Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I, I think, um, there's a lot that goes into this duo.

I mean, we we've often in marketing and kind of said, this is kind of like an X files meets true detective sort of story.

There certainly is this duo at the center of these two detectives, but they couldn't be more different.

And I think we are going for kind of like, you feel like, they don't fit in some way.

And so they are problematic for each other.

It looks

Well, what did you think of the Pirate performance today?

Yeah, no, I had to make the one joke.

Penn State did have a 96.8% win percentage, by the way.

Anyway, as far as ECU goes, and I've only been listening for a little bit since we got out of this, but I would hope people are kind of positive, at least taking some positives away.

I know it's against lesser competition, but You know, I feel like we saw some flashes of what Emory Williams and an Emory Williams-led offense can be and just felt like in the first half really moved the ball well.

You know, even on the drive they turned it over, they were still, you know, getting into the red zone and, you know, finding ways to get downfield.

So I think you've got to at least feel better about the offense.

But, yeah, I like that now he's got a full couple of weeks to prepare as the number one guy.

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Association of the Carolinas.

Congratulations, Luke.

Well deserved.

Thank you.

I'm proud of our...

Thank you, Luke.

Would you like to see Emory start and get the reins on Saturday?

I heard it's more Fyre Fest than

Woodstock.

It might be the end of Mitchell Palooza after this week.

Oh.

Yeah.

Speak on that.

Well, you look at the offense, I mean, because there's several reasons, obviously, Clip.

Is that a huge deal? Maybe not huge, but having Brock Spalding for a Mitch Griffiths would be pretty big right now.

Even though I've never been here, it still feel like home.

You say you came with, um, offensive coordinator Jordan Davis from North Texas.

How are you seeing all the rest of your teammates kind of adjust to his scheme?

But yeah, I, I definitely keep up.

I know you're trying to win every game, obviously, but just, you know, given the start, I mean, do you guys feel like this is truly a must-win this week?

What are you expecting on Saturday, Zach? I

think the Pirates will have a much easier time running the ball.

I mean, that's not saying much, but that really was the key, in my opinion, in Saturday's loss.

It's just, you know, an offense that got really one-dimensional today.

You know, if they convert a third and one, Blake even mentioned it, Blake Harrell in his press conference this week, you know, the third and one earlier that they get.

Maybe it's a different game running the ball, but they just had a really hard time, and I just think it made it really easy to stop ECU offensively.

I know people, you know, we talked about it last week, trying not to jump to too many conclusions off of their opener, knowing that's the best team far and away that ECU has on the schedule right now.

I'm going to need to see more from either Mitch or the both of them.

There's not

enough Mount Olive pickle juice or 120 college football players or what have you.

So I feel like it's easy to be in practice shape for it.

I think it's different to be in game shape for it, and that could go for both teams.

So that'll be kind of interesting to see in the first half and maybe something that can play to ECU's advantage.

I do agree with the general sentiment of, You know, Pirates are kind of in it first half.

Bama pulls away second half.

Hauser led the team last year with nine rushing touchdowns.

And what are the challenges that go into that?

Yeah, certainly there's a lot of switching as far as mindset goes for each of these books.

I mean, yeah, I'm absolutely...

I learned this from Rick Remender, and I don't know if he said it somewhere.

I just learned it from studying his work.

But step number one is find amazing artists and work with them.

So I continue to strive to do that.

Do you think that the strength of how independent comics is going right now is playing a hand in the fact that you are able to pitch and get approved of doing some of these different stories instead of just being stuck in a one lane bubble?

nothing else, I'm flexible.

Yes, so appreciate that.

Wasn't particularly surprised when the announcement came out when Pete Dammel broke the news this morning.

I appreciate that he did it before practice so we can get videos and clips of him and all that stuff.

But as far as the decision itself, you know, It just seemed like he was here earlier.

He's just played more college football.

And to Blake Harrell's point, further along with the offense than Emory at this point of just being in those air raid principles, having that Texas Tech pedigree from last year.

That was a long time ago, but I just found that funny.

it's so good and like does it do you have now you're on your third volume and you know this is seems to be more of your your violent action centered story than most of your other ones so like does it get easier or does it get harder as you're writing to be like how do i want them to destroy each other physically here

No, it's true.

This was my first real action hero story.

And I guess I've written some other violent things, but not like this.

It was certainly my most fight-oriented series.

And it's been a huge hit.

We've gotten to go all the way with three arcs on this.

So tell me about Smart Division, how that kind of

he might have a little he might have a long message to read from a certain person

In all seriousness, though, I'm excited to interview a lot of players that we just haven't talked to really at all.

And it's kind of felt like last year, you know, most of the guys, you know, from that 2014 were back this year.

I mean, based on the list we kind of have right now, like it's a lot of guys we just haven't spoken to.

So I always like when you can meet players and be like, wow, that guy's like amazing.

unbelievably funny for someone I just wouldn't expect to be.

So, kind of looking forward to that.

I've talked

We'll take some reps to get it clicking.

And then Jamie said, I like getting Bama three games in better.

Okay, but then they get time to figure it out.

They play Kentucky and Florida State the two weeks after ECU.

I mean, that's two P4 teams that they would get to play, probably dunk on.

And then they have figured out, too, because Ty Simpson's on the Rams now.

He's gone.

Yeah, I appreciate that from you and Bailey and North and Luke and Dugan and everybody that does it.

When I say, "Zach, talk football," what's the first thing that pops into your head? Is it Matt Campbell? Is it the high schools you're covering? Is it East Carolina? What is it?

A.J. Brown.

I mean, we spent plenty of time at East, but you know, it's, uh, it's probably about the Hall of Fame game tonight.

[laughs] Uh, just so you know what the Panthers look like.

Can they avoid anyone getting hurt? That's the big question.

Uh- Uh, the answer is no, probably.

You mean moving forward? Because they've already had a ton of injuries on this team.

But Jacksonville one, Rose two, Conley three.

Where were you at on Wednesday? Talking about practice, man.

Started the day at Farmville Central.

Shout out, Wes.

Shout out, Shirley.

Went to Tarboro, and then a little lunch break.

Then in the afternoon, went to Kinston, West Craven, New Bern, Havelock, in that order.

Wow.

Any teams or players you're excited to highlight on Touchdown Friday this year?

You just hire a hired gun to come in and try to help you get to the playoffs, win a Super Bowl.

Yeah, I think any guy out of East Carolina can make a career for himself like that.

Really, you know, you're talking about Gavin Williams, who's now doing it at the major league level trade.

The Savage pitches tomorrow against my Red Sox, who we mentioned off the top.

You know, the guys who can do that and, you know, really make like a steady career and those guys cases, you know.

It's been a few years.

Linville's been longer.

But, Zach, if I ask you today who will win the American Championship, what would be your answer?

Mm-hmm.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, I got real concerns about whether he can be the dude to lead a USA national team forward.

I mean, it's just, you know, he's good when he's available, but it's fleeting.

I mean, you can't rely on him.

The best ability is availability.

And it's been an issue both in club and for country.

Are you doing play-by-play and talking and...

It's.

I mean, on a standard, I think, book, you get a lot more handoff.

You know, you just have someone write the script.

I mean, probably more of the comics than you read than not.

The writer writes the script, hands it to the artist, and the artist draws it.

The next level of it, maybe you get some, like, back and forth on how layouts should look and stuff like that.

Because... there's such an element of deconstructionism.

As fast as AI is updating itself and creating more, are you going back and kind of diverging from the original plot a little bit as you're doing these issues?

What is that marriage going to look like in Minnesota from their standpoint? What did you think of the trade?

I've been really surprised by how many people are bagging on the Hornets for it.

Because I think the Hornets did a great job, and I think it's a great trade for the Charlotte Hornets.

I understand the frustration of, this is our first great season in a long time, so why are we making a move like this? Why are we blowing it up? But I just look at LaMelo, and I look at the simple fact of this.

Do you want to sell tickets, or do you want to play for, compete for championships? And I look at Lomelo...

Definitely the latter.

I look at Lomelo as the former.

I understand, but what does that have to do with the vacuum? Where's the vacuum part of it?

What did you think of the moves Cliff Godwin made?

Yeah, obviously, it's always tough when you lose someone like Austin Knight, who's been around a long time.

But to lose him to an SEC program, you know, I thought about it, you know, when football lost John David Baker also to an SEC program.

Like, that's what you want.

If they're not leaving for a head coaching job, you want them going to, you know, premier programs in the sport.

So, you know, there is that.

I'm really happy for the guys that, you know, have been around, are clearly, like, you know, tried and true Pirates and deserve it.

It would make college players eligible after their sophomore year rather than junior year.

Could you give us a little sort of synopsis of our two main characters, Stevie Lark and Will

Bailey? Yeah, Will is – I work backwards a little bit.

Will is in his 40s now, and so he kind of came up in the 2000s as an FBI agent, and he would have been inspired by things like 9-11.

And so he would have gotten into criminal justice and that sort of thing at that sort of time.

So I think he is he initially got in with very idealistic perspective.

He wanted to use his intelligence and his ability to solve puzzles and put these things together to help make the world a safer, better place.

But he's lived through quite a lot.

Multifaceted, very

And they filled the arena.

It's been awesome.

It's been really cool to see that they've, you know, fans are kind of clamoring for it, especially the last round, I feel like, there were more and more people asking for a watch party at Lenovo, and just to see that place explode as if the game was there.

I mean, if you're someone in the East listening who's, like, kind of into the fever of this Stanley Cup run, but not trying to spend, you know, $1,200 a ticket, I mean, it's free to park, $10 to get in, and if you can get a ticket to the Game 6 watch party, I don't think, I can't imagine the experience is that much different than going to a game itself, considering the price point and how different it is.

Like, I've had friends who've gone and said it's been pretty similar.

So, I mean, it's really cool that they've done that.

There's been jokes about if they go to a game seven, just open Carter's family up for a watch party.

The Canes coming back scored four goals in the third, and history at the Big Rock as well earlier this week.

So what were your takeaways from what was a really good game one that did not go the Canes' way?

Yeah, that's the ironic part, Cliff, is, you know, a lot of these Golden Knights have played in the Stanley Cup final, whereas these Canes, you know, when Saul's played in it, but it was 15 years ago, 16 years ago.

And then, you know, I thought it might be that way, but it turned out the exact opposite.

So, you know, credit to Carolina for coming out with their hair on fire the way they did, but, you know, not able to sustain it, obviously, and just a lot of defensive lapses.

And that was kind of the biggest issue.

At least in my opinion, just kind of the late first, early second period, it's probably they lost focus a little bit.

Maybe got too ahead of themselves and, yeah, found themselves in a hole real quick.

Of course they're going to never shut up about