Welcome to the A. C. C. Panic room alongside Lauren Brownlow who is not covered in mayonnaise. I'm joe obvious how So how was your Duke's Mayo Bowl experience outside of the No show from north Carolina. I loved it. It was great. Those are my people, you know, they get it, they understand college football and I love the way that they like lean into the dumbest and I mean this so lovingly like the dumbest parts of college football because like, by the way, the fact that this sport does not take itself that seriously. One of the things I like the best about, and I think when you run into people who like college better than the NFL in terms of college football, I think this is the biggest reason why is because like silly season is Yeah, no, I'm with you on that and I actually had tweeted this out earlier today because I feel like you're one of two types of college football fan that's out there. You're the type of person who watches the Duke's Mayo Bowl and you're watching because you want to watch somebody get Mayo dumped on them or you're Dennis Dodd who says my God, we've reached the point where hyping a condiment being poured on an adult male passes for programming when we have the discussion about bull relevance. I'll start right there. Of course that's kind of a trick question considering that bull relevance really is relative, Is it not? Bulls have never really mattered in the grand scheme of things. We do this for the fun. We do this for the exhibition aspect of it. Is to see two teams that you might not typically play and you just look, you just look for some entertainment. And frankly, the Mayo Bowl is the peak of college football entertainment. Yes. And if I ever get to a point where I can't find joy and something like a coach getting mayonnaise dumped on them, I'm just, I'm going to need someone to intervene on my behalf. Is it time for you to retire? Yeah, yeah. I mean, Dennis is mostly an NFL reporter, right? No, he's a college football college. I'm sorry. That's the thing. He's a college football guy. Like you've been covering college football for as long as you've been covering college football and you can't enjoy the frivolity. That's a very NFL border mindset, that's all. That was the reason he was throwing me, like, did you see Dab? Oh, after the cheez IT bowl. Yeah, Dabba was living it up with jesus, as he should, as he should. And by the way, the Mayo dump was just as gross as I thought it would be wonderful that the tweet I had about like, what the mayo, how much mayo It would be, what the consistency would be like. It was like one of my most, by the way you got, you got And my God, seriously, lauryn, you've got stats on this Serious stats on this. Apparently look at that nearly 6000 likes on this 2000 retweets programming, Dennis. So, so you, you did some reporting before the game to find out just exactly what went into that Mayo tub. Yes. And by reporting, I just talked to my friends from the Duke's Mayo Bowl and was like telling them how excited I was and whatever and they were like, well we're gonna have to take the coach to the tunnel, but this mayo is gonna be like, so that we can get it because the thing is you can't just dump the Duke's mayo without it having some like you would have to be, I mean everybody's had made, you have to really hit the bottom of that jar to get it to come out. It would be really awkward. Yeah, I'm with you, I'm with you on that. And they brought, they brought beamer, they brought Shane beamer to the back after the ceremony thing. So a couple of things about this, I feel like we should do a little, a little play by play here on, on the dumping of the man. Alright, first and foremost, I have a problem. The biggest problem is Shane, you have to take the hat off. I'm sorry. That's ridiculous. That's like a copout, mayonnaise on your, on your shoulder and your back. All that kind of stuff, whatever. And I feel like the fact that he wore a hat is the reason why if you pay attention dudes in the concussion protocol after the tub of Mayo hit him in the back of the head. Yes. Seriously? No, we said that live, we were like, oh my God, he hit him with it. So it was just perfection. Like all the way around. I mean he's okay. I saw him after the game walking around just fine. So he's thankfully fine. You sure? Are you sure he's okay? He seemed, he seemed just fine. Very good. Alright, good. Yeah. I saw him when I snuck onto the field, I saw him walking through with also shout out, shout out to mike Golic Jr who took mayo eating to the, to another level by dunking Oreos and donuts and various other things with Duke's Mayo and like it's funny, I'm just waiting for the Darren Rovell tweet to give me like the amount of money, like the value of free advertising that Duke's mayonnaise got based on social media because my timeline was nothing but mayor tweets for like 3 to 4 hours. I loved every minute of it. And I'm not exactly a mayonnaise guy. I am seeing all the stuff. I love mayonnaise and I love Duke's mayonnaise specifically and they're not paying me to say that like I'm, that's just legit, the mayonnaise, I eat And so yeah, like I, I was here for all of this and it was great and I enjoyed it and I snuck onto the field. Even though I didn't have to take a picture on the, have you posted that photo Because I know you said it to me. No I need to go to post to post that photo in the All Star throne. So I love everything about it now. I was a fan. I was a fan of everything that happened with the with the Mayo Bowl. All the ridiculousness around the Mayo bowl. But care a lot of fans are not happy with the way the game went for north Carolina. See by the way it's not always a good thing to play your last game state. You could do something like this and then it's real bad. I feel like there's a separate conversation about the week that was for N. C. State and how north Carolina's no show in the Duke's Mayo Bowl is tied to that but we'll couch that for later. We can talk about the actual game. I will admit that. I was surprised at the way Carolina looked unprepared for what south Carolina was gonna throw at them. Considering the covid issues opt outs lack of QB. Um I was I was surprised at how unprepared they look, especially in charlotte for what I'm assuming will be sam Howell's last game again. Another conversation we can catch for later but for the actual game itself it was as the kids would say not a good look for the tar heels. No. Um And yeah after the game Mac had said that Joyner was not somebody they prepared for playing quarterback. He had not thrown a pass all year. So it's it's not quite, you know, and and somebody in the press box, I was talking to you brought up the Jeff sims situation to at Georgia tech where after the game they had said they had no idea he was playing that one to me is a little different than this one. Um, Just in the sense of everybody. I mean, I remember people talking about Jeff sims playing, I don't remember reading anything about join or potentially playing quarterback. However, at a certain point, like you said, you probably gotta at least go up and down the roster and go, okay, who, who has played quarterback before? Like he Joyner has played the position for south Carolina in college and was a four star quarterback recruit. Um shoutout to Dana King from Target illustrated for like looking some of this up because she's like, I feel like he was pretty good quarterback. And then we looked it up and sure enough like, yeah, he was he was like mr south Carolina and football or something like he was a good quarterback. And so yeah, in hindsight, it probably is pretty wild that they had no idea that he would, I feel like the first half for north Carolina was the greatest hits for all the things that have annoyed unC fans all throughout the season, whether it was defensive breakdowns, very poorly timed penalties that took them out of field position. Sam Howell not being protected on top of also holding the ball too a little too long. Yeah, he was, he was a little indecisive throughout. I thought, I think I think there was a sense from SAM this is just an assumption on my part that he really wanted to impress people. Um, not just impressed people, but he really wanted to go out strong. He really wanted to play well before them, but he can't do it by himself. But that's been that's been north Carolina season. Yeah. And and he was the only thing that I noticed with SaM is he was a little, I thought earlier in the year he was a little more decisive when it came to deciding when to run or throw and it felt like he was not quite sure. A lot of the times like, oh, I think this guy might be coming open and he had some space to run and didn't take it. There were definitely more than one time, there was definitely more than one time where I saw that and was like, hmm, that's weird. Like he was super hesitant, but I mean, again, like it is what it is, he was under fire all the time. They only ran 47. They ran 50 plays 47 before that meaningless final drive. You know, like it's I don't know, um, it was, it was really something and, and the, the defense though, I think deservedly should get most of the attention here because this was this was the worst offense and yards per play that they saw a year. They were like you said they were missing a lot of people including their leaving Russia. I mean You can't not you can't let this offense not only like move up and down the field on you but like gas you in the middle. Like they were just I think you had asked I think you had asked I think it was you on Twitter that asked the question like what was like Baylor? Baylor game 2015 where they didn't have a quarterback. But you have to remember that that Baylor's a bowl games at that time with transfers and opt outs and covid not the same thing. And Baylor had a pretty good offensive line. And the game plan straight up was we're gonna run it down your throat. Um And they were in the same play all the time which whatever but they still had better play had better players. That's the thing. And here's the other part about this game that's pretty eye opening and our friend brian knives over at the A. C. C. Network that since 1978 only two teams have posted a losing record as a 10 plus point favorite versus an FBS team minimum five games 1991 Houston and north Carolina. So they went into this game as a pretty considerable favorite. I was watching the ESPN broadcast while you were at the game and it's it was it was alarming to hear the college football crew on ESPN that featured booger Mcfarland get into Mack Brown and the coaching staff for the way things played out for north Carolina. Usually Mack Brown because of his connections to ESPN and the fact that he's universally liked in the college football's in the college football circles. I very rarely hear legit criticism of how something is going, but I heard it today. Obviously North Carolina fans were not happy about this. The curiosity that I have going forward is will Mack Brown actually make any changes or is he satisfied with the fact that recruiting is going the way that it's going and they feel that they can recruit their way out of the lack of development that we saw on defense this year. It's like you said, right, I think that's the question. It's it's it's do they keep the staff they have and and are are the staff members that are there that maybe would get replaced? Are they key cons on the recruiting machine? I mean, I don't know, you know, I don't know a lot of credit for what's going on? Why does, but you definitely, you know, just chatting with people I know jay Bateman is somebody that a lot of the recruits believe in in terms of the defensive coordinator. I know that um, Stacy Cyril's the offensive line coach is another one that recruits very well, but like you said, yeah, like at a certain point, let's be real like the offensive line got worse, the defense got worse. What do you do with that? I don't know, I don't know the answer to that, I mean, but they are going to have to find a balance because honestly, like the thing is they were trending up towards the end of the year, they had gotten much better. They looked much better than they did at the beginning. There, they looked a mess at the beginning of the year. They were at least, you know, they were playing like we thought they were going to offensively defensively, they didn't get that much better right. We understand what they were doing enough. Like they were able to get some staffs kind of sort of when they needed it and the offense was scoring at a high rate, they weren't having as many of those penalties and, and you know, kind of messing themselves up on drives and they were doing enough to kind of either be in games or win. And this year, I think the biggest thing with this season versus the first two of max return is just that they got blown out and at times by terrible teams like South Carolina and Georgia Tech where I believe the two worst offenses they faced and they just steamroll them. That can't happen, like it can't and, and now you're going to have a new quarterback next year. Um, I mean, SAm how was very vague about his future in the postgame Lauren? I know, I know I'm with you on this one. Sam Howell's being big about his future. I think he's going to go. Most people expect him to go pro and honestly he should go pro because I'm not quite sure what more he can show you as an NFL prospect with what he did this year. He basically carried that team the best way he could and took a beating. Now you're not gonna be able to do that in the pros. I think most people understand that. But, and honestly, I think the way that you went for north Carolina might actually help Sam Howell be drafted into a better situation rather than being drafted earlier. Right? So I actually think it might. It this year is a weird blessing and curse for for Sam Howell the year did not go the way you want it to go. He wasn't, he was never in contention for the Heisman, even though he was, he was predicted to be in the contention for the Heisman. Uh, the season just fell flat on its face. Uh, and it ends with a losing record. Everything else. But if you just talk about SAm Howell individually and the way that he was able to show you his toughness to, you know, dual threat QB the way he was able to absorb tackles, make plays, everything else. I feel like that's going to benefit him when he's and when he starts interviewing with NFL teams and I don't think he's a first round guy. I don't think they're gonna dance like somebody said I think our friend jo wagstaff had joked about you know you said that a lot of people said the same things about Daniel jones. I'm like yeah yeah yeah yeah but I'm not but I'm not expecting a team like the Giants to draft him in that position and that's what ultimately is hurting Daniel jones. Here's the thing all I'm saying is this every single year we do this we're like this is the week quarterback class and then and then they always end up getting a run on them and it is very difficult for me to imagine an NFL team with any sort of QB neediness looking at Sam Howell and going. You know what I don't know what I'm saying Like I'm with you on that. So I kind of think he I think he could go in the first round. I still I've said that all year I still think that's true we'll see now. I do think we can close on this. I do feel like um North Carolina's performance in the Mayo Bowl combined with the way things went for North for N. C. State in the Holiday bowl. Like basically it's like as as as as somebody tweeted if you're N. C. State and you see how things have played out this week. It's just too good if you will because you you get U. C. L. A. To back out of the of the of the of the Holiday Bowl in a way that makes it sympathetic for you in a way that it makes sense for them to just give you the trophy. And then Dave Doeren coming back for from the Holiday Bowl and he talks about the N. C. Double A. The You know no clue at all or whatever it is that he said basically just kind of coming into his own as I jokingly tweeted like 2021 is the year that Dave Doeren finally got over the winds were there but the way he also talked about disrespect and everything else and how he handled the holiday bowl is gonna be a big win for NC state fans. And then when you combine the hey we got we developed guys we had depth for sending guys to the pros and then you look across the way which as we've discussed in the past Lauren when Dave Doeren talked about disrespect. What he was really talking about was U. N. C. Gets all the attention and we're putting up good numbers and nobody's talking about us. They end the year on a losing note and I think it all just kind of combines with this good week for N. C. State if you think about it. Yeah. I mean I I think to be fair I know I don't know that they I think they would have rather played the game. Do the players want to play the game? Do the coaching staff wanna play the game? They absolutely do. However if we're going to spend this positive if we're gonna make lemonade out of lemons I don't think you could have asked for a better week. All things considered with the way this has played out. Just saying. I'm just saying especially when you look at the way the A. C. C. Has done in bowl games so far. Just saying. Yeah I mean I think you're right and I think you know and Mac alluded to it too. He's like well you know we're not gonna be in the top 10 in the preseason this time with true that's and that's the thing that's still and that's why I have not been I have not been impressed with the way that north Carolina has handled the disappointment of this year. There's been a lot of passive aggressiveness that's come out of Chapel Hill that I don't I'm not impressed by Mack Brown's been doing this too long to be passive aggressive. You either own the fact that you did it or you didn't and that's the kind of the way that I've looked at it this year and I'm not saying they can't turn things around We don't know what drake May is gonna be. But if you look at this season and you don't look at it any way other than we screwed it up. It wasn't the media's fault, it wasn't anybody else's fault. We screwed this up. We had this guy, this generational talent sam how we didn't develop our defense the way that people thought we were gonna develop the defense. If you don't look inward and own it, then I'm just, I'm just gonna shrug my shoulders and say, I'm not impressed. Just not impressed. Yeah, I mean it'll be it'll just be interesting to see what they decided to do because I think, I don't know what's wrong with the defense. I'm not a coach. I can't answer that question. I know that for three years now it's looked varying degrees of bad and this year was borsten had looked in ever, you know, it's funny, I was thinking about Gene Chizik recently who was a former defensive coordinator for Caroline because he had the hot take tweet about trends. He did, he did have Yes, I think that's why he came to mind while he was still getting paid a big old buyout. But you know, it's funny, Gene Chizik, the big problem when Gene Chizik was a defensive coordinator there was it was the opposite problem, didn't quite have the talent, but there was at least a game plan and then don't break and it was understandable what was going on sometimes. I wonder what exactly is going on with the defense and like you said, I'm not a coach, I'm not in the room. I don't know what's being and I don't know that it's, I don't know how much it doesn't look good. I know what the results are. I don't know how much of it is scheme or how much of it as players. And Mac talked about like what he was asked about that Greg Barnes asked about that and post game and he was kind of like, yes, you know what I mean? And I think that he's quite like there is an element of that and there are younger talented players that will probably get better. They have more coming into. So that is true. But like you said, I mean we just don't know yet what the development track is because we just had, we've we've obviously seen it with some players but it hasn't been like it hasn't been collectively happening for them in terms of like a unit developing together and improving throughout the year. I would say the best the coach that probably deserves the most compliments that UNC fans may not want to give to give it to him is still long ago. I agree. I absolutely agree actually is the perfect situation. We know, but at the same time like look what he did with this offense considering what they lost. Like it's bananas. I'm sorry, I mean we went 15 years without 1000 yard rusher. They have not, I mean they've had multiple like year after year now since he's been there and they've been in the top 10 and yards per play and things like that. And I know Sam has a lot to do with that. But Longo does too. Like you can have a good quarterback and still not put up big numbers. Like I think Luongo deserves some credit with what he's been able to do now. The offensive line is another issue. But again, you know, you can only call the place. Well, that's gonna wrap it up for this edition of the panic room at some point. We'll talk about A CC basketball when there's a consistent amount of games and we know who's playing, when is anybody playing? I mean, I don't I mean state lost last night in Miami. I mean honestly, I mean we were supposed to have more basketball games. I don't know where we're going to see more basketball games, but that's the way you were there. You have a safe trip back from the from the Mayonnaise bowl. Lauren. All right. We'll see you all later in the week