(upbeat music) - It's the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. - Nah, not quite. - What's up? - Ugh, sell my car and carvana. It's just not quite the right time. - Crazy coincidence. I just sold my car to carvana. - What? I told you about it two days ago. - When you know, you know. You know? I'm even dropping it off at one of those sweet car vending machines and getting paid today. - That's a good deal. - Oh, great deal. Come on, what's your heart saying? - You're right. When you know? - You know. - Sold. - Whether you're looking to sell your car right now or just whenever feels right, go to carvana.com and sell your car the convenient way. Terms and conditions apply. - Well, it was an opening game. The fans were there. Both teams played on the field. NC State won the game, but did we feel great about that? (upbeat music) You are locked on Wolfpack, your daily podcast on the NC State Wolfpack, part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. - What's up, Wolfpack Nation? This is your post game live here on Thursday evening, coming to you from the Carter-Findly press box. I'm still here picking up the pieces. I shouldn't say that we won the ball game, but a very odd 38 to 21 victory over the Western Carolina catamouts. I'm Grayson Boone joined by, as always, by my co-host former defensive tackle, Kenton Gibbs. Our Thursday live show is brought to you by Five Hour Energy. Perhaps you might need one of those right now. Five Hour Energy fixes tired fast and with zero sugar in a convenient portable size, it's the perfect pick me up for getting stuff done. Go to Five Hour Energy and use promo code locked on CFB in all caps to receive 20% off of your order. This offers only valid from now until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions. Head on over to Five Hour Energy today. Kenton, we're here, post game live. NC State does win over the Western Carolina catamouts, 38 to 21. Just lead us into this with your initial reactions to what we witnessed tonight. - You know, it's a lot of double-edged swords tonight. It's a lot of double-edged swords because everything in the passing game went well, except the quarterback. - Yeah. - It's such a double-edged sword because last year, it felt like the entire thing was not good. So you kind of are like, hey, we're making progress, but it was disappointing at some points because you had guys open, you had guys doing what they were supposed to do all around the quarterback and we're just asking, hey, be on time, be on target. Just be on time and be on target. When that team was on time, when Grayson McCall was on time and on target, the offense matriculated, there was not a single drive, not a single. And Grayson, tell me if I'm wrong here. How many drives did you see where Grayson McCall was delivering the ball on time? He's hitting receivers and stride and we still had to get off the field without points. I don't remember a single time that there was drops that led to the end of a drive or anything like that. But let me not, that comment distracted me a little bit when I saw myself. But that did not, that's not the most concerning part to me because a lot of people are concerned about that. The most concerning part of this thing is we still can't run the ball against smaller teams. We can't get a fourth in one early against smaller teams. That is so concerning for me because we saw it against ECU and they will forever, ECU lives, dies and breathes by that clip of them, pushing Demi Sumo back about 20 yards and get the tackle there. And then we kind of live with this moment against Western Carolina, fourth in one, where we try to run it again and we can't do it. So, you know, it's number one, the biggest concern for me is the running game because I think that Smothers is our best back by a lot right now. I don't think it's particularly close with all due respect to other guys. And here's the thing, the sample size is so small, it could have just been, he came in in the right moment, right time, hit it in the right way, sure. But I don't, those are the biggest concerns of mine, but obviously you have positives that can't be ignored because we knew Casey was good but hot. Damn, that boy is good. Hat, you can't cover Casey. And then the rest of the receiving court, is it just me or how many times did you see anybody, any of the past catchers, where you were disappointed in their effort, where you were disappointed by what they did? I did not, I counted maybe one play where I said, "Oh, come on, you got to make that block out of a receiver." But other than that, everybody did what they were supposed to and Justin Jolie, in the words of one pom-pom, "Baby, go to the party, baby, go to the party." I'm excited to have you because everything that he did from recovering the pom-pom, from running down to pick six, from making a big block on Casey's touchdown run, to shaking the court. Not only did he break tackles with his physicality, 'cause you see he's got those victory truck legs, but also, he took a deep knee up up their shoes. He saw, he said, "I'ma chop it up, "I'ma get a little dead leg and I'ma get to the inside." And so, I'm excited by the fact that Wesley Brown's looked amazing. Descartes Collins looked amazing. Noah Brown's looked amazing. Every single passcatcher we had, I was impressed every bit of the way. Joker Phillips, hell of a job, be excited. Tight ends, Coach, I'm not sure who that is. Hell of a job, be excited. I need more from the running game. In Grayson McCall, I need you on time and on target. And Robert and I, I need more smothers touches. I need more Hollywood. I get it, we are Hollywood, but damn it, we need to be Hollywood when that brother's in the game because he does good things when that ball is tucked up under his right arm. - I came away a little bit disappointed with the play of the offensive line. And I know that's a little bit harder to say now with that last run that Jordan Waters broke off, but for three and probably almost four whole quarters, couldn't get any push on Western Carolina. - Boy, I don't know if Grayson froze out or not, but I'll carry us out from here in terms of what we got going on. I really am, I look at our running game and this is becoming a problem that is in perpetuity a little bit. It really is. And that's the part that worries me the most because this isn't a thing of, hey, we don't know if it's a problem with not having enough talent in the backfield or we don't know if it's a problem and not having enough talent in the front. It seems to be a consistent thing that has stressed out across multiple offensive coordinators, multiple different iterations of the backfield. I mean, it just seems to be a thing that regardless of what's going on with scheme or with talent, we still struggle to run the ball so mightily, which is definitely a concern because the last time I remember us having an effective enough run game that I felt good about, I could say, hey, I think that this is going in a positive direction. I would wanna say is persons in night and that was a little bit ago. Both of those guys are fairly decently off into their professional careers, be it in the NFL or otherwise. So I mean, I absolutely understand the concerns about the running game and Grayson seems to have lagged out a little bit but he'll be back in just a second. But the run game was absolutely a concern for me. The run game was definitely something that I look at and I want it more from. But honestly, to me, up front on both sides, I was a little bit concerned. Maybe a little less on defense because our defensive line seemed to turn it on earlier and more consistently than our offensive line did. We expected long story short, a lot back in court to be a work in progress to start the season. Getting forward and getting ejected on basically the first job of the game did not help that, right? Like with all due respect to Jalen Parker and Company, you know, if you are looking at a group that you are already saying, "Hey, we're expecting a step back to come in from last year." Getting one of your starters ejected in that group is never gonna be a good thing. And in this 335 defense, where you not only have to trust your linebackers to flow to the right place, but you have to trust them to not over pursue, I'm really deeply worried about what I saw from our linebackers because at the end of the day, if RPOs and things like that are going to crush us because our linebackers are always seemingly in the wrong place regardless of what happens, they're just a step too far to the right, step too far to the left, step too far to the line of scrimmage. I'm deeply worried about how you handle Enico and the Broomacoy and Company coming in from O'Rocutto because those guys are a different level of talent than the catamaw. Colombo is a good receiver. He's not like what they got at Tennessee. You get what I'm saying? So I wouldn't say that it's necessarily a softness from the defense. I would more so say there was a bit of a lack of discipline where again, RPO is in essence, triple option, just extended. I want y'all to think about that for a second. So if you are constantly being killed by the RPO, you are seeing the same, you are seeing the same things in essence as you are by a team being killed by the triple option. How does the triple option kill teams most often? Because there's a incessant on, oh, I see the wing back most in this way, I got to go down here right now and then all of a sudden the guys popping out of the back door on you. It's the same thing with RPOs. When you are too bought into one aspect of it that's not your job, all of a sudden the area that is your job becomes wide open. And so I don't want to throw that on them. I will say this. It is, there was expected to be some rust that had to be shaken off. I think that that's fair. I think that that's fair. You talk about, you know, somebody in the comments just said that Gonzalez played like Avery. And with that being said, it's a situation where at the end of the day, that cannot be because again, Gonzalez ain't the same level of quarterback as Nico. Like that's that. And so when we look at this, again, we look at this game, you went one and O, you move on from there, you watch this tape, obviously you learn from it. It's always better to learn from, it's always better to learn from a win than a loss. But you all are absolutely right in terms of, you know, hey, if one play goes different, if two plays go different, but that was the story of last year to something stick. Remember the Duke game? Remember the fact that of all the teams, not just the ACC, but in the power five last year, of all the games, we had the largest per played differential that still lost. That means that we beat Duke for more plays than they beat us. However, however, there were those two or three plays that went against us. I think that this is going to be a season where NC State no longer steps on the rate. It has to be a moment where at the end of the day, we don't come in here saying ifs and buts and what it could have showed us, it has to be clean dominance from beginning to end. And again, the best part of this game is that it's over and we leave it with everybody healthy. The best part of the ejection for Kayden Fordham is that he gets kicked out in the first half. So he doesn't have to miss any time against Tennessee. But again, you don't want to see that regardless. So I honestly and truly I look at this thing and I say that there is a little bit of disappointment from what the expectation was and what against what had happened in this game. But again, I struggled to say, hey, this season's a wash and this team is, you know, exactly who they have always been and all that because I remember the first season that Dora Coats here because I was on that first team and we also played a FCS team close, a pretty good FCS team at Richmond that year close. And when we played Richmond close, we got Grayson back, finally, we got him back. But anyway, when we played Richmond close, it wasn't this same type of pen. Everybody said, oh, this is to be expected as Dave Dorins year one, you know, he's working with square pegs around holes and all that. So the fact that there is such expectations and such a feeling of dejection to some sense, because let's just be honest, certain people do feel like, hey, somebody's excitement was cut from under you because if you're looking at a season where you believe you're going to be ACC chaps, battling it out with a team that couldn't even win the Southland Conference last year is not ideal. But to say that we are in a position where there are expectations, again, that's one of the silver linings here that you could take away from this thing. - I have somehow MacGyver my way back into the chat. I hope you can hear me. I hope you can see me. Feel free to tell me if otherwise. Okay, I think I'm in here. - You're good to go. - I had something to say about the O line. I think they just cut my Wi-Fi. Big two J in the chat. - Cut me out of this room. Just real quickly, I don't know what you touched on Kenton, but I'll just, I'll get right back into where I was. - Go for it. - Very disappointed in the O line tonight. Not getting any type of push on Western Carolina. It's a massive concern, because of who you play next weekend in Tennessee. They have one of the better defensive lines in this entire country. And so if you can't develop a strong sense of just dominating on the run against Western Carolina, that's a big time of question mark as we leave week one going into week two. That being said, I think Jordan Waters seemed to me at least a little bit too patient in a sense where if he would just hit the hole and then dance, I think he could have broke off a couple more of those longer runs, but just felt like he was waiting a little bit too long than the hole would close. Couldn't make anything out of it after that. Finally broke through for that last 50 yarder there at the end. That was a big, at least a nice exclamation point to finish that game out on. So the run game in my mind needs major work. You mentioned Hollywood Smothers earlier. He impressed me the most on the ground out of what I saw tonight. He had a burst every time he touched the ball. Every time, I think he only had like three carries, but all three of them, it was boom and then zoom. That, I mean, he had go like I didn't quite realize that he had. And so definitely need more Hollywood Smothers carries, not just next week, but as the season goes on here. Now I'm gonna get into McCall. Talked all off season about how accuracy is his calling card. Tough night tonight, tough night tonight. And I think you can maybe accredit some of that to first game jitters, but I mean, I really only go as far as like maybe the first or second quarter after that man, you gotta lock in. And it just wasn't there for the majority of the night. Outside of like maybe one or two drives. I thought he had a couple of really nice throws to Noah Rogers, a couple of really nice throws to Wesley Grimes. KC, well there's a whole segment dedicated to KC. Justin Jolie, I don't know if you've already talked about him, he looks to be exactly what we thought that he could be. - And maybe even more. - And maybe more, that is a monster. He is a monster. I'm really disappointed that that one trick play that he caught and dove in the end zone got called back. He earned every bit of that one. And that was devastating to see that one called back, but man, if we can continue to feed him the ball as well, that feels like the direction that we need to move this offense into. - Where should I go next? All right, I'll go KC. I'm just playing catch up here. Sorry for the technical difficulties here, folks. KC, what else can we say about Kevin Concepcion Concepcion? I mean, there are several, maybe every NC State child in the RTP area tonight. Thank you, Lord, for blessing me with another day. Thank you, Mommy and Daddy, for taking care of me. Thank you, KC Concepcion, for saving my favorite college football team. He is that important to what NC State is trying to do. We thought that he was playing hero ball last year, and he was, didn't think that we would need him like that in game one of 2024. I mean, just to reject here, that to me is the biggest problem that I have with Grayson McCall's play. That's the biggest problem, because we didn't need KC to be that, with all the respect that you see. Him being KC is great. There were guys open. There were guys, if you, Tom Lugenville and company in the booth are talking about, hey, if you hit this Bang 8 to Jackson in the right way, he's going to bang his head on the goal pose. Hey, if you hit this route here, to me, the problem is, the problems that I saw at Grayson McCall worry me for the same reason that I saw the problems out of Florida State. You have to be good at your strengths. Grayson McCall's strength is not being a runner. That's not what we bought him here for. It's not, hey, we expect you to reverse field and be Lamar Jackson, get all these big 60 yards. That's not it. We don't expect you to be, I know that this may be inside baseball for some folks, but back in the day, I grew up watching Lori Carr and John Navarre do all that long play action in the big arm and throw on the 40, 50 yard bombs. I wasn't expecting Grayson McCall to be that. I was expecting him to be a guy, make the right decision be on time, be on target. And first we started off with a lack of being on target. The outrope that somehow was picked off was very like what happened here. And then you talk about some of the other plays where, again, the announcers on the broadcast are saying, he just seems off. Every ball seems a little behind. Even when his receivers are catching it, they're having to adjust, they're having to reach back, reach down, stop their momentum. I mean, the problem there is again, and then the one where it was like a quick hot read that Western Carolina's DB jumped from a mile away and then he should have went back this head on the goal post if he has a little bit better hands, but we know you're a DB for a reason. So it's a situation where the two strengths that we talked about, if somebody put a gun to my head and said, what are the two strengths and grades we called? I would say he's on time and on target and he makes good decisions. Those two things are the good decisions in the room with us. What's the accuracy in the room with us? That neither was. So I think that I'm more concerned about that than I am the running game because you and I both knew. Although we thought, hey, there's a great improvement in the running game in terms of talent. We knew historically we have not run the ball well here for probably some time. That's what I've talked about where you were going. Historically, we have not been the team. That runs the ball well. But with all of the improvements made to the passing game, stop locking in on Casey so much. I get it. He's a 7-Eleven guy. He's always open. So was no erasure. So was Wesley Grimes. So was all these other guys that were Justin Jolie. Who can cover that? Who in America looks at him and says, I want parts of him. I want that match up. The guys are freaked. So, you know, I look at this and I say to myself, the best part of our offense was that everything was going good in our passing game, except the quarterback. The passing protection was excellent. The pass protect. I don't remember a bunch of times where Grayson McCall is looking around after one or two seconds. Whoa, what's going on? I got to be seeing it goes. You have a clean pocket. Be on time. Be on target. Hit your spots. Hit your spots. Get leads your receivers, because we have the type of talent that this is not just a Western Carolina thing. This is against anybody. We have the type of talent. You hit them in stride. You let Wesley Grimes get going in stride. You let the current college get going in stride. You'll go ahead and let the Hollywood Smothers get going in stride. See what happens. But if you hit them when they're low, behind, low, low, low, high, low, all this adjustment, instead of just running, I get it. These are division one athletes, and they are going to have to adjust to some balls. But again, for me, I'm worried that I understand you have to knock the rust off. I understand that you did not play for a majority last year, but that has to be correct immediately, if we want any shot against Tennessee. Yeah, I think one of the more frustrating points kind of highlights exactly what you're just talking about. To see the difference, I would say, in the skill players from last year to this year, there's so much more separation that we really never saw at any point last year. Wesley Grimes, I was thoroughly impressed with the little bits that we saw from him. Noah Rogers, still probably on the learning curve, but really good tonight as well. Casey is Casey. There's not a man in the country that can cover him. Justin Jolie, I could talk for hours about Justin Jolie. That is a monster waiting to take over in this offense. But the separation is something I really kept noticing that the wide receivers were way, way ahead of where we were at this point last season. And I think the most frustrating point is when Grayson just could not get the ball to them on time and on target because that is who you are supposed to be. And so it is frustrating to see the offense not firing on all cylinders. And yeah, it's game one, yeah, it's Western. But I mean, these are the games that you have to be firing on all cylinders, especially again, because of who you have coming up next week. So yeah, I keep coming back to frustrating. It's just frustrating. Overall, a win's a win, and that's all fine and dandy, but just not the type of overall performance you wanted to see from this new look offense here to start off the season. I'm going to read a quick ad. And then I want to talk some defense. I have a couple of thoughts to get in about the defense as well. First ad for this live read is a five hour energy. Are you tired after lunch or maybe even tired after watching an NC State football game? You're not alone. In fact, research shows that more than 70% of us hit a wall after lunch or watching football. Let a five hour energy shot help you leap over that wall instead of crashing into it. With zero sugar in a convenient portable size, it's the perfect pick me up for getting things done. If you go to five hour energy.com, that is the number five and then hour energy.com, and get some five hour energy product today, you can use my promo code in all caps locked on CFB to receive 20% off your order. This offer is valid until now until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions. Go to five hour energy today. All right, now switching gears over to the defense. We've talked at great lengths about how much drop off was to be expected from last year to this year. Obviously there is no Peyton Wilson. The line backing core as a whole is a big concern. I feel horrible for Hayden Vordham to be tossed out of this game, what three minutes into your home opener. That's a brutal way to start your season. And I think to a certain extent, you could feel his absence there early on. The defense just kind of felt out of sorts, giving up large chunk plays. I was shocked at how many yards Cole Gonzalez got on the ground off of us tonight. I thought that was a little bit unacceptable at some points. You knew Cole Gonzalez would air it out. I thought the secondary at times played a little bit too soft. I would have liked a little bit more press coverage to kind of force the issue on him. He kind of picked us apart to a certain extent. I mean, they got a lot more through the air than I initially had planned on seeing this evening. I know that Jihad Carter was in street clothes very early on in this game. Now me personally, I have not gotten the full report on that. I might have to ask around before I leave tonight, but Jihad Carter was not there, not back there in the back of the secondary. Not sure how big of an impact that may or may not have made. But the defense as a whole, getting diced by Western is just another thing that you look toward next week. Are we gonna be able to keep Tennessee out of the end zone every time they touch the ball? I don't quite know yet. It doesn't give you a great deal of confidence. But yeah, I mean, the D line, I think they really picked up steam there late in the fourth. I thought Davin Van showed who he is. And that is a leader of this defensive unit. I was impressed there. Red Hibbler started making his face scene in the backfield a couple of times. The fourth quarter overall, both offensively and defensively, the fourth quarter is what I thought we would look like for the entire game. That seems to be where the urgency did pick up probably out of fear, to be quite honest, probably out of fear, but that is what I thought we would see out of both sides of the ball tonight. A shame that it took that long to get to, but I don't know, man, 21 points against Western. That's a little dicey for me. - You know, my biggest problem with the defense, you're absolutely right in terms of not having a ton of press coverage. But when you think about who Tony Gibson is and how his defense runs, there isn't a ton of men or press coverage by defense. That's kind of part and parcel of the deal there. But here is something that was a little bit concerning. We talked about the linebackers. We talked about the worry about the linebackers. And after Caden went out, things just, like you talked about, those next couple of jobs, the defense looked like they were struggling to get the calls in. They looked like they were struggling to get a line and all that type of stuff. And, you know, we expected, we expected the linebacker court to not play necessarily well. We expected them to not be a strong suit rather, but we expected them to play the well. We expected that. And to see that, again, people don't understand this. The 335, the linebackers have hundreds of tackles because in a 335 because you have the ability to play it in multiple ways. You have the ability to, you know, basically you are the quarterback of the defense. You know where everybody's going. You know how everything is supposed to flow and you have the freedom to kind of be covered up to a greater extent than you would in most other defenses. So you're supposed to flow and feel from there, which will lead to making tactics. Our line backing play was what Grace and I expected it to be, which is a problem, which is a problem. We wanted to be pleasantly surprised walking away from this game by our line backing court. If backs weren't running into our defensive lineman's arms, it was tough. It was a very tough sell. And I see a lot of people saying arm tackles and all that type of stuff. I'm gonna tell you this. Grace and I are gonna watch this film again. We're actually, we're gonna watch this film and we're gonna break it down and dissect it and say what we see. But for the most part, I didn't see a ton of guys in terms of the defensive line having bad fits out of their gaps and all that. It's the line backing court that has to pick it up. The one of the strengths of the 335s that you have, more small guys on the field, more guys who can move and do more things on the field. But the biggest weakness is if those guys who can move and do more things are not disciplined, do not have good eye discipline, are not doing their proper tracks to their run fits, you are going to catch hell, which we did for three and a half quarters of this. Well, three quarters of this game in essence. Because again, guys were over running plays or guys were slow playing a little too much in their hole, there was no hat in that gap. And in college, we have a fun rule. If you don't feel your gap, the ball will find it. And the ball found gaps where NC State players are supposed to be again and again and again. And again, we're gonna watch this film. And if I'm wrong about the linebackers and they were on their PZQs and it was something else, I'll more than happily say that. I didn't see a ton of missed tackles or anything like that, which is the most damning part of this, which also gives the silver lining up if you fix the run fits. Again, you're not tackling poorly. You just need people to be where the hell they're supposed to be and ball carriers will hit the ground. But if not, if you continue to have poor run fits, don't worry about it. You'll hear old Rocky Top Tennessee playing in the end zone, Tom and Tom again. - After what we saw tonight, and there's a lot to be frustrated about, there's some things to be very positive about as well, but NC State football and Dave Dorn, especially, they always preach about the standard. And the standard is the standard. I think one of the main takeaways from tonight is you could tell both from Coach Dorn and the players on the sideline, they knew that they were not hitting the standard. I would imagine the locker room. I saw Tom LaVolce tweet this. The locker room was probably lit. And I would guarantee you it more than likely was. They know, they know that the performance tonight was not good enough. They know that they had several marks that they did not hit a pawn. And so for me, I'm extremely interested to see how they will respond against an SEC power like Tennessee. In a prime time stage, it's the 730 ABC game that the standard was not hit tonight. And they have probably a much higher standard to be hitting next week when you see Tennessee. So I will be very fascinated to see how they will respond to ultimately a letdown. Let's be honest about what we saw tonight. It was a letdown. There's a lot of people that have disappointment. I completely understand all of it. We are all very, very right to feel a little bit letdown for what we saw tonight. All of the off-season hype, what we saw tonight, that's not a team that can get to Charlotte to play in the ACC Championship. Work can get to the college football playoff, not with that effort. So the silver lining here is, 'cause there always is one, it's game one. And number two silver lining, you won the game. Could be a whole lot worse. If this was us talking through a loss, exponentially worse than what you've heard here for the last 34 minutes. So some wins definitely taste better than others. And this one doesn't taste too good, but it's hard to completely hang your head when you did score more than the other team. - Absolutely, we talked about the concerns a lot, but again, there were plenty of good things there. And the reality of this game is very simple. You wouldn't wanna know. It was not pretty, it was not perfect. You went one and no. And I will say this, I will say this. If NC State thought that they had any hope, if this football team thought they had any hope, a move in that lie, a little bit, getting some respect, going there, that Tennessee game. It's out the window. It's out the window. That it flew out the window, it is gone in the breeze. It is three exits behind us. We are going from that mile marker and it ain't coming back. The reality is at this point in time, I hope that this, you know, the old saying is animals leap highest when wounded. And this team got wounded a little bit tonight. This team, again, strengths look like Achilles' heels tonight. Things that are supposed to be this team's calling card offensive and defensively. Tonight's game one and last year's game one felt eerily similar and I haven't quite figured out if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Probably a bad thing, but it's the building blocks. You take this, you study the film, you learn from it. Hopefully it pisses you off and I certainly hope that is the case because you got a lot left to play for throughout the rest of the regular season here, but it felt very similar to what we saw last year up at UConn to start off that year. Very sloppy, a lot of plays were undisciplined. Felt like we left a lot on the table, couldn't finish off plays the way that we're supposed to do based on that standard. And that's kind of what we saw tonight. Much lesser opponent makes it sting, I think just a little bit more, but a wins a win. You take the good with the bad, you learn from it, and you move on to next week. I'm gonna read one more ad here, and then we'll get you out of here and send you to bed. I fully appreciate all of y'all sticking with us. I know we had some brutal technical difficulties here, my Wi-Fi getting cut. Second sponsor for her live show tonight is Fandool. You've heard us talk a lot about Fandool. Hopefully you're not sweating that NC State over eight and a half wins tonight, but America's number one sports book is Fandool. Now until September 22, all Fandool customers can bet $5 and get a three week free trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Then with the YouTube TV base plan, you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of market game. All you need is a Google account and a current form of payment, and if you choose, you can cancel it anytime. Just visit fandool.com/lockedon to download America's number one sports book. That is Fandool. Okay, closing sentiments here. Again, really appreciate everyone sticking with us. I know it's late. I know that was a lot to digest here. We're still sitting here digesting it, but Kenton, give me some of your closing thoughts here as we've been on here for nearly 40 minutes. 38 to 21 against Western. How do we feel? Yeah, so I look at this game and it's not perfect, but it's a win. You look at this game and you say to yourself, it's things did not look the way that we wanted it to, but again, wanna know is always better than on one. It's always better to learn your lessons in wins than losses. And I'm gonna say something right now that I'm not sure if he listens to this show. I'm not sure if he watches this show, but I hope that this message gets to Grayson McCall, okay? You are who you are. Relax and let it rip, kinda. Relax and let it rip, okay? You didn't become a multiple time conference player of the year by playing tight, by over aiming, by forcing it, by feeling. You got to where you are. You got to insist, let it rip, let it fly. Let 'em hang, man, and if everything goes well, it goes well, and if it doesn't, it doesn't. But there just seemed to be a tightness about his game tonight for that first three and a half quarters. And the reality is, if you lead this thing in the right way, hey, it works out and all that good stuff. And then the last thing I'll say is this, because we have not given this any credence whatsoever. They're legitimately worth some amazing plays made by Western Carolina tonight. They were legitimately some plays made by Western Carolina. That's not just a, oh, this is an FCS team. They shouldn't be doing that moment. There were plays in there that just worked out in very wonky and odd ways. I'm sure Kayden Form will learn from this and not get spent again. This was a perfect storm of things that, hey, you can come out of this with a different result. So shout out to this team for their resiliency. Shout out to the depth on this team for again. You know, we've talked about Jordan Waters, Jordan Waters, Jordan Waters. And yet the two backups now, the two guys, the understudies per se, Kendrick Raphael and Hollywood's mothers combined for six carries or 63 yards, six carries for 63 yards. And it was fairly evenly distributed. It wasn't even like it was all mothers 'cause Raphael average eight yards a carry. So again, I would say the same thing that Waters does at the McCall. Dude, let him hang, let it rip. Just roll, just roll, man. I know people are lying saying he never fumbled when he was at Duke. That's not true. I vividly remember him fumbling while he was there. But fumbling into your second carry, that's not good. That's not good. Let it just be yourself. Don't hang on to it. Same for Grayson. Don't hang on to this game. Don't hang on to it. I'll route that was bad. Hey, it's all right. It's okay. You won the game, you're one to know. Fortunately, you don't walk into the Tennessee game with them already having an interception on that. You don't walk into the Tennessee game with you already having a... You walk into that game knowing it's a brand new game. It's a brand new chance to go on a note. So treat it that way. Half of the college football teams in the country are gonna lose their first game this weekend. Your team did not. And that is the silver lining that we're gonna take heading into week two. Was it disappointing? Yes. Was it disappointing even more 'cause it was against an FCS team? Also, yes. However, they won the game. There's plenty to learn from. You know that they will. Kenton, your comments for Grayson McCall. Very similar to the things that Brendan Armstrong was told during some of his struggles last year. When he got reinserted in the lineup, the coaching staff instilled that confidence. Go out there and let it rip, man. And I think the very same can be said to McCall after an opening night performance like this one. Maybe you don't hang so much on it 'cause it is just game one. But nonetheless, you need to be built back into that confident Grayson McCall 'cause we need that guy immediately. He can't afford to sit and dwell on this and say, oh man, that did not go the way I wanted it to. Who knows how next week's gonna go. Can't have any of that. You gotta flush this, let it go. I agree, same goes with Jordan Waters. Not the best game until finally had that breakout run there at the very end. Just gotta keep it pushing, man. Your Jordan Waters, you came here for a reason. You were third team all ACC running back last year, for a reason. We know that guy is in there. Just gotta pull him back out. As for the rest of the team goes, KC Star. Probably the biggest reason that we won this game tonight. Jolie Star, I'm telling you, just wait. Just wait until Justin Jolie gets unleashed. The defense, they bent a little bit more than I predicted them to, came on stronger at the end. I'll take to go with the bad, but I do need to see a lot more there. O-line, I just need to see a whole lot more in general. I need more push immediately. 'Cause again, getting that run game going, getting Jordan Waters going, a lot of this season is going to hang on that. So those are my overall thoughts. Again, a win is a win. We're one to know, moving into Tennessee Week. One of the bigger weeks of the entire season, we're certainly gonna have a lot to talk about this coming week on Lockdown Wolfpack. Thank you all so much for joining us here on this live show. Again, I know it's late. Thoroughly enjoy everyone jumping in here in the comments. It means a ton to us. They all rock out with us after games like these. Thank you for showing up. Make sure to hit that like button, drop your comments down in the comment box, match that subscribe button if you have not already. We will see you all, I guess Monday. I'm gonna clip this entire show. It will be reposted as another episode here on Friday. So if you missed it, you can get the whole episode right back from us tomorrow. Be sure to be on the lookout for that. We will see you right back on Monday. We're one to know. That's all we got for the rest of the night. Thank you all for joining us. Go pack. Go pack. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - A Prime Members. You can listen to this lock-down podcast ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. (upbeat music)
