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NOTE - The day after we recorded this, Mike Wright committed to Northwestern. Two days afterwards, Sion James committed to Duke. Just ignore those parts of the podcast. Be super attentive to everything else, though.

Our old friend Conor O'Neill stopped by to give us his thoughts on Wake Forest and Duke as the programs head into 2024. Conor covers both programs for Rivals. He's got a good thing going over at Devils Illustrated - sign up, folks!

Before talking football, we took a few minutes to discuss the legacy of one of the greatest recording engineers (also known as a record producer) in music history, Steve Albini, who, sadly, passed away recently. He was a member of influential industrial rock bands like Big Black and Shellac. Albini's career as prominent independent musician gave him an opportunity to start recording for other bands and he made the most of it. During his legendary career, Albini worked with a wide variety of bands including the Pixies, Nirvana, The Breeders, The Jesus Lizard, PJ Harvey and Man or Astro-man?. The story behind the initial recording of Nirvana's In Utero is worth the time to read about. I enjoyed Albini's sound as a young kid living in a fairly boring town. RIP, man. RIP.

After discussing what the Deacs can expect, we spend some time talking the Duke QB battle and how we shouldn't overlook what Grayson Loftis might be able to do if he gets a shot. While we're both high on Maalik Murphy, it's hard not to think that Loftis might be able to make a name for himself in Durham. Oh, and Murphy has a canon for an arm and will showcase it as the Blue Devils will run a variation of the Air Raid. All right, all right, all right!

Conor and I also discuss the portal, NIL and how the NCAA needs to let schools employ athletes. And we get into a little basketball, too!

This is another good talk with a guy who is close to the program. I know you'll enjoy it.

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As always, Go Duke!