TWO DAYS 'TIL KICKOFF. Yes. Just two. Today, we begin our due diligence with Western Carolina. What type of Offense are they bringing to the table? How good is their QB Cole Gonzales? Who has the Offensive Advantages?
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What's up, Wolfpack Nation? It's time to get locked in with Locked On. Thanks for making Locked On Wolfpack your first listen each and every day. We are free and available where every get your podcast and on YouTube, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's Tuesday sponsor is FanDuel. Right now, through September 22, all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Just visit fanduel.com/lockedon in order to get started. Happy Tuesday to all. As always, I'm Grayson Boone, joined by former Wolfpack defensive tackle Kenton Gibbs. Our regular Tuesday programming for game weeks here. If you were not with us last football season, Tuesdays, we typically give you an initial preview of our opponent for that week and then we talk offenses. We're going to talk about the Western's offense and what they bring to the table and then we're going to close with comparative advantages between their offense and our offense to get you out of here. To begin this Tuesday episode, we are going to give you the basics for Western Carolina. Obviously, they are an FCS team. They've been on the upswing after a couple of rough seasons. Before their current head coach came into town, that is Kerwin Bell. Now, he played back at Florida in the late '80s and he's really turned around Western in a very short amount of time, giving you their five-year trend. When we saw them last way back in 2019, we beat them 41-nothing that year. Western went on to finish that season with a lowly record of three and nine. 2020, those struggles continued. They were 1-8, and then Kerwin Bell took over the program in 2021. They went 4-7, 2022, 6-5, and then last season, they were 7-4. I believe they finished ranked in the FCS polls. That is where they now enter 2024. I believe they are ranked in both of the major two FCS preseason poll publications. I think one has them at 19, one has them at 20. There is some optimism surrounding what Western can do at the FCS level here in 2024, but last time we saw them, it was none too pretty, and a lot of wolf-back fans are more than likely expecting the same this year. Yeah, for sure. They're expecting the same, and I'm not expecting that it'll go too differently. However, the reality is, they do have some weapons over it. They do have some guys that I wouldn't be shocked if they played on Sunday. They have a couple of guys that I wouldn't be shocked to hear their names linked with camps or being in the portal to transfer on the bigger schools at the end of this upcoming season, because there are some guys. There are some names. There are some players over there that I'm like, "All right, what's going on here?" I'm very intrigued. I'm very interested to see how this office looks this year. So, while Western is not quite the same caliber of team as NC State, there's a thing that Coach Dorn always used to do with the team, whenever there was a big news story about something, like if there's a player gets drunk and drunk drives and hurts somebody or a player fails out, whatever the case may be, he would keep the press clipping or he would print off a copy of the paper, plays or whatever it may be. He would print it off, and he'd say, "Thank you such and so," and I'm telling you right now, "I would be shocked," if Coach Dorn did not tell the team already, "Thank you, Florida State, for showing, 'Hey, this is what happens when you sleep on the team that people receive as being below you in terms of NC State and Wake Forest and this one.' So, I'd be shocked if this team didn't come in the right way, but again, Western does have some guys that can get it done if you find yourself sleeping at the whip. There is certainly that stigma of an FCF school. They can't play with the P4s and in a lot of cases, that is true, but it's not impossible for an FCF team that's known for their offense to come in and make a little noise here in week one. We actually had a common opponent last season with Western Carolina. They too played VMI. Now, we beat VMI by a score of 45 to 7. They actually lost to VMI. It was their last game of the season. They lost by a score of 27 to 24, but there are a couple of disclaimers in discussing this common opponent. So, Western played VMI, and they actually lost their starting quarterback, Cole Gonzalez. We'll discuss here in just a second to injury earlier in that game, probably the reason that they did lose that game, but we played VMI and we did not play VMI starting quarterback in that. I believe it was week three and Brendan Armstrong had one of his better games of the season. So, not exactly transitive, the results from last year, obviously, but Western struggling with the VMI team that we dominated, that just gives you that much more common. There's confidence heading into this game on Thursday night. In all honesty, it really shouldn't be that close of a game. If NC State comes out and plays their NC State brand of football, the rest is going to take care of itself. But of course, that's why we continue to do the due diligence on Western Carolina. They are an opponent, and they are to be taken seriously. And so, despite what you think may happen on Thursday night, you can't afford to sleep on anyone this season. Yeah, and on top of Western being the team that, you know, Grayson says the overall trend is improving, they've won more games year over year than they did the last, every year for the past three. That is not by accident. That is by this team, willing themselves and understanding, this is where we are. This is where we want to be. We're going to build this program the right way, and we're going to build this program through a very high-powered offense. That's going to be a part of it. The expectation for this offense to be a light show, even when losing some of the time that they did, is still very much there because the signal call it, the gunslinger, the sheriff, the guy who's supposed to be running the show around there is coming back. In just a second, we're going to get into Western Carolina's offense after a quick word from our sponsors. Our first sponsor of the day is Five Hour Energy. Do you want to get in shape, but you're having trouble staying motivated? Make Five Hour Energy shots part of your lifestyle and get that energy boost that you need in order to get fit. We all know that sometimes it's really hard just to get to the gym, but that's where you take the Five Hour Energy shots to give you the feeling and alertness that you need to make it there. 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See terms at discover.com/creditcard. Now time to talk a little bit more in-depth about this Western Carolina offense. Now, surprisingly, they were one of the top offenses in all of the FCS level last year in 2023. Their quarterback, their trigger man, goes by the name of Cole Gonzalez. Now, he started all 11 of their games before suffering that injury early in that BMI game. He finished the season with 2800 passing yards and also a school record 28 passing touchdowns, which was also an NCAA regular season leading mark for the FCS level. And then to that, he only threw eight interceptions. He was ranked third in the NCAA FCS passer-efficiency rating at 166.40. So he is one of the better quarterbacks in all of the FCS level. I believe he even won the 2023 so-con offensive player of the year award and is being looked at in 2024 to be up at that very same level. Yeah, for sure. And I'm going to tell you this. That is a young man that if you give him time, he will dissect your defense. He does not look like. He's not the first guy off the bus type of guy. He's not the guy that you would say, "Hey, we want to scare the other team. We're going to trot him out like teams did with Cam Newton or Tebow where these are massive human beings that quarterback." He's not even a tallest guy. He's not even a Mike Glennon type of guy that you just goes on for forever and you just keep looking up, "Where's he stopping?" He's not one of those guys, but I'm going to tell you he's a ball player. He knows how to place the ball. He hits guys and stride. He's a special, special ball player if you're talking about the ability to cut up defenses from the pocket. He is not the most mobile guy in the world, but I wouldn't exactly say he's a slouch on the ground. I wouldn't say he's a guy that you're like, "Oh, there's no way under God's green earth he runs it because he can do that." But he is at his best when he is going from read one to read two to read three and so on and so forth. The key to getting this guy out of his game, you have to get pressure. He is a really good quarterback, but he is human after all. If you give him, if you pressure him, if you make him uncomfortable, he may start seeing ghosts a little bit, but again, it's going to take some hidden to give him to do it because he's not exactly a soft guy who at first contact gets a little skittish. I don't mean to be kind of offensive when I say this, but he is a really good quarterback for the FCS level. Against defense like Tony Gibson's, I do expect him to struggle, but I say all that to say, if you do give him enough time like Kenton was talking about, he has the ability to pick you apart. Like I mentioned, Western Carolina was one of the better offenses at the FCS level last season. They averaged 37 and a half points. That leads me into my next point. They lost a pretty good deal of that production outside of their quarterback. They lost their leading rusher. He transferred up to Pitt. Their number two running back goes by the name of Branson Adams. He's going to have to carry the majority of the running back load for Western this year. They lost their top two wide receivers, which I think is extremely significant coming into this game. They also lost their offensive coordinator. So perhaps at this point of the season, Western is still going to be working out the kinks, and that's something that NC State's defense can prey on. Yeah. And the other thing is when you look at what has caused struggles to that Western offense in the past, it is folks getting in the quarterback's face. While Coach Gonzalez is a guy that, again, he's not exactly some terrible decision maker. He's not exactly some new long kid, but what he is, what he has shown the propensity to do, if you whack hard enough, he's shown to be a little bit injured from him, not saying go out, put a body on a guy's head, anything like that, but just play football. Very tough, play hard those, fly around, and we saw last year in the, I believe, the season opening game against Arkansas, I believe he had to leave that game as well with a little bit of being a little banged up for injury or whatever case may be. So it's, this is not a situation where, again, he's, you know, somebody that you just can't match up. We can't compete with, but the pieces around him as well, that's where I think the biggest delineation between NC State and Western Carolina comes in at, because I don't think that they have a ton of pieces that you look at and say, Oh man, this guy's special. That's a special threat. That's a special weapon. And with that in mind, it's hard to imagine that team coming out with a win when you say to yourself, all right, our quarterback may be possibly, may be a player that's good enough to play on the FBS level, but is he enough to overcome talent deficits everywhere around him? I don't think so. You talked about the defense's ability to get to the quarterback is something that could rattle a guy like whole Gonzalez. The offensive line for Western Carolina, they only returned three of their starters from last year, even though they had a little bit of fluctuation. These three starters were guys that finished the season. They played all six of their last game. So they had some turnover at offensive line as well. If that's a weak point, I think you'll see that very early on in this game with guys like Travoli Price, Gavin Bann, the whole nine yards. So Western's main point, obviously, within a game like this one, they have to be able to protect Colgan's, because otherwise, if he's getting that immediate pressure in his face and he has to just scramble around and look for receiver and fling it, guys like Aiden White, Brandon C say they're gonna have a field day on this guy. So the overall point here is Colgan's Alice is not to be taken lightly, but Tony gives him defense should be cooking up enough pressure that you take him off of this game fairly early on. Despite how electric Western's offense was at the FCS level last year in 2023, I'm not quite expecting that same spark, especially not against the NC State Wolfpack to begin here in 2024. Coming up next, we're gonna round out our Tuesday episode looking at comparative advantages between these two teams. Who has the overall advantage going from position group to position group? More on this after a quick word from our sponsors. Our second sponsor of the day is Ultimate College Football Head Coach. Locked on Wolfpack fans, I want to take a moment to give you a heads up about a brand new mobile game that I think you're gonna love. Ultimate College Football Head Coach is an amazing game and simulation that you get to step into the shoes of a head coach and lead your college football program to glory. 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Just go to the app store or the Google Play Store and download the free Ibotta app to start earning cashback. That's code locked on college, L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-C-O-L-L-E-G-E locked on college on Ibotta, I-B-O-T-T-A in the Google Play or App Store today. Next couple of minutes of our Tuesday show, now getting into comparatively looking at offensive groups for Western Carolina and for NC State. Kenton, we're going to start up front with the O-line. Who has the real advantage in this game on Thursday? Yeah, so offensive line, I give to NC State. Again, this is an FCS offensive line. With all due respect to the catamoms, I think that they're a good enough offensive line, but when they are faced with FBS competition in terms of defensive lines, they have been shown to be an FCS offensive line. Spoiler alert, this section is more than likely going to be chalked, but it just reinforces what we've been talking about. It's pedal to the middle, and yes, offensive line, obviously NC State does get the nod here. You talk about Anthony Belt and what he means coming back for his last year of eligibility. Anthony Carter, much of the same big year on tap for him, Zeke Krell there in the middle. The new leader of this offensive unit, maybe you don't see a whole lot to take from this Western Carolina game, but this group is paramount in the offensive success that this team is looking for this year, so obviously looking forward to them putting their best foot forward immediately on Thursday night against Western. Quarterbacks up next. Hogan Zalas for Western and Grayson McCall for NC State. Who has the advantage? You know, this will probably be the closest matchup of all of them. I would agree. And still, NC State has a considerable edge. This is a situation where I think in Hogan's office is good. If you were to tell me, Coke and Zalas throws from where you are in this game, then Grayson McCall, I might take that bet. I wouldn't be too surprised if we kept it very vanilla on offense and just said, hey, you're bigger, you're stronger, just muscle them. You know, we'll throw the ball in spots where we have to, but let's go ahead and get right at church and let's go home. But again, I think Grayson McCall is a better guy. He's seen more. He's seen more defensive play more. He not only has the experience edge, Robert and I saying this is the fastest I've ever seen quarterback pick up this system, definite green light there. Yeah, no, I agree with you. I think that this position group in particular is probably the closest of any of them offensively. I think there's several different things that you can say in general and they would be true about both quarterbacks. They make really good decisions. They're patient but aggressive. They can make all the throws on the field. Both of these quarterbacks can do that. However, I think the overall baseline ability for Grayson McCall is much higher than that of Colgan Zalas. So it will be interesting to see what Colgan Zalas can do against our defense on Thursday, but Grayson McCall more than likely is going to be able to pick apart anything he wants against Western's defense. So advantage NC State there again. Now talking about the backfield, running backs, who has the advantage Western or NC State? I think NC State is, you know, how many options you really got? I mean, there's too many options, right? You go with waters, you can go with smothers, you can go with Rafael, you can go with Scott. Western Carolina has one back that has seen any game time. And if you're talking about just that criteria, sure, you could say Hollywood and Scott don't fit that. Here's what Rafael was a very good back toward the end of the year in terms of doing what was expected of him. I mean, it was, you know, a situation where him and waters have both seen time, waters being an all-ACC guy, and Rafael being a guy who was a large part of the offense being what it was last year, particularly with runs like the one against Miami to kind of put that game away. I mean, I think you've got multiple proven commodities and multiple guys, as you say, "Hey, we haven't seen them yet, but boy, is there ceiling through the roof." Crazy part about this one is I think if you posed this last year in 2023, Western might have actually taken this category, but here in 24, it's not close. Jordan Waters and the freak athlete that he is plugging him into this NC State offense, he alone is better than more than likely anything that Western can throw at you. And then you look at Kendrick Raphael and Hollywood Smothers and potentially some Duke Scott in this game in particular, who could end up seeing Duke Scott if the game gets out of hand at a relatively fast rate. So NC State definitely has the advantage in the running back room. I don't know how much Western Carolina will be able to run against NC State in this game, being that our run defense has been a really big strength for us these last couple of years. I don't expect much drop off in that department this year, so advantage NC State in the running back department as well. Wishing the segment up, the wide receivers, advantage Western, advantage NC State. We talked about Western losing their top guys and NC State not only retains their top guy from last year, they've added weapons that with all due respect to last year's group because I don't want to disrespect anybody to water red and white attack, it's levels, right? You have a coach who coached at Florida while Percy Harvin and Riley Cooper were in the same room, okay? And that doesn't even mention what was going on in their tight end room with Mackie Award winner who is now no longer with us due to some of their other things. But very seriously, that Florida group of passcatchers, absolutely amazing. And yet Joker Phillips said this is the most talented group of wide receivers he has coached. I don't think that this group of passcatchers, wide receivers and tight ends, leaves much the room for most teams to have an edge here, but especially not an FCS team, NC State by modeling this regard. I can answer this with only one name, Kacey Concepcion. So that I'll do it here for us on Tuesday, no I'm kidding, but seriously, Kacey Concepcion is more talented than anything that they have on Western Droppster. And then you look at Noah Rogers, and then you look at Wesley Grimes, Justin Jolie is a tight end. You name it, we feel like we now got it at the wide receiver position. So that is probably the most stark difference between these two offenses, massive advantage NC State there. And it will be interesting to see how much we show. A lot of folks are kind of skeptical, like, ah, you know, being at its Western, you could probably just pound the ball on the ground the whole game and that should do it. That is probably true. That's more than likely what will happen on Thursday night, but you do want to see some semblance of electricity with McCall and the wide receivers there early on before you move on to Tennessee in week two. But just reiterates the idea that this game should be NC State taking care of business for four straight quarters. It shouldn't be relatively close. If Western scores to be honest with you, I might expect it to be closer to garbage time. I think I don't know if we'll shut them out like we did in 2019, because I think Western's offense is better than it was back then. But I think it'll be a very similar plot line, so to speak, in that if Western does score, it'll come very late. We have our backups in the game. So there's a very obvious disadvantage for Western in this game, probably more so offensively than defensively speaking of defensively tomorrow is our defense day. That is regularly what we do on Wednesdays during the season. Be sure to tune back in with us for that. That'll do it for us here on Tuesday. Be sure to hit that like button, drop your comments down in the comment box. Also, if you think about your initial oppressions of Western Carolina, feel free to even drop a score prediction if you please. We'll probably share ours on Thursday's episode before we kick off. Let us know any other thoughts that you may have about Western Carolina's offense and what they may try to bring to the table with them on Thursday night in Carter Finley. Be sure to hit that subscribe button if you have not already, and we will catch you all right back here tomorrow on Wednesday. Until then, go pack. Hey NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. 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