NC State Football: Is This Doeren's Year? — Tuffy Talk Live

Layton and Greg debate whether 2026 is finally Dave Doeren's year to break through in the ACC — then lock in their official NC State football breakout player predictions on record. Greg takes Duke Scott for 1,000 rushing yards, the first NC State back to hit that mark since Reggie Gillespie in 2018. Layton takes Jonathan Taylor, a former four-star prospect who's been waiting two years for his shot after a redshirt year and a season-ending knee injury.

The crew also ranks the Top 5 NC State fall storylines across every sport: volleyball's European tour and breakthrough potential, women's cross country's bid for a fifth national title without Katelyn Tuohy, women's soccer building behind JJ Barlow, men's soccer facing life without Donavan Phillip after his national championship run, and NC State football as the clear #1 — experienced roster, favorable schedule, year 14 for Doeren.

Tweet of the Week: Rhett Johnson makes the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team and heads to Taiwan, Coach Elliott Avent honored by Team USA, Taylor Black returns to NC State baseball under Chris Hart, college football's new 21-practice rule and FCS scrimmage changes explained, the transfer portal window shrinking from 15 to 10 days, and a North Carolina sports betting revenue bill that could send up to $5.8 million annually to NC State athletics.

New episodes every Monday. Support the show on Patreon for extra NC State breakdowns: patreon.com/c/tuffytalk

Follow on Twitter/X: @tuffytalknow | @PackFanInNOVA | @ncstatestats

Transcript

0:01

I got 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. You talk with a black fan for long, for an hour for the red and the white. Sing along. We'll bring it all down. Yeah, we'll call it straight. This is our show. Go back, go straight. Just be talk fired up and loud. The Wolfpack nation. We're a hell of a crowd. From the first pitch to the final play to be tall. Let's roll today. What's going on, nation? Welcome to another edition of the Talk live show. You got Greg. Glad you got myself. Ladysmith here we are. So excited. We are, as Greg put right there, Joe Keating days away y'all. From the beginning of the 2026 2027 NC state football season here. But before we get into it here as well. If you haven't already, make sure you keep that subscribe button, that subscribe button right now for you. That means you're not subscribed and it's great to do it. It really helps. Now go smash that subscribe button here right now and I'll show you the like. If you're super excited about this conversation you have. We got a ton to get through here. We got, uh, we're going to be teasing some top five, all storylines that we're going to be looking at, a couple other big highlights to discuss all of those things. So again, make sure to hit that like button if you haven't already here. But Greg how's everything going man. Have a good July 4th. I know you were a little busy and trying to stay cool, right? Yeah, down in Raleigh, uh, getting the old storage unit ready for football season. I have currently I have two tailgate storage units. I have so much stuff. Uh, we convinced them that I convinced. Well, my wife convinced me to condense it down to one that wasn't big enough, so we had to get a bigger one. Uh, but, uh, it's going to look great. I'm excited for it. I'll definitely post some pictures and I want to get everyone's feedback on kind of like, do I have too much? I definitely got to post that question. I, I, I don't think that's I don't think that exists, but yeah. No. Well obviously to hope everybody had an amazing July forward and didn't lose any fingers or anything like that. Nice and safe. Safe and sound here. Uh, but again, we're excited to get into it here. So, uh, first and foremost here, Greg, I know, uh, and I'm sure probably through all the sweating and dealing with the storage and things like that, you got to enjoy a little bit the ACC network, NC state takeover, uh, which was jam packed to say the least, with 24 hours filled of NC state. And and so, first of all, Greg, did you wake up at midnight to watch the, uh, NC State baseball versus Miami rerun? I did not. Uh, I probably should have. That was a that was a fun one, but, uh, no, I did catch a couple of. Of things in between. Uh, all the work that I was doing, I, I do like the hotel that we stay at down in Raleigh. They actually have the ACC network as part of their cable package, which is one of the reasons why I like staying there during football season. Mhm. Yeah. No. Well and you know obviously let us know two in the chat if there's uh one specific game that you had rewatched or one that you enjoyed the most. Would love to see what everybody really enjoyed here in the comments here. Uh, but yeah, I mean, one of the biggest things that really stood out to me, Greg, is that I loved and I know they always usually try their best to do this here for sure, but sometimes it's kind of hard to do it, which there is a ton of versatility, uh, within this, uh, 24 hour takeover, again, starting off with baseball. But then you went to cross country, winning their fourth national title in the last 5 or 6 years. And then you got. Yep. And then you got football versus UNC softball versus Louisville volleyball, football, men's soccer, football. Men's basketball. Women's basketball is had three different football games, had one baseball game and one men's basketball and one women's basketball. So. But then you also got cross country softball. Volleyball sprang into it too as well. Uh, I mean, just do those numbers, Greg, kind of, you know, do you read into any of that at all? The fact that we had three football games and you didn't have one other sport that had two? Well, of course football was always going to be king. Uh, football also takes up the most airtime, if you will, during a game for the most part. So you can, you know, stretch your, your, your, your, your viewing hours a little easier. Uh, I would have definitely loved to have seen, you know, Isaacs national championship bout. But again, that's only a few minutes. Um, you know, maybe maybe they could have spliced in a couple of short things and maybe made a program out of that. But again, I think they were trying to do low budget, low effort, uh, things to put on there. But yeah, I thought I thought it was. I thought it was a fairly fair representation of the season. Um, probably like, I don't know if there were any games that I would have replaced it with, but maybe you could make an argument for a game or two here or there. Yeah. Well, and again, I think, uh, just like you said, it's king, but also to as well. I mean, let's be real. I mean, men's basketball should be from a, from a pole perspective, just as big as, as football now, I mean, I know that, you know, I don't know, like, yeah, I, I think I think beating the crap out of USC by 24 is enough to for NC state fans to stomach watching. Whoa, wait. Uh, be on the on the sidelines, Greg. Yeah. Well, again, I think it's the the the level of the game. Right. If they're not going to show us beating North Carolina A and T by 50, like I don't think that's just it. It moves the needle if you will like. It's fun to watch, I guess, but, um, they're going to want to get ACC games in there or high level games. And so it was just really hard like women when I, I think we have our I don't think it's gone out yet. Our Ethan and I's draft of the of our moments of the year. I don't think that's not yet. But if well when it comes out, I, I would definitely, you know, move people over to watch it. But we, we kind of had some trouble getting like a non championship moment if you will, just a run of the mill game. And and I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna spoil it. But we, we had some trouble finding um a couple of things in there. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah definitely. Uh make sure to stay tuned here. And again that's also to a big benefit of what uh, subscribing does for you. Wolfpack nation is that you're notified whenever we release new episodes, which as if you haven't been able to tell We definitely are putting out a good bit of content here, and we are excited about it and hope that you all are enjoying it as much as we are making it. So. Uh, but yeah. No, uh. Let's see. So with that being said, though, uh, you know, I think that it's for especially like the Florida State game, you know, I, I kind of chuckled even rewatching that game, Greg, because I know that, uh, you know, starting the season, everybody's hooting and hollering once again and about that Florida State, uh, Alabama game and, uh, you know, it's so it's uh, it's just a full circle moment. I think just, you know, it it's I don't know, just, you know, I guess, you know, I guess I was a little bit surprised, I guess, is what I'm saying. And the fact that it was listed as a highlight, but and it's more of, uh, probably, honestly, just because of the fact that I believe what was it that there was two muffed punts from that Florida State team? So that was probably maybe one of the biggest reasons why that game was, was replayed just because. I mean, how many times do you see that in a college football game? So, uh. But yeah. So speaking of the football, Greg, I did want to jump into here is Athlon Sports came out with their preseason all ACC selections, and they had, uh, Duke Scott listed on second and third team, uh, second team running back, third team kick returner, which I thought was interesting. Uh, because obviously, you know, I here's my thing, Greg, always with with these special teams ones is that, you know, now that Duke Scott is the the probably going to be your running back, get your future back. Like obviously that's uh, you know, a lot of guesswork and the fact that it is is he I mean, he was last year, but is he going to be this year? What what are your thoughts on that on that? Greg. I personally wouldn't I, I think there's definitely some guys that could could fill that role. You have. Um, Uh, I can't remember Snow's first name, but the kid from Buffalo. I think he could be. Victor snow. Victor snow. Thank you. I think he could be a potential candidate. Uh, maybe a Jonathan Paler. If you know how healthy he is, I assume he'll be ready to go. I think that's one way you could get him, you know, some touches. Uh, again, because if, you know, depending on where you're sliding him, I would assume it would be running back. But at this point, it's, you know, third string running back. I don't know how many touches there are there. Uh, I definitely think there's some candidates other than do Scott. And I would prefer my lead running back not to be taking unnecessary hits. Well, here's the thing that we know about Coach Doran, which is he's not afraid necessarily. He's not to put his stars back there. I mean, you look at Casey Concepcion. He was back there for two years. So which which I get, uh, I mean, Thayer Thomas was back there, uh, for for punt return, which, I mean, honestly, Greg, between the two of them, I'd be more nervous about having my star out there for a punt return than I would for kick return. I mean, there's just so much possibilities with having your head straight up in the air. You have no idea what your opponent is going to do. So yeah. But again, time will tell here and we'll find out. Find that out here as we start to hear a little bit more from practice here. But um, so yeah, just to kind of finish out the list here. So Duke's got second running back, second team running back. Duke. Uh, Duke's got 13 kick returns CJ Bailey 13 quarterback Spike Soles third team offensive line Harvey Dyson third team linebacker. Teague Anderson, fourth team offensive line Brian Nelson, fourth team defensive back. So Greg, were you giving that reaction for for CJ Bailey? I'm assuming a third team. Yeah I would assume they have Mensah as one. And the kid from Cal as number two is that is that what they're is that what they're rolling with? I don't have that in front of me. Just where that's their fans land. That's fair. I think Brian Nelson's a little low. I think he has the potential to be a really, uh. I mean, he kind of broke out last year, but I think he can really elevate this year. Again, I, I haven't looked at all the defensive backs. And you know who's out there that could be ranked ahead of him? Uh, I'll be honest. I'll probably start getting into football mode here in the next week or so as we got, you know, you mentioned Joe Rooney. Uh, I, I, I need a little bit of decompression by the time baseball season is over to, you know, take about a week or two, maybe three weeks, and then I'm like, okay, now I'm going to start getting ramped up back into it. But, uh, yeah, I, I would be curious to look at the names on on those to see and then just do a little deep dive on those names to see if they kind of check out. But, uh, I definitely think there's a couple of guys on that list that could be in line for some big seasons. And, you know, if things go right, they could, you know, elevate their status on those lists come postseason time. Yeah. Well and again, to a lot of it just you know I think CJ Bailey you know extremely well what you're going to get. So I think honestly third team quarterback for what he's done compared to other two. Sure I can I can swallow that pill uh for now, you know, for now. Exactly. You know just where we're at right now. Yeah. Now, in terms of where he can be. Sure. Yeah. He can. Sky's the limit for CJ Bailey if he plays as well as we expect him to play. But again, the problem is that there's still so many pieces around that. I also need to still need to get themselves worked out to as well. But like I mean Duke Scott you know he's stepping into the future back feel very confident which is why I also to I think that that's why you see him as second team running back. So honestly he was actually probably the one I was most shocked just because the fact that he hasn't been a feature back yet, you know, and so there's definitely a lot. He flashes. Yeah. He definitely. He flashes. Yeah. Oh there's no doubt. There's no doubt. Like so so from NC state fan. Sure. It makes sense why we're high because we obviously drink those couple of moments in you know we drink all that Kool-Aid. Uh, but from a national perspective was like, okay. Like, obviously it's good to see even the national people's nose in those flashes as well. But yeah, Bryan Nelson thought should be a little bit higher. Harvey Dyson is kind of another one where again, and here's the shocker here Greg. Us as NC state you know fan podcast. We're going to think every single one of these are a little bit low right. We're just going to be like you know all these guys should be first team all SEC right. But you know again this is a guy and Harvey Dyson again we'll talk more and we'll break down these rosters here as we get a little bit closer here to the season here. But again this is a guy that now has College Football Playoff experience, uh, you know and and and can play an extremely high level that really pops in terms of uh, his tape. So uh, and he could be he can be the, the one of the big leaders and one of the big breakouts of this team, honestly. I mean, you know. Well, they're counting a lot on them. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, there's no doubt about it. So, uh, but again, time will tell here. Um, so, but but it sounds like no real big gripes from this list. Uh, besides just Brian Nelson. Probably a little bit higher. Anybody that you invited, those left off? Um, no. Not really. Uh, again, I think this is going to be a team outside of you know, Wolfpack nation's going to be a team of unknowns to a lot of a lot of college football type people. Uh, just because a lot is not really expected of state this year, though, I think they have a potential to I hate to use the word sneak up, but I think the the schedule can be very favorable. And if guys come together as a, as a as different units on this team, I think that it could be a good season. I definitely I definitely think it could be. But I also have to be reserved because there's been years where I'm very high and we don't meet expectations. Yeah, sure. Well, so with that being said, Wolfpack Nation, we're going to jump into a brand new segment here that we're excited about here, which is called the Hot Take Countdown. Alrighty. Here's y'all. So with that being said, we're going to jump into here Greg, I want to hear your breakout player prediction here. Uh, you know, again, we are still Joe, 20 days away here. But that doesn't mean we can start getting to some of these hot takes here. You know, these clickable moments, these, you know, start filling your seats here. Because guess what, Greg? The earlier you make the receipts, the the earlier you can claim. Hey, listen, I call this Joe 20 days away from the football team here. So, uh, you know, so here to give you a second here, Greg, unless you're ready to rock and roll here. But I think I got one. Okay, go for it. I I'm going to go out and say Duke Scott will get a thousand yards this year. Yeah. As the first time since Reggie Gillespie 20 1818. Yeah I don't and I don't know how hot that is. Um it's probably I don't know where we would put that on the Fahrenheit hot take scale but. 1 to 10 I probably give it a three four. Oh I was gonna go like a 6 or 7, but, um, just because it hasn't been done and. Right. And as good as Hollywood was that he, you know, led the. LED the conference last year in yards per game and all of that. And he didn't even get a thousand. Uh, it's not as easy as it seems. Plus, you know, there's I mean, there's a little luck, there's scheme. Um, you know, are you in a game where you're able to run the clock out at the end of the game, or are you having to throw to catch up? Like, there's so many factors that could that could tail into that. But I think that will be I think that will be and and again, I think you kind of ask for a breakout player. But I also know you wanted a hot take, but um, okay. Um, CJ Bailey break out baby. Let's go. No, no. Yeah I, I mean I he definitely I definitely think he can build upon his numbers last year. I, I don't think that's necessarily a hot take. Uh, I think again I have to look at all the receivers because there's so many different like the receiver room is vastly different than last year. The tight end room is completely Different. You know, you have to replace three tight ends there. You had to replace three wide receivers. Um, so I kind of need to just again, just dive into the roster a little bit and maybe come up with something a little crazier. But that's that's where I'll go for now. Um, yep. Super. It's not super hot, but it's it's fairly warm ish. Yeah. No. Absolutely. Uh, my first one, I'm going to go with a guy that I put, uh, as the breakout for last year. That's Jonathan Taylor. Uh, you know, like, I mean, he was a guy. I was drinking all all the Kool-Aid for, uh, last year and was so, so excited about what he was going to accomplish for last season. And obviously, uh, you know, had a knee injury that took him out for the season during camp. So which was a huge heartbreaker, to say the least here. And, you know, especially looking at last year's team, you know, it's it's it's it was a big question of where was he going to fit. Uh, now I think there's definitely even more of an opportunity for him to fit this year as there is so many questions of outside of Duke Scott, you know who are going to be C.J. Bailey's guys this year? Uh, and and Taylor's a guy now that has, what, two years at NC state? Uh, but. Nothing. I mean, he's done nothing. And again, not all his fault. I mean, he's redshirting his first year and injured last year, but I don't know, like, what if he does anything? He could be a breakout player for sure. Well, because. Because, I mean, it really comes down to Greg. I mean, like two years ago, you know, I mean, really over the last two years, just it's been well, specifically, you know, last year we won't blame on him. He was out with an injury. Can't even think about that. Two years ago, a true freshman guy. And you were playing with Casey Concepcion, Noah Rogers. You know, Wesley Grimes just really, you know, you name it. Like, where was he going to fit, you know, especially as a true freshman. Uh, that's that was really kind of the big question. Obviously at the time, redshirting was actually a thing. Now it's not so, you know, but just like you said, Greg. Like, yeah, two years. But hey, listen, I mean two years learning, understanding the system. You know, same offensive coordinator playing with CJ Bailey, hanging out with CJ Bailey growing that that you know that bond. So we'll see again I mean right now you're just not really hearing a lot from camp. So you know you know you're not really able to hear a lot publicly about what things are looking like here. But I mean he's a guy that out of high school I mean was had I mean, I actually saw him in person because he's, he, he played only about 15 minutes down the road for me here. But I mean, out of high school he had three over 3000 all purpose yards. Uh, and as a junior, uh, uh, had uh, 17 touchdowns on 77 carries. So literally, you know, basically about a quarter of the time that he got the ball as a running back, he scored a touchdown. It's crazy. And then he caught 27 passes for 725 yards and and five touchdowns. So about a fifth of the time that he caught about he scored a touchdown. So he's a guy with true speed. Uh, you know, a former, uh, four star recruit, uh, top 100 recruit in the country. Uh, again, I just in my opinion, he's definitely the guy like that is is fits that breakout mold. He he totally fits it. If if things come together. Greg, like you were saying here, but, um, but do you have any other kind of players to come to mind here? Greg? Um, I'm definitely curious. You know, some of these guys that C.J. has played with in previous, like, in high school, you know, like a Jojo trader. Um, the running back we got from Carolina, I, I'm curious if they can rekindle those those relationships. I think Jojo Trader could be like, I don't know if he would be considered a breakout because he's had some some moments at Miami, but, um, I definitely I definitely see someone in that wide receiver room having a quote unquote breakout year. I don't know who that who that necessarily is, but I feel I have a feeling that that could be somewhere. Um, and then maybe, maybe another group could be linebacker. Um, there's some guys there that we've had some hopes on, like Richardson and, and, uh, uh, who's that kid that we got from Alabama? Um, Sterling Dixon, I think, is his name. Uh, I think, I think I think someone like there you could see. Um, I don't know. I'm just trying to think of position groups where we have we have we have things to replace. Right. And the two that, you know, jump out to me as wide receiver and linebacker, and then maybe someone that maybe the tight in position uh, again, awful big shoes to fill there with all three of those guys moving into the pro ranks. Mhm. A lot of production to replace. So maybe someone has a breakout there that we just don't maybe see coming. Yeah. The other guy which I've mentioned which this was probably a couple of months ago Greg dad mentioned this guy when Ethan and I were on here together before he was officially part of the team with Toughie Talk here. Uh, and that was Andre Evans, uh, transfer cornerback from Georgia. Uh, this is kind of my, you know, like in fantasy football, Greg. Like you're your last round, just, you know. Take. A flier chance on him and and, you know, if it works out. Yeah. The flier. The total flier here. Andre Evans, a guy that, uh, when he was getting recruited two years ago was a borderline top 100 recruit, four star cornerback, uh, you know, spent two years at the University of Georgia, which, as you and I both know, Greg, if you get recruited to the University of Georgia to play defense, uh, especially defense, that's that says a lot for sure. Uh, so you bring the guy over, uh, you know, and unfortunately, last year, in April 2025, he suffered a, uh, a, uh, I think it was UCL, uh, injury. I had to go through surgery, knocked out for the season. Uh, and now he comes to NC state. You know, and besides Brian Nelson, you know who's on the other side? You know, that's that's the big question here. So, uh, I mean, you know, he'd be a guy that we were doing again, like, you know, a a quote unquote draft right now. Sure. He is a guy. I'm taking the in because I think that he has the archetype, uh, you know, and, and the experience, uh, you know, I mean, Andrew Irvin's, uh, director of scouting for 24 over seven, saying an explosive two way athlete with top flight track times that projects his defensive back at the next level. Uh, so, you know, a guy that, again, brings a lot of speed here and a lot of height too, as well. So we'll see what comes with him. But Andre Evans is named to look out for Wolfpack Nation in my opinion here. Yeah. Uh, any other hot takes here Greg here before we jump on over. No, I'm I'm definitely curious. Is you know, how King Mack has got to kind of play out on this team as well. Another big name transfer. Again, I don't think he's quote unquote a breakout guy. But he could be I you know, he had he started all 13 games last year for Penn State, but, uh, I think he's another guy that could. Again, not necessarily quote unquote breakout, but just be better just because of the role he'll be playing here. Uh, vice at Penn State. But yeah. Actually we got, uh, MB 24 in the chat. What's going on, fellas? And uh, Michelle, as always, good. Marvelous evening. Good. Marvelous Monday evening, Wolfpack nation. Yes, absolutely. Michel. Appreciate you. Let us know in the comments to as well, y'all, who are your, uh, predictions for breakout player here for this upcoming football season here? But I do want to also plug two as well. Our man Ethan here. Uh, and and and because I mentioned him becoming part of the toughie talk team, and one of the things that we have loved so far is his amazing members only concern that work that he's been putting out three videos a week, uh, to our members only, uh, it's on our Patreon. Only $5 a month or less than a cup of coffee. And again, you get three videos a month, which is 12 videos, uh, for only five bucks. And on top of that, too, you also get access to our members only rumor Chat two as well. So if we're hearing anything Wolfpack Nation, we will make sure to share it right there as well. So a little bit of insight and let's do a little bit of fun too as well. In terms of thoughts on comets, in terms of predictions, you name it. Members only. Patreon $5 a month. Link down in the description. Make sure to go and sign up here to day. So with that being said Wolfpack Nation here, we're going to jump on over back here, uh, to uh to our nine hot day countdown here. Uh, um, to talk about here, in my opinion, Greg, I put together a list here, Greg, of my top five fall storylines. So this is not baseball. It's not basketball. It's only the sports that are here, coming up here for, uh, for the fall here. And so for me, the first one here I want to talk about here is about volleyball, actually, uh, with, uh, they're actually coming up here on a, on a European tour here as well. Uh, you know, and, uh, what's giving them some real opportunity to go against some, some outside competition here? Get a little bit more of experience here. I believe they have as well. We got eight. That's right. Yeah. You're right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so so, uh. And then on top of that, too, I mean, you have eight all ACC academic honorees. You know, coach Margo Kearney. Uh, you know, what is she going to do here? Uh, in her second year at the at the helm. Uh, you know, just can she break through for us, forcing the, you know, to. And giving us opportunity to talk about her a little bit more here. That that's really kind of the big question for me here is, is just can we take that next step here with the NCAA volleyball program that's been begging Greg to be in and shared some of that spotlight, uh, throughout, uh, NC state fans? Yeah, I really want to get to a volleyball match. I just haven't haven't made it made it happen yet. But, you know, last year they, uh, you know, right on the can, right on the edge of, uh, an NCAA tournament team. Uh, I think that, um, you know, maybe, you know, maybe this trip to Europe will give them some nice bonding. Um, again, I, you know, I think I think they I think this could be a tournament team. Uh, I think they'll be, um, in the mix. Here's the thing, too. Is, the ACC is so good in volleyball. Um, you know, you have teams like Pitt, Louisville, Stanford. Uh, I think SMU is okay, too, if I'm remembering correctly. And then Florida State is pretty good usually. And it's a it's a loaded, loaded conference. Um, you know, this is a team. You know, maybe you finish around, you know, 500 or slightly above 500 if you get there. You're you're in the mix for a tournament, um, position and, uh, yeah, I again, I think this is a team that has some some good leadership in the upper class. I guess you could still say upper class, but I always feel weird about women's volleyball or women's sports saying upperclassmen. But, uh, I think I think there's, I think there's some stuff there. Uh, you brought in a few folks, you know, see how they how they mesh with the team? Um, yeah. Uh, I am curious. I again, I don't know, a whole, whole lot about women's volleyball. I, I read some things here and there, but, um, yeah, just kind of my very novice observations, if you will. Yeah. I mean, you know. Exactly. It's just it's it's unfortunately a little bit tough right now. Just, uh, you know, new coach, uh, you know, there's been some opportunities. It's been some been, you know, 1 or 2 highlights, you know, season, you know, some some, uh, you know, a, an upset or two things like that, but really kind of breaking out, you know, and, uh, you know, like, like with men's soccer, uh, even like softball. Still waiting on them to truly kind of break out. There's they're showing a lot of promise in terms from a recruiting perspective. But can they finally start to break out, uh, you know, on the field itself? That's really the big question here. And so with, uh, volleyball, just please, Coach Kearney, just give us an opportunity to to talk about you, uh, more on a weekly basis here. Uh, number four here, which again, keep in mind here, I think there's only five sports that play during the fall period anyway. So, uh, no shocker here. Pretty much each one of these is pretty much each of the sports here. Number four, I put cross country. Uh, you know, obviously, uh, uh, it really comes down to the fact that, I mean, you know, just Laura Haynes's has solidified herself as one of the greatest, uh, NCAA athletic coaches, uh, to ever, ever coach NC state. I think, uh, you know, four national titles will do that. Uh, winning three back to back to back would do that. And also to bringing in, uh, and developing one of the greatest, if not the greatest, NC state student athletes to ever copy the NC State and Caitlin Tuohy here. But, you know, can you build off that, you know, and can can she, you know, repeat, uh, you know, she, uh, you know, with the stars that she does have. I definitely see the, the potential there. Uh, they're ranked right now once again in the top ten. No shocker there. Uh, but, you know, can we see five, uh, you know, uh, national titles for, for Coach Gregg. That's that's a question for me. But again, you're, you're, you're you're right now you're you're going to be extremely thrilled from NC state fan perspective with the floor. This team is going to give you. But you're going to be just just laughing laughing a little bit on the, on the inside and and and publicly, uh, if she's able to pull off another national title here. Yeah, I yeah, that would be you know, I don't want to again, spoiler alert this may show up in our episode later this week, But, uh, again, I don't see a reason why they can't finish first again in the ACC. Uh, you know, regionals again, first, second. And then they'll be right there in the, in the conversation for for another national championship. You bring back a couple of your key contributors last year, especially Grace Hartman. And, uh, and, you know, she continues to get better. Um, the the world is the world is their oyster. I, I again, I don't see a reason why. Um, you know, they they can't. You know, they'll have they'll have a couple. They'll have a couple of of teams in the, in the ACC that will will challenge them. Uh, notably, you know, the likes of, uh, Stanford and Notre Dame and then nationally, uh, I think we beat out BYU last year, uh, to win the national championship essentially. And again, I think they'll probably be right there as well. They're typically a good program, But again, you know, if if the team comes together and does what they're supposed to do on, on all levels, because that's the thing about, you know, cross country, it is a team sport. And, you know, you have someone that might finish, you know, in the 10 to 15 range and another in the 20 to 25 range, and another like a 30 to 35 range. And so as long as they, you know, each member does what they're expected to do and you get the points that you're supposed to get, you can easily win another national championship. And so I guess, you know, women's cross country doesn't rebuild. They reload. And I and I would expect that to happen as well this year. Yeah. Yeah. You know, another name to which I, I don't think you mentioned her name, but Hannah Gates, uh, was named to the New Zealand's World Athletics Road running Championship team. So, uh, definitely, uh, somebody on our team that, uh, brings a lot of, uh, you know, um, resume with her. And so, again, just like you said, Greg, I think that they're they're, well, ready to do it once again. Just. Can they go do it? Which is why I put them at number four. Because in my opinion, it's, you know, like like it, it's it it's it's not a really huge question in terms of it's really going to deter me one way or another. And, and you know, good for them for, for, for getting in state, cross country to that point where it's not even a second thought to me of, can they compete for national title? Absolutely. They can. That's that's yeah. And I think. And again, real quick, the men I think the men are going to be fairly decent as well. I think they can finish anywhere from 10 to 20 nationally in top 3 or 4 in the ACC, uh, a program that continues to get a little bit better each year. Again, ACC I know they take their, their, their lumps sometimes in football and you know, and in other like basketball, men's basketball and women's basketball has been pretty solid. Baseball is usually pretty good. But in the in the non-revenue Olympic sports, the ACC is really, really strong. And they've gotten really strong by bringing in the likes of of Stanford and Notre Dame over the last, you know, couple of years, ten, 20 years with with Notre Dame. But they, they, they all exceed, um, expectations. Yeah. The number three though for me is NC state women's cross country specifically. What can NC state women's soccer do fine with? You say hold on, hold on. Which one? You said cross country again, you meant soccer. I'm sorry. Women's soccer I apologize. Yes. Gotcha. Yeah. Women's soccer here. Can NC state women's soccer. Thank you. Greg. Uh, finally break through with a talent like JJ Barlow, uh, who last year was second team all ACC had ten goals in the 18 regular season games. Uh, scored in five consecutive games last season, the second longest streak in program history. Uh, Jade, who has, uh, has trained with the US women's national team. Uh, so again and obviously fully understand that soccer, especially right now with the World Cup going on. Uh, you know, it's an 11, uh, player, uh, sport. Completely understand that. But, you know, definitely having one stud can take you a good, you know, a long ways now. Can we finally bring the pieces behind her? Uh, with this second year head coach and and, you know, get back to being a consistent or even at this point, just, uh, you know, being an ACC contender, uh, being an NCAA tournament, uh, you know, Thorn and Thorn in team sides, things like that. Again, I really just want, with this program, especially what we're seeing now with men's soccer, I just want I, you know, I want women's soccer to capitalize. Uh, you know, right now soccer is hot right now at NC state. And, and and you have to give all that credit obviously to the men's soccer side, but hey, why can't women's soccer build off of that same, uh, that same fire to as well? Yeah. You saw last year where they struggled early in the season, especially scoring goals, and then they progressively got better as the season went on. And you're hoping kind of how they closed out last season that they can continue that momentum into this season. Um, if they can score, I again, it seems very simple and simplistic. I get it. If you score, you have a a chance to win. But, uh, if they can find scoring depth and and they get good defense and good goalkeeping again, they have a chance. Right? Uh, as I mentioned, the ACC is so good in women's soccer. Um, did FSU win it all last year or they were in the championship? Yeah, they weren't all. Yeah. Um, and again, you've got the triangle. Teams are very good in women's soccer. Historically Carolina has been a dominant program. Uh, again, Wake Forest, like, is really like the state of North Carolina as a whole outside of college soccer. But as a whole, um, soccer is is a very, very. Yeah. Ridiculous is probably the best way to say it. So there's just an immense amount of talent in the state. Um, but it just, it just it just depends on can we, can we just continue to progress under under this, under this leadership and, and um, again, you got some players that have stepped up, as, you know, a little bit more, um, have been in the program a few years. So you got some good leadership. And again, the hope is that you can carry that momentum that you had late last year. I mean, you had Florida State on the ropes last year and could have won that game, should have won that game. And you know, you just didn't get get it, get it done. So if you can finish that and I think, you know, if a team has a, you know, a a mantra or a slogan, I think this year is for women's soccer should just be finish. Just finish when you start and, you know, play your 90 minutes and good things will happen. Yeah, exactly. Uh, number two for me is, is I mean, it's another one with men's soccer, And it really is just the easy question of can NC states, you know, continue to thrive without Donovan Phillips? Uh, for me, that's that's that's really all it comes down to. And I mean, I think now I mean, with with Mark Hubbard, I, I don't really see any reason why you doubt him or, or the depth on this team that you that you have, but obviously losing basically the men's soccer equivalent Heisman Trophy. Greg, I don't think it's it's a it's an unfair question to ask of, you know, can NC state supplement and get back to competing in, you know, top ten, top five in the country without Donovan Phillips? Yeah. You lost him. And I can't remember the other guy's name. It was kind of a foreign name, but he was basically Defensive Player of the year. Um, I just can't remember his name. Um, but yeah, I again, I, I it's oh. Um. Um. Gosh dang it. Markovich. Was that his. Name? Markovich. Yeah, I think. I think. I think it is. Who pulled that one out of somewhere? Uh, but. Yeah. So you have so much to replace there. Offensively and defensively. Um, you know, do you have guys that will step up it. Soccer is kind of one of those sports. It's kind of like you really have to dig for information. It's just not kind of readily available. But I don't know what we did in the transfer portal. Hopefully we brought some guys in that can, you know, step up and do some do some good things. Um, yeah. Again, I, I, I hate to say it and again, I don't want to doubt this program, but when you are national runner up, the only thing that you can do better is win it. And so it almost feels like and again, I will say when, when we would have had this talk a year ago, I don't think any of us would have said that state was going to be playing for a national championship in soccer. Um, unless you were within the program and, you know, you believe in what you do every day and you know you have that mindset. But as a as a fan, especially me as a casual fan, and I'll be the first to admit it. I didn't have that on on on my bingo card or radar that that we would be playing for a national championship. And so where I'm where I'm saying is it unless you're winning it all, it feels like you're going to take a step back and, you know, can you, can you meet what you did last year and it's going to be it's going to be awful tough. But with a coach like Mark Hubbard I think, you know, he'll have his guys ready. Because again, no one saw playing for a national championship in year two of the Mark Hubbard era. No, absolutely. Uh, so the number one for me, obviously is the thumbnail of of this live show. Is this Orange Year? Is this finally the year that that coach Dawn can finally break through? Get that true unequivocal can't argue with ten win season. Can he get, you know, to an ABC Championship appearance? Uh, that's the storyline. Uh, you know, obviously, you know, you can talk about it, about. But that's. Let's be real Gregg. Like you know CJ Bailey aside you know whatever this is this is Coach Dorn's. Let's see 14th year 14th season here. Uh, you know, can this finally be the year where where he breaks through? Uh, so I, I think that, you know, the schedule, like, you know, we've talked about it in other episodes and other live streams that he has the schedule set up for it. Uh, he has, and we'll talk about it. It's favorable. Uh, we'll talk about it here in a tweet of the week here. But he has a very experienced team. Uh, and he also too has, uh, one of the in, in, in national media is talking about it, one of the top three quarterbacks in the ACC. So you take those three things together, Greg. I mean, you gotta feel like like it's definitely not a non it's definitely not a 0% chance. It is a definite possibility. Well when you say definite possibility that that makes it a little bit stronger of a statement. But sure, I get what you're I get where you're going with this. I it's tough I mean you kind of again when you're looking at national pundits and, you know, prognosticators and all of that, look, they know as much as we do at the end of the day, um, maybe a little bit more, I don't know. But I the question and we'll definitely get into it as we get a little bit closer to the, to the kickoff. And, you know, we'll have ACC media days here pretty soon and we'll get some some sound bites and all of that good stuff. But I think I think again, the question becomes is what are you going to do on defense? I think this team will score. Uh, we talked about some areas of concern offensively in skill positions. Um, you know, how much, how much are you putting on C.J. Bailey's shoulders or on his arm or his legs? And he's got to be he's got to be better. I mean, he wasn't bad, obviously. You know, if he was bad, he wouldn't be here for year three. But there's definitely things that he has to clean up. He has to be a true leader. He has to play good sound football. And you're going to have to find, you know, some things that work and you do really well and you excel. Um. Yeah, I. I don't know. Like again, we'll talk about it, but it feels like it's Miami and everybody else. So you're really you're really fighting against everybody for one spot instead of, you know, for two spots, if you will. Um, and then you have all these crazy tie breakers. I mean, you saw, like, Duke in Virginia got in last year. Uh, and, you know, you had Duke with two, two ACC losses, but there was five teams that had two ACC losses. So you're going to need a little luck there as far as like who you beat. And and that does matter. And strength of winds and all kinds of craziness. Because I could definitely see a scenario where you have 3 or 4 teams tied for that second place or that second slot to go play for the ACC championship? Yeah. Can it be done? Sure, it can be done. Um, but again, you're going to have to have some luck, and it just doesn't seem like we've had that on our side over the, over the years. Yeah. Yeah. So with that being said, Wolfpack Nation, I do want to get real real quick here. Highlight NC state softball here. And uh because again like I said Greg this this has been a sport. This has been a coach. I've, I've, I've put you know that feather in my cap here for sure here. And you know I have been just waiting just just just just clench my fist like like come on, coach, like like, come on and say softball finally break through here. I've been calling it now for two years. And can this finally be the year where we finally, you know, get to NCAA tournament? Uh, you know, uh, I think there was so much opportunity, so much me left on the bone last season, specifically the LSU game. Like how sweet would have been Greg if Lindsey left, which could have gotten one win against. Against your former team. Uh, you know, and unfortunately huge balloon blown lead there. Uh, but again, the past is the past. We're moving on here. 2026 2027 season here. Uh, you know, and and really wanted to highlight two big transfers. So first one here is al McCluskey, transfer, uh, sophomore infielder from Oklahoma State. Uh, so, you know, a pretty high elite softball program there. Getting a transfer there is always a good thing. Uh, was ranked uh, uh, the number four. Number 34 overall prospect by Softball America in the 2025 class has three years of eligibility remaining. So, you know, brings the the definitely the talent, uh, brings the experience being a part of an elite level softball program and, you know, can coach left which, you know, put her in a situation to be successful and be an all ACC can player this year. I think that if she's not that I'm gonna be a little disappointed, honestly. But uh, and then the other one being Ken Kendall, uh, infielder outfielder from Syracuse University, but is a Smithfield, North Carolina native. Greg, uh, so, uh, born right down the road here. So coming back home, I'm sure it was a huge, huge pull for her. Uh, but gone last year, uh, about 256, uh, but slugged 524, uh, had five home runs, seven doubles, seven stolen bases, 13 RBIs and 38 games last year and was named a D1 Softball top 100 freshman watch list player before last season. Um, and actually stole two bases versus NC state back on March 29th too. And uh, coach left. Was she even coming out? Even a step brethren uh, calling on one of the most versatile players that we've recruited, which as you and I know, Greg, Coach Leftwich has had her hands in some pretty big Recruits pockets here for sure. And so to come out with a cool like that is not one to be over oversaw for here for sure. Yeah. For sure. I just think, you know, as a as a wise man once said, patience, grasshopper. Uh, I think I think it's coming. I, I think the, the, the the tides are about to turn for NC state softball. I again talking with coach left which last I think it was maybe fall or spring. I can't remember when I had the conversation. She said straight up that she just needed to clean house and get the people in there that believed in the program, believed in her. And that takes time, you know? And this is what is this year three or year four for her? Year three? Three. Is it year three? No, I can't remember. Maybe four. I think it's four. Four. I do think it's four four. And look that's and again things are different you know. But that's a complete recruiting cycle. We're kind of where my point was going with this is it takes time to get all these players in. And you know she's had a lot to she had a lot to get right. You know we she still you know let's be real. If you thought baseball facilities were bad you hadn't seen softballs like softballs like here, hold my Gatorade. Um, and so she's trying to, you know, those are important recruiting things when you're trying to get elite players to come to your program. And she's, she's, she's she is swimming upstream, uh, against the current. But she is making progress. And I think she just needs that one season to catch that wave. And then she can just she can she can go. And again we talked about and we're not I'm not making excuses here, but ACC softball is really good. Loaded too. Loaded. And so so you've seen like hey we win a game here in a series. We won a game here. We won a series here. Won a series. It's just consistency. It's again I, I mentioned it with with women's soccer finish and I think you saw a couple instances last year where we gave up late run leads and just couldn't finish some of these games. And again, if you finish these games, you start getting you start believing in yourself and believing in the process. And then you get that momentum. And then momentum is contagious. And like all of that stuff, just kind of the floodgates open and you next thing you know, you're competing at a high level. And again, I just think it's just getting these players not only in softball, not only in women's soccer, but just believing in the process, trusting the process and finishing it and not, you know, getting down and getting, you know, frustrated and all those things. But again, it's it's coming. I, I truly believe in what Coach Leftwich is doing with women's softball. And said it better myself here. Greg, I'll let you be the, be the be the the ending of that here. So we're going to jump on over here Wolfpack nation to one of our favorite segments here. Tweets of the week. Big thanks here to our, uh, our sponsor, Alpha Wolf CPR trainings, uh, for sponsoring us our show here. Are you looking to get CPR certified for your business school, church team or or organization? Our full of CPR trainings makes it easy by bringing 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 full instructor led class, they customize the training to fit your group's needs, including adult only or pediatric certifications. Convenient, professional, and tailored to your schedule of CPR trainings, uh helps you stay prepared when every second matters. To learn more and schedule your class today, visit Alpha Wolf's CPR site today. So, Greg here, uh, once I can get our our setup here. Um, so our first here tweet of the week here, I gotta give you a huge shout out to Mr. Johnson for making the USA baseball roster. Uh, you know, I, you know, I, I'm, I don't think this is really much of a shocker here for me, Greg. I mean, with what he was able to show here during his freshman year. Now, I mean, I think that that's honestly probably just the storyline of of it is the fact that he is so young and his and is able to make the collegiate national team, not just the, the, you know, the red, you know, the red stripes, uh, you know, game, uh, but actually make the team says a lot to to the potential he, he, he has and the player he currently is. Absolutely. He had a really, really good, uh, training camp. And obviously because of that, he was rewarded with making the team. Um, huge deal. Second year in a row, we've had, you know, representation from NC state baseball. Uh, if you were with us last week, I made mention where Jacob Dutton and Ryan Maroon represented, uh, NC state with team USA. And again, just another year where we're churning out good talent. Um, and that, you know, he's going to go represent not only the USA, but NC state as well. And super excited to see what he does in the series over, over in Asia. And um, I think, uh, I think the Asian community is going to be in for a rude awakening when they see Rhett Johnson at the plate. Mhm. Yeah. I mean, you know, highest freshman batting average in the country. Greg Greg uh 28 game hit streak now representing team USA. That's your NC state uh baseball program right there. Uh and you know in my opinion really just is is going to be one of your building blocks here for at least next season here for sure. Uh, and again, we've we've seen a lot here focus around the, uh, pitching side, which I think is a understandable place to go, especially when you lose those two guys you just mentioned and, uh, and Duden and, uh, maroon. Uh, so, you know, again, just just, you know, just huge, huge hats off here to Red Johnson here and excited for him to represent team USA in the World Collegiate Baseball Championship in Taiwan from July 11th through the 15th year. Uh yeah. Real quick just, you know. Go. Ahead. People would be like, oh, you're losing tie head potential first round draft pick in Major League Baseball. Oh, whoever slides into center field next year has got big shoes to fill. Uh, you're looking at him. You're here. Rhett Johnson, team USA. Um, and again, not the same game, but, uh, there's not going to be a huge drop off putting putting Rhett Johnson in center field. I think, um, we're in good hands, if you will. Yeah. And then obviously our, our, you know, fearless leader former fiercely or coach Lee Avent, uh, getting honored by, uh, team USA uh over the weekend and was uh, was an awesome, awesome video to see and just, you know, huge, huge thanks to team USA for for doing that. Coach Avon, who was a huge part of USA baseball, actually as a as a coach, brought us to even just as a, you know, mentor fan. I mean, you know, being that, uh, most of their games are played and the, the town of Cary, uh, you know, right down the road here. It makes sense to, to bring in a guy who's won over 1300 games, has been to three College World Series appearances, and bring him around and let him pour into these, uh, collegiate national team players. So, uh, you know, huge, huge congrats to Coach Haven. And hats off to him on, uh, this, uh, another amazing accomplishment in his, uh, elite, uh, and studious, uh, record here for sure. Yep. He, uh, actually coached team USA in three different occasions during his career. Uh, that same college, um, team USA, that that that Brett made. Um, he coached them on multiple times. So, uh, great. Ambassador, uh, for not only, you know, the Raleigh area, but you know, the nation as a whole. And, um, really nice thing that they did for Coach Avent here. And I again, Coach Haven was never one looking for accolades. And, you know, all the hubbub that goes with these things, but, uh, very, very well deserved, very nice gesture on the part of team USA. Absolutely. Our next tweet of the week here. Uh, we've already really talked about it. So women we spend too much time here, but now it's official here. Taylor Black is coming back to NC state as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. Uh, spent four years NC state from 2014 to 2017 as this assistant coach. Left for the Detroit Tigers organization as a scout, and then spent four years at Florida, uh, as a recruiting coordinator assistant coach before making the decision to come back to NC state here. Which, you know, again, Gregg won't spend too much time. But once again, just that's the kind of resume that you're bringing to NC state. I love, love, love every bit of that. That is everything. That's in my opinion, you want on your coaching staff. And so, you know, we've already talked about once again said three, three times, but uh, you know, just just huge hats off to Chris Hart for making moves like this. Yeah. Um, all three years that he was at state from 14 to 17, like you mentioned, state was a tournament team. And while his time at Florida, they made the College World Series two of the four years that he was there, uh, elite recruiter, um, will be, you know, I would assume probably the third base coach again, I don't know that for sure. But, you know, if he's going to basically assume Chris Hart's responsibilities, um, it would kind of make sense that he ends up there. Uh, and, uh, you know, he's got he's got great resources. He's got the state of Florida that he can recruit from. And, um, yeah, I think this is a again, pardon the pun, but it's I think it's a home run higher and an a no brainer, uh, for for Coach Black. Yeah. So this is a tweet here, Greg, that you specifically want to add on here. And just to kind of add a couple of, of of points to this here. Uh, the FBS Oversight Committee actually proposed replacing spring football and summer workouts with 21 on field practices across two separate periods. And they actually even also cut the preseason camp from 25 practices down to 21 practices. But pending an August vote effective January 1st, 2027, uh, the all Division one pro football programs will get 21 on field practices between spring and summer instead of the current 15 spring practices. Uh, here. So why do you feel like Greg, you wanted to highlight this so much? What what what significance do you think NC state fans should take from this? Well, I just think that it's, uh, you can space these out a lot better. Um, you know, you know, depending on how your season works out, you know, if you're playing for a national championship, you basically only get, like, three weeks before you're right back into spring ball. And so now you can kind of space these things up maybe a month I don't I, I, I would have to look at the dates exactly. But uh yeah. Uh, you know, you can space these out a little bit more. It helps with your transfer portal. You know, you can kind of move things around. Uh, one of the other interesting things from this, I believe this one was, is you're going to be able to have a scrimmage, um, against, like, a lower level, uh, football program. So, like, you could bring in, like a Western Carolina and have that as your spring game in a controlled and scrimmage environment. Uh, which is nice. Um, you know, you can evaluate against guys that aren't against your own team and then, you know, it helps the little program. You probably pay them a couple hundred thousand dollars. Come in. You know, maybe maybe you sell some tickets to that game and raise some money. Who knows? Like I, I will be interested to see how this thing plays out, but I just think it's better, uh, to spread these spread these things out, and, um, it just keeps. It just keeps because they're already. They're already in the program like what they basically do. And you know this probably better than me. You know, your time being a equipment manager. They have like workout sessions and all that. So they're still in the program doing things. But again, I think you can mix up now training sessions with on field sessions. And I think it just I think it will help break up the monotony of like, okay, you know, from this month or this month, we're just going to be in a weight room doing this. And I think, okay, now we can get out on the field, do some instruction, can just just mix it up a little bit. And again, I'm not sure if that's the reasoning behind this. I haven't really found anything, but maybe you saw some stuff. Well, I mean, you know, I think the biggest thing. Like you had mentioned Greg to this is, is the ability to be able to kind of customize depending on what the head coach thinks is best for his team. Uh, you know, depending on, you know, if it's a brand new quarterback, for example, you know, maybe you want to focus on giving him, you know, more reps or whatever, maybe. or if it's a team like you said, Greg, they went deep into the playoffs. Maybe you delay a little bit here to give your team plenty of rest here before getting back in. No, just I think that's really the biggest thing really from this. Greg. Greg is just the feeling that you're able to customize instead of feeling like basically you have your spring practices and like if you don't use them, then you're kind of feeling like you're leaving me on the bone being like, well, why would I take advantage of every single practice NCAA lets me have? And then same thing with Summer. Why wouldn't I take advantage here? Well, now it's basically more of like you're just giving a wider window that you can do what they what you will, which I think is great. Now the funny story here, Greg, which I'll share, is, uh, you know, because there's, you know, as you say, we always, you know, hold to, uh, the NCAA, uh, you know, committee. And what they want is I remember a winter workout around, uh, I think it was probably probably March. April was around, uh, the signing day, Back in the day. And it'd be like one of those, like 5 a.m. workouts, but they basically would do some running and then they would do drills. Well, since you can't have footballs because if you have footballs, it's considered a practice. Yeah. They would play with they would, they would do tennis balls. Uh, so they, you'd have quarterbacks like doing drop back drills with, with tennis balls in their hands or, you know, with running backs where you, you know, or receivers really be throwing receivers and the rivers of go receivers go and high point the tennis balls, things like that, like things like that. You know, it's just for me, it's still one of those stories that I laugh about in my head just being like, I mean, hey, listen again, it's whatever practice, it's not consider practice. But guess what? Hey, listen, I mean, it's it's, you know, there's there's there's one thing of having nothing in your hand. Then there's another thing with having something or, or quarterbacks would use towels that they would wrap up, you know, in a bundle, put tape around it. And then and they would, you know, do a, you know, hold a football that way. So that'd be another, uh, item they would use to enact a football. Uh, you know, obviously a tennis ball you can throw easier, but I think a towel like that would give you more of that football field, because you actually can put two hands on it like you would in actual football here. So yeah, again, just some examples of ways that, uh, in my experience, we've been able to, you know, figure out ways to get get that work in while still staying to NCAA, uh, committee guidelines here. So I always love a little bit of flexibility here. Love that. Absolutely. Um, then the other one here, which still staying on the NCAA committee, uh, part here, the NCAA has voted to shorten the transfer portal from ten, from 15 days to ten days, starting at 2027. So now next year's window will run from January 4th to January 13th. Uh, Greg, this is another one you specifically highlighted. So I'll let you have the floor here first. Yeah. Just the just another tweak to already what they're doing. Uh, I think I think ten days is great. Just get it. Get in and get it done with, uh, stop dragging out the process. Uh, I definitely think that, um, I'm not sure when the national championship game is. Maybe it's around. Maybe it's probably because I know, like the college basketball's the. The portal was like the day after the national championship game, so I'm assuming it's probably something like this again, with with college football. Um, haven't really looked at the dates yet. Like I mentioned earlier, hadn't really gotten in football mode, but, um, yeah, just just get in. People make their decisions. You know, you kind of know if you're going to get in the portal, you're not going to get in the portal. Uh, it just lets coaches get their rosters set quicker. Um, don't drag these things on again. Now that's keep in mind this this window is when you can declare, right. You can actually commit at any point. So you know. You know, if you if you enter the portal on January 10th, you still may not commit till April 1st, if you will. Like again, you're already in the portal, but I think this will just speed up that process and, you know, keep it moving. And I'm sure this is what coaches have been asking for. And, uh, it'll just it'll just make things a little easier for for coaches and roster management. Yeah. No, I couldn't agree with you more. Uh, our next we the week here, uh, is coming from Rico. Rico, uh, talking about UVA and how they are by far the oldest team coming up this upcoming football season in America, having 53 players labeled as either graduate students, retro seniors or seniors. Their opponents, uh, are have the following amount of seniors. And right there at the top. Greg, of all the opponents here. NC state with 37 seniors here. So I'm sure, Greg, this one stood out to you specifically and and you know, and obviously Greg catching and and seeing that here. But yeah. 37 seniors. Yeah I just I saw it and just it is interesting to see again we're talking about the portal and roster management and and the philosophy that these teams are taking. You see Carolina with 12. They put a heavy emphasis on prep recruiting uh 37 for NC state. You know, I think you're seeing a good mixture. It is the it is the highest on on UVA's roster. Um, yeah. I it's just again, just a different way on on teams building their rosters out. Um, Virginia was pretty successful last year, you know, going to the ACC championship game. Um, you know, you're getting bigger, stronger guys, guys that have played a lot more football and you're helping, you know, with state having 37 of these, you know, again, I haven't done or maybe that's something we do or have uh have Ethan do since he's the the the stats and numbers guy. Uh, to see, like, of these 37. How many we project playing a significant role for NC state. But it is just something that just came across that I found. Okay. That's that's kind of interesting. Um, yeah. You know, is there a correlation to wins? I don't know. You know, it's it I think there could be something there. But again, it's it's how these guys are, you know, valued on your team for sure. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, for me, really, I think it's I mean, let's put it this way, Greg. I mean, like, back before the transfer portal, if you had a very senior led team, that just means that the expectations are really high for your team this year because you've been developing these guys now for 4 or 5 years. So, okay, now it's time to see the fruit of your labor kind of thing here. Uh, watch obviously what the transfer portal and being that a lot of these these seniors are transfers. Uh, you know, I, I still think you you still take a lot of positive in that. You know, it, you know of these guys, our seniors coming to see state, they're coming to NC state with, you know, the fact that they want to go out on top. You know, they want to end their collegiate career with this with a successful season. Um, and, uh, you know, so, you know, and I mean, I think there's, there's guys here that aren't seniors that, uh, you know, that probably won't be at NC state next year here, but, you know, going pro whatever may be. So. Yeah. I mean, listen, I think it's it's always great to have as much experience on your roster as you can, but also tie that in with guys also to have untapped potential from a talent perspective to as well here, which is another thing I think in the state that you have here. So the fact that from a numbers perspective, it's unequivocal. You can't argue with that. This is a very experienced NC state football team, maybe not experienced NC state, but experienced in the college football landscape. I'll take that. Uh, to add to another reason of why maybe this might be potentially definitely potentially thorns. Yeah. So. there you go. So. That's right. Well it's interesting. Just last thought is when you look at Virginia with 53, that's an NFL roster 53 man roster is the NFL roster. So you if you think about it in those terms like and again you know what are you what is your coaching philosophy. What is your recruiting philosophy. Uh you know are you plugging are you plugging holes. Like how many of those 53 are homegrown? Like there's multiple layers to this. But again, it's just interesting because at the end of the day when you're talking seniors, redshirt seniors, you're talking guys that are 23, 24, 25 years old, depending on, you know, um, how many years they've been in because, I mean, now you've seen guys like with 8 or 9 years of college football. Um, but, you know, typically anywhere from 23 to 25, but. Yeah. Yeah, just just an interesting, uh, thing that I saw. Interesting tidbit. Uh, our next last one here, Brian Murphy coming out saying under new North Carolina budget. Yet to be signed into law. Here's the breakdown for uncW system schools for sports betting revenue. So for D2 up to 2.9 million a year D1 non FBS. So Greensboro Asheville, Wilmington A and T North Carolina Central up to 3.3 million D1 FBS, a uncW, NC state ECU Charlotte North State up to $5.8 million. So Gregg, I think this probably ties into conversations we've had over the last two years around the potential benefits you would see from sports betting being legalized in the state of North Carolina here, being that you're tapping into some additional funds that can be funded and that can be flown into and while you name it here, with up to $5.8 million of additional revenue from sports betting. Uh, very significant, uh, every dollar counts in today's environment. Uh, you know, you need to find untapped Financial resources that don't involve you or me, right? Like you're trying to. It's tough to start, you know, having to come to your donors. Every every six months or whatever it is. You know, during a portal season. Hey, we need $2 million to get this player right, or we need $4 million to fix a bathroom. Like, whatever. Whatever the case is that, you know, you're you're trying to tap in, uh, to to fund. To funnel money to your programs. This is $6 million, essentially, that will be coming in that you have to. You don't have to do anything for it. It these things will just take care of itself. Now, obviously up to 5.8, it will depend on how much revenue was coming in, you know. So if people are gambling at a high rate, I would assume you would get the full 5.8. Um, don't know all the, all the details. But again, if you're if you're maxing out at full value, that's, that's look, that's that's half of a of a basketball roster for a year. If you if you want to look at it in those terms like, you know, roughly $6 million state spends anywhere from 10 to 12 million, if you believe what you read out there. And that's one less sport, you don't have to put as much money into, uh, or or wherever. I'm not sure where these where the money goes, like how you're able to use it, but I would assume, like you mentioned, it's for like nil or I don't know that that part. I would be curious. But anyway, you're, you're you're not having to spend 5.8 in some, uh, some, some facet. Yeah. Last week, the week here from college football kings here uh, highlighting in the, the 2016, uh, Hurricane Matthew's game between Notre Dame and NC state here. Uh, you know, I'm sure Greg, this is probably a big highlight for, you know, this is something you brought up as, uh, yeah, I know for me and I, I've talked about this is this is by far the favorite college football game that I've ever been a part of here. I could talk stories on stories on stories about this game here. Uh, yeah, I would, uh, I just brought it up and showed up in my feet. I didn't know how much time he would have. Uh, I would love to maybe do this as a, uh, a 30 minute episode one day. Just talk about our experience from this day. It was. It was one of the most insane days that I've ever been a part of. And it's one of those things, like you just said, that I could. I can almost tell you verbatim, hour by hour, what my day was like. And it just it had that much of an impact in my sports world, where it was one of the craziest, most fun days that I've ever had as an NC state fan. Like, probably, I would say this is a top ten moment in my NC state sports fandom. Maybe, I don't know, I would have to break it down, but it's significant. I mean, I mean, just from the uniqueness alone. Greg, I, I yeah, I would I couldn't allow you to not be in the top ten. I mean, there's, there's, there's it's arguably one of the most unique games in the history of college football, and the fact you literally play in the middle of a hurricane, like the fact that this game even happened. Is is is is is insanity like. Yeah, simple as that. But yeah, I mean I, I definitely think Reagan. And so that's a little bit of a teaser here. So again, if you haven't hit that subscribe button already make sure to do that so you don't miss out when this episode comes out here soon. But yeah, for you from a fan perspective, me from an equipment manager perspective. Wow. I didn't realize that you were still an equipment manager. Yeah, we we definitely need to do we definitely need to do an episode on this because I think it's, uh, it would be fun. And then I would love I hope it's like an episode where we can get some comments and I, I think it would be I think it would be fun because I've got some stories from that day. It was it was very, very interesting. But yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So with that being said Wolfpack Nation, we'll wrap things up right there here. So first of all I want to say thank you for everybody for tuning in with us here. Once again. It's always a so exciting and we always love getting on with it. 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