Light it Red

Griffin Cunningham 0:10
Welcome back to letter read today we have a very special guests go ahead and introduce yourself.

Ethan Bakogiannis 0:14
Hi, everyone, my name is Ethan Bakogiannis. I am the editor in chief at technician, NC State student newspaper, which is right next door. Before Editor in Chief, I was a sports editor and I'm still writing for sports all the time for technician. So I'm always out cross campus covering sports, I mainly cover both tennis teams, women's soccer, and baseball and football as well. So just happy to be here chatted up with you guys. Yep, more happy to have you. Today, we're gonna do a quick weekly rundown of what happened this past week and pack athletics. Before jumping into a heavier segment with football.

Unknown Speaker 0:49
We're going to talk about the quarterback controversy and how that's playing out. And then we have a new segment called What If and we'll get into that more once we get towards that part of the episode.

Unknown Speaker 1:00
S2o just starting off, we'll talk about men's soccer a little bit. They've had two ranked matches in a row here. So it's been tough sledding for them, they lost to number six Wake Forest on October 6. They played Notre Dame before that and lost that one. So in the most recent game, they lost three to zero. And it was just tough from the beginning. Like they weren't getting a lot of possession Time Stone. I know you were with me. So that was one of stones for soccer games that he got to attend. And he's cool. But yeah, Hamas three Oh, not amazing. No, they did not keep the ball on their side of the field, like possession time was was not good. So I mean, it shows and Wake Forest is number six in the country for a reason. And were six and six. So that's just what it is. And we have a freshman goalkeeper. I can't figure out what's going on with that. We have a we have a goalkeeper and he keeps going in and out of the lineup injury or something. I'm not sure. But he didn't look isn't Ben voase, the freshman didn't look too great. So

Stone Boylan 2:06
we'll wake forest itself is a very good defensive team. So makes sense why we weren't able to score. Yeah. And then yeah, there's five games left on this season. So there's not really a whole lot of time to turn it around.

Griffin Cunningham 2:16
But hopefully they can end on a on a high note here, because end of October is approaching rapidly. And they have number 14 Duke on the road soon too. So that's gonna be a tough one for them. Ethan, if you want to go ahead and talk about women's soccer, I know you you're very much.

Ethan Bakogiannis 2:31
Yeah, well. I've covered every women's soccer game this year and last year, so I can tell you firsthand that they're not doing great this year. However, I there's a few reasons for it. But they did lose at Virginia Tech last Thursday and 10. Five, but they got their biggest win of the season against Virginia this past Sunday. That one, you know, they played a complete 90 minutes of soccer, probably the first time they've done that all season. And it showed you know, this team is definitely not. You know, it's definitely hard to compete with a lot of really good teams, especially when you have teams like Notre Dame and UNC and the ACC and ACC is always good for men and women's soccer.

Unknown Speaker 3:12
But yeah, so women's soccer just pick up their second win of the season, the first nearly two months against Virginia. And they'll look to make a kind of last, you know, with only six games left to go and look to make a push for the C tournament. They'll play at Miami on Saturday and versus Syracuse, which are both winnable games. However, they'll close the season out against Notre Dame and against

Unknown Speaker 3:37
one off a good team. But yeah, so they'll definitely look to win at at Miami net, Syracuse, Virginia, they were ranked at one point, right. Virginia is usually very good in soccer. I think this is also been a down year for them. So anytime you get a win against a top program, a usual top program like Virginia is good. But again, you know, they're playing Syracuse and Miami which are right with them kind of near the bottom of the sea table. And if they can get six points and you know, leapfrog some of the other teams and get up to seven, eight, even if they don't make the ACC tournament because they haven't been only the top six teams make it it'll still put them in a better position for the NCAA tournament. I mean, this is a team that has made the NCAA Tournament six years in a row. Like head coach Since Tim Santoro is very good, you know, he knows what he's doing. But also this team has already had two major season and injuries and one that started away before the season even started with Jaden Thomas and then goalkeeper Maria. She has already had a season ending knee injury at Colorado. So this team is going through some stuff right now and has a lot of young players so they're still trying to figure it out. But they show that they can definitely win when when they played complete 90 minutes. Sure. I'm excited to see them play Miami. They don't I was looking at it. They've only won one game against Miami since 2007. So this is definitely an opportunity for them to

Unknown Speaker 5:00
hadn't been in Virginia and I think, seven or eight years it's been Yeah. Yeah. Patrick, do you want to go ahead and talk about golf?

Patrick Simon 5:07
Alright, so we have some men's and women's golf updates. The men just finished playing at the blessings Invitational in the Williams got men's golf does not come back until February, senior Spencer Oxendine was with that best finish sixth place, one under par. And then as for the women, they're currently in Chapel Hill for the Ruth's Chris Tarheel Invitational. And they have two more invitationals in October before breaking for winter. And they that is the Mercedes Benz collegiate championship.

Griffin Cunningham 5:37
Yeah. And then just briefly, cross country they don't have they haven't had a meet in the last week. But they're traveling to Wisconsin, and ECU or ECU. And so that's gonna be the 13th and the 14th. There's two separate meats. So I'm interested to see how they divide the team up for those.

Unknown Speaker 5:54
Yes, don't want to go ahead and talk about some volleyball. Yeah, some other quick, viable updates. Before this episode, meaning last episode, we were hopeful that they could potentially get the top 25 They were on two road games. Unfortunately, they were not able to come away with W's and either of them, both in the state of Florida playing Miami and at Florida State. Both of them were close losses, we lost two to three. So we were one set away from taking a dub on both of these games, not something I think we should be freaking out about road games are pretty hard in volleyball, and they are ACC opponents. So they're not scrubs in any way. We are 13 and four currently on the season. However, all of these losses are not at home. Three of them are away and one of them is at a neutral site. We are currently not in the top 25 talks right now. But I think two more home wins, which is our next two games could potentially bring us back into that conversation. The next two games are at home versus Wake Forest and Virginia Tech. None of these teams are ranked. So ideally, these could be two W's that could try and propel us back into the top 25 talk again. Yeah, I'm me personally, I'm, I'm pretty disappointed about those two road losses, because they seem like I didn't get to watch them. But they seem like very winnable games, especially coming off of that big win, you know, you you hope and expect that the team can pull through and win these tough road matches. And

Unknown Speaker 7:17
I mean, they both went to five sets, like you said, so they push those teams to their limits, but those teams are good too, like Miami, they have a better income, they have a better ACC record than than we do and their overall record might not be as good but they're still a tough opponent. And I think by the end of the FSU game, they were gassed like that was it. So yeah, that's a bummer. But Broussard had a career high and kills in the FSU game at 25. So that was something worth noting. But it's also kind of like, Where was everybody else? That was my question when I saw that like they she had a career high, but then they lost the set. Yeah, she's she has the most on the team anyways, so that, you know, makes sense. But right 25 is a big number but yeah, couldn't come away with those wins.

Unknown Speaker 8:01
So that's pretty much all we have for the for those sports, those fall sports just this week.

Unknown Speaker 8:08
So from here, we're just going to jump into football.

Unknown Speaker 8:11
Obviously football at a had a win against Marshall, undefeated, Marshall.

Unknown Speaker 8:18
And that's, that one's up for grabs. He wants to talk about football and how that game went. I'll leave it to someone else. I'll respond. Respond. Respond. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 8:28
Well, we had a I worked on a couple of my top performers. I had MJ Morris obviously had a very big impact and his first start, didn't start off to hot. I like stones comments in the group chat. You I think your Did you watch it? Were you there? Were you watching it on TV? No, I was watching it every pic, I added another scholar mode out. Yeah, I enjoyed that. I started off with one and then we had two and then we had three. I think yours was a little bit ahead of mine, like your stream or whatever you were watching it on. Because like before each pick, I would like get the school emoji tax. And

Unknown Speaker 9:00
I'd be like, Oh, God, there's no and then another MJ Morris pick. I don't know the first one was rough because that was when it went right through Casey's hands. Actually, you want to touch on Casey though, because according to Pff, he did have a 91.5 Pff grade, which is the highest graded for Week Six among all power five schools. So he had a really good game, two touchdowns, 102 yards on eight receptions.

Unknown Speaker 9:22
That's kind of what we've been advocating for the last couple of weeks on this podcast, getting him more involved and being a little more creative on offense. And I don't think that was necessarily the QB changed. I think that was just they kind of figured out how to call offense which I know you're Brennan Armstrong defender so that you might you were kind of right but it was probably offensive like necessarily I just you know, Ethan you can respond but I don't know if you had listened to the episode last time but we had just kind of gone over the quarterback change and my you know stance was just among all things just summing it up that I will not sure

Unknown Speaker 10:00
it'd be the best decision to do this in the middle of the season after losing two home games to two teams that were in the top 25 When you brought over an offensive coordinator specifically for that quarterback, and he had a terrible Oh line terrible receiving clay, all the works. I'll dive into a few stuff with the game, but let us know your thoughts. Yeah, my thing with the NJ quarterback changes, and Dave said literally said this is that the biggest part of that change was the need to change it up. Because obviously, something was not working for me is evidence against Virginia Tech. But like there was something obviously not working and MJ came in and he did what he needs to do, which was provided spark. I mean, NC State score hung 48 points on a defense that had been averaging nearly 20 points a game. So, you know, I think even I do agree with you. And before this season, I had drank the Kool Aid on Brendan Armstrong and I was a runner, I'm strong believer. Straight up, I was like this is I like to move like, I think it's gonna work. But it kind of really started trending downward.

Unknown Speaker 11:06
And I just think like, a big part of the change was that they needed to change, they need a spark and MJ is able to do it. And I think MJ does have a little more of that, you know, I think his ceiling is higher definitely than Brennan Armstrong. And at this point, after that really rough loss is like why not put him in and see what he can do. Because your eye tests from the first four weeks of football was like, this is really not working. And there needed to be a change.

Unknown Speaker 11:34
So yeah, I think the Brent the MJ move was great. I think he was really impressive. I still think that we're gonna need to see another week of him to really figure out especially against Duke like, primetime, let's see what he can do. And he doesn't have like wide open Michael Penix on I mean, tried Bendix on two touchdowns. Yeah, I was, you know, with I mean, that's pretty much what my conclusion was after is that, you know, it happened, but, you know, I think you meant the Louisville game. You can't really you can't really leave the Louisville game saying, Alright, we're gonna do the same exact thing we did. Yeah. And what's the easiest position to replace in terms of just switching one person in and out? It's quarterback, you can't really it's hard to switch in tackles because you got your best tackles receivers, you can try and throw guys out there. But generally, it's not going to be as consistent because their starters for a reason. Tight End, same thing. They're not going to have as much impact and running back. I mean, we already run three different running backs anyway, so that was pretty much the last straw to switch. In terms of the game, I think Marshall definitely blew some clear opportunities to win. And my takeaway was almost like we wanted them to stay in the game and we wanted them to win. I mean, the Marshall had a wide open touchdown, just like how you brought up we did and they just straight up missed it. We're unable to get it and there wasn't really a ton of pressure on that play either. The tackling was very poor outside of Peyton Wilson, the linebackers were not really just wrapping up they had so many rack yards after catch. Defense was just getting cashed in the secondary seemingly all game. There were these weird onside kicks we were doing I still don't understand those we're trying to limit a return but there's not really a major risk in the return because NCAA and football doesn't want people to return as much because they don't like the head on head collision so they're changing the rules to her even if you kick it near the end zone it's a touch back yet you give it to them but the 43 or two times really weird i don't know why this bizarre game girl to I mean, I mean I don't understand that at all but just really dumb. I think the one thing to note on that is they did go one for five on fourth down. So a lot of the times when they did kick the ball at or when they did like the weird on just watching it was where it was doing the onside kick thing when they would turn it over on downs around midfield. So that was that's the only thing I could think might have been the reason but still but still I feel like they were doing it too. I mean they want one for five and four down but they were still were doing it like early on so I think like it was at the end of the game and in the middle Yeah, so it's like it wasn't like it wasn't like the end of the end of the game or like when they're doing it in like the middle of the game it wasn't like they had like a big sample size of saying okay they're gonna turn it over on fourth down a bunch they were just doing it from the beginning and eventually kind of did catch on but I don't know if it was kind of a bizarre decision because hopefully we don't do that again against like a again all this special team stuff was very bizarre like even Marshall was doing that I get if you want to do that Julian gray is Julian gray is a legit I mean he had almost to touch do returns against like VMI I mean our punter shank like a couple of punts stuff with the kickoff was weird. And then the whole thing with the martial kicker on field goals, he couldn't kick a field goal unless it was like 35 yards or less was what the impression was yeah, when when I was covering it at least so conscious of bizarre game and they go up and stick goes up to scores and all of a sudden, with like 10 minutes left and all of a sudden I look up and Marshall is like set to drive down the field to score like a game tying touchdown. And with like a minute left, I'm like, how did they like how do you let that happen? You know, so yeah,

Unknown Speaker 15:00
And I mean, in regards to the MJ thing.

Unknown Speaker 15:03
Obviously, everyone was super excited, which I think I guess it's kind of warranted because you want a game, but I think we need to calm down a little bit. The O line was so much better. Even if you just watched the game, you know, he's not getting pressured, they're actually top 10. They're in the top 10% and pass blocking efficiency this week only had six pressures in one sack, which was the best they've had all year, which is a good positive sign for the team and the O line. I'm just saying in regards to just the fact that MJ is insane and that he's going to get these stats every single game still had a good amount of overthrows obviously, some of these lead to pics, I think we can also we can say, Hey, Casey, you need to catch this pass, but it was not. It was not around the money needed to reach out and it went off his fingertips. Which I mean, you know, it's a perfect example of Casey because that's what's gonna happen he has his ups and downs but he's easily the most talented player on offense. And as you brought up, he was the best performing receiver Patrick, you know, from last week and I think that just makes us all super excited that he is at least gonna get relative consistency but that's just that's gonna go on in the game. Running the running game actually did something Michael Island put together a solid rushing game he had 70 yards on 10 carries so seven yards per carry very good men's was also pretty good. Had a touchdown. Another one Yeah, like killing it. Trent panics had to wide open touchdowns from coverage blows, easiest throw, he's probably ever gonna make his life and you add another touchdown, that was just a jet sweep quote unquote pass to Casey's lung. So, you know, which I never really saw any of these jet sweeps to Casey earlier. So I assume this is being just integrated because you can't run a QB draw anymore because they tried that one time and MJ got blown up immediately. So that's probably what's going to be integrated in the offensive side from the QB draw because MJ just can't run like him. But I didn't think it was bad. It was just I think some people take it out of context because he easily could have had one touchdown, three interceptions and 55 58% completion percentage and people were not freaking out like

Unknown Speaker 17:17
even just the game itself. Like I'm not sure that winning a one possession game where they had the ball with a minute left at home to a Sunbelt team where the quarterback could have easily as I said had one touchdown three picks I don't think that really makes me feel great anyways. Only thing is the O line I think played much better and Peyton Wilson is a stud He's our best defensive player and you brought up next week with Duke Duke even without their quarterback is still one of the best coverage teams in the entire FBS their top five and coverage. So with it being also in Jays first game starting away from home.

Unknown Speaker 17:58
I don't want to say the game. I don't want to like necessarily say we're going to lose. But I think we just need to play nearly perfect football in order to come away with a win there. Definitely. Yeah, I mean, I think with MJ is like you're still the thing you're still wanting to see from him is, you know it at Duke primetime game. He's been able to he's shown that he's been able to make, you know, pretty open throws. But what happens when it's third and 12. And you need to rope on down the sideline and crunch time is like is he going to be able to step up and make those big time throws and big time moments? And there's going to be a lot of big time zones. And yeah, I don't know if you're gonna have to wait up in touchdowns versus not do against Marshall, you know, and again, Marshall was undefeated, and they were better in their conference, but they're not allowing these plays to like Akron, or, like these other schools that are just not as good as ACC schools. But that's kind of my takeaway, Griffin, what do you have anything else to add? No, I agree with everything you guys are saying. I took note of more of like, even though the defense led up 41 points, which was not very impressive to me. I was still impressed with some individual performances.

Unknown Speaker 19:09
Robert Kennedy had a fumble recovered and an interception easily his best game this season. He's a new player to this program. So it's good to see someone in the secondary really doing well. I know Aiden white got banged up in this game that sucks. That's really bad because she in battle had some, you know, issues obviously against Louisville and in this game, to be honest, Kennedy has been awesome all year. But yeah, that's definitely what we're and Ricky Mashhad was declared out for the rest of the season two, and he played that's a major loss. Yeah, so defense is banged up. But so I mean, that probably plays a role in why they're giving up so many points, but again, like Peyton Wilson, linebacker, the week in the ACC for the third time this year. I know you mentioned Casey, he was Rookie of the week again second time this year. So there are individuals on this team that make me feel good about, I guess the rest of the season.

Unknown Speaker 20:00
isn't enough? Wilson is not going to be on the team next year. Pretty sure like he will. He'll be watching him on Sundays. Yeah, absolutely. I agree. Definitely that draft stock is definitely going up just with him making the decision to stay one final year is going to pay dividends for his career overall, or might save jobs, because if he's not there, and when we do these decisions, we could be not favored in games against like tech, or like Virginia Tech or games against Wake Forest, which we wouldn't be in this case, but he's such a huge part of the defense don't really know. Yeah. Yeah. So it'll be interesting to see how they perform against Duke on the road. Riley Leonard is day to day. That's the official word on his injury status. I think it was a high ankle sprain. So

Unknown Speaker 20:43
I don't know most of the time I see that injury designation, especially from quarterbacks they tend to play. So he might not be as mobile. So that'll that'll be interesting to see. I'll tell you why, though. He's, he's still going to be pretty good. He's, I mean, he's a NFL caliber quarterback, maybe not the one in the same spotlight as like a Drake may. But this is still going to be a huge, huge task. And yeah, we'll see about right a winner. I know the Vegas line was at like two or three, which seems to suggest that rather than her might not play because I don't know if they're going to give them that many points. Give NC State that many points if Riley Leonard isn't playing but yeah, we'll see. I think if he does it, it becomes a lot tougher for NC State really quick. Yeah. Last thing I want to bring up for the football game. I think. I don't know if you guys also had opinions on this.

Unknown Speaker 21:34
Peyton Wilson after the game had comments if you didn't watch Armstrong came in for one or two plays, they were in the red zone. It was two plays, they're in the two or three, they're in the red zone they're trying to do obviously these runs with him because he's more mobile, maybe, you know, potential, hey, we just want to get in there with someone.

Unknown Speaker 21:56
They did a play action, he got sacked. Then obviously the fans started booing as expected, because they don't like him. And Wilson came out and was kind of saying, Hey, I think I don't have a quote on me. But I remember it was pretty much along the lines of we need to stop booing Armstrong every time he comes in. And I think that just made me like him even more. Now just because I would have been not someone who's like saying Armstrong needs to be on the field right now get him he's like so much better. But I just think it's the worst. One of the worst things you can do. If you're a programmer, coaches, let the fans from the team, there's a reason they're not running the team, because they're fans. And if you're going to let them dictate what you're going to do, it not only makes you know, your offensive play calling, you know, not as big in terms of what you can do. It can really dictate a lot of the opinions of people in the locker room or around the team. And I'm think this is good that we finally actually had someone come out and say that because I don't think it's good to know who all these players, you know, who come out and especially when the margin is so close between them. Like I just brought up all this stuff he easily and you could had a horrible game. And what if he? What if he plays terrible against Duke and Carolina in Miami? Are you guys gonna freak out and try and get Armstrong? What if he gets hurt? Yeah. And Armstrong has to come. Like you're going to be coming back in with no support to keep doing Armstrong then. Yeah, I think it's also interesting to know like, these are all I mean, I mean, Casey, for example, just these are all young people. Like none of these are not professionals by any standard. I mean, obviously, Brendan's a graduate transfer, but like, none of these are professionals. So it's a lot different. If you're booing a, like 35 year old professional athlete, and then $2 Yeah, and then you're getting paid millions of dollars, Mr. Job, and then a kid that attends our school, it gets a lot different. And I agree, same thing if he gets hurt, like, what's the, like, how do you think he's gonna react when you put them back in and then he has, apart from the fact that he's gonna be going and get like this, it'll save MJ gets hurt against Duke obviously don't want that happen. Jose gets hurt against Duke, you're now having a guy come in against a difficult team. And then he has no sense of like backing from the fanbase. So it's like, there's no point booing him, might as well support him, and then just let him get acclimated to that role. So then if he has to come in, he has fan support. Or, you know, he's, like I said, he's bad. Again, games. I wouldn't be surprised if they put Armstrong out there because they've clearly shown the, you know, they're able to switch out whenever they feel necessary, but I don't know. That's just something I saw. And I thought it was kind of interesting to bring it. Yeah. And you know, the thing with Armstrong, he's like, you know, these are all like you said, these are all kids our age during our classes, and they're walking around campus to like you said they're not getting paid millions of dollars to do this. And I mean, you know, I've met and talked with Brennan multiple times this season and I mean, he's like, the definition of like leadership and the stand up guy. His comments throughout the week, even after MJ was declared the starter was like perfect, like you wouldn't expect anything less from the guy. I mean, he was still one of their team captains leading up on on the field he during the coin toss against Marshall. So obviously like he is

Unknown Speaker 25:00
very much still gonna be a leader in the presence and Peyton Wilson. I mean, I think so much of what he said reflects back on him too, because I when I was watching the press conference, or when I was there, he starts walking off and then he comes back on. And he's like, Wolf back nation. I love you guys. But we've got to start. And he was absolutely right. I mean, it gives you a little glimpse in that locker room of who Peyton Wilson is and who both those guys are. I mean, I if I was like an NFL Coach looking at I mean,

Unknown Speaker 25:29
personality and those types of characteristics, usually in the NFL, so 10 times out of 10. I'm drafting that guy over someone, even if like someone else is like, you know, a little bit more talented than me. Peyton Wilson is a plus character. Yeah. Yeah. That, um, we were both there. And in that press conference, and

Unknown Speaker 25:48
when they booed him when they booed him. It was it was very uncomfortable for me. Yeah. Yeah. I kind of like covered my mouth, like, watching Brennan go on for like a redzone package. wasn't even a dumb idea. I don't think it is.

Unknown Speaker 26:05
Definitely worth I think it was just actually, I feel like the if that had worked, and I mean, he got sacked. So like, there's really nothing you could do. You're gonna do a touchdown. Yeah, if that worked, the perception of it would have been so much different. Like, I think the fans would be like, Oh, this is great. Brandon's gonna. We can use them and make 10 Newton. Yeah, I can. Yeah, like, like, like, he's gonna have this athletic role. And he can come in and redzone formation, stuff like that. But then it's like, it just didn't go the way we want it to. And obviously, those X's and O's, like you said, I think they're fine, especially if you like, kind of fake a QB run, and he can still pass and you can get some open looks. I think that's fine. I mean, he didn't run a play and people were booing off the field. So it's an extremely talented, extremely talented player to have for that type of role. But

Unknown Speaker 26:49
yeah, all that's, you know, super interesting.

Unknown Speaker 26:53
And, you know, it does, it does show a lot about Peyton's character and, and really Brennan's character and how he's handled that. So yeah, we will see how that plays out. Whether they use one or two quarterbacks.

Unknown Speaker 27:09
All right, we're our third and final segment today. We have the what if idea that we came up with basically, it's, I mean, pretty self explanatory. It's, you know, take a moment and NC State Athletics and alter it, what if this happened? What's the chain reaction? What's going to happen? And there are so many different things that you could pick with, with that concept. So each of us, we have we all have something that we want to talk about and just kind of have fun with this. So stone, what's your first what if? So, let's just close your eyes for a minute. And imagine a what if scenario, this one's related to basketball, and it is probably the most recent one on and they're going to hear today. I don't think anyone else has anything from literally this past year, but is the 2022 2023 NC State basketball team. And it may be recent, but if you really dive in, especially at the end, obviously with the tournament, which is the biggest thing that goes on in college basketball, I think everything was realistically set up for a potential big run for state this year. They were able to sneak into the tourney as an 11 seed. Now I say sneak in they weren't the last ACC team in Pitt was the last ACC team and where they had to play a playing game to get in. But still 11 seed is the last seed that an at large bid is able to get in meaning that you don't win your conference you just got to try and win games to get in. And 11 sees the lowest for like Power Five schools.

Unknown Speaker 28:42
Again, got seated as an 11. Unfortunately, they were matched up against Creighton, which even at the time, it really helped my bracket because I bet money on them. They were clearly one of the most underrated teams in the tournament. This game, even in itself when we verse them was very close, but we obviously weren't able to finish it out in the end. And it was really due to some uncommon play from different guys in the team. And total they shot 21% from three normally it was 35 So that's a 14% difference. That's pretty big. Three other starters, Jack Clark Jr. Cal joiner and DJ burns all shot seven for 29 combined, making less than a quarter of their total shots. Shockwave Yan had more than half of the team's points while still shooting 44% from the field. And normally they have a plus three turnover margin meaning that they are creating more turnovers than they're giving up by a margin of three in this game they had minus one and state had created the most turnovers in the ACC going into this game. Even if just one other starter would have stepped up. They absolutely have the potential to win that game because Smith was on a roll he was absolute

Unknown Speaker 30:00
li insane. And again, if just one other person could have scored a little bit more did something I, it's very possible that they win that game. That was one of the closer games that Creighton was even in besides the last game that they ended up playing in the Elite Eight. Now, let's just say hypothetically win that game, which is not very far fetched. Next would have been number three Baylor and i You're probably thinking well, we probably lost that because it's Baylor. Now Creighton who beat Baylor

Unknown Speaker 30:28
this Baylor team was coming in to the game, and they had huge foul issues, the past like six games, even vers creating, they ended up having 21 fouls, and they also could not create turnovers, they had one of the lowest created turnover ratio and rates in the big 12, which is their conference going into the game. And one thing if you're playing against a guard, heavy team, if you can't create turnovers, they're going to have the ball in their hands more and they're going to be able to make shots more, and that is a matchup that just definitely favors NC State. And if Baylor loss to Creighton, I think they could definitely lose to us because they were not as strong of a three seed. So that's a three see that we could be now we're in the sweet 16. And I know you're thinking, Oh, we're gonna play a two seat. No, we play Princeton. If we win that game number 15 seat, they had their fun, but they would not beat us that some 15 seats have their cap. None of them have even made a final for only one as you made an Elite Eight. i They weren't even that amazing of a 16 or 15. C they just happen to be Arizona who was not a good to see it and Missouri who was just kind of a whatever SEC team. So that means we're in the Elite Eight, which is a phenomenal season and even then you think it ends at the Elite Eight. We play San Diego State who's a great defensive team, especially in the pain. But what did I just bring up about guards state wasn't relying on big man scoring DJ burns could go a game with scoring two or three points and we could win if guys extra quibi on Smith and Jarkko Joyner. Again, if you're a coach joiner only did a little bit more we would have been able to win that Creighton game. It's possible to win that matchup, obviously it's not in our favor. But if you're looking at the teams who has the best player on the court, it's NC State, because to Craven Smith would have been the best player in that game. And it's possible that they beat them. I'm not guaranteeing it, but I'm saying it's very possible. And then if they win that game, and the Final Four, they play number nine FAU,

Unknown Speaker 32:26
which was a solid team. But it's the same thing as San Diego State except they're a little more offensive instead of defensive, and Ukrainian Smith is still the best player in that game. Now, I think we would have been obliterated by UConn in the title game, but even just the possibility of going to lead aid going to the Final Four or going to the title game. The road was not very hard. It was very realistic, and one that I truly believe is the Elite Eight. I think the two games I brought up against Creighton and Baylor they totally could have gotten past and Princeton I don't think is anything they're throwaway and I relatively would have picked San Diego State. But this is the tournament anything can happen. And we've seen a ton of seeds lower and in the same rank go far. Five of the past 10 tournaments have had a 16 or have had an 11 seed go to the Elite Eight. So half the time in the past 10 years and 11 seeds made it that far. And state was clearly the best one they put up the best fight and creating obviously ended up going to the Elite Eight I think they could have taken their spot and we maybe could have felt so much better going into the season. Interesting, I think I mean, that definitely speaks to the madness part of March Madness.

Unknown Speaker 33:40
I think an interesting thing to explore with all that is if the other senator on the team, Dusan more Trish, if he doesn't go down, then maybe he could have like run the floor with Ryan Kalkbrenner, the seven foot one center who was killing us with the pick and roll in that game. And then DJ is not getting exposed on defense the entire time and foul trouble, which is what happened. So

Unknown Speaker 34:05
very interesting. I like that stone. Patrick, what do you have? So I had Devin Leary's pechter against Florida State in the 2022 season. So for a couple of reasons. I think it was interesting because after he tore his pack, we had a QB carousel. We had Jack chambers, MJ Morris and Ben Finley. And if you don't remember we had MJ Morris that was when he had his Cinderella, like two or three games stretch, but then he also got her. And before we had MJ we had Jack chambers who was a graduate transfer. And then Ben Finley. He was obviously on the team anymore. So I think the interesting with that is just how how much different the team would have looked. And then also Leary's draft stock and also the fact that he transferred after that season.

Unknown Speaker 34:47
Leary had a fight we would have five and one record leading into the Florida State game.

Unknown Speaker 34:53
Then this is this is also coming off of his previous season before when he was healthy. He had 35 touchdowns, 3500 yards, and only five interceptions and we were

Unknown Speaker 35:00
Nitin, three record that was the season when we had, we were ranked 20th. And we would have had a 10 win season if we beat UCLA in the bowl game. But it got canceled because of COVID. Will the UCLA team was tested positive for COVID? They didn't let the NCAA know. But

Unknown Speaker 35:16
it was. It's just it's difficult to look at, because seeing Leary and obviously the how he was coming off of that 2021 season, I feel like

Unknown Speaker 35:26
obviously, we had the Chapel Hill win at the end of the season with Ben Finley. But I do think that that team could have definitely had a similar

Unknown Speaker 35:33
result as the 2021 team did. Definitely a top 25 ranking could be better. But that's that's kind of just a big what if what if that just didn't happen, and the team has had a lot more consistency, because as we've seen, now, having a kid having to switch out cubies usually doesn't end the best because it means that there's going to be a rough start in terms of his draft stock and then transferring after the season. He was with MJ Morris obviously showing some promise and then coming into this year. I know stone that you've noted in previous episodes that the wide receiver talent is kind of mediocre. In terms of personnel.

Unknown Speaker 36:11
Kentucky, Kentucky was definitely a good or I guess you could say appealing route. Because heading into the season or heading I guess you could say offseason and in the transfer season. It looked like the Kentucky was gonna have really good receivers. And then also that we've seen with will Levis, who wasn't the best but the pro style offense give makes you a lot more marketable NFL teams later, that's kind of why Leary transferred, and heading after the 2021 season. Leary was actually getting a lot of attention in terms of the draft. Obviously, I think that this is maybe a bit of a stray from the general opinion. But there was a couple of mock drafts that were they were throwing Leary into the flight late first round. And I think that and then now he's if you've paid attention to Larry, this season with Kentucky, Kentucky is good. But Kentucky fans have been on Larry's had this whole this whole season, because just because of lower completion percentage, not being able to stretch the ball downfield, and just overall inconsistency, which is crazy, because if you watched him in the 2021 season, that was exactly what he was good at. He was consistent and he could stretch the ball down the field. And now after that PEC injury, it just seems like he cannot do any of that at all. So yeah, that's kind of really all I had for that one. Yeah, just real quick. I mean, you brought up later I think he had like 86 passing yards and a dominant wind over Florida so they're kind of he's kind of looking at this is gonna this is gonna sound kind of random, but I was looking at it was like an in depth read it down if someone did on Leary's performance this season. And then also like, what's it going to look like for his draft stock? It's just not the same player at all. And it's really unfortunate because if he, if pre I mean, even though I don't think the 2022 season his stats so far before the pack tear weren't as good as the previous season, because that's a pretty hard season to replicate. I still think that he would have been a lot highly touted coming out of college now and now he's looks like he's going to be hopeful for a drought or just a team workout. Sort of possible mid round pitching I know with both of our stories is minds obviously more related to like, oh my god, they might win something big. But even with that this affects recruiting, so the butterfly effect is definitely like, hey, they NC State succeeded with this. Maybe we could get these kinds of players and stuff. Yeah. And I wonder how much of that the SEC, football exposed leery a little bit because, you know, playing in Kentucky and playing the SEC, it's a whole different, different level. I mean, sec for all those teams have NFL players on every part of their roster. And it's just not the same as the ACC. So, you know, I wonder like, again, you know, you talked about the butterfly effect if Leary does stay in a you know, NC State and he doesn't tear his pack and he gets drafted, you know, decently high. You know, his draft stock is, I think really impacted because he's playing against SEC schools now. And, you know, NFL scouts probably like, I don't know if this guy can really hang with NFL Draft. I haven't seen him. Exactly. Which is just so unfortunate. Because I mean, this is just a player that had so much potential, and obviously, I think, I mean, obviously we hold a little bit of a bias because you don't see as a player. I think first light first round is definitely a little bit too high.

Unknown Speaker 39:20
When he was like when he was coming off a 2021 season, but still, I think I mean going from mid round to undrafted is especially a you see someone like will let us fell so hard. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Ethan, what do you have? Yeah, so I was going to talk about what if Kevin Keats was fired after NC State basketballs 2021 22 season? You know, looking at it, that was the season where NC State went 11 and 21. It was one of their worst years in memory.

Unknown Speaker 39:50
And they didn't do much better the year before that either. So you know, and there's a lot of rumors, I'm pretty sure there's a technician article someone wrote, that said, you know, Kevin keys should just leave

Unknown Speaker 40:00
I heard and it wasn't a crazy take at the time. You know, it was not me. You eat actually.

Unknown Speaker 40:07
It was we, I think we're to calm or at least like, let's consider it because it was definitely out there. You know, there's big considerations like, did going last season. If keys didn't perform well and see do well, he was probably gone. But you know, in the end 2223 was their best season in recent memory. And I think a lot of it was up to you know, it can be attributed to Keith's because of how well he did in the transfer portal. And I think college basketball way more than college football is you, you need your coach to be able to perform in the transfer portal. And by going getting Jarkko Joyner and TJ burns, I think he absolutely turned around the trajectory of this program. But that summer, but honestly, that season could have gone way, way differently if Keats wasn't there. I mean, no, you know, don't even think about your Cal and DJ, do we think that took him on Smith would come back? If Kevin Keats was fired after that season? Probably not. I think, you know, in 10 years, people will look back and be like, that is the like, defining moment, KEVIN KEATTS. His career is getting dark Hill and DJ. And then if he is able to follow it up with another good transfer portal class this summer. I think that's one of his strongest assets. I mean, if you look at the 21 team, they didn't they weren't able to beat Duke or UNC, your big rivals, and they got blown up by both. I mean, just by going off of that you beat Duke and UNC last year, I mean, it's just he they really were able to turn on the program. You see, both those programs had, you know, not the greatest. That's true. Especially Carolina, but still always great when you're able to get dubs on those. Yeah. Yeah. And we would have no, Kevin Keats, Jr. Probably. Which would be a huge loss. Hopefully because

Unknown Speaker 41:56
he's developing.

Unknown Speaker 41:59
For mine. I had football one just like Patrick. Mine was about Russell Wilson. I don't know if you guys follow Russell Wilson a whole lot. Just a little bit.

Unknown Speaker 42:11
Let him cook, let him

Unknown Speaker 42:14
he's I Broncos country I personally.

Unknown Speaker 42:20
So what if what if they let him play baseball his senior year is what my wife was.

Unknown Speaker 42:26
Not that they saw this. I mean, there are a lot of He Said, She Said type of deal around this. So it was it was a little hard to research, especially since I was

Unknown Speaker 42:36
nine years old when this was going down. So I wasn't really like in the loop a lot.

Unknown Speaker 42:42
But I mean, he came in a two star quarterback. So nothing super special on paper. He also played second base, he was pretty good at both.

Unknown Speaker 42:52
And then this went on for three years where he was doing both. And he was playing minor league baseball by the beginning of his senior season.

Unknown Speaker 43:02
And head coach at the time was Tom O'Brien. And he told them, This is what Russell said, and in 2016 at some Wisconsin thing, which is where he transferred obviously, he was just saying like, they told him that he wasn't going to see the field, his senior year. If not, if just like that wasn't going to happen, like he missed the spring practice. And then that was it. That was the final straw for the for Coach O'Brien. And so that's why Russell transferred.

Unknown Speaker 43:34
All that being said, I was talking to a couple of people about this. And they said that the baseball thing was a huge part of it. So like, that's my What if part, but also, Russell Wilson has had an attitude issue, like for a long time. And it was under wraps in Seattle when he went through because his head coach was Pete Carroll. And he had the Legion of boom and Marshawn Lynch and Richard Sherman all these personalities around him. So he's not no one was looking at Russell Wilson. And now he gets to Denver Broncos, and they're all assuming they're like, Who is this weirdo? So

Unknown Speaker 44:16
I think that was exposed very early on with with Tom O'Brien and, and Russell not going to practice and prioritizing baseball, which wasn't something that you know, I don't think he would have been able to do at a high level like Dion or Bo Jackson. Like I don't think that you know, even maybe Kyler Murray like I don't think Russell was on that level.

Unknown Speaker 44:37
So I think if if for some reason Tom O'Brien was like, you know, that's fine, like, you miss spring, practice, whatever, just come back then. Then Mike Glennon doesn't get the start the next season I

Unknown Speaker 44:51
was gonna say that fix Mike Glennon

Unknown Speaker 44:55
legacy. He actually was good and

Unknown Speaker 44:58
did not drop off.

Unknown Speaker 45:00
Like from Ross to Mike Glennon.

Unknown Speaker 45:02
So as far as NC State football goes, I don't think it would have made a huge impact. But as far as Russell goes, I think it changes everything. Because being at Wisconsin was a more, you know, pro style offense over there. And even though he's still won in the third round, I don't think being at NC State, he still would have played baseball and he wouldn't have been able to focus on football as much and so I don't think it works out for Russell Wilson, if he stays at NC State and plays baseball, and football his senior year baseball is one of the hardest sports to play so that's obviously going to be a big deal but yours is probably the biggest in terms of just sports in general because if Russell Wilson plays baseball or if he doesn't, even if he even if he stays at state that'd be so much different if he never goes to state plays baseball does whatever but obviously that affects literal NFL Super Bowls.

Unknown Speaker 45:57
Diehard Patriots fan Oh no.

Unknown Speaker 46:00
Never throws that ball to

Unknown Speaker 46:03
the dynasty is over. You might be playing a different team. You may have been playing a Cam Newton led Panthers team

Unknown Speaker 46:12
let's come down and then actually that would have been out on the Packers because that was wack so they'll probably choke regardless it doesn't really matter maybe Niners you want little Colin Kaepernick come in there and do anything i mean i honestly that the Russell Wilson Seahawks I didn't really get into tangent here but that was a great team and I mean either Marshawn Lynch and even this insane catcher on the sideline with a curse you know even to get that spot but yeah I sorry I don't mean to cut you off but you know the whole thing of Russell Wilson is like it's so interesting because everyone right now knows he kind of has like this like he puts up this facade just gold it's so in genuine Yeah, and it's so obvious and like how does he have not have like self awareness about this like the whole thing with like in Denver like doing the exercise down the plane? Yeah, like and then Sean Payton calling him out. I mean, like this offseason, it's it's just bizarre. And I was watching. It was the Shannon Sharpe and Marshawn Lynch. Interview and it's just like, Russell in

Unknown Speaker 47:14
Russell in like Seattle, that it's just very weird to hear because obviously Richard Sherman, the Marshawn Lynch are now media personalities in your you, they're going to speak out on it. And they're obviously too big personalities in general for just a locker room sense. And just hearing how Russell Wilson was, like, very protected, and like how you said that he had some, like, personal issues or personality issues, you could say with terms of like, accepting, you know, I can't play baseball, and he took that personally.

Unknown Speaker 47:40
It's just weird to hear because even when he was in Seattle, he had like, the, it was more it was like, oh, okay, he's the golden boy. He's this good guy. And then once you it's everything's kind of kept under wraps, like you said, Griffin. But then once they hit once he's getting taken out of that environment. And now he's in Denver, where he's not having Pete Carroll to like, everything. Yeah, like, like, like, quiet down whenever anything happens. Like Marshawn Lynch really said that there was like an issue in practice. And he players like going to talk to Russell and then there was like, No, don't talk to him if you have an issue with him coming to me, which is just bizarre, because it's like, he doesn't give his phone number out. Yeah, it doesn't give his phone number and it was just like, what like, that doesn't even like I've never I mean, there's obviously bad teammates in the NFL, but I don't think I've ever heard someone be like, put on like a like a like a pedestal because of just how he act like it's like, I don't think any QB in the league was put on like a pedestal in terms of coaching staff and player personnel like Ross was and so yeah, I mean, winning fixes everything, especially in NFL but and then when things got turbulent with Russell, that's when you started to see all the personality stuff. Yeah. And it's really interesting like I never knew this about Russell when you till you brought this up Griffin, but like, things started getting turbulent in NC State, and he kind of showed flashes of that, like, kind of IVA personality. That's super interesting that like, that came up because obviously we've seen it now in like the 12th man was probably the one of the biggest parts of Ross's career. I mean, because what if they don't have that defense and things are turbulent in Seattle? Off the rip it just Yeah, that's a that's a great one. Yeah, that's that's what I was gonna say winning changes a lot. And yeah, there's a lot and that's why to his credit that I think are just in the story in general it wasn't coming out until he was had Nathaniel Hackett in Denver who was his first time as a head coach and he clearly didn't know how to cover it up and it's not really the only reason you're knowing about it now is because past people are talking about it not because it's happening with Sean Payton right now. He's not dealing with any of that crap. He just doesn't. Yeah, that's not gonna go on in his place. And to his credit, he actually is not playing too bad right now. But yeah, definitely interesting story. Alright, and we have one last one stone you're gonna go really quickly, right? Yes, we're gonna end this off. Jimmy V.

Unknown Speaker 49:46
This is I think the biggest would if an NC State Athletics history. So if you don't know Jimmy V. Jim Valvano was the coach for men's basketball for NC State for all the 80s he ended his tenure right after the 8990s

Unknown Speaker 50:00
season. I think he's the best coach they've ever had. I think a lot of people would also agree he made the tournament and seven of his 10 seasons had a 65% winning percentage. No one has been able to eclipse that since then. He made once we 16 to Elite Eights and obviously won a national title, our most recent national title. Unfortunately, though, his rain was stopped shortly after. And it is not necessarily due to age or because he just wanted to move on VANOS final season and Raleigh definitely had a lot of controversy. After the release of a book that came out. It was called Personal fouls. And it was written by a guy called Peter Golan, Bach and this book had alleged improper practices and l quote, lack of institutional control in NC State Athletic Department. The allegations included stuff like fixing grades for players to go and play, lowered the attendance and entrance requirements for different athletes that could actually get into state and also the selling of tickets and sneakers by athletes to other people. These claims were obviously refuted by lovano as well as the chancellor at the time, Bruce poelten. They claimed that some of the players may have sold some of their shoes, but that it was all to this ACC superfan who was apparently, you know, very well known in the ACC community. The NCAA had an investigation go on, they had five additional separate investigators.

Unknown Speaker 51:28
And all of them had found only that the players did indeed sell their shoes to this ACC fan and other people who were friends and other game tickets that they received. So players obviously get tickets that they can have invite other people. Apparently, these players sold their tickets for spending money that they could use because obviously they're in college. Nonetheless, the NCAA decided to ban NC State from postseason play for the 8990 season. And earlier NC State limited itself to only 12 scholarships for the 1990 and 1991 season, and six separate entities investigated Jim Valvano and the NC State basketball program including the NC State faculty senate in the North Carolina Attorney General, the University of North Carolina Board of Governors, it was literally everyone. None of them found any evidence of recruiting violations or academic in prosperity or financial impropriety. None of these were found on the part of Ivana or his staff. The NCAA investigator at the time handling of Avanos case even wrote a personal letter to Valvano saying that he believes he is not at fault and that he is a good coach. And although Jim was not named in the NCAA report in terms of suspensions or losing stuff in any way, a new chancellor came in and named Larry my teeth and he came in and after pressure from the board around him and just people that were in his ear, they forced for Valvano to have his resignation on April 7 1990. In the two decades since Jim Lavon, has retired NC State has won six NCAA Tournament games, which is the same number that Jim Valvano one in one season with the Wolfpack when they won their national title on route to their second title in school history. In addition to the legendary upset in which player named Lorenzo Charles had a buzzer beater that stunned that stunned, you know, future NBA legend. And number one pick in the draft, a key Milan Xuan and his Houston team for Ivana to end up winning the title. Now, I obviously wouldn't be coaching to this day, but just think if potential justice was served in that he was not forced to be fired just because the new chancellor came in and because other people were upset about what the program state was in, or if it was just run properly, and that the actions of those above him did not affect his job, and potentially what kind of dynasty NC State would have had. And you see stuff like Carolina and Duke right now. I mean, Carolina, went from Dean Smith, and went right to Roy Williams, and was able to succeed. And I think it's not far fetched to say if, you know, NC State was able to keep Jim Valvano there for double the time, maybe even more, like a 2025 year stretch, that we would have more bangers more banners hung up. And we'd have more amazing alumni that we can call, you know, and look at his fans and say, Hey, this guy went to my college and he was amazing. And we might even have a huge program now because maybe, you know, the attractiveness of the Jim Valvano State Basketball group could have brought in new coaches that would have potentially carried on to this day. So

Unknown Speaker 55:00
That's I think the biggest what if in NC State sports history? Yeah, that's a good one. If anyone listening has a has a what if they want to talk about common on our Instagram? Also just keep an eye out for our flyers and our promotional ads up around campus. Ethan, thanks for joining us today and no problem. And you know, hopefully we see you again on here and, and we will be back next week. So thanks for listening to the letter read.

Unknown Speaker 55:26
Music In this podcast was Jonas Hooper's king of sports and vibe and sneaky, licensed under creative commons from the Free Music Archive

Transcribed by https://otter.ai