 (11:58):
This one will go.
Speaker 7 (12:00):
This is going to have They're hadding roughly twenty five
hundred extra seats, so there's going to be nearly eighteen
thousand fans there at Jerry Richardson Stadium Saturday night. You're
a fourteen, fourteen and a half point underdog against the
team that is coming to campus for the first time.
I mean, you met they met in chuckel Hill last year.
It was close for a half, the tar Hills pulled away.
(12:22):
If Charlotte can find a way to score early, like
I mean, they took the lead in that game against
that State I mean, Walker, they're up three to zero
with the ball and a chance to extend the lead
and just couldn't get anything going. So if they can
find a way to get out front Saturday night, they
got Chris Lane playing a concert on campus, You've got,
like I said, eighteen thousand fans. Cheapest pick up for
(12:43):
this game is like one hundred and forty bucks, which
is ridiculous.
Speaker 8 (12:46):
But overall, I.
Speaker 7 (12:48):
Think it could be the biggest game. They just need
to find a way to get out front and keep
this crowd in.
Speaker 8 (12:53):
Unlike kind of the.
Speaker 7 (12:54):
Tar Hills last night. I mean, they get out to
a seven er lead and then it just all melts down.
So we'll see what happens. Man, But it's gonna be tough.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
But you but you aren't expecting a mad house at
the beginning, and it's just about whether people file out
of the stadium by like third quarter. But you're you're
expecting a monster environment at the beginning of the game.
Speaker 7 (13:14):
One percent, dude, I think I think. I still think
maybe ECU last year was the hottest ticket in history,
but this will be this will be up there. I'm
looking forward to kind of what it's like and especially
known it's Alvin's first game at home. It's a lot
of these guys, I mean, fifty six fifty seven new
players first time at Richardson Stadium. So yeah, I think
it's gonna be.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Nuts final thing for me. Hunter, just injury report, what
you got for us?
Speaker 6 (13:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (13:36):
So Adam Hopkins sounds like he's still working his way back.
He's the receiver. Expect him to actually play quite a
bit when he's back in the fold. But Henry Reutlige
is the only other one that Tim Alban was mentioned,
and it doesn't sound like he'll be available. And I'm
glad that they came out and addressed it because when
I didn't see Henry Retlige that kick returner, punt returner
or running back, I needed some answers. So it sounds
(13:59):
like we'll know more on itself soon. But that's all phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Good stuff from Hunter Bailey, as always weekly when it's
Charlotte football season around here. Hunter Bailey, host of The
Highway forty nine podcast, writer for Charlotte Observer. Follow him
on Twitter at Hunter Underscore Bailey forty five. All right, man,
I see you there this weekend. I appreciate your time.
Once more, Yes, sair taking mon good stuff once more.
We'll put that interview on our website, by the way,
(14:23):
WFNZ dot com, and then you can get that interview
and all of our best dub segments, all of it
anywhere you get your podcast, Apple, Spotify. We mean it
when we say anywhere you get your podcast. We got
a couple more segments to go. It's the live wire
coming up next. Sports Radio ninety two to seven WFZ.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Pro Football in Charlotte just got a little more interesting
and getting ready for the game, just cut a lot
more fun. Joined Sports Radio ninety two point SEVENWFNZ and
a few of your favorite friends.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Before and after each and.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
Every home game, a DOWNFNC doghouse powered Vice Jack Daniels.
Whether it's Pro Football on a Sunday or Charlotte FC.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
During the week, the doghouse will be ready and waiting
for you with a variety of the very best in
Pepsi products, food and drink, ramp and nil kickoff the
Korean postging tail.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Gating has never been better, and you're invited to stop
by and party with us.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
And make sure you check out the all new Titos patio.
Speaker 9 (15:24):
Gend is always better at the WUFNC Doghouse. Only from
your friends at Jack Daniels, Pepsi, Titos and Sports Radio
ninety two point seven wfn.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
C, the official home of the Charlotte sports Fan.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
A couple more segments to go on Western Walker Sports
Radio ninety two seven w FNZ. Actually, okay, right, I
love calling audibles and radio. It's live, baby, We have
Smoke in the Chandler Volta Studios. CV Injury Law dot Com.
CV Injurylaw dot Com.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
One call.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
That's all the Carolinas personal injury lawyers. Here's what I
want to know. I want to do this if you
planned on doing this on Kyle's show, Smoke, I'm going
to need you to grab the microphone because it's gonna
If you planned on doing this in Kyle's show, I
don't want to blow up the material, but I do
kind of want to hear from Mac Brown on his
(16:33):
thoughts on last night's game. I don't know if this
was planned. I don't know if I'm blowing up the spot.
I don't want to steal content from Kyle. I mean, hell,
people can just listen to it again. But Mac Brown,
if you're willing, can you please share your thoughts on
what you were experiencing watching Carolina get beat down by
TCU and Bill Belichick's debut.
Speaker 10 (16:50):
Well, thank you very much for having me on your
pristine show. Walker.
Speaker 11 (16:54):
You know, I wasn't really watching a game because I
forgot because usually it's Labor Day and I don't expect
the tar Heels to play.
Speaker 10 (17:02):
But Sally told me at about nine pm.
Speaker 11 (17:04):
You know, I was watching some stuff on me TV
last night and reruns a gun smoke about the game,
and I checked it, and I'm like, apparently it's harder
to coach at North Carolina than people thought.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Yeah, you know, it's pretty hard, isn't it.
Speaker 11 (17:17):
I you know, the James Madison loss last year was
very bad for me, all right, And but I didn't
get blown out like that with all that national stuff.
I didn't get embarrassed like that in front of LT
in MJ.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Now, But Mac, are you doing better with those types
of resources than Bill Belichick? I mean, if they gave
you all that money they gave him, then you're not
getting beat by forty against TCU.
Speaker 11 (17:40):
Right, I don't see any first round picks on that roster, Walker,
That's right. I brought a couple of first round picks
to Chapel Hill that I do the best know, but
I also didn't get the resources I needed from those
idiots in Chapel Hill. They probably were getting too drunk
off the dockries last night and left at halftime and
had to wake up and saw it even got worse.
I saw the stands of that game. I'm like, that's
(18:02):
about all right. Bill's gonna have to get used to it,
you know. Uh, he's a good coach, but it's gonna
be very challenging. And you know, they said I was olden.
He's about the same age as me, so I don't
really get it. But you know, Sally and I are
gonna enjoy a game at Texas in the coming weeks.
They actually treat me with respect.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Before you get out of here, mag I do appreciate
your time. What's moret Flotder, do you have any questions
for Mac Brown? Your's the how's the Texas podcast going?
I know you and Vince Young have started up a
Texas podcast. How's that been going well?
Speaker 11 (18:32):
When Vince isn't, you know, taking in libations? I think
they're pretty good right now. No, but you know, talk
about Arch you know wasn't the best performance, but you
know they lost a hard fought game to Ohio State
team that just came off a national title.
Speaker 10 (18:48):
I think they'll be good for North Carolina.
Speaker 11 (18:51):
I'm glad that North Carolina and the tar Hill fans
or in the Bible Belt, because they're gonna need to
be praying every single Sunday.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
That's Mag Brown. I close my eyes. Mac Brown is
in the Chandler vault to studios with us. That's just
how it is. Thank you very much, Max for joining us.
Speaker 6 (19:05):
And those thoughts may honestly be what was running through
Max Brown's mind.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
I mean, I don't.
Speaker 6 (19:12):
I think for some of his players that were on
the team last night, he felt bad, but I think
part of him was smiling to himself, saying I would
have done better than this.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
And I gotta be honest with you.
Speaker 6 (19:25):
I know there are gonna be a lot of Tarial
fans that are gonna get mad about this.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
I don't know that he's wrong. I really don't, are we.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Yeah, that's the interesting part because Mac Brown had lost
it a little bit in recruiting. But do you think
a Mac Brown coach team last night has more talent
out there?
Speaker 1 (19:45):
On the football field than what we saw. Probably yes.
Speaker 6 (19:49):
And the thing is is that if mac Brown stays,
then you don't have the Max exodus that you had.
You do keep a lot of guys around, and it
probably does and look nearly as bad now.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 6 (20:02):
We could be sitting here saying at the end of
this year. We could be sitting here saying at the
end of next year that this is crazy. But I mean, yeah,
it's it is hard not to think about that as
a Tario fan when you sit here today.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Would this have looked that bad under Mac Brown? Well,
I don't.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
I hate to do this to you, but not really,
because you were there. I actually want your thoughts. So
maybe we just threw out the live wire today because
a lot of the sound that we have. Anyway, we
can get back to some Panthers stuff, but this is
big stuff watching Bill Belichick come to Chapel Hill and
lose in spectacular fashion. Okay, Like I want more thoughts
from you and Fiddy who were there in Chapel Hill
(20:42):
to experience everything. Fiddy I heard a lot from him.
He talked about how it was an environment unlike he's
ever seen before at ar campus for football specifically. Now,
I'll be honest, watching it, it felt huge, Okay, it
felt ridiculous. I guess maybe it's hard to compare it
(21:02):
to the LSU Clemson game because it's not Death Valley,
which is also crazy.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
I was trying to grade on a curve to some degree.
Speaker 10 (21:10):
This is not that.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
This is not a big time college football playoff stakes
type of matchup, and so I need to grade accordingly.
But anybody that was there for the most part said,
it's an environment unlike I've ever seen before. How would
you characterize it compare to anything else you've seen?
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, it was crazy. I mean it was.
Speaker 6 (21:28):
As I put in the article that will go up
later on this afternoon on heeltofblog dot com recapping the game,
I mean, they did everything right. Leading up to the game,
they did everything right. They returned to the old well
walk did that. You have the Chase Rice concert, a
(21:51):
lot of people out there for that, created a tailgate
environment with that, and then the tailgate environment that was
around Keenan Stadium phenomenal. You did everything that you had
to do right off the field to make it feel big,
and the team came out and just laid an egg.
(22:11):
And that's what really kills it, because this is the thing.
You will not see that the rest of the year.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
People are done. They quit.
Speaker 6 (22:20):
I know this fan base, this fan base will quit
on this team after one game. It's sad, but it's
the reality of the situation. And I just you know,
I cannot believe with how high the vibes were. I
said this, I mean we both said it when we
were sitting there. Nobody could have seen this outcome. Nobody
(22:44):
doesn't matter. I didn't expect them to get beat by forty. No,
nobody thought they'd lose by thirty four. Man, I don't
care to exaggerate too right, but I don't care who
you are. Nobody saw that coming. Even the most optimistic
State fans, we're hoping that it would be a disaster.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
They did not see that coming.
Speaker 6 (23:04):
They thought a loss in the first game would be
damaging enough to Carolina. This this is the nightmare for
Tarial fans and the dream for most of the rest
of the nation.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Who does not want this to be a storyline. They don't.
Speaker 6 (23:20):
And I don't know how long, how much longer it's
going to be a storyline because that schedule, that looked
really easy.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
That schedule doesn't look nearly as easy as we sit here.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
The thing that's helping them the most because it still
is a really easy schedule. What you have with North
Carolina still is you have a road game against Charlotte
this weekend, You have Richmond next weekend. You have UCF
on the road. Clemson, of course, is going to be
a tall task. Nobody has them beating Clemson. Cow looks
a little harder, yep. Virginia looks a little harder, yep, Syracuse.
(23:56):
It's one of those things will look terrible. You respect
their situation more than they really impressed you in the
opening game.
Speaker 6 (24:03):
Remember I had them losing that game even before what happened.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
You did last night, Stanford, you know should be I
would say you still should be.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
We would hope wake Forest probably a little easier than
what you expected with them only having a one point
victory over Kennesas State. But then you get to back
to back games. I mean, just Duke n C State
is the first time you're playing both of those programs
to end the season. I believe I remember doing the math.
It was like since two thousand and six or something, ridiculous.
(24:34):
I mean, it's been a long time since you end
the season on a double banger like that Duke NC
State with I mean ball eligibility on the line. So
you have Charlotte, you have Richmond. Look, it could be there.
I still think that you're going to be a ball
eligible team. I don't feel great about it, but I
(24:57):
still think you're going to be a ball eligible team.
But that's the expectations have shifted drastically. The schedule. It's
still easy. All of the teams that impressed you in
the ACC this past weekend, they're not on the schedule
really man, like I guess Virginian Cal those But in
terms of making big statements, right, you don't have Florida State.
(25:18):
You don't have to worry about that. Yeah, you don't
have Miami, you don't have to worry about them. So
when we shift the narrative on the ACC discussing, look,
they're kind of good. You already had Clemson who lost.
They were the team that didn't take care of business
in terms of the top heavy nature of it all.
So you still have them. That was always going to
be an L. It's the only L West had after
(25:38):
having them going eleven and one. So that's the thing
still helping this Carolina football team.
Speaker 6 (25:43):
Yeah, I mean that's the one reason to believe is
that the schedule is going to get easier. You would
imagine that this team is going to get better as
the year goes along. But I do think you have
to question just how good is the talent on this team.
You did bring in a lot of guys that, you know,
especially on the defensive side of the ball, we're not
full time starters from their previous stops. You brought in
(26:05):
a lot of guys on that side of the balls
that come from the group of five level. I mean,
you've also got guys on on that offensive line that
come from the group of five level, the FCS level,
that are coming up to play on your offensive line.
Those were the areas there where they were really dominated.
And that's something that hopefully gets better as the season
(26:28):
goes along.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
But is it a guarantee.
Speaker 6 (26:31):
No, And so that's that's the where you're at mindset
wise for Carolina. Like it's hard not to be negative today,
Like I get it. There are some people that are
still uber positive. There are you know a lot of
guys that are committed through the recruiting class have said,
you know, look, it's just it's one game.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Let's see how it works. You know, Bryce Johnson believe
it or not.
Speaker 6 (26:54):
A lot Oftorial football players very very negative about the game.
Most those people saying, I mean Trey Boston literally just
saying right out, UNC is still UNC. But Bryce Johnson said, hey, man,
first game that Bill Belichick coached at the NFL level,
he got blown out too.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
So maybe this is how it works. I don't know.
Maybe it is, but it's you know, it's not crazy.
Speaker 6 (27:19):
I think it's okay to shift your floor and ceiling
for this team based off of what we saw last night.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
The floor with this team is four wins. This team
could win four.
Speaker 6 (27:31):
Games this year, Yeah, it's very possible. But this team,
I mean, could they still win eight games?
Speaker 8 (27:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (27:38):
I think that with enough changes it can happen. It's
the wide range of outcomes that I had going into
this year. I just didn't know it was so much new.
I had zero clue on what I could depend on
going into this season. The wide range of outcomes for me,
it probably was anywhere from six wins as the lowest amount,
because the schedule was that easy. I do think now
(28:01):
that shifts down basically the window of six to ten.
I didn't think ten was on the table. I didn't
think eleven was, but six to ten, I think you
shift that down a couple of games. Yep, So now
I think it's probably instead of six to ten, I
think now you're probably looking at four to eight, and
eight is the absolute best case scenario because I just
can't like the team that I saw last night playing
(28:23):
against what I believe to be a college football playoff contender.
I think they're gonna be that good. I have all
that kind of high hopes for them. Look if their
defensive line, I guess you could say North Carolina's offensive
line was terrible, but their defensive line was mollywopping guys
like it looked nasty upfront for.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
A lot of the game. Yeah, Oh, they deserve a
lot of credit. That's the thing.
Speaker 6 (28:42):
Don't get it lost in this and it will because
everybody's focused on Carolina. TCU did some really good things,
Like who knows if this running game is able to
run the football the way that they did last night,
Maybe not two hundred and fifty eight yards a game,
but if they're able to run the football, and they
found something in the They have a chance to be
(29:02):
a really good team because you you mentioned it, they've
got one of the best quarterbacks in the country.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Josh Hoover, is really that dude?
Speaker 3 (29:10):
I just don't know who else you can depend on
in terms of talent at any position right now. You
can't depend on your quarterback because even if you think
go Lopez is still good today, is he good in
this system you pay two million dollars for? It still
does not fit. It doesn't make any sense. It's a
very You're investing so much in a guy that you're
(29:32):
asking to do something very different. If you're gonna pay
somebody two million dollars, then why aren't you asking him
to do the thing that allowed him to earn two
million dollars?
Speaker 6 (29:41):
Felt like a panic move, right, It felt like they
did not have their guy in the spring well that
panicked and said, yeah, we're gonna give him a shot.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Bring up the timing of it all. I don't think
that's been discussed nearly enough. And here's the other thing.
Are we sure it was pure gamesmanship not named the
starting quarterback? This laid into the process. Yeah, yeah, I
mean that is certainly on the table, man.
Speaker 6 (30:07):
I mean, I think we thought it was an easy
layup that Goo Lopez was going to be the guy,
and I think based off of the film that they
had saw, maybe the staff thought the same thing.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
But maybe once they got into camp they took a
look and said, whoa.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Here's what makes sense to me. Just all speculation, here's
what makes sense to me, Bryce Baker, isn't it doesn't
look the part right now?
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Not yet?
Speaker 10 (30:32):
Not yet?
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Right?
Speaker 8 (30:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (30:33):
Right?
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Right?
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Does it look the part right now? So we're not
going to have him as the starter. We still got money.
We need to go out and we need to go
find a quarterback that we can feel good about, or
at least one that's talented and one that I think
I can groom into being a star in my system
or at least average in my system. Who is that guy?
Goo Lopez is still out there? Cool, let's bring him in.
(30:56):
That was in the spring. When was that when they
brought go Lopez in?
Speaker 8 (30:59):
What month?
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Yeah? Remember spring?
Speaker 6 (31:01):
You remember we were we were out at Hornet's exit
interview days so that they were starting to talk about
I guess right, and then yeah, all of a sudden,
here comes this report about Go Lopez.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
That was around that time. That to me shows a
team that panicked.
Speaker 6 (31:18):
They looked at the market that they had, They said,
Nico probably wanting a little too much money. We're going
to stay away from him, which, by the way, that's
not looking like the worst idea either. No, and they decided,
let's try to make Geo Lopez fit.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
So this is what makes sense to me. You pick
him up later, You pick up Goo Lopez because he's
the quarterback you feel the best about.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
You mentioned the Nico of it all, that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
You try to groom him into being a quarterback that
handles the snap under center, despite him having not done
that at South Alabama. Okay, but you give Bill Belichick,
this genius enough time, and Bill having a lot of
pride in what he's able to do, he thinks he
can fix this guy into this system. So one month
goes by, two months go by, all right, He's he's
(32:06):
still not passed Max Johnson. He still hasn't passed Max Johnson,
still hasn't done it. We want to give him every
opportunity to outright earn the starting job, but it still
hasn't happened. It still hasn't happened. Now, even with gamesmanship
being thrown in there, we can pass it off as
that not wanting to give TCU much too much heads
up on what we're going to do at that spot.
(32:27):
But really it's Max Johnson looks better because he's handled
this type of system before, and then you just trot
Geo Lopez out there anyway, and it looks like that.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
That's that's something that makes sense to me. Yeah, no,
I agree one hundred percent.
Speaker 6 (32:43):
I think you there is a good chance that they
got into camp they watched and the other thing to
remember with Max was Max was coming off the severe
leg injury. So even when he first got back out
there was Max at his best. Probably not, yeah, he
probably having to sort of get himself back into a
rhythm and everything like that. But I do wonder as
(33:05):
they went along and they started to get to a
certain point, did they look and say, you know what,
this really might be a legitimate quarterback battle. Max knows
how to run this offense a little bit better. Geo
is a guy that is still learning how to run
this style of offense. And but but ultimately, what it
have probably come down to, we paid this due two
(33:27):
point one.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
That's that at least gives you that's at least the
tipping point. Yes, if it's between both of these guys
and you invested two millions, I mean it's a lot
of money.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Man, I don't I don't know. I will say, you
can't let that stand.
Speaker 6 (33:42):
If you believe right now you're sitting here today and
we'll talk about this more, if you guys want to
tune in on the heel Top blog podcast tonight. If
you believe eight o'clock. By the way, if you agree
and you agree with what we're saying, and you believe
that Maxjohnson is the guy that can win you games
right now, you've got to do it. You've got a
(34:05):
seventy three year old head coach. This is not Steven
Belichick taking over and learning on the fly how to
be a head coach. This is a seventy three year
old learning on the fly how to be a head coach.
If you believe he can run this offense better and
it's going to be more efficient, then go with the man.
You've got Geo Lopez for two years. He could always
(34:28):
be your guy next year, and it gives him more
time he could be your guy later. This season if
he gets to that point. But if he is not
the guy right now that gives you the best chance
to win against Charlotte, You've got to roll with Max Johnson.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
You can't care about that monetary value.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
He can or change the scheme and adapt to your
player's skill set.
Speaker 6 (34:50):
But the other three that you do wonder is Ken
Freddy Kitchens run an offense like that, and Freddy Kitchens
is an NFL coordinator.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
And Bill Belich an NFL head coach.
Speaker 6 (35:01):
Yes, so I don't know if he has anything different.
Maybe that is his system and that's what he wants
to do.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Yeah, it's fascinating to see just how it happened, to
see the way that it looked, to see the decisions
that were made, to see the fundamentals not be taken
care of. That's the wild part about all of this.
And I expected t see you to win. I thought
winning by two touchdowns was realistic. I did not think
losing by over thirty was all that realistic. Heading in
(35:29):
to game one, it's Western Walker Flounder filling in for
the last hour. We tell you what's on tap coming
up next on the Walk Off Sports Radio ninety two
to seven.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
WFNZ. Are you challenge me to a walk off? Oh yeah,
that's a walk off challenge, my friend. It's a walk off.
(35:58):
A walk off.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Minutes ago on westn Walker Sports Radio ninety two to
seven w FNZ. Let's not waste any time. Let's go
ahead and tell you what's on tap. It's presented by
Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks has locations in Concord and Fort
Mill and Twin Peaks is your local sports lodge. You
could come in from May from Scratch Food and signature
twenty nine degree draft beers. The Atlanta Braves play the
(36:20):
Chicago Cubs tonight, Atlanta sixty two and seventy six on
the year after they fall to Chicago in Game one
of that series. Last night, they lost seven to six,
and it was a wild victory for Chicago, with Carson
Kelly hitting a tying two run homer in the eighth inning,
and then there was a game ending single in extras
(36:41):
the tenth to be exact, that is what allowed Chicago
to get that victory. Perhaps a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny
tiny sliver of good news for you, the Mets fan
having to deal with the Carolina loss last night.
Speaker 6 (36:54):
Yeah, I mean it certainly. You know, anytime that the
Braves lose, it is warning for the Mets. But we're
kind of focused on ourselves and the Mets did win yesterday.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
But uh, yeah, that's a tough series.
Speaker 10 (37:07):
Man.
Speaker 6 (37:07):
The Cubs are playing for something right now. They're still
trying to make sure that they are secure in the
wildcard so and I mean, I guess.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
They could still technically catch the Brewers.
Speaker 6 (37:18):
The Brewers are right now the best team in the
regular season, maybe in all of baseball. They are phenomenal,
So I don't know if that's possible that they're going
to be able to catch them. But they're still playing
for something, so this could be a pretty pretty rough
series for the Braves.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
Braves send Joey Wentz to the mound five and four
on the year four nine two era show to Ima Naga.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Is that how he pronounce his name?
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Yes, for Chicago eight and six on the year three
oh eight e R So impressive stuff from him. An
under one whip okay, showed, Yeah, not bad.
Speaker 6 (37:50):
He is one of their h one of their better pitchers,
I think he if I remember correctly, he is their ace.
So that is certainly, uh, you know, a guy that's
going to be very difficult for the Braves hitters facing him.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
So we'll see.
Speaker 6 (38:03):
Man, the Cubs, they really need these wins, so we'll
see if Atlanta has anything for him.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
Yeah, being dealt some bad luck here in terms of
decisions for Shoda because he's gone seven innings in each
of his last three starts, has not allowed more than
three earned runs. But that whip Man, if you've got
a below one whip on the season this late into
the year, goodness gracious, shout out to Shoda. It's always
interesting for yours truly to just study up on some
(38:30):
baseball stats every now and then and be completely shocked
by some of the best players in the game. And
I just don't know who the stars as anymore pre
twenty seventime.
Speaker 6 (38:41):
I gotta be honest, I don't really keep up with
it that much ass on of my own team either.
It's so critical, right because we follow all these other leagues.
Like you follow college football, so in depth you follow
college basketball, so in depth you follow you know, the NFL,
so in depth for you, you follow the NBA.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
So it's like, where do you have time to keep
up with all this other stuff? You're telling me. Carlos
Zambrano is not the ace for Chicago anymore.
Speaker 10 (39:07):
Believe it or not, he is.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
He has moved on. You Darvish. You Darvish is still there, right,
He is not still there.
Speaker 6 (39:13):
He's still in the league, believe it or not. But
he's not pitching well unfortunately for him.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
I don't know that, all right. First pitch for that game,
I just lost it. I think it's at seven forty
that's right. So the first pitch for that game is
at seven forty PM. Some Panthers news coming in a
little while ago addressed it. But with all the Bill
Belichick storyline stuff we had to talk about, we only
mentioned it in passing. But according to Jeremy Fowler, we
(39:40):
have the sound on this right. You want to play
it for the walk off? Maybe if you want to
find it? Yeah, all right, so Jeremy Fowler, I'll set
it up. Jeremy Fowler, NFL insider for ESPN, actually joined
a Dallas radio station and discussed one oh five to three.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
The ticket discussed how.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Dan Morgan did inquire about trading for Micah Parsons before
Parsons was dealt to Green Bay and Derek Brown was
on the table or except talks broke down, I should say,
excuse me, when Dallas requested Derek Brown.
Speaker 8 (40:09):
Yeah, we never got the full list. I know the
Carolina Panthers inquired. They did not make a formal offer,
but they didn't inquire. So they were in talks, and
you know, we heard some whispers from league circles that
Micah had interest in certain teams. Green Bay was won,
but like a little bit of Baltimore, a little bit
of Kansas City, Philadelphia, but we never really Some of
(40:31):
those teams didn't look into it, really, I know Kansas
City didn't. There wasn't a lot of momentum in some
of those other teams. But Carolina did look into it,
and Dallas would have had reason to look into that
because Derek Brown, you know, star defensive tackle. They were
looking for those type of players, those interior d linemen,
so that made some sense. So Caroline ultimately didn't want
(40:52):
to move Brown and didn't move on that.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
All right, So Jeremy Faller there it is Jeremy Fowler
pretty tapped in to the Panthers organization as well that
you hear nuggets of information coming out of that organization.
Fowler is oftentimes the guy that is breaking that sort
of news, and so there you go, interesting stuff. I
think one thing we're able to take away from the
sound rather than some of the ride ups, is him
(41:15):
mentioning there were teams that Michael wanted to go play for.
There's always been that link to the Panthers. There's always
been a little flirtatious nature between Micah and Carolina where
he talked about, oh, I wanted t Maac to come
to Dallas. He talked about how much he liked I
think what playing with Carolina or pulling for Carolina back
in the day, having some riding interest in them, and
(41:37):
so Micah maybe he wanted to come to Carolina. I
don't know that would have been interesting. But Dan Morgan
not willing to deal Derek Brown and that trade negotiations
your thoughts real quickly to end the show on what
you would have done if you're Dan Morgan and Jerry
Jones is asking for Derek Brown.
Speaker 6 (41:52):
I'm gonna tell you, man, this is as tough of
a decision as you could have because Micah Parsons is
truly one of the best edge ushers in the game,
if not the best ed rusher in the game when
you just talk about pure edge rushers, you would have
to have the conversation. But my thing would be how
much does Micah really help us in the run game.
(42:15):
I don't know that he helps us that much. We
saw how bad of a team we were without Derek
Brown last year. Are we really willing to part ways
with that? That's probably a little bit too much, we
said the other day when we were out at the doghouse.
If they asked for j. C. Horn, maybe it's a
different conversation. But if Derek Brown was the guy that
(42:37):
they were locked in on, Yeah, I love what Micah
Parsons is. Along with the draft picks that you would
have to give up, I'm probably good.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
Along with two high end draft picks and Derek I'm
doing it. You can't replace him right in the draft.
If you're going first round pick and Derek Brown, and
that's it, I'm pulling the trigger. If you're doing first
and third or something higher with that third and Derek Brown,
I think that's where I draw the line. I can't
give you two valuable draft picks and Derek Brown. That's
(43:09):
probably where Walker Mails negotiation side of the negotiation would end.
Interesting stuff Panthers season starting this weekend. With all of
the noise surrounding college football right now, we will start
to shift a little bit more over to Carolina Panthers
side of things with a few days of.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
The rest of the way. Yeah it really is.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
Yeah, there's heavy well spae or Flounder. We will at
least at some point and get to Carolina Charlotte football stuff,
but we will start to focus more so on the
Carolina Panthers side of things. It's the Kyle Bailey Show
coming up next alongside Mac Brown, Smoke Ludwig. Sports Rated
ninety two seven WFNZ.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
Listen to the Wes and.
Speaker 4 (43:50):
Walker Show we teas from noon to three only on
Sports Radio ninety two point seven FM ufn Z, the
Speaker 5 (43:57):
Official home of the Charlotte Sports Span
You were listening to the West and Walker show.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I just wasn't in the SpongeBob like that. I mean,
you were nasty looking up a cartoon. I couldn't get
into it. It's wes too nasty. Yeah, it's like we
get weird. I don't necessarily like animals being animated and stuff.
And then with SpongeBob and all that stuff, I just
couldn't get into it.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
And Walker, that takes like what sixty percent of kids movies.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Away from you? So like so like a cartoon that's different.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
Only on Sports Radio ninety two point seven FM WFNC,
the SpongeBoy.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Just had a lot of ugly creatures. That's the best
way for me to put it.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
It was a lot of Joe creatures, the talking crab
that was ugly as hell. SpongeBob was ugly, Like I
couldn't get onto that. God, I couldn't get into it.
I think, ugly as hell. What more ever to go?
Speaker 5 (00:58):
On?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
West and Walker's Shorts Radio ninety two to seven WFNZ.
West not here for the last hour of the show.
He's on a call with the new crew now that
he's a part of ce W crew because he's going
to be working sidelines for the SMU Baylor game at SMU.
Very cool man. Gonna be his first time doing this
kind of stage of sideline reporting. So we're all excited
(01:21):
he's making it out here. Man tears, my guy, my brother,
where's Bryant? We're all happy making it big? Oh yeah,
you know, it's it's amazing. I can't wait. I told him,
I told him breaking news. We are going to have
that game on one of the three televisions at the
Marlow household. That's right, full screen and everything, not even
(01:42):
in the octa or in the foot little foursome boxes.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
It is a full screen game.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Okay, so you're saying it's graduating from quad box to
just full screen, but it's not middle screen.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I don't think so.
Speaker 6 (01:57):
Okay, there are some good games at twelve o'clock, but
it will be on a secondary screen. And who knows,
if it's a good enough game, it could matriculate to
that middle screen.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
So do you think Charlotte, North Carolina's going to be
good enough to be on the middle screen for you guys.
Speaker 6 (02:11):
I'm tempted to put Michigan Oklahoma on the middle screen
if you can.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Telling his team if each team plays like they did
in their opener, then that one's going to be ugly.
Let's talk more about the Charlotte's side of things. Hunter
Bailey from The Charlotte Observer, also host of the Highway
forty nine podcast. Follow them on Twitter at Hunter Underscore
Bailey forty five doing excellent work covering the Charlotte forty
nine ers as always. You know him by now. He's
(02:36):
a friend of the show. He's damned you're a family
member with the show.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Hunter. We appreciate the time. Man, how are you doing, Yes, sir,
doing good.
Speaker 7 (02:44):
Hoping for a little better game Saturday night.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Man, I know you are.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Oh yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
I really am hoping for it, and I think watching
this Duke's Mayo Classic against app State, it was somewhat
similar to what people were expecting in North Carolina. I mean,
you can talk talk about the North Carolina game last
night at a much more macro level, right you times
that by ten, But it's not all that dissimilar to
what we experienced as Charlotte fans, where we thought we
(03:10):
had a shot. We're seeing the beginning of a new
era with a different coach here, somebody that we all
believe in, and they come out flat and the offense
has nothing for us. You had bad quarterback play, you
had bad trench play that Tim Albin raise his hand
high for and said, hey, look, we got to take
responsibility for that. Here's what I want to know, Hunter,
(03:31):
what are the things you still believe in with this
forty nine ers team this year? And what are some
of the things that you think, Yeah that they were
issues in the first game and they're going to be
issues the rest of the way.
Speaker 7 (03:41):
Definitely, So I'll start things you're so good about, things
you believe in moving forward. So special teams definitely a
bright spot on our looked good. You didn't want to
see him as many times as we saw him. But
so sifty fifty seven yards. I thought the kick coverage
was good. They're not going to give up game changing,
backbreaking plays. I think you're you're gonna need that defense.
(04:05):
I think what you're looking at there Conley, Obviously some
of the guys in the secondary had decent days, but
they really need the front four to find the twys.
And I think that kind of transitions me into what
are you worried about this team? And that's the trench
play We had asked asked Tim Alvin before the season,
what are the strengths of the team, and he said
(04:25):
he thought the O and D line were the biggest strengths.
So offense offensive line played seven different guys. They were
kind of slotting and reslotting a little bit. I expect
to see some more of that as they kind of
try and play to their strengths. I think we will
see more quarterback runs. That was probably what I was
most confused about watching the offense Friday night, is you
(04:47):
start a dual threat quarterback and he really doesn't run
much until kind of games out of hand. You want
to see more there because at that point we've talked
on this pod loftus having the better arm, the quarterback
transfer from Duke. If you're gonna keep your guy in
the pocket and not do a lot of design TV
runs or rollouts for anything of that magnitude, a little
bit confusing on why you would go with Harol. But
(05:10):
like I say, I think you're going to see more
of that this weekend with Harold going up against his
old schools. But man, they're going to have to figure
out trenches on both sides of the ball, and I
think I mean on the D line, they've played a
ton of guys, and I think that number is going
to start to dwindle as they kind of figure out
who's the best and who's going to rise the rise
to the top as far as getting to the quarterback
(05:30):
and potentially stopped in the run Hunter.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
We had Tim albinon Thursday or Wednesday of last week,
I forget, but we had him on last week and
I asked him about the patients that he would have
with whoever he names starting quarterback. I think we knew
at that point that it was going to be Connor Harrel.
He was bad in Game one, no way around it.
He did say today about an hour ago in pressed
availability that Connor Harold was going to start again against
(05:54):
his former team. As you just mentioned, Look, I think
he's going to have patients. I just wonder how much
with Connor Harrell, especially with all of us expecting Grayson
Loftus was going to be that guy. How do you
think this QB position plays out?
Speaker 8 (06:08):
Definitely?
Speaker 7 (06:08):
I think if they go on and they were as
stagnant as they were on Friday night, I mean, the
problem with the drives, man, is you had four false
starts or holding calls on first down. I mean, they're
just derailing these drives. When you think about the first
play of the season being a false start, that kind
of encasculates what their offense looked like on Friday night.
(06:29):
You're gonna need to minimize the self inflicted wounds, right,
They're gonna need to get guys like Sean Brown involved.
I mean, he led the team in catches last year.
He had one target for one catch and that was
the team's first first down in their third series of
the game. Didn't have another target after that. I want
to see more from him. You had a couple of
good things going on with the receiver room. Justin Olsen
(06:50):
played well and j Mason played well, but they tim
Ovins said it, they need the guys to round the
quarterback to help elevate his game. And I think we
saw Harold do a little bit too much late in
the first half rolling to his right. There's nothing there
burn the ball lift to see another down. You throw
a crucial interception and there in business add more to
(07:12):
the deficit going on the halftime. So you want to
see something there that has to be improvement week one
to week two. Because Alvin did say today he still
wouldn't be shocked if we see Loftus or even zach
Wilk in the future. So I think if it continues
to be stagnan our offense, we could see a switch.
But one thing I thought for sure was when Harold
(07:33):
left the game at the end of the third quarter
on Friday and I thought we might see a quarter
of Grayson Loftus. But I think with Harold being a captain,
being a leader on this team, he had the ability
the opportunity to get back in and get some points
on the board in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
We know aj Swan looked fantastic against the Charlotte defense
and being a first time starter for app State and
app State looked good overall. I do want to ask
you this app State offense versus Charlotte defense, clearly Appstate
offense came out on top. Is that going to be
more you think as we move on about what app
State is as an entity or is it more about
(08:09):
Charlotte not being good defensively the rest of the way.
What do you think that's going to be more about
as we move on?
Speaker 8 (08:16):
Yeah, I thought the.
Speaker 7 (08:16):
Miss tackles were a huge problem Friday night and I
think that's what you get when maybe you don't tackle
as much in camp or that just being the first
game of the season. Like I've said before, I'd love
to see a joint practice or anything like that in
college fooble to kind of see what you have and
get some of those tackling in ahead of week one.
So Charlotte miss ten tackles Friday night. Like I said,
(08:38):
they played a ton of guys across the defensive line.
We saw Vicbarius Connelly, he played really well. We saw
Kerry Grant with a bunch of open field tackles. But
it really felt like Walker that at State dictated the
pace of the game.
Speaker 8 (08:50):
I mean, the up tempo.
Speaker 7 (08:52):
From start to finish. At Charlotte, out of place, missing assignments,
and then they really just if you can run the
ball onto when you can, you can take whatever it is.
So Charlotte sent for quite a bit trying to see
if they could get out of the quarterback early. But
when they would send the additional maybe five to six
players coming, aj Swan would just dice them up. I
(09:13):
think that says more about Appalachian State. I think they
have a really good offense. They had guys step up,
and honestly, the scoreboard could have been more loftsided than
it was with a couple plays called back and then
obviously Conley's big play to force that touchback early. So
I think Charlotte's defense will improve a little bit. I
still think the linebackers Shay Taylor Cayden Schmidt, who led
(09:35):
the team with nine tackles, are going to be the
strength of the defense, but they need somebody on the
interior defensive line to step up and stop that run.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
What were the main takeaways from Tim Albens press conference today.
Speaker 7 (09:47):
Yeah, I think they know what they're faced with Saturday.
Like he said, Bill Belichick is a goat. Obviously wasn't
a goat like performance in Week one, you know of
the Belichick team will improve on that. So they're excited
for the game. They're focusing on Charlotte, not beating Charlotte's
like I said, just goes back to penalties, being behind
(10:10):
the chains, and just ultimately not having explosive plays. Man.
I mean, they gave up eighteen explosives in that game
Friday night compared to their offense, which produced just four.
So if you're gonna be stagnant behind the chains with
penalties and you can't have you're not producing explosive offensive plays.
It's not gonna be. We were gonna see the punter
(10:31):
more and more so, don't beat Charlotte, get the run
game gone. Get CJ. Stokes in space and did talk
about that being his first live action.
Speaker 8 (10:40):
And over a year.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Excited to have.
Speaker 7 (10:42):
Him back and getting the rust off there. So I
think we'll see more of c J.
Speaker 8 (10:45):
Stokes.
Speaker 7 (10:46):
Sounds like Henry Rutland will likely be out another week
as he recovers from a lower body injury, so it'll
be a little bit until we see that spark plug
on offense. But I do think there is another gear
that they can get to when they figure out who's
the right personnel packages make this plays.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Hunter Bailey Charlotte Observer, Highway forty nine podcast. Follow him
on Twitter at Hunter Underscore Bailey forty five. We're talking
about the Charlotte forty nine ers. So this upcoming game
against North Carolina, Bill Belichick the goat, looking for his
first ever collegiate win as a head coach. He might
just get it at Jerry Richardson Stadium. It's unbelievable that
(11:21):
we're here, Hunter, like I can't wrap my brain around it.
I do want to ask you about the environment. The
best environments in my head. Maybe you can think of
a couple of other ones, ECU, Duke app State, the
first ever game against Campbell. What does this one rank
you think at the end or once we see kickoff?
(11:43):
Is it going to rival those environments? Is it going
to be better? I mean, it's Bill Belichick we're talking about.
How do you expect it to play out?
Speaker 7 (11:50):
Yeah, I think it'll be hard to beat the environments
of Duke and He see you just based off of
how those games went and how I think.
Speaker 8 (11:58):
This one will go.
Speaker 7 (12:00):
This is going to have They're hadding roughly twenty five
hundred extra seats, so there's going to be nearly eighteen
thousand fans there at Jerry Richardson Stadium Saturday night. You're
a fourteen, fourteen and a half point underdog against the
team that is coming to campus for the first time.
I mean, you met they met in chuckel Hill last year.
It was close for a half, the tar Hills pulled away.
(12:22):
If Charlotte can find a way to score early, like
I mean, they took the lead in that game against
that State I mean, Walker, they're up three to zero
with the ball and a chance to extend the lead
and just couldn't get anything going. So if they can
find a way to get out front Saturday night, they
got Chris Lane playing a concert on campus, You've got,
like I said, eighteen thousand fans. Cheapest pick up for
(12:43):
this game is like one hundred and forty bucks, which
is ridiculous.
Speaker 8 (12:46):
But overall, I.
Speaker 7 (12:48):
Think it could be the biggest game. They just need
to find a way to get out front and keep
this crowd in.
Speaker 8 (12:53):
Unlike kind of the.
Speaker 7 (12:54):
Tar Hills last night. I mean, they get out to
a seven er lead and then it just all melts down.
So we'll see what happens. Man, But it's gonna be tough.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
But you but you aren't expecting a mad house at
the beginning, and it's just about whether people file out
of the stadium by like third quarter. But you're you're
expecting a monster environment at the beginning of the game.
Speaker 7 (13:14):
One percent, dude, I think I think. I still think
maybe ECU last year was the hottest ticket in history,
but this will be this will be up there. I'm
looking forward to kind of what it's like and especially
known it's Alvin's first game at home. It's a lot
of these guys, I mean, fifty six fifty seven new
players first time at Richardson Stadium. So yeah, I think
it's gonna be.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Nuts final thing for me. Hunter, just injury report, what
you got for us?
Speaker 6 (13:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (13:36):
So Adam Hopkins sounds like he's still working his way back.
He's the receiver. Expect him to actually play quite a
bit when he's back in the fold. But Henry Reutlige
is the only other one that Tim Alban was mentioned,
and it doesn't sound like he'll be available. And I'm
glad that they came out and addressed it because when
I didn't see Henry Retlige that kick returner, punt returner
or running back, I needed some answers. So it sounds
(13:59):
like we'll know more on itself soon. But that's all phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Good stuff from Hunter Bailey, as always weekly when it's
Charlotte football season around here. Hunter Bailey, host of The
Highway forty nine podcast, writer for Charlotte Observer. Follow him
on Twitter at Hunter Underscore Bailey forty five. All right, man,
I see you there this weekend. I appreciate your time.
Once more, Yes, sair taking mon good stuff once more.
We'll put that interview on our website, by the way,
(14:23):
WFNZ dot com, and then you can get that interview
and all of our best dub segments, all of it
anywhere you get your podcast, Apple, Spotify. We mean it
when we say anywhere you get your podcast. We got
a couple more segments to go. It's the live wire
coming up next. Sports Radio ninety two to seven WFZ.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Pro Football in Charlotte just got a little more interesting
and getting ready for the game, just cut a lot
more fun. Joined Sports Radio ninety two point SEVENWFNZ and
a few of your favorite friends.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Before and after each and.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
Every home game, a DOWNFNC doghouse powered Vice Jack Daniels.
Whether it's Pro Football on a Sunday or Charlotte FC.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
During the week, the doghouse will be ready and waiting
for you with a variety of the very best in
Pepsi products, food and drink, ramp and nil kickoff the
Korean postging tail.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Gating has never been better, and you're invited to stop
by and party with us.
Speaker 5 (15:20):
And make sure you check out the all new Titos patio.
Speaker 9 (15:24):
Gend is always better at the WUFNC Doghouse. Only from
your friends at Jack Daniels, Pepsi, Titos and Sports Radio
ninety two point seven wfn.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
C, the official home of the Charlotte sports Fan.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
A couple more segments to go on Western Walker Sports
Radio ninety two seven w FNZ. Actually, okay, right, I
love calling audibles and radio. It's live, baby, We have
Smoke in the Chandler Volta Studios. CV Injury Law dot Com.
CV Injurylaw dot Com.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
One call.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
That's all the Carolinas personal injury lawyers. Here's what I
want to know. I want to do this if you
planned on doing this on Kyle's show, Smoke, I'm going
to need you to grab the microphone because it's gonna
If you planned on doing this in Kyle's show, I
don't want to blow up the material, but I do
kind of want to hear from Mac Brown on his
(16:33):
thoughts on last night's game. I don't know if this
was planned. I don't know if I'm blowing up the spot.
I don't want to steal content from Kyle. I mean, hell,
people can just listen to it again. But Mac Brown,
if you're willing, can you please share your thoughts on
what you were experiencing watching Carolina get beat down by
TCU and Bill Belichick's debut.
Speaker 10 (16:50):
Well, thank you very much for having me on your
pristine show. Walker.
Speaker 11 (16:54):
You know, I wasn't really watching a game because I
forgot because usually it's Labor Day and I don't expect
the tar Heels to play.
Speaker 10 (17:02):
But Sally told me at about nine pm.
Speaker 11 (17:04):
You know, I was watching some stuff on me TV
last night and reruns a gun smoke about the game,
and I checked it, and I'm like, apparently it's harder
to coach at North Carolina than people thought.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Yeah, you know, it's pretty hard, isn't it.
Speaker 11 (17:17):
I you know, the James Madison loss last year was
very bad for me, all right, And but I didn't
get blown out like that with all that national stuff.
I didn't get embarrassed like that in front of LT
in MJ.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Now, But Mac, are you doing better with those types
of resources than Bill Belichick? I mean, if they gave
you all that money they gave him, then you're not
getting beat by forty against TCU.
Speaker 11 (17:40):
Right, I don't see any first round picks on that roster, Walker,
That's right. I brought a couple of first round picks
to Chapel Hill that I do the best know, but
I also didn't get the resources I needed from those
idiots in Chapel Hill. They probably were getting too drunk
off the dockries last night and left at halftime and
had to wake up and saw it even got worse.
I saw the stands of that game. I'm like, that's
(18:02):
about all right. Bill's gonna have to get used to it,
you know. Uh, he's a good coach, but it's gonna
be very challenging. And you know, they said I was olden.
He's about the same age as me, so I don't
really get it. But you know, Sally and I are
gonna enjoy a game at Texas in the coming weeks.
They actually treat me with respect.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Before you get out of here, mag I do appreciate
your time. What's moret Flotder, do you have any questions
for Mac Brown? Your's the how's the Texas podcast going?
I know you and Vince Young have started up a
Texas podcast. How's that been going well?
Speaker 11 (18:32):
When Vince isn't, you know, taking in libations? I think
they're pretty good right now. No, but you know, talk
about Arch you know wasn't the best performance, but you
know they lost a hard fought game to Ohio State
team that just came off a national title.
Speaker 10 (18:48):
I think they'll be good for North Carolina.
Speaker 11 (18:51):
I'm glad that North Carolina and the tar Hill fans
or in the Bible Belt, because they're gonna need to
be praying every single Sunday.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
That's Mag Brown. I close my eyes. Mac Brown is
in the Chandler vault to studios with us. That's just
how it is. Thank you very much, Max for joining us.
Speaker 6 (19:05):
And those thoughts may honestly be what was running through
Max Brown's mind.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
I mean, I don't.
Speaker 6 (19:12):
I think for some of his players that were on
the team last night, he felt bad, but I think
part of him was smiling to himself, saying I would
have done better than this.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
And I gotta be honest with you.
Speaker 6 (19:25):
I know there are gonna be a lot of Tarial
fans that are gonna get mad about this.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
I don't know that he's wrong. I really don't, are we.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Yeah, that's the interesting part because Mac Brown had lost
it a little bit in recruiting. But do you think
a Mac Brown coach team last night has more talent
out there?
Speaker 1 (19:45):
On the football field than what we saw. Probably yes.
Speaker 6 (19:49):
And the thing is is that if mac Brown stays,
then you don't have the Max exodus that you had.
You do keep a lot of guys around, and it
probably does and look nearly as bad now.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 6 (20:02):
We could be sitting here saying at the end of
this year. We could be sitting here saying at the
end of next year that this is crazy. But I mean, yeah,
it's it is hard not to think about that as
a Tario fan when you sit here today.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Would this have looked that bad under Mac Brown? Well,
I don't.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
I hate to do this to you, but not really,
because you were there. I actually want your thoughts. So
maybe we just threw out the live wire today because
a lot of the sound that we have. Anyway, we
can get back to some Panthers stuff, but this is
big stuff watching Bill Belichick come to Chapel Hill and
lose in spectacular fashion. Okay, Like I want more thoughts
from you and Fiddy who were there in Chapel Hill
(20:42):
to experience everything. Fiddy I heard a lot from him.
He talked about how it was an environment unlike he's
ever seen before at ar campus for football specifically. Now,
I'll be honest, watching it, it felt huge, Okay, it
felt ridiculous. I guess maybe it's hard to compare it
(21:02):
to the LSU Clemson game because it's not Death Valley,
which is also crazy.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
I was trying to grade on a curve to some degree.
Speaker 10 (21:10):
This is not that.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
This is not a big time college football playoff stakes
type of matchup, and so I need to grade accordingly.
But anybody that was there for the most part said,
it's an environment unlike I've ever seen before. How would
you characterize it compare to anything else you've seen?
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah, it was crazy. I mean it was.
Speaker 6 (21:28):
As I put in the article that will go up
later on this afternoon on heeltofblog dot com recapping the game,
I mean, they did everything right. Leading up to the game,
they did everything right. They returned to the old well
walk did that. You have the Chase Rice concert, a
(21:51):
lot of people out there for that, created a tailgate
environment with that, and then the tailgate environment that was
around Keenan Stadium phenomenal. You did everything that you had
to do right off the field to make it feel big,
and the team came out and just laid an egg.
(22:11):
And that's what really kills it, because this is the thing.
You will not see that the rest of the year.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
People are done. They quit.
Speaker 6 (22:20):
I know this fan base, this fan base will quit
on this team after one game. It's sad, but it's
the reality of the situation. And I just you know,
I cannot believe with how high the vibes were. I
said this, I mean we both said it when we
were sitting there. Nobody could have seen this outcome. Nobody
(22:44):
doesn't matter. I didn't expect them to get beat by forty. No,
nobody thought they'd lose by thirty four. Man, I don't
care to exaggerate too right, but I don't care who
you are. Nobody saw that coming. Even the most optimistic
State fans, we're hoping that it would be a disaster.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
They did not see that coming.
Speaker 6 (23:04):
They thought a loss in the first game would be
damaging enough to Carolina. This this is the nightmare for
Tarial fans and the dream for most of the rest
of the nation.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Who does not want this to be a storyline. They don't.
Speaker 6 (23:20):
And I don't know how long, how much longer it's
going to be a storyline because that schedule, that looked
really easy.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
That schedule doesn't look nearly as easy as we sit here.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
The thing that's helping them the most because it still
is a really easy schedule. What you have with North
Carolina still is you have a road game against Charlotte
this weekend, You have Richmond next weekend. You have UCF
on the road. Clemson, of course, is going to be
a tall task. Nobody has them beating Clemson. Cow looks
a little harder, yep. Virginia looks a little harder, yep, Syracuse.
(23:56):
It's one of those things will look terrible. You respect
their situation more than they really impressed you in the
opening game.
Speaker 6 (24:03):
Remember I had them losing that game even before what happened.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
You did last night, Stanford, you know should be I
would say you still should be.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
We would hope wake Forest probably a little easier than
what you expected with them only having a one point
victory over Kennesas State. But then you get to back
to back games. I mean, just Duke n C State
is the first time you're playing both of those programs
to end the season. I believe I remember doing the math.
It was like since two thousand and six or something, ridiculous.
(24:34):
I mean, it's been a long time since you end
the season on a double banger like that Duke NC
State with I mean ball eligibility on the line. So
you have Charlotte, you have Richmond. Look, it could be there.
I still think that you're going to be a ball
eligible team. I don't feel great about it, but I
(24:57):
still think you're going to be a ball eligible team.
But that's the expectations have shifted drastically. The schedule. It's
still easy. All of the teams that impressed you in
the ACC this past weekend, they're not on the schedule
really man, like I guess Virginian Cal those But in
terms of making big statements, right, you don't have Florida State.
(25:18):
You don't have to worry about that. Yeah, you don't
have Miami, you don't have to worry about them. So
when we shift the narrative on the ACC discussing, look,
they're kind of good. You already had Clemson who lost.
They were the team that didn't take care of business
in terms of the top heavy nature of it all.
So you still have them. That was always going to
be an L. It's the only L West had after
(25:38):
having them going eleven and one. So that's the thing
still helping this Carolina football team.
Speaker 6 (25:43):
Yeah, I mean that's the one reason to believe is
that the schedule is going to get easier. You would
imagine that this team is going to get better as
the year goes along. But I do think you have
to question just how good is the talent on this team.
You did bring in a lot of guys that, you know,
especially on the defensive side of the ball, we're not
full time starters from their previous stops. You brought in
(26:05):
a lot of guys on that side of the balls
that come from the group of five level. I mean,
you've also got guys on on that offensive line that
come from the group of five level, the FCS level,
that are coming up to play on your offensive line.
Those were the areas there where they were really dominated.
And that's something that hopefully gets better as the season
(26:28):
goes along.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
But is it a guarantee.
Speaker 6 (26:31):
No, And so that's that's the where you're at mindset
wise for Carolina. Like it's hard not to be negative today,
Like I get it. There are some people that are
still uber positive. There are you know a lot of
guys that are committed through the recruiting class have said,
you know, look, it's just it's one game.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Let's see how it works. You know, Bryce Johnson believe
it or not.
Speaker 6 (26:54):
A lot Oftorial football players very very negative about the game.
Most those people saying, I mean Trey Boston literally just
saying right out, UNC is still UNC. But Bryce Johnson said, hey, man,
first game that Bill Belichick coached at the NFL level,
he got blown out too.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
So maybe this is how it works. I don't know.
Maybe it is, but it's you know, it's not crazy.
Speaker 6 (27:19):
I think it's okay to shift your floor and ceiling
for this team based off of what we saw last night.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
The floor with this team is four wins. This team
could win four.
Speaker 6 (27:31):
Games this year, Yeah, it's very possible. But this team,
I mean, could they still win eight games?
Speaker 8 (27:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (27:38):
I think that with enough changes it can happen. It's
the wide range of outcomes that I had going into
this year. I just didn't know it was so much new.
I had zero clue on what I could depend on
going into this season. The wide range of outcomes for me,
it probably was anywhere from six wins as the lowest amount,
because the schedule was that easy. I do think now
(28:01):
that shifts down basically the window of six to ten.
I didn't think ten was on the table. I didn't
think eleven was, but six to ten, I think you
shift that down a couple of games. Yep, So now
I think it's probably instead of six to ten, I
think now you're probably looking at four to eight, and
eight is the absolute best case scenario because I just
can't like the team that I saw last night playing
(28:23):
against what I believe to be a college football playoff contender.
I think they're gonna be that good. I have all
that kind of high hopes for them. Look if their
defensive line, I guess you could say North Carolina's offensive
line was terrible, but their defensive line was mollywopping guys
like it looked nasty upfront for.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
A lot of the game. Yeah, Oh, they deserve a
lot of credit. That's the thing.
Speaker 6 (28:42):
Don't get it lost in this and it will because
everybody's focused on Carolina. TCU did some really good things,
Like who knows if this running game is able to
run the football the way that they did last night,
Maybe not two hundred and fifty eight yards a game,
but if they're able to run the football, and they
found something in the They have a chance to be
(29:02):
a really good team because you you mentioned it, they've
got one of the best quarterbacks in the country.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
Josh Hoover, is really that dude?
Speaker 3 (29:10):
I just don't know who else you can depend on
in terms of talent at any position right now. You
can't depend on your quarterback because even if you think
go Lopez is still good today, is he good in
this system you pay two million dollars for? It still
does not fit. It doesn't make any sense. It's a
very You're investing so much in a guy that you're
(29:32):
asking to do something very different. If you're gonna pay
somebody two million dollars, then why aren't you asking him
to do the thing that allowed him to earn two
million dollars?
Speaker 6 (29:41):
Felt like a panic move, right, It felt like they
did not have their guy in the spring well that
panicked and said, yeah, we're gonna give him a shot.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Bring up the timing of it all. I don't think
that's been discussed nearly enough. And here's the other thing.
Are we sure it was pure gamesmanship not named the
starting quarterback? This laid into the process. Yeah, yeah, I
mean that is certainly on the table, man.
Speaker 6 (30:07):
I mean, I think we thought it was an easy
layup that Goo Lopez was going to be the guy,
and I think based off of the film that they
had saw, maybe the staff thought the same thing.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
But maybe once they got into camp they took a
look and said, whoa.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Here's what makes sense to me. Just all speculation, here's
what makes sense to me, Bryce Baker, isn't it doesn't
look the part right now?
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Not yet?
Speaker 10 (30:32):
Not yet?
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Right?
Speaker 8 (30:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (30:33):
Right?
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Right?
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Does it look the part right now? So we're not
going to have him as the starter. We still got money.
We need to go out and we need to go
find a quarterback that we can feel good about, or
at least one that's talented and one that I think
I can groom into being a star in my system
or at least average in my system. Who is that guy?
Goo Lopez is still out there? Cool, let's bring him in.
(30:56):
That was in the spring. When was that when they
brought go Lopez in?
Speaker 8 (30:59):
What month?
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Yeah? Remember spring?
Speaker 6 (31:01):
You remember we were we were out at Hornet's exit
interview days so that they were starting to talk about
I guess right, and then yeah, all of a sudden,
here comes this report about Go Lopez.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
That was around that time. That to me shows a
team that panicked.
Speaker 6 (31:18):
They looked at the market that they had, They said,
Nico probably wanting a little too much money. We're going
to stay away from him, which, by the way, that's
not looking like the worst idea either. No, and they decided,
let's try to make Geo Lopez fit.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
So this is what makes sense to me. You pick
him up later, You pick up Goo Lopez because he's
the quarterback you feel the best about.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
You mentioned the Nico of it all, that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
You try to groom him into being a quarterback that
handles the snap under center, despite him having not done
that at South Alabama. Okay, but you give Bill Belichick,
this genius enough time, and Bill having a lot of
pride in what he's able to do, he thinks he
can fix this guy into this system. So one month
goes by, two months go by, all right, He's he's
(32:06):
still not passed Max Johnson. He still hasn't passed Max Johnson,
still hasn't done it. We want to give him every
opportunity to outright earn the starting job, but it still
hasn't happened. It still hasn't happened. Now, even with gamesmanship
being thrown in there, we can pass it off as
that not wanting to give TCU much too much heads
up on what we're going to do at that spot.
(32:27):
But really it's Max Johnson looks better because he's handled
this type of system before, and then you just trot
Geo Lopez out there anyway, and it looks like that.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
That's that's something that makes sense to me. Yeah, no,
I agree one hundred percent.
Speaker 6 (32:43):
I think you there is a good chance that they
got into camp they watched and the other thing to
remember with Max was Max was coming off the severe
leg injury. So even when he first got back out
there was Max at his best. Probably not, yeah, he
probably having to sort of get himself back into a
rhythm and everything like that. But I do wonder as
(33:05):
they went along and they started to get to a
certain point, did they look and say, you know what,
this really might be a legitimate quarterback battle. Max knows
how to run this offense a little bit better. Geo
is a guy that is still learning how to run
this style of offense. And but but ultimately, what it
have probably come down to, we paid this due two
(33:27):
point one.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
That's that at least gives you that's at least the
tipping point. Yes, if it's between both of these guys
and you invested two millions, I mean it's a lot
of money.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Man, I don't I don't know. I will say, you
can't let that stand.
Speaker 6 (33:42):
If you believe right now you're sitting here today and
we'll talk about this more, if you guys want to
tune in on the heel Top blog podcast tonight. If
you believe eight o'clock. By the way, if you agree
and you agree with what we're saying, and you believe
that Maxjohnson is the guy that can win you games
right now, you've got to do it. You've got a
(34:05):
seventy three year old head coach. This is not Steven
Belichick taking over and learning on the fly how to
be a head coach. This is a seventy three year
old learning on the fly how to be a head coach.
If you believe he can run this offense better and
it's going to be more efficient, then go with the man.
You've got Geo Lopez for two years. He could always
(34:28):
be your guy next year, and it gives him more
time he could be your guy later. This season if
he gets to that point. But if he is not
the guy right now that gives you the best chance
to win against Charlotte, You've got to roll with Max Johnson.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
You can't care about that monetary value.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
He can or change the scheme and adapt to your
player's skill set.
Speaker 6 (34:50):
But the other three that you do wonder is Ken
Freddy Kitchens run an offense like that, and Freddy Kitchens
is an NFL coordinator.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
And Bill Belich an NFL head coach.
Speaker 6 (35:01):
Yes, so I don't know if he has anything different.
Maybe that is his system and that's what he wants
to do.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Yeah, it's fascinating to see just how it happened, to
see the way that it looked, to see the decisions
that were made, to see the fundamentals not be taken
care of. That's the wild part about all of this.
And I expected t see you to win. I thought
winning by two touchdowns was realistic. I did not think
losing by over thirty was all that realistic. Heading in
(35:29):
to game one, it's Western Walker Flounder filling in for
the last hour. We tell you what's on tap coming
up next on the Walk Off Sports Radio ninety two
to seven.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
WFNZ. Are you challenge me to a walk off? Oh yeah,
that's a walk off challenge, my friend. It's a walk off.
(35:58):
A walk off.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Minutes ago on westn Walker Sports Radio ninety two to
seven w FNZ. Let's not waste any time. Let's go
ahead and tell you what's on tap. It's presented by
Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks has locations in Concord and Fort
Mill and Twin Peaks is your local sports lodge. You
could come in from May from Scratch Food and signature
twenty nine degree draft beers. The Atlanta Braves play the
(36:20):
Chicago Cubs tonight, Atlanta sixty two and seventy six on
the year after they fall to Chicago in Game one
of that series. Last night, they lost seven to six,
and it was a wild victory for Chicago, with Carson
Kelly hitting a tying two run homer in the eighth inning,
and then there was a game ending single in extras
(36:41):
the tenth to be exact, that is what allowed Chicago
to get that victory. Perhaps a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny
tiny sliver of good news for you, the Mets fan
having to deal with the Carolina loss last night.
Speaker 6 (36:54):
Yeah, I mean it certainly. You know, anytime that the
Braves lose, it is warning for the Mets. But we're
kind of focused on ourselves and the Mets did win yesterday.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
But uh, yeah, that's a tough series.
Speaker 10 (37:07):
Man.
Speaker 6 (37:07):
The Cubs are playing for something right now. They're still
trying to make sure that they are secure in the
wildcard so and I mean, I guess.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
They could still technically catch the Brewers.
Speaker 6 (37:18):
The Brewers are right now the best team in the
regular season, maybe in all of baseball. They are phenomenal,
So I don't know if that's possible that they're going
to be able to catch them. But they're still playing
for something, so this could be a pretty pretty rough
series for the Braves.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
Braves send Joey Wentz to the mound five and four
on the year four nine two era show to Ima Naga.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Is that how he pronounce his name?
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Yes, for Chicago eight and six on the year three
oh eight e R So impressive stuff from him. An
under one whip okay, showed, Yeah, not bad.
Speaker 6 (37:50):
He is one of their h one of their better pitchers,
I think he if I remember correctly, he is their ace.
So that is certainly, uh, you know, a guy that's
going to be very difficult for the Braves hitters facing him.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
So we'll see.
Speaker 6 (38:03):
Man, the Cubs, they really need these wins, so we'll
see if Atlanta has anything for him.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
Yeah, being dealt some bad luck here in terms of
decisions for Shoda because he's gone seven innings in each
of his last three starts, has not allowed more than
three earned runs. But that whip Man, if you've got
a below one whip on the season this late into
the year, goodness gracious, shout out to Shoda. It's always
interesting for yours truly to just study up on some
(38:30):
baseball stats every now and then and be completely shocked
by some of the best players in the game. And
I just don't know who the stars as anymore pre
twenty seventime.
Speaker 6 (38:41):
I gotta be honest, I don't really keep up with
it that much ass on of my own team either.
It's so critical, right because we follow all these other leagues.
Like you follow college football, so in depth you follow
college basketball, so in depth you follow you know, the NFL,
so in depth for you, you follow the NBA.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
So it's like, where do you have time to keep
up with all this other stuff? You're telling me. Carlos
Zambrano is not the ace for Chicago anymore.
Speaker 10 (39:07):
Believe it or not, he is.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
He has moved on. You Darvish. You Darvish is still there, right,
He is not still there.
Speaker 6 (39:13):
He's still in the league, believe it or not. But
he's not pitching well unfortunately for him.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
I don't know that, all right. First pitch for that game,
I just lost it. I think it's at seven forty
that's right. So the first pitch for that game is
at seven forty PM. Some Panthers news coming in a
little while ago addressed it. But with all the Bill
Belichick storyline stuff we had to talk about, we only
mentioned it in passing. But according to Jeremy Fowler, we
(39:40):
have the sound on this right. You want to play
it for the walk off? Maybe if you want to
find it? Yeah, all right, so Jeremy Fowler, I'll set
it up. Jeremy Fowler, NFL insider for ESPN, actually joined
a Dallas radio station and discussed one oh five to three.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
The ticket discussed how.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Dan Morgan did inquire about trading for Micah Parsons before
Parsons was dealt to Green Bay and Derek Brown was
on the table or except talks broke down, I should say,
excuse me, when Dallas requested Derek Brown.
Speaker 8 (40:09):
Yeah, we never got the full list. I know the
Carolina Panthers inquired. They did not make a formal offer,
but they didn't inquire. So they were in talks, and
you know, we heard some whispers from league circles that
Micah had interest in certain teams. Green Bay was won,
but like a little bit of Baltimore, a little bit
of Kansas City, Philadelphia, but we never really Some of
(40:31):
those teams didn't look into it, really, I know Kansas
City didn't. There wasn't a lot of momentum in some
of those other teams. But Carolina did look into it,
and Dallas would have had reason to look into that
because Derek Brown, you know, star defensive tackle. They were
looking for those type of players, those interior d linemen,
so that made some sense. So Caroline ultimately didn't want
(40:52):
to move Brown and didn't move on that.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
All right, So Jeremy Faller there it is Jeremy Fowler
pretty tapped in to the Panthers organization as well that
you hear nuggets of information coming out of that organization.
Fowler is oftentimes the guy that is breaking that sort
of news, and so there you go, interesting stuff. I
think one thing we're able to take away from the
sound rather than some of the ride ups, is him
(41:15):
mentioning there were teams that Michael wanted to go play for.
There's always been that link to the Panthers. There's always
been a little flirtatious nature between Micah and Carolina where
he talked about, oh, I wanted t Maac to come
to Dallas. He talked about how much he liked I
think what playing with Carolina or pulling for Carolina back
in the day, having some riding interest in them, and
(41:37):
so Micah maybe he wanted to come to Carolina. I
don't know that would have been interesting. But Dan Morgan
not willing to deal Derek Brown and that trade negotiations
your thoughts real quickly to end the show on what
you would have done if you're Dan Morgan and Jerry
Jones is asking for Derek Brown.
Speaker 6 (41:52):
I'm gonna tell you, man, this is as tough of
a decision as you could have because Micah Parsons is
truly one of the best edge ushers in the game,
if not the best ed rusher in the game when
you just talk about pure edge rushers, you would have
to have the conversation. But my thing would be how
much does Micah really help us in the run game.
(42:15):
I don't know that he helps us that much. We
saw how bad of a team we were without Derek
Brown last year. Are we really willing to part ways
with that? That's probably a little bit too much, we
said the other day when we were out at the doghouse.
If they asked for j. C. Horn, maybe it's a
different conversation. But if Derek Brown was the guy that
(42:37):
they were locked in on, Yeah, I love what Micah
Parsons is. Along with the draft picks that you would
have to give up, I'm probably good.
Speaker 3 (42:48):
Along with two high end draft picks and Derek I'm
doing it. You can't replace him right in the draft.
If you're going first round pick and Derek Brown, and
that's it, I'm pulling the trigger. If you're doing first
and third or something higher with that third and Derek Brown,
I think that's where I draw the line. I can't
give you two valuable draft picks and Derek Brown. That's
(43:09):
probably where Walker Mails negotiation side of the negotiation would end.
Interesting stuff Panthers season starting this weekend. With all of
the noise surrounding college football right now, we will start
to shift a little bit more over to Carolina Panthers
side of things with a few days of.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
The rest of the way. Yeah it really is.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
Yeah, there's heavy well spae or Flounder. We will at
least at some point and get to Carolina Charlotte football stuff,
but we will start to focus more so on the
Carolina Panthers side of things. It's the Kyle Bailey Show
coming up next alongside Mac Brown, Smoke Ludwig. Sports Rated
ninety two seven WFNZ.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
Listen to the Wes and.
Speaker 4 (43:50):
Walker Show we teas from noon to three only on
Sports Radio ninety two point seven FM ufn Z, the
Speaker 5 (43:57):
Official home of the Charlotte Sports Span
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Charlie is America's hardest working grassroots activist who has your inside scoop on the biggest news of the day and what's really going on behind the headlines. The founder of Turning Point USA and one of social media's most engaged personalities, Charlie is on the front lines of America’s culture war, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of students on over 3,500 college and high school campuses across the country, bringing you your daily dose of clarity in a sea of chaos all from his signature no-holds-barred, unapologetically conservative, freedom-loving point of view. You can also watch Charlie Kirk on Salem News Channel