Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid verbal hull. That for me. I'm
Speaker 1: a man, I'm forty. I've heard so many players say, well,
Speaker 1: I want to be happy.
Speaker 2: You want to be happy for a day?
Speaker 1: Edith Steak is that woo woom? And Dan and Tie
Speaker 1: welcome back to the solid verbal boys and girls. My
Speaker 1: name is Ty Hildebrand, joining me as always over there
Speaker 1: in Chicago Land, the one the only mister Dan Rubinstein, Sir,
Speaker 1: how are you?
Speaker 2: I'm good, Ty. I'm using a resistance band right now.
Speaker 2: This is one hundred percent true. If you saw the risk, all, yeah,
Speaker 2: I've got resistance. I'm doing some curls with resistance bands.
Speaker 2: Why well, I've been on the go for quite some time,
Speaker 2: and this is the easiest way when you don't have
Speaker 2: a gym, when you don't have weights available to you.
Speaker 2: It's I don't know if it's an next best thing,
Speaker 2: but it's a thing that you can do to work
Speaker 2: on your tone, on your muscles and tie. I'm just
Speaker 2: staying ready. I don't know what the next few months
Speaker 2: has in store for the college well season, but I
Speaker 2: am staying ready. I'm staying vigilant. I'm keeping my muscle
Speaker 2: tone mediocre because if it slips anywhere beneath that. I
Speaker 2: don't know what to expect. We have a show to do.
Speaker 2: There's college football coming up. We're previewing teams. I am
Speaker 2: staying ready. Okay, that's all I can.
Speaker 1: This is at least half the plot from over the top.
Speaker 2: This is I'm looking pretty good right now, Okay, which
Speaker 2: I guess the ACC is as well, right, looking pretty good?
Speaker 1: Right? Yeah, that's what we call a segue here in
Speaker 1: the business, and by business we mean the industry. We're
Speaker 1: going to be talking about all things ACC football tonight,
Speaker 1: if you can believe it. We did a big twelve
Speaker 1: preview a couple weeks ago, and then things kind of
Speaker 1: got wacky and went sideways and we weren't sure which
Speaker 1: direction all this was going to head. But the last
Speaker 1: here we are welcome to September. We're going to do
Speaker 1: our best to make it a September to remember Daniel,
Speaker 1: because we're going to talk all things ACC. And then
Speaker 1: on Thursday we're going to talk all things SEC. And
Speaker 1: then I believe if memory serves, next weekend, the weekend
Speaker 1: after Labor Day, is when we're going to actually have
Speaker 1: some Power five games that we can start discussing here,
Speaker 1: so I'm getting ready for that. We've got all sorts
Speaker 1: of news that we're going to get through. It's been
Speaker 1: very busy, very active, as you might expect. If you've
Speaker 1: just popped onto Twitter or turned on ESPN for any
Speaker 1: length of time, you know that there's a lot breaking
Speaker 1: in and around the college football world, which we can
Speaker 1: try to dabble into here without going too much into
Speaker 1: the nitty gritty because we do have fifteen teams to
Speaker 1: discuss here on the podcast.
Speaker 2: I've been looking at social media less and I gotta
Speaker 2: tell you, Ty, it's pretty amazing. It's pretty incredible, both
Speaker 2: as relates to college football and world events and just
Speaker 2: people in general. I could not recommend it more. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I looked at it today and it seemed to be
Speaker 2: going in a number of different directions as it relates
Speaker 2: to another conference. But I don't know what's going to
Speaker 2: pop up on social media as we record this show.
Speaker 2: It tends to change as we record shows. But I
Speaker 2: don't think too much about the Wake Forest defense and
Speaker 2: the Boston College offense and the Miami coaching situation. I
Speaker 2: don't think, actually I shouldn't say that about Miami. That
Speaker 2: changes sometimes on a time. I don't think a lot's
Speaker 2: going to change about those specific things as we record,
Speaker 2: so I'm grateful for.
Speaker 1: That as am I don't forget. If you like the show,
Speaker 1: if you want to get more of our stuff, you
Speaker 1: can always subscribe. Go to solidverbal dot com. You can
Speaker 1: find all of our links there where you can subscribe
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Speaker 1: Shall we get to the breaking news. Let's do it, Dan,
Speaker 1: we have breaking news. Maybe boo boo boop. Yeah, maybe
Speaker 1: is right. So this whole Big Ten saga around college
Speaker 1: football is just weird and nuts and truly presents as
Speaker 1: the Big Ten being left at its own alter in
Speaker 1: a way, they pulled the plug on the season. The
Speaker 1: Pac twelve was very quick to follow suit, and then
Speaker 1: you know, no one else did, and that leaves us
Speaker 1: in this very precarious spot that we're in now, where
Speaker 1: it seems there's a lot of public pressure, there's some
Speaker 1: political pressure to maybe revisit that approach and see if
Speaker 1: the season can get off to an earlier start than
Speaker 1: that January February timeframe that we've been kicking around. Perhaps Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: Some reports coming out today it could be even sooner
Speaker 1: than that. So let's go through that, Dan, if you
Speaker 1: don't mind. We had a presidential tweet earlier today. There
Speaker 1: was also supposedly a call between the President and the
Speaker 1: commissioner of the Big Ten, Kevin Warren. The speculation was
Speaker 1: that perhaps the federal government would ship been some resources.
Speaker 1: The president said that the league was quote on the
Speaker 1: one yard line after the conversation that they had earlier
Speaker 1: on Tuesday. Those reports have been refuted by many Big
Speaker 1: Ten sources. Dennis Dodd from CBS Sports still calling it
Speaker 1: a quote long shot. I've seen that reporting elsewhere as well,
Speaker 1: at least that time of recording, which is about five
Speaker 1: o'clock on Tuesday evening. The other bit that came out
Speaker 1: regarding the Big Ten is this purported vote. Now, remember
Speaker 1: before we didn't know if there was a vote, what
Speaker 1: the deal was with that vote supposedly now and this is,
Speaker 1: by the way, as a direct result of that lawsuit
Speaker 1: filed by the eight Nebraska players, which I kind of dismissed,
Speaker 1: but it's interesting to get this kind of information, even
Speaker 1: if it's as a result of a lawsuit that may
Speaker 1: not go anywhere. What they found was that Big Ten
Speaker 1: presidents and chancellor has voted eleven to three to cancel
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty fall season. That, of course, is due
Speaker 1: to concerns with the ongoing pandemic. The three teams that
Speaker 1: voted to play were Nebraska, Iowa and Ohio state Big
Speaker 1: Ten by laws do require that at least sixty percent
Speaker 1: or nine of the league's presidents and chancellor's vote in
Speaker 1: favor of postponing or you know, making any kind of
Speaker 1: decision here. So a lot to unpack. We've got politics
Speaker 1: interfering now to some extent with with sports. That's just
Speaker 1: where we're at. We'll see if that moves the needle
Speaker 1: in one direction or another. And now we do have
Speaker 1: some clarity around the actual vote that did take place
Speaker 1: in order to postpone the fall season. Dan any reaction
Speaker 1: to any of the stuff that I just talked about
Speaker 1: regarding the Big Ten.
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, other conferences canceled their seasons as well,
Speaker 2: but I guess it was the Big Ten whose coaches
Speaker 2: and players and parents have been the most vote cool
Speaker 2: and perhaps fans as well because of the size of
Speaker 2: some of the programs in the Big Ten, let's say.
Speaker 2: But I just sort of think it's wishful thinking and
Speaker 2: political posturing, because I mean, eleven three is like, I
Speaker 2: don't know, when Taiwan plays Norway in the Little League
Speaker 2: World Series, it's kind of a no doubt vote. This
Speaker 2: is not a tipping one. Way or the other, and
Speaker 2: perhaps new information and new testing capabilities has swayed some
Speaker 2: of the eleven back towards the three direction, But I
Speaker 2: don't think we've seen any credible reporting to that sort
Speaker 2: of backs up that sentiment right now, So it seems
Speaker 2: like it's wishful thinking, it's political posturing, and the Big
Speaker 2: ten won't be playing anytime soon. I saw a good
Speaker 2: tweet from John Wilner, who covers the PAC twelve for
Speaker 2: the San Jose Mercury News. I believe he said it's
Speaker 2: foolish to think like a fan, to think like a coach,
Speaker 2: to think like a player, to think like an ad
Speaker 2: when trying to figure out how and when schools that
Speaker 2: have canceled or postponed college football will go back to it.
Speaker 2: It only makes a difference to think like a president
Speaker 2: or chancellor and the things that they are waging, which
Speaker 2: you and I couldn't possibly do, and I couldn't possibly
Speaker 2: think like a president or chancellor, just in the things
Speaker 2: that come across their desk and the things that they're weighing.
Speaker 2: So I think that's important to keep in mind because
Speaker 2: athletic directors are not in charge. Coaches are not in charge.
Speaker 2: Parents are not in charge. Players are not in charge.
Speaker 2: It's important to remember who ultimately signs a number of
Speaker 2: these checks. And so I don't see anything dramatically changing
Speaker 2: our current reality, whether or not you agree with it
Speaker 2: or not. I don't see anything happening that will change
Speaker 2: our reality.
Speaker 1: And again, just to circle back to something I said
Speaker 1: on the last episode, we have now officially entered into
Speaker 1: the territory where we've got fans making stuff up and
Speaker 1: sources of sources. This is the sources of friends who
Speaker 1: are interns. And you know not that that stuff isn't
Speaker 1: fun to muse over. I've enjoyed myself, but when it
Speaker 1: comes to actually trying to get the story right, just
Speaker 1: a lot of smoke here, a lot of steam on
Speaker 1: the story. My guess is it's not the last we've
Speaker 1: heard of it. At last check, the Big Ten was
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what its plan was going to
Speaker 1: be moving forward. So we'll do our best to try
Speaker 1: and keep you up to date with that as news breaks,
Speaker 1: But at least the time of recording a little bit
Speaker 1: more information, nothing concrete with regard to where the Big
Speaker 1: Ten is headed next.
Speaker 2: Are you saying you can't track a pandemic on flight aware?
Speaker 2: Is that what you are I am saying, pushing to
Speaker 2: all of our listens, I said, okay, I'm just writing
Speaker 2: this town.
Speaker 1: Speaking of concrete plans, the SEC on CBS has released
Speaker 1: it's twenty twenty TV schedule. Hey, okay, they're going to
Speaker 1: try and play. It is exciting, right, I walk me
Speaker 1: through it. We've got an album, a Georgia game on
Speaker 1: TV and LSU Alabama game in prime time. They only
Speaker 1: selected six games. Now they follow a workflow to figure
Speaker 1: out what the other games are going to be. But
Speaker 1: the ones that we're announced here Saturday, September twenty sixth,
Speaker 1: We've got Mississippi State at LSU. Good game. Game to
Speaker 1: start with the following week, on October the third, we've
Speaker 1: got A and M at Alabama. Could be a fun game.
Speaker 1: A couple weeks later in mid October, on the seventeenth,
Speaker 1: at eight pm, Georgia at Alabama. That's going to be
Speaker 1: a bigin. I'll watch it, ty, I will as well. Uh.
Speaker 2: Two weeks later on Halloween. Oh, this is new math
Speaker 2: for me. So I see eight pm. That's eight pm Eastern.
Speaker 2: So this is a seven pm.
Speaker 1: Seven pm for you.
Speaker 2: Master God's country yep.
Speaker 1: Three point thirty on Halloween. LSU at Auburn h Saturday
Speaker 1: November seventh at three thirty in Jacksonville, Florida versus Georgia,
Speaker 1: the Big Cocktail Party and cocktail party. They they've always
Speaker 1: called it that, the Big Cocktail Party, the world's largest
Speaker 1: outdoor cocktail party. For those of you playing the home game. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then Saturday, November fourteenth, at six pm Eastern time,
Speaker 1: it is Alabama at LSU. That's the last regular season
Speaker 1: game that they've announced. Of course, the SEC Championship would
Speaker 1: be weeks later mid December, mid to late December. That
Speaker 1: game will be covered by CBS, and it's played in Atlanta.
Speaker 2: Did you see, and I know you didn't put this
Speaker 2: in our little document, did you see that Fox is
Speaker 2: taking big noon Saturday. And I think it's going from
Speaker 2: one to two hours.
Speaker 1: Okay, less football, more.
Speaker 2: Robstone crofton Meer, No, No, I'm just saying more robstone and
Speaker 2: Urban Meyer and Matt Lioner, Reggie Bush, I think Brady
Speaker 2: Quinn maybe. And I have to imagine they sold a
Speaker 2: lot of ads that need a place. Yeah, and suddenly
Speaker 2: a two hour show is some sort of concession that
Speaker 2: they needed a lot of Maybe I'm wrong about that, A.
Speaker 1: Lot of goods going on in this college football season, correct,
Speaker 1: all right? Elsewhere, speaking of the SEC, we'll stay with
Speaker 1: Jamar Chase and Tyler Shelvin, two standouts for ls You
Speaker 1: both have now opted out of the twenty twenty season.
Speaker 1: Shelvin eligible for the twenty twenty one draft as a
Speaker 1: red shirt junior. Jamar Chase, you could argue he's the
Speaker 1: best receiver in the country. He confirmed earlier this week
Speaker 1: that he was going to opt out, and then Shelvin
Speaker 1: followed suits. This is a pretty big blow for an
Speaker 1: LSU squad that was already down a bunch of their
Speaker 1: key contributors from a year ago. It's Joe Burrow, It's
Speaker 1: Clyde Edwards, Hilaire, you know, I mean, you can go
Speaker 1: on and on here. They lose their top two wideouts.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of turnover here. LSU was still well stocked.
Speaker 1: They're going to be a very good football team. But
Speaker 1: you know, it's tough to go from a once in
Speaker 1: a generation type season and experience all this attrition and
Speaker 1: then just expect to kind of carry on as usual.
Speaker 1: I think there's probably going to be something of a
Speaker 1: step back.
Speaker 2: I have only read the sort of very generic stories
Speaker 2: about Jamar Chase deciding to opt out of the season.
Speaker 2: I have not looked at message boards or people who
Speaker 2: might be in more in the know what they're hearing
Speaker 2: from sources of sources. I wonder why the timing was
Speaker 2: what it was because we see know Micah Parsons and
Speaker 2: Rashad Bateman and all these players have been opting out
Speaker 2: well in advance of when camp would have started, the
Speaker 2: season would have started, and now Jamar Chase doing it now.
Speaker 2: I don't know why his timing was different. If it's
Speaker 2: just more thought, more consideration, unhappy perhaps with LSU. I
Speaker 2: have no reason to say that i'mhappy with LSU in
Speaker 2: the way they've they've dealt with everything in a new world.
Speaker 2: But it is curious that the timing because it sort
Speaker 2: of came out of nowhere, at least for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and also how about UCF. UCF has had ten
Speaker 1: players opt out, Dariel Mack, some key defensive players. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this means that Dylan Gabriel is going to be
Speaker 1: the unquestioned starter at quarterback going into the season. Dariel
Speaker 1: Mack was going to provide some depth there because Mackenzie
Speaker 1: Milton is still recovering from his horrible injury. And on
Speaker 1: the defensive side, you've got a cornerback Tay Gowan, a
Speaker 1: junior defensive tackle, and Kelly Davis, two projected starters who
Speaker 1: are opting out. So you know, UCF's one of the
Speaker 1: better group of five schools. There's no denying that they
Speaker 1: may or may not have won a national championship a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago, depending on your point of view.
Speaker 1: But the one thing that I think we find pretty
Speaker 1: consistent all throughout the group of five is depth is
Speaker 1: always a concern, always a concern. To lose this many
Speaker 1: players is a big deal. So we'll see what it
Speaker 1: means for the UCF season moving forward, but definitely something
Speaker 1: to watch.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this would have been a UCF team led
Speaker 2: by a really strong defense, and not that they it
Speaker 2: won't still be strong, but yeah, this might be the
Speaker 2: best group of five school in the country. We'll see,
Speaker 2: but yeah, that's a significant blow.
Speaker 1: You're correct. And the final bit of news that I
Speaker 1: have here, we have two starting quarterback announcements, neither of
Speaker 1: which is all that big a surprise for Oklahoma. Spencer Rattler,
Speaker 1: former top recruit for the Oklahoma Sooners, comes in with
Speaker 1: very high regard. This is interesting because, as we said
Speaker 1: on our Big twelve previews show, Lincoln Riley's always been
Speaker 1: in the situation where he's been inheriting a previous quarterback
Speaker 1: or dealing with the transfer. So now we've got Spencer Ratler,
Speaker 1: this is his first home grown quarterback at Oklahoma, we'll
Speaker 1: see how he does. And at Florida State we got
Speaker 1: James Blackman, who we're going to talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about on tonight's show is preview. All things acc no
Speaker 1: big surprise, and I think there's a chance he could
Speaker 1: be challenged for that spot at some point in the
Speaker 1: near future, but at least to start the season, it's
Speaker 1: going to be Blackman.
Speaker 2: He's a red shirt junior, I believe. And also, no
Speaker 2: matter what happens this fall, the NCAA is going to
Speaker 2: be forgiving about eligibility with players. So there's a good
Speaker 2: chance I'll have three to four more children before James
Speaker 2: Blackman out of college football. It's incredible, I really and
Speaker 2: we can get to this. I really hope he finishes
Speaker 2: his college football career better than it seems to have started.
Speaker 1: It's been rocky and he's had to work through a lot.
Speaker 1: So we wish him well and we'll get to some
Speaker 1: of our deeper in some cases darker Florida State thoughts
Speaker 1: here momentary? All right, anything further that you have on
Speaker 1: your radar?
Speaker 2: I don't think so. I everything is such a bummer.
Speaker 2: I want to talk about fun, good football things, all.
Speaker 1: Right, So I've got sounds that I could play. Why
Speaker 1: don't we play this one as we get into all
Speaker 1: things ACC kind of gives that aura of mystique of mystery. Right,
Speaker 1: how do you feel generally speaking about the ACC? I
Speaker 1: know you did a ton of research. Yep. One thing
Speaker 1: that jumped out at me if I could start this
Speaker 1: is probably the best quarterback conference in college football. Uh yeah.
Speaker 2: Seems like a down here for the SEC and at
Speaker 2: the top. It's interesting. I think in the Big Twelve,
Speaker 2: if you look at what we presume Spencer Rattler to
Speaker 2: be what we know, Sam Ellinger to be what we know,
Speaker 2: Brock Purty to be a good chunk of the time,
Speaker 2: I think the Big Twelve is pretty interesting. We don't
Speaker 2: know health of Texas Tech. I'm not going to go
Speaker 2: through everybody, but yeah, in terms of proven commodities and
Speaker 2: experience and having a good sense of what these guys
Speaker 2: can and can't do. I think the upside is pretty
Speaker 2: pretty nice. Any other thoughts, it's fascinating underneath the top
Speaker 2: team and a half I guess in Clemson and Notre
Speaker 2: Dame just the I don't know if it's the middle
Speaker 2: class this year that seems to be everywhere, but the
Speaker 2: upper middle class to me is the fascinating part of
Speaker 2: the conference. There are chunks of teams that are interesting,
Speaker 2: like North Carolina and Florida State and Louisville and Miami,
Speaker 2: and then there are sort of pseudo rebuilding situations I
Speaker 2: guess still like Florida State in Miami, but also Virginius
Speaker 2: or retooling their identity on offense after Wally's derbyax own
Speaker 2: Bryce Perkins do everything guy under center moves on. So no,
Speaker 2: I think there are there are interesting elements that are
Speaker 2: a little bit different because we've had We've had some
Speaker 2: teams bottom out after some recent successes like Syracuse and
Speaker 2: NC State and then teams like Wake Forest in Boston
Speaker 2: College seeing if new guys either on the field or
Speaker 2: on the sidelines will make some sort of appreciable difference
Speaker 2: or are they just going to be that sort of
Speaker 2: consistent element to the conference.
Speaker 1: Well, Dan, it is America's Conference of Champions, is it? Oh?
Speaker 1: That's right, Parre you the ACC and let's start at
Speaker 1: the very top. Let's talk about Clemson. Let me ask
Speaker 1: you a hypothetical. Actually, i'll play this sound again. Why not? Yeah? If?
Speaker 1: And that's it? If that's bolded, italicized with little asterisks
Speaker 1: around it. Whatever you I can't even say it right.
Speaker 2: Maybe a slab seraph situation going on? Whatever you're into. Yeah,
Speaker 2: IF is doing a lot of work here. But if
Speaker 2: an ACC team is gonna beat the Clemson Tigers, is
Speaker 2: it more likely in your view to be because of
Speaker 2: the situation they have up front basically a new offensive line, yeah,
Speaker 2: or a largely new full time secondary or is there
Speaker 2: something else?
Speaker 1: Maybe that I missed? But where do you stand on that?
Speaker 1: Where is the weakness that could be exploited by again,
Speaker 1: a hypothetical ACC opponent?
Speaker 2: We should agree that we either are or are not
Speaker 2: going to talk about the broader universe of things that
Speaker 2: can happen to football teams, coaches and players.
Speaker 1: Right, Well, you're asking, are we or are we not
Speaker 1: permitted to talk about a potential outbreak at right Clemson,
Speaker 1: I think they already had that one, didn't they.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there were positive tests and outbreaks both with students.
Speaker 2: I haven't heard a lot about Clemson recently, which I'm
Speaker 2: very happy about. Anytime there is an outbreak and then
Speaker 2: I don't hear anything that's good, that means there's no
Speaker 2: horrible news happening on a campus. So I'm happy for that.
Speaker 2: So if we're going to agree that every team is
Speaker 2: susceptible in a way that they never are in twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: just because of circumstances that are new to this world,
Speaker 2: if we're only talking about what where is a team
Speaker 2: like Clemson most susceptible, and as it relates to on
Speaker 2: field things, I think it's the secondary. I think it's
Speaker 2: the secondary. For this reason, Trevor Lawrence, behind an average
Speaker 2: offensive line, is going to be excellent even with the
Speaker 2: loss of Justin Ross. He has Traves Etn next to him,
Speaker 2: He has a slew of receivers that are going to
Speaker 2: be developed really well. As it seems every receiver at
Speaker 2: Clemson is because of Dabo Sweeney's pass and his ability
Speaker 2: to hire really good receiving minds, so I'm not really
Speaker 2: all that worried about the offensive line. They've also recruited good,
Speaker 2: They've recruited well there, so I don't think that's going
Speaker 2: to be a big issue. Especially with the defenses. I
Speaker 2: guess outside of Notre Dame that they're going to be
Speaker 2: playing not a lot of scary defenses. The thing, I'm
Speaker 2: going to go back to what you said about the
Speaker 2: quarterbacks in the conference that to me is interesting. I
Speaker 2: didn't actually mention Virginia Tech was talking about interesting teams,
Speaker 2: and that's my fault because I think the Hokies are fascinating,
Speaker 2: especially with how they looked with Hendon Hooker who took
Speaker 2: over as full time quarterback last year. So between what
Speaker 2: Florida State could look like on offense by November, what
Speaker 2: we think Virginia Tech can look like on offense, and
Speaker 2: both of those games are on the road, what we
Speaker 2: know about Dearic King with hopefully better offense, with Reht
Speaker 2: Lashley running things with some SMU DNA now populating his brain.
Speaker 2: I think the secondary, which has always been very very
Speaker 2: good under Brent Venables, which loses, I mean do on
Speaker 2: every position group lost. Isaiah Simmons for Clemson. He was
Speaker 2: all over the place. But other key elements to this
Speaker 2: Clemson secondary. I think that's the interesting thing because it
Speaker 2: doesn't take much to break a couple of big plays
Speaker 2: when you have good quarterbacks and interesting receivers, which I
Speaker 2: think is a group that populates the acc.
Speaker 1: So if I had to.
Speaker 2: Choose between those two things, I'm gonna say the secondary.
Speaker 2: We don't have killers up front for Clemson. Even though
Speaker 2: they've recruited those killers, they're not established there yet. So
Speaker 2: I'm going to say the secondary. With the I would
Speaker 2: say high floor of some quarterbacks they face in the
Speaker 2: back half of their schedule.
Speaker 1: Interesting do you think.
Speaker 2: Andy and Book and I in book Ian Book is
Speaker 2: one of those pretty good quarterbacks who has hung with
Speaker 2: and or beaten some decent teams.
Speaker 1: Is there anyone on the schedule you look at him
Speaker 1: and you say, I think they can actually exploit both
Speaker 1: in one game. They're good enough up front, but they
Speaker 1: can get some pressure on Trevor Lawrence, maybe change the
Speaker 1: rhythm there. Don't know if it's gonna matter because again
Speaker 1: it's Trevor Lawrence, but can exploit that potential weakness and
Speaker 1: also can blow the lid off the defense and attack
Speaker 1: the backside of that Clemson secondary.
Speaker 2: There's no sure thing because I think part a the
Speaker 2: former is Notre Dame, but I worry about the latter
Speaker 2: with Ian Book downfield, because that that's what you need.
Speaker 2: That's what we've seen Notre Dame try to do unsuccessfully
Speaker 2: against Clemson and Brent Venables. So Notre Dame is as
Speaker 2: close as it gets on that schedule, just because of
Speaker 2: the depth that they've built up and I like Clark
Speaker 2: Lee as a defensive mind and how they've recruited on
Speaker 2: defense and the proven elements to that defense. But offensively,
Speaker 2: that's the big issue for me with Notre Dame. So
Speaker 2: if they can ugly that game up, they can win
Speaker 2: a twenty to seventeen game. I just don't think they
Speaker 2: can win a thirty four to twenty seven game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's fair Dan completely.
Speaker 2: Okay, So I think that's my answer. I mean, I
Speaker 2: don't know if you have any strong opinions about Clemson
Speaker 2: this year, but they're one of the least interesting teams
Speaker 2: to me about the ACC because we just know everything already.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we know a lot about Clemson, don't we. We
Speaker 1: really do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, Amani Rodgers will be really interesting now
Speaker 2: that he's going to be the full time number one
Speaker 2: option out wide for Trevor Lawrence. I saw an article
Speaker 2: that was really fun about how he's doing yoga now,
Speaker 2: so he's more flexible than I think you had in mind.
Speaker 1: Ti Amari Rodgers now getting the Brian Kelly treatment from
Speaker 1: the press.
Speaker 2: Great, Yeah, did I say, Imani Amari?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, Now, I mean I I'll just go back
Speaker 1: to what I said on the previous episode. They're a
Speaker 1: minus three fifty favorite to win the ACC championship and yeah,
Speaker 1: the next closest would be Notre Dame at five to one,
Speaker 1: and I think that's about right.
Speaker 2: Frankly, Yeah, I mean, Clemson's going to be populated with
Speaker 2: special players and no other team in the conference can
Speaker 2: say it to the Tigers extent.
Speaker 1: Where should we go next?
Speaker 2: I think we should just transition easily to Notre Dame.
Speaker 1: Okay, hit me.
Speaker 2: So the thing that's interesting to me about Notre Dame,
Speaker 2: I suppose, is the Tom Tommy Reese tomoment. Tommy tom
Speaker 2: Tommy Yeah, Tom Tommy rees is interesting to me because
Speaker 2: Notre Dame has had a good, pretty good, sometimes really
Speaker 2: good offense these past few years, and it generally goes
Speaker 2: through stretches. You have sophomore Deshaun Kaiser year and it's
Speaker 2: twenty five fifteen. You have the first half of twenty
Speaker 2: seventeen with Josh Adams dragging you know, Brandon Wimbush and
Speaker 2: some okay receivers forward and a great offensive line doing
Speaker 2: the same. And then the past couple of years it's
Speaker 2: been more efficient than it has been big play, which
Speaker 2: has worked largely for Notre Dame, but I don't think
Speaker 2: that aligns with their top, top level goals. So to
Speaker 2: you with what you're reading, with what you're seeing, what
Speaker 2: is what is the new element?
Speaker 1: What is the twist?
Speaker 2: What is the line squeeze about tom Tommy Rees? That's
Speaker 2: going to be different.
Speaker 1: First off, we're going to talk about Tommy Rees. We
Speaker 1: need to bring back the resis. I'm happy that we
Speaker 1: can bring this back into our lexicon. Yeah, let me
Speaker 1: let me step back from that for a second. Just
Speaker 1: acknowledge something up front. This is an extraordinary year for
Speaker 1: Notre Dame football. They have joined a conference at autam necessity.
Speaker 1: But if I said it once, I've said it a
Speaker 1: thousand times Now I am so curious to see if
Speaker 1: this leads to any change of heart in longer term
Speaker 1: around independence. If nothing else, it's one of those interesting
Speaker 1: quirks that we've been foreshadowing now through the course of
Speaker 1: this pandemic. But Notre Dame in a conference they step
Speaker 1: in now, I think you're right to bring them up
Speaker 1: after Clemson. That's where they fall in the official Vegas odds.
Speaker 1: They probably are the next best team in the conference.
Speaker 1: And this question around Tommy Rees is frankly a very
Speaker 1: very good one. It's something that I've been trying to
Speaker 1: figure out the answer to all off season. The truth
Speaker 1: here is that Reees steps into a pretty good situation.
Speaker 1: It's the first time and Brian Kelly's eleven year tenure
Speaker 1: that he'll have a three year starter at quarterback. That's
Speaker 1: a big deal. Yeah, all five starters are back along
Speaker 1: the offensive line. They even bring back a sixth guy,
Speaker 1: a rotation guy, so there's there's some depth there. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of experience. That's a great starting point. Job
Speaker 1: Number one is assembling the passing game in a way
Speaker 1: that is far less predictable, and it's not going to
Speaker 1: be easy. Their top four pass catchers are all gone,
Speaker 1: Chase Claypool's not going to be out there like jumping
Speaker 1: out of the stadium making circus catches. So you know,
Speaker 1: what's the passing game look like? That's where I go
Speaker 1: first with Reese. What can you do?
Speaker 2: This is col Comet gone, cole Comet's gone? Okay? Do
Speaker 2: they have another six to eight dependable tight end waiting?
Speaker 2: Tommy Tremble, Oh good name.
Speaker 1: Not six to eight. But they've got options. They've always
Speaker 1: got options at tight end. The wide receiving core, though,
Speaker 1: is a real unknown quantity, a lot of potential, but
Speaker 1: we just we don't know. We've got guys who are
Speaker 1: all similarly built in Brayden, Lenzay and Lawrence Key's the
Speaker 1: third all in the five ten, five eleven, anywhere from
Speaker 1: one seventy five to one ninety range. Explosiveness is I
Speaker 1: think something you look for out of a guy like
Speaker 1: a Brayden, Lindsay who was there Morgan?
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, they've.
Speaker 1: Also got to transfer in and Bennett, I'm gonna screw
Speaker 1: this up. Skearonic, scaronic something like that. Yeah, from Northwestern
Speaker 1: Big Kids six four more of a possession guy. So
Speaker 1: the wide receiving core to me is is where I
Speaker 1: think Reecee can do the most work. The most complementary
Speaker 1: thing I can say about the other skill position at
Speaker 1: running back is that there are good options or good options.
Speaker 1: So Reese will have guys to work with. And I
Speaker 1: like Jafar Armstrong, but he's been snake bitten, and so
Speaker 1: is Jamiir Smith, and who knows about Chris Tyree the freshman.
Speaker 1: They have options, right. It's kind of the same deal
Speaker 1: as the wide receiver room. Maybe more known quantities there
Speaker 1: at running back, but it's just like he's got to
Speaker 1: figure out how to assemble these pieces here and get
Speaker 1: this offense humming in a way that I think is
Speaker 1: a little less predictable. You used to be able to
Speaker 1: call the players with Chip. It was getting to that
Speaker 1: point now with Reese. Hopefully he can spread the defense
Speaker 1: out a little bit more, use some of that speed
Speaker 1: more to his advantage, and see if maybe we can
Speaker 1: get more pop out of that passing game.
Speaker 2: Here's what I want to know, ty and I don't
Speaker 2: know how closely you are tracking this every day. Are
Speaker 2: there stories coming out to the effect of, this isn't
Speaker 2: your grandpappies, Tom Reese, This isn't your Grandpappy ian Book.
Speaker 2: You guys are not gonna believe the bombs that he
Speaker 2: is throwing downfield. We're talking laser left, laser right.
Speaker 1: He is gonna turn some let me head, let me
Speaker 1: say this. If you go through and read just about
Speaker 1: every preview, a lot of folks are chirping about how
Speaker 1: efficient ian Book was, and truly, if you look at
Speaker 1: his back half of the season, the numbers were incredible. Yeah,
Speaker 1: dodible numbers is a very good college quarterback, so you
Speaker 1: can't take that away from him. But it does strike
Speaker 1: me as perhaps a little bit of a trojan horse
Speaker 1: in the sense that I've watched him throw the deep ball,
Speaker 1: and if he doesn't have a big guy who can
Speaker 1: go up and get it, a little bit of an
Speaker 1: issue there.
Speaker 2: Notre Dame is still waiting to see if ian Buck
Speaker 2: can be both a gentleman in the streets and a
Speaker 2: freak in the sheets.
Speaker 1: I believe that's right. Okay, otherwise though, I'll you know,
Speaker 1: just move quick through defense. I'm low key really pumped
Speaker 1: about it. Not a lot of big household names, but
Speaker 1: they're very experienced, they're very solid, with good depth. They're
Speaker 1: flushed with guys who have a lot of upside the
Speaker 1: name I am watching up front. I'm gonna screw this one.
Speaker 1: I'm right too, Adao, Gunda g He's really shown great
Speaker 1: improvement in his time at Notre Dame. I think he's
Speaker 1: poised for an even bigger year off the edge. So
Speaker 1: the line as a hole is very solid. Secondary is
Speaker 1: going to be the concern. But whenever you've got Kyle
Speaker 1: Hamilton back there, he kind of covers up a lot
Speaker 1: of sins.
Speaker 2: Great.
Speaker 1: I don't see more than two losses on the schedule.
Speaker 1: I think it's Clemson and maybe a North Carolina or Louisville,
Speaker 1: but should be fine with Louisville. Yeah, should be a
Speaker 1: very good year for Notre Dame.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's reasonable.
Speaker 1: I left a lot out too. Okay.
Speaker 2: By the way, as you were talking about it's a
Speaker 2: huge year for Notre Dame because they've joined a conference.
Speaker 2: They've long been fiercely independent, all I could think about
Speaker 2: was a trailer for a rom com in my head,
Speaker 2: like from a nineties like he said he was going
Speaker 2: to be a bachelor forever until and here we are
Speaker 2: in the intel face.
Speaker 1: Let's move back to the Atlantic, and let's talk about Louisville. Okay,
Speaker 1: well their story in twenty nineteen. Oh, this is so dramatic.
Speaker 1: I love this. Sorry, I'm sorry for all of the
Speaker 1: good of an explosive passing offense, all of the bad, yeah,
Speaker 1: of the defense. What is the biggest reason you have
Speaker 1: now is we move a year forward that the defense
Speaker 1: can hold up its end of the bargain this fall
Speaker 1: at least sometimes not all the time. But is the
Speaker 1: defense gonna make them less of a half team? I
Speaker 1: think so.
Speaker 2: I don't think dramatically so because it's it's still Scott
Speaker 2: Saderfield and his staff inheriting players. And you need really
Speaker 2: good players to have a really good defense. And or
Speaker 2: you need pretty good players in a lot of time
Speaker 2: with a coach and a system in terminology to put
Speaker 2: forth a really good defense.
Speaker 1: I think you know.
Speaker 2: The great news is what you talked about is that
Speaker 2: the offense is going to score points against basically this
Speaker 2: entire schedule. We love Mikhael Cunningham, We love to to
Speaker 2: at Well and Des Fitzpatrick. You know, probably a very
Speaker 2: top line duo of receivers in the ACC. They can
Speaker 2: run the ball. They have a couple of pieces big
Speaker 2: the literal big pieces to replace on the offensive line,
Speaker 2: namely McKai Beckton, the left tackle, the enormous left tackle.
Speaker 2: But what I would look for from this Louisville defense
Speaker 2: as a sign of improvement. They're not just going to
Speaker 2: have all conference players at every level of the defense overnight.
Speaker 2: What I would look for is can they get off
Speaker 2: the field on third down more often? Can they turn
Speaker 2: sixes into threes in the red zone? And the good
Speaker 2: news if you're looking for evidence proof, whatever, but a
Speaker 2: small sample size is Brian Brown, the defensive coordinator for
Speaker 2: Louisville in his year as Scott Saderfield's defensive coordinator app
Speaker 2: State in twenty eighteen, led a defense to amazing results situationally,
Speaker 2: both in the red zone and on third down. And
Speaker 2: so Louisville was truly truly heinous situationally and on giving
Speaker 2: up big plays, everything that a defense could do poorly
Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen. Louisville defense basically did I think Lynn
Speaker 2: Bowden still running in that just shellacking from Kentucky. I
Speaker 2: think they'll be more comfortable. And it's not just the
Speaker 2: players learning the system more. It's Brian Brown, the defensive
Speaker 2: coordinator self scouting, seeing what he did wrong, what he
Speaker 2: can fix, how he can better use his players. And
Speaker 2: if it goes from taking a forty percent I think
Speaker 2: they're at forty percent third down conversion rate the defensively
Speaker 2: to thirty five percent to thirty four percent something like that.
Speaker 2: That adds up because the longer a bad defense is
Speaker 2: on the field, the more likely it is they're just
Speaker 2: going to give up a touchdown. But if they can
Speaker 2: figure out ways to get crafty and get off the
Speaker 2: field after only giving up two or three short first
Speaker 2: downs whatever, that's a big difference maker. To give the
Speaker 2: offense the more wiggle room, to give the offense a
Speaker 2: better field. That's that's where to look for Louisville, going
Speaker 2: from truly bad to just at times.
Speaker 1: Okay, this is one of the more experienced teams entering
Speaker 1: the two twenty season. Seventy nine percent returning production on offense,
Speaker 1: seventy seven percent returning production on defense. But the defense
Speaker 1: is the real concern. One ten in scoring defense last year,
Speaker 1: one hundred and twentieth in yards per carry aloud, and
Speaker 1: ninety fifth in quarterback rating allowed. They they just need
Speaker 1: to shore that up a little bit. If they can
Speaker 1: shore up their defense a little bit and if they
Speaker 1: can get just like marginal improvement along their offensive line,
Speaker 1: that would make this football team way, way better.
Speaker 2: And the good news is Mikhail Cunningham is probably one
Speaker 2: of the five best quarterbacks in college football, especially with
Speaker 2: the limited number of Power five teams.
Speaker 1: Mike, Hell, yeah, so that can cover up for a lot.
Speaker 1: I like Louisville. I don't know how much yet, but
Speaker 1: saw a lot out of Mikail Cunningham down the stretch
Speaker 1: last year. The stat that I saw from our friend
Speaker 1: over at Pick six Previews, he pointed out that just
Speaker 1: given the threshol holds for officially qualifying as the leader
Speaker 1: in a stat category, and you know, it can be
Speaker 1: sometimes a little bit weird about who qualifies and who doesn't.
Speaker 1: But if he had thrown, if Michael Cunningham had thrown
Speaker 1: just one more pass, he would have officially qualified as
Speaker 1: the number two quarterback in the nation in terms of
Speaker 1: quarterback rating and number one in the nation in terms
Speaker 1: of yards per attempt. It's one more pass, It's all
Speaker 1: he would have needed.
Speaker 2: Miami and pitt and back to back weeks early on,
Speaker 2: and then Notre Dame on the road, and then both
Speaker 2: Florida State and Virginia Tech at home, followed by Virginia
Speaker 2: and then they close out the schedule in I'm not
Speaker 2: going to say a nice way, but it could be
Speaker 2: a rougher landing Syracuse Boston College Wake, and they missed Clemson,
Speaker 2: So good for Lowville.
Speaker 1: Where are we going next?
Speaker 2: Uh? I guess we should go to another threat. I
Speaker 2: see them as a threat. I don't know how big
Speaker 2: of a threat, but I want to talk about Virginia Tech.
Speaker 1: Ooh, the Hokies.
Speaker 2: The Hokies, because I really do like Hendon Hooker and
Speaker 2: what they looked like when he was healthy last year
Speaker 2: he missed a little bit of time, but when he
Speaker 2: became the guy in Blacksburg, they became really impressive. The
Speaker 2: strange thing about Virginia Tech was the defense. Even with
Speaker 2: Bud Foster and his swan song of a final season,
Speaker 2: they were sort of all over the place in uncharacteristic fashion.
Speaker 1: So are you.
Speaker 2: Looking at a new defensive coordinator as a big trouble
Speaker 2: y question or are you looking at as you know what?
Speaker 1: It was time?
Speaker 2: It was time for a new brain on that sidelines,
Speaker 2: to get inside the lunchbox of Virginia Tech defense. Where
Speaker 2: do you lean that in terms of a change on
Speaker 2: defense and what it means for Virginia Tech.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the operative question, right. Yeah, Bud Foster had
Speaker 1: been there in some capacity since NIKE eighty seven. Justin
Speaker 1: Fuente called him the greatest, the greatest defensive coordinator in
Speaker 1: the history of college football, and you know, I mean
Speaker 1: he's up there. He's very influential.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: To answer your question here, I guess I'm a little
Speaker 1: bit of both. I'm a little concerned. I'm also on
Speaker 1: the side of Fuente needing to get kind of like
Speaker 1: the last remnant of the Beamer era out just to
Speaker 1: kind of move the program forward more in his own image. Now,
Speaker 1: the caveat here is that Justin Hamilton takes over, and
Speaker 1: you know, he's a young guy, he's thirty seven, but
Speaker 1: he was a Bud Foster understudy, promoted from he was
Speaker 1: promoted from within. Yeah, so I think you're going to
Speaker 1: see a lot of the same stuff out there. The
Speaker 1: other thing that I point out is they also brought
Speaker 1: in Tracy Clays from Wazoo. Before that, he was with Minnesota,
Speaker 1: a really good defensive coach who I think we both
Speaker 1: like a lot. He's going to help because the assistants
Speaker 1: around Bud Foster at the time, they are all gone
Speaker 1: now too, so they bring in Tracy Clays to help
Speaker 1: Justin Hamilton. Out Look, most of the team is back here, Dan.
Speaker 1: It does hurt that Caleb Farley, probably the best returning
Speaker 1: defensive back in the ACC before he opted out, is
Speaker 1: obviously not going to be on the team, So that
Speaker 1: I think is gonna leave a mark. But the back
Speaker 1: seven still pretty loaded. The linebacking corps is entirely intact.
Speaker 1: I've got questions about the defensive line, but I really
Speaker 1: feel like there is a high floor for this team
Speaker 1: on defense. Let's go back to Hendon Hooker though, ok
Speaker 1: a second, I'm okay with the defense. I think they're
Speaker 1: gonna be fine. It might take a little bit for
Speaker 1: Justin Hamilton to find his groove, but enough back there
Speaker 1: that I think they're gonna be okay. Okay. Hendon Hooker
Speaker 1: had such an impact when he took over in late September.
Speaker 1: Remember last year was supposed to be a cutoff of
Speaker 1: the Ryan Willis album, Right, we're all excited about Ryan Willis. Okay,
Speaker 1: But the tech offense after Hendon Hooker got in there
Speaker 1: was fourteen points better the difference good number points. That's
Speaker 1: a lot of freaking points. The difference was his mobility.
Speaker 1: It just it like added another layer to that offense,
Speaker 1: more zone Reid stuff. They found a way to keep
Speaker 1: the defense off balance. A lot of design power runs
Speaker 1: too for the quarterback because he's a big kid, like
Speaker 1: he's out there trucking guys. So him coming in added
Speaker 1: a new dimension to this offense. It certainly gave Virginia
Speaker 1: Tech a different angle to play things on the offensive side.
Speaker 1: And I think now as we move forward, after Hooker
Speaker 1: had that year, you take into account a running back
Speaker 1: room that is that is also very interesting. Now, they
Speaker 1: had de Sean mccleae leave early for the NFL, and
Speaker 1: it seemed like Kishan King was going to be the
Speaker 1: heir apparent. But Tech, playing the same game as everyone else,
Speaker 1: goes out and they pick up two transfers, one of
Speaker 1: which is Khalil Herbert from Kansas, the other of which
Speaker 1: is Raheem Blackshear from Rutgers, who just today was given
Speaker 1: immediate eligibility. And so now suddenly we've got King in there,
Speaker 1: We've got Herbert, and we've got black Shear. Different kinds
Speaker 1: of running backs right, like Herbert's more power, black Sheear's
Speaker 1: smaller and more nimble. We've also got a guy like
Speaker 1: a Marco Lee who transferred in a big kid. I
Speaker 1: only bring all this up because Tech has this long
Speaker 1: tradition of having a good rushing attack, and it feels
Speaker 1: like an eternity since we had anything dependable back there.
Speaker 1: I am so curious to see now, knowing that Hendon
Speaker 1: Hooker had a good year, that he's mobile, that you
Speaker 1: can do different stuff with him. You've got different kinds
Speaker 1: of running backs now. I would be very curious to
Speaker 1: see if the new look Virginia Tech team with Hendon
Speaker 1: Hooker finds a way to utilize that. I know that
Speaker 1: obviously Justin Falente made his mark as like this guy
Speaker 1: who likes to air it out. But he suddenly has
Speaker 1: a quarterback who can do things with his legs in
Speaker 1: a really powerful way, and with the depth that they
Speaker 1: have at running back. I don't know. I'm just very curious.
Speaker 1: I might be more interested in both of the Virginia
Speaker 1: teams this year in twenty twenty than any other teams
Speaker 1: in the ACC.
Speaker 2: Two running backs have gone over a thousand yards in
Speaker 2: the last decade for Virginia Tech. Now the game has
Speaker 2: evolved to the point where what you can do through
Speaker 2: the air seems to be more important, and how you
Speaker 2: use a running back in a versatile way is where
Speaker 2: football is right now. I did not realize it got
Speaker 2: so awful in the backfield in terms of consistent production.
Speaker 2: Trevon McMillan and David will Seevid Wilson, yep, mister backflip himself.
Speaker 2: So it'd be nice for Hendon Hooker to keep defenses
Speaker 2: honest in a way that not a lot of recent
Speaker 2: And we've had some some I think pretty decent Virginia
Speaker 2: Tech quarterbacks in recent years. I mean Logan Thomas had
Speaker 2: his moments, and I know I'm forgetting somebody who was
Speaker 2: Who's the JC guy from just a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: I mean, Josh Jackson came in, but now I'm forgetting
Speaker 2: his name and he left too early. But draw Evans,
Speaker 2: draw Evans. So I'm excited that I think Hendon Hooker
Speaker 2: gives them a higher ceiling than they've had at his
Speaker 2: absolute best. So I'm excited to see where this leads.
Speaker 1: Did you know that Braxton Burmeister is on this roster too?
Speaker 2: I did know that, but he did not get immediate eligibility.
Speaker 1: I don't believe. No, the the final point here in
Speaker 1: Virginia Tech, I love the way the schedule sets up
Speaker 1: for him. It's sort of like a banger's only ACC slate,
Speaker 1: but it's space.
Speaker 2: It's a nice schedule.
Speaker 1: It's spaced out of a way that's not too crazy,
Speaker 1: Like they're at North Carolina and then they got three
Speaker 1: weeks before they're at Louisville in a couple weeks before
Speaker 1: they come home against Miami, and then like three more
Speaker 1: weeks until they're home against Clemson. The close out the year.
Speaker 1: From a scheduling standpoint, that's about as good as you're
Speaker 1: going to get with four games, all of which should
Speaker 1: be pretty tough games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they miss what Notre Dame and Florida State. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I believe in terms of the huge now ACC programs,
Speaker 2: at least for now. So Yeah, the spacing is really nice.
Speaker 2: The fact that they'll have an entire season before Clemson,
Speaker 2: and they get Clemson in Lane Stadium, it's wonderful.
Speaker 1: Let's stick with Florida State since you mentioned the Knowles. Yeah, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is a storied program, Dan, and it is not
Speaker 1: lost on any of us that since Jimbo left it
Speaker 1: has very much been in flux. I have to ask
Speaker 1: the question, how much deeper do the Florida State issues
Speaker 1: run than, you know, just the offense. Like Mike Norvel,
Speaker 1: offensive guy coming in, I think we all expect at
Speaker 1: some point in his tenure he's going to be able
Speaker 1: to quote unquote fix it and make it better. But
Speaker 1: we're in year one change in the system. How much
Speaker 1: more meat is there on the bone beyond just whatever
Speaker 1: he can do and gobble up. In terms of offense,
Speaker 1: there's a lot happening. There's a lot happening because it
Speaker 1: I mean the defense. For all the talent they've recruited
Speaker 1: on all three levels, the linebackers have been pretty bad.
Speaker 1: I don't think the secondary in terms of guys with
Speaker 1: high level expectations, have fully worked out to where I
Speaker 1: think Florida State fans and Florida State coaches of multiple
Speaker 1: staffs have expected them to. The defensive lines interesting. Marvin
Speaker 1: Wilson is a name that I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people know. He anchors the line. I think he's expected
Speaker 1: to be on a national level, appreciated, and he's like
Speaker 1: a preseason All American or something. I think the defensive
Speaker 1: line will be pretty good. I think the defense will
Speaker 1: be more improved. The big issue with Florida State, it
Speaker 1: seems from the outside from AFAR, is just that day
Speaker 1: to day organization and paying attention to detail that the
Speaker 1: Willy Taggart era and the Willy Taggart staff, they were
Speaker 1: there to recruit and generate excitement, but the unexciting stuff
Speaker 1: is what helps you win championships or what gets you
Speaker 1: to eight and then ten wins, and so that was
Speaker 1: what was lacking. And by all accounts, Mike Norvella and
Speaker 1: his staff have been a lot more dependable and organized
Speaker 1: and detail oriented than the previous staff or whatever the
Speaker 1: end of the Jimbo era look like. So that's good.
Speaker 1: Communication at times has not been great, at least that's
Speaker 1: what it seems publicly between the coaches and players, but
Speaker 1: hopefully all of that is getting fixed for the season.
Speaker 1: I think they will be improved. They're going to it's
Speaker 1: not as even though Memphis looked like a much more
Speaker 1: modern offense there were pro style concepts. It's not going
Speaker 1: to be as what at Gulf Coast quick screens and
Speaker 1: RPO stuff, and there's going to be a lot of
Speaker 1: RPO stuff in this offense, but I think it's a
Speaker 1: lot more pro style than at least I was anticipating.
Speaker 1: So James Blackman should be put in a position where
Speaker 1: he's able to have the scheme open up receivers for him,
Speaker 1: where he's not gonna have to throw receivers open or
Speaker 1: get it the ball into tight windows, things like that.
Speaker 1: But as I've mentioned before, I'm at a certain point. Guy.
Speaker 2: We've seen a lot of James Blackman, and what the
Speaker 2: James Blackman experience is is there are times when he
Speaker 2: looks really good. It generally tends to be against not
Speaker 2: so good competition and against the better teams and the
Speaker 2: bigger situations, he becomes less dependable. Throws that he should
Speaker 2: be completing by now downfield he doesn't. So will it you?
Speaker 2: Will it be a Mike Norvell. Kenny Dillingham is the
Speaker 2: young offense coordinator. He was born in twenty ten, Taie,
Speaker 2: did you know that about Florida State twenty ten? He
Speaker 2: is ten years old. So he was at Auburn last
Speaker 2: year but was not calling plays for the Tigers. So
Speaker 2: he has a really good reputation in the coaching world
Speaker 2: as being a boy Wonder. So hopefully that combination of
Speaker 2: prior success and just a fresh start with I think
Speaker 2: their fourth offensive coordinator in four years means something. There's
Speaker 2: a little bit more consistency and just the terminology sings
Speaker 2: in quickly. He was named the starter. I think he
Speaker 2: will improve. I think he is a quarterback with a
Speaker 2: pretty low ceiling. That's my concern. No, cam akers now
Speaker 2: to help them in the run game. They've recruited fine,
Speaker 2: not amazingly well these past couple of years.
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 2: I am confident by the end of the year will
Speaker 2: have a concept of what Florida State can be, but
Speaker 2: not what they are, what they want.
Speaker 1: To be, or what they want to be, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're right to say that recruiting has been fine,
Speaker 1: but it has trended downward the last three seasons and
Speaker 1: it needs to start trending back up. I think if
Speaker 1: they want to start getting on that path. You know,
Speaker 1: from a really high level, it's offensive line and quarterback.
Speaker 1: Those are the big Those are the big issues on
Speaker 1: offense that Mike Norvel needs to try and come and fix.
Speaker 1: The defense should be fine, should be loaded, but there
Speaker 1: there's a lot going on at Florida State. It's not
Speaker 1: an easy job. It does extend off the field as well,
Speaker 1: so we wish Mike Norvel well, but it's it's a
Speaker 1: big rebuild in some sense of the word and not
Speaker 1: so much in others. Correct.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gonna take time.
Speaker 1: Where you want to go next?
Speaker 2: That's a good question. I guess what. I'm interested in Miami.
Speaker 2: I am for sure interested in Miami because I have
Speaker 2: fond memories of Derek King. They are rivals with Florida State.
Speaker 2: At times they looked kind of fun last year, and
Speaker 2: at times they look like they were nightmare bad and
Speaker 2: forgot the rules of football. So, as far as you
Speaker 2: can tell in Miami right now.
Speaker 1: Is is is it.
Speaker 2: One side of the ball saving the other or both sides?
Speaker 2: Do you anticipate being equal contributors to hypothetical success?
Speaker 1: Well, let me start here. That's that's the question. You
Speaker 1: got the right questions. Okay, as a whole, I really
Speaker 1: like Manny Diaz. I want this to work for him.
Speaker 1: He's Miami guy. What but it says, I know this
Speaker 1: is Brandon breaking news play. It was his dad the mayor.
Speaker 1: His dad may have been the mayor even though he
Speaker 1: went to Florida State. This is a team that went
Speaker 1: six and seventy year ago. Yeah, a good defense, a
Speaker 1: shaky offense. I don't think any of that was unexpected.
Speaker 1: What got me, though, is that this team quit. They
Speaker 1: quit down the stretch. They beat Louisville by four touchdowns
Speaker 1: and pretty much packed it in three straight bad losses
Speaker 1: to close out the year. I'm talking if I you
Speaker 1: Duke and Louisiana Tech. Do you remember talking about LA
Speaker 1: Tech in the bowl game? You remember that conversation. I
Speaker 1: remember you and I were looking at this and we're thinking,
Speaker 1: I don't care what the point spread is, Miami quit,
Speaker 1: we gotta go LA Tech outright? We did. They won
Speaker 1: the game fourteen to nothing. Louisiana Tech did. I don't
Speaker 1: like it when it seems like a team quits, so
Speaker 1: forgive me if I'm skeptical that anything is going to
Speaker 1: quote unquote work.
Speaker 2: I don't like it when team scored zero, literally no points. Well,
Speaker 2: that too, I don't like that either.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if we zoom in on the offense this season,
Speaker 1: I think it's the right move that they went out
Speaker 1: and got rhtt Lashley.
Speaker 2: Why is that?
Speaker 1: Well, here's why I think it's the right move because
Speaker 1: of the combination between Lashly and their new transfer Deeric King.
Speaker 1: Deeric King is a near perfect fit for that offense.
Speaker 1: So let's think of Cam Newton, Let's think of Nick
Speaker 1: Marshall at Auburn. That's like kind of a prototype for
Speaker 1: what you might be able to expect here in terms
Speaker 1: of steaming, in terms of scheme, in terms of scheme.
Speaker 1: All right, So I think I think this is a
Speaker 1: good combo in order to make that offense better. If
Speaker 1: nothing else, it's gonna be much faster, tempo, much more
Speaker 1: exciting than the stuff that Danny's enos was doing last year.
Speaker 1: Bigger picture, like, if Rhet Lashley can help build Miami
Speaker 1: into the South Florida Auburn, that'd be amazing, That'd be incredible. Okay,
Speaker 1: I think the offense is gonna be better than last year.
Speaker 1: My problem is that the only other player I like
Speaker 1: on this offense is the tight end. Brevin Joe is
Speaker 1: the tight end Brevin Jordan.
Speaker 2: Okay, I just don't know about Ratt Lashley.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I feel like if I were to hang out with
Speaker 2: Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt doesn't make me any better looking.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: What he is specifically responsible for doing with SMU and Auburn.
Speaker 2: I know he's a Gus guy. I think he played
Speaker 2: quarterback for Gus in high school.
Speaker 1: He did.
Speaker 2: I just feel like it's some of the Gus pixie
Speaker 2: dusts and maybe a little bit of Sunny Dyke's pixie
Speaker 2: dust that's propelling his contract and opportunities forward.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think I'm not sure I fully
Speaker 1: see it. I think it's totally fair to come down
Speaker 1: on that side of the fence, and I share your skepticism.
Speaker 1: I do think that for the scheme that we know
Speaker 1: Lashley likes to run, Dearick King's a good fit for that.
Speaker 1: My skepticism is less rooted in what we think of
Speaker 1: him as a coordinator and more with the atmospherics of
Speaker 1: the offense all right. Outside of Brevin Jordan, the line
Speaker 1: last year was young and terrible and they gave up
Speaker 1: fifty sacks.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Most of those guys are back, but are they going
Speaker 1: to get better? I don't know. I'm inclined to say yes,
Speaker 1: but I don't think we're looking at like a quantum
Speaker 1: leap forward here, not with a new offense being installed
Speaker 1: amid a freaking pandemic.
Speaker 2: It's I was gonna say, it's very rare with line
Speaker 2: play where you talk about a line being atrocious and
Speaker 2: then fast forward a year and say they're pretty good.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean we talked about that with Penn State.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember the other thing.
Speaker 1: DJ Dallas is gone.
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Can Cameron Harris step in and be the bell cow?
Speaker 1: Can he get two hundred carries a year?
Speaker 2: Does he get his own offensive line?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Does he get a new one?
Speaker 1: I he as good as a backup, But I you know,
Speaker 1: and then what's the receiving corps? Like, I don't know.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of guys who have potential, but
Speaker 1: there's no one that you look at the roster and
Speaker 1: you say, Aha, that's the guy. That's the guy who's
Speaker 1: going to be the playmaker. So you know, there's reason
Speaker 1: to like the offense. I think. I do think that
Speaker 1: the Deeric King ANDRHT Lashley Combo is good. But I
Speaker 1: do worry about the supporting cast. Defensively, they you know,
Speaker 1: they lost guys to the NFL. Maybe not a top
Speaker 1: ten defense this year, but at worst case it's like
Speaker 1: top twenty five. Maybe we're splitting hairs. I just I
Speaker 1: have a lot of confidence in that partnership between Manny
Speaker 1: Diaz and Blake Baker, their defensive coordinator. That said, it
Speaker 1: is a huge deal that Gregory was so opted out.
Speaker 1: Here's a guy he led the ACC fifteen and a
Speaker 1: half sacks as a red shirt freshman, obviously projected as
Speaker 1: a first rounder in the upcoming draft. He pulled the
Speaker 1: plug back at the beginning of August. So you know,
Speaker 1: I think still the defense is going to be the
Speaker 1: side of the ball leading the charge here. For as
Speaker 1: much as we talk about Deeric King transferring in, don't
Speaker 1: let it distract you from what Miami did on defense
Speaker 1: in the transfer market here too high profile transfers, we're
Speaker 1: going to say yeah, yeah, Quincy Roche from Temple and
Speaker 1: also Jalen Phillips coming in from UCLA Rashe had fourteen
Speaker 1: sacks last year and number Yeah. Phillips is a former
Speaker 1: number one overall recruit from a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: Sat out last year after surgery. But I think the
Speaker 1: pass rush will be really good. They got a couple
Speaker 1: guys that are gone on in the linebacking corps and
Speaker 1: in the secondary. But I think they're going to figure
Speaker 1: it out because the track record sort of speaks for itself,
Speaker 1: so a lot of words there. I am decidedly mixed
Speaker 1: on where I feel Miami comes down this year. It
Speaker 1: is definitively an ACC bangers only schedule. It is at Louisville.
Speaker 1: It is Florida State, at Clemson, at Virginia Tech, and
Speaker 1: North Carolina, No Notre Dame. If I'm counting on an
Speaker 1: eleven game slate, I say anywhere from even in four
Speaker 1: up to nine and two.
Speaker 2: Really, yeah, wow, I did learn Shack Quarterman. It's finally gone.
Speaker 2: Holy hell, that dude was so good for so long.
Speaker 2: Good for the Canes. Yeah, I mean at Clemson is
Speaker 2: never going to be a treat and they follow it
Speaker 2: up with Pitton Virginia whatever your opinions are of them.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's spaced out pretty well, so I'm good
Speaker 2: with their schedule. I want to I want to jump
Speaker 2: over to your side of things here, Dan, Okay, can
Speaker 2: you tell me what the hell happened to NC State?
Speaker 1: No? What? Yeah? I kind of can usually a pretty
Speaker 1: competitive program and last year they just they weren't. Has
Speaker 1: the pixie dust of being pretty good evaporated in in Raleigh, Like,
Speaker 1: what what the hell is going on with the wolf
Speaker 1: Pack man.
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I made an alarming discovery. NC
Speaker 2: State was much in the way Louisville was in the
Speaker 2: final season of Bobby Patrino. I think they were the
Speaker 2: worst team against the spread over twenty nineteen, where basically
Speaker 2: Vegas couldn't believe how bad NC State was. They keep
Speaker 2: they kept giving them reasonable amounts of points, and teams
Speaker 2: just kept shredding them. They finished two to ten against
Speaker 2: the spread in twenty nineteen, so it wasn't quite where
Speaker 2: I forget if it was like a one and eleven
Speaker 2: and zero to twelve somewhere along there for Louisville and
Speaker 2: Petrinos last season, where just you can make money betting
Speaker 2: against them. Okay, Vegas has always underestimated how bad certain
Speaker 2: teams are, and last year was NC State. They were
Speaker 2: beat up in a number of places. Quarterback didn't work out,
Speaker 2: defense certainly didn't work out. They replaced a ton of coaches,
Speaker 2: so obviously there were there were issues within the facility
Speaker 2: in terms of communication, what they wanted to do. It
Speaker 2: just everything like degenerated into a mess. I don't know
Speaker 2: if that was an Eli Drinkwitz thing where he was
Speaker 2: somebody who kind of held together that offense in impressive fashion,
Speaker 2: and when he left to take over at APP State
Speaker 2: and now of course Maszoo, that things fell apart. My
Speaker 2: issue with where NC State goes from here is they
Speaker 2: hired a gentleman to run the offense that is generally
Speaker 2: and recently been fired when offenses haven't worked out. That's
Speaker 2: Tim Beck.
Speaker 1: Can't lift arm or speak normal. Right. We've talked about
Speaker 1: the beck Meyer syndrome here correct many times.
Speaker 2: I just when you are making wholesale changes to reverse
Speaker 2: a slide, I think you got to go with somebody
Speaker 2: who's going to energize your team with recent success and
Speaker 2: an interesting way of doing things. And I'm pretty positive
Speaker 2: Tim Beck must be a great guy because he just
Speaker 2: keeps getting hired for impressive positions. But it does it
Speaker 2: seem like the guy to take your program to a
Speaker 2: new place. And that's what concerns me. I know there's
Speaker 2: a young quarterback there that they feel pretty good about,
Speaker 2: and there are a couple pieces on defense, but it's
Speaker 2: even hard to point to that. I just think this
Speaker 2: is it's hard to say, beginning of the end for
Speaker 2: Dave Dorn. But when we see wholesale collapses. It's very
Speaker 2: unusual to see. Okay, that was a one year blip
Speaker 2: and we're back to being and this is a normal
Speaker 2: math year eight and four, nine and three type team. Now,
Speaker 2: maybe they get Bowl eligible again, but it feels like
Speaker 2: we are on the downslope of the Dave Dorn experience
Speaker 2: in Raleigh.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of alliteration there. But was it downside
Speaker 1: of Dave Dorian? Yeah, oh, okay, I didn't even realize
Speaker 1: it the downslope, So.
Speaker 2: It's it was a snake bit year. So I'm willing
Speaker 2: to believe in some sort of reversal, But I am
Speaker 2: not a I'm not a Tim Beck believer in terms
Speaker 2: of getting a team back to a respectable bowl with
Speaker 2: their offense and not having the talent of a you know,
Speaker 2: Ohio State or Texas to to bail you out of situations.
Speaker 1: Let me let me stay in the great state of
Speaker 1: North Carolina here and ask about another team. Okay, Wake Forest,
Speaker 1: So let's talk wake You know, Dave Clawson has I
Speaker 1: think rightfully earned the respect of many around the world
Speaker 1: of college football because he's done a pretty good job
Speaker 1: at Wake Forest. He's taken them to four straight bowl games.
Speaker 1: The program is definitely more consistent than it was before
Speaker 1: he got there. He's been really good at developing talent,
Speaker 1: apparently also writing up potential plans for a spring season
Speaker 1: before ye before you know, the ACC decided it was
Speaker 1: going to forge ahead here in the fall.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he and Jeff Brohm.
Speaker 1: Is there a reason to believe that this year is
Speaker 1: going to be any different, like noticeably better or worse
Speaker 1: this fall? Because I'm looking at this roster, I'm seeing
Speaker 1: a complete rebuild on offense. I'm thinking there has to
Speaker 1: be a step back. They obviously lose Jamie Newman, who's
Speaker 1: transferring out and presumed to be the starter at Georgia,
Speaker 1: Like where's Clawson at now? As we get into the
Speaker 1: weird twenty twenty season before.
Speaker 2: Us Yeah, not to mention Sage Surrat, the All American
Speaker 2: receiver who was so so good before he got hurt
Speaker 2: last year. He opts out and is deciding not to
Speaker 2: play this season as he recovers from injury and prepares
Speaker 2: for the NFL. I like Wake Forest. So they return
Speaker 2: a bunch on defense that's highlighted by one of my
Speaker 2: absolute favorite names in college football, and Boogie Basham Carlos
Speaker 2: Sashim but Boogie Basham for those who know, fantastic ed rusher,
Speaker 2: just really really strong. And they lost a couple of
Speaker 2: key players on defense that where rotation guys are started.
Speaker 2: Who's the other end opposite him? It was Kid carn
Speaker 2: But offensively, I like Donovan Green a lot. He came in.
Speaker 2: He was a four star receiver and he played a
Speaker 2: few games at the end of last year and definitely
Speaker 2: just look like a game breaking type receiver. They're fortunate
Speaker 2: that Sam Hartman, who was hurt, he is back. Even
Speaker 2: with the loss of Jamie Newman, Sam Hartman steps back
Speaker 2: into the starting quarterback role. I think they're gonna be fine.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's going to be appreciably better or
Speaker 2: worse because they've reached the point where they identify pretty
Speaker 2: good players at most positions. They're soundly coached. I mean, essentially,
Speaker 2: what we're talking about is Dave Clawson gets his tires rotated,
Speaker 2: he gets his oil changed, he puts air in his tires,
Speaker 2: he vacuums his car. He's not gonna have the fastest
Speaker 2: automobile in the world, but it's dependable tie it's not
Speaker 2: going to break down. And with where wake has been
Speaker 2: pre Clawson. The fact that you have a coach who's
Speaker 2: gonna get his tires rotated and his oil changed, it's
Speaker 2: pretty great. It's boring, and that's sort of what I
Speaker 2: talked about with Florida State, where the Willie era infuse
Speaker 2: the program with excitement and they're back and it's the
Speaker 2: old Florida State whatever. Wake Forest is just they're getting
Speaker 2: off the field on third down.
Speaker 1: Ty, that's pretty good.
Speaker 2: It's they're not great in the red zone, but they're
Speaker 2: doing little things consistently well. That if your program We've
Speaker 2: talked about this with Utah, but I think Utah is
Speaker 2: a better program and a better team than wake Forest.
Speaker 2: If your program is deficient in one to three ways,
Speaker 2: there's a pretty good chance wake Forest is going to
Speaker 2: beat you. And that's amazing. It's amazing to have in
Speaker 2: Winston Salem. So no, I don't think it's gonna be
Speaker 2: all that different, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Speaker 1: I would point out that wake Forest opens up its
Speaker 1: season at home. Yeah, that's good. Clempson Tigers dan Ah.
Speaker 1: That is one pm on September the twelfth, so not
Speaker 1: Labor Day weekend, but the weekend after Currently Clemson is
Speaker 1: checking in with a thirty one and a half point
Speaker 1: line here on the road. It's a lot of points.
Speaker 2: You'll have to listen next week as we preview that game,
Speaker 2: or whenever we preview that game.
Speaker 1: That's right. I'm already looking at some picks here that
Speaker 1: I kind of like, but we'll get to that. We
Speaker 1: won't have as many games of preview next week. It's okay,
Speaker 1: you could probably get through all of them.
Speaker 2: Where do you want to go next?
Speaker 1: So you tell me, ty, I want to go back
Speaker 1: to the great state of North Carolina, and I want
Speaker 1: to talk about Duke and I want to talk about
Speaker 1: North Carolina.
Speaker 2: Okay, North Carolina to me, I don't know. Just tell
Speaker 2: me about their rotation linebackers real quick. Just run through
Speaker 2: when to expect substitutions.
Speaker 1: I know. I mean, if you want to talk about
Speaker 1: Chaz Surrat, you already know that I went through the
Speaker 1: universal Charlie to Chaz conversion here. But he's chuckles.
Speaker 2: You gotta remember that, you two. Mac Brown, I think
Speaker 2: he definitely out shown my expectations. And Sam Howell, I
Speaker 2: mean immediately was really fun and ended the season. Really,
Speaker 2: I think it was what Temple that North Carolina shredded
Speaker 2: in the bowl game. So what is Yr two? What's reasonable?
Speaker 1: What are stretch goals? Tie?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a corporate term stretch goal for the Heel.
Speaker 2: Give me some stretch goals and some realistic ones.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean seven and six in Mac Brown's second
Speaker 1: first year in Chapel Hill with a big bull win
Speaker 1: over Temple. They didn't just exceed expectations, they cleared the
Speaker 1: bar by about eight feet. So this was a very
Speaker 1: successful opening or second opening stanza for Mac Brown coming
Speaker 1: back home to North Carolina. You know. So because of that,
Speaker 1: the concept of what's realistic and what's not realistic, all
Speaker 1: that kind of goes out the window here. The truth
Speaker 1: is there are four big games on the schedule, Virginia
Speaker 1: Tech at Florida State, home against Notre Dame, and on
Speaker 1: the road at Miami. Is it possible that they win
Speaker 1: all four of those? I don't know. I would say
Speaker 1: probably not, But this is a good team with a
Speaker 1: lot coming back. If they win all four, they're going
Speaker 1: ten and zer and they're playing Clemson for the ACC
Speaker 1: title game. Yeah. Again, likely, I don't know, but a possibility.
Speaker 1: Shore I could envision a world of which that is possible,
Speaker 1: Sam Howe.
Speaker 2: Did you just hear my son by the way, I did. Okay, good,
Speaker 2: leave that in there.
Speaker 1: I will. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now he has a lot of North Carolina thoughts, but
Speaker 2: he's too young.
Speaker 1: Sam Howe was a true freshman and had an unbelievable
Speaker 1: breakout campaign through for thirty eight touchdowns and thirty six
Speaker 1: hundred yards. Basically, everybody is back eighty seven percent returning
Speaker 1: production on this offense, including their one thousand yard back
Speaker 1: Michael Carter, two one thousand yard receivers in Daz Newsome
Speaker 1: and Diami Brown. If there is a better named wide
Speaker 1: receiver duo in college football, I'd love to hear it. Okay,
Speaker 1: the entire receiver room is back, not just the those
Speaker 1: two guys. That is all in addition to five of
Speaker 1: their seven guys on the O line coming back as well.
Speaker 1: This is the twenty fifth best offense a year ago.
Speaker 1: By default, just with the very nature of the talent
Speaker 1: coming back. It has to get better. And that's not
Speaker 1: just because there are fewer teams this fall, but it
Speaker 1: has to improve I think by default because of that
Speaker 1: experience factor.
Speaker 2: So I'm excited, Okay, I mean, they've recruited really well
Speaker 2: they have me background has done an exceptional job recruiting
Speaker 2: what they just pulled off the number one corner the
Speaker 2: country for an upcoming class.
Speaker 1: Tony Grimes, Yeah, Tony.
Speaker 2: Grimes, that's right. So they're going to keep improving. There's
Speaker 2: still some spillover, certainly from the Fedora era when things
Speaker 2: got a little bit ugly on defense, but they were
Speaker 2: still competitive at the end there by the way you
Speaker 2: were mentioning the offense and the improvement and the explosive
Speaker 2: factor of their offense. Can I ask you a question
Speaker 2: that's going to that might take you off guard a
Speaker 2: little bit.
Speaker 1: But that's pretty much your role on this shit is it.
Speaker 2: Does Phil Longo, their offensive coordinator, does he follow you
Speaker 2: on Twitter?
Speaker 1: I don't know? Okay, does he follow you? Would know?
Speaker 2: Well, I have no idea he did. I don't know
Speaker 2: if he still does. But the reason I'm questioning it
Speaker 2: is because if he follows you, and if you work
Speaker 2: in some fashion in college football, he will DM you.
Speaker 2: And and it's not weird or personal or anything like that.
Speaker 2: It's he just shares excitement about North Carolina football and
Speaker 2: shares social media graphics. Okay, And so I'll be sitting
Speaker 2: on Twitter one, you know, a random afternoon follow you July.
Speaker 2: At least at some point he did. I can check
Speaker 2: and see if he still does. I don't think he does,
Speaker 2: because I haven't gotten dms from him anymore. But I'll
Speaker 2: get a DM and it's and it's basically, this is
Speaker 2: what it looks like to my eyes or what it
Speaker 2: sounds like to my eyes. Oh yeah, North Carolina Football
Speaker 2: fourteen days away, old brother, feel it a little macho man,
Speaker 2: Randy Savage there.
Speaker 1: Didn't know if the little goes into that, But I
Speaker 1: love I.
Speaker 2: Just he's marketing.
Speaker 1: I like it a lot.
Speaker 2: But it's really funny to get a DM that's like,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, brother, it's North Carolina tarial football.
Speaker 1: Can you believe it's He's a good offensive coordinator? Man?
Speaker 1: He is, he really is. He's got the air raid background.
Speaker 1: But I think I think in year two what will
Speaker 1: be an interesting little wrinkle to follow is him working
Speaker 1: in all sorts of other stuff with the depth that
Speaker 1: he has across the board. Like, just because he's got
Speaker 1: the air raid background doesn't mean he necessarily is gonna
Speaker 1: run all air raid. He's kind of good at varying
Speaker 1: that approach and using the personnel, and he's got it
Speaker 1: this year, frankly, so I'm excited about that. Defensively, this
Speaker 1: is a team led by our boy, Chas Serrat, converted
Speaker 1: quarterback led the team in tackles in his first year
Speaker 1: as a defender in his first year. Can you believe it?
Speaker 2: I'm ready. Yeah, I just he's so good.
Speaker 1: I love this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's the Joel Lanning. We need converted
Speaker 2: quarterbacks to linebacker every season.
Speaker 1: If we are.
Speaker 2: Not mentioning a quarterback converted to linebacker, please alert us
Speaker 2: to this, because we honor each and every one of them.
Speaker 1: The real question on defense is up front. I like
Speaker 1: Jay Bateman, but he runs a three man front. They're
Speaker 1: losing two good ones. He's going to need some youth
Speaker 1: to step up and plug that gap. So the question
Speaker 1: for me is upfront. I think you could probably run
Speaker 1: on UNC this year. But to answer your question, it's
Speaker 1: it's hard to say what is realistic in year two. Again,
Speaker 1: I could invent a weird reality in a very weird
Speaker 1: year where UNC manages to go ten and zero and
Speaker 1: play Clemson for the title. I don't think that's likely,
Speaker 1: but I do think North Carolina playing Clemson for the title.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Phil Longo, thank you, thank you. I'm excited
Speaker 1: about you and see, though not excited for Notre Dame
Speaker 1: to play un see, I do you in chap Lell
Speaker 1: but yaw.
Speaker 2: Sam Howell is one of the very most exciting parts
Speaker 2: of college football moving forward. For sure's every reason if
Speaker 2: you have a young, exciting quarterback, life is amazing. Here
Speaker 2: what the final record ends up as being, there's only
Speaker 2: fourteen teams that can say that or whatever the number is.
Speaker 2: So North Carolina, let's watch.
Speaker 1: Them, Let's watch so. I think they are headed in
Speaker 1: the right direction. I do worry about their rival Duke though, Okay,
Speaker 1: tell me why I do. I do worry A really
Speaker 1: bad second half of the year last year, five and
Speaker 1: seven I think was the record. I think we'll know
Speaker 1: more after the season if.
Speaker 2: We lost I think five of their final six.
Speaker 1: Yeah, not a good A very very poor way to
Speaker 1: close out the year. And it's I think you look
Speaker 1: at the at the team, you look at the program,
Speaker 1: you wonder which direction are things going? I think we
Speaker 1: got a wait to hear here. You know. Cutcliffe, David
Speaker 1: Cutcliffe has gone to a Bowl six of the last
Speaker 1: eight seasons. He's obviously done a good job raising the
Speaker 1: profile of Duke football. It does feel a little bit though,
Speaker 1: like the peak of the mountain for them came back
Speaker 1: in twenty thirteen when they won the Coastal Division. So
Speaker 1: I'm a great here.
Speaker 2: Okay, So let's take a quick look. And I don't
Speaker 2: think you're necessarily wrong. They either lost big or tiny,
Speaker 2: and they didn't lose medium. In twenty nineteen. They lost
Speaker 2: by nearly forty to Alabama. They lost by three to
Speaker 2: pit No, not a huge shame in that, in a
Speaker 2: very strange game. They lost by a bunch too. Division
Speaker 2: champ Virginia. Okay, not amazing. This wasn't a killer Virginia team,
Speaker 2: But that's fine. This was not a bad Virginia team.
Speaker 2: They lost by a field goal at North Carolina. That's respectable.
Speaker 2: They held down the North Carolina offense, got shelled by
Speaker 2: Notre Dame. They got shelled by QS. That's when I'm like, Eh,
Speaker 2: that shouldn't that shouldn't happen twenty nineteen anyway, and they
Speaker 2: lost by twelve, which I guess is medium, to Wake Forest.
Speaker 2: But there's no real shame in that. And you talk
Speaker 2: about their disastrous into their season the downslope. David Cutcliffe
Speaker 2: alliteration that disaster of a twenty nineteen was still ten
Speaker 2: points better than Miami, still ten points better than back
Speaker 2: half of.
Speaker 1: The season Miami.
Speaker 2: To give you any indication of where the Canes were
Speaker 2: in November, yeah, I you.
Speaker 1: Know, that's all. It'll be interesting. Chase Bryce comes over
Speaker 1: from Clemson. You may remember that name. Deon Jackson is
Speaker 1: back at running back along with Britton Brown, who comes
Speaker 1: over from UCLA. May recall his name from Westwood. Three
Speaker 1: linemen are back, Devery Hamilton comes over from Stanford. Pretty
Speaker 1: much all the receivers are back. So the offense I
Speaker 1: think should step forward. It's a question of how much.
Speaker 1: Last year. I don't think there's much room a step
Speaker 1: back time. No, well, right, that's the point. Last year
Speaker 1: one hundredth in points per play, one twenty five in
Speaker 1: yards per place. So they have to get better. Their
Speaker 1: passing and rushing numbers were just dreadful. I know it
Speaker 1: may take some time to break in a new quarterback,
Speaker 1: but there's just there's enough back that if there isn't
Speaker 1: a jump forward, then it's a deeper problem than personnel.
Speaker 1: Excuse me. Then we'll have the answer to this question
Speaker 1: of which direction is a program headed. Interestingly enough for Duke.
Speaker 2: Is Daniel Jones good in the NFL? By the way
Speaker 2: I think track?
Speaker 1: I think I think second half of the year last year,
Speaker 1: Danny dim he's dying like he's a top twenty four
Speaker 1: NFL quarterback for sure. Okay, that's good for sure. The
Speaker 1: interesting bit about Duke is that the defense should lead
Speaker 1: the charge. I saw a quote that they're looking to
Speaker 1: run an aggressive attacking defense, which, of.
Speaker 2: Course, yeah, well it was a pretty good The defense
Speaker 2: last year was not the issue.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was They're gonna blitz the crap out of you.
Speaker 1: They're gonna play tight, They're gonna hope you make a mistake.
Speaker 1: There is a risk reward element to that, and I'd
Speaker 1: refer you to the latter half of last season if
Speaker 1: you want to take a look at the risks. But
Speaker 1: the defense should be pretty solid. There's a lot back
Speaker 1: secondaries loaded. They are currently listed as a nineteen and
Speaker 1: a half point dog on the road at Notre Dame
Speaker 1: September the twelfth.
Speaker 2: Just FYI, how do you feel about that?
Speaker 1: I feel pretty good about Notre Dame. Okay, pretty good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I hope for Duke's sake.
Speaker 2: I mean, whenever you watch David Cutcliffe in one of
Speaker 2: those coaches Room broadcast at the National Championship of the playoff,
Speaker 2: he always comes across as very impressive. All of his
Speaker 2: peers seem to love him, all of his former quarterbacks
Speaker 2: seem to love him. It'd be nice if Duke were
Speaker 2: able to be more competitive and say, Okay, they're not
Speaker 2: nearly as talented as Team X, Y or Z, but
Speaker 2: they're scheming guys open, they're running interesting looks, and they
Speaker 2: just keep moving the ball down the field. It'd be
Speaker 2: nice to have that Duke again like they like they
Speaker 2: were able to manage a few years ago.
Speaker 1: So I believe we each have two teams left. And
Speaker 1: let me start with Boston College for you. Okay, they
Speaker 1: bring over Jeff Haffley, who did a good job at
Speaker 1: Ohio State. What is what is the most how do
Speaker 1: I want to phrase this? What what is the most
Speaker 1: like notable improvement or what's what's the biggest point of optimism.
Speaker 1: Let's say in year one of the Halfley era, as
Speaker 1: he comes over.
Speaker 2: Frank Signetti turned Bill Stull into a stud very briefly
Speaker 2: in Western PA that may or may not have something
Speaker 2: to do with having Deon Lewis. Yeah, two thousand and nine,
Speaker 2: going from Pep down into the Well. It was the
Speaker 2: young Dan and Tye entered year two of the Solid
Speaker 2: Verbal podcast. Jonathan Ball was a matchup Nightmare Sea Crap.
Speaker 2: So the point of optimism is Jeff Hafley is another
Speaker 2: one of those types who seems to be universally beloved
Speaker 2: in terms of his intelligence, his personality, his effects on players.
Speaker 2: He saw what he did with the Ohio State defense
Speaker 2: last year and certainly had more to work with with
Speaker 2: Ohio State's roster than Boston colleges. But I saw a
Speaker 2: lot of people seem to like his hires, that there's
Speaker 2: a good mix of steadier, veteran type assistance and younger,
Speaker 2: up and coming guys. I think his defense will largely
Speaker 2: be okay, even though Boston College weirdly enough. I mean,
Speaker 2: they lose what aj Dillon from the offensive side of
Speaker 2: the ball, but on defense is where they kind of
Speaker 2: ended up as a nightmare, and Jeff Hafley I think
Speaker 2: will get things organized. I know he's the head coach now,
Speaker 2: he's not the defensive coordinator, but I think his defensive
Speaker 2: background will help to diagnose issues from last year. Die
Speaker 2: knows where they need to recruit better. I don't think,
Speaker 2: I mean a team like Boston College should not be
Speaker 2: evaluated on what they do with this very strange condensed
Speaker 2: schedule with you know, not having proper time to warm
Speaker 2: up and camp is different to no non conference in
Speaker 2: the way that teams are used to in Power five conferences.
Speaker 2: So I am optimistic that the smart minds Jeff Hafley
Speaker 2: has brought in. You know, a couple of interesting receivers
Speaker 2: are back, and I think they're gonna be fine. I
Speaker 2: think it's going to be an adjustment year. So my optimism,
Speaker 2: you know, with anything beyond three and seven or something
Speaker 2: for Boston College isn't really there. But I think there's
Speaker 2: gonna be nuggets. I think there will be nuggets where
Speaker 2: they're going to threaten teams. They were competitive last year,
Speaker 2: you know, even as they lost games, I think what
Speaker 2: they had they battled it out with Florida State, they
Speaker 2: battled it out and beat pitt on the road, and
Speaker 2: you know, they got shellacked by Clemson, but that's fine.
Speaker 2: They beat a couple of teams they should have, like
Speaker 2: NC State and Rutgers. They'll be fine. I think it
Speaker 2: was what Anthony Brown had a really nice game against
Speaker 2: Virginia Tech and he's gone to Oregon, which I don't
Speaker 2: know what that means moving forward, but it's going to
Speaker 2: take some time. It's going to take some time. But
Speaker 2: I think my optimism lies and the ability for Jeff
Speaker 2: Hafley to get the infrastructure right in Chestnut Hill and
Speaker 2: move this team back to eventually a five hundred type team,
Speaker 2: and then, you know, in a normal universe, maybe like
Speaker 2: an eight and four type year, if everything clicks and
Speaker 2: he recruits a really interesting quarterback and the defense gets
Speaker 2: back to where it was, you know in the past
Speaker 2: few years before twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, a lot of young guys played last year.
Speaker 1: It seems like he could come in and make a mark.
Speaker 1: And offensively, I don't think they're going to be led
Speaker 1: by offense per se. But it's a good line. They've got,
Speaker 1: I think, a decent running back room, good wide outs,
Speaker 1: so it's not like the cupboard is bear here. He's
Speaker 1: going to have, I think, a lot to work with.
Speaker 2: And they put so much aj Dillon, which I understand,
Speaker 2: but it'll be nice to spread it around a little
Speaker 2: bit more hopefully all.
Speaker 1: Right, and let me close out I guess your Atlantic
Speaker 1: coverage by asking about the Syracuse Orange. Now, if they're
Speaker 1: going to bounce back to where they were in that
Speaker 1: enchanted twenty eighteen season short of the egg that they
Speaker 1: you know, laid in Yankee Stadium, right, what is going
Speaker 1: to get him there? What will be the driving force
Speaker 1: behind that?
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a new defense. So they switched with
Speaker 2: three three five. By the way, they hired a defensive
Speaker 2: coordinator with San Diego State experience in that three three five.
Speaker 2: He then took the I think his name is Zach
Speaker 2: Arnette took the Mississippi State job, and they said, oh no,
Speaker 2: we still want a San Diego State guy, and they
Speaker 2: hired I think it was ASU's Tony whiteback's coach. Tony
Speaker 2: White was previously at San Diego State. They need that
Speaker 2: as tech blood in the Carrier Dome. It's probably going
Speaker 2: to be the defense it is. You mean, we talked
Speaker 2: about quarterbacks and the depth of at least decent quarterbacks
Speaker 2: in the conference. I don't know how quickly they can
Speaker 2: come together with you know, switching defensive schemes and losing
Speaker 2: what they did on defense, especially up front.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's my question, you know, the whole.
Speaker 2: And not having a real fall camp.
Speaker 1: The whole purpose of this defense is to try and
Speaker 1: utilize more speed, and I like that for Syracuse. I
Speaker 1: think that's a good move for Dino Babers. It's just
Speaker 1: not the easiest defense to put in place, and it's
Speaker 1: going to take a little bit of time to click.
Speaker 1: How quickly it clicks is is I think very operative here.
Speaker 1: So I don't. I don't know. I like it longer term,
Speaker 1: but in a weird year where there's less time to
Speaker 1: prepare and it's harder to prepare and install new schemes,
Speaker 1: I just I wonder, I really do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just I think they've got a problem problem.
Speaker 2: Like we've mentioned before, I think Tommy DeVito might be okay,
Speaker 2: but from what we we saw Eric Dungee another do
Speaker 2: everything type. There's a reason he had to do everything
Speaker 2: because he was not consistently surrounded by huge threats. There
Speaker 2: were guys here and there, games here and there, But
Speaker 2: I don't know. The offensive line was an issue last year,
Speaker 2: so you can point to that there are guys. They've
Speaker 2: retained guys, But when you don't have obvious okay, this
Speaker 2: guy's back and he is going to be an issue
Speaker 2: for acc secondary so he's be an issue for fronts
Speaker 2: trying to tackle him in the running game.
Speaker 1: Whatever.
Speaker 2: That's a problem. And when you mix that with the attrition,
Speaker 2: the natural attrition, and the changes on defense, it just
Speaker 2: feels like a recipe for twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, that's all. We've got three teams left,
Speaker 1: all right on the coastal side. I want to start
Speaker 1: with your pit Panthers. I know you have questions about
Speaker 1: the Pitt Panthers. Dan give me one of them or
Speaker 1: that's pot of care. I did a lot of research on.
Speaker 2: Pitt on Pitt. I didn't love the Mark Whipple higher.
Speaker 2: I had never really seen anything interesting for Mark Whipple
Speaker 2: offenses that that might just be a me thing. Can
Speaker 2: can they sprinkle a little bit of contribution dust into
Speaker 2: the air to help out this defense or are we
Speaker 2: talking about, well they better win thirteen to ten type
Speaker 2: year for the Panthers.
Speaker 1: I've been I've been workshopping some sort of like cool
Speaker 1: Whipple thing, but you have not earned that ty No.
Speaker 1: I mean it's hard when your offense is one O
Speaker 1: nine in the sp plus. They need Bill Stoll. It's hard,
Speaker 1: it's This was an epic half team last year. One
Speaker 1: nine in offense according to the sp plus twelve on
Speaker 1: the defensive side, led very much by defense. Still a
Speaker 1: seven to five regular season. This is a team that
Speaker 1: gave up only seventeen to Penn State sixteen to Miami.
Speaker 1: They lost both those games, but look, with just a
Speaker 1: marginally better offense, they could have been a nine to
Speaker 1: three team in the regular season, which is crazy. So
Speaker 1: the question is what happened? What happened to this offense? Well,
Speaker 1: keep in mind that they were shifting from more of
Speaker 1: a run heavy system to a pass heavy system. Like
Speaker 1: Mark Whipple likes to run. Sometimes you have the horses, Dan,
Speaker 1: Sometimes you don't. Sometimes it takes a while to click, and.
Speaker 2: I think that's a greeting card. Sometimes I know horses.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you don't. Mock condolence.
Speaker 1: That was the story of Pitt's offensive transition last year.
Speaker 1: It has to get better this year, it has to
Speaker 1: get There's enough of a returning cast here to make
Speaker 1: me confident that it has to get better. Will it
Speaker 1: be fixed? You know his fixes in the eye of
Speaker 1: the beholder, right, Yeah, But they've got some veteran leadership
Speaker 1: out wide with Taser mac aj and Vincent Davis are
Speaker 1: in the backfield, and potentially some production from their freshmen
Speaker 1: Israel Abana Kanda, which is a great name, pretty good,
Speaker 1: good job. The line should be okay, and Kenny Pickett
Speaker 1: is back for year eighteen. Who knew. I think their
Speaker 1: offense has got to get better. It just has to.
Speaker 1: My only question on defense is the linebacker position. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: this is one of the best defenses in the nation.
Speaker 1: Really strong defense.
Speaker 2: It really is.
Speaker 1: Really good secondary. They're gonna be led by defense. This
Speaker 1: is what folks were waiting for with Paton Ardoozy to
Speaker 1: build this defense up. He's gonna have it this year.
Speaker 1: The defense is gonna keep him in games. They just
Speaker 1: need the offense to I think share some of that burn.
Speaker 1: From a scheduling standpoint, here's what I think we're looking at.
Speaker 1: We've got two pots of games. We've got the tougher
Speaker 1: games against Louisville and on the road at Miami Notre Dame,
Speaker 1: on the road at Florida State, Virginia Tech at Clemson.
Speaker 1: Six games there, they're very tough. And then the flip side,
Speaker 1: we've got games against Syracuse, NC State, Boston College and
Speaker 1: Georgia Tech. Then there's a non con game that I
Speaker 1: didn't list here, But let's say this. Pitt's gonna lose
Speaker 1: one of those dumb ones, aren't they. Of course, they're
Speaker 1: gonna lose a dumb one, and they're probably gonna go
Speaker 1: something like two and four, three and three against the
Speaker 1: tougher part of their schedule, and that's gonna make them
Speaker 1: six and five, seven and four.
Speaker 2: They have America's team, Austin.
Speaker 1: P Austin, pH We saw lose to Central Arkansas. Correct,
Speaker 1: So you know, I think this is gonna be a
Speaker 1: pit team. It's very good on defense, they have to
Speaker 1: improve on offense. They're still gonna lose that game that
Speaker 1: they lose every year. They're still going to knock off
Speaker 1: somebody that they shouldn't and they're going to go six
Speaker 1: and five or seven and four wearing the hottest uniforms
Speaker 1: city forums for sure. I love them, love them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's where a mountain pit. Okay, let's move forward. Let's
Speaker 1: move forward. We've got Virginia and Georgia Tech left where
Speaker 1: you want to go?
Speaker 2: Weirdly, Georgia Tech is more interesting to me. Yes, I agree,
Speaker 2: even though Virginia had a really nice season, and I
Speaker 2: was actually surrounded by Virginia fans down in South Florida
Speaker 2: in late December ahead of the Orange Bowl. But so
Speaker 2: everybody going into last year felt, Okay, Jeff Collins, this
Speaker 2: is a year zero situation. They had such a specific
Speaker 2: offensive scheme. He is switching things up and this year
Speaker 2: is just a transition year. This is just it's not
Speaker 2: a time for stretch goals.
Speaker 1: Ty No.
Speaker 2: Year two, after a pretty impressive recruiting class. By the way,
Speaker 2: is also strange for Georgia Tech. Given everything surrounding Georgia Tech. Sure,
Speaker 2: what to you if everything is reasonable and healthy and
Speaker 2: everything like that for Georgia Tech, what is an interesting
Speaker 2: reason to watch Georgia Tech in terms of more clarity
Speaker 2: than what they wanted?
Speaker 1: No, that's a good way to put it. Three and nine.
Speaker 1: Last year they did beat Miami, but who didn't.
Speaker 2: But what a stranch year.
Speaker 1: Year two is when you start to see the sun
Speaker 1: peek out from behind the clouds. Okay, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of Tech fans knew what they were in for
Speaker 1: a year ago. The theme for Tech this year is
Speaker 1: returning production seventy four percent on offense, ninety four percent
Speaker 1: on defense last year. The coach has played a lot
Speaker 1: of young guys. They moved them around. They were trying
Speaker 1: to plug gaps just seeing who could play where. This
Speaker 1: is at the same time that they were obviously moving
Speaker 1: away from the flexbone. So the passing offense was predictably terrible. Again,
Speaker 1: none of this was unexpected. Paul Johnson ran the ball
Speaker 1: eighty six percent of the time. Last year Tech only
Speaker 1: ran at thirty eight percent of the time, so a
Speaker 1: pretty big swing about fifty percent in the other direction.
Speaker 1: The other theme that I think is going to become
Speaker 1: a trend here is recruiting. And you alluded to it
Speaker 1: in the question. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, you're recruiting to a big city in the South.
Speaker 2: It's a good place to be, even though it's a
Speaker 2: private school in a little bit of a different situation
Speaker 2: than some other Southeastern powers.
Speaker 1: And Jeff Collins is selling it hard. He is selling
Speaker 1: Atlanta hard, great city, He's from Atlanta. He's selling it
Speaker 1: as a destination, which I think is really smart. The
Speaker 1: early returns were there twenty sixth best recruiting class in
Speaker 1: the nation at the end of last cycle. He is
Speaker 1: going to build something down there. And I think we're
Speaker 1: going to see some of those freshmen step up and
Speaker 1: be part of the movement. And if you're a Tech fan,
Speaker 1: great things to come. They're starting there, they're stripping this
Speaker 1: thing down to the studs starting over, and Jeff Collins
Speaker 1: is a guy who's got a lot of passion not
Speaker 1: just for college football, but for the area. He knows
Speaker 1: how to recruit that area. And I'm excited about that. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, again you have to temper that excitement with
Speaker 1: what I think are realistic expectations. They are still going
Speaker 1: through this transition. James Graham came in. He was the
Speaker 1: quarterback who won the job last season. But Jeff Simms,
Speaker 1: he's a four star. He could get some looks. All
Speaker 1: the receivers are back, yeah, Jalen Camp and also they
Speaker 1: got Marquez Ezard, who you might remember from Miami. He
Speaker 1: was a prize recruit down there. So you know, it's
Speaker 1: going to continue to be this transition type thing for
Speaker 1: Georgia Tech. But it's not going to be short on optimism.
Speaker 1: I think he's going to have the team playing very hard.
Speaker 1: The schedule's brutal. It is, it's brutally. They went three
Speaker 1: and nine a year ago. Don't be surprised that they
Speaker 1: go two and nine this year. Their non con game
Speaker 1: is against UCF, which is different now given the news,
Speaker 1: but I still think you Stf's going to beat them
Speaker 1: there on the road at FSU. They've got Louisville, Clemson,
Speaker 1: Notre Dame, pitt in a road game against Miami, So
Speaker 1: it's their works cut out for them here. It's still
Speaker 1: still part of this transition, but I think we're going
Speaker 1: to see more signs to be enthusiastic about moving forward
Speaker 1: in year two. And I'm excited about Georgia Tech.
Speaker 2: Games were a blast to watch last year and read
Speaker 2: about last year because it was like, all right, this
Speaker 2: linebacker is usually a midfielder for the soccer team, this
Speaker 2: quarterback curler from Norway. They just needed to fill it
Speaker 2: with somebody. Yeah, And so as they populate players in
Speaker 2: offenses and defenses with guys who should be playing in
Speaker 2: certain places, I imagine Georgia Tech is just going to.
Speaker 1: Get full on, better, full on better, one more team here.
Speaker 1: On the Marathon preview of America's Conference of.
Speaker 2: Champions Austin, p Now Virginia, I said that I compared
Speaker 2: Bryce Perkins to Wally Zerbiak, which is a very stupid
Speaker 2: and silly reference, but it's accurate because he had to
Speaker 2: do everything in the same way Wally Zerbiak had to
Speaker 2: do everything as a college basketball player.
Speaker 1: Are there is there?
Speaker 2: We're I guess we're big on optimism now right. We're
Speaker 2: always talking about teams and like, how what can they
Speaker 2: need to get better? We want we're rooting for you.
Speaker 1: There's enough going wrong in the world. Let's let's look
Speaker 1: that's here.
Speaker 2: Okay, walk me through the post Bryce Perkins whole situation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just walk me through.
Speaker 2: Just let's take a stroll through the streets of Charlottesville.
Speaker 2: Let's grab an enchilada the Continental Divide and tell me
Speaker 2: what just a a post Perkins world looks like.
Speaker 1: And let's grab a libation and toast friend of the
Speaker 1: show Bronkleman and haul while we're there. Could we that's true?
Speaker 1: This is a nine Daniel Beats enthusiast, A nine win
Speaker 1: team last year played for the conference championship. They were
Speaker 1: predictably killed by Clemson, and they didn't play a great
Speaker 1: game in the Orange Bowl either against Florida. But whatever,
Speaker 1: they have gotten better. Each of Bronco's four seasons in Charlottesville,
Speaker 1: and now we're at this moment where I think we
Speaker 1: find out how good he really is. They lose some
Speaker 1: headliners from a year ago, including Bryce Perkins, but they
Speaker 1: actually return most of their team, which is low key
Speaker 1: something to be pumped about, and I think that will
Speaker 1: offset any kind of major regression. Still probably a step
Speaker 1: back year, okay, but there's enough coming back this year
Speaker 1: that it should it should temper it a little bit.
Speaker 1: And I think that's kind of the theme here as
Speaker 1: we look at at Virginia headlining losses but still reason
Speaker 1: for optimism. Bryce Perkins owns a school record for offensive yardage,
Speaker 1: so his graduation, that's going to get the headlines. But
Speaker 1: the new starter, Brendan Armstrong Broncos, comparing him to Taysom Hill,
Speaker 1: who is really going to BYU even better in the pros. Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: you know, bad thing, but a good thing to kind
Speaker 1: of offset it. Another one offensive line entirely back from
Speaker 1: a year ago. Okay, not bad, but receivers are gone.
Speaker 1: But receivers are gone, but all the running backs are back,
Speaker 1: so there's a kiis sure. Yeah. So there's just a
Speaker 1: lot of it offsets, I think, and the same deal
Speaker 1: on defense really. Bryce Hall's gone from the secondary, but
Speaker 1: everyone else is back. Jordan Mack has gone at linebacker,
Speaker 1: but everyone else is back. They were killed by injuries
Speaker 1: in the back half of last season, but all the
Speaker 1: younger guys got time, which should help him this season.
Speaker 1: So you know, what's the what's the next chapter look like?
Speaker 1: I don't know. Does the offense take a step back? Probably,
Speaker 1: But I just think it's worth mentioning that this offense
Speaker 1: has been extremely adaptable since Bronco got there. He's very
Speaker 1: good at playing to his strengths. He doesn't lock in
Speaker 1: on any particular scheme. He just kind of goes with
Speaker 1: what works. I think they'll be more run heavy this year.
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna try and use Burnan Armstrong's versatility. Defensively,
Speaker 1: Bryce Perkins wasn't going both ways last year, so defensively
Speaker 1: they'll be fine. I like Virginia more than I think most.
Speaker 1: I think they'll be okay. A step back is coming.
Speaker 1: The schedules not doing them any favors at all. First
Speaker 1: two games on the road at Tech at Clemson. They're
Speaker 1: also at Miami. They've got a game against You and
Speaker 1: C and Louisville and all those games are back to
Speaker 1: back later in the year.
Speaker 2: So yeah, that the middle chunk of their year it's brutal,
Speaker 2: is rough with Clemson and Wake on the road. We
Speaker 2: got Wake and Miami on the road North Carolina following
Speaker 2: that right before Louisville's that stretch October and into early November.
Speaker 2: That's tough.
Speaker 1: The depth is not there yet, but it is getting
Speaker 1: there with each recruiting cycle. It is a slow burn
Speaker 1: at Virginia. H I do expect the step back. I
Speaker 1: just don't think it's going to be as much regression
Speaker 1: as I've seen many predict.
Speaker 2: I should correct myself A Lama Dai Zachias was two
Speaker 2: years ago because my internal clock time.
Speaker 1: But always in our hearts now where it used.
Speaker 2: To be, always in our hearts for sure. Last year
Speaker 2: was a Joe red here. I like Virginia. I think
Speaker 2: they've gotten to it. They're secretly getting to a really
Speaker 2: nice place. You mentioned the depth thing. Obviously they're just
Speaker 2: not going to fully get to where the powers in
Speaker 2: the conference are, but they're cruising at a nice altitude
Speaker 2: right now, and so it's been cool to see because
Speaker 2: that's a I wouldn't say it's a difficult place to win,
Speaker 2: but it's not an easy place to win. So I
Speaker 2: like seeing the who succeed I do the.
Speaker 1: Dinger just went off in the plane. You could take
Speaker 1: off your seatbelt, you can walk around the cabin. You
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about too much unexpected turbulence, a
Speaker 1: few bumps. But yeah, they're doing an okay job down there.
Speaker 2: Dan, that's it, Virginia Tech, that's great.
Speaker 1: That's it. Marathon show complete?
Speaker 2: What are we gonna do? If the ACC keeps adding
Speaker 2: more to what are we gonna do?
Speaker 1: These shows are wearing me out right in solid verbal
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com, let us know your thoughts on
Speaker 1: the ACC. You put a lot into this show. We're
Speaker 1: gonna do the sec on Friday, so please tune in.
Speaker 1: Please to subscribe. Tell your friends, your family, your former lovers, whoever,
Speaker 1: tell them all.
Speaker 2: Wow, Do you talk to any of your former lovers?
Speaker 2: Ty No? Do you have any of them contacted you?
Speaker 1: No? I mean no, no.
Speaker 2: I feel like you're probably unforgettable.
Speaker 1: Well doesn't mean they talk to me.
Speaker 2: I don't think I've been in communication with any former
Speaker 2: dalliance's tie now. I'm just I'm a one woman man.
Speaker 2: Tye and That's just how it has to be as mine.
Speaker 1: Follow along on social media Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, go to
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Speaker 2: Can I make a request as we close out the
Speaker 2: acc preview, please, can we get you posting on the
Speaker 2: gram a little more me?
Speaker 1: You know what, I took a bunch of pictures of
Speaker 1: my ALMASI people want to see.
Speaker 2: People want to see that, the bts of the tie
Speaker 2: Hildenbrandt lifestyle.
Speaker 1: All right, I'll post, I'll post my omelets.
Speaker 2: Where should people be following you me? Hilden brand Is
Speaker 2: that just one word? Tye Hildenbrandt, just your name.
Speaker 1: That's why the H, the E, N, B, R, A
Speaker 1: and D T. Yeah. I think you've got a lot
Speaker 1: to show to the world. I don't post a lot lately.
Speaker 1: You've got a dog, you cook, you've got a house.
Speaker 1: I know I have other things going, but when I tweet,
Speaker 1: when I post, it's worth it. I promise.
Speaker 2: I think you got to op it up. You gotta
Speaker 2: step up the game as the season's going. Show you
Speaker 2: your watch set up, all right.
Speaker 1: I got to go be a parent, Go be a
Speaker 1: parent for that guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubinstein,
Speaker 1: for myself, Tie Hilton Brand, thank you for bearing with
Speaker 1: us on this marathon show America's Conference of Champions. We
Speaker 1: will talk to you all on Friday. In the meantimes
Speaker 1: day summer Peace,