The Drive with Paul Swann

Note: There will be some errors in the transcript

It is Monday, September 11th. Your drive begins now on ESPN 94.1 and AM 9:30. I'm your host, Paul Swan. Our text line is now open. It's 304-396-talk, 304-396-8255.

We've got a lot to get into today. We're going to talk about the Marshall victory over ECU. We'll get into that in a lot more detail, and we'll get your texts in about that. Also, we're going to recap a few of the high school matchups across the airwaves on Friday and Saturday. A lot of games to talk about; we'll get into that as well. And the Bengals? We'll have our Bengals rewind in just a minute. The Bengals lose a tough one, a tough one to the Cleveland Browns, and I already had to make sure that I wished yesterday the birthday boy, the columnist from the Herald Dispatch, Chuck Landin, a happy birthday by. Was if the Bengals would have ruined his birthday. I was definitely gonna wish him a really happy birthday, but instead, I had to just wish him the old-fashioned. Hey, glad your team won, happy birthday. But no, happy birthday to the columnist from the Herald Dispatch a day later. And he's a day happier as his Browns beat my Bengals yesterday. And of course, I didn't ask him how old he was. He looks good, he looks good for 29. I think that's fair to say he looks really good for 29, so we'll get your text in here in just a moment, of course, Marshall. As I mentioned, getting the victory over East Carolina had to come back. Again, had to come back. A team that comes back the second week in a row has a 2-0 record; you'd rather be in that situation than you would be 0-2 or 1-1, just scratching your head. Hey, what happened? So you get the victory; I think Cam Fancher's getting better. I'd like to see the wide receivers maybe help him out a little bit better. It was good to finally get some production out of Rashina Ali. Of course, you keep running him; he's eventually gonna find a way. You can't just stop and not go to him. You have to find a way to get him open, and the Herd made it happen. So Marshall gets the victory; they started out trailing 13-10. We're entering the final quarter trailing, and then there's a trick play. Trick play. It's Chuck Montgomery finding Caleb McMillan, and it goes 75 yards for the touchdown. Of course, some of you have pointed out, this is the game against East Carolina. There's the connection between East Carolina, Marshall, and the 75 victims of the 1970 Marshall plane crash. The 70-yard touch. I'm sorry. The 75-yard touchdown. Some of you have noted that as well, that hey, that is. That is something that sticks out because of the 75. So we did take note of that. But after that, the Herd took over the game. The Herd takes over the game. Rasheen Ali takes over the game, gets through, gets through the defense, goes for 56 yards, makes it an 8-2 score lead, and then Cam Fancher getting in on it. Cam Fancher, I thought, was key. 29-Yard Pass on 3rd and 16, finding Jayden Harrison. That makes the drive more manageable. The Thundering Herd gets the victory. Big day. Big day. First-ever win at ECU for Marshall. That's it. That's the story right there; Marshall goes in East Carolina for the first time ever and wins. This has not been one of those series where it's been overly lopsided, but more times than not, East Carolina wins this game, and Marshall has just had no success going into ECU's home field at any iteration of it, and getting a victory until Saturday. And of course, the thing we haven't talked about is the fact that this thing was rain-soaked Thunder. And when you have issues like that when you have weather issues. You have to go in. And kind of. Prepare yourself for the wait. It's. Can't go out. The weather's gonna prevent this game from going on until everything is clear. You gotta make sure that there's no more lightning in the area. That's gonna be an issue. And so we wait. Under two hours, and I know it was frustrating for a lot of people because. We're going from. It's on the streaming app to it's on TV to it's back on the streaming app, and we're not going back to TV. So this game got bounced around a little bit. A unique situation. So I know it's frustrating for a lot of Herd fans because you try to watch the game and not everyone has streaming, and I get it. Not everyone has streaming, so I'm sure there are a lot of Herd fans that kind of missed the game that they were trying to watch it. Of course, we had the game right here on ESPN 94.1 and AM 930. I just wanna, you know, always remind you that if you can't watch the game, we got you covered on the radio side with the voice of the Herd Steve Cotten. so great game; we'll get into your text in just a few minutes, 304-396-talk, 304-396-8255, and then. Yesterday I'm all set to watch the Bengals and the Browns, and I'm listening to it. Of course, as well. Right here on ESPN 94.1 and AM 930. I had to go and watch this through streaming because I have DIRECTV, and DIRECTV right now is in a carriage dispute with the parent company of WOW. OK locally here. And so. Here we are. We do not have the game on. At least my cable system, which is satellite, and I had to watch it on streaming, and this was the first year as well for YouTube TV to have the Sunday ticket package. So the best thing I could do was watch the Bengals game on streaming. Listen to it, and of course, I had a hard time syncing it up. I like to sync it up a little bit as much as I can. Red Zone Channel was all I had on DIRECTV, so I'm sure there were a. Lot of people maybe trying to find games for the first time didn't realize. Ohh hey, well, I don't have Sunday ticket this year, it's on YouTube TV, so that was kind of crazy. And then the game itself. The weather. Was nasty. Joe Burrow didn't look like he was 100%. This offensive line that was set to protect Joe Burrow, I thought, OK, this is gonna be a better offensive line. This is gonna be a line that's gonna get things done. We're loading up here ready to go. And then Jill Burrough goes into Cleveland and it's kryptonite. Whatever. Whatever's in the water, by the mistake, by the lake. Whatever is in the water there, it affects Joe Burrow. He can't seem to get it

done. And of course, the weather was not helping anything. I don't know if it's borough. His inability to win in Cleveland or his team's ability to help him win in Cleveland. I don't know what the case may be, but. With that said. It's time for our Bengals rewind.

In a rain-soaked battle of Ohio, quarterback Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals offense struggled to find their rhythm against the Cleveland Browns, resulting in a 24-3 loss on Sunday. In the third quarter, safety Dax Hill made a pivotal interception, picking off Deshaun Watson, setting up the Bengals for a potential comeback.

However, the Browns managed to extend their lead with a touchdown from Deshaun Watson, a 13-yard run in the second quarter.

Way the Browns continue to dominate, sealing the game with another touchdown from Watson to Harrison Bryant in the fourth quarter.

Cleveland wins 24 to 3.

I'll tell you what, if his Browns have the number on any team, it continues to be this team. The Bengals has the Browns win it today, 24 to 3. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow breaks down the team's performance.

One week, obviously not up to. Our standard not up to my standard, but. Yeah, 16 more of them so.

The King Truck borough remains optimistic despite the challenging start to the season.

You know, stuff like this happens. You've been here before and then come back stronger. Get better this week. Come back next Sunday, hopefully.

He emphasizes that it's just the beginning of the season and there's no need to panic. Nobody's. Nobody's panicking. It's. Week 1 doesn't define anybody's season. Obviously not very good out there, but anybody that watched, we saw that. But we've been in this spot before, we've come back stronger and and. Had great years.

So Bengals wide receiver Jamar Chase, whose comments added some extra motivation to the matchup, was frustrated.

That's what. Going to do.

After the game.

Because I caught the ask Alice.

And we just lost. Some else, so I'm fixed on my part I'm not.

Just one hour on that. And like I said, man, we got missed opportunities. We didn't capitalize on it and and.

Then we lost and that's how we lost.

Cleveland Browns defensive end Miles Garrett was extra motivated by Chase's comments.

I mean. In the back of your mind, too much impact. I only saw him once and that was in passing, so if I saw him after the game I would have, I would have said something.

Up next for the Cincinnati Bengals, the Baltimore Ravens will have the airtime Sunday 11:30 AM with a 1:00 kick. We've got more coming up on this edition of the drive on ESPN 94.1 and AM 930.

Welcome back to the Monday edition of The Drive on ESPN 94.1 and AM 930. Our text line is open. It's 304-396-talk (304-396-8255).

Basketball news today. From the women's side, Thundering Herd schedules out. You've got 12 home games this year, and there is a preseason "fans first" game on October 29th against Pikeville. Hey, imagine that. That should be a fun one there. So the Kim Caldwell era has begun, and the schedule has a non-conference game against Florida on December 2nd. Marshall's gonna travel to Wake Forest on December 21st, and let me tell you, I got a first-hand look at some of the stuff that Wake Forest has got going on. I don't want to go too far off here on a sidebar, but Wake Forest has got some really nice stuff. Their practice facility is pretty cool. And again, I'm not trying to go too far, but since I've got the opportunity just to talk a little bit about it. They've got, you know, how they renovated Gullickson. So renovation at Gullickson was way needed. If you're going to Wake Forest, they have a practice court for both the men and the women. And I'd love to see Marshall get to the point where you could have a practice court going at the same time for both the men and the women. That would be really cool. And they have technology which you can look into. Say for example you get your shot right? Yeah, it tracks your shot. They have tracking technology. And so if you for some reason lose your shot. You can go back and see. Well, what was I doing when my shots were going in? And it's really cool how they built their practice facility. Is the ACC money man, it's the ACC money. So that's a cool game. That's a cool game. The regular season is gonna open up on November 9th. It's gonna be at George Mason. And there's also going to be some local matchups. Northern Kentucky, Wright State, Morehead State. And of course, the Sun Belt schedule has been out. So the Herd will take on Southern Miss on December 30th. So here is the home schedule. We'll just concern ourselves with home right now. October 29th, preseason, also known as fans first, that's going to be Pikeville and then November 20th home contest against Point Park. Florida will be December 2nd, Salem will be December 11th and then you get into the conference schedule at home January 4th and 6th with South Alabama and Arkansas State January 18th and 20th. It'll be Old Dominion and Coastal Carolina, so those are home games and again, that's what we're going over. Also, to round this schedule up, there will be a three-game homestand, January 31st, February 3rd and February 7th. It'll be App State, JMU and then Louisiana. Then there's a four-game road trip. It's spaced out February 15th at App State, February 17th at Old Dominion, February 21st at Texas State, and then February 24th at ULM. And then you wrap it up before the conference tournament at home February 28th and March 1st against Georgia State and Georgia Southern. So that's what it looks like. As far as the schedule is concerned, so there are a lot of games on the road. A lot of games. The Herd will have that preseason matchup first and then three games on the road. It'll be George Mason, Chattanooga, and then NKU. And then after the Point Park game at home, 2 games on the road at Wright State at Morehead State. And then after the Florida Salem homestand, it'll be four games. As I mentioned on the road at Jacksonville, at Elon, at Wake Forest, and then you kick things off on the road against Southern Miss and then the conference schedule. It's basically what it looks like is you get two home games and then you go on the road for two, and then you come back and just depending on the spacing and the spacing is this time, there's going to be a three-game homestand. But there's also going to be a four-game road trip in conference and then March 5th through the 10th, the Sun Belt Conference Women's basketball championship. So that's a look at your Sun Belt schedule and your non-conference schedule for the women's basketball team. I'm sure we'll get into this a little bit more throughout the week as the Thundering Herd will announce times as soon as those are available, but that's interesting to see the Herd on the road. A lot. And of course, I think you're going to see that for a while. You're going to see the program taking more games, taking more games on the road. The highlight here for me, of course. Will be Florida at home on December 2nd, and of course, I'm pretty

excited about that. That game against Wake Forest on December 21st and. They're that's impressive. They're they have an impressive and that's Wake Forest. So I know people maybe look at them and go, it's Wake Forest. Yeah. They've got a really nice set up here. So I'm interested to see how that one plays out, but you're playing an SEC school. You're playing an ACC school. That's pretty good. And I'm sure that will help a lot of these games are gonna help the budget. I mean ACC Wake Forest, that's the money game on the basketball schedule, I would think. Conference games are the conference games, but you get one game to try to sell tickets. And that's the Florida game. That's gonna be the big game. And then the road game against Wake, that's going to be the big money game. And in between those are just matchups that make sense. Chattanooga makes sense. You had a history between the Herd and Chattanooga. NKU makes sense. Easy to get to. Morehead State. Makes sense. It's easy. To get to. Jacksonville, Elon, I'm sure you're getting a little, little, little money there, but. A lot more as far as the road games than the home games, and we'll see if that's gonna be a scheduling philosophy here, at least for the immediate future, or if that's just gonna be a one-off here before Marshall really gets his women's basketball program ramped up and ready to go, which? Yeah, my understanding there are already ramping up, and they probably feel like they are ready to go with Kim Caldwell taking over from Tony Kemper as the head coach of the Thundering Herd.

Alright, our text line, keep this number handy. You're going to need it here throughout the week and next. 304-396-talk (304-396-8255). You're gonna need that number. I'm gonna give you an opportunity. Not today. Give you an opportunity this week and next to win tickets to go see Marshall's take on Virginia Tech that is coming up. That is going to be at 12 o'clock 12:00 on September 23rd. So High Noon showdown between the Herd and the Hokies. And if you can't go, we've got it for you right here on ESPN 94.1 and AM 930. Should be a fun one. I'm interested to see the return of Grant Wells. I'm not. Trying to imply anything, but I'd like to speculate a little bit. What do you think the Marshall Football team would look like? If Grant Wells decided to stay. And was your quarterback. What do you? Think this team would look like now? Because I'm trying to factor in, you've got leadership. You have veteran experience at this point. If he was the quarterback through it all. He was the guy, hopefully progressing getting better. Getting better under the system. How would Marshall look? Marshall would be different. I'm not saying better, I'm saying different. Better is subjective because of course we don't know what the team would look like with Grant Wells as a quarterback, it could have been better. It could have been worse. Those I think those are are interesting ways to describe this. I'm curious more to what this team might look like. Would the offense run a little different? Would the offense feature some of the same pieces? Would it still feature a run-heavy attack? What would it look like? And would his presence maybe dictated a little bit of the direction that the offense would have gone? And of course, you know, we don't know. We can't really say. All we can say is that it's gonna be interesting to watch. I don't think that's I don't think Marshall Virginia Tech's like. A real rivalry. But it'll be a little spicy, I'm sure. Coming up on the 23rd. And that's gonna do it for this edition. Thanks for tuning in. I'll be back with you tomorrow. Right here on ESPN 94.1. And AM 930. Until then, have a great night, everyone.