August 4, 2025 • 44 mins
In the third hour of the show, Walker and Flounder talk about the struggles that Tetairoa McMillan has had with physicality at the LOS, discuss some of the best dive bars in Charlotte, react to some of the best audio in local sports and walk it off with 'What's on Tap'.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to the Wes and Walker show. You know
what that sounds like? To me? What does it sound like?
It's west sounds.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Like any artist I did and want to be artists
want to stay a start, don't have to worry about
the executive producer being all in the video, all in
the records, dancing come to death Row.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
That's what that sounds like to me.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And Walker. I take it by your blank expression. You
might not be very familiar with that quote.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Wes.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I'm not gonna lie to you. I have no clue
what you're talking about. It's one of the most famous
and you're a hip.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hop pit only on sports radio ninety two point seven
FM WFNZ.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
I evenne that, I'm sure you get.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, Flounder, do you.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Have a problem with algorithms just non stop finding themselves?
Like you look at one thing, you talk about one thing,
and then immediately it pops up. And not only does
it pop up just one it's there in your algorithms,
whatever ad we're talking about, it's there for the next
month or so, and you just can't get rid of it.
Speaker 5 (01:08):
Oh yeah, No, I mean Twitter is the absolute worst
with any type of video that you even just accidentally
click on or that pops up as the next video
of a video that you were watching. Now that's my
whole timeline for the next month or so.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
I hate it when an ad gets me because there
are some things that the algorithms have right, and I
can't help but click on it because I am interested,
and I'm going to look at the price. And let's
just say that I explore that for thirty seconds and
that's it. It doesn't matter that ad will pop up
every time I doom scroll for the next month. There
is one ad that keeps popping up, and it's one
(01:46):
that I think our listenership will find pretty funny.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Chockos Man.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Ever since talking about these damn Chocos, these Jesus sandals,
every single time, chockos now infiltrate whatever website them on,
Like I clicked on on three to read this breaking
news that we're about to get to in just a moment.
But there is a big old, big old Chaco shoe
looking at me dead straight, right in the eyes, right
(02:13):
in my face. And I just can't get rid of
the Choco ads, like I can't get rid of them. Also,
there's a certain brand of coffee. I got clicked on
it one time because it was banana bread flavor, and
I love banana bread, oh god, one of the more
underrated flavors things out there. And if you're giving me
banana bread coffee, then I'm all the way in, Like
I'm diving into the deep end of the banana bread coffee.
(02:35):
But now that's been on my algorithms for like the
last month. So anyways, Yeah, the chacos, not beating the
bougie allegations, not beating the white pasty pails.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Did you liked the chacos? Did they work?
Speaker 6 (02:46):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:46):
My god, they were great. I'm sorry they were. They
were really good.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
They were they stylish enough for you?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I mean they I liked them, you know, I did,
and I saw I waited for the right ones, and
I I didn't just pull the trigger because I needed
them in order to go hiking walking around the mountains,
and they're great for that. I was fishing in the
creek a little bit, so I needed something that was
water resistant. These are, and so they were great. I
(03:13):
can see why people are all in on the Choco brand.
I just I'm not beating any allegations of who I
might be also like I don't understand. So you you
bought something.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
I guess because you brought it up, it puts it
in the algorithm. But if you've already brought them, like,
don't give me other stuff that I.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Need exactly exactly I've already purchased them. Like now you
think got yeah, you got me. You think I have
a Choco issue? No, no, no, no, no, please please you
think I have an issue? I would like to actually
be given something else. I don't need another pair and
I just need to move away, all right? Speaking of
on three, as I just brought up on three, they
(03:53):
just dropped an article some breaking news here. Dan Gavitt
released a statement on NCAA tournament expansion timelines is for
twenty twenty six. The tournament expansion is off the table,
so they announced that it will not happen in twenty
twenty six. The expectation is that they will resume talks
for twenty twenty seven and beyond should expansion happen for
(04:14):
March Madness, but it will not happen for the upcoming season.
ESPN's Pete Thamil previously reported in late June that there
could be a decision coming in the next few weeks
as the meeting approached. Ultimately, no decisions came down in July,
and now Dan Gabbett made it official that expansion will
not happen moving forward, at least not for the upcoming year.
(04:36):
So I love this. I think it's great news. I
want to hold on to sixty eight teams as much
as possible. Hell, if you wanted to go back to
sixty four, I would be in favor of that.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Six ydate's fine.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I'm not here to give you some strong take to
go back to sixty four whatever.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
I just don't want to expand.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
And I know that the talks are to go to
seventy two, to go to seventy six.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
But what happens is we just.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Where does it stop?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
That's the point, because if the reason for expanding is
all monetary, then what's the reason to stop at seventy six?
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Right like I do.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
If it's because of the financial gain that comes with
expanding as much as possible, more games whatsoever, then is
there a stopping point? That's what I get afraid of.
That's what I'm afraid of. So at least we hold
on to the current landscape for another season, and I
can't tell you though, that I'm all that confident that
will continue with a sixty eight team field in twenty
(05:35):
twenty six, twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
At some point it's going to happen.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
Oh yeah, They're going to expand the field because they
know that they can make more money. They know that
people are not going to stop watching the NCAA tournament,
and we're going to be putting teams in that do
not ultimately deserve a shot at a national title. I mean,
that's That's the thing to me that I think is
most frustrating is if you're expanding the tournament field to
seventy two, does that mean that you're adding more at
(05:59):
large bids and those teams are gonna have to play
in the first round of the tournament or are you
gonna once again have all the sixteen seeds basically have
to play in an in and at large to get
into the field, which I think is unfair.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
I've said it before.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
I think that it should be all at large teams
that should be in Dayton. If you won your conference tournament,
I don't care how small your conference is, you should
be locked into the NCUBA tournament field.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
But they won't do it.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I don't.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
To me, it doesn't make sense because regardless we're gonna watch.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
But yeah, we'll see.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
I know it's coming, and I know it's only it's
gonna reach as you mentioned, it'll be oh, we'll get
to seventy six. Then we'll be like, wait a second,
what about eighty. We're going to get to a point
where you will be putting teams that are at five
hundred in the regular season in the nc DOUBLEA tournament
and giving them a chance to win a national chance.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
And we got close just with a five hundred conference record.
This past selection process has under five hundred.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah, it was it. Oklahoma was under five hundred.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
Texas I believe was under five hundred in the SEC.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
So I mean we're getting there.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
We're getting to these teams that are on the bubble
already that are three four games over five hundred. That's
we can't put those teams in the NCAA tournament and
think about.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Who this is benefiting.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
It is benefiting some monster logos like Oklahoma, like Texas,
and like North Carolina, who benefits from expanding sixty four
to sixty eight. They just do Like I had no
problem with North Carolina getting in the field last year.
We can go back to Bubba Cunningham being the chair
and also Bubba cunning.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Oh, come on, let's not relive that moment.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Yeah, because again, and I was on you and Fitty
side here, Bubba Cunningham did not put Carolina in two
years prior when they were on the bubble, and yet
Cunningham was still there.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
He was the leader of all of this. But you
get the point.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Those are still big time logos, big time schools that
were discussing whether they should be let in, and yet
they are the schools that do get in. They find
themselves with the ability to compete, to move on to
the next round, make a Sweet sixteen run, And okay
like that. I don't want those logos. I don't want
those brands to get in just because, well, all right,
(08:20):
we're gonna get a lot more eyeballs.
Speaker 5 (08:22):
They are.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
They're gonna get a lot more eyeballs than Boise State's
going to. Even if Boise State has this much better
record in conference and you know, maybe does a lot
better in future years, whatever the Boise State equivalent is,
maybe they do a lot better in conference than what
North Carolina does. Because it's clearly a much harder conference
acc Big twelve. You get the idea, but really we
(08:43):
all understand what it is. They're trying to benefit the
big time brands, and we saw it even at play
this past year.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
Yeah, I mean, they're they're not expanding the tournament field
to put in teams like you know, a couple of
years ago Indiana State. They're not putting Robbie Avila in
the tournament and put and allowing that team, which was
a very successful team in the Missouri Valley Conference, to
play for a championship. No, they're going to put in
(09:08):
a team from a power conference that is three or
four games above five hundred, that barely deserves to be
playing in their conference tournament, let alone the NC DOUBLEA tournament.
And that's where you know, that's where I get frustrated
with this strategy. If you're wanting to put in more
of those teams like a Drake, like an Indiana State,
some of these teams that are right on the outside
(09:31):
looking in, teams that have really great performances in the
regular season in these smaller conferences and just don't get
rewarded because they're one bid leagues.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
I'm okay with that.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
It's when you start getting to some of these teams
that don't deserve to be in the NC DOUBLEA tournament
and you're saying, no, we're putting them in because we
believe that you're gonna make money. That's I mean, yeah,
that's not the reason to always expand this is what
we like about the NC DOUBLEA, you know, postseasons.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Is that they're so selective.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
You have to perform well to be able to get
into these postseasons. That's what's special about it. It shouldn't
them justifying it by saying, oh, professional sports does it. Yeah,
there are professional sports teams that get into the playoffs
that don't deserve to be into the play in the playoffs.
We've said it before, and we've that's part of the
reason we want some of the reseting in these professional
(10:21):
playoffs is because certain teams don't deserve to make the postseason.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
So I don't understand wanting to become more like the pros.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
All right, let's move on. Let's continue to go over
some of the Joe person comments. He did not seem
nearly as gung ho about tam Mac's training camp to
this point. In the first two weeks. Let's actually play
some sound here. Te Mak himself had comments about his resilience.
We played this earlier in the show, but just in
case you missed it, let's play Team Mac discussing maybe
(10:51):
the slow start to camp and the resilience to bounce back.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
But I think it's a confidence.
Speaker 6 (10:55):
At the end of the day. You know, sometimes even
the best get got, you know, sometimes you get exposed.
But just being able to be confident in your preparation,
being able to be confident your abilities, you know, the
confidence is going to.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Take you as far as as you wanted to take you.
Speaker 6 (11:10):
So I feel like that's where, you know, my resilience
come from for sure.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
So early on, there's a slow start.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
The number one issue that he has reported by Joe
and everybody else, even Dave Canalis is talking about it.
The number one issue that he has right now is
getting off press coverage. If somebody is physical with him
at the line of scrimmage, then he is struggling to
have a nice enough release. And you know, there's not
a lot of time to operate every single snap. You
got to get downfield, you've got to get into your route.
Prett damn quickly. A better offensive line will help that
(11:40):
for sure. And Joe is also right, Dave Canalis can
put t Mac in advantageous situations for him to win
a little easier. But the reality is football is football
is football, and somebody might be able to get up
at the line of scrimmage put his hands on you,
as Joe described, having a big frame for defenders to
put their hands on you, and they knock you off
(12:01):
your spot. And it's not the cleanest of routes. It's
not the cleanest of releases. And now everything is knocked off,
especially if you're the number one option, number two, you
get the idea.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
So it's an issue for sure.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
It's also the first two weeks of training camp for
a rookie that steps on to an NFL football field
for the first time, so nobody needs to be panicking
about it. And it's not that he's had a bad camp.
I think he's had a good one. I don't know
if Joe would have described it as good. He continues
to describe it as somewhat of a mixed bag for him.
Were you surprised at the tone or the mood the
(12:34):
vibes surrounding his comments compared to really the fan base
is feeling about him, which I think is quite high.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Yeah, little.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
I mean, I think what's interesting is that he's seen
more of him than we have, so I think, you know,
for the fan base, yeah, you might be excited by
some of the some of the highlight catches that we've
seen from him. It's been pointed out that he's making
some plays, But what's happening when he's not making plays?
Is he a guy that is getting shut down at
certain times? And then because they are just taking so
(13:02):
many reps, he's a guy that's shining. I don't think
it necessarily means he's having a bad camp, But what
I'm saying is is that I do think that that
is certainly an issue that if Joe is pointing it
out as strongly as he is, then it's something that, yeah,
we should probably be a little bit worried about.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
It's the reason why I think he could get off to.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
A slow start to the season, because I think he's
going to be learning on the fly. I think there
will be teams that will be able to exploit that
area of his game. Him being a guy that's not
strong at getting off the line of scrimmage. But I
think as the season goes along, you will see him
start to learn. And the thing is is that when
you have something that you need to get better at,
(13:44):
the only way to expose that is to see it
over and over again and learn, Okay, this is finally
something that I need to address.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
We're two weeks in, man, it's still early.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
I think, you know, maybe playing in some of these
preseason games, they'll be able to realize it as well.
That's why I hope they play him a decent amount
so he can really realize, hey, man, I need to
learn how to be able to get off this line
of scrimmage a lot better than I am right now.
But the other thing is it's not something that we
didn't already know about him. Like if this was something
(14:15):
that the coaching staff is just finding out and they're saying, whoa,
this is an issue we didn't see in the pre
draft process, then it's one thing. This is something that
they knew about in the pre draft process. They knew
they were going to have to work through it. So
give them a little bit of time to be able
to do that.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
So I'm going back to some of the receivers that
he's been compared to by whoever right, Drake London is
somebody that has been used as a comparison. Todd mcshage
might not like it, but Drake London was one of
those comparisons. As a bigger wide receiver. Drake actually played
pretty well the first two games of his NFL career,
seventy four eighty six yards in each of his first
(14:53):
two games, and then it went down to fifty four seventeen,
thirty five, forty nine, thirty one, twenty three. We know
Drake to be a beast. Some of that might be
Atlantic quarterback issues for sure, but some of that also
might be Drake wasn't ready to go outside of those
first two games. They're either a rookie wall or it
just takes some time to cook. Justin Jefferson is the
(15:15):
name that I brought up a little bit different rookie
season than Drake London, where he had three targets and
it was for a combined what seventy yards each of
the first two games, and then Jefferson took off in
Week three against Tennessee. His rookie year, the guy had
fourteen hundred yards all season long, so he was fantastic
in twenty twenty back again in his rookie season. So
(15:37):
those are a couple of receivers that he's been compared to,
like the high end comparisons that he's had coming out
of college. I'm with you, I think you could see
like I'm with you, I think maybe you could see
a slow start. The things that I'm positive about or
optimistic about is they'll put weight on you in the
NFL if they need to, so you'll get stronger, and
(15:58):
they'll put weight on you to battle at the line
of scrimmage. The other thing is releasing as an art
form as a wide receiver like that also requires a
ton of coaching. And I think if Dave Canalis is
a wide receiver guru, if he is a whisperer to
that position, like we've seen him at two different stops now,
both in Seattle and Tampa Bay, and you have this
(16:19):
talented of a guy who is putting the work in.
Maybe not extra work like Joe would like to see
after practice working on the jugs machine, but he is
still putting the work in. I think he comes across
well liked at the podium. He comes across mature, which
was a little bit of a concern, but at the
podium at the lectern, I apologize.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
I'm putting it.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Yeah, I'm putting an N on the end of that
word because I know people did not hear that at
the on the last episode we mentioned it lectern. But
comes across mature when speaking to media. So I'm I'm
good with it. You gotta give him time.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
Good guys, we are two weeks into training camp of
his rookie year and we're already fretting about something that
I don't and maybe I'm not.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
I'm not trying to blow it out of proportion.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
It's just we have the fan base I think overall
feels pretty good about it. And then Joe, who we
have him on and Joe person is covering every single
practice as much as they can out there saying, yeah,
he struggled quite a bit in this area. But it's
also something we've heard from Dave Canalis like that. What
Joe said, it's not an outlier. It's not a single comment.
(17:23):
We've heard it from the head coach saying yeah, he's
got to bounce back from some of that, and he did.
That's the thing to focus on. We can celebrate the
fact that he did bounce back from some of his
early struggles. It's the Live Wire coming up next on WESN.
Walker Sports Radio ninety two to seven WFNZ. Weston Walker
(17:51):
Sports Radio ninety two to seven WFNZ. Flounde manning the
co captain Chare today with Wes out for the week.
He's going to be back with us on Monday, but
he is out for this week. He is on vacation.
He's not really doing anything. He's just hanging out. A
lot of people joking that he's playing probably a lot
of College Football twenty six, even if he has a
lot of complaints about it, just like he did College
(18:12):
Football twenty five when it first came out and then
became an absolute beast. I do wonder if Wes is
going to ride through the storm that is some of
the flaws that come with the game as soon as
it's first released, and then he'll become a beast at
that as well.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
I imagine he was, oh, one hundred percent, he is
going to be locked in this entire week. I fully
expect he's gonna come back and it's gonna be some
ridiculous number because he got through what was it like
twenty two seasons or something like that.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Plays a lot. He plays a lot. There are I
don't know.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
How he finds the time, because he does a lot
of stuff, right, he works a lot. Yes, and he's
still putting in the work on college football twenty six.
He works a lot.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
He's a great dad because he's going out and working
out with Bryce and doing all these things. And then
he's still like, oh yeah, I got a whole season
in and I'm like.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
This is why I want him to play with Charlotte
for his team that he chooses, because again, they get
money from this and all these schools the more you
play with these teams. So if you have Dale Junior
and Wes Bryant both using Charlotte as their dynasties, that's
got to be a lot of cash going.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Over to shit.
Speaker 5 (19:20):
If you get money for the number of years, like
each year you get a bonus for sticking with that team,
I can only imagine the type of money that would
be rolling into some of these universities.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Speaking of dollars, Flounder, I just had a conversation with
Troppy walking into the Channel VAULTA studios. He looks Fraddy,
all the stuff reminds me of what I did this weekend. Dollars,
the friddiness. I went to a certain dive bar for
the first time this weekend.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
I need.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
I need other people's experience here, if they've been, if
they have experience with this, and the other question that
I have for the fandeal text line, what are the
diviest bars that exist in Charlotte. Let's try to keep
it within city limits. Okay, I'm not trying to go
outside of city limits one of the diviest bars that
exist in Charlotte, because I went to one Johnny Dollars. Now,
I would ask you if you've ever been, but I'm
(20:08):
just gonna go ahead and guess that you haven't because
this is not your time.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
If it's a happening place in Charlotte, probably haven't been well.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
And you're very much on a fitty timeline. You're gonna
be watching Kansas State kickoff on Saturdays, because.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
Kansas State, Iowa State week zero, I'm gonna be locked
and you're gonna.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Be locked in, and you're speaking of you're gonna watch
Boise State. You need you need to see what BYU
is all about.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
This year.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Washington State first year without dickerd that's a big time
game that you gotta circle what's their day look? And
you guys should appreciate that on sports radio. I know
I do appreciate that. I wish you would take some
time for yourself to go to some of these bars,
but that's fine. I was gonna ask if if you
had gone, but I know the answer already.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Wolfcac says that place is amazing. I had a great time.
I did everybody writing in Thirsty Beaver. It's the number
one bar that I had on my list for divius
places in Charlotte. Shroppy was the first thing that he
thought of as well. We're scrolling fandual text line seven
oh four five seven oh ninety six ten Furnace. Freddy
said Snug Harbor. I've been there before. It was only
(21:14):
one time. It was actually a wild experience, and I
think it's like a pirate themed bar. And let's just
say like there was a kind of a rough rider
group that was there when we went in, and there
was some jawing back and forth, and I walked out
of Snug Harbor pretty damn quickly. Back in my twenties,
I say that like it was thirty years ago. In reality,
(21:36):
it was like seven years ago. We're scrolling for some more.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Back in my twenties, Oh bag a bag.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
When I was your age, that was like Mitch Kupcheck
having a stroke, is what it sounded like, panther Bo
saying Moosehead. Moosehead is pretty diving. It's right down the street.
So I like that one a lot. M Dog Jeff's
Bucket Shop. I went there for the first time a
few more than a few months ago. Like that sounds
like a beach bar Jeff's Buckets. Yes, it's kind of wild.
(22:01):
You go down to the basement, you walk in and
it's straight down and it's a it's a fun place.
But most people writing in Thirsty Beaver, Uh can I
interest anyone in? I think it's Eb's over there in Plaza.
I've played quite a bit of pool over there and
thrown some darts over at Eb's. I don't know if
anybody else likes that spot, but I've been there, and
(22:23):
that's pretty damn divy. But Johnny Dollars good spot man,
had a great time and uh, highly highly suggested. Is
there any chance that you would experience any of these
bars that we're talking about floun.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
I mean, if we do an event there, then probably
that's that's that's about as close as it gets.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
If I if I got a lady, then yeah, I
think there's a good chance.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
But the problem is is that the ladies are.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
At the bar. Yeah, that's right to be there.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
That that kind of helps, Right, you go to the
bars to to find the lady, right, and instead you're
you're wanting the lady.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
I just don't want to be there by myself, because
that's a depressing evening if you go there and sit
there the entire iron night by yourself and don't get
anything because most of the ladies are coming with their friends.
I have a friend that if he moves off the
couch it's a miracle and he's out of breath.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
No, he's complaining immediately. If you're asking him to go out,
he's automatically he's cursing you out. He's probably saying some
wild stuff, and he would rather just again, he'd rather
watch Texas San Antonio play a football game. Yes, gotta
watch some American Conference. I mean, Owen McCown's a hell
of a question. I mean, yeah, you gotta watch out. Hey,
there's a girl interested over at Johnny Dollars. Okay, is
(23:33):
she owen Macown? I don't think so. She can forget it, buddy.
I'm staying right here. I'm not moving off the couch. Hey, Finny,
go get me some nachos. Where's the meat? Low fitty?
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Lots of people writing into Elizabeth Billiards. Oh apparently it's
long gone. Okay, that makes sense that yeah, I guess
it is Tipsy Burrow too, fun little spot seeing some
musicians participate over there or play over there with some
live music events, and that's been cool. So let us know.
Divius bars. We'll read some of those as we exit
(24:06):
the show today. But we got to call him through
some sound time. Now for the Live Wire with mister Flounding.
Speaker 6 (24:13):
A.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Sorry I didn't right, I was. I'd help you out.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Did on the talk and you did.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
That's all right?
Speaker 7 (24:18):
Good?
Speaker 1 (24:24):
How about this from dive bars to live bars? Oh?
Speaker 4 (24:28):
Very nice?
Speaker 1 (24:28):
I take us away, all right.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
We go with Dave Canalis, the head coach of the
Carolina Panthers. He was talking after Saturday's fan fest and
was asked about Ryan Fitzgerald missing a couple of kicks
and why Matthew Wright did not kick the entire night.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
You know, Fitzgerald had a couple of miskicks and how
come Matthew didn't kill Oh, it's.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Just a practice.
Speaker 7 (24:51):
So this happened to be the practice that Ryan was kicking,
you know, So he missed a couple. So we're just
learning more about the guys that we have.
Speaker 8 (24:58):
Attempts something beyond the skinny put so, I mean range, Yeah, it.
Speaker 7 (25:02):
Was good and to see him, you know, with the
whole environment, you know, and even right there that was
a that situation was down three, you know, to tie
it up to go to overtime, you know, so a
little extra added pressure, you know, for that situation. I
thought Jack Plummer did a great job getting us down there.
The guys operated well and we got to finish those.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
So yeah, Ryan Fitzgerald misses on two forty eight yard
field goals. One clangs off the upright, that was the
one that ended practice.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
Concerned are you about where the kicking battle is?
Speaker 5 (25:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (25:31):
A little bit not great. I mean the fact that
nobody wants to win this job. And if you were
missing a couple of field goals on hashtag skinny posts,
then I was okay with it. But if you're missing
two field goals as soon as the lights are on,
and you have to kick with maybe a tiny bit
of pressure from the fan base being there in person
to watch you kick it through the uprights, then I'm
(25:52):
a little scared. Joe joining us just a little while
ago saying that he thinks Ryan Fitzgerald, the rookie out
of Florida State, he's going to be the guy that
ends up with the starting job. But he didn't sound
too confident in it, and it's not again by him
just being extremely accurate in training camp or at FanFest,
and so it does have me a little concerned. I'm
(26:13):
hoping that once we get through training camp, Fitzgerald maybe
gets the job and then everything is just fine and
dandy once we get to the regular season. People are
comparing this a lot to the Harrison Butker Graham Gano situation.
I think that there are a couple of differences here. One,
Graham Gano was good, yes, and he legitimately beat Butker
(26:33):
out in that training camp battle. Gano was the better kicker.
I understand that you wanted to at least hindsight, being
twenty twenty the way that it is, I understand that
you felt like you could have saved some money by
just sticking with the seventh round kicker that Dave Gettlman
drafted in the seventh round.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Totally understand that.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
But he lost the kicking battle and they tried to
keep him on the roster for I think a couple
of weeks. They kept two kickers on the roster through
the first two weeks of the season because they did
not want to allow him to be picked up by
another team. So they did like him. All that to say,
there's no Graham Gano on this roster right now, somebody
that you can trust to that level.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
Oh lord, no, Now, Matthew Wright, guys, he is a journeyman.
He is not somebody that has been consistent in his career.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
And but Kurt had a better performance in camp than
what Fitzgerald is having right now. So I do think
there are some differences. That was a good kicking battle,
this one. I wouldn't describe it as a good kicking battle.
I might be this might be the worst one that
we've seen. So yeah, because I mean, we had some
good stuff from San Gonzalez for a little bit. Eddie
p Eddie de Naro Pinero had him for a while.
(27:41):
You know, just don't have the strong legs with some
of those guys, but they were pretty accurate. I hope
it's Fitzgerald and then he just gets through some of
the rookie struggles.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
But who knows. I can't tell you. I feel confidence.
Speaker 5 (27:52):
I think Joe one of the things that he brought
up there, I think's right. I think the kicker might
not even be on the roster right now. I think
there's a chance there could go out and find something.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Which is frustrating, which is having to rely on somebody
else to release a more talented kicker. I guess it
did work for Kansas City and the Harriston Butker example.
I just don't think that happens a whole lot of
the time. What else you got flound All?
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Right, let's go to Ted McMillan.
Speaker 5 (28:15):
He was talking on Friday after practice and he was
talking about how the level of physicality in camp is
different than he expected.
Speaker 6 (28:23):
Uh No, it's a little bit different. It's a little
bit different place style from calls to the league game.
You know, the refs let the players play at the
end of the day, so you know, I got to
earn my stripe to get some calls around here, and
that's only gonna make me better and being able to
play through the contact.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
All right, So what do you make of his comments
right there?
Speaker 5 (28:39):
We were just talking, you know, we've been talking throughout
the show really about his issues with getting off for
press coverage. Then you hear there kind of saying about
the refs and everything like that. So what do you
think about his comments there?
Speaker 3 (28:53):
We heard this from XL last year too, more so
even at the end of last season, that there were
plenty of things that you could get away with playing
wide receiver in college football that you just can't at
all in the NFL. You do not have any margin
for air. You have to be precise on everything that
you do, and it is a wake up call for
even the most talented of wide receivers. I don't know
(29:15):
if you've seen some of these clips circulating on Twitter,
but have you seen the Justin Jefferson camp tweets going
out where he's talking to these young wide receivers that
he's working with, and the attention to detail from Justin
Jefferson is really impressive. He's discussing, hey, you're getting too
choppy at your break. He's talking about some of the
releases and some of the hand fighting nuances that come
(29:37):
with playing that position. It goes to show you, Okay,
when you're that kind of athlete, you have among the
best hands in all of football, and you're that precise
and you pay attention with that level of detail.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
There's so many.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Boxes you have to check off to becoming a great
NFL wide receiver, and I think some of those clips
coming out there are a lot of fun to go watch.
You apply that to some of the younger receivers here
in Carolina and you can imagine there's a little bit
of a curve. There's a little bit of a growing
process that you have to partake in. I hope that
team Matt can grow earlier rather than later, sooner rather
(30:11):
than later.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
I'm hoping that happens.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
I am convinced that that can happen because of a
guy like Jefferson who had two games where again he
combined for seventy yards. I was looking at the Mike
Evans stats early in his rookie season two and it
took him a while and actually, like some thirty yard performances,
fifty sixty forty boom, he goes off for like three
straight one hundred yard games in order to get to
(30:35):
one thousand yards his rookie season, but still the second
half a mon Ross Saint Brown, same type of rookie
season for him, despite being a fourth round guy, really
came on strong the second half. So I think that's
a common thing. I think what's common from these top
flight receivers they show you something immediately. In terms of years,
(30:56):
they show you something their first year. I don't know
if they show you everything in the first half of
their rookie seasons. I think Ladd McCaughey is another example.
Flounder last year. Ladd was good, but not amazing his
first half of the season. Second half ballin' playoffs. That's
your guy. That's the go to guy for Herbert. So
if t Mat can give me something from week eight
(31:17):
on to show you that I'm that guy, I'll be
cool with what he gives us his first year in
the NFL.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
What else you got?
Speaker 4 (31:24):
All right? We move on to J. C.
Speaker 5 (31:26):
Horn, who was asked about his starting quarterback and he
compared him to.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
A point guard.
Speaker 8 (31:33):
Okay, he kind of reminded me of like Steph Curry
a little bit. He a silent killer, he gonna he
might show pop it a little bit, but you know,
he ain't gonna say too much. But when I get
under his skin and I hear to real him, I'm like, okay,
I know he a real dog and a real killer,
So you know, I let to see him make plays.
And like I said, just go back and forth with
him and just get we get.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Each other better.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
So do we like this comparison for JC or we
still scarred? I know this one's okay.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
He's a point guard. They don't have to spend money.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
It's a promo we still run to this day. After
David Tepper could not help but come from behind the
backdrop when things were pointing in the right direction and
he wanted to speak to the media so badly. He
couldn't help, but he was like, he's over here, guys,
we found a loophole. Okay, you know all my thoughts
on that. The difference here is it's okay to call
(32:25):
him a point guard if you don't equate that with
not having to spend money or invest in the position.
They've clearly invested a lot in wide receiver. So if
you want to call Bryce Young a point guard, hey,
that's all fine. In fact, I would agree with that.
Just don't let that dictate how you address or don't
address the wide receiver spot. They keep drafting wide receivers
(32:47):
in the first two rounds. You got to hit on him,
But I actually like them investing in some of these
pass catchers to help Bryce Young. So Jalen Coker clearly
very good as an undrafted guy. They spent a little
money on them, Thieling, they're bringing him back. They spent
a top ten pick, despite needing defense pretty badly, they
still spent a top ten pick on what many people
(33:08):
thought was the best wide receiver in the entire draft class.
That's absolutely not nothing. So they keep investing in wide receiver.
That's where it's okay to call him a point guard.
Don't don't call him a point guard. With the notion
that we're just not going to invest in wide receiver.
That's when it gets to be something problematic. That'll do
it for what for the Live Wire? One more segment
(33:31):
to go before that'll do it for Wes and Walker
With Founder filling in for the day, we come back.
We continue to rattle off some of the diviest of
bars in the Queen City and We'll tell you what's
on tap. Sports Radio ninety two seven WFNZ.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Are you challenging me to walk on?
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Yeah, that's a walk off challenge, my friend, it's a
walk off the.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Walk over, Wrap it up West and Walker No West.
Though he's out for the week, he'll be back with
us next week. Flounder helping us out, doing a great
job as always, but doing a great job in the
co host chair. For today's show, We'll tell you what's
on Tap, presented by Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks has locations
in Concord and Fort Mill. Twin Peaks is your local
sports lodge you could come in from, made from scratch
(34:29):
food and signature twenty nine degree draft Beers, the Braves
and the Brewers. Tonight in Atlanta, seven point fifteen. First pitch,
Quinn Priester on the mound for Milwaukee having a really
nice year ten and two on the season, A three
two seven era for Quinn Priester. He'll be taking on
Eric Betty three and eleven on the year five thirty
(34:51):
three era. Two years going in the exact opposite direction
for each of these play Yeah.
Speaker 5 (34:57):
Yeah, it's amazing because if you go back to the
start of the year. Milwaukee was one of those teams
that was getting rocked during the first week of the
season and we thought, oh man, this could be a
really bad team this year. Now, I mean, they are
one of the best teams in Major League Baseball, if
not the best team in Major League Baseball. So the
Braves with an uphill battle year. The good news for
(35:20):
them is that they have sort of put some distance
between them and Washington right now, so I don't think
the Braves are gonna finish last place in this division.
They will not catch the Marlins, though, who are on fire.
They are one of the hottest teams in the league.
Just swept the Yankees over the weekend and they're now
back at five hundred, so they're pushing for a playoff spot.
(35:40):
Definitely thought that there would be three teams in the
NL East that would be pushing to make the playoffs.
Just don't think we thought the Braves weren't gonna be
one of that group.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Yeah, Braves certainly not pushing for the playoffs right now.
In fact, some more news coming out from Atlanta. This
actually dropped just twenty minutes really before the show started.
Braves third Basement Austin Riley was on Monday today placed
on the ten day IL for the second time in
two months after a strained lower abdominal muscle. Riley suffered
(36:08):
the injury while tagging out Since's Elie de la Cruz
near home plate in the Braves four two win on Sunday.
That was a rain delayed MLB Speedway Classic at Bristol
Motor Speedway. Unfortunate to not get everything that you could
have possibly wanted out of a playing baseball at a
cool location, and if you're a Braves fan, it was
extra disappointing having lost to Austin Riley. At least it's
(36:31):
the ten day IL instead of the sixty day IL,
like your entire rotation is on right now. If you're
a Braves fan, that actually made one of the sports
updates circulating on our airwaves. Like nationally, the Braves injury
lack of luck has been taken has been somewhat popular
to discuss because the graphic of seeing every single one
(36:54):
of those pictures, all five of the opening day starters,
all of them flounder, were on the sixty day IL brutal,
brutal injury luck And that's coming from a Hornets fan
saying that, yeah, it's.
Speaker 5 (37:04):
Been a really bad year injury wise. I mean, there
certainly are some other areas where the team hasn't necessarily
been good even with guys that are healthy. But pitching wise,
I mean, yeah, you haven't pitched well for the entire
season and you got all these guys that are injured.
I mean, the only other team that's had maybe worse
luck than them has been the Dodgers, because it feels
like every pitcher the Dodgers have this year has been
(37:26):
on the il at some point. But yeah, right now,
I mean the fact with how banged up they are,
I think that probably is part of the reason why
they have been as bad as they've been this year.
But for Austin Riley, you're just hoping that he can
get back at some point this year, even though with
the way this season's gone, shutting him down, getting him
prepared for next season, I think is the most important thing.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
By the way, little League World Series both baseball and
softball happening today as well, North Carolina having some teams
in both sports, both baseball and softball. In fact, I'm
trying to catch up right now. Not a whole lot
of information not on ESPN dot com. To get some
of the scores coming in, I got to go to
Twitter and get more updates. But I do know that
at least in the Softball Little League World Series, North
(38:11):
Carolina rallied in the sixth inning to beat Indiana.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
It's the Walker mail ball.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
How about that North Carolina did rally to beat Indy
in the softball Little League World Series?
Speaker 1 (38:22):
So very cool. They are watching some highlights.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Shout out to North Carolina and then Huntersville, North Carolina.
They were playing in the Baseball Little League World Series.
That game was delayed due to whether I don't know
when they picked it back up. ESPN not giving me
any sort of update. I don't know if they have
to be honest, and maybe they didn't. Maybe they didn't
because I'm not seeing any information on it. But Huntersville,
(38:46):
I guess La Norman area there in the Little League
World Series and they got to play a team in
Virginia today, but again weather delay, So don't know exactly
when their schedule is going to pick up again.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Do you like the Little Little League World Series?
Speaker 5 (39:00):
Not as big of a fan as I was, clearly
when I was younger. I definitely probably won't grace the
television today. But I mean, first of all, their games
will pretty much be done by the time I get home,
so that's part of it. But no, I mean, it's
a cool way for kids to be involved with the
sport of baseball. It's still cool that it's a big deal.
(39:21):
It's on ESPN, so I do think that there is
some nostalgia to it, that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
Was it Willie who ruffled feathers when he had complaints
about the Little League World Series?
Speaker 1 (39:31):
Am I mistaken of it?
Speaker 5 (39:32):
I wouldn't be shocked if he's the guy that doesn't
like the Little League World Series because he gets mad
of when the kid announcers come into the booths and
start calling the games.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
I forgot about his complaints.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
He's like, they're unprofessional, they don't need to be up there.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
You know. I thought this was during the Mets broadcast, right.
Speaker 5 (39:48):
Oh, he's right. What we do every year we have
the s N Y Kids caster. Kid comes in for
a half inning, not even a full inning, and he
every time he complains about it. He didn't complain about
this year's kid. But he's not the only one. I
saw people on social media that were complaining about the
(40:09):
kid and how he was calling the game.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
I'm like, I thought he would have a like to
stand on just hearing the story about it first before
I heard the kid broadcast, and then I heard him broadcast,
and it wasn't bad. It wasn't overwhelming. He didn't dominate
the microphone, and he was helped out a little bit,
and so it wasn't really that much of an issue
for me. I was like, Okay, let the kid have
his airtime. It's a half inning. It's not even a
(40:33):
full inning. They give these kids.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Really not here for the kids. Man, Now, Willie p no,
thank you.
Speaker 3 (40:38):
Until it's his kid, right, My kid's gonna be great.
You think Willy's first kids. His kid's first words is
going to be the mayor. You think it's going to
be a goal call?
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Oh, oh my god, it's a first word. It's a
little pe. It's his first word. Okay.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
We're also looking at the divest of bars in Charlotte.
We have other people writing in some of the ones
that I have not gotten to. Everybody just bombarding the
text line with Smokey Joe's on Monroe Road. That's one
a lot of people are writing in I've not been there,
never been need to go. But everyone else I've pretty
much been to, and I'm not even a huge dive
(41:20):
bar guy.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
I like them.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
They're fun. It's not like it's my number one thing
I love to do. But I have not been to
Smokey Joe, So I'm gonna have to make it out
to Smokey Joe's one time. Yeah, Casey Steve writing in
Johnny Dollars when he comes back into town.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
That's always a good time.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
I have a couple on the list that I need
to ask the people if they would consider these dive
bars or not.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
I found it.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
I don't think it's gonna be much help for me here. Man,
I'm hoping to get that. I don't think I'm gonna
get it. I don't think so either. Small Bar now,
I don't know if I would call small Bar a
dive bar. Throppy said that he thought it was small
Bar is like what you would construct for college kids
(42:05):
slash young South End goers and call it a dive
bar even though it really wasn't. That's how I would
feel about small Bar. I don't know if that description
fits how most people think of it, but it feels
misguided to say, Like if you were to invite your
friend out and say, yeah, man, we're thinking about going
to this real, this dive bar. It's called small bar
(42:25):
in you know, up in Charlotte, like okay, yeah, that
sounds fun, and then you get there and you see
what it is. I think they would feel misled. Let
astray run amuck. I think they would feel that way.
That's one. Have you ever been to a Bari arcade bar?
Speaker 1 (42:41):
I have not.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
Can an arcade bar be a dive bar as well?
That's my other question.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
I don't.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
I don't think so. I think it's in its own category. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
And a Bari was nice? Yeah. Oh?
Speaker 3 (42:52):
Goldies good great down Under Yeah, even with the accent
down under on the text line Goldies isn't really a
dive bar, but has great live music. See, I think
that would be a great Would you consider Goldies a
dive bar or not? Because that one's just right down
the road from where I live. I like Goldies. It's
a really cool spot. I would not consider it a
dive bar by any stretch. It's too big. I think.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
It just doesn't fit the vibe to me, it Weave says,
small bar in Matthews, is this guy's hammered. This is
someone that can speak to this. I trust his opinion.
If your name on the text line is this guy's hammered,
he said, small bar is just a frat bar. Yeah,
you're not wrong, one hundred percent. That is absolutely correct.
All right, maybe we can talk about it more. On
(43:36):
the other side, we need to get Flounder out, all right,
let's throw out some bar ideas to get Flounder and fitty.
But I'm tired of having Fitty drag you down. Flounder, Okay,
like we just need to We need to separate the
Siamese twins that are Flounder and Fitty and bring Flounder
out somewhere to a dive bar. That'll do it for
Weston Walker. Good job from the flound Dog Today. It's
(43:59):
Kyle Bay coming up next alongside Smoke Ludwig. Sports Radio
ninety two to seven WFNZ, Keep it one Haunted.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Listen to the Wes and Walker Show week is from
noon to three only on Sports Radio ninety two point
seven FMFNZ, the
Speaker 4 (44:17):
Official home of the Charlotte sports Fan
You're listening to the Wes and Walker show. You know
what that sounds like? To me? What does it sound like?
It's west sounds.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Like any artist I did and want to be artists
want to stay a start, don't have to worry about
the executive producer being all in the video, all in
the records, dancing come to death Row.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
That's what that sounds like to me.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And Walker. I take it by your blank expression. You
might not be very familiar with that quote.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Wes.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
I'm not gonna lie to you. I have no clue
what you're talking about. It's one of the most famous
and you're a hip.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hop pit only on sports radio ninety two point seven
FM WFNZ.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
I evenne that, I'm sure you get.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, Flounder, do you.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Have a problem with algorithms just non stop finding themselves?
Like you look at one thing, you talk about one thing,
and then immediately it pops up. And not only does
it pop up just one it's there in your algorithms,
whatever ad we're talking about, it's there for the next
month or so, and you just can't get rid of it.
Speaker 5 (01:08):
Oh yeah, No, I mean Twitter is the absolute worst
with any type of video that you even just accidentally
click on or that pops up as the next video
of a video that you were watching. Now that's my
whole timeline for the next month or so.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
I hate it when an ad gets me because there
are some things that the algorithms have right, and I
can't help but click on it because I am interested,
and I'm going to look at the price. And let's
just say that I explore that for thirty seconds and
that's it. It doesn't matter that ad will pop up
every time I doom scroll for the next month. There
is one ad that keeps popping up, and it's one
(01:46):
that I think our listenership will find pretty funny.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Chockos Man.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Ever since talking about these damn Chocos, these Jesus sandals,
every single time, chockos now infiltrate whatever website them on,
Like I clicked on on three to read this breaking
news that we're about to get to in just a moment.
But there is a big old, big old Chaco shoe
looking at me dead straight, right in the eyes, right
(02:13):
in my face. And I just can't get rid of
the Choco ads, like I can't get rid of them. Also,
there's a certain brand of coffee. I got clicked on
it one time because it was banana bread flavor, and
I love banana bread, oh god, one of the more
underrated flavors things out there. And if you're giving me
banana bread coffee, then I'm all the way in, Like
I'm diving into the deep end of the banana bread coffee.
(02:35):
But now that's been on my algorithms for like the
last month. So anyways, Yeah, the chacos, not beating the
bougie allegations, not beating the white pasty pails.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Did you liked the chacos? Did they work?
Speaker 6 (02:46):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (02:46):
My god, they were great. I'm sorry they were. They
were really good.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
They were they stylish enough for you?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
I mean they I liked them, you know, I did,
and I saw I waited for the right ones, and
I I didn't just pull the trigger because I needed
them in order to go hiking walking around the mountains,
and they're great for that. I was fishing in the
creek a little bit, so I needed something that was
water resistant. These are, and so they were great. I
(03:13):
can see why people are all in on the Choco brand.
I just I'm not beating any allegations of who I
might be also like I don't understand. So you you
bought something.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
I guess because you brought it up, it puts it
in the algorithm. But if you've already brought them, like,
don't give me other stuff that I.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Need exactly exactly I've already purchased them. Like now you
think got yeah, you got me. You think I have
a Choco issue? No, no, no, no, no, please please you
think I have an issue? I would like to actually
be given something else. I don't need another pair and
I just need to move away, all right? Speaking of
on three, as I just brought up on three, they
(03:53):
just dropped an article some breaking news here. Dan Gavitt
released a statement on NCAA tournament expansion timelines is for
twenty twenty six. The tournament expansion is off the table,
so they announced that it will not happen in twenty
twenty six. The expectation is that they will resume talks
for twenty twenty seven and beyond should expansion happen for
(04:14):
March Madness, but it will not happen for the upcoming season.
ESPN's Pete Thamil previously reported in late June that there
could be a decision coming in the next few weeks
as the meeting approached. Ultimately, no decisions came down in July,
and now Dan Gabbett made it official that expansion will
not happen moving forward, at least not for the upcoming year.
(04:36):
So I love this. I think it's great news. I
want to hold on to sixty eight teams as much
as possible. Hell, if you wanted to go back to
sixty four, I would be in favor of that.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Six ydate's fine.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
I'm not here to give you some strong take to
go back to sixty four whatever.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
I just don't want to expand.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
And I know that the talks are to go to
seventy two, to go to seventy six.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
But what happens is we just.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
Where does it stop?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
That's the point, because if the reason for expanding is
all monetary, then what's the reason to stop at seventy six?
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Right like I do.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
If it's because of the financial gain that comes with
expanding as much as possible, more games whatsoever, then is
there a stopping point? That's what I get afraid of.
That's what I'm afraid of. So at least we hold
on to the current landscape for another season, and I
can't tell you though, that I'm all that confident that
will continue with a sixty eight team field in twenty
(05:35):
twenty six, twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
At some point it's going to happen.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
Oh yeah, They're going to expand the field because they
know that they can make more money. They know that
people are not going to stop watching the NCAA tournament,
and we're going to be putting teams in that do
not ultimately deserve a shot at a national title. I mean,
that's That's the thing to me that I think is
most frustrating is if you're expanding the tournament field to
seventy two, does that mean that you're adding more at
(05:59):
large bids and those teams are gonna have to play
in the first round of the tournament or are you
gonna once again have all the sixteen seeds basically have
to play in an in and at large to get
into the field, which I think is unfair.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
I've said it before.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
I think that it should be all at large teams
that should be in Dayton. If you won your conference tournament,
I don't care how small your conference is, you should
be locked into the NCUBA tournament field.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
But they won't do it.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I don't.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
To me, it doesn't make sense because regardless we're gonna watch.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
But yeah, we'll see.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
I know it's coming, and I know it's only it's
gonna reach as you mentioned, it'll be oh, we'll get
to seventy six. Then we'll be like, wait a second,
what about eighty. We're going to get to a point
where you will be putting teams that are at five
hundred in the regular season in the nc DOUBLEA tournament
and giving them a chance to win a national chance.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
And we got close just with a five hundred conference record.
This past selection process has under five hundred.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah, it was it. Oklahoma was under five hundred.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
Texas I believe was under five hundred in the SEC.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
So I mean we're getting there.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
We're getting to these teams that are on the bubble
already that are three four games over five hundred. That's
we can't put those teams in the NCAA tournament and
think about.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Who this is benefiting.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
It is benefiting some monster logos like Oklahoma, like Texas,
and like North Carolina, who benefits from expanding sixty four
to sixty eight. They just do Like I had no
problem with North Carolina getting in the field last year.
We can go back to Bubba Cunningham being the chair
and also Bubba cunning.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Oh, come on, let's not relive that moment.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Yeah, because again, and I was on you and Fitty
side here, Bubba Cunningham did not put Carolina in two
years prior when they were on the bubble, and yet
Cunningham was still there.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
He was the leader of all of this. But you
get the point.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
Those are still big time logos, big time schools that
were discussing whether they should be let in, and yet
they are the schools that do get in. They find
themselves with the ability to compete, to move on to
the next round, make a Sweet sixteen run, And okay
like that. I don't want those logos. I don't want
those brands to get in just because, well, all right,
(08:20):
we're gonna get a lot more eyeballs.
Speaker 5 (08:22):
They are.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
They're gonna get a lot more eyeballs than Boise State's
going to. Even if Boise State has this much better
record in conference and you know, maybe does a lot
better in future years, whatever the Boise State equivalent is,
maybe they do a lot better in conference than what
North Carolina does. Because it's clearly a much harder conference
acc Big twelve. You get the idea, but really we
(08:43):
all understand what it is. They're trying to benefit the
big time brands, and we saw it even at play
this past year.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
Yeah, I mean, they're they're not expanding the tournament field
to put in teams like you know, a couple of
years ago Indiana State. They're not putting Robbie Avila in
the tournament and put and allowing that team, which was
a very successful team in the Missouri Valley Conference, to
play for a championship. No, they're going to put in
(09:08):
a team from a power conference that is three or
four games above five hundred, that barely deserves to be
playing in their conference tournament, let alone the NC DOUBLEA tournament.
And that's where you know, that's where I get frustrated
with this strategy. If you're wanting to put in more
of those teams like a Drake, like an Indiana State,
some of these teams that are right on the outside
(09:31):
looking in, teams that have really great performances in the
regular season in these smaller conferences and just don't get
rewarded because they're one bid leagues.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
I'm okay with that.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
It's when you start getting to some of these teams
that don't deserve to be in the NC DOUBLEA tournament
and you're saying, no, we're putting them in because we
believe that you're gonna make money. That's I mean, yeah,
that's not the reason to always expand this is what
we like about the NC DOUBLEA, you know, postseasons.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Is that they're so selective.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
You have to perform well to be able to get
into these postseasons. That's what's special about it. It shouldn't
them justifying it by saying, oh, professional sports does it. Yeah,
there are professional sports teams that get into the playoffs
that don't deserve to be into the play in the playoffs.
We've said it before, and we've that's part of the
reason we want some of the reseting in these professional
(10:21):
playoffs is because certain teams don't deserve to make the postseason.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
So I don't understand wanting to become more like the pros.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
All right, let's move on. Let's continue to go over
some of the Joe person comments. He did not seem
nearly as gung ho about tam Mac's training camp to
this point. In the first two weeks. Let's actually play
some sound here. Te Mak himself had comments about his resilience.
We played this earlier in the show, but just in
case you missed it, let's play Team Mac discussing maybe
(10:51):
the slow start to camp and the resilience to bounce back.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
But I think it's a confidence.
Speaker 6 (10:55):
At the end of the day. You know, sometimes even
the best get got, you know, sometimes you get exposed.
But just being able to be confident in your preparation,
being able to be confident your abilities, you know, the
confidence is going to.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Take you as far as as you wanted to take you.
Speaker 6 (11:10):
So I feel like that's where, you know, my resilience
come from for sure.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
So early on, there's a slow start.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
The number one issue that he has reported by Joe
and everybody else, even Dave Canalis is talking about it.
The number one issue that he has right now is
getting off press coverage. If somebody is physical with him
at the line of scrimmage, then he is struggling to
have a nice enough release. And you know, there's not
a lot of time to operate every single snap. You
got to get downfield, you've got to get into your route.
Prett damn quickly. A better offensive line will help that
(11:40):
for sure. And Joe is also right, Dave Canalis can
put t Mac in advantageous situations for him to win
a little easier. But the reality is football is football
is football, and somebody might be able to get up
at the line of scrimmage put his hands on you,
as Joe described, having a big frame for defenders to
put their hands on you, and they knock you off
(12:01):
your spot. And it's not the cleanest of routes. It's
not the cleanest of releases. And now everything is knocked off,
especially if you're the number one option, number two, you
get the idea.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
So it's an issue for sure.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
It's also the first two weeks of training camp for
a rookie that steps on to an NFL football field
for the first time, so nobody needs to be panicking
about it. And it's not that he's had a bad camp.
I think he's had a good one. I don't know
if Joe would have described it as good. He continues
to describe it as somewhat of a mixed bag for him.
Were you surprised at the tone or the mood the
(12:34):
vibes surrounding his comments compared to really the fan base
is feeling about him, which I think is quite high.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
Yeah, little.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
I mean, I think what's interesting is that he's seen
more of him than we have, so I think, you know,
for the fan base, yeah, you might be excited by
some of the some of the highlight catches that we've
seen from him. It's been pointed out that he's making
some plays, But what's happening when he's not making plays?
Is he a guy that is getting shut down at
certain times? And then because they are just taking so
(13:02):
many reps, he's a guy that's shining. I don't think
it necessarily means he's having a bad camp, But what
I'm saying is is that I do think that that
is certainly an issue that if Joe is pointing it
out as strongly as he is, then it's something that, yeah,
we should probably be a little bit worried about.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
It's the reason why I think he could get off to.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
A slow start to the season, because I think he's
going to be learning on the fly. I think there
will be teams that will be able to exploit that
area of his game. Him being a guy that's not
strong at getting off the line of scrimmage. But I
think as the season goes along, you will see him
start to learn. And the thing is is that when
you have something that you need to get better at,
(13:44):
the only way to expose that is to see it
over and over again and learn, Okay, this is finally
something that I need to address.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
We're two weeks in, man, it's still early.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
I think, you know, maybe playing in some of these
preseason games, they'll be able to realize it as well.
That's why I hope they play him a decent amount
so he can really realize, hey, man, I need to
learn how to be able to get off this line
of scrimmage a lot better than I am right now.
But the other thing is it's not something that we
didn't already know about him. Like if this was something
(14:15):
that the coaching staff is just finding out and they're saying, whoa,
this is an issue we didn't see in the pre
draft process, then it's one thing. This is something that
they knew about in the pre draft process. They knew
they were going to have to work through it. So
give them a little bit of time to be able
to do that.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
So I'm going back to some of the receivers that
he's been compared to by whoever right, Drake London is
somebody that has been used as a comparison. Todd mcshage
might not like it, but Drake London was one of
those comparisons. As a bigger wide receiver. Drake actually played
pretty well the first two games of his NFL career,
seventy four eighty six yards in each of his first
(14:53):
two games, and then it went down to fifty four seventeen,
thirty five, forty nine, thirty one, twenty three. We know
Drake to be a beast. Some of that might be
Atlantic quarterback issues for sure, but some of that also
might be Drake wasn't ready to go outside of those
first two games. They're either a rookie wall or it
just takes some time to cook. Justin Jefferson is the
(15:15):
name that I brought up a little bit different rookie
season than Drake London, where he had three targets and
it was for a combined what seventy yards each of
the first two games, and then Jefferson took off in
Week three against Tennessee. His rookie year, the guy had
fourteen hundred yards all season long, so he was fantastic
in twenty twenty back again in his rookie season. So
(15:37):
those are a couple of receivers that he's been compared to,
like the high end comparisons that he's had coming out
of college. I'm with you, I think you could see
like I'm with you, I think maybe you could see
a slow start. The things that I'm positive about or
optimistic about is they'll put weight on you in the
NFL if they need to, so you'll get stronger, and
(15:58):
they'll put weight on you to battle at the line
of scrimmage. The other thing is releasing as an art
form as a wide receiver like that also requires a
ton of coaching. And I think if Dave Canalis is
a wide receiver guru, if he is a whisperer to
that position, like we've seen him at two different stops now,
both in Seattle and Tampa Bay, and you have this
(16:19):
talented of a guy who is putting the work in.
Maybe not extra work like Joe would like to see
after practice working on the jugs machine, but he is
still putting the work in. I think he comes across
well liked at the podium. He comes across mature, which
was a little bit of a concern, but at the
podium at the lectern, I apologize.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
I'm putting it.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Yeah, I'm putting an N on the end of that
word because I know people did not hear that at
the on the last episode we mentioned it lectern. But
comes across mature when speaking to media. So I'm I'm
good with it. You gotta give him time.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
Good guys, we are two weeks into training camp of
his rookie year and we're already fretting about something that
I don't and maybe I'm not.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
I'm not trying to blow it out of proportion.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
It's just we have the fan base I think overall
feels pretty good about it. And then Joe, who we
have him on and Joe person is covering every single
practice as much as they can out there saying, yeah,
he struggled quite a bit in this area. But it's
also something we've heard from Dave Canalis like that. What
Joe said, it's not an outlier. It's not a single comment.
(17:23):
We've heard it from the head coach saying yeah, he's
got to bounce back from some of that, and he did.
That's the thing to focus on. We can celebrate the
fact that he did bounce back from some of his
early struggles. It's the Live Wire coming up next on WESN.
Walker Sports Radio ninety two to seven WFNZ. Weston Walker
(17:51):
Sports Radio ninety two to seven WFNZ. Flounde manning the
co captain Chare today with Wes out for the week.
He's going to be back with us on Monday, but
he is out for this week. He is on vacation.
He's not really doing anything. He's just hanging out. A
lot of people joking that he's playing probably a lot
of College Football twenty six, even if he has a
lot of complaints about it, just like he did College
(18:12):
Football twenty five when it first came out and then
became an absolute beast. I do wonder if Wes is
going to ride through the storm that is some of
the flaws that come with the game as soon as
it's first released, and then he'll become a beast at
that as well.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
I imagine he was, oh, one hundred percent, he is
going to be locked in this entire week. I fully
expect he's gonna come back and it's gonna be some
ridiculous number because he got through what was it like
twenty two seasons or something like that.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Plays a lot. He plays a lot. There are I
don't know.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
How he finds the time, because he does a lot
of stuff, right, he works a lot. Yes, and he's
still putting in the work on college football twenty six.
He works a lot.
Speaker 5 (18:54):
He's a great dad because he's going out and working
out with Bryce and doing all these things. And then
he's still like, oh yeah, I got a whole season
in and I'm like.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
This is why I want him to play with Charlotte
for his team that he chooses, because again, they get
money from this and all these schools the more you
play with these teams. So if you have Dale Junior
and Wes Bryant both using Charlotte as their dynasties, that's
got to be a lot of cash going.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Over to shit.
Speaker 5 (19:20):
If you get money for the number of years, like
each year you get a bonus for sticking with that team,
I can only imagine the type of money that would
be rolling into some of these universities.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Speaking of dollars, Flounder, I just had a conversation with
Troppy walking into the Channel VAULTA studios. He looks Fraddy,
all the stuff reminds me of what I did this weekend. Dollars,
the friddiness. I went to a certain dive bar for
the first time this weekend.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
I need.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
I need other people's experience here, if they've been, if
they have experience with this, and the other question that
I have for the fandeal text line, what are the
diviest bars that exist in Charlotte. Let's try to keep
it within city limits. Okay, I'm not trying to go
outside of city limits one of the diviest bars that
exist in Charlotte, because I went to one Johnny Dollars. Now,
I would ask you if you've ever been, but I'm
(20:08):
just gonna go ahead and guess that you haven't because
this is not your time.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
If it's a happening place in Charlotte, probably haven't been well.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
And you're very much on a fitty timeline. You're gonna
be watching Kansas State kickoff on Saturdays, because.
Speaker 5 (20:23):
Kansas State, Iowa State week zero, I'm gonna be locked
and you're gonna.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Be locked in, and you're speaking of you're gonna watch
Boise State. You need you need to see what BYU
is all about.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
This year.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Washington State first year without dickerd that's a big time
game that you gotta circle what's their day look? And
you guys should appreciate that on sports radio. I know
I do appreciate that. I wish you would take some
time for yourself to go to some of these bars,
but that's fine. I was gonna ask if if you
had gone, but I know the answer already.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Wolfcac says that place is amazing. I had a great time.
I did everybody writing in Thirsty Beaver. It's the number
one bar that I had on my list for divius
places in Charlotte. Shroppy was the first thing that he
thought of as well. We're scrolling fandual text line seven
oh four five seven oh ninety six ten Furnace. Freddy
said Snug Harbor. I've been there before. It was only
(21:14):
one time. It was actually a wild experience, and I
think it's like a pirate themed bar. And let's just
say like there was a kind of a rough rider
group that was there when we went in, and there
was some jawing back and forth, and I walked out
of Snug Harbor pretty damn quickly. Back in my twenties,
I say that like it was thirty years ago. In reality,
(21:36):
it was like seven years ago. We're scrolling for some more.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Back in my twenties, Oh bag a bag.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
When I was your age, that was like Mitch Kupcheck
having a stroke, is what it sounded like, panther Bo
saying Moosehead. Moosehead is pretty diving. It's right down the street.
So I like that one a lot. M Dog Jeff's
Bucket Shop. I went there for the first time a
few more than a few months ago. Like that sounds
like a beach bar Jeff's Buckets. Yes, it's kind of wild.
(22:01):
You go down to the basement, you walk in and
it's straight down and it's a it's a fun place.
But most people writing in Thirsty Beaver, Uh can I
interest anyone in? I think it's Eb's over there in Plaza.
I've played quite a bit of pool over there and
thrown some darts over at Eb's. I don't know if
anybody else likes that spot, but I've been there, and
(22:23):
that's pretty damn divy. But Johnny Dollars good spot man,
had a great time and uh, highly highly suggested. Is
there any chance that you would experience any of these
bars that we're talking about floun.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
I mean, if we do an event there, then probably
that's that's that's about as close as it gets.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
If I if I got a lady, then yeah, I
think there's a good chance.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
But the problem is is that the ladies are.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
At the bar. Yeah, that's right to be there.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
That that kind of helps, Right, you go to the
bars to to find the lady, right, and instead you're
you're wanting the lady.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
I just don't want to be there by myself, because
that's a depressing evening if you go there and sit
there the entire iron night by yourself and don't get
anything because most of the ladies are coming with their friends.
I have a friend that if he moves off the
couch it's a miracle and he's out of breath.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
No, he's complaining immediately. If you're asking him to go out,
he's automatically he's cursing you out. He's probably saying some
wild stuff, and he would rather just again, he'd rather
watch Texas San Antonio play a football game. Yes, gotta
watch some American Conference. I mean, Owen McCown's a hell
of a question. I mean, yeah, you gotta watch out. Hey,
there's a girl interested over at Johnny Dollars. Okay, is
(23:33):
she owen Macown? I don't think so. She can forget it, buddy.
I'm staying right here. I'm not moving off the couch. Hey, Finny,
go get me some nachos. Where's the meat? Low fitty?
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Lots of people writing into Elizabeth Billiards. Oh apparently it's
long gone. Okay, that makes sense that yeah, I guess
it is Tipsy Burrow too, fun little spot seeing some
musicians participate over there or play over there with some
live music events, and that's been cool. So let us know.
Divius bars. We'll read some of those as we exit
(24:06):
the show today. But we got to call him through
some sound time. Now for the Live Wire with mister Flounding.
Speaker 6 (24:13):
A.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Sorry I didn't right, I was. I'd help you out.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Did on the talk and you did.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
That's all right?
Speaker 7 (24:18):
Good?
Speaker 1 (24:24):
How about this from dive bars to live bars? Oh?
Speaker 4 (24:28):
Very nice?
Speaker 1 (24:28):
I take us away, all right.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
We go with Dave Canalis, the head coach of the
Carolina Panthers. He was talking after Saturday's fan fest and
was asked about Ryan Fitzgerald missing a couple of kicks
and why Matthew Wright did not kick the entire night.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
You know, Fitzgerald had a couple of miskicks and how
come Matthew didn't kill Oh, it's.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Just a practice.
Speaker 7 (24:51):
So this happened to be the practice that Ryan was kicking,
you know, So he missed a couple. So we're just
learning more about the guys that we have.
Speaker 8 (24:58):
Attempts something beyond the skinny put so, I mean range, Yeah, it.
Speaker 7 (25:02):
Was good and to see him, you know, with the
whole environment, you know, and even right there that was
a that situation was down three, you know, to tie
it up to go to overtime, you know, so a
little extra added pressure, you know, for that situation. I
thought Jack Plummer did a great job getting us down there.
The guys operated well and we got to finish those.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
So yeah, Ryan Fitzgerald misses on two forty eight yard
field goals. One clangs off the upright, that was the
one that ended practice.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
Concerned are you about where the kicking battle is?
Speaker 5 (25:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (25:31):
A little bit not great. I mean the fact that
nobody wants to win this job. And if you were
missing a couple of field goals on hashtag skinny posts,
then I was okay with it. But if you're missing
two field goals as soon as the lights are on,
and you have to kick with maybe a tiny bit
of pressure from the fan base being there in person
to watch you kick it through the uprights, then I'm
(25:52):
a little scared. Joe joining us just a little while
ago saying that he thinks Ryan Fitzgerald, the rookie out
of Florida State, he's going to be the guy that
ends up with the starting job. But he didn't sound
too confident in it, and it's not again by him
just being extremely accurate in training camp or at FanFest,
and so it does have me a little concerned. I'm
(26:13):
hoping that once we get through training camp, Fitzgerald maybe
gets the job and then everything is just fine and
dandy once we get to the regular season. People are
comparing this a lot to the Harrison Butker Graham Gano situation.
I think that there are a couple of differences here. One,
Graham Gano was good, yes, and he legitimately beat Butker
(26:33):
out in that training camp battle. Gano was the better kicker.
I understand that you wanted to at least hindsight, being
twenty twenty the way that it is, I understand that
you felt like you could have saved some money by
just sticking with the seventh round kicker that Dave Gettlman
drafted in the seventh round.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
Totally understand that.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
But he lost the kicking battle and they tried to
keep him on the roster for I think a couple
of weeks. They kept two kickers on the roster through
the first two weeks of the season because they did
not want to allow him to be picked up by
another team. So they did like him. All that to say,
there's no Graham Gano on this roster right now, somebody
that you can trust to that level.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
Oh lord, no, Now, Matthew Wright, guys, he is a journeyman.
He is not somebody that has been consistent in his career.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
And but Kurt had a better performance in camp than
what Fitzgerald is having right now. So I do think
there are some differences. That was a good kicking battle,
this one. I wouldn't describe it as a good kicking battle.
I might be this might be the worst one that
we've seen. So yeah, because I mean, we had some
good stuff from San Gonzalez for a little bit. Eddie
p Eddie de Naro Pinero had him for a while.
(27:41):
You know, just don't have the strong legs with some
of those guys, but they were pretty accurate. I hope
it's Fitzgerald and then he just gets through some of
the rookie struggles.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
But who knows. I can't tell you. I feel confidence.
Speaker 5 (27:52):
I think Joe one of the things that he brought
up there, I think's right. I think the kicker might
not even be on the roster right now. I think
there's a chance there could go out and find something.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Which is frustrating, which is having to rely on somebody
else to release a more talented kicker. I guess it
did work for Kansas City and the Harriston Butker example.
I just don't think that happens a whole lot of
the time. What else you got flound All?
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Right, let's go to Ted McMillan.
Speaker 5 (28:15):
He was talking on Friday after practice and he was
talking about how the level of physicality in camp is
different than he expected.
Speaker 6 (28:23):
Uh No, it's a little bit different. It's a little
bit different place style from calls to the league game.
You know, the refs let the players play at the
end of the day, so you know, I got to
earn my stripe to get some calls around here, and
that's only gonna make me better and being able to
play through the contact.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
All right, So what do you make of his comments
right there?
Speaker 5 (28:39):
We were just talking, you know, we've been talking throughout
the show really about his issues with getting off for
press coverage. Then you hear there kind of saying about
the refs and everything like that. So what do you
think about his comments there?
Speaker 3 (28:53):
We heard this from XL last year too, more so
even at the end of last season, that there were
plenty of things that you could get away with playing
wide receiver in college football that you just can't at
all in the NFL. You do not have any margin
for air. You have to be precise on everything that
you do, and it is a wake up call for
even the most talented of wide receivers. I don't know
(29:15):
if you've seen some of these clips circulating on Twitter,
but have you seen the Justin Jefferson camp tweets going
out where he's talking to these young wide receivers that
he's working with, and the attention to detail from Justin
Jefferson is really impressive. He's discussing, hey, you're getting too
choppy at your break. He's talking about some of the
releases and some of the hand fighting nuances that come
(29:37):
with playing that position. It goes to show you, Okay,
when you're that kind of athlete, you have among the
best hands in all of football, and you're that precise
and you pay attention with that level of detail.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
There's so many.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Boxes you have to check off to becoming a great
NFL wide receiver, and I think some of those clips
coming out there are a lot of fun to go watch.
You apply that to some of the younger receivers here
in Carolina and you can imagine there's a little bit
of a curve. There's a little bit of a growing
process that you have to partake in. I hope that
team Matt can grow earlier rather than later, sooner rather
(30:11):
than later.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
I'm hoping that happens.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
I am convinced that that can happen because of a
guy like Jefferson who had two games where again he
combined for seventy yards. I was looking at the Mike
Evans stats early in his rookie season two and it
took him a while and actually, like some thirty yard performances,
fifty sixty forty boom, he goes off for like three
straight one hundred yard games in order to get to
(30:35):
one thousand yards his rookie season, but still the second
half a mon Ross Saint Brown, same type of rookie
season for him, despite being a fourth round guy, really
came on strong the second half. So I think that's
a common thing. I think what's common from these top
flight receivers they show you something immediately. In terms of years,
(30:56):
they show you something their first year. I don't know
if they show you everything in the first half of
their rookie seasons. I think Ladd McCaughey is another example.
Flounder last year. Ladd was good, but not amazing his
first half of the season. Second half ballin' playoffs. That's
your guy. That's the go to guy for Herbert. So
if t Mat can give me something from week eight
(31:17):
on to show you that I'm that guy, I'll be
cool with what he gives us his first year in
the NFL.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
What else you got?
Speaker 4 (31:24):
All right? We move on to J. C.
Speaker 5 (31:26):
Horn, who was asked about his starting quarterback and he
compared him to.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
A point guard.
Speaker 8 (31:33):
Okay, he kind of reminded me of like Steph Curry
a little bit. He a silent killer, he gonna he
might show pop it a little bit, but you know,
he ain't gonna say too much. But when I get
under his skin and I hear to real him, I'm like, okay,
I know he a real dog and a real killer,
So you know, I let to see him make plays.
And like I said, just go back and forth with
him and just get we get.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Each other better.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
So do we like this comparison for JC or we
still scarred? I know this one's okay.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
He's a point guard. They don't have to spend money.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
It's a promo we still run to this day. After
David Tepper could not help but come from behind the
backdrop when things were pointing in the right direction and
he wanted to speak to the media so badly. He
couldn't help, but he was like, he's over here, guys,
we found a loophole. Okay, you know all my thoughts
on that. The difference here is it's okay to call
(32:25):
him a point guard if you don't equate that with
not having to spend money or invest in the position.
They've clearly invested a lot in wide receiver. So if
you want to call Bryce Young a point guard, hey,
that's all fine. In fact, I would agree with that.
Just don't let that dictate how you address or don't
address the wide receiver spot. They keep drafting wide receivers
(32:47):
in the first two rounds. You got to hit on him,
But I actually like them investing in some of these
pass catchers to help Bryce Young. So Jalen Coker clearly
very good as an undrafted guy. They spent a little
money on them, Thieling, they're bringing him back. They spent
a top ten pick, despite needing defense pretty badly, they
still spent a top ten pick on what many people
(33:08):
thought was the best wide receiver in the entire draft class.
That's absolutely not nothing. So they keep investing in wide receiver.
That's where it's okay to call him a point guard.
Don't don't call him a point guard. With the notion
that we're just not going to invest in wide receiver.
That's when it gets to be something problematic. That'll do
it for what for the Live Wire? One more segment
(33:31):
to go before that'll do it for Wes and Walker
With Founder filling in for the day, we come back.
We continue to rattle off some of the diviest of
bars in the Queen City and We'll tell you what's
on tap. Sports Radio ninety two seven WFNZ.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Are you challenging me to walk on?
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Yeah, that's a walk off challenge, my friend, it's a
walk off the.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Walk over, Wrap it up West and Walker No West.
Though he's out for the week, he'll be back with
us next week. Flounder helping us out, doing a great
job as always, but doing a great job in the
co host chair. For today's show, We'll tell you what's
on Tap, presented by Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks has locations
in Concord and Fort Mill. Twin Peaks is your local
sports lodge you could come in from, made from scratch
(34:29):
food and signature twenty nine degree draft Beers, the Braves
and the Brewers. Tonight in Atlanta, seven point fifteen. First pitch,
Quinn Priester on the mound for Milwaukee having a really
nice year ten and two on the season, A three
two seven era for Quinn Priester. He'll be taking on
Eric Betty three and eleven on the year five thirty
(34:51):
three era. Two years going in the exact opposite direction
for each of these play Yeah.
Speaker 5 (34:57):
Yeah, it's amazing because if you go back to the
start of the year. Milwaukee was one of those teams
that was getting rocked during the first week of the
season and we thought, oh man, this could be a
really bad team this year. Now, I mean, they are
one of the best teams in Major League Baseball, if
not the best team in Major League Baseball. So the
Braves with an uphill battle year. The good news for
(35:20):
them is that they have sort of put some distance
between them and Washington right now, so I don't think
the Braves are gonna finish last place in this division.
They will not catch the Marlins, though, who are on fire.
They are one of the hottest teams in the league.
Just swept the Yankees over the weekend and they're now
back at five hundred, so they're pushing for a playoff spot.
(35:40):
Definitely thought that there would be three teams in the
NL East that would be pushing to make the playoffs.
Just don't think we thought the Braves weren't gonna be
one of that group.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Yeah, Braves certainly not pushing for the playoffs right now.
In fact, some more news coming out from Atlanta. This
actually dropped just twenty minutes really before the show started.
Braves third Basement Austin Riley was on Monday today placed
on the ten day IL for the second time in
two months after a strained lower abdominal muscle. Riley suffered
(36:08):
the injury while tagging out Since's Elie de la Cruz
near home plate in the Braves four two win on Sunday.
That was a rain delayed MLB Speedway Classic at Bristol
Motor Speedway. Unfortunate to not get everything that you could
have possibly wanted out of a playing baseball at a
cool location, and if you're a Braves fan, it was
extra disappointing having lost to Austin Riley. At least it's
(36:31):
the ten day IL instead of the sixty day IL,
like your entire rotation is on right now. If you're
a Braves fan, that actually made one of the sports
updates circulating on our airwaves. Like nationally, the Braves injury
lack of luck has been taken has been somewhat popular
to discuss because the graphic of seeing every single one
(36:54):
of those pictures, all five of the opening day starters,
all of them flounder, were on the sixty day IL brutal,
brutal injury luck And that's coming from a Hornets fan
saying that, yeah, it's.
Speaker 5 (37:04):
Been a really bad year injury wise. I mean, there
certainly are some other areas where the team hasn't necessarily
been good even with guys that are healthy. But pitching wise,
I mean, yeah, you haven't pitched well for the entire
season and you got all these guys that are injured.
I mean, the only other team that's had maybe worse
luck than them has been the Dodgers, because it feels
like every pitcher the Dodgers have this year has been
(37:26):
on the il at some point. But yeah, right now,
I mean the fact with how banged up they are,
I think that probably is part of the reason why
they have been as bad as they've been this year.
But for Austin Riley, you're just hoping that he can
get back at some point this year, even though with
the way this season's gone, shutting him down, getting him
prepared for next season, I think is the most important thing.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
By the way, little League World Series both baseball and
softball happening today as well, North Carolina having some teams
in both sports, both baseball and softball. In fact, I'm
trying to catch up right now. Not a whole lot
of information not on ESPN dot com. To get some
of the scores coming in, I got to go to
Twitter and get more updates. But I do know that
at least in the Softball Little League World Series, North
(38:11):
Carolina rallied in the sixth inning to beat Indiana.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
It's the Walker mail ball.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
How about that North Carolina did rally to beat Indy
in the softball Little League World Series?
Speaker 1 (38:22):
So very cool. They are watching some highlights.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Shout out to North Carolina and then Huntersville, North Carolina.
They were playing in the Baseball Little League World Series.
That game was delayed due to whether I don't know
when they picked it back up. ESPN not giving me
any sort of update. I don't know if they have
to be honest, and maybe they didn't. Maybe they didn't
because I'm not seeing any information on it. But Huntersville,
(38:46):
I guess La Norman area there in the Little League
World Series and they got to play a team in
Virginia today, but again weather delay, So don't know exactly
when their schedule is going to pick up again.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Do you like the Little Little League World Series?
Speaker 5 (39:00):
Not as big of a fan as I was, clearly
when I was younger. I definitely probably won't grace the
television today. But I mean, first of all, their games
will pretty much be done by the time I get home,
so that's part of it. But no, I mean, it's
a cool way for kids to be involved with the
sport of baseball. It's still cool that it's a big deal.
(39:21):
It's on ESPN, so I do think that there is
some nostalgia to it, that's for sure.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
Was it Willie who ruffled feathers when he had complaints
about the Little League World Series?
Speaker 1 (39:31):
Am I mistaken of it?
Speaker 5 (39:32):
I wouldn't be shocked if he's the guy that doesn't
like the Little League World Series because he gets mad
of when the kid announcers come into the booths and
start calling the games.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
I forgot about his complaints.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
He's like, they're unprofessional, they don't need to be up there.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
You know. I thought this was during the Mets broadcast, right.
Speaker 5 (39:48):
Oh, he's right. What we do every year we have
the s N Y Kids caster. Kid comes in for
a half inning, not even a full inning, and he
every time he complains about it. He didn't complain about
this year's kid. But he's not the only one. I
saw people on social media that were complaining about the
(40:09):
kid and how he was calling the game.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
I'm like, I thought he would have a like to
stand on just hearing the story about it first before
I heard the kid broadcast, and then I heard him broadcast,
and it wasn't bad. It wasn't overwhelming. He didn't dominate
the microphone, and he was helped out a little bit,
and so it wasn't really that much of an issue
for me. I was like, Okay, let the kid have
his airtime. It's a half inning. It's not even a
(40:33):
full inning. They give these kids.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Really not here for the kids. Man, Now, Willie p no,
thank you.
Speaker 3 (40:38):
Until it's his kid, right, My kid's gonna be great.
You think Willy's first kids. His kid's first words is
going to be the mayor. You think it's going to
be a goal call?
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Oh, oh my god, it's a first word. It's a
little pe. It's his first word. Okay.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
We're also looking at the divest of bars in Charlotte.
We have other people writing in some of the ones
that I have not gotten to. Everybody just bombarding the
text line with Smokey Joe's on Monroe Road. That's one
a lot of people are writing in I've not been there,
never been need to go. But everyone else I've pretty
much been to, and I'm not even a huge dive
(41:20):
bar guy.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
I like them.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
They're fun. It's not like it's my number one thing
I love to do. But I have not been to
Smokey Joe, So I'm gonna have to make it out
to Smokey Joe's one time. Yeah, Casey Steve writing in
Johnny Dollars when he comes back into town.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
That's always a good time.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
I have a couple on the list that I need
to ask the people if they would consider these dive
bars or not.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
I found it.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
I don't think it's gonna be much help for me here. Man,
I'm hoping to get that. I don't think I'm gonna
get it. I don't think so either. Small Bar now,
I don't know if I would call small Bar a
dive bar. Throppy said that he thought it was small
Bar is like what you would construct for college kids
(42:05):
slash young South End goers and call it a dive
bar even though it really wasn't. That's how I would
feel about small Bar. I don't know if that description
fits how most people think of it, but it feels
misguided to say, Like if you were to invite your
friend out and say, yeah, man, we're thinking about going
to this real, this dive bar. It's called small bar
(42:25):
in you know, up in Charlotte, like okay, yeah, that
sounds fun, and then you get there and you see
what it is. I think they would feel misled. Let
astray run amuck. I think they would feel that way.
That's one. Have you ever been to a Bari arcade bar?
Speaker 1 (42:41):
I have not.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
Can an arcade bar be a dive bar as well?
That's my other question.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
I don't.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
I don't think so. I think it's in its own category. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
And a Bari was nice? Yeah. Oh?
Speaker 3 (42:52):
Goldies good great down Under Yeah, even with the accent
down under on the text line Goldies isn't really a
dive bar, but has great live music. See, I think
that would be a great Would you consider Goldies a
dive bar or not? Because that one's just right down
the road from where I live. I like Goldies. It's
a really cool spot. I would not consider it a
dive bar by any stretch. It's too big. I think.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
It just doesn't fit the vibe to me, it Weave says,
small bar in Matthews, is this guy's hammered. This is
someone that can speak to this. I trust his opinion.
If your name on the text line is this guy's hammered,
he said, small bar is just a frat bar. Yeah,
you're not wrong, one hundred percent. That is absolutely correct.
All right, maybe we can talk about it more. On
(43:36):
the other side, we need to get Flounder out, all right,
let's throw out some bar ideas to get Flounder and fitty.
But I'm tired of having Fitty drag you down. Flounder, Okay,
like we just need to We need to separate the
Siamese twins that are Flounder and Fitty and bring Flounder
out somewhere to a dive bar. That'll do it for
Weston Walker. Good job from the flound Dog Today. It's
(43:59):
Kyle Bay coming up next alongside Smoke Ludwig. Sports Radio
ninety two to seven WFNZ, Keep it one Haunted.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Listen to the Wes and Walker Show week is from
noon to three only on Sports Radio ninety two point
seven FMFNZ, the
Speaker 4 (44:17):
Official home of the Charlotte sports Fan
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