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Know the Enemy - NC State · Boundary Corner Podcast

0:56
And welcome back to the Boundary Corner podcast along with my
1:00
partner, Brian Siegler, I am Curtis Wilson and this episode
1:04
is brought to you by Doctor Jeremy Counts down at the Counts
1:07
Family Pharmacy, your friendly neighborhood pharmacy located at
1:11
three O 1 S Main St. in Blacksburg.
1:14
We are also brought to you by moments on the Maori.
1:18
Looking for a weekend getaway but still going to try to make
1:20
it to one of those November games in Blacksburg.
1:23
Well the normal it's on the more is exactly what you're looking
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for on by a very proud hokey and located just outside Lexington.
1:32
So a little over hour drive from Blacksburg.
1:34
Go fishing, kayaking, relax by the river with a nice fire and
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just hang out. Check out the links in our
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comments sections with the Moments on the Marry or visit
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their Instagram page at Moments on the Maury What's up sigla?
1:50
Man, Andretti is on a heater already right up the gate.
1:55
We hadn't even we hadn't even gotten fired up just right
1:57
through the music running, running through the like a
2:00
fullback, going through a goal line right there.
2:02
Just soon we are going to get to that time.
2:06
We. Got the funds to get saved right
2:08
out the gate. We got the funds to get saved
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and huh, hey, hey you. Know what until until we see
2:14
different, keep that energy. Keep that.
2:16
Energy, I told you, I'll give us a couple weeks, let some things
2:19
unfold. You just saw how much money.
2:21
We'll talk about that a little bit later.
2:24
We're coming off a win. We're not going to go O and
2:26
12:00 this year. 1 and 11 is still there, but we're not going
2:31
O and 12, which would have been the worst record since in the
2:34
last 75. Years, I think we still, we
2:36
still got a, we're, we're coast alone, but we're keeping the
2:39
scoring streak alive so far as well.
2:42
So far as well. So tonight what do we got?
2:45
We are going to tell the truth. Couple things from the Wofford
2:48
game. Observations, ideas, thoughts we
2:51
saw from that. We are going to talk about the
2:53
BOV stuff that came out earlier this week.
2:55
Few other things as well, but to kick it off tonight we have got
3:00
us a guest and we are going to get to little.
3:02
Get to know a little bit more about the enemy in the NC State
3:06
Wolfpack. 7:00 Saturday night on The CW, which I'm going to be
3:11
interested to see the ratings this game pulls because I have
3:14
seen NC State and Virginia Tech both pull 700 + 1000 against
3:20
really shitty opponents. Where's Tally?
3:24
Tally's taking care of some business.
3:26
He might slip in and he might not literally taking care of
3:29
business. And Sheldon's taking care is in
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business too. So it's it's it's the O GS here.
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But like I said, we're going to get to know the enemy tonight.
3:37
We are bringing Evan on from the Red and White podcast to give us
3:42
a little background. Evan, good evening, Sir.
3:45
How are you? I'm good.
3:47
Thanks for having me fellas. Well, we appreciate you coming
3:50
on, man. So Evan, we know that you host
3:53
the Red and White podcast with your buddy.
3:55
Will give us a little background how it came to be with the
4:00
podcast and then just a little bit about yourselves.
4:04
Oh man, so back in 2008 maybe. Maybe.
4:11
Before that 2009, yeah, it was that we were tailgating for the
4:15
spring game with my buddy, my buddy Dustin that time went man,
4:20
there's nothing, nothing good to listen to and sports radio at
4:23
the time in the area and still kind of does very antagonistic
4:27
towards NC State in particular and didn't like it, right.
4:31
And that's what's our podcast and we started at my house in
4:34
the room together and that was God a long time ago and we've
4:40
been doing ever since. Dustin went on to do better
4:42
things. I did it by myself for a little
4:44
while, found Will and he's been with me for the last 5-6 years
4:49
now probably. We're getting close to overall
4:52
million downloads over all this time.
4:56
Yeah, so pretty happy before we've been built a nice little
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community. And yeah, it's, it's my therapy
5:02
for being an NC State fan, man. I just get people ask why you do
5:04
it. It's like, I don't know.
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I enjoyed, I enjoyed doing it, enjoy talking about it and just
5:08
makes me feel feel good. Well, first they are the.
5:11
They are the 2 deep of. NC State and you know what I
5:16
hear the million downloads I like I hear that it's like
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there's a goal for the future right there.
5:21
Now, Evan, you, you mentioned being the NC State fan and you
5:26
know, the antagonistic views down there in the triangle for
5:29
NC State. But but how did you yourself
5:31
become, Did you go to state or was it just born, raised?
5:34
This is what it's always been. Man, when I moved to North
5:38
Carolina, I was about 8, 9 maybe, and my brother was going,
5:42
ended up going to college at NC State.
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It was, he was freshman year, whatever.
5:46
My family moved down and there's about that timer, but it's like
5:50
we got to pick one. It was state Carolina or Duke.
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And I was like, well, my brother's going there, right?
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And my sister ended up going to Carolina, but a few years after.
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But yeah, we have always pretty much been a state household from
6:02
that moment on. And yeah, just been in my blood
6:05
at this point. I love hearing that.
6:09
I love hearing that. We're, I mean, we're we're guys
6:12
that have been fans since going back to 95, since we really
6:17
started following the sport. We've been Virginia Tech fans
6:19
and yeah, both of us spend a lot of time in Blacksburg.
6:24
Love the place, love the area. So it's, it's nice here and not
6:27
only, you know, roots from a, you know, alumni standpoint, but
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also just roots to the area and you know, just to love a place I
6:34
think is important as well. Yeah, yeah.
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Eventually moved to about. I was less than a mile from
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Carter from the at one point. So we used to be able to walk to
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the games, right. And then when I had kids and
6:46
whatnot, we moved a little farther away.
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But yeah, that was, it was an addiction.
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It was real. Being close, being close to the
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stadium was good. And yeah, so I've, I've been
6:56
there. I understand that.
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I've got to ask, what years did you live that close to the
7:03
stadium? 2008 to 2014 I believe is when I
7:10
moved 20 somewhere around there, 20/14/2016 somewhere in that
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range. OK.
7:17
So there are a couple you know 20/10/20 what 20/10/2011?
7:22
Don't don't bring up the 2010 game.
7:25
Don't bring up the 2010 game. It's still I still have
7:28
nightmares of. David.
7:32
Wilson coming out of high school coming out of half time, state's
7:36
leading 17/7 and 1/2 time and like, yeah, we're feeling good.
7:40
Pretty much owned that game early on opening kick, David
7:43
Wilson takes 90 plus yards to the house for a touchdown.
7:46
And it just like how did he just completely lost control of that
7:51
game ended up losing 4130 or something like that.
7:54
Like I still burned my my brain. It's just still see him running
7:59
a kick off return back. It's just, oh God, nightmares.
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It's OK, it's OK. One of our best friends has the
8:05
same memories. He coached against him in high
8:07
school. He had to deal with it for
8:08
multiple years. So David Wilson running down the
8:10
sideline so he knows your pain. So.
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It's just that was one of those you sorry, one of those years
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that you know it stay at stake ended up going nine and four
8:18
that year. Just another example of just
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being so close to it and then just letting it sit away.
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And that was that particular game of Virginia Tech wasn't as
8:26
good and you just had control of it and you just blew it.
8:30
Yeah. So anyway.
8:31
What do I ever feel bad about 2010?
8:33
Because 2010, we reeled off 11 straight wins after the Open and
8:38
two losses. Y'all were the first win that
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year. Y'all basically.
8:40
Oh, you're welcome. Yeah.
8:43
Yeah. 14 years, 15 years ago. But let's get into what you know
8:47
about and which is the NC State Wolf Pack.
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And let's talk about your team and kind of your feelings.
8:52
And I want to start on the offensive side of the ball
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because as I was doing my research, everybody knows
8:58
Hollywood Smothers and we want. You to talk about.
9:00
But Y'all right now are one of the most explosive teams in
9:03
college football. 10 to 20 yard plays.
9:06
Y'all are 12th in the nation. Y'all are top 30 in both 20 to
9:10
30 yard plays and 30 to 40 yard plays.
9:14
Y'all are an explosive team. And I am assuming Hollywood is a
9:18
lot to do with that. Hollywood is, and I put this out
9:24
to to our people and in my opinion, he's the best back
9:28
we've had since TA McClendon. That was a long time ago.
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He is a difference maker. He's everything to this team.
9:35
He's he just makes everybody else look better and he's Got
9:41
Talent around him. But he is he is it man.
9:43
He is so good at just making things happen.
9:47
He doesn't quit and he's a little dude and he will, he will
9:50
try to run you over. He will try to run around you.
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He will do, he will do anything he he can to help his team win.
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I forgot one of the quotes recently.
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It was after the maybe the UVA game and they said somebody said
10:02
something to him. It's like, I, I don't know, we
10:04
won. That's what I'm worried about in
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my yeah. Like it was a very candid answer
10:08
and he genuinely didn't care about how many yards he had.
10:11
And you're like, that's that's refreshing.
10:13
We've had some Migos in the past.
10:15
And man, I, I'm a huge Hollywood Smothers fan and he is, he is
10:19
the core to, you know, Dave Doran has always wanted to have
10:23
a running run first team and he's never really had a good run
10:28
game, which is whatever. But he's finally got Hollywood
10:33
Smothers that you can bank on to just make everybody else look
10:37
good. Offensive line looks better
10:39
because Hollywood Smothers is running.
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I mean, he is, he is the real deal.
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He's so good and I love watching him play.
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Yeah, man, having, you know, looking like last year, having
10:49
Basil tuned in the backfield, like there was a difference of
10:52
having that type of playmaker in the backfield.
10:54
Looks like you've got that with Smothers, you know, 5th in yards
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in the country, 6.29 per carry. I mean, just putting up some
11:01
borderline video game numbers at this point and it's impressive
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and it's definitely something that's got me concerned as a
11:08
hokey fan. It's like how you going to you
11:10
got you got to contain this. You're not going to stop him,
11:12
but you got to be able to not let him ring off those big plays
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or turn those, you know, 5 to 7 yarders into those 20 and 30
11:21
yarders that we've seen. It's got y'all put in a pretty
11:24
good spot as far as those big plays in the country.
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And let's talk about that too. And we can build off that.
11:31
Looking at CJ Bailey, how does what he does within this offense
11:35
also compliment the skill set that Smothers brings to the
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table? Yeah, I totally ignored Curtis's
11:41
question. I apologize for that.
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Hollywood has got a a group around him of other skill
11:47
players that really the the combination is really what makes
11:50
it work, right? I mean, he is, he's that good.
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CJ Bailey looks better because he's got Hollywood Smothers
11:57
there. He he can, you know, lean on
12:00
Smothers more than we've had in the past.
12:04
And CJ Bailey, man, you know, I was critical of him last year
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and not not a negative way. He was a freshman quarterback.
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He was, you know, 18 years old in high school.
12:14
He's thrown to Jeremiah Smith and the other guy.
12:16
I forgot. And you just like he didn't have
12:19
to do much, right? He didn't have to learn.
12:20
He's like, OK, Jeremiah, you go that way and I'm going to throw
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it that way and he can Chuck it a long way.
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Like it was it was not a hard game for him.
12:26
So he you could see that in his freshman year, like he was
12:29
nervous in the pocket. He wasn't looking downfield.
12:32
And this year he has made a humongous leap and he has been
12:36
so much better with his pocket presence.
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He's keeping his eyes downfield, extending plays right, not just
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bailing out and running. I think his development this
12:45
year has just been it's been better than I think anybody
12:49
could, could have expected. Like, I know he's talented, but
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to see him mature as a quarterback is really what's
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making this team, you know, come together.
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He he's phenomenal. He's got the pieces around him.
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But really he has developed a lot this year.
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And I know Kurt Roper is one of the reasons he stayed this year.
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And you can see those two, you know what has come from it.
13:15
And he keeps getting better every week.
13:17
He did have a great week last week, but nobody did.
13:21
And it wasn't his fault completely.
13:23
I mean, but every game this year he has gotten just a little bit
13:26
better. I wish they would change some
13:28
things and how they're using him, but that's just a armchair
13:32
quarterback for you. But he's just, he's phenomenal.
13:36
He's such a good player. And he's still young, right?
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He's only his, he's really his second year.
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You know, he's still a year and a quarter into college football,
13:45
right? So he's still young and he's
13:46
still getting better. But his development this year is
13:48
just what is keeping this team as aggressive as it has been.
13:54
Yeah, and his you know, his, his statistics is here.
13:57
You know, he's on, he's on track for over 3000 yards.
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He's above 70%. I think it's 72 or right at 72
14:05
more touchdowns than he had last year.
14:08
And that's what Smothers primarily carrying the ball,
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which is which is always the thing you have that dominant of
14:12
a running back. If your quarterback is trending
14:15
in the right direction for, you know, additional passing
14:19
touchdowns, it's always helps out.
14:21
Let me flip back real quick to Smothers because it's one of
14:25
those stories, right? West, Charlotte, Kidd, North
14:28
Carolina grown y'all go after him as hard as you can and a
14:33
blue blood comes in and takes him.
14:35
What was the story of him coming back?
14:38
Was it I went to Oklahoma. It it, it wasn't right because
14:43
we're getting this more and more it more and more what I would
14:45
call 15 to 40 schools, good schools, good programs in state.
14:52
Kid leaves because always greener pastures at the blue
14:55
bloods and then they come back. So what was his story with that?
14:58
Yeah, exact, exact same thing. He did give us a chance out of
15:02
high school. I mean, we were close and and
15:04
just like my NCAA 26 dynasty man, I got to recruit a guy and
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I'm right in the end. And then Georgia comes in the
15:11
end and offers him like, damn, like I was recruiting all
15:13
season, right? It's the same thing happened
15:15
here. He ended up going to Oklahoma.
15:18
Oklahoma got a ton of talent, right?
15:20
And there was a coaching change in Oklahoma and they had that
15:24
transition period there. But we NC State makes a lot of
15:31
makes their living on those kind of kids that leave and come
15:34
back, right? I mean, it's just we have the
15:35
good relationships. And one of our coaches said at
15:38
some point, yeah, we'll get him on the flip side, right?
15:39
We'll get him when he wants to come back home.
15:42
Noah Rodgers went to a hot from Wake County.
15:45
It went to Ohio State came back to Raleigh, right?
15:48
I mean, he's five star kid out of high school and you know,
15:52
Hollywood's no different, right. It's easy for those kids to come
15:55
home. It's kind of a safe choice.
15:56
It's you know, what are your options here?
15:58
You going to go to Wake Forest now?
15:59
I'm not going to run slow mesh. You're going to Carolina now.
16:02
They don't care about football. You come back, you come here,
16:04
right? It's come somewhere we can play.
16:06
And I think you'll see a lot of kids do that.
16:09
And it's not not a surprise that you end up here.
16:11
And he's a perfect cultural fit. He's just a perfect fit here.
16:16
But he comes back here. He's close to home.
16:17
He said, you know, my parents come to the games now and just
16:20
it feels better for me. And you know, he's a rolling
16:23
kid. He's he's, he's going to be
16:25
here. As much as.
16:26
I like I like the the fun disrespect that you shared a
16:29
Wake Forest. Yeah, that was, that was great.
16:32
That was great. All right, now I want to talk
16:34
about another guy now. Thanks for that story.
16:36
It's one we've seen so much. We've seen it here at Tech for
16:39
the last few years. But let's talk about a higher
16:42
recruited in state guy that you brought and he's producing on
16:46
the field this year. And Terrell Anderson, that guy
16:49
was a top 100 player, top 20 wide out.
16:53
It seems everyone was on him. Everybody thought he was going
16:56
to Georgia. Joker Phillips, If you don't
16:58
know the name Joker Phillips, you ain't been around on college
17:00
football long enough because that man can recruit his ass
17:02
off. But this year really stepping
17:05
out, you know, averaging I think what close to 20 yards catch
17:10
over like borderline at 300 yards in the first four games.
17:14
What have you seen him do? Because he played a lot last
17:17
year, didn't have the stats. What has he done for you?
17:20
Impressive this year. Last year was it was weird.
17:25
I think the most critical point was how they use the wide
17:28
receivers last year and the rotations.
17:30
You you didn't you couldn't get anybody into a flow.
17:32
So I don't hold any of that against him.
17:34
And he was a freshman, right? But when I did see him on the
17:37
field the first time was like, who is that?
17:39
And why is a tight end, you know, line up in the X and
17:41
you're like, that's not a tight end, That's that's Terrell
17:43
Anderson. Oh my God, that guy's enormous.
17:46
Like he is bigger than you think he would for beer waters If he's
17:49
thick and he has come out, he's come on this year, right?
17:53
I think. And he stays done a better job
17:55
of being more consistent with their rotations, especially the
17:58
skill positions. And guys like Keaton Jackson and
18:01
Terrell Anderson are, are getting the benefit of that.
18:03
I, I really like Terrell Anderson.
18:05
He's been, I don't even want to call him a possession guy, but
18:08
he's just been reliable. Like you would consider a
18:10
possession guy. But state is spreading it around
18:13
like our, our, we had 10 guys get 4 catches.
18:18
Was it last week or the week before?
18:20
And I'm like, it's just, when has that happened?
18:21
Right? It was just, they're being
18:23
productive and they're being productive because they can
18:25
spread around to anybody, right? One day it might be Lester
18:27
Grimes, one day it might be King Jackson.
18:30
It's the best wide receiver group we've had in a long time.
18:35
I, I can't even remember the last time we had a group that
18:38
you could literally rely on any one of these dudes, any at any
18:40
game. And Charlie Anderson's no
18:42
different. I I really like him and people,
18:45
when people see him, just his sheer size, it's just bigger
18:48
than you would expect, you know, especially coming out of high
18:50
school. It's like, man, I thought he was
18:52
going to be a skinny, tall wide receiver, but he's a thick boy.
18:55
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, he's, he's got to
18:59
build. We we've already seen a bigger
19:01
wide receiver. You know, we we had Nick Harbor
19:05
earlier in the year. The South Carolina, obviously, I
19:08
don't think Anderson's quite that big, but certainly just as
19:11
thick has that like almost running back type build, like a
19:16
tall running back can can kind of run through you, run by you.
19:22
I'm a I'm a little concerned just because we didn't match up
19:25
that great in that game and we really the only person that beat
19:28
us in that game was Nick Harbour.
19:31
One time, one time he. Beat us.
19:33
He beat us one time, but he beat us.
19:34
He he beat us a couple times over on the digs as well.
19:37
So he was getting separation. Obviously we, we were fighting a
19:42
couple different battles on our end at this point between
19:46
coaching changes and, you know, potential, you know, opt outs
19:50
and things coming down the Pike. So we'll, we'll see what this
19:54
game looks like this week in, in, in any additional roster
19:59
churn that we may see as the as the season goes along.
20:03
Let's flip it over the offensive line a little bit.
20:07
You, you, you said earlier that, you know, a guy like Smothers is
20:10
making them better. Where have you seen the most
20:13
improvement in that unit this year?
20:17
Yeah, I mean, improvement wise, I'd say run blocking, but again,
20:23
I don't know how much of that is Hollywood Smothers.
20:24
I'm not well versed enough to be picking apart PFF grades for
20:30
offensive lineman. I can tell if a guy with some
20:32
block or is kind of out of position or you know, like we
20:35
let a damn field goal get blocked from 10 yards because
20:40
they weren't doing their job. Like those things are obvious,
20:42
but run blocking as a whole has been better.
20:45
But I think a lot of that is is smothers.
20:46
He's a better running back than we've had pass blocking.
20:50
They've been pretty good over the last few years, but we've
20:53
just struggled to run the ball and, you know, basically control
20:57
the line of scrimmage. But I I think they've improved a
21:00
little bit this year. They're still trying to find
21:03
their rotation and they were nine different offensive line
21:08
line UPS last game. And I think it was the same for
21:11
Wake Forest. They just haven't figured out a
21:13
couple spots like right guard and a guy starting and then he
21:16
didn't play much and then just kind of moving guys around.
21:19
So that I mean, that's still our biggest area concern.
21:22
I think they'll figure it out. But they've they've been better
21:26
than they have in the recent years and particularly run
21:29
blocking. Right pass blocking has been
21:31
pretty consistent for them over the last 3-4 years, but run
21:35
blocking just always been SUS. I just, I really attribute a lot
21:38
of that to smother. So I just he just makes
21:40
everybody look better. All right.
21:43
I want to bring up one other guy that kind of goes with the line
21:46
because yeah, we, we, we jumped into PFF this week and looking
21:49
at some of your height and graded players and Terrell was
21:53
there, Bailey was there, some others was there, backup
21:55
quarterback was there. But there was this guy at the
21:57
top of the list. And at first, I overlooked and
22:00
said it's a tight end. And I just kind of said I
22:03
probably had like 8 snaps, went back and looked a little bit
22:06
closer. close to 100 snaps has one catch and he's ranked
22:12
borderline at a 90 PFF. And when you think PFF grades,
22:17
if you're not catching a lot of passes and you're grading almost
22:21
a 90, that means you are run blocking your ass off and that's
22:25
Cody Hardy. What has he meant?
22:27
Because 25 snaps a game averaging on the field, and when
22:33
you grade that high, he's got to be popping off on paper some of
22:35
his blocks. Yeah, he has.
22:39
He did, especially in that Duke game.
22:41
I, I wouldn't say he is. I don't know.
22:47
He's found his role, I guess, so to speak.
22:49
He hasn't been somebody they've utilized a lot because he's
22:53
behind Justin Jolie, who was just phenomenal tight end.
22:58
But Hardy is the more physical version and they've been using
23:02
him sort of wing back, tight end, kind of moving him around,
23:06
doing different things for him. He's a transfer, came in from
23:09
Elon. They've talked about him all
23:11
summer and they really liked him.
23:13
I don't think they've seen we've seen his usage on what they
23:17
would like yet. But again, they're spreading the
23:19
ball around so much that I don't know if you'll key on one guy in
23:25
every on every game. I guess it's just going to be
23:26
somebody different. It's what we had every, every
23:29
game this year, somebody from the, you know, skill position
23:33
spot. It's just been a different
23:34
person every year, Wes, or every game.
23:36
Wesley Grimes, Tyrell Anderson, Key and Jack's had a real good
23:39
game last, you know, last game. So it's kind of all over the
23:42
place. I like Cody Hardy's from his
23:45
physical nature, but they haven't, yeah, I haven't
23:49
utilized him in the way that I think they will in the future
23:51
where he's a little bit more flexible than just a blocker.
23:55
Yeah, good deal. We're going to flip it over to
23:59
the defense and, and when we do, we'll kind of we'll, we'll,
24:01
we'll put this comment up there and we'll let you kind of lead
24:03
off with answering this and then we'll kind of go from there.
24:07
The defense is a sieve. Yeah, I mean, being honest,
24:14
somebody in my podcast community said said it.
24:17
And it's still a quote of the year for me is just the DJ
24:23
Elliott Higher, which is our new defensive coordinator.
24:25
Everybody kind of sussed like where'd this guy come from is
24:28
going to look brilliant and I'm going to be happy with it
24:31
because it's making Dave Doran want to score more points,
24:33
right? That's always been the biggest
24:34
thing is a lot of aggression on offense.
24:37
But you've got to score now because you have no idea what
24:40
you're going to get from the defense.
24:42
Now. We have played three of the top
24:47
35 most explosive offenses, passing offenses this year, ECU,
24:52
Virginia and Duke. And I don't we don't see anybody
24:57
else in the top 70 for a while until Notre Dame.
25:01
So, you know, I try. I try.
25:03
Probably not us. I, I try to factor that in, you
25:08
know, when, when evaluating the defense, because we've had two
25:11
games in the ECU game and the weight game where they have just
25:17
absolutely bottled up the opposing team, right?
25:19
Just did absolutely nothing wake everybody's worried about
25:23
Claiborne and they had 29 yards in the second-half.
25:25
Like that's just absurd. And I don't know, I I don't
25:30
nobody trusts our defense to to do anything, but they've been
25:33
pretty good on 1st and 2nd down. We can't get off the field on
25:35
3rd down like is that? Yeah, 1.4 in the country, that's
25:39
that's painful. Right.
25:41
I mean, is like, is that going to be consistent all year?
25:45
I, I got a feeling they got to get better with that, but it is
25:51
annoying. I don't, I don't really know
25:53
like the defense is bad, like there's some pieces, but I don't
25:57
know what they're doing right. It's just self-inflicted wounds
26:00
and just dumb. And again, if, if it makes our
26:05
offense have to actually be interesting and score more
26:08
points, then OK, I'll deal with it.
26:10
Right. It's just college football these
26:11
days. Score more points and the
26:13
defense is going to give everything up.
26:14
Like, yeah, I don't know, the defense is terrible.
26:18
We've we've got some players, we've got some, you know, Key
26:20
and Sloan and Sebastian Harsh, 2 guys that transferred in super
26:25
solid, had been really productive.
26:27
Sloan was out last game, Harsh was out for the first half of
26:30
the last game. The secondary, you know, we're
26:36
just just not there like they hadn't come together.
26:39
Safeties leave a lot to desire. Corners have been hit or miss,
26:45
right? They be boom or bust, man.
26:47
They're playing really good or just blowing every coverage and
26:50
you just don't know what to expect.
26:52
And then, you know, what we've usually banked on is our
26:55
linebacker play. And I'll be honest, Kaden Ford,
26:59
my thought, he's been pretty bad most of this year.
27:02
I mean, he's had his moments and people who are, I don't know,
27:06
people look at the numbers and look, he's got total tackles,
27:08
you know, but doesn't tell this whole story.
27:10
Look at his PFF grades and put a little bit more of the picture
27:14
together and he's, you know, averaging like a 50 in PFF.
27:17
And like that's your that's your captain, that's your starting
27:19
linebacker, starting middle linebacker.
27:21
Like you got to be better there. But he just, I don't know if
27:25
it's the injury or what it is, but maybe the defensive scheme
27:28
change. But it's been he's slow to react
27:32
and just doesn't seem like he's the guy there and like he's
27:35
done. He's better when he's trying to
27:36
be him and not Peyton Wilson making every play.
27:40
But you know, Shawn Brown is basically anchoring that
27:45
linebacker crew. And now we lost AJ Richardson,
27:47
who they haven't said he's out for the year, but he's out for
27:50
the year. And he came in, he was ultra
27:53
productive kid from Norfolk State.
27:55
And I, I liked him early on. He was one of my breakout
27:58
players. And you know, he hurt, he got
28:01
hurt and that's that that really hurts your your production at
28:06
the linebacker spot. And I, I don't think they have a
28:09
lot of guys they really like there.
28:10
So it, it is a concern and the defense as a whole has just been
28:16
not been good. They, they've got to score more
28:18
points is what it's going to come down to.
28:19
Otherwise, they're going to. It's going to be a long year.
28:22
It's really funny, Brian. Literally, we had everything
28:26
mapped to who to talk about with defense.
28:28
Clearly this is a pain point for you because you hit every single
28:31
thing we were going to talk about.
28:33
We were going to talk about the safety play.
28:34
We were going to talk about your edge guys and this, I love it
28:40
because I'm sitting here, we're talking.
28:41
Nope, he just talked about that. He talked about.
28:45
That, oh, I mean, I can keep going.
28:48
You know what, And you hit the points and you know, when I was
28:50
watching some of the tape and, and kind of going through
28:52
things, I was like, OK, well, you got a pretty good decent
28:56
look in front. You know, especially the the
28:58
defensive line in particular, and then a lot of inconsistent
29:02
play at the linebacker position and then very boom or bust in
29:07
the secondary. And you really hit on all of
29:10
those points that I was going through that was like, OK, all
29:12
right, check, check, got it. All right, all right.
29:15
And, and that that that can explain the whole third down
29:18
troubles because if you're, if you got inconsistent play at the
29:21
second and third level, your defense, you're going to
29:23
struggle to get off the field third down.
29:25
Yeah, I mean, and that's just been, that's just been it.
29:28
Like what are the plays in the Duke game?
29:32
And it was kind of towards the end and Duke was running out the
29:34
clock and we're trying to get the ball back and they just they
29:39
let the little fullback run for 60 yards and touchdown the end
29:43
of the game. I'm like, how does that happen?
29:46
Like they were Duke was just trying to get a yard and they
29:48
got 60 in a tutty and you're like, what what is going on?
29:52
And that's just out of position. Somebody's out of position.
29:56
Just what we've been seeing all year, Like Ronnie Royals been
29:59
playing safety. He's been boomer boss, made a
30:01
couple great plays in the weight game, in the UVA game, and then
30:07
just disappears one game. Like I can't, can't have that.
30:11
Yeah. They got to get better, but it's
30:13
not there right now, yeah. I'm, I'm interested to see what
30:16
this game turns out to be because I mean, when we look at
30:19
our offense, we've been very inconsistent with our play.
30:25
Very much a we go as our emotions go really on both sides
30:31
of the ball. Yeah, we, we, we have not
30:34
managed swings and momentum very well.
30:39
We have not managed responding when the bad play happens very
30:44
well. Yeah.
30:47
We, we've, it's, it's basically especially, you know, you look
30:49
at South Carolina, you look at Vanderbilt and then the debacle
30:53
with ODU, any little bit of adversity and we were, we were
30:57
folding. You know, we'll see if that's
31:00
changed with a interim head coach and a little bit more of a
31:05
accountability both on the field and on the field.
31:10
We'll, we'll see if that that type of mentality changes a
31:12
little bit more, you know, toughness out of this team.
31:15
But that's my concern is that we we've got to manage because we
31:19
know y'all's offense is going to score some points.
31:22
Yeah. The question is going to be can
31:25
we score enough to keep up and that that's that's really what
31:28
it's going to be. And I think the talent for us to
31:32
do so is there. I just don't know if we are
31:35
consistent enough and can manage those mentals and emotions
31:39
enough to be consistent enough to score with what you guys are
31:43
going to do so. Yeah, that he, he, he had it
31:47
right there on all the points. To me, everything on this team
31:50
is right here. Everything is right in between
31:52
the years for the team, right in the mind.
31:54
Because again, when bad things happen, they don't know how to
31:56
stop it. And again, we, we are now in the
32:00
coaching search. Well, there's a lot of things
32:02
going on, coaching search potential GMs, but I'm going to
32:05
pitch to you because in a little while here after you jump off,
32:09
we'll go over our keys and our predictions.
32:12
So for you looking at this game, what's the biggest key for NC
32:17
State? Whether positive, negative,
32:20
hokey or Wolfpack, what's the biggest key for you in this game
32:25
as an NC State fan? Don't be don't be dumb.
32:29
I mean, it's so cliche to say don't beat yourself, but they
32:31
absolutely just gave that game away against Duke.
32:34
I mean, if you look at all the projected win analysis, you
32:38
know, you know, stats of war always puts out and you're like,
32:40
that's so depressing to see us like outperform Duke at every
32:45
level except for turnovers and just lose, you know, just lose
32:49
that game. And that is the biggest beef I
32:51
think everybody has with Dave Dorn.
32:53
There's always one game where you just like, what the hell
32:55
happened there? And just, you know, neglecting
32:59
an in state opponent sometimes awake, sometimes it's Duke and
33:02
you're just like, how does that happen?
33:04
You're like, how does this team that has looked so good
33:06
offensively just look like a hot mess?
33:10
You know, we were talking about CJ barely earlier.
33:11
He had three picks in his game, but they weren't his fault,
33:14
right? Like the one bounced off the
33:16
receiver's hands. The other one was the no
33:19
offsides call that, you know, he threw a Hail Mary play
33:23
essentially and got picked. And then the other one was in
33:25
the game. You know, whatever, trying to
33:27
make a play, but just don't do dumb stuff and you'll be fine,
33:31
right. You know, I, I think you have
33:33
all the advantages of the world with Virginia Tech being a hot
33:35
mess coming to Raleigh, you know, a home game, you know,
33:40
your offense is exciting. Like you just, you have it all
33:42
there. Don't be dumb and you win this
33:44
game and it shouldn't be, you know, shouldn't be a big issue,
33:49
but it's NC State and you never know if they're going to be dumb
33:51
or not, man. Just you just don't know.
33:53
Like it's just. One of those things I, I would
33:56
love to be confident that we're going to go and kick your ass,
33:58
but I've seen this before. I, I mean, I think we're the
34:02
better team, but it doesn't mean that the gap is that big that we
34:07
should, anybody should feel comfortable, right?
34:09
I mean, just it's not. And I don't know what's good The
34:12
weather's going to be like, right?
34:14
They're projecting to be some serious storms coming in and
34:17
does that play a factor, right? It's there for us.
34:23
But you know, if we do what we did against Duke, which to Dave
34:29
Dorn's credit, they don't usually do dumb stuff two weeks
34:32
in a row, right? They usually don't beat
34:34
themselves two weeks in a row. So I feel pretty good in saying
34:38
that that's not going to happen. But you never know, right?
34:40
You never know. And we're not good enough to
34:43
cakewalk through any, any game, right?
34:45
Especially not a Virginia Tech team.
34:47
So, you know, if NC State, just, I sound like a coach press
34:53
conference here, just do what you're supposed to do, like do
34:55
your job right, Go out and do. Those take care of your business
34:58
and let them get smaller. They may, yeah.
34:59
Exactly like I, I feel pretty good about that, but that's the
35:03
truth, man. I really feel like if they just
35:04
don't do dumb stuff, they will be fine.
35:06
Lean on their guys that can carry, lean on Hollywood, lean
35:10
on Jolie and you know, just do do that, right?
35:16
Sit back on defense, make Virginia Tech have to do
35:19
something on offense, Mick Kyron drones have to beat you with his
35:22
arm, right? I mean, these are things that
35:26
sounds like, I think they're very recent.
35:27
Against us. All right, real quick before we
35:31
let you go, Evan, score prediction if you do that, I
35:34
don't know if you do that on your show every week, we do it
35:36
here. Well, most weeks.
35:37
Last couple weeks been a little bit wonky, but a lot of shit
35:40
going on. But what's your score?
35:41
Prediction for this game, yeah, I, I typically don't pick scores
35:44
because it just makes me look stupid.
35:46
And I already have, you know, I don't need any more help doing
35:48
that. So I do feel like NC State's
35:51
going to win. I do feel like they, they should
35:52
cover. Caveat being if the weather is a
35:56
horrendous downpour, then take the under.
35:59
That's that's my pick back in the under.
36:02
All right, so Evan, real quick, while everybody's out here, tell
36:06
them where they can find you, social media, YouTube, all that
36:09
fun stuff so they can check out kind of your preview what they
36:13
think, what y'all think those guys are going to do.
36:15
Yeah, we will record, actually usually record Wednesday night.
36:18
I don't know why we didn't tonight.
36:20
We're a little bit informal as you can tell.
36:23
But yeah, Will and I, You can find us all at Red White Podcast
36:26
on Twitter. He's at NC State football on
36:28
Twitter. Redwhitenetwork.com is our
36:30
website and all leads to the same places.
36:34
Perfect. Well, Evan, we appreciate you
36:35
taking a little bit of time this evening to really answer pretty
36:39
much every question we had about NC State going into this game.
36:43
I got 2 questions. And sometimes predicting the
36:45
questions that are coming I. Know I love it.
36:48
I got, I got a question for you. Coaching search, man, everybody
36:50
wants to know about the coaching search.
36:51
Who, who? Who's on your list?
36:54
We're we're, we're 10 weeks away from November.
36:56
Man, this I don't. Care.
36:58
Come on. Alright, Curtis.
36:59
Curtis, you've you've named names.
37:02
There's one name. Matt Campbell.
37:05
Matt Campbell. Matt Campbell.
37:06
OK, Matt Campbell, we can double his salary.
37:09
We can give him a hell of a lot more money for his coaching
37:10
staff and a hell of a lot better footprint to recruit in.
37:15
I like that I hadn't heard that one.
37:16
I mean, that makes sense. I, I say that and I'll throw Dan
37:20
Mullen in there. It's going to be hard to get him
37:22
out of where he's at, though. I feel like I, I think he's in
37:25
a, he's in a spot where he can exceed.
37:28
They can't hate him next year. They can't hate him next.
37:33
Year Dan Mullen's on my list. Y'all can't have him.
37:35
Dan Mullen's on my list. Oh, we got.
37:37
I want to get rid of Dave Wade. Of basketball, I want the
37:39
wilweed of football. Y'all aren't getting Dave rid of
37:41
Dave Dorn this year. I think he's retired, I think
37:44
he's done, I think he's tired. If he's done, then this might be
37:49
a record ACC coaching tournament.
37:52
Hold on, can I tell you Evan, what you really need to happen
37:55
and this will be good for y'all? Y'all need to go 10 and two in
38:00
Wisconsin, come down and hire him back.
38:02
That's what you. Know yes, that would be great.
38:05
I don't think I don't think he I think he retires before he goes
38:09
anywhere. He just seems like a guy's
38:11
absolutely exhausted from this error in football.
38:13
Like, you know, he's but he's close friends with freaking
38:17
Bronco and Dave Clawson and some of these other guys who have all
38:21
stepped down like they've just, they don't need to do it
38:24
anymore. And I, I don't think he would go
38:27
anywhere. I think he would retire before
38:28
he leaves. OK, Three or four years to deal
38:32
with it, we have. To go don't, don't do that to.
38:36
Me, don't do that to me. I'll jump through this thing and
38:38
joke. All good, man.
38:40
Well, but we don't know. The whole thing is with tech.
38:43
We're going to talk about it in a little while here.
38:46
It's already been structured that there will no longer be an
38:49
AD over football. There will be a general manager
38:51
over football, which is pretty much everybody's going to.
38:54
So, you know, you heard Bruce Arian say stuff on McAfee the
38:57
other day. We don't know.
39:00
And a, a, a lot of our stuff is probably going to get answered
39:02
and part of them is going to get answered next.
39:06
Is it Tuesday or Wednesday? Might help me out here.
39:08
Tuesday, 30th, 30th, our BOV unveils their plan.
39:13
And then probably from there you're going to probably start
39:16
to see the Domino's fall in the AD in the GM.
39:20
And then it's still going to take some time for the coat
39:22
because the honest truth is, I don't think we're going to get a
39:27
guy in retirement. I know our boy Andretti wants
39:31
Saban, but I think it's going to be a sitting coach.
39:34
And if it's a sitting coach, you can have everything in place.
39:37
As we all know, it will be announced on Thanksgiving
39:41
weekend when we're playing UVA. Any concerns that it's going to
39:45
be the absolute wildest coaching search cycle we've had in a long
39:48
time? No, no, I think I, I was, I
39:52
wouldn't be worried if we were working with the same money that
39:55
we've been working with the last two coaching hires.
39:57
If we're if we were going out there and saying we can pay you
40:00
between 4:00 and 6:00 million, I'd be concerned.
40:03
I think the number that we're going to be able to come out
40:05
there with is at least going to be competitive where our top
40:08
three candidates should be. One of those should be willing
40:11
to to take that. I think the bigger thing is
40:13
going to be how we end up. Structuring what's, what's the
40:17
relationship with the general manager that we hire and what
40:21
sort of commitments can we make consistently on the recruiting
40:25
front, on the money front to to make this job.
40:28
Not something just where the coach can go out there and coach
40:31
and not have to worry about as much of the other pieces of the
40:35
puzzle. You know, they'll have somebody
40:38
that they can lean on for for those aspects.
40:42
Very cool, it'll be interesting to watch.
40:43
I mean, it's a great job in my opinion.
40:46
You should be able to pull a candidate, that's for sure.
40:49
Appreciate it Evan so again y'all check out Evan healthcare
40:53
because I'm whenever they go live and put their obviously you
40:56
guys know your stuff Evan. I I can't wait to take a peek at
41:00
yours in a couple days here to see what you got to say about
41:03
the Hokies. So appreciate it, take care of
41:06
yourself and we'll talk soon man.
41:08
Y'all have a good one? Thanks, Evan.
41:10
All right, so again, there's Evan from the red White podcast.
41:15
Check him out. You know, this is the second
41:17
time we've had some other podcast on this year and I love
41:20
when I can check my boxes to say this is what I'm wondering
41:24
about. This is who I want to know
41:25
about, you know, and, and don't don't worry, There's a reason we
41:30
look at these guys. There's a reason that those
41:32
names pop out. It's research.
41:34
It's stuff like that. It's a lot of fun stuff.
41:36
It has something like. I, you know, I can go out there
41:38
and look at tape for, you know, 3 or 4 hours, but you know, I'm,
41:43
I'm not Evan. That's that's watching this team
41:46
every week, every week. So.
41:48
Every day reading the post. Getting the insight from, from,
41:51
from folks that, that are eating and breathing and living this
41:54
stuff is, is important for us. And I think it gives, you know,
41:58
all the listeners out there some, some additional insight
42:00
that you know, they may not get. And you know, you're not going
42:03
to get it through a maroon and orange colored lens that you
42:07
would, you know, if I'm presenting it out there, just
42:09
just, you know, full honesty there.
42:11
You're, you're getting the, the full story from the, from the
42:14
folks that, that see it every day.
42:15
So. Well, but but The thing is about
42:18
when it's through your lenses, you're trying to find where is
42:21
there an advantage protecting this situation That's like like
42:24
it was wonderful. He mentioned the safety because
42:26
you said can we can we because you were talking before we jump
42:29
on tonight, the safety struggle a little bit for them.
42:32
Sometimes our linebackers don't feel right.
42:35
Can we take advantage of that? And when he says it, he says it
42:40
as an NC State fan, you know, it's not just your eyes saying I
42:44
hope we can do that. It's like that's been a problem.
42:47
So again, it's laid out there and I can't wait to check that.
42:52
I I will be checking their podcast out this week just with
42:55
the game Evan Broth here.