Andy & Ari On3 - DOWN GOES MIAMI | Georgia Tech ZAPS Cam Ward, Hurricanes in Atlanta | What's Next for the ACC?

Episode Date: November 9, 2024

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All right, Miami has lost and now the ACC is in complete chaos because this isn't just Miami lost, now it's just the winner of the ACC Championship game getting a playoff, maybe. We don't, like we assumed Miami was going to make the ACC Championship game if we knew anything and now we know nothing. Yeah, well we don't know anything make the ACC Championship game if we knew anything and now we know nothing Yeah, well, we don't know anything about the ACC. I guess I guess the ACC is like the Eastern version of the Big 12. We're in a situation right now where Miami's just losing games that they're not supposed to be losing and you know that it's crazy and you would think that like we've been

Saying on the show all year that Miami's defense was gonna cost them a game and for a while there seemed like it was Miami's defense, but Miami's offense really had opportunities to win that football game and they didn't get it done. Stopped on fourth down three times by Georgia Tech. And it's one of those that like you kind of figured break key was going to win a game like this, but the way Miami was playing people, the way Miami was scoring, it didn't seem like it would be this one, but Georgia Tech takes a lead. and then they just like every time it looked like Miami might get back, George Tech shot it down. Yeah, and I just think it goes to show you too, just like how hard it is to go undefeated for anybody regardless of what the schedule is. And you know, I think that we have seen

some of the signs at least defensively for Miami that this day could be coming. But the way that it came in this game kind of looked a little bit different than we anticipated it would look. Yeah. And now the entire ACC race is completely up for grabs. It seems like Clemson just swirls up from the dead because they might be holding the tiebreaker here. Right. Remember one of the tiebreakers in the ACC is your conference strength of schedule. So basically the combined conference winning percentage of your ACC opponents. Clemson's ACC schedule is harder than Miami's ACC schedule. So if Clemson were to win out in the ACC and be 7-1 in ACC play, they might have that time break. Yeah, I mean Clemson, I think I saw a stat from one of those ESPN like fake math things

that they have like a 4% chance of making the playoff coming into today and now I feel like they're completely in the picture. Now, you know, the thing that's funny is like we can't take SM like we took Miami was ju had, you know, we say es there is an easy path. An is just Miami's kryptonit seen this coming, you kno took knees at the end of

that you were making at t Cristobal had some head s decisions at the end. But really matter. What matte tech was moving the football on the ground pretty easily throughout the game and Miami just couldn't get into an offensive rhythm. Well, so we are in Oxford right now.

We're at the Ole Miss-Georgia game. It's about to kick off. And that result in Atlanta affects this because Ole Miss is fighting for its playoff life. If Georgia were to lose today, they go into the mass of potentially 10-2 SEC teams. I see where you're going with this. And so this is really interesting because does this now make the ACC a one-bid league?

Yeah, the thing that I don't know is if Miami is a one-loss team outside of the ACC championship, doesn't go to Charlotte, are they a team that makes the playoffs? What's their best win? And Miami doesn't have any wins? Yeah, so is the best win Florida? Did you see the Florida Texas game today? Yeah, that doesn't that's not going to move it move it along with the committee. Yeah, so it kind of does feel like Miami might be on the break of disaster here.

Yeah, but at the same time too, like they are now in the SMU position, which is what the rest of the season play out. Maybe SMU slips up and they have a tiebreaker. But you know on one hand, it's great to not have to play Clemson SMU for pitch on the schedule, but on the other hand, it could be the thing that stops you from doing it if you slip on. At least they play Louisville, right?

Well, Louisville's their best win. Yeah, Louisville's their best win. And SMU's got that win too, but they've got to hold. And again, we were assuming with that conference strength of schedule when we were talking about that that assumes everything goes chalk and like November isn't a chalk month. You know in this game, we're just in the Ole Miss press box right now waiting to watch this Georgian games.

I don't look it up. But like there is a chance I think because SMU is still unbeaten the ACC. If that's the first tiebreaker, I'm not even sure that Miami beats SMU in that tiebreaker. Well, there's no tiebreaker if SMU is undefeated in the S&C. No, I'm saying if SMU loses another game I still think it's possible that SMU would go over Miami. Right, right, and that's the question that they both, yeah they both played Louisville which would, that would be both of their best

conference opponents but remember SMU did play Pittsburgh and you see where Pittsburgh winds up but because Pittsburgh's gotta play Cleon. But Pittsburgh was undefeated going into that little boy. Yeah so I mean if you're out there and you've just been waiting for Clemson to die and get out of a picture like I think that today this result Clemson's badabo is back in it baby they don't need the portal. Who needs the portal? No I mean it's crazy and honestly I thought that Miami had a real shot to not only make the playoff this year, but make some noise in the playoff

because the way that their offense was performing. But it just goes to show you that like, having an elite level defense is something that travels more than having an elite level offense because any day you can be out of sync. Cam Ward had some special plays and they had an opportunity to win that game, but they just couldn't get it going.

Well, that's the thing, like we had our text chain going and that Miami is about to get the ball with a minute and 56 seconds left and down five you're like oh is this Cam Ward's Heisman moment? He's had like nine of them this year so I don't know like how many the thing about it is like that's the thing that we need to key in on there like if Cam Ward goes down and wins that game that would be like the fourth time that he's done that this year, which then I think would have had a Heisman moment, but at the same time too, it puts into perspective how many times

Miami has need Cam Ward to bail him out, which goes to show you that you can only roll the dice so many times before you get clear. Yeah, and you've been saying this about Miami's defense for the last month. You've been saying it's gonna come. But that's not why today. Right, yeah, that's not why.

I never thought it was gonna be the offense. That was that's not why today. Right? Yeah, right. That's not why I never thought it was gonna be the offense that that was the one offense that we talked about this all year. That was the one offense I felt like every time that touched the field, you felt confident they were gonna move the ball and potentially score and Georgia Tech over and over again stuff them on fourth down and it's not like they were making bad fourth down go for it calls. Yeah, we weren't doing crazy stuff.

Georgia Tech was just making plays. Well, one of the fourth downs was like a fourth and 18. Yeah, and they didn't finish off that drive. You thought Miami was going to score had they scored there. They would have won the game. Another one. They were running the ball really, really well and they threw it for some reason. And I didn't know why they did that because they back.

Yeah, but like when you're running it really well and you get to that, I guess you it's easy to quibble with after it's over with. Yeah, like the fact of the matter is is that like this is a lesson for me personally. When you're running it really well, I guess it's easy to quibble with after it's over. The fact of the matter is that this is a lesson for me personally. And I think you're probably smarter about this. I am dumb. I have been covering the sport for 15 years and I still can't figure out that upsets happen and weird things happen.

We talked about this on the show. We said November is going to be a weird month. Weird things always happen in November. There's always a result that blows your mind every week in November. This on the show. We've said November is going to be a weird month. Weird things always happen in November. There's always a result that blows your mind every week in November. This is the one. Today is the ninth, so there's a lot of November left. There's a lot of November left. There's a lot of this Saturday left. Yeah, yeah. So we're here in Oxford. We're gonna have our old show tonight. This is a really big game that's happening and starting right about now behind us.

It's gonna be a hell of a show tonight, Andy. I can't wait to see what the playoff picture looks like when we go to bed tonight, but there's a hell of a lot of football left. And you know, if you're a Keynes fan, stick in there because you're not dead yet either. So nobody's dead yet. Now this game here is possible. Alabama LSU, somebody might be dead. Somebody's probably dead. We'll talk to you again at 1130 PM Eastern time. Eastern Time Saturday night wrapping it all up for you. We'll see you on the On3 Sports YouTube channel.