NC State vs LSU Will Wade Investigation + Chris Hart Report Card — Tuffy Talk Live

It's Monday night and Tuffy Talk Live opens with breaking news before the show even hits its second segment, Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby and the university mutually part ways, ending the gambling injunction saga that had college football holding its breath for two weeks. Layton, Greg, and Ethan react in real time. Greg calls the NCAA "punked." Ethan says it feels like a PR move driven by Big 12 pressure. Layton ties it directly to the Will Wade situation, because if you want to talk about ethics in college athletics, you can't do it without talking about both.

Then the Will Wade investigation. NC State is not letting this go quietly. The timeline is damning, LSU's season ended March 11, Wade resigned March 25, he was introduced at LSU March 26, and the buyout was set to drop from $5 million to $3 million on April 1. NC State Vice Chancellor Allison Newhart wrote that the school has reason to suspect LSU influenced efforts to avoid or delay notice of Wade's recruitment to save money on the buyout. LSU responded by asking NC State to sign a legal waiver. NC State refused. Wade's response to all of it? "They're pretty mad for a coach they didn't think was very good." Ethan calls it a Captain Obvious situation. Greg says you hold people accountable. And the conversation turns to the real question, does NC State have a case, and what are they actually going after?

Then the new Report Card segment debuts, and Layton, Greg, and Ethan grade every one of Chris Hart's moves in his first two weeks as head coach. First up is a name we hadn't heard before, Mississippi State catcher Andrew Raymond, who chose NC State over multiple SEC schools specifically because of the program's catcher development history. All-Rookie A-10 as a freshman at George Mason before transferring to Mississippi State. Greg and Ethan both land at B-plus. Then Hunter Warren gets an A, Ethan makes the case that Warren has been better than Luke Nixon in Year 1 and Year 2 comparisons. Chet Lax gets a B-minus from Ethan, not a reflection on Lax himself but on where he slots in a rotation that still needs more arms. Jesse Gutierrez gets a B, Greg hears from a former San Jose State teammate that Gutierrez sits 89 to 91 as a starter and bumps to 92-93 out of the bullpen. McCall Biemiller gets a C from Ethan and an incomplete from Greg — 13 career innings is simply not enough data. Taylor Black as recruiting coordinator gets an A-minus from both, Ethan notes he stepped into exactly the job Hart vacated, the Florida pipeline stays open, and Bo Robinson and JT Jarrett keep their roles without having to be promoted past where they belong.

Then NC State basketball, JUCO center Shah Hall official visit breakdown, the Auburn frontcourt target situation, and whether state even needs Hall if the roster fills out elsewhere. Jacob Burns and Amir Moore football commits, Greg says he can't get excited about three-star recruits even though he respects what they represent. Ethan ties it back to the bigger picture, you find your star players through the high school ranks and use the portal for depth, not the other way around. And the ACC power rankings debate, On3's Andy Staples has NC State 10th. Greg says 7 or 8. Ethan says Virginia is the most overrated team on the list and breaks down exactly why their nine-win season last year was smoke and mirrors. Plus shoutouts to Ty Head as a Gold Glove finalist and Rett Johnson earning Perfect Game second-team freshman All-American honors.

Tuffy Talk is NC State's home for sports talk, hot takes, and everything Wolfpack. New episodes every Monday at 8:30 PM ET on YouTube. Join the Patreon at patreon.com/cw/ncstatestats for exclusive weekly NC State breakdowns from Ethan — $5/month. 🐺🎙️

Transcript

0:01

On some big TV stages, passionate fans and a whole lot of faith. So if you bleed red and you holler all night, then brother, you're exactly right. This is tough talk where the black fans belong. Worn out for the red and the white. Sing along. We'll break it all down. Yeah, we'll call it straight. This is our show. Go back. Go, state. Tough talk. Fired up and live the Wolfpack nation. We're a hell of a crowd. From the first pitch to the final. Play tough talk. Let's roll today. All right, we are here. We are live. We're rolling strong here. Uh, as we're going to have one smooth live show here coming up here. Uh, we got a lot here to get to here. You got myself. Ladysmith, Greg Legg and Ethan Berry here. We are excited here to be back for another Toughie Talk Live episode, y'all. So first of all, Greg, what's going on bud? Dude, you got some new lighting man too. Dude, it's a little bit redder. Yeah, it's a work in progress. We'll, uh, we'll get it going. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, man. So with that being said, Wolfpack Nation, have you been with us before? You know the drill. But do us a big, big favor. Start us off here. If you haven't already, hit that subscribe button. Make sure to do that here right now. If that subscribe button is lighting up for you, that means you haven't hit it yet. So make sure to go ahead and smash that subscribe button right now and go ahead and give us a like two as well. So the YouTube algorithm can pick it up and we can roll into it here. But I'm actually going to go ahead to and add some of these comments here to the stage so everybody can hear since you can see what's going on. But we already got Arby malone three saying heart the Wolf Pack. I got our friend Michelle here in the chat. Good marvelous Monday evening Wolfpack nation and we Jones 426. What are y'all going to get Scotty on and have him make a version of that song. Make it happen. Uh, you know, Greg, uh, I don't know, man. I don't know, can you put that bill? Yeah. Yeah. No. Uh, no, I can't. Thanks for asking. Sing it for us, though, Greg. Not in my, uh. Not in my best drunken karaoke days. Could I make that happen? Yeah. No. Absolutely. But with that being said, Wolfpack Nation, I want to start off with the. Just just go ahead and get it out of the way here. I know, I know, this is going to be Greg's favorite part of the live show here. But again, a bit of a shout out. Rightfully so, Greg. Our very own Carolina Hurricanes for winning the Stanley Cup, and they are officially the 2026 Stanley Cup champions, man. Hey, Greg, it's not even 24 hours old man. Like, I I'd get it if it was, you know, a couple days even a week, but you know, hey, listen, even 24 hours huge huge win for hey NC state is very own Rob Brenda Moore man who rocks NC state gear man. Uh so you know gotta give huge shout, huge shout out there and also to you as well. For just as a reminder to Wolf Pack Nation, our very own Justin Gagne, uh, was the siren founder, uh, for, um, I believe it was the game one of Ottawa. And then, you know, Coach Darren did, uh, I think it was game one of the Montreal series, which, you know, everybody gave Dawn, uh, plenty of, let's say, props over. So, uh, yeah. Yeah. Flak. Yeah. Flak, props, whatever. Yeah. No, it wasn't it wasn't good here. But again, you know, huge, huge shout out to the Carolina Hurricanes. Uh, you know, it's definitely the one team, uh, that brings NC state, Wake Forest, uncW, Duke fans all together. And uh, so I've been rocking my canes jersey all day today. I know, Ethan, you're putting out, uh, a couple of screenshots and tweets last night. Man. Uh, again, man, just it's just huge, really for for the city and for the area and the town, man. Just bringing the whole community together. I mean, the the watch parties were ridiculous. Uh, I mean, you know, seeing every single seat in the Lenovo Center filled last night, it was just a rock and rocking place, to say the least, man. So, uh, I don't know, just like Ethan. Like, you know, just what's your kind of feelings being 24 hours post? Uh, not. Even. On a hurricanes, man. Not even. Yeah, yeah. More like. More like 21 hours. Yeah. Well, I I'm not a diehard hockey guy. Um, thanks. Mostly thanks to YouTube TV. So I can't watch, you know, I can't watch the games, but, yeah, I mean, like, I am a canes fan, obviously. Remember 2006, but, uh. Yeah, I mean, to me, it's been a great story to, to go through the playoff drought that they went through. And then they've become a playoff mainstay for eight years. And they've just had like, um, I don't want to call it a curse. Right. Like it's not it's been eight years. It's tough. It's tough. It's tough. Like they've been good every year and they've come up short every year. Um, and so I think there was like a little bit of, like an exorcizing of demons. You know, I think you think back to game two against Montreal, where that was a game that went to overtime. They very easily could have lost that gone down to, oh, going to Montreal. They found a way to win that one. Obviously. Uh and there were some tight moments here. You know, the last couple of games ended up being mostly one sided. But up until that point, I mean, the canes were on the ropes. You know, you think about game two and overtime. Uh, you think about the game three. I mean, every game, right? Well, I shouldn't say every game. The first four games were coin flips. They were unbelievable games. I was, um, kind of hoping it would be a seven game series, to be honest. I felt it was that kind of series. But the canes just took over the last couple and and obviously the guys who have been there for for years and years, I mean, Jordan Staal has been there, what, almost 15 years it feels like at this point. So at least, um, yeah. 16 years, I'm not mistaken. Um. That's right. It doesn't feel like they'll be. He was he got here during the 2009, 2010 season. Yeah. It doesn't feel like it'll be the last one, right? Like it feels like they're. They're built to keep going. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I even, uh, Vegas already came out with, uh, the 2027 odds, and, uh, the hurricanes are already the odds on favorite. And with only having three free agents, uh, heading into next season, combined with having about $10.6 million. Why was only one restricted. To free agent and then like, like 14 or 15 million under the cap? So basically it's Freddy Anderson and Nick, uh, Deslauriers, uh, the, the guy that we got from Philly, uh, as a fill in, uh, they are unrestricted free agents. And then Alexander Nikitin is the restricted free agent you're talking about, Greg. I mean, you can part with all of those and still be fine. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You're feeling and then like. But also to like, what is Taylor Hall and and Jordan Staal do you know do do they go out on top. No, no. You run it back man. Especially with with what you got coming back Like, look. No, I make no bones. I'm a I'm a Lightning fan. But I was, since my bolts got knocked out early. Uh, definitely. You know, was repping them. I love the NC state tweets with Mr. Wolf. Like obviously holding the cup and like that was cool. Like, you know, we went to the outdoor game at one time. And you know, when I was at Carter Finley, that was a blast. That was amazing. Yeah, yeah. I'm. I'm happy for the canes. I, I really am. Um, you know, if and when we moved down there, I, you know, I might, you know, I'm not going to give up my bolts, but I might go to a couple more canes games. I don't know if I would go in canes gear. That might be a step too far, but, uh, no, I love hockey. And, uh, I'm really happy for the city. Uh, Raleigh Durham is. No, I'm just kidding. It still annoys me when people call it Raleigh Durham. Uh, no. I'm happy for the city of Raleigh and then the triangle region as a whole. Yeah. So with that being said, uh, Wolfpack Nation, I do want to go ahead and move it here. As we were planning to talk a little bit about this, uh, Brandon, Brandon Scoresby, Texas Tech conundrum here, but we actually just had some breaking news come in here. Uh, as QB Brennan Scoresby and Texas Tech are mutually parting ways, per Pete Niko's reports. Uh, so Scoresby will not play college football in 2026. So huge, huge news here as we were obviously going to, you know, talk a lot about the Brendan Scoresby, uh, news and the decision for him to be eligible. And what does it mean for an NCAA here? But I mean, Greg, you had the obviously the the facial and the audible reaction to it. I mean, how big of news is that then the fact that Texas Tech and Scoresby made that decision? Apparently. Yeah. It's been all the talk for the last couple of weeks in college football. You've had everyone weighing in and on some form or fashion. You had Dion coming out and was like, what are we even doing here? Um. Voice of reason. There we go. Yeah, right. Like, I never had Deion Sanders as the voice of reason, uh, on this topic, but he's 100% right in any other sport. And you can go down the list, especially in baseball. You know, there's the the Black Sox of like, what was it, 1909, 1912, something like that. Uh, Pete Rose, uh, you know, you have basketball people that have done this. Uh, it's just unprecedented. And, uh, the mere fact that it got as far as it got it was just as laughable. I mean, you thought the NCAA had no juice before? I mean, they they literally got punked on this whole thing. I mean, just got punked. Mm. Yeah. Ethan, what about you? Oh, man. Oh, that feels like, you know, the the breaking news. Um, that, uh, obviously, I'm glad you caught that, because otherwise I wouldn't have. But, yeah, it feels like to me like a PR move where it's like neither Texas Tech nor Scoresby want this to be the outcome, right? Texas Tech is already. I don't I'm sure they haven't paid him $5 million, but I'm sure they paid him some of it, and they know if they're going to have a chance to win the national championship this year, they may not need him to win the big 12, but they need him to win the national title. You need him out there and that, you know, any way you slice it, $5 million is a huge, huge commitment. And so for that to either just go by the wayside to where, all right, that's gone now. Or if you get even if you get the $5 million back, you can't use it, right? Like everybody's. It's June 15th. Right. Like everybody's at their school. So, um, it's certainly like, this is not the outcome they wanted, but somebody either a voice of reason or a lawyer. I think it was pressure. I think it was the big 12. I mean, they were all clear. It was. Yeah, they were signing petitions and they they did some legality stuff to kind of get more juice as a conference. It was just it was starting to mount up to where it probably wasn't going to go the way that Texas Tech wanted in the long run. So now you just cut bait when you still have chance to, you know, get your guy in there, whoever that, whoever that is. You know, I don't even know who the backup. I don't know. I just mean money. Yeah. So yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Well especially to as well building off because I even had some notes here about that 21 minute video that Texas Tech uh in the ad and the president came out with and you know, the president made some crazy remarks saying that the NCAA gambling policies predate mobile sports betting, which I'm like, I can promise you, as a former employee, as a farmer, as a farmer, football equipment manager. These policies were shoved down your throat and were clear. So it is there. There is no. Oh I didn't. No, no, it's it's extremely crystal clear. And there's there's there's no second guess. There's no second chance. It's if you do it, you're out. Period. It's it's it's point blank centered here. But um, so yeah, I mean, it's definitely like. The president's been there like you got Division one athletes betting on, like, women's basketball at Iowa. Some kid did it like 4 or 5 years ago and lost a whole he bet on one game and lost all of his eligibility in one game, not even in his own sport. This dude bet on his team, like almost a hundred times. Just an incredible like I don't even. It makes no sense. Yeah, over 9000 bets totaling over $90,000 on sports over four years. Uh, more than 40 bets on Indiana football while he was on the team. Uh, but he never bet on games he played in, uh, so that's the other interesting. But even to, like, like one other example I could think of as Calvin Ridley Calvin really bad, like $6,000 and was suspended for an entire season. Uh, you know, and, you know, we're talking. NFL. For California. That's that's absolutely chump change. But still but it's like it's just but so again like, it just goes completely against every precedent that's ever been set, ever. And if this was allowed, it would have been even more of the unraveling of the just just how do you even describe just like the losing of of of of the grip of the NCAA? If this was to go so yeah, I mean, I hate it for sure, especially because now Scoresby is going to be looked at as not not like a full on, you know, martyr of a story. But it's always going to be like that, that, that, that story, you know, that will be forever remembered is like, you know, this was when the tide could have easily moved one way or the other in a pretty significant way, depending on how things had unfolded here. So, um, yeah. So again, just crazy stuff there with that. But uh, with that being said, I do want to move forward here and, and talk about speaking of ethics and, uh, you know the right thing to do here. Uh, I'll. I'll let that transition to our next topic here around. Uh, we'll wait. Uh, and I'll just say his name because, you know, it's it's we're, you know, we're getting into the nitty gritty here, but NC state, uh, did not close the door completely in terms of taking legal, legal action here, uh, against LSU and them basically farming and, and and poaching. Well Wade, in terms in terms of I guess coaching him about, you know, how to basically you know, how to save LSU some money here and uh, purposefully making sure that he's he waited until the buyout drive from 5 million to $3 million here. Um, and I know there's been a lot of talks in terms of the reasoning behind it because basically NC state LSU talk. They you know, they basically agreed on a $4 million buyout. So it only dropped by $1 million here. And so there's been a lot of conversation around why would NC state do that. You know, Why wouldn't they go through all this hassle? Why would they spend probably, you know, significant change from a legal perspective to get this done? Uh, and it's probably not going to be a quick process either, if they truly continue to go down the route here. Uh, so why would they do that? Um, you know, and for me, a lot of it kind of is, I think, uh, in my opinion, it's it's kind of the same boat as this whole source B situation where it's like, you got to set a set a precedent here, like, like it's it's in my opinion, no university should be, you know, going to the extent of, of, you know, basically forcing uh, and pushing. Whoa, wait. You know whether and now keep in mind what, Wade's a grown man. He could do what he wants, but then the de a university should not be involved in terms of, you know, potentially going against contract here, uh, you know, to save money here. But I don't know, like, Greg, what's your what's your thoughts here, man, in terms of why NC state would would get involved in something like this. Um, I mean, I think there's a couple of reasons why you do this. Um, you know, you hold people accountable. I mean, there's a reason why you sign contracts, right? Um, you know, it's a legal binding document. And, um, I think I do think that there's definitely some smoke here. Um, uh, just looking at the timelines and all of this, there's there's no everything that will wait is said, and we're not going to hash it all out here, but there's there's just no way that this happened over a 24 to 48 hour period that's been claimed. Um, it's just not it's just not humanly possible to get all of that ironed out. Um, and in that shorter time frame. And I just think that, you know, I don't think that Boo Corrigan, if he's the one driving this ship in this decision or if it's a higher being at the university, if it's, you know, I again, I don't know who's involved in all of this, but I just think that you want to just get what's rightfully deserved of yours. And I don't think that NC state as a whole brings this, uh, suit or whatever we're calling this because I don't know if it's formally. I think they're just investigating at this point. Is that a is that a correct statement? Nothing legal. So basically a little bit of background. So yeah. So basically the the overwhelming the overwhelming allegations, basically NC state suspect's LSU influenced timing to save the million dollars on the buyout. And actually, the full quote from NC State Vice Chancellor Allison Niehaus said NC state has reason to suspect LSU may have influenced efforts to avoid or delay noticeable issues, recruitment of Wade and perhaps even the timing of his employment with LSU in order to avoid larger buyout fees. And this also two jumps in as well to the fact that LSU requested, uh, from the general counsel asking NC state to sign a waiver of legal action, and NC state refused. So why do you do that if you don't think that there's something there, right? Like, I mean, to me, it just seems suspicious there. The timing of everything, like I said, I mean, they never even officially fired their coach. Like, it was just weird. Like, Wade comes in and then they're like, oh, yeah, I guess we don't need the other coach now because we have a head coach. Just I don't know, it was odd. What do you. What are you thinking over there, Ethan, about this? I feel like this is a Captain Obvious type of thing, right? It does, you know. Um, and and looking back, like, you know, state was kind of in denial. It felt like there were a lot of fans in denial, too. But looking back, it was obvious. I mean, there's no like, there's absolutely no question that, you know, whatever LSU was saying, they didn't do here, they did. Um, and I'm sure we don't have the full story. Um, because to me, it just seems like, you know, based off of what was reported, the full story. The full story that we have was LSU said, sent a letter saying, hey, we didn't do this. So like, if you do something wrong, do you just walk in the door and say, hey, I did not do this. Like, no, like, you know, you're asked about it. And so I'm sure that if NC state was looking to pursue like they didn't wait on LSU's letter to pursue that. So I'm sure they were already pursuing. But yeah, like I again, you know, James did such a good job covering the story. He put something up. He was the only one that I know of that was like, hey, there's something you know, this is something to keep an eye on. And he put up a story. I mean, like you're talking months in advance, months in advance. I think Joe Giglio had some good stuff too, though, on this. I mean, I know James was really good, but but but Joe G had some good stuff. It just again, like the whole timing of it, apparently he was still in contact with some former boosters. Um, he wasn't even name. Right. I heard that I had heard that as well. Um, yeah. Apparently he's had this booster in his pocket since, like, the VCU days. Um, or. Well, and there was. Talk exactly when. There was talk that he had like his own his own money that was like independent of a university, I guess. See, that's what he had at McNeese. And I assume he brought that to NC state. And maybe that's the same thing that you're talking about. So there's certainly no question that this was set up well in advance. Um, you know, without getting into the weeds of it. Like, I, I don't know that this was like, oh, we'll wait accepted this job knowing this was going to happen. I don't necessarily agree with that, but I do think once LSU moved on from their athletic director from firing Brian Kelly, which would have been November ish November, I. Think. That's yeah. Yeah, I think that's kind of when I mean football season ended ends Thanksgiving. Right. So it was before that. I think that's probably when the wheels started to get in motion. Um, and yeah, like I, I think if nothing had had happened or been reported, I think they would have been content to wait until April 1st, I believe, which was when the buyout dropped. And I think that's probably the state's goal here, is to get the full $5 million. Now, my question is, do you just settle here? Right. Like, does LSU just say, okay, fine, here's your million bucks? Because I don't know if you're NC state, if you're just looking for an extra million dollars. And I don't know, like I'm not I'm hardly a legal expert. But if you're just looking for an extra million dollars, how much is that going to cost you here? Like are you going to really going to put hundreds of thousands of dollars just to get the rest of the million dollars? Like, I don't know that that necessarily makes sense to me. So I'm interested to see how that how that plays out. I know some people like to accuse Boo Corrigan and the administration of just, you know, sitting off to the side and being asleep at the wheel. And look, this if, if that's you and you think that this should you should love this, you should be like, oh yeah, great. We're standing up for ourselves. So again, we'll we'll kind of see how it plays out. But you got to give state some, some credit for that, I think. So that also like you brought up a good point. Like what a state looking after. Right. Are they going. You know, obviously they probably want some kind of monetary, um, award. Um, but are you just trying to tarnish, you know, in the process as an extra benefit kind of tarnishing Will Wade's name? Um, you know, um, because again, if there's something there, then obviously he was guilty of ethics. Again, nothing illegally by the law. I would say like, this is all like a civil matter. Um, but just that he was kind of like, you know, to quote Danny Green, he is who we thought he was. Um, it just kind of go from there. Um, you know, and if it is a monetary like, do you get legal fees from from them if you win? Um, you know, again, are you just going after the million? Because to your point, Ethan, if you go after a million, it just wouldn't make sense for LSU to pay the million, right? And just move on with it and be done with no more. Yeah, no more bad publicity. I think they. I kind of think that's what will happen. Yeah. I don't know what else you could go for. Like again. North Carolina is interesting with the way that law is written. Um, it's like there's some other things that you can go after. So it may not just be quote unquote, that million dollars. Um, so we'll have to see. I mean, again, nothing legal has been been filed. That's the whole thing. Like right now it's just an investigative slash discovery phase. Right. Yeah. And just for in case anybody is curious what law Greg is referencing, he's talking about the North Carolina Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Um, and so, yeah, I guess more to come here. I do think it's a little bit of of the money. Sure. Because I think that they have such a strong case where it's like, okay, you know, I, I think it's, you know, worth their at least seeing if we can just get LSU just a bite, give us a million. But also to I think as well it's a little bit I think of a sticking it to LSU a little bit here being like you know making it clear. You know that, you know, read between the lines. Exactly, exactly. Right here. So, uh. But yeah, now more to come here on that, um, you know, and, uh, we'll see what happens with it. But definitely interesting story. Go ahead. Greg, are we all in agreement that that we're glad that state is doing this, or do you think that state should have just walked away and just, you know, been done with it and move on in the in the Gainey era? Like kind of I guess that's probably my, my biggest question, like, are we doing the right thing here? Um, what do you think? I mean, if there's if there's financial upside here. Yeah. Like if you're going to spend a million bucks to make a million bucks, then I would say, what's the point? But and I know some people have been like, oh, just move on. Whatever. Like this is not book Oregon. Like this is not a no baby. I'm sure boo was like as we do or whatever. Yeah, right. But like this is not book Oregon be like, oh, I'm going after. We'll wait like, no, no, no, this is this is above book Oregon for sure. Yeah. I think um, I can't remember the name of the lady who, uh, who wrote that letter. Uh, it was. But her name was Allison Sutton. Another, wasn't it? Right. Yeah. Like, I'm. I'm sorry. Sweetheart. Okay. I'll. Alison. New heart. I'm sure that all the people at the top like this went up to the very, very top of the university, and quite frankly, maybe even above them. Right. This may have been even like a state government type of thing. So I don't think this is anything, not nothing to do with state's athletic department. But this isn't a oh man Boohoo Corrigan's sticking one to. Well, wait, I don't think that's what this is. So from that perspective, yeah. Like I, you know, stand up for yourself. I agree. Sure. No. Absolutely. So we'll wrap it up there with that topic here, and we'll move on over to our new segment that we haven't unveiled yet, which is called Report Card. Alrighty. So we are here and we are here with our new report card segment here. And we're what we're going to be doing is so far under the Chris Harte era in just a couple of weeks here. Coach Chris Hartz made some pretty big moves here, uh, in terms of, uh, kind of ironing out his coaching staff. Also to got five, uh, commits as well too. And the transfer portal already here. So what we're going to do is I'm going to ask Greg and Ethan here to give their grade, uh, you know, standard, normal school, A plus, B minus whatever grades. And they give a brief explanation of why they, uh, give that grade. So one thing I do want to ask is for everybody tuning in here, I want to hear your grades as well. So for each name that I put, if you can just put the the name of the player or just even their, their, you know, initials. So, uh, it's like the first one we'll start off with is Andrew Raymond. And then let us know what grade you would give, uh, this, uh, this portal commit here. So, so, yeah. So, Greg, I'll start off with you. So, uh, Mississippi State transfer, uh, catcher Andrew Raymond, uh, Who was pursued by other SEC schools but chose N.C. state. Uh, he said, because of the catcher development history, the NC state very clearly has here. Um, so what grade would you give for this move in this commit? Um, I'm gonna try to be fair, but be a homer at the same time. Um, I think this is a B-plus. A minus type deal. Um, I, I think this is definitely, um, an area of need. Uh, was definitely the uncertainty of catcher. Um, you know, Preston Bond hasn't had a lot of playing time. Uh, Drew Lanphier does have one year of eligibility. So what does that look like? So there's definitely a need at that position. Showed a lot of upside. Um, was an all rookie in the A-10 his freshman year. Um, did really well down at Mississippi State, and his limited action showed a lot of potential. Um, so yeah, I think this is I think this is a B plus a minus type. Type of grade. What about you, Ethan? Greg took the words out of my mouth. I had a B+. Um. And to me. Like, it's tough because he didn't play in Mississippi State. Now, Mississippi State's the type of team you're trying to be, right? Like, that's kind of the way I. I look at it, you're looking to like Mississippi State was the 14th overall state this year. I think that's a appropriate goal I would say for NC. You know, you expect to be in that host conversation. Obviously not going to happen every year. But to me that's kind of the concern. Now, if you had landed him out of George Mason, I think everybody would be would be pretty pumped. Um, no, it's it's interesting. He got a lot better at Mississippi State than he was at George Mason. Now, a lot of that was against Mississippi State's non-conference schedule, which wasn't particularly tough. They did have a tough weekend. He didn't really play in the SEC, I believe it was 13 at bats. Um, so I there's a little bit of like an unknown there, right? Like he got better. Um, but, you know, and I talked about it on the Patreon. Like, defensively, he got better. That's the improvement I'm most interested in. Um, but yeah, like, I, I think offensively what he gave you from the catcher position, you don't have a ton of expectations there. Um, so I, I think you'd be pumped with that. What he gave you at George Mason or what he gave you at Mississippi State. And so if those defensive strides that he made at Mississippi State took Carey over to NC state. And, you know, I think, Greg, what you and I both expect to be a full time role. Um, yeah. Like I, I think you'd be really, really excited. If not, you know, the conversation changes a little bit. So that's that's where I'm at a B+. Yeah. Uh, so I'll move to the other, uh, uh, batter, uh, fielder commit that we got in Hunter Warren, uh, from Wright State. I know we maybe for this one particular I, I think Greg, uh, that this was this was your guy. Uh, it seemed like from last week when we mentioned Hunter Warren's name, but, uh, 328 batting average, uh, went up to almost even a 350 even last year. Uh, batting average. Horizon League freshman of the year. Uh, 856 Ops for Tennessee in Georgia. Uh, roommate with Chet LAX, who will be next up here. But what grade would you give Hunter Warren? You want to go? You want to go first? Ethan. Since I went first last time. Yeah. For me, Hunter Warren is a, um. He's an A for me, like, I. I think I know what I'm getting right. I'm putting him right into the second base spot. Uh, offensively, I. I feel good about what I'm getting. Um, you know, a guy who produced against Georgia and Tennessee. Uh, and I think there's upside there, too, right? Like, I think offensively, I think you can see a step forward in the power department even from the eight home runs that he hit last year at Wright State. Like, that's a good number. Um, could it be even a better number next year? So, um, doesn't strike out, right? Walks a ton. Not a ton, but walks. Um, and he's been really, really good offensively. If you it's easy to compare him to Luke Nixon right. Because that's who he's replacing. Um offensively he's been better. Like if you look at year one, year 101 versus one year one Luke Nixon, year 201 versus year two Luke Nixon. Warren's been better in both of those seasons. Now we know what Luke Nixon did in year three when he was N.C. state's best hitter. Um, you know, does Hunter Warren have that jump in him? To me, that's the question. Uh, defensively, I don't expect him to be as he doesn't grayed out as well as Luke, I should say. Um, but either way, like you're talking about a very, very high floor here. Um, and so yeah, plug and play like, could end up being a top of the order guy. Um, and if he ends up hitting fifth sixth for you, I think, you know, that means you have a loaded lineup. So, yeah, for me, I have Hunter Warren at an A. Yeah. I haven't been an F if he tries to bunt more than 20 times. Yes. That was for you, Ethan. That was for you, buddy. But. But is that him, or is that the coach's right? Right. Uh, yeah. I'm. I'm here exactly. With Ethan as well. Uh, I have him as an AA minus type guy. Um, he's he's, you know, talking with Chet the other day. And if you haven't checked that interview out, I had a really good time talking with him. Um, he's really pumped that that, um, Hunter's coming along with him. They're roommates, and he had nothing but glowing reviews. And I definitely trust a guy that, you know, in the in the trenches with his boy and that he. He agreed with you. Ethan. Um, I don't know if you saw the interview, but he thinks that there's some untapped potential there for power numbers. And if he taps into, you know, if he gives you 4 to 5 extras. I mean, this is a, pardon the pun. It's a home run, you know? Guy. Um, you know, he's really good with his glove. Really solid. Um, obviously big shoes to fill with, you know, Luke Nixon moving on. But, um, again, just another area of need where Chris Hart and crew, um, has gotten, uh, probably really good value at this slot. Um, yeah. So we'll move on here to, uh, his former roommate, uh, in. Probably still going to be roommate. There will probably be roommate. That's true, that's true. Still probably roommate. Uh, left handed pitcher. Also out of Wright State, uh, had a nine one record, four four, 23 ERA. Uh, highlighted also to Greg, you mentioned his interview. If you haven't already checked that on our YouTube channel, make sure to go and check that out. But had seven shutout innings versus Tennessee in a six zero win. Uh, only give up one run in four innings versus Georgia. First team all Horizon league, Cape Cod League. Uh, he's competing with here too. Uh, so again, a lot of experience here and a lot of, uh, ability showing, uh, you know, high upside against high level competition. So, Greg, what grade would you give this one? Yeah, I again, I think he's trying to be like kind of like. Not the homer. Not the homer, but he he gives you like Ethan. You and I have talked about this. At worst, he's going to be probably your Sunday starter. Um, that's kind of what he was this past year at Wright State, but could move into a Saturday slot depending on what else you bring in. Uh, has three good pitches, has a really good changeup. Uh, he just he's he's a guy that's trying to get a little bit stronger, to get a little bit more velo. On his fastball. If he gets that, he could be really dangerous. Um, yeah. Again. Did his best work against SEC opponents. Uh, struggled a little bit in play. Um, you know, he even admitted to some of that in the interview, but, uh, yeah, I think this is a really good. You know, he he's coming in like he's in the interview. he said he's going to come in and compete for a starting, starting role. Um, but you know, he's a team first guy. Like, he's definitely said all the right things. Um, just carried himself really well. So I think he's going to be, uh, acclimated and fitting in really well with the squad. Yeah. This is where, to me, it gets complicated. Um, because with hitters, right, we know where they're going to slot in. We know we have a pretty good idea of how much they're going to play. We don't know that with, uh, Chet LAX and Jesse Gutierrez, who we'll get to. Um, so for me, like you talked about it, if you're talking about Chet Lacs as a Sunday guy or even a, you know, competing with Jesse Gutierrez for, um, the Sunday spot. Okay. I, I feel really good about that. Now, if you're saying, hey, Chet Lacs, you're our Saturday guy. We don't have any other options behind you. Okay, I like now. Now I've got some concerns. Right? And not that there's nobody else behind you, but. But that's not a concern on chat. That's a concern on the staff. Yeah I, I. Yeah for sure. I, I guess it's just kind of depends on, on what role he slides into. I do think they'll add. If not I would like for them if I'm being picky I would like for them to add, um, you know, a higher end guy who can clearly be a number two behind Nance. I don't know. There's clearly a number two. If that doesn't happen, I do expect, at minimum, to add a guy comparable to Gutierrez and comparable to LAX who's like, okay, this guy can start for us. He can relieve for us. He's got a track record. Like we feel like he's pretty safe. He can be helpful. That gives you three guys for two spots, I think on the weekends. Um, and so for me, like, I'll leave it at a, at a be for now. Um, but again, that can kind of go either way. Like if Chet LAX is your Sunday guy, it's an A if he's your Saturday guy, it's like a C plus, I think. Not to say he can't be good as a Saturday guy. He can, but there's risk there, right? And we know injuries are going to happen. So you know you've got to have you've got to go into the year with four weekend starters essentially. Um and so I you know if we're you're right Greg. Like that's not not a reflection on chat lacks. So if you're grading the rotation as a whole like to me that's probably where there's still question. But yeah, I like Chet LAX. I'd probably go, um, I'd probably go like C plus, B minus, I'll go B minus. Um, for now, until again, you see the rest of the roster fill out. I also think real quick if we can, you know, close the loop on him. Um, you know, he came in this year as their fourth starter and, you know, kind of was forced into that role to be the be the Sunday guy. And and maybe he wasn't quite you know, I won't say ready or prepared, but you know, he wasn't slotted there. And so for him to kind of have to step up. I think he did a really nice job. Um, considering, you know, where he anticipated to be. Um, and that can only help him in his development. And so hopefully, you know, again, as we talk about these guys coming in and they take the next step in their development. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, and, and, uh, the next guy that Ethan already mentioned here, uh, and, uh, Jessica Gutierrez, uh, spent the last four years at San Jose State, uh, last year had a 1 in 4 record, 6.55 ERA, uh, started a career high ten games. Um, and, uh, unfortunately had to go through a Tommy John surgery. Uh, and so he'll be recovering from that here, but, uh. You know. All the. Way around. All the way around the way. He was coming back from Tommy John surgery last year. Uh, last year. Okay. Gotcha, gotcha. Okay, so, so still, though, I mean, definitely coming NC state looking for, I think for a fresh start here. So I do want to ask you before you give your grade here, do you think that a move like this from a San Jose state to a NC state, especially looking at, you know, limited experience that's at San Jose, San Jose State here? Uh, do you see this as a, a depth filler? Uh, a bullpen depth filler here. And, and, you know, maybe even just like moving up a level, uh, going to experience, uh, you know, the difference between NC State and San Jose State? No, I, I think Gutierrez is the guy who slotted to start, um, and like, is it a weekend? Maybe not. Like maybe it ends up being in midweek, but I mean, he's he's throwing 154 innings in his career like he's you know you mentioned Greg 2025. He got hurt. He threw 26 innings before he got hurt. And then this year he came back to throw 45 threw 53 out of the bullpen in 2024. That's a lot of innings. That's like Anderson Nance territory. That is a lot of innings. Um and so not like Even if he's in the bullpen, which again, I think he will start even if he's in the bullpen. Like it's still going to be a big piece of your bullpen. Throwing important innings probably will get starts throughout the year at like at minimum again, right now he's your Sunday guy. Um, and so I like, I, I think he's probably coming from a better conference than last, to be honest. Um, I believe they're in the Mountain West. Uh, but the Horizon League is is not good, right? Um, you just your Wright State is, you know. And so how do you balance that? So, no, I think Gutierrez is slated for a big role. Absolutely. Coming back from injury. Uh, I broke it down on the Patreon. He got much, much better as the season went along. And he kind of found his own old form by the time, you know, May rolled around. And so you factor in. Hopefully he's healthy this offseason and and you get him ready to go. Like I think this is a guy who could have a good good year for NC state. Yeah, I agree 100%. I was talking with my buddy, uh uh, when Scott, they were teammates out in San Jose State. Uh, for those that don't really follow San Jose State, which I don't wouldn't expect people as NC state fans, but Josh Pike is there head coach out there. Former state pitcher and, uh, you know, had really good things. You know, again, two instances now of getting recruits from former NC state players. Uh, so you can get some really good information on that. But, uh, when was telling me, um, that, uh, you know, if he comes out of the bullpen, expect low to, you know, 92, 93 somewhere around there. But if he's going to be a starter, he'll probably hang around, you know, 89 to 91. Um, again, just, you know, so how where he slots. Just a guy. Ethan. You broke it down nicely over his last couple of starts. Um, he started to regain that old form, And if he continues that, that trajectory up, uh, this could be a B-plus kind of guy. Uh, now I'm going to leave him as a B again, just not knowing where he's going to end up slotting because we're still early in the process. I would expect state to get probably another 3 to 5 arms at minimum. Um we lost. I think we lost over 250 to 260 innings, uh, this past year. That isn't coming back. So there's a lot to replace. Um, but yeah, I think this is a again, uh, if you bring other guys around him, I think this can help elevate because then you now find roles for these guys that might be better suited for their for their talent. Yeah. Uh, and then the last player that will highlight before we move to the big coaching get is, uh, McCall and Miller from, uh, Florida. And, uh, he's coming in as a, uh, I think either a redshirt sophomore. Uh, I think probably redshirt sophomore is he'll be coming in as but uh, 2025 uh, came in as a freshman, had a 5.935.93 ERA over 11 appearances, but then last year only saw one appearance and, uh, didn't even record any innings pitched at all. Uh, so I guess didn't even finish the out. Uh, so, uh, you know, Greg, what what's what's your what's your breakdown in terms of, uh, McCall and where he might slide in and what grade would you give this move? Yeah, this is going to sound funny, but if we're really giving grades here, I'm going to give him an incomplete. Uh. There's just not a lot out there. A lot of data points. Um, you know, guy that was, you know, fairly ranked in the state of Florida coming out of it. Uh, he was, um, Vincent de Carlo's battery mate in high school at Jesuit, um, high school there in Tampa. Uh, just for, you know, fun fact there, but just not a lot there. Um, interesting that he really didn't throw this past year. All all appearances are that he wasn't injured. But as we get into the next, you know, part of the of the show, we're going to talk about Taylor Black. And you know, he was a coach there at Florida. Uh, I'm sure he's coming in on a recommendation from Coach Black. Um, but yeah, just for me, there's not a lot of data points there. Um, maybe maybe Ethan has something better and maybe he can actually give them a grade, but that's just kind of where I'm at. No, I don't have a ton, either. I mean, you mentioned it. He's thrown 13 innings in his career, right? So there's just not a ton to really take away. You know, three good innings and all of a sudden his career numbers look much differently one way or the other. You know um, I would go see here um, I don't have a ton of expectation for role. That's kind of that's why. Right. Um, I Greg, I think I told you kind of reminiscent of PJ Labriola PJ Labriola. Yeah. Like he threw more at Clemson but the stuff was there, right? Like when you saw P.J. Labriola, you were like, okay, like, there's real stuff here. And that's going to be the case with Bea miller. You don't go to Florida. I think he was the top 300 guy. Top 400 guy. You don't go to Florida if you're especially as a pitcher, if you're not a if you don't have great stuff. And so he's going to have great stuff. I just, you know, again didn't really throw at Florida. I can't really have any expectations for him. I think, uh, you know, Tristan Potts goes in the portal like maybe that's the kind of role where you look at starting out in and then kind of go from there. But I don't, I just don't like I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up he ends up throwing like five innings for you next year, you know. So and if that's the case no harm no foul. Right. Like somebody's got to be the guy on the team who throws five innings. That sucks. That was Tristan Potts. Yeah right. Right. I think he a little bit more than that. But yeah. Yeah yeah. No I, I think McCall really is truly the definition of an upside get just. Yeah. You know take a flier. Yeah. Take the flier. You're not expecting anything with him, right? Like, with lax and. And with Gutierrez. You're expecting them, right? Like, if it doesn't go well, you're going to be in trouble. Um, with B Miller. That's not not really the case. I don't think you're going to build your your bullpen or your group of arms expecting much from the miller. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. So the last name, which, uh, I think Ethan, you had mentioned Taylor Black coming over from Florida, uh, was with the team, uh, with at NC state from 2014 to 2017. Uh, also has experience as the Detroit Tigers pro scout. Uh, spent the last couple of years with Florida and will return as NC state's recruiting coordinator. So, Ethan, uh, before you give a grade for this. My my question for this is, uh, why do you think that he decided to come back to NC state? I think it's a promotion for him. I believe It hasn't been announced by the school, so I don't know if we know for sure if he's the associate head coach or or not, but I believe that's what's happening. Greg, I don't know if you have any insight on that, but I do. Um, yeah. So once they announce it, we'll we'll obviously know for sure. Um, I know we heard Clint Chrysler's name thrown around as a potential associate head coach possibility. So one of those two guys. Um, but I think he just was a little bit further down the pecking order at it in terms of the coaching staff, um, at Florida. And so I think that's why. Right. He's getting a maybe I'm guessing it's a raise, maybe it's not, but it's a better title. Um, and so I think it's a, it's him being one step closer to being a head coach, which I'm guessing is his goal. Um, and from my understanding, he's stepping right into the job that Chris Hart did. So, you know, we had some debate of, well, do you just promote Bo Robinson and then you promote JT Jarrett? It doesn't sound like that's happening. It sounds like you're getting Taylor Black and keeping Bo Robinson and JT Jarrett where they're at, which is I mean, that's a big win right? Like Bo Robinson is very, very well regarded for where for the work he does. And so to keep him without necessarily giving him a raise I think that's great. You had Taylor Black in. Um so yeah. Yeah. Uh, so sorry. Did you give a grade for that Ethan grade? Yeah, I, I would go, I would go a minus here. Um, I think this is something to be really excited about. There were some big, big names thrown around, um, as possibilities here. Uh, and so you landed. You landed Taylor black. I know there was some Alex soccer talk. I'm sure some people would have been, um, more excited by Alex, but I don't necessarily think that means soccer would be better than than black. I just think that would be a little bit of a a little more of a flashy or higher. Um, so for me, it's an A-minus. The work he did at Florida, the work they were able to do in the portal again, and the question is always, is it him or was it Florida? You know, like, how do you balance that? So, um, but for me, I think this is one to be really excited about. I would, I uh yeah. A-minus. Mhm. Yeah I, I would agree a minus um, just you know, one of the things that you didn't mention in your little right up there, um, he did help Florida reach two College World Series in his time there. Uh, key recruiter and getting a lot of those guys. Um, obviously in 24, they beat state um, in extra innings. Um, familiar with the Raleigh area, I think, you know, Leighton or Ethan was kind of alluding to it. Being a recruiter in the state of Florida is massive. Uh, that's one of the areas where Chris Hart really excelled in that same role. Uh, the, the the Florida pipeline has been so good for, for, for the PAC over the last 15 years, I'd say. And if you can keep that coming, I mean, you look at the 30th ranked guy in Florida, he's probably top 1015 in North Carolina. Like, like it's just, you know, when you see those rankings, it's it hits different. You know, when you're pulling a guy from Florida, um, just a really good hire, I think, um, just to kind of like solidify this staff. And I think, again, the problems haven't been at state, hasn't been recruiting. Um, it's just been some of the player development, maybe along the pitching lines, um, maybe some in-game decisions. But the talent's been there for many, many years. You don't you don't make two trips to Omaha in the last six years by accident. Oh, sorry. I've had my microphone pressed in, but yeah. So that wraps up Wolfpack Nation, our report card segment. Uh, again, it was uh, uh, breaking down, uh, the grades and the thoughts on the five current commits that we have at this time, plus also to the news of Taylor Black two as well. But with that being said, let's move on over to some tweets of the week. Big thanks to our sponsor, Alpha Wolf CPR trainings because obviously for us, Wolf Pack Nation, if you ever are asking the question to yourself, you know, what can I do to to help, you know, my my business or my school or my church or my team organization, you name it, or even my family. Alpha Wolf CPR trainings make it so easy to learn and be certified for to do CPR as they bring the train directly to you for CPR trainings. Is an American Red cross licensed training provider offering adult and pediatric first aid, CPR, and AED certification courses. Whether you prefer hybrid learning or a fully instructor led class, they customize the training to fit your group's needs, including adult only or pediatric only certifications. With successful completion, participants receive an official American Red cross certification valid for two years and meeting OSHA standards. convenient, professional, and tailored to your schedule. Full of CPR trainings helps you stay prepared when every second matters. To learn more and schedule your class day, visit. Alpha Wolf CPR. Today. So jumping into it here our first we the week here talking about the, uh, 610 sophomore Ford uh, JuCo transfer here that is, uh, currently on an official visit to NC state here. So, uh, Ethan, I want to ask you the question here first. Man. What what what's the idea here? Is it I mean, obviously probably, you know, depth at the five spot here, but, uh, you know, another six, ten Ford here. Uh, you know, would you say in your opinion, this would be if if your child, uh, did commit this state, do you think this would be the final piece of the puzzle for Justin Gage? 2026 2027 roster? No, I think you still have more scholarships to give out, right? I think you can go up to 15. I want to say off the top of my head there at 11 right now. Okay. Um, I don't I'd, I'd need to be fact checked on that. So that may not be completely accurate. So I think you still need a few bodies, but in terms of like the two deep. Yeah, probably. Um, and I look at it like, yeah, I, I do view this as a depth piece. You don't have a backup five. Right. Like you have, um, you know, you expect Evans and, um, I'm blanking on the kid's name from Washington state, but you have those two guys, and you have, uh, Jerkovic. You have, uh, Mikey Wilkins. To me, I, I think you there's a lot of unknowns there. Um, and so, yeah, you still need a backup five. Um, there on there on a Purim. The kid from Auburn. Um. We'll see. Uh, I'm guessing it's one of those two guys, right? Like its which of these two guys can we get? So I don't think that would be it. I do think you're looking for somebody who can come in and and help you not necessarily play a ton of minutes, but at the same time, sometimes you get you you, you get surprised in a good way and guys end up being better than expected. So I look at this as state and state still needs a backup five, right? Like if you were filling out a too deep, you wouldn't have a backup five unless you think it's Wilkins, which I, I don't know, I don't know that these that this staff use him as a five. Um so I that's that's the way I see it. You still need somebody. So, um, and then I, I still think again after this, you still probably need a couple of bodies again. Wouldn't expect any big names or anything like that. Yeah, well, and before Greg, get your thoughts on to as well. If, if, if Hall does commit then you stay. I know, uh, our man Ethan will definitely be breaking down his stats and giving you his opinions and thoughts in terms of where he'll be placed in our Patreon. So again, if you have five bucks to spend a month, which again is less than the price of a cup of coffee these days. Y'all go to the top of our description. There's a link there. Go join our Patreon today as you get three different videos a week breaking down stats, uh, you name it. And uh, also to as well get some insight to as well into what we're hearing throughout in state athletics too as well. So again, only five bucks a month. Make sure you go and join uh, by clicking the link in the description here today. But, uh, Greg. Yeah. So what what what are your thoughts here in terms of the true possibility, but also to where Hall would, would place in and how big of a get truly would this be, would this be, uh, you know, a a season altering or is it, you know, like a season outlook altering move or, you know, like, how much would this move the needle for you? It excuse me, for me personally, it probably wouldn't move it a whole lot. Um, you know, it's getting a little bit late in the, in the portal process. JuCo guy, you know, doesn't really scream off the page like a musket. Now, state does need you know, this is an area of need, as Ethan alluded to. And I think that this is this like it helps, right? I think this is a again, low risk, high reward kind of guy, a guy that you're not going to have to invest a lot in, probably in the nil. Uh, he did, you know, did have a visit with Arkansas. So obviously he's not just some rando, um, that, you know, he's not, you know, just being recruited as a, um, a courtesy kind of thing, you know? Um, so I think there is some there is some stuff there. He'll be a sophomore, so he probably projects as a, as a little bit of a, of a quote unquote project. But again, someone you bring in here is a depth piece and then see kind of how how he plays out. Yeah. Well and and to give a little bit of stats to as well for uh, his season last year at Shelton State had averaged 9.4 points a game, 7.8 rebounds per game, 2.2 blocks per game and 5.1% shooting from the field. So, uh, definitely gives a lot of, uh, obviously defensive instinct, uh, screaming off the page. There was 7.8 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game here. So I mean, I think it's it's definitely not a fire and ice approach between Evans and Hall. I think they're, you know, very similar. It seems uh in terms of playing style. So which I don't know, like, uh, Ethan, do you think that's a good thing or do you think it's honestly better to have more of a fire and ice? Because in my opinion, it's great because you can kind of swing both ways. But with Hall, which I think is more of a a compliment to Evans, truly. Like it's not a who's going to start it would be truly Evans would be the one A and Hall be the one be here. I think it's honestly a good thing that that in terms of playing styles, it seems like there wouldn't be much of a difference. Uh, you know, for, you know, Edmond and, and the guys that are playing that, you know, well, I gotta change up how I play depending on whether Hall or Evans is on the court. Yeah. Yeah. Well, to me, the way I look at it is the way the rest of the roster is built. And I don't know that you really want to be changing a whole lot when you've got the other four guys that you're starting or projecting to start, I should say all of them lean offense. And so, yeah, if you're bringing in a five off the bench. Yeah. You want that guy to to lean defense like Kyle Evans does. I don't know how much stock to put in hall stats I get the JuCo level. I, I, I don't I don't know I, I it's just hard to take a lot away from there. Right. I think this is strictly. It's much different. Yeah. Yeah yeah. Like it's an eval. Okay. How does he look. What do we know about him. You know has do we know somebody who's seen him? Things like that. Um, so yeah, to me, I don't even think I. We might be at a point where Perkovic or Wilkins could be more likely to be the backup five. Um, than than Hall again. Maybe you get a forum. I think a forum is probably state's preference. Um, I mean, they recruited him first, right? So. Well, not only that, he's a P4 guy, right? Like, yeah. His skill set is. Probably a little bit better. Yeah. Yeah yeah. So I, I, I don't know how much stock you really put in hall and, and even if state were to land him like oh okay. Great. Like again you need a, you need a third big right. Like you've got 15 scholarships. You may as well use them. Yeah. No. Absolutely. So noon. On on the kid from from Auburn like I mean that that that well is kind of seemed like it's dried up like there's. I, I don't I think that is a yeah I, I think that's they've got to work some other stuff out. I don't think that's a question of whether or not he wants to come. I think it's more so. I think it's a money thing. No, I, I don't think it's a money thing. I think it's, there's, there's some eyes and eyes that need to be done. What's the thing. Dot your eyes and cross your t's. Yeah. They've they've got to do that. And I think it's a question as to whether or not it'll actually happen, just based on the fact that, you know, they're still recruiting other guys. Yeah. You're thinking like academic wise, just to make sure that he qualifies and gets in and things transfer. I think that may be part of it. Yeah, I think that may be part of it. Sure. Sure. So moving on here to our next tweet of the week here. Gotta give a shout out to NCAA football. Getting two more commits over this past week here in three star offensive lineman Jacob Burns. And then, uh, defensive lineman Amir Moore. Uh, looking at Burns here, a three star recruit, the number 55, uh, overall offensive tackle per 247 had offers from NC state, Virginia Tech, UNC, Alabama, Arkansas and then Amir Moore, three star defensive lineman uh, based off Harold's North Carolina. So North Carolina guy uh the number 37 overall recruit uh within the state had offers from NC state, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan State. So I mean, what really screams there is I mean, these were no Joe Schmo commits. Uh, you know, there was definitely a lot of big fish at the table here for both of these guys. And, uh, you know, they they always say that the the, the, the, the lines, what eats in terms of, uh, determining a win or a loss a lot of times on a football game. And so getting two commits, uh, you know, specifically for, for two coaches I think that have, uh, a lot of experience with development here. You know, you got to feel a lot of excitement for sure in that, like we were talking about last week, that these are guys that you can bring in and develop, uh, you know, and, and scream to be guys that are willing to go through the process here. But, uh, Greg, what's your initial thoughts here? Would you say that you're more excited right now for Burns or more in terms of upside? Well, first off, Moore wearing a number 23 as a defensive lineman is pretty weird. Um, you know, that's I, I don't know. Like, I didn't know they made 20 threes that big, to be honest with you. Um, you know, like, I, I trust everything, like, TJ has a really good record on the offensive line. I mean, we're talking consecutive weeks with consecutive commits. Um, you know, the games are won in the trenches on either side of the ball. I, you know, you can never have too much there for me again. It's it's hard for me to get excited about some of these guys that, you know, like, doesn't scream off the page. Like, okay. But with time and with time and space and the ability to develop, these guys can be be some guys. But again, for me, it's really hard to get excited. No offense to anyone. That's a three star. I, I was never, you know in that you know, it didn't have that ability to be ranked or rated or anything like that when I played high school sports. So not to take anything away from it. But again, these are just guys that are committing. I'm excited for that aspect of it. But, you know, I think I think none of these guys are coming in and being day one starters. No. Yeah. Ethan, any additional thoughts adding on to what Greg said? I wouldn't even apply that to just three stars. I'd apply it to everybody. You know, it's just it's hard, especially if you have an open spot. Now you use the portal, right? And so for freshmen, for redshirt freshman, for young guys to get on the field, you've got to either outplay somebody during fall camp or you need an injury. Um, and it kind of sucks that that's the way it is. But with the portal now, it's just harder and harder as the true freshman to get on the field. Um, so I look I think both of those guys are are interesting gifts. Like Leighton, you talked about their offers. They're measurables. Like they check boxes for you, for sure. And and those are the guys you kind of want to bring in. You mentioned T.J. it feels like every week you're talking about he landed another guy. He landed another guy. Um, so that that definitely stands out. Amir Moore. Um, you know, obviously big offer list. So again, like you said, it's just it's tough. It's tough, um, to get on the field. But, um. And that's the crappy part too, right? Like, just going after these front, you know, these prep kids like, you, like it's part of the game. You have to take them. But it's almost like, man, you don't want to take like, guys that have like, potential, right? Because if they don't, you have. To. Take it. I mean, I guess you don't. But how many do you have to take? Yeah. No, you're right. You don't have to take any. But we also know that you shouldn't be going, you know, strictly after the portal, guys. I, I, I do think you have I, I agree with you. You have to take some. I think the question is, you see a lot of schools taking 2530 and there's no rules, right. Like you can cut you can cut guys, you know, with no Rupert. And by cutting you're just forcing them back into the portal so you don't look like the bad guy. But yeah, you know, do you need to take 25, 30? Like, can you just take 15 to 20. To me, like that would kind of be where I'd be. But again, scholars rules have changed. It's not 85 anymore, right? I think it's. 105, 100, 510. Yeah, I can't remember. Yeah, yeah, but there's no really no walk ons. Right. So you you need guys to fill out your roster to your point. Yeah. Yeah. So I, I don't know it's tough. Like you gotta invest in these guys. And to me this is where you land stars. This is how you land like your potential star players if you're NC state. We talked about this in baseball. It's hard to land star players out of the portal. It really is. Especially if you're NC state. You've got to find your star players through the high school ranks. You look at Kevin. And make them a priority though too, right? Just because you're on the roster not playing, you can still make them a priority. Yeah, yeah, you're cheaper that way, right? Your star players can be cheaper. You find your depth that way. You don't want to have to be recruiting depth out of the portal. Yeah. Um, I don't think you want to have to do that. And so to keep the foundation of your program, I do think you're sturdier that way where we've seen teams. Yeah. You can. You can put up an 11 and one season with the portal. You can also turn around and go four and eight. You know, and if you're. Looking at Florida State. Four state Michigan State, Mel Tucker signed a 7 million, $70 million contract and got fired like the next year because of the portal. You know. Uh, wasn't there some other things with him too, though? Yeah. There were. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I get. You. You're also just looking for an idea for a way to get out of that contract. So. Correct. Um, but but I think to the point that, like, you get five games in a bowl game, right, to, to maintain your eligibility, you know, you could sneak them in when you're playing a Richmond, you know, if they show some potential and, you know, kind of just keep that carrot dangling in front of them to, you know, let them know that, hey, you may not be getting a lot of playing time this year, but you are our future. Um, there's ways, you know, to to make it happen to keep these guys around. And you can give them an eye on next year. Like, you know, maybe they're getting, you know, small chump change, you know, maybe ten, $15,000 next year, you may be up to 75, 80,000, whatever. There's ways to do it and prioritize guys. Yeah, yeah. So again you know right now NC state's football sits at number 40 overall recruiting class with 15 commits. Uh, so we'll see in terms of how much bigger this class uh, uh, builds out. But as of right now, NC state has four offensive linemen committed as a part of this class. So it's pretty obvious that that is definitely a priority for coach TJ and for coach Dawn here in this recruiting class here. So let's be real though. You're probably going to lose a couple of these guys. Like it happens every year. Um not that we wanted to, but you know, someone's going to come in and, you know, lose a commit and then it's going to be a domino effect. And but yeah, you hope you hope they all make it to campus. Listen, it really is kind of a point of like it's really twofold here in terms of why we still talk about these commitments as much as we do. First and foremost is the fact, I think, that we're just hard wired from the from the years and years we followed the sport of that. A commitment is some we celebrate, period. But then number two is the fact of, you know, we do want to give. You know, guys like Burns, guys like more love you know and you know definitely welcome. You know you know make them feel welcome. Make them feel like you know definitely that we're excited to to have them committed. But with the full understanding that there's definitely a very you know, there is a a percent possibility that they still might not sign with and state. And even if they sign within stay, that they may not be here within a year from now. It's just the unfortunate day of, you know, days that we're in here. But, you know, yeah, it's a it's a hope and a prayer that, you know, you know, we could ever get back to what commitment used to mean. So, uh, but with that being said, I do want to have a little bit of fun here with you, Greg, specifically here. And I want to merge our tweets of the week and our Grind My Gear segment here together. So here I'm going to throw up the the stinger here. Uh, but we're going to keep it here to each of the week as I got one in particular I want to show for everybody here. You know, what really grinds Mike is. And that is this on three a power rankings that came out via, uh, Andy Staples here. So Greg, I only want to spend just just two minutes here on this here again. We'll have plenty of time here to talk about football here. But, uh, on this power rankings list, you got Miami number one, SMU number two. Again, it's all power rankings. It's all just it's all just click bait. It's all just, you know, fun stuff here. But hey, listen, I always love talking a little bit of football. I mean, hey, we're only a couple of months away here from football getting started here. This thing is put here as number ten. It's a really middle of the pack here. For instance, uh, you know, in terms of the ACC or steal. So just give me Greg. Like what's, what's the one thing that that really grinds your gears the most uh, in terms of this list. Does graphic as a whole. That's what grind my gears. Um, I, I think state at ten is a little disrespectful. Um, But I mean we've got some good skill players. I, I just again, I don't know what this defense is going to look like. I think that's my biggest question. Um, you know, you bring him back a few pieces, you brought in a couple of nice portal pieces at linebacker. Um, like, I think Duke is way too high. I think Virginia Tech's probably a year away from being that number. Wake Forest and Cal I, I honestly, I think state should be around 7 or 8, maybe even high as six. But you know, if I'm being a little conservative, I say 7 or 8 truly in the middle of the pack, not on the backside of the middle. That would be that would be where I'm at. I just think our skill players are going to be really good, as long as this defense doesn't give up 30 points plus a game, I think we're going to win some ball games. Mhm. Yeah. And Ethan I want to get your thoughts on this real quick. But two questions to you. One do you. Does any staples know that Mensah is not playing for Duke anymore. Then number two uh how does I think uncW at number 15 is is still way too high. Too high? Yeah, USC 15 is way too high. That's kind of mean. You're gonna drop them, too. Hey, listen, um, I don't know what to tell you. Go ahead. Yeah, yeah. I, I mean, you can nitpick some of this stuff. I don't know, like a spot or two. I guess for me, Georgia Tech being low sticks. Sticks out. So does Florida State. I mean, are like, if you read what some of the Florida State people have said, they basically said floor states just putting on this year. They just couldn't afford to buy out for Mike Norvell. And they're just like, we just got to eat it this year. And they. Didn't. Want. To feel like going to nil either. Into the roster. Yeah, I still feel like they'll be better than that. Um, and I like feels like Georgia Tech probably should be better than 12th to probably throw Pittsburgh in there. Um, high on Cal. Um, but to me, I think that's love for, uh, JC's their quarterback quarterbacks. Really? Um. Yeah. Wake Forest seems high. But they. I think he's facing this off of a nine win season from last year. I think that's why I think that's why he's putting them there. Yeah. And it was a fluky nine win season I, I think I think the media really likes Jake Dicker. So I think that uh is helping them out wake forest in this spot. To me the team that's too high is Virginia. I think Virginia last year was smoke and mirrors, for lack of a better word. Um, I think. It's really good. I don't know if their quarterback's going to be as good as as he as they were last. Year, and they won that. They won a ton of very close toss up type games that easily could have gone the other way. Is that going to happen again? I don't think so. I mean, if you're if you're finishing third, you're winning ten games, right? So to me that's the team that stands out is okay. This to me this team is three for five spots. Duke probably as well. I like the I actually think that's a good spot for Clemson. I think it's a little bit of a hedge. You're still betting on the high school talent, but you're also saying these guys aren't using the portal. You have no idea what they have at quarterback. There's a very possible chance that, yeah, they win seven games. So I mean they're going to play good defense. That's what Clemson always does. Play good defense. Yeah I think that's I think it's a solid hedge spot for Clemson. Um Duke yeah we'll talk about more Duke later later on in the in the segment. But um yeah I don't know I, I don't really think the list is that bad. We can nitpick a little bit, but I, I don't think it, I don't think it's as bad as a great thing. Well I'm. I'm working and I'll be fair and I'll be fair. I haven't analyzed other teams schedules. So like, if you get some of the crappier teams, you, you can really you know, again, I don't know how much he did this. Um, and I like Andy Staples like I used to listen to him all the time on XM radio when he was on the college network. And, you know, I think he's I think he's pretty good, but I just some of this just seems I don't know again, looking at the schedule is it can totally flip my decisions on some of this. But I also know like state does have it a little bit on the easier side as far as schedules go. So that's why I thought maybe we could put them look a little bit higher. And again, we'll talk about that as, as the summer goes on. But um, yeah, I'm sure 1 or 2 of these teams have some gantlets that they have to go through. Um, but we'll get there. I think I think one and two are pretty, pretty pretty fair though. Yeah, yeah. My my my my quick. Uh, yeah yeah. My quick 32nd thought. But for those who are listening here. So uh, for the rankings they had Miami number one, SMU. Number two, Virginia. Number three Louisville four, Clemson five. Duke six, Virginia Tech seven, Cal eight, Wake forest nine and state ten. And then had Georgia Tech 12 and Florida State 13. Uh, but yeah. What's that? Oh, you just skipped over Pitt at 11, that's all. Yeah, I just I just kind of, I just kind of just wanted to highlight the ones that we had no respect. We had mentioned. Yeah. I mean, and well, Pitt's always like fighting. I mean, it always seems that every year they're in the conversation. I know, Leighton, this was your 30s, so I'll yield, but. No, uh, well, here's my thing. And, uh, so Clemson. Dabo Swinney. Yes. Dabo Swinney has not been the Dabo Swinney of, of, you know, the previous 15 years. And you know but that's a whole nother conversation. But so five I get it you know you know and he's still he's still an amazing elite coach you know in my opinion. So sure Clemson number five I, I get that uh but Virginia Tech it seven honestly is the thing for me because that is just a like yes it's James Franklin. Yes they have a lot of money in that program. But it's still a. But that's that's a bump. That's a James Franklin bump right there at seven. No that that's a total that's like like honestly I would I would flip NC state Virginia Tech. Honestly if this were my list, I think NC state has more proven pieces that have been playing together. You know what Doran's going to give you? Uh, you know, you know that CJ is a is, you know, a top end talent. You know that alone. And uh, but again, with Virginia Tech it's just like we'll see. You know like like after week one, they could easily shoot up six spots or they could shoot down six spots. It's really just so like I put Virginia Tech in my middle, which is around ten in my opinion. So I mean, um. Real quick, go. Ahead. By all accounts and probably consensus number two, number three quarterback in the league behind Mensa. Like are you saying the rest of NC state is that bad where a quarterback can't make up the difference? Like to me that just seems I don't know. And if you're saying one and two, there's such a such a gap and that's that's how you came to that conclusion. I don't know, I would I would question it somewhat. Yeah. So, uh, two more quick tweets, uh, here to wrap this thing up. First and foremost here, I got to give a shout out to our man Ty Heifer, being named a finalist for the 2026 ABCa Rawlings Sports NCAA Division one Gold Glove, recognizing the nation's premier defensive standouts. Every position. And because man, I know Greg, you saw many of these in person, but he made some Sportscenter top ten highlight worthy catches all season long. Man. He was impressive to say the least. Here. Um, but then also to give a shout out to, uh, uh, Brett Johnson as well. Once again, uh, for the, uh, freshman All-American for, uh, perfect game, uh, second team. Sorry, second team, freshman All-American. Uh, again the season he had flirting with, uh, all all time, uh, batting average record uh, rightfully deserved here. Uh, for sure. Um, you know, definitely hope to see more power for next season, but man, could that guy get on base to say the least. So you shout out to Red Johnson and tie head for both of these, uh, accolades here. Uh, but to wrap it up here, I did want to get off to a shout. Oh, sorry. Go back one second. Sorry. So real quick on the tie head thing. Um, so every position, with the exception of outfield, has three candidates. The outfield has six. Um. It's him. And then just wanted to do a shout out to previous Pac nine player. Jake Bechtel is also on the list for the Gold Glove, so that's pretty cool. Anyway, please continue. Yep. So final slide here. Want to give a shout out as well? Uh, and a highlight once again that uh, when the news broke out about Taylor Black, uh, coming to NC state from from Florida, we had put out a teaser about that on our very own, uh, Patreon, uh, a few days actually, in advance of the news itself. Uh, so again, if you if you want to get in on some amazing members only content, uh, again, three videos a week, plus also two access to our members only, chat. Make sure to go hit the link down in the description down below and join our Patreon here today. But with that being said, uh, we'll switch it back here. Greg, any final thoughts? Comments here, man. Uh, we got about 90 days until the season starts. I think something maybe actually a little less less than that, I think. But, um. Yeah. Dog days of Summer, that's where we're at. That's right, I know, and and now no more hurricanes hockey either, man. So, uh, now we're just here hoping that unk can, uh, can blow blow a blow a tire in the World Series. Uh, you know, so. I'm running out of time. I'll run out of time. Exactly right here. So, uh, with that being said, Wolfpack nation, if, uh, if you haven't already, make sure you hit that subscribe button here. And, uh, you know, if it's lighting up for you, make sure to, to smash it here right now if you also to, uh, enjoyed this video and if you didn't do enjoy it, make sure to do us a big favor. Hit that like button too, as well. I greatly appreciate it and make sure to give us all a tough talk now on Twitter and also to as well our Patreon. Once again, click the link down description below. Only$5 a month, less than a cup of coffee. I'm sure that that you can you can find the the five bucks even and change in your in your couch per month to as well. Make sure to go and click that link down description below. Join here today. Uh, and also to make sure to stay tuned here as we got some amazing content coming out here this week on the YouTube channel. 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