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Mac & Bone Show - Tom Luginbill Interview · Mac & Bone Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: We are the champions, my friends. And we'll keep on
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: fighting till the end. We are the champions.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Sports Radio 92.7 WFNZ. Mack and Bone with you here. Now,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: we may not be champions ourselves, Bone. But according to
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: the great Tom Lugenbill, we do get up and start
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: working in the champion's hours, baby.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Hold on.
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: Speak for yourself. I told you I won that bowling
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: title when I was 10. Okay, I forgot about that one.
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: Forgot about that one. So you are a champion. We
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: rise in the champion's hours, baby.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Those are early morning hours when the real champions get
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: their workday started. Tom Lugenbill is one of those champions.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: And he joins us here from ESPN. He joins us
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: to talk some college football. Lugz, how have you been, man?
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: What's going on?
• 1:00
  Speaker 5: I've been good, guys. My question for T-Bone, was that
• 1:04
  Speaker 5: bowling tournament at 6.30 in the morning?
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: No, it was in the afternoon, yeah. Oh, okay.
• 1:11
  Speaker 5: They got him.
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: I also had an average of about 30 and some
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: kid had about 120, so I did nothing for the team.
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: I'm not even sure, Tom, how you would think that
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: a great athlete like me wouldn't have time to.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: Be bowling at a young age, but I guess I
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: was for some reason. All sports, Boney. All sports. You're
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: the Jim Thorpe of youth athletes in Winston-Salem. All right.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: Jim Dork. All right, Lugz. Hey, Lugz. It was good
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: to hear you on the call.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: The Duke-Georgia Tech game this week. I want to start
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: by asking you about Duke and their game against North Carolina.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: Shepard is... listed as questionable.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: You could tell he was banged up in that game,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: got bottled up a bit by his standards in a
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: run game, but still had almost 200 yards total offense.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: What do you think about the Duke-UNC matchup?
• 2:03
  Speaker 5: Well, they got to get him healthy because the entire
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: offense runs through him. And with the amount of carries
• 2:09
  Speaker 5: that he takes, the amount of shots he's taken, you're
• 2:13
  Speaker 5: going to get banged up. It's a long season. But
• 2:16
  Speaker 5: I think what the good side to Duke, and I
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: know there's never a good side to losing, but they
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: haven't had to rely on the passing game. They've been
• 2:26
  Speaker 5: trying to build up the passing game with a bunch
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: of new faces out wide while they've been able to
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: rely heavily on Nate Shepard. And if they can't do
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: that this week, you know, Walker Eget's going to have
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: to play and play well, and they're going to have
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: to create some of the explosives that may not be
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: there on the ground to through the air. And so,
• 2:47
  Speaker 5: you know, North Carolina, it's interesting because if you watch
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: that game the other day, the first half, they couldn't
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: stop the run. The second half, they completely shut down
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: the run. And so, you know, which defensive side for
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: North Carolina arrives is And how healthy, if he goes,
• 3:04
  Speaker 5: is Nate Shepard. That changes the game for Duke. I think, obviously,
• 3:08
  Speaker 5: it would give advantages to North Carolina. But that was
• 3:13
  Speaker 5: a big win for North Carolina, particularly how they won
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: it and the resiliency and the perseverance they had to
• 3:18
  Speaker 5: show to get that thing into the fourth quarter and
• 3:21
  Speaker 5: come up with a big explosive play to change the
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: game and ultimately win the game. I think it's going
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: to be a very evenly matched game. I would not
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: be surprised one bit. If that thing goes into the
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: fourth quarter is a one possession game.
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: How much more comfortable does Belichick appear in year two
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: at the college level? And how much is the way
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: this heels team plays resembling a Belichick type team when
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: we think of it that way?
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: Well, it's so glaringly obvious when you watch them, how
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: much better organized they are, right? They, you know, they,
• 3:55
  Speaker 5: Last year, it was very sloppy, very undisciplined. The players
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: they thought they had weren't the players they actually had.
• 4:02
  Speaker 5: The offense was in disarray. At times, they showed enough
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: flashes defensively where you said, OK, there's some foundational pillars
• 4:09
  Speaker 5: there that you can build upon. But now when you
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: watch them, there's an organization and a rhyme and a
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: reason and Uh, and I think a lot of that
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: comes from Bobby Petrino on the offensive side of the
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: football because he, he's, you know, they, is Billy Edwards
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: a great player? He's a great player. Is he an
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: improvement over a year ago?
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: Do I think that they can win with him as
• 4:30
  Speaker 5: long as he protects the football? Yeah. Because they're, you know,
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: they want to run the football. That's what they want
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: to be. But, you know, eliminating a bunch of, you know,
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: discipline penalties, pre-snap penalties, uh, Penalties when you've created an
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: explosive play and then all of a sudden it gets
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: called back. Those have been so drastically minimized that, yeah,
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: I think they're starting to look a little bit more
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: like what you would expect this team to look like.
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: And again, they might be catching Duke at the right
• 5:00
  Speaker 5: time if Duke's not 100% healthy.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: We're talking with Tom Luganville, ESPN, chatting about college football. Lugans,
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: let's go to Raleigh and NC State. Listen, I don't
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: want to act like I'm someone that doesn't appreciate what
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Dave Doran's done there over his 14 years. There is
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: really something to be said about the consistency that they
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: have developed there. And beating the crap out of your
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: rival all the time doesn't hurt either. But this season, it's...
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I wonder if both parties could use
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: a separation. They've had this frustrating trend, Lugz, of as
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: games go on in the second half, just getting dominated
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: as the game goes on. He hasn't helped his messaging
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: to the fans in some of these press conferences. Do
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: you think it might be time for a divorce, or
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: do you feel differently?
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: Well, listen, I think no matter how long you're at
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: a place, unfortunately in this business, you know, fatigue sets in.
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: And when you are responsible for raising the expectations of
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: what the program's capable of, which he is, and then
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: you don't meet the standard of the expectation and you've
• 6:11
  Speaker 5: been there for a long, long time, you know, that's
• 6:14
  Speaker 5: when all the criticism and the doubt and the fatigue
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: starts to set in and you become a little bit
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: of a victim of what you've built. And I think
• 6:23
  Speaker 5: the criticism this year is fair. I think Dave Doran
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: would tell you it's fair. They They came into the
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: season with maybe one of the best schedules that you
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: could possibly ask for. Despite the opener, even despite the
• 6:38
  Speaker 5: disastrous end to the Vanderbilt game, everything was still right
• 6:42
  Speaker 5: in front of them because they don't play Miami, they
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: don't play Clemson, and they don't play SMU on the schedule.
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: So you're sitting there and you're looking at it and
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: you're going, okay. And then guess what? They go out
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: and they beat Louisville. So now you're saying– this team's
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: rate where they wanted to be four weeks ago, but
• 6:57
  Speaker 5: nobody's looking at it like that. And then you go
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: out and, and you're right about the second half of, of,
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: of the weight game. I mean, at one game, I
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: think CJ Bailey at NC state was 16 of 17.
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 7:10
  Speaker 5: They're, they're, they're, they're leading. It's a tight back and
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: forth game. And then wake forest just comes out in
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: the second half and completely dominates the football game. And
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: I think that's, what's most disappointing because they, The players
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: in the nucleus that you need to have to win,
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: I think, are there. They have not played exceptionally smart.
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: They have not, I don't think, made the inroad defensively
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: that they thought they were going to in terms of
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: getting off the field on third down and limiting explosive plays,
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: which was a problem for them a year ago. And so, yeah,
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: are we to a point where you have to start
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: asking those questions? Of course, I think we are. It's fair.
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: It's the nature of the business. Dave Doran knows that.
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: The entire athletic administration knows that the question is, and
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: I hate to say this because it's the same question
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: that they're asking down in Tallahassee is do they have
• 7:58
  Speaker 5: the money?
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Lose one of the biggest store. I should say
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: the biggest story locally. And one of the biggest stories
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: nationally is the rise of wake forest here in 2026.
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: What has impressed you the most about the job that
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: Jake Dickard has done and how high is the ceiling
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: for this Deke's team?
• 8:18
  Speaker 5: Well, first of all, he's obviously done a phenomenal job
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: in player identification and evaluation through the portal of the
• 8:25
  Speaker 5: guys for Wake Forest. Doesn't mean they could be the
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: right guy for Syracuse or the right guy for Cincinnati
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: or North Carolina, but for Wake Forest... He has found
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: the right nucleus of players. And then they're so vastly
• 8:38
  Speaker 5: improved at quarterback from what they were a year ago.
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: The thing about them that impresses me the most is
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: they don't beat themselves. It's hard enough to beat somebody
• 8:47
  Speaker 5: else when you're going out there and you're, you know,
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: pulling 10 penalties a game or eight penalties a game
• 8:52
  Speaker 5: and you're turning the ball over two or three times.
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: I mean, you make it really difficult to win. They
• 8:56
  Speaker 5: don't put themselves in that position. They are as consistently
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: steady as outside of Miami or probably more so than
• 9:03
  Speaker 5: any other team in the ACC right now, I think
• 9:06
  Speaker 5: it's been a phenomenal job of getting a team to
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: not only play hard but execute at a high level.
• 9:12
  Speaker 5: And maybe the most important thing they've done, and this
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: goes back to last year, is college football, with the
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: talent being dispersed the way that it has been, everybody's better, right?
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: There really are no more gimmies on the schedule because
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: everybody can compete at a higher level because others can't
• 9:28
  Speaker 5: stockpile players anymore. And so what does that mean? That
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: means that more often than not, and you guys can
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: check it out at the end of every Saturday night,
• 9:35
  Speaker 5: go look into the box scores and look at how
• 9:37
  Speaker 5: many one possession games are being played. At the end
• 9:41
  Speaker 5: of the game, it's 31-28. It's 35-31. It's 24-21. This
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: is all across college football. Well, guess what Wake Forest
• 9:50
  Speaker 5: has done? They win one possession games. And it's not
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: an easy thing to do, and it's not an easy
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: thing to carry over either, and they've done that from
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: last year to this year.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: That's a great point. No, that is.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: And how many times do you hear the analytics folks
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: in football nfl they say it a lot oh they
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: won so many close games last year that'll you know
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: that's not guaranteed to happen again they found a way
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: to do it i love the way geo's playing he's
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: so much fun to watch in that offense Um, I'll
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: tell you who's been fun to watch the last two weeks. Um,
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: Lenore sellers, uh, before that, not so much and Gamecock
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: fans weren't enjoying watching them, but I feel like the
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: last two weeks has been damn good, especially against Florida.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: Sounds like Beamer challenged him in front of the team.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: What do you think of this Gamecocks team? Can they
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: like finish the season strong? Can what they did against
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Florida kind of be a springboard for them? Or are
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: you skeptical if they can sustain this the rest of
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: the season?
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: That's the thing I want to see them string it
• 10:45
  Speaker 5: together for two or more weeks in a row, because
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: they too have been a team that has found ways
• 10:51
  Speaker 5: to lose games. You know, you, when you have back-to-back
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: weeks where you're up 17, nothing, 16, nothing, you lose
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: both of those games. That's the, that takes a toll
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: on your locker room. It takes a toll on your
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: psyche and your confidence. And, and that impacts the quarterback
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: probably than anybody else. But again, you, You know, Florida
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: goes into that game, turns the ball over three times.
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: Guess what? South Carolina didn't. You know, guess what? South
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: Carolina didn't just beat themselves up with penalties. So a
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: lot of it has to do with can you carry
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: over that consistent error-free level of football? Because I think
• 11:22
  Speaker 5: we've seen that talent-wise they can compete with anybody they
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: play with on the field. But if you self-destruct and
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: you allow people to linger and hang around, it's really
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: tough to compete at a high level.
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: All right, Lugz, you are the man.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: You've got Utah and Colorado this week. If you find
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: in the hotel bar, if you find one of Colorado's coaches' playbooks,
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: please return that to Coach Prime. Don't let that get
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: out there to the opponent this week.
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: Well, I'll tell you what. They scored on the first drive,
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: so I don't know how much of a difference it mattered.
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: I'll tell you another thing, guys. I'll tell you another thing.
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: Utah is the real deal.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, man. They are.
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: Holy smokes.
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: Do you think it's possible they're the best team? I
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: was kind of wondering.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: I know they haven't played a big opponent yet, but
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: could they be the best team.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: In the conference?
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: I think they are the best team in the conference.
• 12:18
  Speaker 5: I know right now they're ranked number 11. I would
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: put them at 7 or 8 or 9. I think
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: that every component to their football team is really, really strong.
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: And Morgan Scali, first-year head coach, done a great job.
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: Also, why does Mac assume you're at the hotel bar, Wuggs?
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: That's not right, is it?
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: Say that again. I didn't hear you.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: Mac assumes you're at the hotel bar. That's not right.
• 12:43
  Speaker 5: Well, you shouldn't be assuming the coaches for the team
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: should be at the hotel bar. You should definitely be
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: assuming I'm at it.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: I figured you'd be there. I figured you'd be there.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: That is a fair point about the coaches, though. Coach
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: Prime seemed very not bothered that one of the coaches
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: left the playbook before the Texas Tech game in a
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: hotel bar.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: Wouldn't you just be bothered if your coach was in
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: the bar? I don't know. There could be something there.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: Anyway, Luke, have a good broadcast of that one this week,
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: and great to catch up with you, man.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: We appreciate you.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: We will, guys.
• 13:11
  Speaker 5: Appreciate you, too. Have a good rest of the week.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Thanks, folks.
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: Be good. There you go, Tom, Luke, and Bill.