Speaker 1: This week on the Happy half Hour.
Speaker 2: It doesn't feel, you know, rash.
Speaker 3: It feels like it came at a time where okay,
Speaker 3: we see what we're building, and now we want to
Speaker 3: make a change because things aren't perfect and there are
Speaker 3: issues to kind of work out, but let's let's make
Speaker 3: a change.
Speaker 2: There's no reason to keep doing the same thing over
Speaker 2: and over.
Speaker 3: So an exciting opportunity for Thomas Brown, and I'm excited
Speaker 3: to see what it looks like for him. Talks.
Speaker 1: It's time for the Happy half Hour with your friends
Speaker 1: Kristin Balboni, Augusta Stone, and Darren Gannon.
Speaker 4: Welcome to the Happy half Hour and how happy are
Speaker 4: we all?
Speaker 1: Or something?
Speaker 4: At any rate, it's by week, everybody. The Carolina Panthers
Speaker 4: are zero and six not ideal. Obviously, we will talk
Speaker 4: a little bit about what happened in Miami and what
Speaker 4: has happened in these six weeks behind us, but obviously
Speaker 4: most of today's episode will center on yesterday's news. Frank
Speaker 4: Craig did the thing he was gonna do. He just
Speaker 4: did it sooner than he might have anticipated by making
Speaker 4: Thomas Brown his play caller. And now the Carolina Panthers
Speaker 4: offensive coordinator will be calling the plays the rest of
Speaker 4: the season, and that's obviously a pretty significant shakeup.
Speaker 1: Thomas is a guy who is.
Speaker 4: Who was brought here with an idea that he was
Speaker 4: going to do this eventually anyway.
Speaker 1: But I think at zero to six and when.
Speaker 4: You I don't even want to say struggling on offense
Speaker 4: necessarily they're not doing great, but you were coming off
Speaker 4: the best quarter of football you had played all season,
Speaker 4: and I just think it was one of those things
Speaker 4: where it was time to do something, to make a change,
Speaker 4: to freshen things up. And since this was a move
Speaker 4: Frank intended to make always anyway, this felt like, in
Speaker 4: his mind, a good time to do it, just since
Speaker 4: they are in a bye week and they can go
Speaker 4: out and practice on Tuesday, practice on Wednesday, get a
Speaker 4: little head start on what the Thomas Brown era is
Speaker 4: going to be like.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's something, as you mentioned, it had been
Speaker 3: mentioned since Frank's and maybe not his introductory press conference,
Speaker 3: but definitely before.
Speaker 2: Any players got here.
Speaker 3: You know, though, had asked that question about play calling,
Speaker 3: and he said that he would be open to kind
Speaker 3: of expanding and seeing what could you know, how how
Speaker 3: it would look to give those up, so not, you know,
Speaker 3: something that was completely unforeseen, something that had never been
Speaker 3: talked about. He had definitely mentioned it, And yeah, Thomas Brown,
Speaker 3: I mean rising star as you wrote about in your
Speaker 3: story and has talked about a lot yesterday by Frank
Speaker 3: and Bryce. And I think it was the kind of
Speaker 3: thing where you're not placing him, you know, at the
Speaker 3: start or at the head of an offense that was
Speaker 3: completely just miserable at Miami.
Speaker 2: I mean, like you.
Speaker 3: Said, that first quarter was about as efficient and doing
Speaker 3: everything that they had talked about and looking like they
Speaker 3: could do multiple things and having Cuba Hubber running and
Speaker 3: Adam feel and doing Adam feeling things. Who is absolutely
Speaker 3: emerged through those early stretches the guy which they brought
Speaker 3: him here to be, and he's very efficient and he's
Speaker 3: honestly close to top of the league in a lot
Speaker 3: of categories. So they're bringing him in and a point
Speaker 3: when they're not completely miserable, they have plenty to build
Speaker 3: off of of that, and I think it's a situation
Speaker 3: we're off the buy that he could be primed to
Speaker 3: have some success here. I don't think it doesn't feel
Speaker 3: you know, rash, It feels like it came at a
Speaker 3: time where Okay, we see what we're building, and now
Speaker 3: we want to make a change because things aren't perfect
Speaker 3: and there are issues to kind of work out, but
Speaker 3: let's make a change. There's no reason to keep doing
Speaker 3: the same thing over and over. So an exciting opportunity
Speaker 3: for Thomas Brown and I'm excited to see what it looks.
Speaker 4: Like for him, right And I don't think this is
Speaker 4: necessarily a revolutionary change. I think Frank is There are
Speaker 4: a couple of layers to this. To me, Number one,
Speaker 4: Frank is walking into a new situation that obviously, you know,
Speaker 4: nobody wants to talk about rebuilds or anything like that.
Speaker 4: I mean, that always makes people in the NFL uncomfortable
Speaker 4: when you.
Speaker 1: Label him that way.
Speaker 4: But I think realistically, this season they were starting a
Speaker 4: brand new project with brand new people, a new system,
Speaker 4: so there was going to be some degree of adjustment,
Speaker 4: some degree of growing pains, if you will.
Speaker 1: I don't even know it was a.
Speaker 4: Great sitcom, it's less of a cliche, but anyway, I
Speaker 4: think they were always going to go through some of
Speaker 4: this kind of stuff. Anyway, And after Frank and Thomas
Speaker 4: spent the off season basically together putting this thing together.
Speaker 4: As Augusta you wrote about it early on in the process.
Speaker 4: You take a guy who is running a variation on
Speaker 4: what he did as a Buffalo quarterback, what they did
Speaker 4: in Philadelphia when he was coaching with Doug Peterson, and
Speaker 4: he's putting that together with a very Sean McVay style
Speaker 4: Rams offense. So these two were blending this thing already.
Speaker 4: And now that's why I don't necessarily think this is
Speaker 4: going to be this big seismic change. I think, to me,
Speaker 4: the biggest impact is it gives Frank an opportunity to
Speaker 4: be the head coach, to do the head coach, to
Speaker 4: oversee the entire project. I mean this just and the
Speaker 4: defense has been leaking points at a pretty high light
Speaker 4: high rate lately, so it's going to give him an
Speaker 4: opportunity to cast an eye over there and help out
Speaker 4: a little more.
Speaker 3: He had discussed the collaboration, even with play calling with
Speaker 3: Thomas Brown, so it's not one of those things that
Speaker 3: will be completely different. Also, Thomas Brown has called plays
Speaker 3: before in the preseason. They were trading off haves, so
Speaker 3: it's not even like it'll be a brand new thing
Speaker 3: for him. I think one of the benefits that again
Speaker 3: it won't make a seismic change, as you mentioned, but
Speaker 3: something kind of cool of it is the pairing of
Speaker 3: a very young offensive coordinator, offensive mine, offensive play caller
Speaker 3: with another very young offensive weapon and the future and
Speaker 3: that is Bryce Young and having them kind of work together.
Speaker 3: I know they've been collaborating and that was something that
Speaker 3: Bryce made very clear that it had been, you know,
Speaker 3: the kind of thing where he and TB were very close,
Speaker 3: and now it kind of gives them more I guess,
Speaker 3: just kind of more ownership of the product or just
Speaker 3: more of a reason to collaborate even more closely. And
Speaker 3: that's a really cool pairing to make I think, from
Speaker 3: like even an off field aspect, just the conversations and
Speaker 3: can indications and and Frank mentioned it yesterday, just as
Speaker 3: you talked about. You know, he will still be in
Speaker 3: most of the quarterback meetings but most of the offensive meetings,
Speaker 3: but he has more time now to be freed up
Speaker 3: to go to those defensive meetings, to go in the
Speaker 3: special teams meetings, to look at more things going on,
Speaker 3: and I think that's an opportunity that excites him at
Speaker 3: this point. I mean, just being able to look around
Speaker 3: and take that CEO type approach. I think that's something
Speaker 3: that that'll come of this. It's he's not necessarily taking
Speaker 3: his foot completely off the gas, but he has more
Speaker 3: of a wavelength and more kind of viewpoint at the
Speaker 3: whole thing as a whole versus kind of staying focused
Speaker 3: in this shell and then this tiny little.
Speaker 2: Place that he had been.
Speaker 3: And I think the pairing of Thomas Brown and Bryce
Speaker 3: Young is not insignificant. I think it's a really cool
Speaker 3: thing to have kind of going on the two minds,
Speaker 3: see what they're creating, and also just having them together
Speaker 3: from the.
Speaker 1: Start, right. And I'm kind of fascinated.
Speaker 4: And that's why I was interesting getting on Sean mcvay's
Speaker 4: press conference last night and asking him about Thomas because
Speaker 4: I am fascinated. Frank's talked all off season about diversity
Speaker 4: of thought. Thomas Brown exists in a room full of
Speaker 4: former quarterbacks and current quarterbacks with Bryce, with Josh, with Frank.
Speaker 4: I mean, Jim Calwell played defense in college, but he
Speaker 4: was a quarterbacks coach. He coached Kerry Collins at Penn State.
Speaker 4: He was Peyton Manning's quarterbacks coach. For God's sake, So
Speaker 4: he knows a little something about this position. I like
Speaker 4: the idea of Thomas having a different perspective and there's
Speaker 4: a couple different ways to offense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's not just it.
Speaker 4: It all runs through the quarterback, but it can't always
Speaker 4: be quarterback driven. And having that perspective. One of the
Speaker 4: things i'd find most interesting about him is when he
Speaker 4: was on mcvay's staff, what did Sean McVay do with him.
Speaker 4: He took him from coaching running backs and gave him
Speaker 4: tight ends. Guess what Sean McVay did right before he
Speaker 4: became a coordinator for the first time, he coached tight end.
Speaker 4: So I mean, giving this guy that different perspective. Okay,
Speaker 4: now do this, I'll do this. Thomas kind of walks
Speaker 4: into the job as they see the whole field.
Speaker 1: Guy.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's not just laser focused in on one
Speaker 4: player at one positions perspective.
Speaker 1: Now, do I think they'll run a little more? Maybe?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 4: We'll find out in Week eight when they get back
Speaker 4: after this thing against Houston Texans. But I think more
Speaker 4: than that, it's just having the kind of broad perspective
Speaker 4: on this thing. And McVeigh was so good talking about it.
Speaker 4: I encourage you to check out the video and the
Speaker 4: story on Panthers dot com about it because hearing the
Speaker 4: guy who does the thing better than just about anybody
Speaker 4: in the NFL explain why Thomas is good at this
Speaker 4: is interesting. So it's he's coming at this thing with
Speaker 4: a lot of credentials. He's a fast riser in the business.
Speaker 4: It's it's kind of hard to believe that he's only
Speaker 4: thirty seven years old, given what he's done already in
Speaker 4: his career. But Thomas is a bright guy, and as
Speaker 4: Sean said, he's still a g Well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wanted to get into that.
Speaker 3: We heard some stories from Austin Corbett that you got
Speaker 3: to write about in your article, but also from Sean McVay,
Speaker 3: I mean the Achilles Starah, I actually have an interesting.
Speaker 2: Perspective on that.
Speaker 3: It kind of hit me while I was reading your
Speaker 3: story fun random Augusta being a student journalist story, but
Speaker 3: I was writing an article about two thousand and seven Georgia,
Speaker 3: I believe a game, and I was trying to get
Speaker 3: Thomas Brown's perspective. The rams PR department was super awesome
Speaker 3: to a senior in college, Augustin, and I was trying
Speaker 3: to interview him. And the day that that injury happened
Speaker 3: to Thomas Brown was the day I was actually scheduled
Speaker 3: to talk with him after practice. And what's funny is
Speaker 3: that I had been I was also editor in chief
Speaker 3: of the paper at the time, so I was waiting
Speaker 3: on my phone touring at I think it was nine
Speaker 3: thirty local time in Athens, Georgia, and writing this look
Speaker 3: backstory was gonna be so cool. I got to talk
Speaker 3: to Mark Rick, I got quotes through lions pr from
Speaker 3: Matt Stafford when he was there.
Speaker 2: I mean, it was a whole thing, and I was.
Speaker 3: Trying to talk to him, and if I remember this correctly,
Speaker 3: they messaged me and they're like, well, I assume you
Speaker 3: saw the news and I was like, oh, I haven't,
Speaker 3: because I've been so in depth. I mean, there was election,
Speaker 3: there was so much going on and I was looking
Speaker 3: at it, so I was like, oh, I didn't. And
Speaker 3: then they were like, oh, he he was injured too.
Speaker 3: I said, the coach was injured. So funny story. I
Speaker 3: actually could have talked to him before he got here,
Speaker 3: but you know, other other events happened.
Speaker 2: We were actually on the books to talk that day.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure that that was what happened, so that's amazing.
Speaker 3: It's a funny little story, but I remember that and
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my goodness, that was him. So yeah,
Speaker 3: he uh, I mean gives it as all. I mean,
Speaker 3: Austin Corbett was talking about how he might be among
Speaker 3: the fastest coaches. I mean, I'd love to see him
Speaker 3: and Sean Jefferson get at it because I mean, you
Speaker 3: talk about all the guys on the staff that looked
Speaker 3: like they could just suit up, but no, his energy
Speaker 3: is unparalleled and that's something really exciting to have too,
Speaker 3: with all these young players along offense and having all
Speaker 3: the excitement. But yeah, that's I think that if I
Speaker 3: remember correctly, I remember when that happened.
Speaker 4: Sonny Dee Hall can probably still run, and he's torn
Speaker 4: an achilles or two in his life, but I think
Speaker 4: he could probably still move. It would be an interesting,
Speaker 4: interesting race. But yeah, Thomas looks and I'm not saying
Speaker 4: that there was necessarily a generational gap between Frank and
Speaker 4: what was going on, but I do think there's a
Speaker 4: different level of communication. I mean, it's not peer to peer,
Speaker 4: it's still player coach, but I think there is at
Speaker 4: least an opportunity. If you're looking for something positive that's
Speaker 4: going to flow from this is that Thomas's communication style,
Speaker 4: I think, for lack of a better word, puts him
Speaker 4: in a better opportunity to be able to talk to
Speaker 4: not just Bryce, but those backs and the offensive lineman
Speaker 4: and just he's a little bit closer to that former
Speaker 4: player's perspective than Frank is. I mean, Frank's experience is
Speaker 4: a benefit here. It's the reason he's got the job.
Speaker 4: It's having these contacts and knowing all these people that
Speaker 4: he brought here, including Thomas Brown, is the reason he
Speaker 4: was appealing. They wanted to build an offense. They wanted
Speaker 4: to put together a staff where you could turn to
Speaker 4: Jim Calwell, Thomas Brown, Josh McCown and all the way
Speaker 4: down the list, through all these guys, And I think
Speaker 4: it's going to be interesting to see how this thing develops.
Speaker 4: But I do think and we saw a little bit
Speaker 4: of it last week, especially in the first half against
Speaker 4: the Dolphins.
Speaker 1: You saw the.
Speaker 4: Emergence of Cuba Hubbard a little bit, and part of
Speaker 4: that I think was game plan, specifically to Cuba, knowing
Speaker 4: you're going to be without Miles Sanders. Cuba's the big back,
Speaker 4: He's the physical back among this crowd here. So there's
Speaker 4: a little bit of let's lean on the Dolphins a
Speaker 4: little bit, let's move that way, Let's see if we
Speaker 4: can push the pile forward and be a little more
Speaker 4: on the front foot. And you know, they were gaining
Speaker 4: four yards on first down pretty often that you know,
Speaker 4: Frank's talked about staying in second and six is a
Speaker 4: good thing because it gives you so many options with
Speaker 4: the rest of the offense. And I think when Cuba's
Speaker 4: getting those regular carries, he's shown he can produce. And
Speaker 4: certainly there were signs of that last Sunday. I mean,
Speaker 4: I will never and I was it's very careful to write,
Speaker 4: you know, on the website over the weekend it's like, hey,
Speaker 4: it was a great quarter. Unfortunately they had to play
Speaker 4: the next forty five minutes and those didn't go well
Speaker 4: at all.
Speaker 1: And nobody's in the moral victory business.
Speaker 4: But I again, my focus has always kind of been
Speaker 4: on what the long view of this offense is, what
Speaker 4: this means for Bryce Young moving forward. So having that
Speaker 4: run game kind of reignite a little bit. Knowing Austin
Speaker 4: Corbett is coming back soon. Maybe you can stabilize things
Speaker 4: a little bit. It's not going to be just like
Speaker 4: last year. It's not the same kind of offense, not
Speaker 4: the same kind of run game. But having four of
Speaker 4: those five blockers back, can you get competent play on
Speaker 4: the out of the other guard spot between Savallah, Throckmorton,
Speaker 4: K Mays whoever it happens to be coming out after
Speaker 4: the buye. We'll see how that thing comes together. But
Speaker 4: I just think there's an opportunity with Austin coming back
Speaker 4: to sort of stabilize it thing run a little bit more.
Speaker 1: And be able to brea the second.
Speaker 4: I think that's as important as anything for this offense
Speaker 4: for the next little bit.
Speaker 2: I was gonna ask you, Darren, just kind of looking ahead.
Speaker 3: I mean, we have the bye and they're gonna use,
Speaker 3: you know, the early part of the by to kind
Speaker 3: of start getting acclimated to the way things will look.
Speaker 3: But when we come back here and Hall of Honor,
Speaker 3: exciting weekend Texans are here, I wanted to ask you
Speaker 3: what you mentioned that you don't expect to see more
Speaker 3: runs necessarily out of a Thomas Brown lead offense, and
Speaker 3: then it won't look super different is there anything that
Speaker 3: you think tangibly will be something that maybe fans could notice,
Speaker 3: or something in the game where you're like, Okay, that's
Speaker 3: a different touch. Do you think there's anything that you
Speaker 3: can see from from that? Just sort of knowing that,
Speaker 3: knowing his style and knowing the way that he and
Speaker 3: Frank like when they make this change, is there something
Speaker 3: that we're gonna see tangible?
Speaker 4: One of the things I'm curious about, and we'll ask
Speaker 4: Thomas about this at his press conference later the day.
Speaker 1: You can see all the video and Panthers dot Com.
Speaker 4: Of course, Thomas will be asked at some point today
Speaker 4: whether he intends to remain on the sidelines or move
Speaker 4: upstairs to the box. And that's what I'm curious about,
Speaker 4: because Thomas had talked about early on being down on
Speaker 4: the sidelines gave him an opportunity to have that immediate
Speaker 4: feedback from players and kind of see it from ground level.
Speaker 4: I'm curious to know if with this change, if he'll
Speaker 4: come upstairs and sit at the same level we're sitting on,
Speaker 4: taking up space in our elevator.
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding. I'm curious to see if Thomas will
Speaker 1: do that.
Speaker 4: I think, you know, again, he is a guy with
Speaker 4: a pretty broad perspective of this offense anyway, So if
Speaker 4: he sees it the way he sees it and is
Speaker 4: comfortable staying on the field, maybe he'll stay down there.
Speaker 1: But that's something I'm.
Speaker 4: Curious to hear from him later today. I think there
Speaker 4: is a possibility. I'm curious to see how the communication
Speaker 4: moves because as they continue to you heard a lot
Speaker 4: of talk about simplify, simplify the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 4: Now as they get to a point where okay, we
Speaker 4: know this works, we know this works. As they zoom
Speaker 4: in on the stuff that they're good at, then you
Speaker 4: have an opportunity to build back. So I want to see,
Speaker 4: you know, early on, how the communication part of it goes.
Speaker 4: It looked like the Panthers had kind of gotten some
Speaker 4: of that pre snap communication stuff ironed out.
Speaker 1: There weren't the big issues early on.
Speaker 4: I mean, anytime you see Bryce with his hands on
Speaker 4: the side of his helmet, you know, when he's standing
Speaker 4: in a huddle, that's not necessarily a great sign because
Speaker 4: that means he's trying to process something and get the
Speaker 4: call in from the sidelines. So there was less of
Speaker 4: that last week, and again last week's game got away
Speaker 4: from him, as I think any reasonable observer would have
Speaker 4: expected it to. And playing the Miami Dolphins, for God's sake,
Speaker 4: those guys are good at the offense, and they offenced
Speaker 4: all over the place from about the second quarter through
Speaker 4: the third, and it was and it was on.
Speaker 1: Here's another thing I learned this week.
Speaker 4: If your team has more of the fast people that
Speaker 4: other people can't catch than your team, that's bad. So
Speaker 4: the Dolphins got that Tyreek Hill guy. He's pretty good
Speaker 4: at this. So it's to me that game showed sort
Speaker 4: of where you want to get to.
Speaker 1: And they're still very early in this process.
Speaker 4: So seeing how Thomas communicates it and makes it look
Speaker 4: early on, it's.
Speaker 1: Going to be interesting to me.
Speaker 3: I agree, I agree, and I wonder too, And I
Speaker 3: think it'll be a gradual build up process. Like you mentioned,
Speaker 3: you know, they kind of simplified it bringing things back.
Speaker 3: I think we saw a lot in the last two games,
Speaker 3: and especially at Miami, a lot of the no huddle
Speaker 3: sort of tempo that they're going with. I'm not sure
Speaker 3: how much of that will continue when they have someone
Speaker 3: new kind of given the calls to him, but that
Speaker 3: was something that they found a lot of success on
Speaker 3: that I wouldn't be surprised to see them go back on,
Speaker 3: just kind of moving quickly. Frank was very proud yesterday
Speaker 3: at the press conference to mention that they had no
Speaker 3: pre snap penalties unlike all the other games.
Speaker 2: I think there was a question asked.
Speaker 1: And the wins where you get them from?
Speaker 3: Yeah, the question was asked like, oh, there were fewer,
Speaker 3: and he goes there were none and looks very smug
Speaker 3: and it was very but but like things like that,
Speaker 3: and I think it goes back to what I was mentioned,
Speaker 3: and then that they're giving it. He's given it to
Speaker 3: He chose to give it to Thomas Brown at a
Speaker 3: time when things are getting more steady, more stable, I mean,
Speaker 3: the little bitty mistakes aren't happening as much. It was
Speaker 3: Bryce Young's cleanest game in terms of turnovers, no no interceptions,
Speaker 3: and no fumble, so he's obviously getting a little bit
Speaker 3: more comfortable. And they were in Miami on the road,
Speaker 3: so that's something to be kind of thinking about. But
Speaker 3: but no, I'm excited to see kind of kind of
Speaker 3: how how they as you mentioned, when they deconstructed, simplified
Speaker 3: and now build it back up. Where do they start
Speaker 3: in the building process when it's someone new giving it
Speaker 3: to Bryce Young and when there's someone new kind of
Speaker 3: here and hearing the hearing the cadences of them.
Speaker 2: And and again, like like.
Speaker 3: I mentioned, you know, this isn't the very first time
Speaker 3: he's done it, because they were handing it off in
Speaker 3: the preseason, which I think could have been a tell
Speaker 3: that maybe you know, he was looking into seeing whenever
Speaker 3: it felt right, when it felt most comfortable, hand it off,
Speaker 3: because it wasn't something that he's.
Speaker 2: Just barred him from doing and had been very collaborative.
Speaker 3: So that's something I think on the on the outside
Speaker 3: that maybe if you weren't listening to every press conference
Speaker 3: or reading every single article, that maybe you didn't notice.
Speaker 1: But although if you're not reading every single article, what
Speaker 1: are you doing?
Speaker 2: What are you doing?
Speaker 1: We're in here doing it for the people. And if
Speaker 1: you don't appreciate our efforts read the preseason, we love
Speaker 1: and value you all just like family.
Speaker 3: But he was he was calling it in the second
Speaker 3: half of preseason, So that's something important to note too.
Speaker 3: This isn't even gonna be the first time he's done
Speaker 3: it operationally, and I think I think the collaboration that
Speaker 3: they've already shown, as Frank mentioned, you know, is one
Speaker 3: of those things that he would bounce it off of
Speaker 3: them and parks Fraser and all the other guys in
Speaker 3: the room that you know he trusts and relies on.
Speaker 3: And I think it's a I think it's a change
Speaker 3: that it's it's it's cool that it's happening now. It's
Speaker 3: cool that it's happening for a bye so they have
Speaker 3: time to adjust to it. But as you mentioned, on
Speaker 3: the surface, it's not going to be It's not some sweeping, rapid, crazy,
Speaker 3: big thing. It's just something that was already going to happen,
Speaker 3: and now the time feels right for Frank to do it.
Speaker 4: Dam we will see, and they've got time to bed
Speaker 4: this thing in because as we mentioned, and as you
Speaker 4: may be aware, it's bye week. Many times, it's my
Speaker 4: favorite week of the NFL season. It's a very very
Speaker 4: long NFL season, and we love our jobs here, but
Speaker 4: it is important, I think, to step away, and I
Speaker 4: do think there are a whole lot of people downstairs
Speaker 4: in this building that need to take a breath, catch
Speaker 4: themselves up a little bit. People are going to see
Speaker 4: family members. People are going to see relatives play a
Speaker 4: football game. People are going you know, there's guys scattering
Speaker 4: the four wins, and this is an opportunity. The last
Speaker 4: couple of years this team has had week thirteen buys
Speaker 4: and that's a long haul when you add in training camp,
Speaker 4: preseason and all the stuff, and then to get to
Speaker 4: week thirteen, it's like a land war in Asia.
Speaker 1: It just keeps.
Speaker 4: Going and going and going, and you wonder if you're
Speaker 4: ever going to get there. So I think there are
Speaker 4: a lot of guys. Again, we've talked about the injuries
Speaker 4: and from a health perspectives, you'll.
Speaker 1: Hear it many times. It's a good time to have
Speaker 1: a bye.
Speaker 4: But and I love my football cliches, but it's a
Speaker 4: good time, I think, just to catch a mental break.
Speaker 4: More than anything else. Things aren't going well. Change has
Speaker 4: been made gives them a chance to get themselves right
Speaker 4: going into a stretch of the season that I think
Speaker 4: is against teams that are a little closer to the
Speaker 4: stage of development that they are. Obviously, the Houston Texans
Speaker 4: are playing well with c. J. Stroud right now, their
Speaker 4: rookie quarterback and brand new coach. The Colts are coming up.
Speaker 4: They've got quarterback problems, Anthony Richardson probably out for the
Speaker 4: year alongside their new coach, you know. And then you
Speaker 4: get the Bears and God only knows what's going on
Speaker 4: with Justin Fields with his injury.
Speaker 1: They've got problems of their own.
Speaker 4: So the Panthers will get to all that after the bye,
Speaker 4: but before that, we're all gonna take the weekend off.
Speaker 4: And I don't know about you, Augusta, but I could
Speaker 4: use it.
Speaker 2: I was gonna ask what your plans are.
Speaker 3: I'm very excited to go back home and see my family.
Speaker 3: My mother has told me that she's redone my entire
Speaker 3: childhood bedroom, and she told me she wasn't gonna see
Speaker 3: me pictures because she wants to see my surprise in person.
Speaker 3: So I'm very anxious about that. I cannot lie the
Speaker 3: whole six hours I'm driving home and be like, what
Speaker 3: do they do?
Speaker 1: What are the extreme makeover Augusta's bedroom?
Speaker 3: Aduke Extreme makeover? But and I'm so grateful. You know,
Speaker 3: it's awesome, and I love my parents. But I can't
Speaker 3: say I asked, you know, was it like, oh, let's
Speaker 3: change my room up from everything I know and love
Speaker 3: my whole life.
Speaker 2: But we'll see.
Speaker 3: She she knows I'm deeply sentimental and even if the
Speaker 3: room needed a little bit of a facelift, because I
Speaker 3: hadn't been fixed and probably well over a decade.
Speaker 2: I think my last extreme makeover was when I was
Speaker 2: in sixth grade. But I loved it. I mean, it
Speaker 2: did me well. And she's coming back.
Speaker 3: She told me all the colors, they got a new bed,
Speaker 3: they changed like the bookshelf situation. It's gonna be shocking.
Speaker 3: So I have that to look forward to. Gonna go
Speaker 3: to my old high school and see a football game,
Speaker 3: see the band, spend time with my grandmother and my
Speaker 3: mama and my aunts and uncles.
Speaker 2: I'm very excited.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna get to spend like three or four days
Speaker 3: down there. So it's gonna be a blast. What are
Speaker 3: you gonna be.
Speaker 1: Anytime you have a chance to see Mama, you should. Yeah,
Speaker 1: as are the best.
Speaker 4: Uh. We I am probably gonna we might head out
Speaker 4: and I don't know if we're gonna leave Wednesday night, Thursday, Friday, whenever,
Speaker 4: but at some point we're heading to Raleigh to see
Speaker 4: some of the kids. My son's in college down there. Uh,
Speaker 4: We're gonna check out Raleigh. I think for a little
Speaker 4: bit point this week or weekend, I may go to.
Speaker 1: The State Fair. I vaguely believe that.
Speaker 4: My parents took me to the State Fair when I
Speaker 4: was a small small child.
Speaker 1: I have this.
Speaker 4: Memory of what it looked like outside Dorton Arena and
Speaker 4: the Midway and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: But I could be making that up. I don't know
Speaker 1: if it happened.
Speaker 4: It was before I was five or six years old
Speaker 4: or something like that, so the memory is a little
Speaker 4: foggy when you get to my age. But you know,
Speaker 4: I think State Fair is valuable because it's One great
Speaker 4: contribution to society is food on a stick. So here's
Speaker 4: my question to you, Augusta Stone, Vegan correspondent. What is
Speaker 4: the ultimate vegan food on a stick?
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3: So if we're talking fraud on a stick, my go
Speaker 3: to fraud is if a frying batter is vegan, which
Speaker 3: I know is annoying to hear and annoying to say.
Speaker 3: But if it is oreos are accidentally vegan, They're perfect.
Speaker 3: They're my go to dessert fried oreo. You can get
Speaker 3: them at so high school fotball games in Georgia. Apparently
Speaker 3: that's really weird up here. I've told my Carolina friends
Speaker 3: and they're like, what are you talking about? But that
Speaker 3: was a thing where I grew up. So I'll deep
Speaker 3: fry an oreo all day long. You're putting things on
Speaker 3: a stick, I me, and you can skewer vegetables all day long.
Speaker 2: Put them in a nice little dip, right.
Speaker 3: But yeah, fried foods, frieda oreos, I'll make them at home.
Speaker 2: With in my air fry, with these little crescent rolls.
Speaker 2: I'll make them all day long. They're real good.
Speaker 3: So Oreo's accidentally vegan, so you can pretend like you
Speaker 3: if you think veganism is inherently healthy, which I have
Speaker 3: an opinion on.
Speaker 2: I don't think it is.
Speaker 3: But if you think so, then just eat oreos and
Speaker 3: then you'll feel healthy all the time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's nothing that screams health like eating a sleeve
Speaker 4: of oreos when you get home from work and sit
Speaker 4: on the couch and watch football. Now I am I'm
Speaker 4: curious to see what delights the State Fair might have
Speaker 4: in store for me. I as you know, as you've
Speaker 4: heard me talk way too much about, I am a
Speaker 4: huge corn dog guy. Yes, I love going to cookout,
Speaker 4: even though they're not a sponsor of the Carolina Panthers.
Speaker 1: I do enjoy a side.
Speaker 4: Of corn dog every now and then, and I'm looking
Speaker 4: forward to seeing if there are variations on a theme,
Speaker 4: if there was a way to turn other food products
Speaker 4: into corn dog like substances.
Speaker 1: I am here.
Speaker 4: I am all about exploration, I'm all about curiosity.
Speaker 1: I'm ready to learn new things and.
Speaker 4: Broaden my horizon. So we'll see what the weekend holds.
Speaker 4: We will report back on fried Oreos Mama's House, Georgia
Speaker 4: high school football, possibly fried food on a stick, and
Speaker 4: a football team on the other side of the bye
Speaker 4: week when we've talked to you next week or sometime
Speaker 4: on the Happy half Hour