Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC Championship Contender Teams Climbing - ACC Squad

Episode Date: September 19, 2024

Welcome back to ACC Squad, your premier roundtable podcast for everything Atlantic Coast Conference! In Week 4, hosted by Alex Donno from Locked On ACC, we’re diving into mid-season analysis, discussing key takeaways from the latest ACC football games, and highlighting the standout teams and players.Join us as we recap the thrilling action from Week 4, analyze performance trends, and look ahead to what’s next for each ACC school. Whether you’re a fan of the Boston College Eagles, Clemson Tigers, Duke Blue Devils, Florida State Seminoles, Louisville Cardinals, Miami Hurricanes, NC State Wolfpack, North Carolina Tar Heels, Syracuse Orange, California Golden Bears, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Pittsburgh Panthers, SMU Mustangs, Stanford Cardinal, Virginia Cavaliers, Virginia Tech Hokies, or Wake Forest Demon Deacons, this episode has something for you!In This Episode:Recap of Week 4’s most exciting games and pivotal momentsMid-season evaluations of each ACC teamInsights on key players and emerging trendsExpert opinions from Locked On podcast hostsMake sure to subscribe to ACC Squad and hit the notification bell for all the latest updates on ACC football. Share your thoughts in the comments below and let us know which team surprised you the most this week! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Should money matter when you're considering firing your head coach? Let's bring in the squad. You're talking ball with the ACC squad. From Florida State to North Carolina, from Syracuse to Miami, and from NC State to California, it's the local experts of the Locked-on Podcast Network, bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming ACC weekend.

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Today's episode is brought to you by Fandual. Now through September 22nd, all Fandual customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Visit Fanduel.com to get started. We will talk about the updated AP. rankings, only three remain in the ACC. There really should be at least four. We're going to preview some of the biggest upcoming games, but folks, we're going to start off here on Florida State Seminoles are shockingly 0 and 3, despite playing arguably the softest part of their schedule these first three games. Is Mike Norvell for sure safe coming out of this season? I'll note he's got a

$65 million buyout. Um, is, it's, is, it's, is, it. It's, is, is, it. It's, is, is, it's, is, Is it even possible that they could lose enough that Mike Norvell is on the chopping block? Who's buying the first round tonight? Either he is safe or he's going to be stuffing his safe with more greenbacks than anybody can imagine. There are 65 million very convincing reasons as to why Florida State not only will hold on to him. They have to. They have to. As the old saying goes, it's cheaper to keeper. And right now it is much cheaper to keep Mike Norville. But even going beyond that for a second, I need.

I understand that we live in the TikTok generation. I understand that we live in the microwave generation, the fast food, everything is at our disposal. Everything is done right now. Did we all forget that this man led a team undefeated and conference championship just last year? Don't get me wrong. I understand that Florida State,

you are in a position where going undefeated is not the hardest thing in the world to do, but it still ain't been done that damn. to where you can say, you know what, even a year later, if things ain't going how we want them to, we'll get you out of there and we'll get you, you know, we'll get a new guy in there. And then on top of the $65 million, it's much more expensive than that, Dono, because you're at Florida State. You expect to, if your expectation is, I never want to have a bad year, I need to win at least 10 every single year, at least nine, at least eight every single year. That's fine.

Who are you going to get and how much are they going to cost? So it's not just about the $65. It's about the 65 plus what you have, whatever you got to pay this new coach. And mind you, that new coach is going to add the Norville tax on for, wait a minute, you just fired a guy that won that darn near won the whole enchilada a year before. You got to give me a little land yop on there as the folks in the buy you would say to make me a little happier about the fact that I'm only a year away from getting fired here, no matter what's going on. So I think that, you know, this is no way under God's green earth they get rid of Norval.

and that's just all there is to it this year. I know Florida State administration's not happy to be having to think about these questions three weeks into the season, to your point, Kent. I mean, it's crazy that we've even ended up here. And I'll also add, this is a Florida State football program that's going through crazy stadium renovations right now. Construction is not cheap. That number continues to climb with the renovations that they're making.

So it's really a financial mess, not. to mention lawsuits that are in place with where we want to be. I mean, goodness gracious, the money issues that's on hands there in Tallahassee. You know, what I expect to happen with Mike Norvell, that I'll let Jackson jump in. Like you absolutely cannot, like Kenton said, you cannot fire him. And JJ, you correctly echoed that. There's a lot of other expenses out there. I think he's going to be under pressure to clean house and revamp his staff, maybe hiring staff members.

who put more of an emphasis on high school recruiting, because if recruiting out of high school is not Norville's strength, you need to surround yourself with people who can help you in that area. I also think that from an NIL standpoint, I think Florida State needs to shift their focus a little bit because they've like bragged about, you know, not wanting to bid for high school players, strictly doing it for transfer guys.

But I think you also need to not rely 100% on the portal, maybe try to win some more battles coming out of high school. So I think, you know, these are areas that Mike Norvel needs to fix. I think I can pretty much echo what everyone has said here about, you know, 65 million different reasons why you can't let him go. I mentioned this on Brian Smith, who is not here with us right now, but he's the host of Locked on Seminoles after the game against Memphis. And he was like, what is the contract for Mike Norvell?

Well, it goes until 2031, and he's going to be making an average of about 10 million per season up until 2031 and we already told you guys the buyout is $65 million. In other words, like if you want them gone, that's great. Cool. You want them gone. But the only thing worse than keeping Mike Norvell is firing Mike Norvell because of all the reasons you guys just mentioned, there's just too many finances going on here for a program like Florida State who Florida State has a big budget for an ACC team. Let's be real. They are one of the premier programs in our conference. But compared to the rest of the country,

I don't think they can absorb $65 million, pay another coach on top of a lawsuit and stadium renovations. At some point, people have budgets here. You don't have all the money in the world. Here's a question I've got about just Norville's track record, because, I mean, this is year five at FSU. Year one started off two and six. year two, started off 0 and 4.

And then we've got back to back great seasons. And I'm like, oh, baby, they got this thing going down in Tallahassee. Year five is going to be another step up. And then we revert back to this. So this is now three of his five years off to a not great start at all. And it just has me wondering, like, what is the real true version of what's going on here? And look, this is complete ingest in which I say this. but if I'm a high major coach at some point, it's like, you know what, I don't mind being paid $65 million to go away and be set for the rest of my life and sit back on my couch and watch everybody else get beat up week after week.

He wouldn't be the dumbest man in the world to do that. That's obviously not what he's doing. But, hey, I'd take it. Well, I don't know if it'll be his choice or not. That's the point. If he, Florida State would have to fire him and then I'm sure he'll be happy because he'll get, or he won't be happy he lost his job, but he'll get $65 million. So he'll be pretty happy on that regard. And I mean, Mike Norvell has been around before.

Like, he's going to land on his feet. He'll get another job somewhere, whether it's a coordinator or head coach at a different program. I can't see Florida State letting him go this season unless they go 0 and 12. If they go 0 in 12, I don't think you have a choice. But, I mean, they're probably going to win three or four games. I say that hesitantly. I mean, maybe three to four.

Yeah, I was going to say, if there is a realistic record where he does get fired, What do you think it is? Is it 0 and 12? Is it 1 and 11? Where do we think that might be? I think if you lose to Charleston Southern. Let me tell you something. They said it on mean girls,

and I think we need to bring Lindsay Lohan back in this moment. The limit does not exist. There is nothing he can do this year to get fired. Unless they get absolutely molly bunt by Charleston Southern to where it's like, all right, like this is. And even in that situation, again, it's hard for me. I get it. I understand that we all go by.

the Andre 3000 saying, you're only funky as your last cut. We understand. And his last cut right now, it stinks. It's awful. The DJ would be getting booed off stage. The Sandman would be coming out

if he was on Apollo. But with that being said, there are external factors here that are much too grand to not take into consideration. That is just where we are with this team and with this program. They have too much money

tied up in too many different places. And Donald and I've talked about this, thousand times of all the states where you think you would be okay to be the first team to take money from let's say foreign investors that most people here stateside are not exactly happy about you think that florida is the place to do it tallahassee florida yeah all right good best of luck with that tell me how it goes for okay kent you just talked about all the external factors at play so what are the internal things that they can control right how does mike norville internally get this thing turned around.

Is it personnel changes? Like on field, is it personnel changes on the staff, scheme change, like, what do they have to do right now to make this adjustment and get things on the right track? If I were to say what they need to do right now, I don't think there is much they can do with this team. But I would say going forward into next year, strip it down to the studs in terms of whatever you did

in training, whatever you did in the off season, forget all that. You need to build toughness, build culture. You have the athletes. Athletes don't all of a sudden go to schools and just become bad. What happens more often than not? They're not developed. Or there's not a culture that's instilled in them to say,

hey, we're a tough, physical hard-nosed team. Or you know what? We're a finesse team and we're known for how smarty and we're going to be that much quicker than you. There is not an identity on that team. There is not a culture on that team. There is not a presence on. that team that says we're Florida State and this spear means this. It's just not there right now.

Well, I want to get into more positives when we come back, including close but no cigar. Everyone loves dunking on to Florida State. Come on now. It's hilarious. I'm starting to feel bad for them. No. It's not funny that's happening to them. Yeah. Come on. Yeah. Contextually with everything they're trying to do to our conference right now, I get a great. great deal of perverse joy. Yeah. You want to leave the ACC, go to group. Actually, you're not

worthy of group of five. Go to FCS for all I care. I hear the back. Florida goes division two. Pack 12 East Coast baby! The ACC can go West Coast, maybe the Pac-12 can go East Coast, but

there are some big matchups in the conference coming up this weekend, including I want to get to this. Can the fighting Kenton and Grayson's beat up Dabo Sweeney and friends as NC State and Clemson both start ACC play. You want to keep it locked right here. We're only getting started on the squad.

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Void were prohibited. Get off the sidelines. into the NIL game with Roy. Thank you so much for making the squad your first listen and your first watch today. I am Alex Dono from Locked on Cains. We got Jackson Holzer from locked on Syracuse, Kenton Gibbs, and Grayson Boone from Locked on Wolfpack, Isaac Shade, locked on Tar Heels, JJ Jackson from Locked on Duke.

Guys, we've got some big ones in the conference coming up, including 21st-ranked Clemson are 20-point favorites at home against NC State. Obviously, NC State a couple weeks ago had a shaky outing against the Tennessee volunteers, and they're going to be starting. That's fine. I'm going to say, Isaac. Shaky is a very polite way of putting. Well, not only that, and Grayson. I got a praise him from Breeze in here.

It's tough. B.U. That's how that performance went. I'll let Grayson buy the first round this segment. NC State, and I'm excited about this player, you know, grew up in my area in South Florida. C.J. Bailey, true freshman quarterback, is. going to be getting his first career start. I don't know if the Clemson defense is the team you want to get that first career start

against, though. I'll buy the first round, but y'all might need to buy rounds for me because we are down bad in Raleigh. We've never had a normal football season. It feels like ever. So like everyone saw, Grayson McCall went down to injury against Louisiana Tech. Freshman, true freshman, C.J. Bailey enters into the game, plays hero. We come back and win.

He is now QB1 headed into Clemson. and he has quite the task ahead of him. And something Kent and I have discussed on Locked on Wolfpack, we're not exactly having high expectations. It's really hard in itself to go down and beat Clemson, but a true freshman getting his first start in Death Valley, we looked this up. The last time a true freshman has won in Death Valley was 2007.

It was Tyrod Taylor with the Virginia Tech Hokies. I'm not expecting C.J. Bailey to pull that off, but good Lord, we need a spark of something on offense. You know, when I look at this thing, I said like this. People like to misconstrue my words a lot because I talk in a very bolsterous manner, and I get it. People like to see folks like me be wrong. I'm okay with that. But here's what I have always said and what I will stand by here with CJ Bailey.

I said about Gracie McCall after game one. Some looks off. After game two, I said, that's enough for the plug. Because if I'm going to have a guy making certain mistakes, if I'm going to have a guy play poorly, I want to see the young guy play poorly because he has the opportunity to learn and grow and get better as opposed to the six-year guy who, hey, congratulations, buddy. Get ready to learn enterprise rental car. Like that's what you're about to do here. Get ready to learn some LinkedIn because you're going to have to go into the real world and get a job.

So, you know, I always say give me the young guy if we're going to be bad. And so with that being said, this 20, this 20 point spread makes sense. I'm not shocked by it. I'm not upset by it. This is a Clemson team that's coming off a biweek. They woke the wheels off of App State last week. They're probably going to come out and still think, oh, we got a point to prove.

Nobody believes in all that. And now Daubel has the ammunition to actually run with that after getting throttled by a Georgia team that outside of that game has looked extremely human to say the least for the rest of the season so far, even though it's in its infancy. So objectively speaking, I'm not expecting much out of NC State here. I'm expecting Clemson to dominate. That defensive line is deep.

They are talented. They are physical. They are experienced. They've got it all up front defensively. And our offensive line could not push the squad around. I'm not sure if JJ Jackson wouldn't get a couple of TFLs off those boys. I just, I would be shocked to not see it happen. So all in all, this game will very likely be a domination by Clemson.

If it is not, I will feel the same way about NC State that I did about B.C. playing Missou close. Like, hey, you did you think. You did more than I could. Imagine, congratulations to you. Put me in, coach. I'm ready to make some plays then. If that's the case.

Wait, wait, wait, JJ. Since your last name's Jackson, my first name's Jackson, we're going to be on the D-line together. Let's make it happen. Let's go. Action Jackson. Yeah, there you. We just need three more.

We have the Jackson five. Here we go. Hey, did you speak a little positively here for NC State? I love it. I love it, Isaac. At least CJ Bailey has played a little bit, right? I mean, looking for a silver line. that there is something to kind of look back at in last week's game against Louisiana Tech.

Imagine if you hadn't seen them at all. And then it's like, hey, boy, get ready for college football here at Death Valley. Yeah, but I mean, like, you're playing Louisiana Tech. I guess it's a good warm up. Yeah. It's a warm up, but your final boss. I'd rather have that than nothing. Okay, but you're playing Clemson now.

There's a big difference here. And you're going on the road. and playing Clemson. But you can't argue that the experience is not good. I mean, that's the thing. Experience is experience. Experience is experienced, sure. But this is different.

This is not Louisiana Tech. This is Clemson on the road. This is a very, very good defense against a team that's going to be motivated to beat y'all. I'm in agreement. I think this is going to get ugly. I think it's a 31-7 written all over it. You know,

I'm not sure. Fans are trying to hang their hat on coming out of Louisiana Tech game. C.J. Bailey, he did look like a freshman, and freshmen are going to make freshman mistakes. But that's something we can live with because he was, he's shown a propensity to stretch the field more so than Grayson McCall did. And I think there is a little bit of optimism there for the offense. We had a little bit of a boost offensively when CJ came into the game.

It's like, okay, maybe this is the offense we were kind of hoping to get. The wide receivers had more separation. We can move the field or move the ball down the field a little bit. Again, not exactly predicting a win here, but I think CJ provides something to the offense that Grayson McCall so far has not. You know, Jackson Hozier is the only person I know that can agree with me to the T and still find a way to piss me off while. What did I do?

I miss you off because I agree with you. That's why. We disagree with each other. And that's what I'm saying. I don't know how there was something about the way you delivered that. That your first steps towards me were on my last nerve. I don't know why, Jack. But I agree. I agree. This game will not be close.

You 34-7 is written all over it. I agree. But I hope we're both wrong. Unlike you, I hope we're both wrong. I think it would be great if NC State look good. The problem with NC State, you mentioned something about, you know, keeping it close like Boston College did in Missouri is NC State can't afford to just get that moral victory and keep it close. They already have a loss. If they lose to Clemson, now you have two losses. And I get it, one is out of the conference. Great adding Jackson.

Your margin for error is small anyway. Yeah. Honestly, you have to win the game. The moral victory is cool if you want to talk about C.J. Bailey's future. Sure. He looks great. The future's bright. You know, we lose a back and forth game, 2724.

Bailey looks great. Cool. I get that. But the moral victory in terms of this season, that's two losses already. You don't have, you're playing with fire. Yeah, well, if anybody saw NC State, oh, I was just going to say, if anybody saw NC State these early three games and thought that, hey, this is still a ACC Championship contender, put down that dope.

Lead them drugs alone this, my greatest would say. Leave it alone. I didn't, but what I'm trying to tell you is you can stick a fork in them if they lose this game. It's officially over. I'll put it to you like this, Jackson. The expectations have shifted since the season. begin. I'll leave it to you there. There's another game I'm looking at this weekend. Louisville,

they're ranked 19. They've looked great so far against lesser opposition. Tyler Shuck has been fantastic at quarterback there, but they're opening up conference play against a Georgia tech team that we thought very highly of them after knocking off Florida State, week zero. Jackson's Orange got them in their next conference game. Haynes King is also having a really good season, nearly a thousand passing guard, six touchdowns, one interception. Louisville favored by 10 and a half points at home. And I agree, Cardinals have looked like the better team so far and they've got a home field advantage.

But do we think Georgia Tech may be able to pull off an upset this weekend? Yes. Yep, that's my upset special pick of the week. What a succinct explanation there, Jackson? Is that special? But in all seriousness, if you're talking about can Georgia Tech pull off and upset? Absolutely. Absolutely. Will they? Will they? I was in a little bit different. Can they? I think they can. Will they? Here's my only thing. That defensive front from Louisville

is so good. I mean, and I get it. They've played lesser opponents and all that. Ashton Jolati looks as unblockable as I have seen in this conference so far. He looks absolutely phenomenal every time he steps on that field. And again, I even had to admit, after watching more Tyler Shuck before the season started. If he is healthy, the sky is the limit for this team. It really is. And as of now, he is healthy. So can they pull it off?

Yes. Will they? I think it's going to be tough running into the teeth of teeth of a defense where, I mean, objectively speaking, that's going to be one of Louisville's strengths. The ability to stop the run and obviously on the perimeter with those corners they got, I don't know what's been going on or what's in the water out there in Louisville. But ever since Jaira Alexander, they've all. always had at least one corner that's going to be a guy that's going to get drafted there.

So objectively speaking, if I look at this game and I say to myself, can George Zipuloff? Yes, will they? I doubt it. I'm going with Louisville in this one. I believe it was our first episode that we ran of the squad. I think I said, I'm surprised that no one's talking about Louisville headed into the season. And yes, they have played lesser competition, but they've looked really good in doing so. I say all that to say, I do think a double digit spread in Louisville's favor in this one, that feels a little bit steep. If I was a bet man, which I am,

I think I'm going to lean Georgia Tech to cover. I mean, that's a really big spread for a good Georgia Tech team. It is on the road. Louisville's relatively a tough place to play. I think this is going to be an awesome game. I don't really have a good read as an outright winner. I think it could go either way. But I was surprised that the spread is as large as it is.

Same. On the other side of it, let me cell phone that North Carolina has just a 10.5 point spread. over James Madison this weekend. Yeah. And we've had some trouble with Sunbelt opponents the past couple of years, namely App State, who Clempton just decimated. So as we roll out probably a third string QB1 this weekend,

just be on the lookout for that one, folks. Okay. Are you saying the Tar Heels on an upset alert? I don't. I'm not saying they're on upset alert. I'm saying they're on yet again not covering alert. I will tell you this. Over the past.

You know that full spread. Over the past few years, and I know people are going to say this because you don't like UNC, but I'm telling you this as a thing that has happened. Outside of Georgia, no team has been better at stopping the run over the past couple of years than James Madison. And that's a statistical fact. That's not a how it it feels about it. That's just who they are. Now, yes, they do play a group of five schedules, so it's a difference.

And they don't have a Marionne Hampton walking around in the American Athletic Conference. It just, it ain't happen. But with that being said, I am not shocked that if you, you're going to be trotting out a third string quarterback, and you're looking at, hey, your strength is their strength, and it's going to be the irresistible force against the immovable object. I'm not surprised by that spread. Yeah.

Now, when we come back, there's a new batch, of course, this week of AP top 25 rankings, and I feel like at least one member of the ACC has been done in injustice. The squad continues. The only ticket app that we use here on the lockdown network is game time. It's simple. They've got the best features. They've got the best prices. And the prices actually go down the closer you get to the event. I'm a procrastinator by nature. It's just who I am. And I used to stress out about, oh, like I wake up this morning. There's a Miami game I want to go to tonight. Can I get a last minute ticket? The prices actually get better the closer you get to game time. Game time has a new feature called Game Time picks that make getting tickets for your favorite live events even easier. Game time picks filters out all. all the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets. Guys, I love the all-in pricing feature.

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We got the squad together here on Lockdown ACC. And guys, there are three ACC teams remaining in the top 25, 3 and O Miami at number eight, two and O Louisville at number 19 and one and one Clemson at number 21. But here's my complaint, okay? So Boston College last week, they were ranked number 24 after their upset

against Florida State and then they blew out an FCS team. They enter the week number 24. They go on the road to Missouri, and they were huge underdogs in that game. Missouri being number six last week. So number 24 keeps it within a touchdown against number six. And they were ahead for most of that game. And then number 24 gets penalized.

BC gets dropped out of the rankings. I think it's ridiculous. I think Boston College should still be ranked. I 100% agree. I think this whole panel is going to agree with you on Boston College. What did they do wrong? And somebody showed me what the teams who crept in did so right that you would say, If they play Missou tomorrow, I feel comfortable with them being as close or better than what Boston College did.

Like, there's, it just, it just doesn't exist to me. And again, this is why I don't understand rankings and how they work and all that, because I understand you don't want to pin a lot or don't want to give anybody a reward for a loss, because objectively the point of the game is to win. Sure. But rankings are not just about wins and losses or else every undefeated group of five team we see would be ranked ahead of two and three lost SEC teams, but that's not how it works.

It's never been how it works. So why when it comes to Boston College now, all of a sudden, we lose our logic and wits about, hey, this team belongs here because they've shown it on the field. Whether or not you believe in Florida State, that's fine. But that means that you've got to believe Florida State is terrible,

which is we all do. That also means you've got to believe Missouri is like barely a top 25 team, which where they rank right now, Don't know? six? They actually dropped them a spot to seven. Boy, this is the proud thing of what I'm talking about. It's that big SEC bias. It's that anti-ACC bias, and that's the problem.

I want to get our representative on the phone, but I feel like Jarvis is an SEC got two behind the seat. So I don't really know. Zach Blackaby is the coordinator of all the college channel. Where is he and the loan is up? You know what I'm saying? Auburn University. Auburn.

Who lost to who? The cow bears of well? average. See, when you start putting it, when you start spinning the webs together, baby, the numbers all add up. Let me put my 10-4 out of what. But I'm just saying, it seems like there's an anti-ACC thing going on here. I think we're on agreement.

Cal is receiving votes. They got 11. Proud, proud North Carolina, Tar Heels, baby. We're rocking three others receiving votes. Let's go. I think Syracuse got like the same amount of votes. I think we're stuck at 28 again after a bye week. Yeah.

That's right. It's a buy week. I wasn't expecting anything. Jackson. Y'all are 27. Oh, 27. We moved up a spot. We didn't play a game. Well, you know, and speaking of that, Clemson,

Clemson didn't play a game last week either, and they somehow moved up from number 22 to number 21. So it's like, how are you going to do that on your week off? But I'm not going to complain because it's an Ais- You know what? Something about a buy week. You don't lose on a buy week. Bingo.

That's exactly right, Jackson. They didn't lose. And the media is, they miss it. And it's like, well, I guess we'll just, bump them up because other teams lost. And so here we go. Yeah. I was honestly thinking that if enough, I knew it was honestly unrealistic,

but I was like, if enough top 25 teams lose, Syracuse could have been inside the top 25 after the buy week. And they were close. They moved up from 28 to 27. And we didn't play it down. I'm like, what? But to Isaac's point, that's the, they didn't lose. You know, beat Georgia Tech.

You'll probably get in if that happens. Yeah, most like probably. No, we beat Georgia Tech already. We got Stanford Louisville this week. I'm sorry. That's right. I'm sorry. Stanford.

Well, see, I don't know then. Maybe, maybe. We need Georgia Tech to win because we need that win to look better. I say we as in Syracuse. The problem. And we're never going to get rid of preseason rankings, right? But it's all about perception of where we think teams are. Teams are still benefiting from beating Florida State, despite the fact that Florida

state's not good. And it's that whole thing. I'm appreciative of the CFP rankings waiting for a while. but even that is going to be, there's some rankings mixed into it. And so that's just the nature of the beast. And oh, by the way, predicting who teams are ahead of the season is more difficult now than ever because of the portal. And so it's just this whole mess mixed bag that's all messy. Yeah, Florida State was number 10 preseason.

And now they're 17th in the ACC. Still 17. Still at the bottom. It's still at the bottom. 17th. Started from the bottom. Now they're still at the bottom. It's the bottom.

I would appreciate. They're going to win a game. I started out this week. They got Cal. We have this conversation every week now and I love it. And Florida State's favorite again. They're favored against Cal, but they're favored in every game they played this season. What is that counted for?

No fan three. Favorite against Cal. No three to one, you know what you got to do to break this curse. You got to till you do right by the curse. everything you touch going to go wrong till you do right. I always have fun with you guys. Huge shout out to the squad. J.J. Jackson from Locked on Blue Devils.

Grayson Boone and Kenton Gibbs from Lockedon Wolfpack. Isaac Shade from Locked on Tar Heels, Jackson Holzer from Locked on Syracuse. I am Alex Dono from Locked on Cain. We'll see how the games play out this weekend. Then we'll talk to you again next week on another episode of the Squad right here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. Thank you.