Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC Openers REVEALED for 2025 football season | Who's starting 0-1??

Starting point is 00:00:00 The ACC has just released the conference openers for every team in the league. We'll tell you who's going to start their season 0 and 1. You are Locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Happy Friday. Shout out to the everydayers and thank you so much for making Locked on ACC, your first listen and your first watch today. We're available free wherever you get your podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:33 We're free on YouTube. We're part of the Lockdown Podcasts. podcast network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code. Locked on College for $20 off your first purchase. I am Alex Dono from Lockdown-Kaines. He is Kenton Gibbs from Lockedon Wolfpack.

Starting point is 00:00:50 We'll talk about the top week zero and week one matchups, most of those non-conference that were put out earlier this week. But on Friday afternoon, the ACC revealed the conference opener for every team. Let me see if I can share the screen. here for those watching on the YouTube version. Of course, we'll talk about these at length for those who are listening to the audio version. All right. So, and Kenton, obviously, some of these are redundant, but not all the teams have, you know,

Starting point is 00:01:20 the same openers as the team they're facing to open up their ACC schedule if that makes any sense. But I think it does. So the right from Kenton would say that. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. Yeah. So we'll start KG Boston College. is going to take on Stanford on the road, week three for their ACC opener.

Starting point is 00:01:41 Is BC starting their year one and no in the conference? I believe so. I think the Stanford is, you know, they're struck in a major way. And the thing about Stanford is they showed the glimpses. They have wins over two of the better schools in the conference last year in beating Louisville and Syracuse.

Starting point is 00:02:00 Two upper half of the conference teams, but other than that, not much to show for what they've been doing so far. So I think BC wins that one. And that's going to be, of course, the first full season for Grace and James. I think it'll be the last full season because he's senior this year, the new Boston College quarterback who took over late in the season when Thomas Castellanos was benched and ultimately hit the transfer portal. So, yeah, BC, BC has the opportunity to go out west and beat Stanford for their opener

Starting point is 00:02:27 week three in conference. A week five opener for the Cal Golden Bears, that's going to be beginning the post-Fernando Mendoza era out there in Cal and they're going to be on the road at Boston College. So BC is going to be their opener on the road. Is Cal starting out 0 and 1? The Boston College Eagle Fayful are going to be very excited by the two California teams did here on their schedule. I think that Cal loses this one.

Starting point is 00:02:55 Here's the thing, right? When you look at Kyle last year, all of the pieces they had, it was supposed to be the potential of, hey, they could do something special. They could upset the apple cart. be something really good. I think the perception of who they are versus who we thought they would be turned out to be extremely different. And so Cal was a letdown last year. I don't see a road to instant rebuild this year. I think they're going to struggle and I think they're going to lose this first home, this first ACC game on the road in Boston. By the way, the quarterback who is

Starting point is 00:03:29 projected, he's got to win the job at Cal, but the quarterback projected to win that starting job. Kenton, I kind of hope he doesn't win the starting job because I'm going to have to learn to pronounce this young man's name. Geron Kiway Saga Polutelli. That might be the starting quarterback for Boston. Is Chandler Rogers still there? I hope he wins the job. Got him. Come on, man.

Starting point is 00:03:53 Come on. You know the West Coast teams are always going to have a very deep foothold in the Samoa AAPI community. You know what I mean? So you're going to get some names like that sometimes. I'm just going to call him JKS. I'm going to go with the initials if he ends up winning that starting job there for Cal. The conference opener, this is a good one. The conference opener for Clemson is going to be on the road at Georgia Tech.

Starting point is 00:04:19 I mean, Kenton, you and I, I know we both agree that Clemson are the, they're the paper tigers this year. They should be the favorites, and I think they will be the favorites to win the ACC. But that's a tough opener. I mean, Georgia Tech, you know, they get their starting quarterback back. for another year. You know, it's hard to believe he's got another year of eligibility left, but he's back. That's not going to be an easy out for Kade Club Nick and Clemson.

Starting point is 00:04:44 I agree. The only thing that makes us a little bit easier is how close Atlanta is to Clemson, number one. And number two, the fact that Clemson's played in Atlanta multiple times. Like, that's not going to be a new situation for them in terms of, we don't know where anything is. We don't know where things are logistically, our team are. or ops people are going to have a hard time. But I will say this. That is the one that I'm looking at right now saying,

Starting point is 00:05:12 don't be surprised if we see an upset the most. But I think Clemson takes it. But don't be surprised. We'll see if Haynes King's got something for them in that, that ACC opener for Clemson. All right. So for the Duke Blue Devils, this one's near and dear to your heart.

Starting point is 00:05:29 Duke's ACC football opener is going to be week four at home against NC State. I love NC State's quarterback, C.J. Bailey. I know I know NC State lost a lot of players to the portal on the defensive side of the football. Kenton, you know, Duke, there's some turnover there. We'll see how Darian Mensa, how he starts his first three games before he takes on NC State. But is NC State going to make Duke start out 0 and 1 in the conference? I struggle to call this one. I believe that Duke wins it, though. And let me tell you why. I think this NC State team is set up in a way that their only path to having

Starting point is 00:06:07 a lot of success this season. Every game is the old Big 12 style defense is optional. And if that is the style of game, I think NC State is in very good territory. The only problem is nobody, and I mean nobody in the ACC disguises the defense quite like

Starting point is 00:06:24 Danny Diaz. And if that's the case, we could see another offensive disaster class like NC State saw against Duke last year. Duke starts off in the conference one. And no, luckily that's not NC State's first game, so they'll start off. Right. Yeah. All right. So moving on, how about Florida State? They can only get better from their two and ten season, one conference win in 2024. The Seminoles are going to open up their

Starting point is 00:06:49 conference schedule on the road. That'll be week five at the Virginia Cavaliers. I don't know what to make of Virginia this coming season, Kenton. I certainly don't know what to make a Florida state, but that's going to be the start of the Thomas Castellanos era in conference. play for them. Of course, he's an ACC veteran having played at Boston College. How much better is Florida State's defense? Or sorry, how much better is Florida State's offensive line and their defense, but especially their offensive line going to be? And are the Seminoles going to start one and O in ACC play? Hey, Donald, I need to look me in my eyes and I said it's okay. I know you're going going to get excited by this. Florida State ain't learned their lesson yet. They ain't learned

Starting point is 00:07:25 their lesson to stop scheduling Bama when your team is on the precipice of like being destroyed or becoming good. They scheduled their first game. against Alabama where I believe they're going to get their teeth kicked in next year. Now, when that happens, they're going to start to see an unraveling of that team very early. And I don't think they win this game at UVA. I think the who's pull this one off. And I think that the no start off O and 1 in conference. I like that.

Starting point is 00:07:57 How about that? A hot take to start the way here. Sevenals are starting O and 1 in ACC play. And hopefully they start O and 2. because we'll talk about in a few minutes who they play in their second conference game. We already talked about Georgia Tech versus Clemson. That is the ACC opener for both of those teams. It is for Georgia Tech as well.

Starting point is 00:08:15 Louisville is going to be taking on Pitt. You know, Louisville is going to be breaking in a new starting quarterback, Miller Moss, who of course has some experience coming out of USC, and their coach, Brom, is a quarterback whisperer. But it's going to be the same quarterback for Pitt. Eli Holstein is going to be back. the game's going to be in Pittsburgh. And listen, Kenton, last year, Pitt started red hot.

Starting point is 00:08:38 They won their first seven games before losing all the rest. Are they going to start out hot against this again this year? You know, this is such an interesting game because I like both of these teams a lot. However, I think that that ending for Pitt last year sucked a lot of the air out of that team. And I think that that carries over into this year as opposed to a Louisville team that by and large finish better. I'm not saying they finished great because losing the Stanford late in the season was abysmal, but they finished better. They also had an upset of Clemson late in the year. So I think that, you know, for all that Pitt brings in their ability to stop the run,

Starting point is 00:09:14 they've got to stop two of the most prolific backs in the conference in Louisville. Not to mention they're going to have themselves a quarterback because Louisville always finds a way to throw the ball decently well. I've got Louisville winning this one against Pitt starting off one and all in conference. Yeah, I think that's fair. And obviously that game is happening week five, so we're going to get a good look at both of those teams before that game. But I would imagine if you're making odds for that right now, I would think Louisville would probably be favored by more than a field goal. Even on the road, there may be five and a half points, something like that. When we come back, you're going to have Miami's conference opener is going to be their biggest rivalry game of the year.

Starting point is 00:09:56 We'll have NC State's conference opener and all the others for you as well. You want to keep it locked right here, my friends. Alex Dono alongside Kenton Gibbs. We're only getting started on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC. Oh, do you know we're only getting started with the GameTime app? Guys, GameTime is the only ticket app that Kenton and I use. We're getting the best deals, the best prices, the best features on the GameTime app. I recently got hockey tickets on Game Time, concert tickets for a big show coming up this summer.

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Starting point is 00:10:54 Guys, I love getting a panoramic view from my seat before I buy on-time ticket delivery, lowest price guarantee. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account and use code, locked on college for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code, locked on college, all one word for $20 off.

Starting point is 00:11:15 Download game time today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Thank you so much for making Locked on ACCC, your first listen and your first watch today. For your next listen, make sure you check out our other shows. Kent and Gibbs and Grace and Boone do an awesome job on Locked on Wolfpack. I host Locked on Cains, so we keep you updated. everything NC State on everything Miami.

Starting point is 00:11:39 And Kenton, for Miami, they get the big grudge match. And Florida State will be looking for a little payback after falling to Miami. Florida State lost almost everybody last year. But they'll be looking for some payback because they're going to host the Miami Hurricanes, week six, Saturday, October 4th. It's not going to be Florida State's ACC opener, but it will be Miami's. So that'll be our first and, well, only look at Carson Beck. in a Miami uniform going up against the Seminels.

Starting point is 00:12:10 That one should be interesting. Oh, this one here is going to be the beginning of Carson Beck's Heisman campaign. I'm lying. I'm a liar. That's not a thing. There is no such thing as a... It won't be the beginning. He's already going to be favored for the Heisman by week six.

Starting point is 00:12:26 Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure, Dono. I'm a thousand percent sure of that one. No, but in all seriousness, I think that Miami rose in this one. I don't get Florida State much of a chance here. But here is the thing, though, Florida State fans. I really do believe that after taking some lumps and after kind of getting beat down a little bit, they're going to circle the wagons after this game. I really

Starting point is 00:12:46 and truly believe. Yeah. Yeah. So we got, we got Miami going one and oh to start their ACC schedule, which I guess would put Florida State at 0 and 2 because Kenton had them losing to Virginia in their opener. This one's going to be, Kenton, I cannot wait. Also on week six, so the same day as Miami, Florida State, you're going to have the, ACC opener for Bill Belichick. And it's a tough one. He's going to be taking on at home, at least, the Clemson Tigers. So you talk about a baptism by fire for old Belichick. And who knows, it might be his one and only ACC Cs and his head coach of the Tar Heels. He's going to get a good one going up against Davos-Sweeney. I don't know, I feel like I'm going to be rooting for Clemson

Starting point is 00:13:32 in that one. Is North Carolina, are they starting one and O in conference schedule, Kent? Who's their quarterback, Donald? Who's going to be a quarterback? Who's the guy? You know, I kept hearing all this. I kept hearing all this talk about, oh, they're going to pay queen yours. They're going to pay queen yours. Quick question, Donald.

Starting point is 00:13:53 How long did queen ewers have to answer the board? He's, yeah, he's not. He's already locked into the NFL draft now. Huh. That's interesting. He's not going there. So who's going to be your quarterback? Yeah, this obviously.

Starting point is 00:14:07 ain't going to go well. You know, I feel like we've already learned this lesson with Bill Belichick, but apparently we have to learn again. It's never about your exes and your O's. It's about your jimmies and your Joe's. And if none of your jimmies are named Thomas Patrick Brady, it's going to be a tough time. You're not going to have a great time if you're Bill Belichick. Let me out. Let me pull the old schedule up there for those watching the YouTube again. So that'll be, yeah, Bill Belichick is going to open up his ACC schedule against Clemson. Your North Carolina State Wolfpack, Kenton, they will be, we already mentioned them for somebody else's ACC opener, but their ACC opener, your ACC opener is going to be at Wake Forest on September 11th, week three. NC State, they're starting to want to know in the conference, right?

Starting point is 00:14:55 They should. They ought to. No, but seriously, I think this is the Wake Forest team. Year one with the new coach, obviously, lots of turn. over lots of change happening there. If NC State has any hopes of being anything decent, you have to win this game. This is one of your must-win games.

Starting point is 00:15:16 And by the way, for anybody thinking I'm saying that because I'm wearing my Wolfpack colored glasses, my bold prediction on the Wolfpack season on Locked-on Wolfpack was that they're going to win five or less games or eight or more. So it's an equal chance of either one of those things happening. But I highly doubt that they'll be exactly in that six, seven games. range. I think that this year is going to be different one way or the other. I got that feeling, but I don't know which way. I want NC State to win this game. They should win this game,

Starting point is 00:15:45 but we'll see. We already mentioned because Pitt's conference opener, it's the same game we talked about with Louisville. So Pitt's going to be hosting Louisville, but we both pick the Cardinals over the Pitt Panthers. So the Panthers are going to start 0 and 1. Not, well, not necessarily an easy conference opener for SMU, although we know who SMU's quarterback is going to be, Kevin Jennings. And if not, he'll have, you know, Tyler Van Dyke holding a clipboard there, maybe ready to come in if needed. I don't know who the quarterback is going to be for Syracuse, though, Kent.

Starting point is 00:16:20 And they're going to have a competition there. Kyle McCord, he briefly tried to challenge for an extra year of eligibility, but he ended up dropping his appeal and declaring for the NFL draft. But, you know, Pitt gave almost everyone headaches this past season, Kenton, and they had a nine-win season. They were knocking on the door of being an ACC championship contender. So for SMU, the defending ACC runner-ups, I guess that's not a thing you defend. But the team who came in second place last year, they're not going to have an easy conference opener against the orange.

Starting point is 00:16:52 Well, as my boy Jimmy Phillips would say, they're just the ACC regular season champs. And I love, love, love what Fran Brown is building up there in Syracuse. However, I think that, you know, this game is going to come down to better quarterback. And I think that you're looking at an unproven commodity versus Kevin Jennings. So I think he'll clean up some of those areas. I think he'll learn, hey, sometimes being the hero that saves the day is about not playing hero ball. Sometimes that moment of saying, you know what, this place dead, throw it away, burn it, is what's going to get me where I'm.

Starting point is 00:17:28 need to be. And I think that they'll, they'll beat Syracuse by a slim margin here. Because on top of Syracuse losing Calamacore, they're also losing massive chunks of production out of that receiving core. And I believe LeQuent Allen is going to, or am I incorrect there? Yeah, I believe so. Yeah. So you're losing massive swaths of offensive production. The defense is the defense. The mob has been good for years, but I really do think that they'll, you know, there'll be a drop off from last year. And I think SMU wins this one that starts off one and all in conference. I like it. We already talked about Stanford Boston College. That's the ACC opener for both. We have A. We have BC winning that one on the road. Now for Syracuse, their

Starting point is 00:18:16 ACC opener is going to be at Clemson on week four. I'm going to pick Clemson to win that game, Kenton again. I think that's the odds on favor to win the ACC this year. stability and continuity with their quarterback, their offensive coordinator, the head coach, all being back from last year. They have a new defensive coordinator to fix some of those problem areas. Clemson's going to win that game. Yeah, absolutely. I don't think that there will be much to talk about in terms of this game because, again, I think Syracuse had a great year last year. And I'm not saying that was lightning in a bottle. And, you know, Coach Fran Brown can't repeat that. I'm not saying that. What I am saying is Clemson is going to be a bus on this year.

Starting point is 00:18:58 Clemson is going to be hard as hell to beat next year. And I just don't think that Syracuse has the horses in the stable to get a win there. All right. So the last ones we have, Virginia is going to open their ACCC schedule at home versus Stanford. Do we have the Cavs starting one and O in conference? Yeah, I think so. I think so, again, I think Stanford is just in a bad way right now football-wise. And I think UVA, while they're not in a great way, while they're not necessarily going to be dominant this year,

Starting point is 00:19:31 I think that they do at least start off pretty hot based on who they're going to be seeing early in conference. We already talked about Wake Forest. It's going to be home against NC State where NC State should win that game, probably will win that game. But Virginia Tech is also going to open their conference schedule at NC State. Virginia Tech was one of the big enigmas from last year. It was like close but no cigar. was the storyline for them in so many big games, Kenton. They played well at times,

Starting point is 00:20:00 although I thought Kyron's underperform based on how good he was in 2023. So what are you expecting when you guys are going to be hosting Week 5 Virginia Tech for Votex ACC opener? You know, every time there's a player that's enigmatic up, down all over the place, and you know this better than anybody with the Air King at Miami, all of a sudden they play NC State, and they become superstars. Kiron Jones is going to have himself a night where he cannot miss.

Starting point is 00:20:32 He's going to put every throw in the bucket. He's going to make every read properly. And when he pulls it down, if you blink the wrong way, if you look and squint your eyes, that one will start to look like a seven, and he'll look like Michael Vicka back in the day. I think that the Hokie start off one and knowing conference against NC State. Coming up next, so Ohio State, they are national champs,

Starting point is 00:20:55 But could they be about to lose one or more of their top wide outs, potentially to the ACC? You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC. Thank you for making us locked on ACC, your first listen and your first watch today. Make sure for your next listen, you check out Lockdown College football. Spencer McLaughlin does an incredible job taking you around. And I know even though the season is over, you guys know there's always something to talk about. Offseason moves.

Starting point is 00:21:30 transfer portal. In fact, Kenton, this may be something that Spencer is talking about this week. So on three sports, on three are a bunch of snitches, Kenton, because every time there's someone who's allegedly being tampered with on three is like unnamed schools or making offers to players that are currently on this, that, and the other. I've seen it happen multiple times over the past month. But this is, so according to on three, Jeremiah Smith, who, you know, one of the players in the country and carnell tate another excellent wide receiver at ohio state are are both getting big money seven figure nil offers and from unnamed schools and in the case of jeremiah smith on three reported a he's received a four and a half million dollar offer from an unnamed school and i

Starting point is 00:22:22 guarantee you there's more than one school that's trying to make some kind of a backdoor deal for Jeremiah Smith. And, you know, listen, I, you know, could be, you think about teams with, with big pockets. It could be somebody like Oregon with the Phil Knight Nike money. Florida have been, you know, reportedly big NIL spenders because they're using the Billy Napier buyout money instead of buying him out. They're just spending money on players and I commend them for it. And obviously Miami is going to come up with Jeremiah Smith. He's South Floridian played at Shamanad Madonna. He's got multiple high school teammates who were on Miami, you know, Miami tried to get him out of high school.

Starting point is 00:22:58 So ultimately, Kenton, I expect Jeremiah is going to stay at Ohio State, but there's some schools out there who may be giving him a lot to think about. Four and a half million damn things to think about is a whole lot to think about. It's a lot of things to think about. I'm going to tell you this. I've said this time and time again, and I stand by this, right? You go to college to get a good job. You get a good job to get the money.

Starting point is 00:23:24 Now, college athletes have figured out how to circumvent this thing a little bit because you don't need to go pro to get the money anymore. Jeremiah Smith, if I was you laid, brother, you're going into the soil. Good for you. Good for you. But let me tell you something. Me? Oh, baby, I'll be a mercenary. At that pay rate, at that amount there, hey, listen, Ryan, it's been nice.

Starting point is 00:23:51 It's been good. It's been fun. I ain't going to say nothing about who's offering me. what, but yesterday's price is not today's price. The only thing I'll say about ACC teams being involved with this, I don't think anybody can, you know, Brian Smith of Locked-on Seminoles talk about the fact that four and a half is not the biggest deal that he's heard. And I'm going to tell you something.

Starting point is 00:24:13 I trust that. I trust that guy a lot when it comes to recruit. If somebody's offering him more than four and a half, I'm sure it's not a team in ACC because most of us do not have that type of scrella laying around to pay to star quarterbacks, let alone the receiver where it's like, hey, we got to pay you and the guy getting you the ball and the guy's protecting the guy getting you the ball. I don't think that was your case. I can't, you know, and obviously I don't know JJ, Jeremiah personally, but, you know, being in South Florida, I know a lot of people who know him and the family. I don't, I'm not expecting him to leave

Starting point is 00:24:52 OSU and I think the Buckeyes will do whatever they can to keep him there, even if that means giving him an NIL race, because he's a cornerstone of that program right now. And they understand what a commodity is. I think for someone like Carnell Tate, who's very good, but not on the JJ level, maybe it's more likely that he, he's not getting $4.5 million. He's getting maybe numbers that are north of a million, not four and a half million, where maybe Carnell, you know, wants to become a number one somewhere else, because that's obviously not going to happen in Columbus. So I think that might be more likely. I'm not expecting Jeremiah to move.

Starting point is 00:25:25 And he actually, you know, he did comment. Somebody tagged him in an ex post today that said, ain't going to happen. That family is too loyal. Good try, though. And Jeremiah, quote, tweeted it with the 100% emoji. Like he's, you know, he's letting people know he's sticking with Ohio State. So ultimately, I think that's going to end up being the move.

Starting point is 00:25:43 But listen, if we could get him in the ACC, I would love it. Let me tell you something. Somebody once asked me, Kenton, I can't remember what pie. I was on, I believe it was an Alabama podcast. And they asked me, Ken, if somebody paid you $3 million a year over the next five years, would you make a UNC exclusive podcast rooting for only UNC? I said $3 million a year over the next five years. I burn every damn thing I own that's red or NC state related.

Starting point is 00:26:14 Do you understand me? I listen. I love me, I hate the dirty foot club. But you know what I like more than that? Hey, mom, you're done working. go ahead you're you're done go ahead come on you ain't never got to work again you know what i mean telling my nephews and nieces hey all your college is paying for uncle king's got it don't worry about it we we got that out the way right now so you know good on jeremiah smith and i'm sure ohio state's

Starting point is 00:26:36 gonna do right by it you know what i mean yeah they're gonna do right by him yeah i'm sure they're not gonna be like hey turned it down now we're gonna give you half of me obviously that's not going to be the case they're gonna give them something that's close to that um but you know like you said, it'd be great to have me in the ACC. I'd love that. I'd absolutely adore having that young man in ACC because he is a hell of five ballplay. No doubt about that. By the way, I know I know we didn't get to top week zero and week one matchups. We'll get to that next time on Locked on ACC. Make sure you check out Kenton at TGIF underscore Kenton on X. Check me out at Lockdown Canes. And make sure you hit the thumbs up button, like and subscribe. And we'll talk to you

Starting point is 00:27:16 next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC, part of the awesome Lockdown Podcast. Your team every day.

Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC Openers REVEALED for 2025 football season | Who's starting 0-1??

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