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Mac & Bone Show - Connor O'Neil Interview · Mac & Bone Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: He is Connor O'Neill, who joins us here on the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Mac and Bone Show in the Queen City.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Connor, how you been, man? What's going on?
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: I'm good. I've got two good football teams to cover,
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: and basketball is knocking on the door. So it's a
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: busy time.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Heck yeah, it is, man. Heck yeah, it is. We've
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: got to start with the Deacs. This is just such
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: a fun team. Do you feel like.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: There's a, is there a chance of them making the playoffs?
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Is there, is there only chance to literally go win
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: the ACC, get a rematch with Miami and beat them? Like,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: what do you think about that aspect of this Deke's team?
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, my brain is split in two ways. And the,
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: the dreamer part of me wants to say, if this
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: is an 11 and one team that goes and loses
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: to Miami and Charlotte plays, plays Miami tight, they played them.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: Give them all they can handle. I think that's Miami's
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: closest game so far this year. 11-2 with two losses
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: to Miami, I think, would get in. But the realist
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: in me says 11-2 ACC or a 9-3 SEC team
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: that has a bunch of these ranked wins that are
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: boosted by their own metrics and the ESPN statistics. the
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: machinery that will boost them over the ACC teams that
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: everybody thinks suck. So I don't know, guys.
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: They're really going to need Louisville to be Louisville for
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: the majority of the season so that win looks better
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: and better. And SMU at the end for Wake, they're
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: going to need them to be ranked and be like SMU,
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: beat them to really boost that resume, in my opinion.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Can they beat SMU? SMU beats Notre Dame? That would help. Although,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: now I think we're dreaming, though, Connor. You know what
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: I mean? Like, now we're dreaming.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: This is where I hit you with the stringer bell
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: at some point. Like, we don't got to dream no more, man.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: Obviously, Gio Lopez finds himself in a much more comfortable
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: offense that he's used to than he had last year
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: with the heels. But what is it about this offense,
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: this style, what makes Gio Lopez so good in this system?
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: I think you hit the nail on the head. First
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: and foremost, it's comfort. I mean, he just– he was–
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: a shell of the quarterback that he was at South
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: Alabama last year. He was a shell of the quarterback
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: that he's been this year, last year. Anybody that judges
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: Geo based on last year is kind of missing the
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: tree for the– what's the phrasing I'm looking for? Missing
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: the forest for the tree.
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, something with the forest and tree.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: I get all those wrong.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: You got me. But, man, they've got other playmakers. Like
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: Carlos Hernandez might be an NFL receiver. He's able to
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: get open and avoid contact and his elusiveness. Jack Foley
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: is only a sophomore, so I don't know if you
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: can project him to the NFL yet, but he's a
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: big physical guy who's had 200-yard games already this year,
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: and one of them was against Miami. Their offensive line
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: has a bunch of kind of FCS and misfit toys,
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: and they've got a second-year guy that barely played last
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: year starting at right tackle. They've got some pieces that
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: just fit together really well, and then You know, we
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: get so obsessed with talking about how many resources or
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: how few resources schools have. And I get that that's
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: become such a big part of college sports these days.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: But it's not the whole picture. It's not the whole pie.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: It's just a piece of the pie. You still have
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: to coach guys and you still have to develop them.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: And Wake is doing a great job of those things,
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: even coaching. wherever their resources rank them in the ACC.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's no doubt.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: As state fans, if having more resources matters. It did
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: not on Saturday. We're talking to Connor O'Neill on 3 Sports.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: He covers Wake. He covers Duke as well. We're going
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: to get to the Blue Devils in a second. Last
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: question I'm answering, and this is a total buzzkill question.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: I understand it, but I just feel like I've got
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: to ask you. Jake Dickert's amazing. I love this dude.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: I love his energy. I love what he's doing for
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: this Deke program, but it's hard not to think, man,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: someone's going to want to gobble him up fast. Do
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: you like, how much do you fear from a wake
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: standpoint that this will be his last year in Winston-Salem?
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I've got to record myself talking about this because
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: of how many times I get asked it. Yeah. Um,
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: I just, I, again, my brain is split in two ways. I,
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: I want wake fans to enjoy this season. I don't
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: want them to sit there and think that a win
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: is a good thing because it's one step closer to
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: their coach being out the door. Yeah. I also, the,
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: the realist in me is like, you know, Jake is
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: a Midwest guy who coached in the Pacific Northwest. He
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: had never lived in the South before he came to
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: wake forest. It, If he has won nine games in
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: his first season at Wake, he might win eight or nine,
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: and that feels like a little bit on the conservative
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: side for the rest of this season. It's not a
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: matter of will he go somewhere that meets his eye.
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: It's a matter of will he have the right job
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: offer for him. He will have his pick of suitors
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: if he is something like 20-8 at the end of
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: two seasons at Wake Forest.
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: Two of the most sought-after coaches might be the coaches
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: that you cover in Jake Dickard of Wake and Manny
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: Diaz from Duke. Now, not about Manny's future, but the
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: other day, how disappointing was that loss for Duke to
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: Georgia Tech? And, Connor, why, despite Duke's program being so
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: much better than it used to be the last decade
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: or so, why do they struggle so much with Georgia Tech?
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: I believe that's six straight losses now to the Yellow Jackets.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's confounding. especially when you think about the way
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: they lose to Georgia Tech. Everything that Manny has built
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: his program around is winning the fourth quarter, and they're
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: able to win the fourth quarter in most games that
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: they play. Illinois, they had a nice comeback win. They
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: finished off games against Virginia in the ACC championship. Carolina
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: last year, that was a tight game. Manny's 22-10 at Duke,
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: and three of the ten losses are to Georgia Tech.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: and all three of them have been decided in the
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: fourth quarter. There's some mental blockage. There's something about the
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: way Brent Key builds his program is better in that
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: situation and that type of matchup than Duke has been.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: It was kind of mystifying to watch Duke the first
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: month of the season and see how well they played
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: defensively and then look at them on Saturday and look
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: at how many times the first guy to the ball
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: did not get a tackle. And you're looking at plays
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: that should have been like a two-yard game that turned
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: into a six-yard game or an eight-yard game. And that's
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: really hard to win a game when you do that.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: 100%.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: What do you know about going into this Carolina game?
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: What do you know about Nate Shepard and his health?
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, clearly he was out at times. There's clearly,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it's ankle or foot or whatever
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: it is. What do you know about his health going
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: into this UNC game?
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I asked him straight up after the game on Saturday.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: I said, you know, we saw you go in and
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: out of the medical tent. It looked like, to me,
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: the telltale was he was going out of bounds. And
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: for a year and a half, watching Nate Shepard run
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: the ball, if he's on the sideline, he's lowering his
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: shoulder and delivering some punishment. He's not going out of bounds.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: So that was the first alarm bell in my mind,
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: and he told us, He got rolled up on a
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: screen in the second quarter. He was dealing with an
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: ankle injury. It didn't limit him from having 190 yards,
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: but we know how adrenaline works. So I would assume
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: when the first availability report comes out tomorrow, he will
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: probably be on it. He will either be questionable or probable.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: I think those are the two most likely outcomes. And
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: then it's just a matter of has he iced it
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: up enough? Does it feel good enough to be 100%
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: against North Carolina? I don't think it's anything that would
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: keep him out. I'm not saying he's full go 100%
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: for Saturday. It's just a matter of how close can
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: they get him to 100%. And, man, if he's limited
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: in a large capacity, their offense changes.
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: I will drive to Durham, saw off my ankle, and
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: give it to him.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: I don't know if my.
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: Ankle will help him out at all, but for the brotherhood, man,
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: I got to do what I got to do here.
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: I was joking with somebody that were they going to
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: saw off their leg so that they could have their
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: kicker at Georgia Tech because that was a big thing
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: that popped up on the injury report. Their kicker was out. Oh, okay.
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: They've lost to Georgia Tech in that way under David Cutcliffe, too,
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: where they missed a field goal at the end. I
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: feel like Georgia Tech and the end of the Georgia
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: Tech game happens to them down there, the same movie
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: all the damn time. It's a kicker misses wide. Oh, man.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: The best news coming out of Saturday for Duke is
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: that Georgia Tech is not on their schedule in 2027.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: There you go.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: That is certainly good news. No doubt about it. All right, Connor,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: you do a great job on three sports, covering the Deacs,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: covering the Devils as well. And join us here on
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: the Mac and Bone show. If you were a Deac
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: or Devil fan or just a college sports fan, ACC fan,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: follow him at Connor O'Neill underscore D1.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Thank you, brother. Much appreciated, man.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: Be good. Thanks, Mac and Bone. Appreciate it.