Happy Half Hour Episode 44: A Lot Can Change

Last week, yeah, a month ago, last week when they were about to play a third preseason game and we hadn't seen Sam Donald play much football and all that kind of stuff, and all by the way, they've cut people and done all this other stuff since then, We've come a long way. It's a lot happening here. Yes. And we also are going to start our disclaimer that I feel like we do weekly during the regular season, which is that we are recording this on Wednesday morning.

So by the time this comes out, things will have changed because we are in that initial roster, but we're still looking, you know, putting out waiver claims. All that is happening right now. But as of yesterday, we do have the initial fifty three man roster, which is where we are going to start, of course, knowing that it is going to change maybe significantly UM in the time that this podcast comes out, and certainly before the first game. But I do want to get a big takeaway from

what you saw overall. I don't know if it's we should maybe do it by position groups. I feel like like there'd be a good way to go, So I'll start. No one asked me, but I'll start the host. I do what I want UM, And of course I'm going to take the easy one before before anyone UM goes there,

the quarterbacks. So for going one takeaway at a position group, it was that p J Walker one the backup job over Will Grier, despite Will Grier certainly I thought giving PG run for his money, especially in those last two preseason games. So I think that was one of the big headlines that came out of the UM initial fifty three man roster is that Will Greer is no longer on the team, right, And I feel like we should also record and have Matt splice something in later well

after the Panthers claimed Kingele mccringelberry off waivers Wednesday. Yes, we could just fill in the blame. Yeah, different names,

drop a boy see in later. But yeah, at the moment we're recording this sitting on two quarterbacks, and I mean, to me, that's a little bit risky simply because, you know, even though the COVID restrictions aren't as stringent as they were this time a year ago, having an extra guy around who knows your stuff and who is available and who you know can operate at a reasonable level on short notice is something I think they'd be interested, and

I think they're They're almost certainly going to add another quarterback to this roster in the next couple of days. We don't know who it is at the moment. We don't know if he's going to be a veteran practice squad or anything like that. But yeah, I mean, having a third round seems reasonable. But they are confident enough in PJ that m they're willing to roll with him for now, which is you know, I I thought it was debatable which of those two backups had the better preseason.

Will played pretty well, like you mentioned, Kristen those second two games. Will was really good, and I think Will will have opportunities, whether it's here somewhere else coming up. But yeah, I mean it does stand out right now at the moment as we talk about this at ten

twenty seven on Wednesday morning. The good news is darreny threw in a lot of words in in um that last sentence of like whether they claimed someone off waivers veterans, So we have a lot to splice in and I bet we can get to if they do pick someone off a good description from Darren just based on the words that we can edit. Let's say signed Vinny test of Virgin or something like that, and then we're doing

a breaking podcast if that happens. The best part for me was as he got into it, he leaned forward and took his glasses off, and that's when you knew that Darren meant business on this. On this for those listening and watching home alternate theory, his eyes are just tired because he has published how many articles over in the last few days. There's been a lot of stuff crossing my face, as they say in the football business. But yeah, it's it's a lot going on. But yeah,

we don't know. I mean, there will be moves later today for sure. That makes us look like idiots in the ensuing a couple of hours. Well that's what we're here for. Right, We're going to record at the time and then you know everything will change by the time it comes out. That's part of the fun of it.

You never know what you're going to get. But Darren, what what is the position group that stood out to you when you look at this initial fifty three man roster, I mean fifty three guys on the roster, ten of them are defensive lineman. And when you look at when those guys showed up, I mean, they're all basically new. Brian Burns is the only pre Matt rule defensive line. It's the third season and it is alarming, but it's it's young, and it's fast, and it's talented, especially young.

I mean they kept ten I mean and Phil Hoskins seventh round pig, big snack, he was probably the tenth guy. As you look at that group, but after you trade for Darryl Johnson, you keep Phil Hoskins around. All of a sudden you look and it's like, WHOA, there's are a lot of defensive linemen and from where they were a couple of years ago when the cupboard was bear when you see them pumps so many draft picks into the position, put so many resources in the Firman Net

thing up. I mean, you know, you go out and you sign a day Kwan Jones and Morgan Fox this offseason, and it's because you need somebody to shephard along all of these kids. And I mean those those are two good vets to have in that room who've been around. I mean, Morgan has played next to some guy named Aaron Donald. He knows a little about how this game goes.

And de Kwan John same deal. I mean they Matt talked a lot about de Kwan and how being on a Tennessee team that went from two and fourteen to playoff regulars matters, and so having that around a bunch of young guys like Davian Nixon, like Brian Roy, like Phil Hoskins, et cetera. That's that's valuable knowledge. And one thing that Phil Snow has said is people have asked him, you know, who are the starters are? You know, kind of where how they all gonna line up. He's like,

I don't really care. All of these guys are going to be on the field constantly. Like the whole thing is, there's no place you're saying. He said, he doesn't really care about who the start of the techno. Do you think he cares about where they line up, go out there and wherever they want. Yeah, you know, the the guy that is out there for the first play versus the guy that's out there for the fourth play. I mean, they're just gonna keep rotating and going full speed. We

saw that last year specifically with the D line. You know, I go out there for sideline and you have your your designated starters, and then you look at the snap counts will which I'm always very grateful that you publish every single week. It's it's true. That is how they operate. They like to sub They like to rotate guys, especially on their line. That is their ideal scenario, and we're going to see it more and more with the talent

that they have added and developed this year. I mean, yeah, you have those offensive linemen that are going to be looking at a different guys that they're going to have to prepare for that are coming at you know, and then you have linebackers that may step up into gaps. I mean all that kind of stuff. But you know,

these guys are fresh. You're gonna have guys, fresh guys coming at them all game, and it's the same you know garden, same right tackle that's going to have to deal with these really young fast players and having guys I mean, listen, Markis Haynes and need tour play had a lot of snaps last year, and breaking on Roy did too when you were mentioning him. These guys that you wouldn't necessarily would think it a lot of work,

but in the system or because of injury. And again that second group got a lot of run last year, as they you know, and last year they were playing a lot of young guys out of necessity, you know, I think now it's beginning to become out of choice. And and again we'll see what Darryl Johnson. We'll see if he proves to be help on defense. He's inactive, he's a big body. When you see him out on the practice field, he looks the part that's what a

defensive in supposed don't look like out there. But he's mainly here because he's got some promises pass rusher. But he's a special teams guy, and he'll probably be on all four phases of special teams and and be out there running around because you need big guys who can run in that phase of the game, and that's gonna

be his job primarily. But it stood out to me that when you keep a fifty three man roster in time you've got double digits at any position, it's like, oh, okay, but that's that's an interesting group for sure going into the year. Well, what position group stood out to you? So this one is definitely a let's pause and insert people later. Javars, Jamar, Javaris and Lamar done. Okay, So

um no, I mean the running backs. A couple of weeks ago, when we published that initial depth chart firm from training camp, we had to add spaces to make up for all the running backs that were on there. You know, Darius Clark, Spencer Brown, Reggie Bonifon, Rodney Smith, along with Cuba and Christian and yeah, and and and now it's just Cuba and Christian and now Trenton Cannon

is there as the special team's guy. That that group, though, what was hit hard by injuries during training camp in three season, which is absolutely and I think you know that that harkens back to what Matt Will keeps saying, you know, the best ability is availability, and I think I think you saw that a little bit obviously a lot of that can change here today with practice squad, with with waiver claims with you know, they're they're not

going to ferily leave it like that. But what Darren was saying, you know, they obviously want depth, but Christian isn't a guy that's going to be you know, splitting, carries a ton if when he's out there, he's out there. You know, this is Christians. This is Christians team to run on offense. From a running back standpoint. So you know, Chuba Hubbard, I think he proved himself pretty well. You know, everyone talked about what are they gonna do with Mike

Davis going to Atlanta. I think Chuba Hubbard is a guy that I feel comfortable with, you know, on an NFL field right now. But yeah, I mean we'll we'll see what they do with that running back group. After they sign Sagittarius Jefferson to the practice squad today, Um yeah, I mean they're gonna roll into a game and and the three who were up on game day, even if they add some practice squad guys or adjust the roster.

I mean, Christian Cuba, Trenton Cannon, that's who's going to be active and Trenton is another guy like Daryl Johnson. He's a special teams guy. Call him a running back if you want to, but he's probably not gonna do a lot of running of the football in this situation. And and while Cuba had a great preseason, Cuba is probably not either. I mean, you've got Christian McCaffrey. And I thought it was interesting, you know, Joe Brady basically said the other week when we were talking to him,

he basically said, buckle up. We don't want to overuse him, but we know he's the guy, and we know he needs to be just increasingly involved in this offense because he's one of the best players in the league. So yeah, we're going to give it to him a lot. So I think that was part of the reason Christian didn't step on the field during the preseason. And good, I mean, save the tread on his tires and get Cuba ready in case of emergency or in case you just need

somebody to spell him after a long drive. But I will say Joe Brady also said in our preseason meetings, we got to talk to him once a week. He also said, you know, we want Christian fresh in the fourth quarter and so they're kind of hinting that, you know, they do want that backup running back position to be able to go in. Now, once you actually get in the game and Christian is doing Christian McCaffrey things, I think that's that's always harder. But do you think there's

any real chance that that that happens? I don't. I mean, how how how could it write? Why? Why would you give non Christian McCaffrey people the ball if you had the opportunity to give Christian McCaffrey the ball. I mean it's yeah, I think they want to and and there will be games now, I will say from watching them through the preseason, I think having a more diversified passing game might take a little bit of that stress off.

You know, there's going to be a lot of quick passes, there's going to be a lot of put it in DJ's hands in space and let him try to make him play. Let's get Robbie on these short intermediate routes well, and we know that Dan Arnold around is going to add something to the passing game. And if you get anything out of tight ends in the passing game, that's

one more carry. Christian doesn't have to take well. And we know that Barty likes to get creative, so I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that we see a few plays that are specially designed for too. But you know, I mean, I think it's possible. But yes, the majority, Christian McCaffrey is gonna have the ball in his hands as much as possible. I think we all agree on that, right. And if you want the fantasy perspective on this may, sure you get up with at

Panthers Bill on Twitter. He loves your fantasy questions, send them to him off. Listening to your favorite Carolina Panthers podcast has never been easier. Simply download the Amazon Alexa app, add the Carolina Panthers skill, and say Alexa playing Carolina Panthers now playing Carolina Panthers. Be shore to also add the Carolina Panthers flash briefing to your morning routine. For more information, visit Panthers dot com. All right, well, I heard you got a stat of the week for us

right the times, every time of the week. So after last night's initial fifty three man rosters were published, Philly Voice um they published their annual Youngest and Oldest roster rankings. So the Panthers came in tied for fourth with the Cleveland Browns age point three. Now, obviously it would have been a little bit higher. J J. Jansen, the old man is bringing that number up a little bit, but still thanks JJ. But in the case of this, I mean it came out of the draft, I think with

one of the youngest rosters. Obviously it's still very young. You know that they're they're growing. You know, these guys are young, and they're they're looking to the future. You know, four years ago the Panthers were the second oldest um going into So it's it's obviously changed a lot in terms of the roster makeup. But I think that kind

of we knew that, but here's some statistical proof of it. Yeah, tin rookies and from the last two draft classes, fifteen of the eighteen picks are still on the three man roster at the moment. Well, and I think that with Sam Donald coming here, there was that initial wave in the media where everyone gets reminded how young he is. So he was younger than some of the draft picks coming out this year and just turned twenty four recently. I was just thinking we were talking about Brian Burns

twenty three years old. That still strikes me as incongruous a little bit, right, because, I mean we know this is his third season, but he just it feels like he's he's a presence, right, and he's a he's a vet on this young de line. We were just talking about it. Yeah, still a baby. I mean, shoot, the oldest guy in the room on defense has been Jeremy Chin. He's been fifty years old since he was tenning. I mean, what is he like? I mean, he's not old either.

A couple of those guys got old souls. As we say, yeah, wow, I feel so old. We're nuts for another day, uh, Darren again, we'll just insert the robotic voice and and the blanks. But as of right now, Wednesday ten thirty, where do you think that they are going to continue to look based on where this roster is right now? I think you have to find somebody with a little more experience inside linebacker. I mean they had Denzel Peraman here traded in Las Vegas, had Josh Binds here in

Camp cut him. I think it's clear they want somebody uh to be able to spell Jermaine and Chack a little bit. Um Matt talked a lot this offseason about Jack played a whole bunch of snaps last year. We'd like him to play fewer snaps this year so that in December he's a little fresher and a little more available. And they don't have that guy on the roster right now. I mean their backups at inside linebacker Julian Stanford, another

special teams guy in Clay Johnson. So it's it's just not a lot of experience, not a lot of guys you can point to and say, if we needed a spot start out of him. What they don't have is that guy like Jermaine Carter was the last couple of years that you could plug in and and have a baseline expectation of what he was going to be able to do. Now Jermaine has grown into something else. He you know, we made a lot out of Denzel Perraman, but you know, Jermaine kind of made that job his

own and never let it go. So he's solid, shack solid. There's just not a lot behind them. So I would anticipate as they go through this thing. You know, if they claim linebacker have one shower handle off waivers, it won't be a surprise to me. Great prediction there, really really solid. It's almost like you saw into the future. I can't wait to see what producer Matt's going to do with all these blank spaces. Just like SpongeBob, there's

an incredible opportunity for him. Robotic voice, Yes, Siri, who is the linebacker the Panthers just claimed off Wavers. Let's go back now to what feels like a million years ago for us, but we haven't talked about it was that third preseason game where we saw the starters play for a full half and and he get told us a lot about this team. I mean, let's just what were your initial takeaways the game ended, or the first half ended. How did you feel about Let's let's start

with the defense. How did you both feel about how the defense looked. They keep taking the ball away from people. I mean, that's you know, that's the thing through the preseason, whether it was the backups in the first couple of games, or you know, Brian Burns in this last one. It's like the second one. Yeah, they're going to get the ball away from other people. That's it. That's something that's

pretty obvious about them. I mean, and again, they're fast, and they're on and they've got a lot of dudes, so, um, that's gonna be important. And I think they've kind of laid this whole thing in knowing that they wanted to be fast and physical on defense, because until they got Sam and kind of had an idea what they were gonna have in Sam, that was the thing you're sort

of counting on. That's the side of the ball. If they make great improvements this year, it's gonna be because that defense is pretty good, and based on what we've seen in a preseason, I think there's reason to think that could be the case. I mean, they finished i think in the league rankings, what fifteen in the league in total defense, which is always kind of a weird way to measure defenses. But yeah, they were kind of

the middle of the pack. I mean, I'm not sure I'm ready to say they're gonna be a top five defense or anything like that this year, but they're clearly better than they were a year ago. And for me, it was, you know, obviously Pittsburgh had maybe not their full complement of starters, but they started over four on third down. Yeah, it was Dante with the first two was was really the I mean, those were open tackles, those were powering up to the ball in space. You know,

those were not letting guys get to the sticks. I mean you could tell. And just the energy they had after making those plays. They knew they have to get off the field on third down. That was the big thing that that stood out to me as well. Um

and you could feel it with the crowd there. You could feel how excited they were to be able to get off the field, take the ball away, have those third down stops, because those were points of emphasis last year and through the first two preseason games with the backups out on the field, the maybe not the takeaways,

but the third down numbers were certainly not great. And so to come out and see the starters really start off that way from as you said, that first Steelers third down opportunity that I thought that was a great sign. And I think it's also a psychological thing too. They see it right, and then they go okay, all right, now we're feeling good and um yeah, kind of reset the narrative on that third down and we'll see, we'll see how that goes. Starting in gosh, how many days now,

fourteen days, twelve days, something like that against the Jets. Yeah, and again it goes back to a couple of things. I mean, you add pass rushers to hurry things up up front, and you added so much talent to the secondary. I mean drafting j C. Horne. I mean I wrote this morning on the website about Dante Jackson being the only corner on the roster at this moment who's ever started an NFL game, But it doesn't feel like as

much of a panic because the other one is j C. Horn. Yeah, and it's like, you don't I don't even consider him a rookie sometimes anymore. I mean, he just doesn't strike me. You look at Stanley Thomas Oliver and Keith Taylor and it's like, oh my god, it's so young, But you don't consider j C. A is a part of that Oh my god, they're young, because he is not a

young player. No, he's He's been ready for this opportunity for forever, you know, it feels like, and in large part thanks to his dad and and the wisdom that his dad has imparted, and thanks in large part also

to to who he is. But he definitely falls into that category and I hate to even name other players because there are plenty of them, but he falls into that Brian Burns, Jeremy Chin older than their years, it seems like, both in terms of just the way he carries him elf and then also experience like you're right, he has not started in an NFL game yet, but you don't you consider him so far ahead of what maybe a normal rookie measures at um, what about on offense?

Let's talk about that first half with the starters are first real look and the fans first real look at Sam Donald and what he is going to be for the Panthers. Kind of slow starting, but those last two drives, man, I mean and and that's been the thing that stood out to me about Sam and probably the thing I

didn't realize about him. I didn't take the opportunity to enjoy as many Jets games is perhaps I should have the last three years, but I didn't realize Sam was going to be as good as he is in two minutes situations throughout training camp, when you know there would be times when things would get a little loose, but when they got into that rhythm stuff, when it was timing,

when it was let's be sharp, point it matters. Sam always looked good, whether it was just solo practices down in Spartanburger, in those joint practices, I mean against the Ravens, and again, Marlon Humphrey wasn't practicing back then, but they still had Marcus Peters in a really good defense, and Sam looked efficient. Sam looked clean in those two minute drives, and so for him to come out and have that long drive to in the first half, it's like, all right,

you got something to work with here. I think there's still some reason to wonder how it's going to hold up over a whole year. But if you offer people nineteen of twenty two yards a couple of touchdowns, if he does that in every half of every game this year, heck, Sam's gonna go to the Pro Bowl. Well, okay, he's probably not going to do that in every half of every game this year. I just want but it does.

It does beg the question about pace. You know, I think people ask Brady about pace a little bit, and he said, you know, there's a lot of ways to define define that, you know, like it's coming up to the line, it's it's getting the play, and it's all

that kind of stuff. But you know, like when you do play a little bit quicker, if if that allows a quarterback to you know, at different times, be able to get into a rhythm, keeps the defense from substituting, you know a lot of different things you might see that outside of a two minute situation. Yeah, well, as as um, both coach Rule and Brady told me last year, you cannot play fast enough for either of them, that is what they want. They you cannot, this team cannot

go fast enough. And and maybe that's you know, in part of their college backgrounds, but that is what they want. They want pace on all levels, whether it is just getting up to the line, everything could be faster, UM. And so I'm sure that they were very pleased to see um the pace at which Sam Donald was leading that offense. And I talked to both Rule and Donald after that game and they both said the same thing, like we're not happy with the slow start, but really

liked the way they ended. And and I mean, that's what you want right out of a quarterback that we're all wondering, um, or the fans are wondering how it was gonna go coming in from the Jets. You want if you're a fan to know that your quarterback can lead two minute drive. That's like that. That's where you said, it's got to give you a lot of confidence, right,

And I think that we're seeing that it's possible. Yeah, And it's not to throw rocks at anybody who was here last year, but it it does feel different and once, even though we didn't see this in a preseason game, having Christian out there is going to make a huge difference everything because you know, if a play breaks down, you can dump it off the number twenty two and you have a pretty good idea that he's going to be able to do something positive with it. And he

knows what to do. He knows when to get down, he knows when to get out of bounds. So there's reason to be cautiously optimistic about this offense right now. I mean, obviously there's some stuff you worry about, because there's always stuff to worry about. Nobody, you know, nobody envisioned at this point in a reclamation project that they would be a finished product, and they're not. But Sam

has kind of receded from the list of worries. I guess you could say going into the season because I think he's looked a lot more competent than a lot of people maybe had reason to think he was going to with the new way that the preseason, the structure just three preseason games. But then keeping in mind that they did these four joint practices, a hundred reps roughly for every starter. Do you feel both of you feel

with with all of these new pieces. You know, I'm specifically thinking of Sam, but with everyone with this young team that they're ready for the regular season. I think there's ready as they're gonna be. I mean, well, yes, there's nothing we can do now. I mean, they're going to practice. But I do believe that those pre are those joint practice reps are better than preseason games. As we know. Yeah, you want to abolish the preseason altogether,

we got we heard that last week. I just think it's better work because coaches can really zoom in on Okay, I want to work on third down. I want to work on two minutes, and you can get focused work on that as opposed to okay, it's second and seven against Pittsburgh slappys. You know, how do you tell anything from that? So I think having that extra set of joint practice helps having some of that kind of work against other high level people, you know, gives them an opportunity. Again,

are there issues on offense? There are, But I feel probably better about Sam right now than I expected to going into the season. I thought it was a a great way to end the preseason, especially at a home game with with fans back. Um. I thought the I thought the team looked good. That rule one is first ever preseason game. It's true, and he didn't have any last year. But yeah, congratulations that Will has recorded that

in the official preseason and training camp stats. Oh I I Yeah, There's there's a whole other story about preseason stats that I'll get to at some other time in a bonus section on Twitter. So directors cut, director's cut. Yeah, keeping high out for that because this podcast is so good that it needs bonus director's cuts. All right, So, speaking of Twitter, which is where you'll find that bonus content,

apparently on on Will's Twitter. Um, well, you were scanning the Twitter machine earlier and you wanted to bring this subject up for our question of the week. I'm not going to call it a weird question that it's a valid question, but it's a question. Nonetheless, this one is courtesy of Mac at w F and Z, which is something they clearly talked about on on their show. He put out his top five college football fan basis is in the Carolinas and Will send it to us and

he was like, we got to talk about this. So here is is his ranking order of the top five college football fan bases in the area. One South Carolina to Clemson. Already seeing some issues here, three NC State, four APP State, and five e c U. So Will you're the one that said we got to talk about it. Where are you zeroing in on on that list? Well, first, we gotta we gotta plug a little bit there. There's a bunch of mayo to be dumped on this field on our new grass or new artificial during Two of

the teams on this list are playing the tea. Yeah that's right. Well I was talking about tomorrow. Oh yeah, so tomorrow and and Saturday, Um, you know Clemson, Georgia and APP State E s u uh. Darren is very pumped for the Clemson Georgia game. He knows all about that one. Um, but no, I I think I think that you can really tell the strength of a fan base by how strong they are when their team is losing, and South Carolina does a lot of losing. Yes, they

lose all the time. So I'm perfectly fine with them being at the top of this list considering how good they are for being perennial losers. That's another way. That's another word we could use to describe the South Carolina

football fan base. Um see, I rolled by, here's where I go, and I just want to because I feel like Darn's gonna have some thoughts about I just want to go back to this the way I judge, and it's now granted Clemson in South Carolina are in very different places, But the way I judge is like, how much of your identity is caught up in you being a fan of this team? And I think Clemson especially and and of course they have very good reason too.

Over the last decade, Like when you travel places you see the Clemson how you you have met people that their weekends are are absolutely this is where they will be tailgating in this spot and they've done it for twenty years, and it feels very much like an identity. People lived down there specifically for that reason and have followed every single sport. I hear a lot of that from from Clemson fans, where it's it's very much an identity, whereas I get it was South Carolina. But for the record,

I think Clemson's first. That was me just making a joke because because I hate South Carolina. Oh yeah, Clemson's There was no punchline either, that was I thought it was. I thought it was obvious. No, Clemson's first. I disagree

there is. There is a level of commitment if you're a Clemson fan, though, if you're willing to go out dressed in that shade of that color and run the rail people thinking you're a traffic calling all day long, then I I think it does speak to you as a fan base that you're willing to put yourself out there in that way. But no, I mean, I will say that Appalachian State has gone on the road and played some big programs. Been to Georgia, been to um been to Clemson, went to where was that other place?

It was, oh seven, somewhere up north. Yeah, somewhere north. I don't remember that. Yeah, that's right, that was today, fourteen years ago. It was man. But the Clemson people treated us so well when we were down there. They were like, you know, some people get kind of snotty, and I think after Michigan a lot of people would look down their nose, or before Michigan people would be

like Applegian State. But we walked in they were like, hey, you guys, well and you and we just beast five For anyone who doesn't know, when you say us, you're referring to the Apple actions and not panthers US extremely partisan Appalachian State fan today, I give my all for Applechian State. I'll touch the sign on my way out the door. Um. I think it's gonna be great. I love going to college games. Uh, particularly in Boone. This

is gonna be neat coming here tomorrow. I mean, I'm gonna be right out there for the Theater of the Mind. Folks out there listening to this podcast and waiting to line. I don't know why we would be right out there. We got good seats, but we're excited about it, and we've been making plants for this. When me and all my college buddies over roommates and folks, we're gonna go.

We're gonna go tailgate and we're gonna have some fun and we're gonna go watch a little football and Hopefully it's a good Hopefully it's a good product on the field. A lot of questions to be answered. I hope Chase Brice does well as new quarterback. It's been a long time since we've had to worry about that, but it is there is something about the Appalachian State fan base

and that appeals to my psyche. I guess you could say, because at the time I went to a Issue, it never felt like it was anybody's first choice, at least athletically. Anybody who played football at a Issue was either to this or to that, too slow or too smaller. And we made a living off these little, skinny guys who could run fast, and that kind of created this whole island of the misfit toys persona about our football team.

And now that we're actually good at football and playing at a higher level and recruiting a different level of kids, still got a little bit of that, and I think the fan base reflects that of a little bit, because we do sort of walk in with our shoulders back and it's like, all right, let's go. You know, Biggin's line up little and spun choke. Um. You know, that's just sort of the way We've always approached it and I enjoy being a part of it. Plus, I'm gonna

make my daughter, who's a sophomore up there. I'm gonna make her wear black and yellow striped overalls. That's awesome. You may not know that yet. That's a requirement Dad put in according to these, do you think the tar Heels belong on this list? I went to school there. I think this is a in terms of fan bases, you know, as they call the wine and cheese crowd

at at Keenan Stadium. I mean, I think I love U n C. I think the Turtles have an amazing fan base, But in terms of um rabid football fans, I think that, Yeah, I think that's a fair knock that they're not on this top five and they're rapidly moving up the list. I think they've got to claim at being the second best football program in the state of North Carolina. But fan base wise, wow, it was fan base. They're still in others receiving them. We're working

on it. We're gonna we're going for most state fans gonna have that same south a a fan on the shoulder. Then do you want to weigh in the only thing I will say is I think the attitude of Clemson fans, having grown up around Clemson fans, being from the Upstate and going to Clemson from our first year and a half of college, I find them insufferable. And I'm not a Carolina fans, so it's not like I have a

dog in the race. Specify you're an LSU fan. I think that did, yeah, but there's a little more context. There's no rivalry though between LSU and Clemson. The only thing is they act like they've been relevant beyond nine years ago, and I think that's frustrating. They walk around like their Alabama, and they talk about their school like their Alabama, and they have all this long history of

success and championships. They were irrelevant before eleven ten? Really well, yeah, they had the one year, but they got in trouble for cheating. Anyway, Clemson in the nineties, Clemson in the nineties did feel kind of like, you know, lost, cause Clemson wasn't that years ago. And yeah, the verb clemsoning

was a thing at the time there. I think it's possible, just based on the vitriol that Matt just came out with us, Like we could see a video of him in an L. S U jersey one one day arguing with a Clemson fan and people be like, look at this guy, and he's like that there are He's just you know, they're both the Tigers that play in Death Valley. You know there's there's some parallels with Hell. You should

come Saturday and do that. Just jump in the midst of all the Georgia and Clemson people and say where both of you line up, Where your Joe Burrow, where your Joe Burrow jersey, and just get right in the middle of the Clemson just create a problem that all right, well, we're gonna leave it there. Thank you so much for listening to the Happy Half Hour podcast. We will be back with you next week.