The Group Chat Episode 11: Homecoming

players to ever have multiple two interception games. We have that and so much more this week on the group chat. You've been added to the group chat with your friends Caroline, can, Max Senson, and Will Brian. We all have Billy Joel stuck in our heads right now, everybody, because the day that we are recording this, it was announced Billy Joel's coming to Bank of America Stadium. So we're gonna start this off with not talking about football. We're not going

to talk about anything that we had normally planned. You must sing the first at least four words of the chorus or the beginning of the song your favorite Billy Joel song. Boys. Ryan started the fire. Ryan started the fire. Welcome to the group. Chat everyone. It is a beautiful Tuesday because the Panthers one it was a victory Monday. Now it's Tuesday, gearing up for another game going to Houston. It's going to be a tough one because Deshaun Watson

had a heck of a game this past week. We've I was the first to say, I think Deshaun Watson is a very beautiful quarterback. I think, you know, I think we can go in and really do some things and get a second win. But then I went back and watched DeShawn Watson pretty good, My goodness, he always has game like that. Though you're our advanced scout when it comes to this, after all your time and I have seen these teams play a lot, and that was my my kind of point was Deshaun Watson is a

great quarterback. We watched him for years at Clemson win a ton of games and then go to Houston. But he has been beat up in the NFL. He's been sacked numerous numerous times. I would love to, actually I'm going to count that up this week, how many times has he been sacked over his career. But I've seen him get super frustrated in games, and his body language is low and he's he's confused out there and can't get you know, everyone lined up and get the ball moving.

But my goodness, he looked great. And speaking of I was just gonna say, speaking of guys getting sacked numerous times and getting really frustrated Kyler Murray. And we've seen this, and I think that's an exciting part going into this Houston game. Is this defense. I don't care if people are saying, like, oh, it's an anomaly. I don't care. There's eight sacks. Give me half of that and we'll be excited about that game. So certainly a lot to

be excited for from this game. And we're going to playoff of this a little bit because, in case you lived under a rock, Kyle Allen started and he started in Arizona, where he was born and lived there for a few years, and then Texas is also his second homecoming, so we're gonna play off of this a little bit. Everyone loved in high school or college is not as big of a deal, but high school homecoming is huge, at least the homecoming court is huge. So we're going

to play off of this a little bit. There were so many stars in Arizona for the Panthers. So we're going to create a homecoming court maybe share why we want a particular candidate to win. Max. Were you on the homecoming court? I was. I was going to say, we didn't have homecoming in Jersey really know there was It wasn't. There wasn't like a homecoming. This is where that guy's going. Yeah, um college college, Yeah, but that's my own. I was. I was on homecoming in college.

Because so they have like the court was made up of voting um like different like they we had eating houses and fraternities and so like those would have a represent eating houses. Davidson didn't have sororities. They had eating houses. But my buddy who went to Princeton, humble brag Um was not about me, about my buddy. Uh. They also do that. There yes, these eating clubs, which was really strange. You have to explain that to people. Yeah, what is that?

So it's this is a little bit different from that. That's like that's just you know, it's old as Princeton with with all that. But no, so for they just never had national sororities on campus for whatever reason, and they just had these local there. They just because the fraternities there. You don't live in the fraternity houses, so they're pretty much just eating houses themselves, except they have

like a national fraternity affiliation but strange. Yeah, so they're like just eating where you go to have lunch and dinner and have parties, right, And they're just not They're just not. It's like, so you can't if you can't have Greek life, right, you essentially substitute for it was called an eating house, which is where everybody's sort of hang but nobody lives in any of the houses. So how do you pick what eating house? I think you

rushed for that. It's just they're not affiliated with anything. It's just you're not that. It's just that. No, that's just that group and they have that identity. They're called like Turner and Rusk and interesting. Well, I guess I should say that. I did say that homecoming in high school is a bigger deal. In the South, high school

homecoming is a very big deal. And then I my experience of college homecoming, I just wasn't a part of it that was in season for us, and it was a very Greek thing too, you know, as you're saying will of your you get voted by your house, and that's where I was just never involved in Greek. So for me, the only thing that I had is gonna be an embarrassing podcast for me. By the way, we're

just gonna go ahead and set that up. There's gonna be some embarrassing stories that come out of this, but one of them is the only involvement I had in homecoming while I was in college was I hosted. This is when I was like starting in the broadcasting world. So they thought, oh, you would be great to host this. It was called the Spurs and Struts at the University of South Carolina and it's where fraternity's and sorority's team up and they have a dance team and they compete

in the center of campus. It's really cool. But they thought I would be a great host for this, So I was like, sure, that would be so fun. You ever hosted before? A good name for athletics? Okay, I cannot say a fraternity name or a sorority name to save my life. And so we go up there in the first awful, awful so and like some of them that I had heard of, you say, you know Sigma Nu.

Good with that, but they wanted the full name. So we go up there for the first two or three times and it's me and the student body president, and so I say them, you know, the first two and it was like Sigma Nu and Zaida and all this. No, they wanted the full name. So I come off and I said, listen here, I can't say that. You're gonna have to say them. And he was like every single time. I was like every single time, but there were a couple of times where it was like awkward. So I

had to say them. I was not invited back next year. Well, it seems like a pretty big part of the job as hosting that event is to be able to say this. And I told them, I said, I've never done Greek. I don't you know. They're, oh, that's fine, Like we just want entertainment. I brought the energy, just didn't bring the correct pronunciation. So you weren't actually on the home coming court. No, I was not that for athletic Like athletics, it wasn't really unless you were in a sorority. What

about high school? Yeah I was, but I did not win. Yeah I didn't win. That one hurt. No, it didn't actually who won and this happens. I don't know if this happens at your high school. But the girl that won my year, her younger sister was a freshman. So like, you win because you, I mean all those votes, like

you know, go for them. And it happened every single year, like we had some I'm not gonna say random, because she was an awesome girl and very swee et deserving on all of those things whatever it takes to deserve to win homecoming queen. Not sure that those requirements are, but she had them. But every single year it was whoever had the younger sibling won every single year. What is the difference between like getting votes to be homecoming king or queen versus Prom king or queen? Is there? Like,

what's the difference? We didn't have a problem. So yeah, so you didn't have that prom homecoming homecoming? Did you have prom and homecoming? I don't think we did. I know. I feel like my brother's class, he was four years older, I feel like they had a prom king and queen,

but no, interesting we did not. And then for us, if I remember correctly, the the like escorts for the nominees for homecoming queen were the senior football players, so like by default, I was like on the homecoming court as one of the right because you were a stud football player in school. You know, he doesn't want to brag. He should be. He should be in our list of nominees for what we're about to do here. So what we are going to do to get back to Panthers.

We just went on a tangent welcome to the group chat. We are going to nominate our homecoming court from this past game in Arizona, and then they're going to go into this game in Houston. Whoever comes out with the best game statistically or what we think is the best game, we will crown them the just biggest award that these guys could really get all year. I mean they're just gonna be shocked and they'll I mean they'll we tell them in the locker room, they're gonna just we should

probably get a crown for them. I mean, it is going to be a big deal. They can just down written into contracts for incentive. Is your named home come to the homecoming court on the group chat by the group chat, Yes, if you become king, I mean could lord the bonus on that will be insane, but we're gonna give you our homecoming court. It's the guys that everyone was excited about all week. And it's fun when the homecoming court is very long, and I think that's

what the game in Arizona was. A wreath of fresh air. Because we've talked about and needs to be complimentary football, all of those things that you hear every football team say. But a big thing for this offense was having Kyle Allen under center, knowing that you needed your other playmakers to step up. And not only did the offensive playmakers step up, the defensive guys special teams. If there wasn't that penalty would have been an amazing return. So, uh,

this was a great game. Duh, they won. It's fun, but just the way that it happened, I thought was really great. So we're going to nominate our homecoming court, and the first one Kyle Allen he gets on the homecoming court, congratulations. Yeah. I gotta start with Kyle, right, I mean, literally the homecoming kid coming back to Arizona. I was I mean, I thought Kyle would play well. I was shocked he played that well. I mean, that

was that was incredible football. It's his pass writing was one forty four point four and Panthers haven't had a passer rating like that since cam VPCS. Especially after that first drive. Oh yeah, because because that was something I was looking at coming into the game. I was like, man, Caroline has got to get off to a fast start. The first two drives they started with the all the previous two weeks. Both ended in turnovers. One was a

turnover on downs Camp's fourth down run. The other was d J. Moore's fumble, and was like, man, if they get behind early on the road, this is gonna be tough. And that exactly what happened. But yet Kyle on that offense came right back, leveled the score and then just started rolling. And man, when you talked about a guy feeling it, Kyle Allen was just he was on a tent and it was It was just awesome to watch. Dude was having so much fun. Guys around him were

having a ton of fun. Make him plays, pressure in his face, rolling right, throwing off his back foot, didn't matter. The ball was getting where he needed to go and just how cool story and oh the high steps celebration after that touchdown to Greg was incredible. It was Yeah, it was. It was awesome. So much family in the crowd watching him. This is an undrafted guy who was cut by this team, made his way back onto it. Now here he is. He's got his best friend from

growing up, Christian Kirk playing on the other team. He's got Kyler Murray, the guy who was you know about that drama Texas A and M who was going to be the quarterback their quarterback and the other team. I mean, so many storylines for Kyle and to go out and play the way he did and to outplay Kylers in someone to watch his poise and he felt the pressure, he felt the pass rush, his timing was great in

terms of getting an out on time. And then you see, you know, literally the very next drive, you see Kyler unable to do that. You know, just be completely overwhelmed by the pass rush, by the um the ways that they were coming at him from different angles, and then just giving up on plays early. And Cole did do that. Yeah, it was great to see. I think that's what it made me think about, was that's the difference between college ball and NFL. I mean, my goodness, like Kyle of

the way that he was able to stay composed. That's why you hear all this like, oh, he's just an NFL quarterback. Yeah, I mean that that game right there is the difference of join a college and NFL quarterback as far as style. Because, of course, not taking anything away from Kyler Murray, heck of a college quarterback. I think he will still have success in the league. It's just gonna look totally different than what we're used to seeing.

Here's embarrassing story number two for me. Kyle Allen before the game comes out and I'm watching him down there getting ready for my radio hit, and you know, I try and make a joke that didn't It landed well on Twitter. I didn't lean hard enough in on the radio for it to really stick, and that's totally my bad.

But I tweeted that Kyle Allen got to watch his brother Josh Allen score a touchdown and I I know, guys, they're not brothers, because yeah, we actually still aren't a confirmed on this, but so I tweeted out and like people were having a really good time on Twitter with it, and people were like, oh, does this also mean that Willie Camp's cousin their uncle is going to be singing the National Anthem. I got asked if I was going to be interviewing Greg Olson's twin sisters, Mary Kayton Ashley.

I mean there was some really good also, Bill was there, Calor Murray's uncle. Um. So there was a lot of funny, very funny responses there. But when I said it on the radio, when I when I said it on the radio, I didn't lean hard enough into it at all. Sometimes it's difficult to kind of joke back and forth when you're not in front of the person on radio, and it just went nowhere. There was no response, no, hey,

you're wrong, they're they're not brothers. Nothing. So much so that when I got off the that hit and off the radio, I had to google it myself. I thought this was such a terribly executed joke that I haven't turned confused myself. So I'm sitting there like googling, and I'm like, no, no no, no, no, no no, they're they're not brothers. But it did stumble upon an Instagram post from Kyle Allen that says like family with Josh Allen at this, So then I was still confused. So they're not brothers,

but they're bros. But they're bros. They're super good for Yeah, I don't know bros, their homies even they even crashed the others press conference at joint practices in Spartanburg. Yeah they are big, big bros. Okay they Yes, they are bros in that sense, but not actually brother So that was um, that was strike number one. Strike number two on game day was I took a photo of Kyle Allen on the sideline dapping up like his friend group who I just happened to grab the picture of looked

a hole heck of a lot like Carson Palmer. So thankfully not in my main tweet, but in a tweet underneath that, I said, yes, yes that is Carson Palmer. Wrong, not Carson, but I'm sticking by this one. But honestly, like that's what I thought. The ironic part was it was still a brother duo like this. This was direct karma for my joke on. I then was confused by real brothers and this was Jordan Palmer who works with Kyle. He's a quarterback trainer, works with Kyle has three years.

So I got, I got. I wasn't a good start for me. It was a rough start. So I just went up and got some coffee, and you know, adjusted my sarcasm hat and went back down there and trying to have a good game, just like Kyle in the offense. Strip sack on the opening drive, not how you want. We should have known, honestly, we should have known that that's how it was going to start, because I definitely had my strip sack and then I walked back out there and had a heck of a game. Okay, But yeah,

that was my day. So there's three embarrassing stories about me. Max, What about your day? Any any good stories from your experience? And if I embarrassed myself, I mean, I don't mean, do you ever congratulation? Yeah, no, trust me, Okay, but

I think I got out pretty clean from Arizona. Um. I just thought it was awesome seeing Kyle after the game, in that moment where he's signing Christian Kirk's jersey, who said that they were like buddies, and then he's stapping up Kyler Murray and they're taking that photo and then like you've got all the cameras just like trailing him as he goes out of the field and shout outs

Panther fans. By the way, there were a ton of you out there in Arizona pretty much took that place over by the time the game was out of reach, and all of a sudden, it was just a bunch of people wearing blue and black down near the field. So Kyle is getting serenaded as he goes off into the tunnel, following him and Ryan Anderson, the PR guy who's jogging behind him feverishly into the locker room. And then you see Kyle just kind of miled by his

teammates game ball. It's just that whole sequence was I mean, that was sports. I mean, that's like, it's what it's all about. Um. And so to see that all in action for a guy that everybody just likes, Kyle was just a good dude, UM. And I think you see that on Sundays. You see the guys like playing with him, like playing for him, and everybody was just generally happy for him and deservedly so the guy played out of

his mind. And Kyle did say that this time last year he came and watched Christian Kirk play in the Nosebleeds and come on, yeah, that's the story that he was there for Cam's national championship game when Auburn played Oregon Um, just that stadium and just being there was there was a lot to it for Kyle, very very cool. So of course Kyle Allen is in the homecoming court.

Let's go with the cat Pack next. It's a good good day when the entire cat Pack was being talked about in a positive way, and so all three of them found the end zone. It was a the toe drag swag of Curtis Samuel. Isn't that the special on Good Morning Football? Yeah? He was in there. They loved it. It was that was But here's another person. We've got the cat back in there, another person. Greg Olsen is on this old man because yeah, I feel like he has to win, right, Yeah, So I hope he does

because it's incredible. He's maybe he's a little salty, he's not part of the cat pack. Is an old guy. That's all he wants. That's all he wants. But here's a piece from the game that I why Greg Olsen and we we know the stats an amazing game, but he was like the game manager out there. And I was talking to you guys about this earlier and you were saying, this is Greg Olsen, this is who he is, what he does two minute drill. He's a coach out there. This was just my first time seeing it live in

in action. When the tow drag happened, Greg Kyle was like kind of like whoa like living it up? This was awesome. Everyone else's too, and Greg is like hello, like, let's go. So they don't challenge that play because when you're out there, they didn't know that it actually was two feet in. When you're at a home stadium like that, Arizona's replay was, you know, coming up on the board, and that's how the coaches like, no one to challenge sometimes.

So there was a lot going on in Greg. He maybe the old man, but he's the old man that knows a thing. He's you know, hurry up, guys, let's go, let's get in. And I thought to myself, that is such an asset for Kyle Allen in this game and really everyone. But when we say so many times at quarterbacks are game managers, and oh the way that he handles the clock and all of these things. That was something that how could take off of his plate and

worry about other things. And he didn't have to take on all of that because Greg was there and I just I was like, you know what, I want Greg on my team. That's the guy that I want on my team to make sure that there's a lot of youth that's playing out there. I believe at that point Greg Little may have even been in like there was a lot of youth out there. And and Greg, this tight end is running up, like, guys, come on, get up on the line, we need to stop this ball.

It wasn't a great play after that, but they were trying to get the play in and it wasn't great, but the whole point was don't let them review this and overturn that big play. Get up here and run the ball. And they did that, and I just thought, man, Greg, and and credit to Greg to for balling, because yeah, he's always going to bring that sort of value to

the team. But for a guy who's dealing with the back injury at the start of this year, and of course we don't know the history with the foot, Arizona couldn't cover him and he was open all day. Um Arizona has struggled with tight ends. Yeah, that defense is struggling in a lot of a lot of ways right now, which I know Panther fans who are maybe more cautiously optimistic, keep pointing out, Um, we'll find out a little bit

more against his Texans defense, for sure. But for for a tight end who's, as Brady Quinn mentioned a zillion times, is thirty four years old in the broadcast, Greg can still get out there and get open. And I think that's do you talk about a security blanket for a quarterback, and there's nothing better than Greg's. And I mean he played well against Tampa. I mean, you know, I want to talk about this game. He had, you know, over

a hundred yards against Tampa. He was wide open, he was running with the ball after catching, I mean he was up. I mean he joked aft of the game, he was like, well, I've made it further this year than I have in the past couples. So I mean he's got his fingers cross. Hopefully continues to stay healthy, because you know what an asset it is to have a guy with that kind of experience. And I mean one of his biggest plays might have been the block

to seal off Christian McCaffrey's run. I mean Greg filled in the hole and then you know, just completely stealed off that left side and left Christian to just make one man miss, I mean, get great blocked by Greg. Greg also said after the game that he felt Christian's hand on his back. I just thought, what a no one sees that in the game. It's going so fast, there's so many things to look at, and what Greg feels it's Christian McCaffrey just you know, nudging him like, hey, buddy, bunny,

I'm here, keeping keep going, keep going. I just thought, what, that's a really cool moment between this offense, that there's so many intricate details and one of them just happens to be that Christian McCaffrey is going to lay his hand on your back and say, go, buddy, you got this all right. So that's it for the offense. We have Greg Olsen, Kyle Allen, d J. Moore, Curtis Samuel, and Christian McCaffrey on our homecoming court. For the defense,

where do we begin. We mentioned the eight stacks. They're all going in there. Okay, So every single guy that got a sack, someone who got multiple sacks. We've got Mario Addison, Christian Miller, Brian Burns, Eric Reid, and Shack Thompson. They're all Maria Mario with three you get a hat trick on the football field. Uh, you're actolutely going out now. One of those there it was a touchdown after you know, they all have They all count the same at the

end of the year, they all count the same. Miss Mario told me after the game because I said, I was like, you know that one you kind of like ran him out of bounds and he was like, they all count the same. So um, Christian Miller reeling him in. How about that stacks celebration he had. He had quite a game, only had like twenty four snaps and had three or four tackles to two sacks. A cool moment

for him too, because this was an emotional game. His grandfather was laid to rest this past weekend, kind of came into with a heavy heart. That was the field where he won a national championship as an Alabama player. He just kind of told me afterwards, he was like, yeah, it's just kind of took the field with all of that and just you know, he said, which was, you know, pretty cool. I just wanted to make my family proud today and man, did he go out there and do it.

Um two sacks. This was a guy that we didn't really talk about at all during training camp. He took a little while for him to get his feet under him get up to speed. But Eric Washington said it a couple of weeks ago. Is the light has as the cliche Gohost has come on for Christian um and man. We certainly saw that in Arizona. They they've got a lot of pass rushing, uh you know, weapons that they can throw at offenses right now, and Christian hopefully continues

to build on it. Christian I walked to a practice during O T a S one time with Christian and Brian. Two completely different personalities, different style of play when they're out there, you know, just very very different guys. But they love each other. Man, They're like such good friends in the locker room. Their lockers are near each other. And Christian said to me, I'm just not very outgoing.

I don't like the attention. I've never done the media thing, you know, I was kind of I was getting to know the team then, so I was trying to figure out, you know, who's the good interview, who enjoys doing these things? Who can we kind of who can here go to people? And Brian Burns is one of the go to guys. He's very charismatic. He completely gets the whole media game thing. But Christians just not that guy. He's he's kind of,

you know, in the in the back burner. He doesn't he's not too big on social media, although he came through with probably one of my top five players from a tweet our tweet words actually get paid to talk guys. I'm just not very good at it. Sometimes I'm I'm very good. But he came through with one of my favorite tweets from a player. There's like top five. Did you guys see this about his sack celebration and what

he said to a fan on Twitter? All right, he said that a guy puts out there his you know, reeling out there in his sax celebration, and you know, he goes he's throwing out a top water plug four pound no, no, no, six pound line, large mouth gets after it as soon as it hits the water. Nice action of setting the hook looks like at least a five pounder. So that's what this person puts out there? Was this Jeremy, I go yes, I thought I did say yes. Our old friend at the Carolina good job, Jeremy.

You set him up beautifully for this though, Like this was right up Christian's alley, who does not like it. He doesn't get involved in a lot of media things. But you went right for the kill on this. Jeremy and Christian retweets and goes no, no, no, Texas rigged motor Oil Zoom trick worm eight pound tested medium fast act and whatever that means, quick hooks that hit it as soon as it hit the water, felt bigger than he was three pounds maybe with a little emoji with

the hands. That's great. We're gonna we're gonna get some some replies in the in the comments now from all of the sport fishing. Yeah. Sorry, will you actually explain that to us? If you do, I don't know anything about it. Please we gotta Texas rig motoro and his own trick worm eight pound tasted. I mean that's is that? Was that a subtle like dig at Tyler not being very big tea motoral Zoom trick worm eight pound tisted medium fast action. What's the last thing? Felt bigger than

he was three pounds fool? Maybe it's just a three pound and he was I just I read that thought, Christian, you might not think you're very good at this or enjoy this, But that was a fantastic tweet. Twitter done. Well, yeah, that is That's the way it's us to be done. So those are the guys that got this sack. And then of course finally Dante Jackson, my goodness, not one not to I think he actually just landed from that one interception. I've never seen someone climb in the air.

That's what he did. That was not a jump, that was a climb in the air to go get that ball nuts. Dude is such a freak athlete. Uh And after the game, that was what I love. Now in today's day and age, I feel like this has happened over the past couple of years. Guys as soon as they get into the locker room after immediately grabbed their phones and look at the highlights. So like Dante, I literally go over there to try to like interview him, and he's like check this out, and you know, he's like,

look out, how I got um? But yeah, I mean that was that was absurd. The dude, literally, as Caroline said, is probably still floating. Um. But it wasn't just that from Dante. You know, he had the other pick earlier in the game, a couple of big hits. You also mentioned, you know, to me they owned up to a couple of miss tackles. It was kind of all over the place, um, but overall in a good way for Carolina and he

There's something about week three in Dante Jackson. Week three last year two interceptions, Week three this year two interceptions. So whoever they got next year in week three, good luck? He's two picks are coming, nerdy Panthers stats guy in coming. Dante one of just three Panthers players to ever have multiple two interception games. Do you know the other two? Mm hmm. One of just one of just three Panthers to ever have two interceptions multiple multiple interception games. Oh man,

is Josh Norman on the list? That's where the mind goes first. Chris Gamble, he's one, all right, Gambles obviously in the safety Mike Minnard might not know him, Trey Boston, Dion Grant. Yeah, but still, I mean, that's rarefied air, all rarefied air. Did you just stumble into that? Yeah, good for you. Alright, there's another stat out there, though, Will you please share with people the off the wall random stat that I believe ESPN and NFL. So this is one of those things that to to bring back

to my Sunday. Um, you know, I'm having to kind of juggle the things with the app. And as Christian keeps doing Christian things, there's always a stat for what Christian has done. And sometimes you guys get on me for like, will come on, that's ridiculous, that's just to ridiculous. For the record, I never get on to you about

a good stat. I love the off the wall stats, but sometimes even I can get frustrated with some of the random things that write the league tries to There's like, there's only so many words that can be in a stat before it gets to the point where I don't understand what you're saying anymore. You know, like this, it has to be kind of snappy. Otherwise it's like how

many guys, right, how many weeks in? This is? But this is yeah, this this is ridiculous because they just they they're cherry picking, and it's such a cherry pick. So Christian became the fourth player in NFL history with at least a hundred and eighty five scripmin yards and one touchdown in two of the first three games. Of a season. Yep, yeah, I got all that. What there it is? Joining Uh, I think he likes some guy never heard of and then um, I think Bo Jackson.

I don't know. Congratulations Simpson. I think congratulations to Christian. I mean he's on our homecoming court and he did that in the first couple of weeks. I mean, my goodness. The bigger one was that all of the fans on Twitter are happy about was he pretty much wiped d' Angela Williams off the record. Brook In one day now has more receiving yards than D'Angelo as a running back franchise record and the longest touchdown run by anybody wiped

d'An Angeloia. Sorry D'Angelo. Yeah, Christian had himself a day and he was bound to break records this season, but that was an impressive moment there for him. So your homecoming court going into this game against the Houston Texans, Greg Olsen, Kyle Allen, d J. Moore, Curtis Samuel, Christian McCaffrey, Mario Addison, Dante Jackson, Christian Miller, Brian Burns, Eric Reid,

and Shack Thompson. If this was a popularity contest, we want to know who would you pick so out of that list, let us know on Twitter in the reviews after leaving a five star review, let us know who you would want to win this. But we'll see how it plays out in Houston going on the road, second round game of this season. But this one thing, goodness is a normal travel schedule. This was a weird one. When we went on to Arizona. It was a day early, but it was beautiful. What did you guys do on

your day off before we we end this thing? So I mentioned on the previous episode was going to be on the hunt for some good tacos, and mission accomplished. We had some traditional, authentic street tacos which were terrific. Arizona is a great place for that stuff, obviously, and then we kinda we were too lazy to do a real hike, which I think you're going to tell us

about yours. So we just drove to like a lookout point hole in the rock mountain is what it's called, and literally like you know, five minute walk when she got out of the car into this little like kind of cave thing overlooking the desert. It was pretty cool. I felt like we did something Arizona e this is kind of like what we wanted to do. It's like, well, we're here, we gotta do a little bit of that. But I know you did like a legit jetike. I went and did camelback and you see this on Instagram.

Everyone's sharing like this is the place to go. I just figured if everyone was like sharing this, it was a relatively easy hike. No, so thankfully, I like, I'm an athletic person, so I was able to hang in there and like we it was still to the point where you can talk the whole way, like it's not like you're completely out of breath. But about halfway up the mountain for anyone going out to Arizona and you're thinking, oh, I just wanted to leisurely hike. No, it took us.

If we would have gone straight up and straight now. And we did stop in the middle for about minutes and talk. I was with a really good girlfriend of mine. But I mean, we we hiked for three hours and and what kind of heat, Like you guys went in the morning, so it wasn't too but it was. We started at the base um where we parked, even just from where you parked too. Then the base of the mountain is like a pretty good walk because they don't have a true parking lot. You just park on the

street and then you're walking up. So we got to the base of the mountain probably like eight thirty and then you know, you start hiking. I mean it was a three hour or deal and you hit halfway and then it is climbing, and we went. We did go. There's like two sides. We went to quote unquote the easier side it's a little bit longer um and we

at the at the top. That was very fun because I don't know if like people just came out for the trip to see the panthers or what it was, but that mountain was overtaking my Charlotte Charlotte didn't Charlotte Charlotte Charlotte's people because we I'm still learning people. But there was a bachelorette group that we kind of ran into and one of them hat on a Charlotte you know clt hat, and so we got to talking to them and multiple group members were from Charlotte. The bride

was from Charlotte. And then we get up to the top of the mountain and there's like this, you know, five to seven guys that walk up and come and have them pant their hats and I'm like, oh, I keep pounding. They're like, yeah, like you onto the game. I was like yeah, man, I'll be there um. And then we also ran into like a group of four girls that one of them I ended up going to college with, and she was just like Caroline and I was like, Rachel, that's really weird. And they live in Charlotte.

And then on the way down, I am you know, you have to climb down, so there's parts where it was getting a little bit busy, so you have to kind of like wait. There's a guy standing at the bottom. He has North Carolina's shirt. He's like, how's the top up there. We're like it's beautiful, like totally worth it, and he was like I don't think I like, I'm just gonna wait here. I don't think I can make it up there because it was getting hot. There were a lot of people. If you didn't have the patience,

you just weren't gonna make it. So he, you know, he was like, I'm just gonna wait, like it's beautiful here, and I was like, oh, come on, like you're from North Carolina, like make us proud, like go up there and he was like, you're from North Carolina. Was like, yes, sir, and he was like where And I was Charlotte, you know, and he was like, oh, what part of Charlotte. So

I tell him. He's like, I'm your city councilman. What So I met a bad group, like a group from college, this other group of guys in my city councilman, all on the hiker camel back. It was just it was so weird. At that point. My friend was like, we need to get off this mountain, like you're going to run into Like we have to get off this mountain.

But it was really cool. I thought it was awesome to then show up to the game, and it was no coincidence that all these Panther friends were hiking because, like you mentioned, Max, so many people were in Arizona pant I mean, it was so cool to see the blue um in black all over that stadium for the Panthers. So thank you. If you are listening and you were out there, or if you've even tried to go and you wanted to go in spirit, we thank you too. But we hope you enjoyed this week of the group chat.

Let us know who you want to win? Anything cool on Saturdays? It will didn't do anything cool? Right? I went to Octoberfest. That yeah, I mean first you like kick me off the plane. I don't even get to travel. Now, don't even get to like talk about my weekend. I I see how it is you didn't have a weekend. I'm just kidding. I actually went to an Octoberfest too, and you know the little warm right now for Octoberfest, it is you know them, the competition where you hold

the the mug out the stunt? Is that? What is it called stein Stein? I I entered that competition? How do you do? So? I'm a little salty about it. Clearly, if I would have one, I would have been bragging about this since walking in the door. I came in third. However, that's not bad. However, the two women in front of me cheated. And I will say this until I go

to my grave. Because there were rules. I'm a rule follower, and so they were saying that you can't be in your back, you have to keep your elbow up, like you can't touch the cup. You can only touch the handle part of it. So I was doing that and then as soon as I like felt myself leaning back a lot. I just I dropped, like that wasn't right. I should have just kept going because you know, you

let them tell you you. I know, I know, but I just I felt myself like leaning back a lot, and I was like, oh, well, I'm I'm not gonna you know, I'm out. How long did you do it for? Um? Honestly, I don't even remember. I know that the I don't I don't remember. I have a video. I think I'll go, okay, but I'll review the film and get back to you guys. But why why now is it? Is it now in Germany?

I think it goes for like three weeks, but yeah, it's now At O m B. They just they released their october Fest beer and then they had the october Fest Festival fun. It was cool, all right, Well, sorry I didn't let you say that earlier. We'll forgive me. But now now we were at the end of the podcast,

Thank you so much. Vote for your homecoming. Let us know who you want to win out of that homecoming court, and then we will crown a homecoming king next week after hopefully the Panthers beat the Houston Texas We'll see you next week,