College Football Live - CFB Live: ACC V Big 12

Episode Date: August 21, 2024

Victoria Arlen, Sam Acho, and Eric Lain bring you the best of the day from college football. Florida State, and Kansas have named their starting quarterbacks as we get closer to week 1 of college football. Also ACC Commissioner Phillips joins the desk to tell us what the next steps are for the conference. Lastly Eric and Sam go back and forth about who can make an impact in the College Football Playoffs out of the ACC and Big 12. All that and more here on CFB Live! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When you're flying Emirates business class, sampling our range of vintage wines from the largest selection in the skies, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates, fly better. Every Wednesday, I'm Victoria Arlen, and this is college football live. So let's go out the tunnel. Just three days away from Florida State taking on Georgia Tech in Dublin, Ireland, and we'll give you the rundown on FSU's quarterback DJ Ui Ungolet as he goes head to head with Georgia Tech's QB Haynes King. And we welcome ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips to the show with all the changes in college football. Find out how the ACC will continue to stay ahead this season. Plus, it seems that the Big Ten and SEC are a lock for multiple bids in the 12-team playoff.

But what about the Big 12 in ACC? Find out which teams we think could surprise us this season. A lot is about to go down. We've got Sam and Emac in studio, which is a big deal in my eyes. And we also have the ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips joining us in just a bit. But fellas, we are three days. Let's go. Three, one, two, three days away from the kickoff to the college football season,

which begins with an all-ACC matchup between Georgia Tech and FSU across the pond in Dublin, Ireland. So let's get to who's going to be leading the charge for FSU. DJ Owee-Uncle-Lole will be making his first start for FSU, and the former Clemson and Oregon State starter will make his debut for the Seminoles this weekend in Dublin. Now, when they face Georgia Tech, it's not his first first. first time the fifth year transfer has seen ACC conference play. He played three years at Clemson and started for two and he also won both games against Georgia Tech.

Now a year spent in the Pacific Northwest helped DJU completely improve as a QB. Compare his numbers last year to his final year at Clemson and everything was up, including a QBR of 81 that would have ranked just ahead of Jordan Travis for the highest in the ACC. And here's Mike Norvell from earlier in the week on his new QB. I could not be any more pleased with what I've seen, you know, since he got here in January, even just his growth. You go through spring practice. You know, we tried to put him in some really challenging situations.

Wow, you know, some of the things we wanted to see, you know, we wanted to see him have to respond to a disappointment. We wanted to put him in the hardest looks to see, you know, what was his decision making? How would he go? And then where would he, how would he grow from that? And, you know, I think he's just done an outstanding job. And I know he's playing with a lot of confidence. You grow through that fire. Now, Eric, what are the offensive expectations for FSU with DJU?

Yeah, this offense is going to look a lot different with DJU at quarterback. You know, fans were so used to having Jordan Travis back there, a lot of creativity, a lot of movement. I think this team's going to be a lot more ground and pound. They are going to run the football. You see the talented running backs that they have coming in, transfer Williams, you know, from Alabama there. And, of course, Toa Fili, the ACC championship MVP. Oh, and by the way, you got a 250-pound quarterback. Let's line up with that big, nasty offensive line that has just been together a ton.

You're talking about all ACC caliber players there as well. Those guys are going to be set up for success, especially against this Georgia Tech defense that was horrific against the run last year. Now, they're making changes, but that's my game plan. Run it until they stop you over and over. Well, let's talk about defense, shall we? As for the defense, FSU lost quite a bit of production from 2023, among others, not returning. include Renardo Green, who had the most past breakups on FSU, Jared Verst, who had the most sacks and tackles for loss,

and Jerry and Jones, who had the most interceptions. Sam, how does a team like Georgia Tech take advantage of that? Oh, you attack. You attack every single point on this defense. Why? We're doing in the run game. This Georgia Tech running attack was 13th in the nation last year, number one.

Number two, it's not just the running back room. It's the quarterback as well. Haynes King can play last year, over 2,800 yards passing, over 700 yards rushing. And so this is a physical football team. I get it defensively. They didn't do great as far as stopping the run. But they want to run the ball.

And Haines King can do it all. We talked about the 2800 yards passing, 25 plus touchdown, 7,000 yards rushing, 10 plus touchdowns. Only him and Jaden Daniels, last year's second overall pink. That's right. Were the players to do that,

at least power five players. Then you started about talking about players in the ACC to have numbers that surpass those. You're starting to talk with guys like Lamar Jackson, guys like Deshawn Watson. And so Haines King is extremely underrated. And if I'm Georgia Tech, I'm going to attack the middle of this defense, especially with no Braden Fix, no Jaredverse.

I'm going to attack, attack, attack. They reloaded on that defensive line. I mean, they will be ready for that. But I think you're absolutely right. Haynes King, underrated, would not be shocked at all if he ends up first team all ACC quarterback when it's all set in time. Okay. Well, we'll keep a wire out on that.

Now, college game day is back, and they're going international for the first time. Reese and the gang kicks off the 20-24 season from Dublin, starting at 9 a.m. on ESPN, followed by the Georgia Tech Florida State game at noon. Now, it's official. Jalen Daniels will be under center when number 22, Kansas, opens the season against Lyndon Wood next week. Now, while he has battled injuries, the Jayhawks have him surrounded with top talent as their top four wide receivers are returning. Now, Jayhawks coach Lance Leopold is excited by what he's seen from him in fall camp. I've seen a lot of good things from Jalen Daniels in the last 10 days.

And he hasn't missed anything. He's played well. And he's confident. He's excited. His enthusiasm is contagious. And we all know that it's important for him to stay healthy. And but it's good to see. It's definitely good to see.

You never want to be plagued by injuries. Now, Sam, with Jalen Daniels, healthy and on the field, in what ways does that improve Kansas offense? Well, it makes them multi-dimensional. Yeah. So Kansas has been known, better yet, Lance Lippold has been known as a running quarterback, running head coach.

So when he was at Buffalo, they were one of the top rushing teams. When he was at University of Wisconsin, Whitewater, one of the top rushing teams. Now that he's been at Kansas, over the last three years, they've been in the top 10, top five when it comes to running the football.

But Jalen Daniels is a past first, run second type of athlete at quarterback. Yes, he can run it, but he slings it all over the yard. So if he's healthy, remember not too far back, they started off 5 and 0. Then he got injured. Then all of a sudden they tank. If he's healthy, this team can be competing for Big 12 championships for years to come.

Well, and I mean, we were talking about a Heisman trophy making this way to Kansas. I mean, that guy is so electric. And what he does, I mean, when you have a mobile quarterback like that, that is pass first. He wants to throw it. He's going to dance around. He's going to move around and then take that shot downfield. As an offensive lineman, I love that because guess what? I don't have to be perfect.

I can miss a guy or try to run him and then he's gone making a big play. Yeah. Well, I mean, nobody's perfect, Eric. I will let you know on that. But like maybe Sam, maybe Sam's a little perfect. But Eric, what are your realistic expectations for Jaylon? Well, I think first of all, if he truly is fully healthy, sky's the limit. I mean, again, we were talking about a Heisman trophy, you know, participant there

and a guy that was going to end up in New York. So I think they're right there sniffing a conference championship. I think he's that dynamic of a player. And to your point, like that's what. So Lance Lippold, I got a chance to train with the Buffalo football team back in 2019, my last year in the NFL. I was with the bills. I ended up getting injured before it got cut. I didn't know what I was going to do.

I got a chance to meet Coach Lipold. He said, hey, come train with our team. All of a sudden, Buffalo, they were building and building. It became this excellent football team before I got there. And I got a chance to see it up close and personal. Fast forward comes into Kansas. And all he talked about was belief. A lot of the players did not believe.

And he said, man, my goal is to help this, this state to believe in our faith. football again. He put it in this contract to say, we've got to build a new stadium. We got to get some new facilities. So we're seeing the belief happen within the locker room. It's expanding to the city, now expanding to the state. I'm excited about Kansas. The power of the belief. We love it. It's a big deal. We love it. It's a big deal. We mentioned the injuries. Daniels hurt his shoulder and missed half of their breakout 2022 season. Last year, he was just limited to three games with a back injury. So it's going to be really exciting to see what he can do when healthy. All right, we're going to take a break. Coming up, we welcome ACC Commissioner

Jim Phillips on the show. Find out what he has to say on the strength of the ACC's non-conference games this season. And a 12-team CFP doesn't guarantee that all conferences will be represented equally. We'll give out our picks for the teams we think could surprise us in the ACC and Big 12. Welcome back to college football live. Saturday, the college football season kicks off with an all-ACC matchup in Ireland. Georgia Tech is coming into the game with momentum from. from 2023 under first year head coach Brent Key.

The Jackets won a bowl game for the first time since 2016 and had a winning record for the first time in five years. Florida State, meanwhile, comes into this season with something to prove the highest ranked ACC team in the preseason poll. They finished last year's regular season undefeated, but were left out of the four team playoff. Now, ask for the matchup Saturday.

If history is any indication, expect a close contest down to the wire. Eight of the last nine times Florida State and Georgia Tech have met, the final score was within a single touchdown. Speaking of ACC, let's welcome in. ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips. Welcome into the show.

Thanks, Victoria. Now, we just talked about the matchup going on in Ireland. What are you looking forward to most out there? Well, the start of the college football season. We've been ready for two months or so. What's going on? What took it so long? Really, I think it's a chance for the ACC to own that weekend.

Two terrific programs, as you described, a Georgia Tech team is on the come. second year coach, a Florida state team that should have been in the playoff last year, coming off an undefeated season, our ACC champion. It should be a really incredibly intriguing matchup. The game is sold out. You got a lot of folks from the states going to Ireland. So it would be just, again, just a terrific way to kick off the ACC season.

And that's week zero, but week one, I have to literally look at my notes because you have quite the schedule. Okay, every ACC team will be in action with games starting Thursday. We've got NC State, UNC, and Wake Forest, all playing, and then running all the way through Labor Day with BC and FSU. How crazy is your travel schedule going to be? It's going to be fun. That's when you say goodbye to the wife and the kids for a period of time,

say I'll check back with you when we get through December or so. Listen, it's my honor to be the commissioner of the ACC, and part of it is you show up in support of your schools. And I'm excited about the non-conference season in particular. but Labor Day weekend, special for the ACC because we will play games on Thursday, Friday, Saturday. We'll have a day of rest on Sunday as a league, and then we'll finish on Monday in Tallahassee. Well, I love what you brought up there, commission, out of, you know, conference scheduling. And the ACC has the most difficult in the entire country.

What does it mean to take advantage of that? And what will that do for the league if the ACC is able to capitalize there? Yeah, I'm really, Eric, I'm really proud of our coaches and our athletic directors that have taken that approach. about non-conference scheduling. As you mentioned, we play 27 power four teams as well as Notre Dame during the non-conference. Nine of those teams are ranked. And I think as we saw last year,

if you can win some of those games, most of those games, you can really set a good narrative for your particular football program. But what's nice about it, though, and the three of you know this well and talk about it often, is one loss now will not be a killer for you.

You can play some great non-conference games and get yourself, right for conference season and stub your toe maybe once, maybe twice, and still have a chance to be in that 12-team playoff. Commissioner, with the ever-changing landscape in college football, what keeps you up at night? Sam, it's a great question. I think it's just the sustainability of a game that we love. And it could be the health and safety of players, right, of playing too many games and

expand the playoff. It could be the financial piece of it. It's a game that needs to be. cared for. And so when I think about just college football in general, I don't want any of us to take it for granted. We have to be really good stewards and caretakers of it. We have to learn with what we've seen as we go forward. But I trust that we'll get to the right place. But overall, just in college athletics, you want the sustainability to help kids at all various levels, right? Not just Division 1, Division 2, Division 3, NAA. That's the beauty of college sports.

Well, you bring up that expanded playoff. And I know there are concerns about player safety and playing 17 games. Somebody's going to have to do that. And then when we expand again, if that so happens. But how about the opportunity to have multiple bids? How important is that for the ACC? And just how are you looking at this 12 team playoff? It's really important, Eric.

You know, we went from a 14 to a 12 team, tripled the field. And we were at about 3% of FBS teams that got into the playoff, you know, fire to this. year. Now we'll be at about 9%. That's two of you know really well. That's what every, I think, young football player wants to compete for is a national championship. So to enlarge the field has been great. But I think this really helps the ACC. I really do. It's a chance for our teams across the board to play for a national championship. And you don't have to just win your conference championship. If you do, you have that automatic, you know, invite and the rest of it. But you could, there's lots of cases where there's a one-loss team in your conference.

that has played a great schedule that got beat for one particular reason or another on a Saturday, and it just doesn't end their journey. So it is important. And I think that's what all of our leagues are looking at. You want to be a multiple-bid league, just like it is for the NCAA tournament. And, you know, the big topic of conversation is now it expands coast to coast. How does that expansion grow, not just in the football, but for the ACC all around? Yeah, Victoria, to me it really is a chance now to have.

a national conference. We've been regionally based on the East Coast. We spread our wings and, you know, got into the Midwest a little bit. But a chance to be in the state of Texas and the state of California, two really great fertile grounds of recruiting, but also viewership, right? And for them to get ACC football and for them to get the ACC network, it's really important. And I think I'm excited to see Cal Stanford and SMU jump in. They've all had success at different periods in their history. I think they'll add to the ACC. And I look forward to getting to some different venues, again,

with the ACC product. I love that, man. Just quickly, quickly before we let you go, when folks are tuning in and they see ACC teams, what do you want them to come away with each and every time they turn on the television and see one of our teams? Yeah, you're a product of it. I should really let you answer the question, Eric.

We have one right here. Let me just tell you something. There's a few things. One is it's a conference of of quarterbacks. We have 13 quarterbacks that have thrown for 3,500 yards and 20 touchdowns

in our conference starting this season, right? Eight quarterbacks are likely to start. I think I have been named starters for the NFL season, so that's 25% of the NFL. So great players, this particular situation, quarterbacks. But we're a tough nose group.

I just think we have tough nose coaches and hard, hard nose, you know, punch you in the mouth kind of football. And that's what I think ACC football is. And I think it's representative of the coaches that we have. We have great skill players and all the rest of it, but we can get in the trenches and fight you and play well. And I think last year, when I look at how we performed SEC great conference,

we were seven and five against the SEC last year. And so we'll have a chance this year to show the country ACC football. And we're testing ourselves early. with the non-conference schedule. That chance is just three days away. Commissioner, thank you so much for joining us today and safe travels to Ireland. My pleasure, thanks.

All right, the huddle goes international. Taylor Tannenbaum and EJ. Manuel will be out in Dublin while the rest of the huddle crew joins from Bristol. Catch them starting at 11 a.m. Saturday on ACC Network. Now, can the ACC and the Big 12 sneak more than one team into the college football playoff? Find out as Eric and Sam give their ACC and Big 12 picks and predictions next. Welcome back to college football live. The Big 12 conference is actually made up of 16 teams,

and at least one of them will be going to the college football playoff. Parity abounds within the conference, so that spot is completely open for the taking. Here's Kevin Nagandi breaking down some numbers on the new look, Big 12. A lot has changed in college football in recent years, and it's hard to find anything that exemplifies those shifting sands more than the Big 12. Half of the league's 16 teams were not in the conference just two seasons ago. Winning a conference championship is absolutely enormous. Even though its current members have combined for just one winning college football playoff history, the league has had an automatic birth in the expanded bracket for 2024.

FPI projects Kansas as the favored for that spot, although the metric has a very high degree of uncertainty about this conference race. What a throw. What a score. You can rock. Chalk it up the Jayhawks win. The 17% chance FPI gives the Jayhawks is the lowest for any favorite in the FBS conferences this season. And it's also the lowest for any power conference favorite in the entire playoff era.

In other words, the Big 12 may be anything but predictable this season. And if you're a fan, that has to make it one of the most fun. conferences to watch. Now, inside, we do our own numbers crunch, college football live edition. So let's pick him now. We've got Eric, who is the captain of team ACC, and then we've got Sam, who

is captain of a big 12. So let's make some picks, shall we? All right, Sam, playing four seasons in the big 12. You know a thing or two about this conference? With 16 teams now, who's your championship pick? My championship pick is the, Kansas Jayhawks. The reason why is this.

If you want to be the best, you have to beat the What did Kansas do last year? Last year they beat Oklahoma. A few years back, they beat Texas. This team has been rising weekend, week out, year in, year out. And if they stay healthy, if Jalen Daniels stay healthy, this is one of the most dangerous teams in the Big 12. And not to mention the running game, this is the fourth most efficient offense in all the

console while behind LSU, Oregon, Georgia. So Devin Neal, Daniel Hyshaw, your running backs at Kansas, those are names you need to know. I hear you. I hear you. Let's go on down to the ACC because Miami, they're back, baby. You is rolling and they got a quarterback. Let me just tell you all about this. Cam Ward is going to set the ACC on fire.

This dude is electric. The things that he can do with his legs, get out in space. And very similar to what we were talking about with Jalen earlier, he wants to throw the ball. He wants to escape, keep his eyes downfield. But here's the differentiator to me. Big nasty offensive line. Big nasty defensive line.

They are going to play bully ball and hit people right in the face. Bullie ball. Okay. Well, that sounds like so much fun. All right, Eric, who's here? Who's your sleeper team? Sleeper team. This is a little bit of a different one because the Virginia Tech Hokies, they've got everybody

back and Blacksburg is lit, getting back to Saxburg on that defensive side of the ball. But to me, it comes down to quarterback play. What is this young man able to do through the air? We've seen so much from him, the growth from Kyron drones and all these weapons that are back. Number one in FBS in returning offense, I think the natural growth that we will see from him, year one to year two as a starter, is enormous.

in that growth. You also add Bayshell Tutin in the backfield. Look out for that one-two punch. Hey, look out for that siren wheel, wheel, wheel, in Ames. I don't know why, because that's what I played in Ames. I played against these guys. Every time they score this huge siren goes off and they're going to be a lot of scoring going on because of Rocco Beck, not Rocco's modern world. The little shit gets you. Rocco Beck is a dog. He was the Big 12, offensive freshman of the year last year. Is that Anthony first round pick in the NFL. New York Jets played over a decade in the NFL. This dude set records weekend and week.

week out for Iowa State. So not only it's the quarterback, but also they're consistently coached team. Matt Campbell, one of the best coaches in all college football. Give me Iowa State. All right, we got to keep this moving. Multiple CFP bids is the Big 12 capable. Answer is no. I'm going to get to the point.

I just want to get to the bad part first. I don't think I think only one team is going to make it. I don't think we have enough depth in the Big 12 to have multiple kids. Okay, well, here's the deal. I think that this is where these two conferences, they aren't the same. One's a little bit different than the other. You've got Miami. And then playoff disruptor.

Can I go ahead and get to that? This is my second team in the playoff. The Tigers, they're back, baby. Wait to you see this defensive line, offensive line. K Clubnick. You want defensive line, offensive line. Go Utah. One of those physical teams in all of football.

And if Cam Rising is healthy, this team can make some noise. Come playoff time. Let's go. Oh, let's go. All right. Well, you heard it from the experts. Fun fact, they both were captains of their team. They're well qualified.

And you're our captain. And I'm a captain here. All right. All right. We're college football live. He's Sam. He's Emac. I'm Victoria.

Thanks for hanging. We'll be back on Friday. That was good. Come on. Come on, man. Somebody got to give me.