Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC SQUAD - ACC Transfer Portal CHAOS | How the conference stacks up

Episode Date: April 23, 2026

Duke Blue Devils and North Carolina Tar Heels score big in the transfer portal while player retention shakes up ACC basketball power rankings. Can newcomers Patrick Ngongba and John Blackwell push Duke past its March hurdles? With Michael Malone taking over at UNC, questions swirl about Louisville’s true potential and Miami’s status as FanDuel’s runaway ACC football favorite. Florida State Seminoles hand the starting quarterback job to Ashton Daniels, prompting heated debate over Mike Norvell’s strategy and the program’s future. Grayson Singleton, Kenton Gibbs, and Brian Smith break down the ripple effects of portal defections at NC State, Pitt’s quiet rise, and whether Georgia Tech or Virginia can crash the Miami–SMU–Louisville party. Is ACC football headed for a three-horse race or a season full of chaos? Rivalries, star transfers, and bold predictions make this episode a must-listen. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Duke and North Carolina get good news in the transfer portal and in player retention. And Florida State's got a new starting quarterback as well. Let's talk about it. 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. Hang on, it could get loud, it could get heated, and it will definitely be fun.

Squad up, you're part of the ACC Squad. What's up, everybody? Welcome to this week's ACC Squad. My name's Grayson Singleton from Locked-on SMU, and we have a full house here for you today. We got Kenton Gibbs, Locked-on Wolfpack. We've got Brian Smith, Locked-on Florida State, JJ Jackson from Locked-on Blue Devils, and Grayson Boone, also from Locked on NC State as well. going on, gentlemen. How we feeling today?

I'm great as always, man. You know, I got a couple traders in our midst at NC State that we had to get up out to paint, but I'm all right, man. I'll be better when I know what's really going on at Florida State. I'll just leave it at that. Yeah, I mean, look,

the ACC continues to be running through Durham, whether we're talking football championships, basketball success this season, adding to the transfer portal. I mean, all's good at my world, I love JJ Jackson as a person, but I'm getting a little bit tired of that s eating grin every time we hop on here. Everything's going in the way of Duke.

I'm getting tired of. Hey, well, let's go ahead and start with that because both Duke and North Carolina got good news with the transfer portal today. And JJ, I want to give you the first crack at it. What's the bigger news to you? Is it Patrick Gungba coming back announcing that he is returning to school for another season? Or the fact that you just got John Black Wolf out of the transfer portal from. Wisconsin. You know, that's a fair question for you to ask, Grayson. I hate that it's an either or, because I want both answers to be an option with which is, they're both big deals that

Duke's got these guys a part of the squad going into the next season. Anytime you're able to return a post player like Patrick Gongba, who proved his value and his worth this past season, both on the offensive and defensive end. When he's back, he's going to be a focal point of what Duke wants to do. But then beyond that, you've got to find a primary score, a guy that can knock down shots from the outside. So why not and go find one of the best players in the entire transfer portal and John Blackwell, who averaged over 19 points a game at Wisconsin, shot nearly 40% from three point range, 86% from the free throw line. That's what we're looking for. Cam Boozer walks out the door, who's the next guy? They do have the number one

recruiting class as well that I'm not even highlighting here because of the retention that Duke was able to hold on to. And then John Scheier's like, well, I'd like to go get the best transfers available to. So basketball is always fun. I don't know why people ever complain about the sport, guys. Yeah, it's always fun for Duke until March madness comes around. And then all of a sudden. That's fair. That's fair. And the words of Denzel Washington, it's not fun anymore, is it? It's not fun. Yeah. It get real dicey around there. But no, I agree, JJ. I mean, Duke is crushing it once again in the portal. This is what they've done for quite some time. And honestly, you have

to give Shire his credit because as much as anybody could say, well, Duke is just that deal and they're always going to be Duke. We have seen in multiple sports, coaches who poorly adjusted to the changing nature of the world and their teams kind of got left behind. John Shire keeps this team on the cutting edge to the point where we do expect them there every time. And we're looking at Duke like, oh, you lost in the Final Four? What a disappointment. That's how well these rosters are consistently constructed. So as begrudgingly as I do it, I will give Duke their golf clap

and tell you, great job again. I appreciate it. And look, winning is hard and anything that you do. And I hate to be the spoiled Duke guy that comes on to the program and something like this. But I have to remind myself

and the Duke audience that, you know, we already had the best coach that's ever walked up and down the sideline and won Mr. Mike Shashefsky. And across 42 years, there were only five years that you stood on top of the sport as national champions. So 37 different times, you're not ultimately accomplishing that goal. And that's the unfortunate reality with one team winning each and every year.

So put yourself in the best position to go and win those six consecutive games in March. And I think that's what John Chires done once again. And let me drop this in too as well with Patrick Gungba announcing that he's going to come back. If you look at the way Duke has lost in the final four these last couple of years, It's been with freshman mistakes the game against Houston a couple of years ago. They can't get the ball in bounds with all of those young guys. And then you look at the elite eight loss this year to Yukon. What is it?

Caden Boozer is back here panicking, ends up with his past getting deflected, and we know what happens from there on out. So the fact that you're going to have a more veteran presence may not be a ball handler like Patrick Gungba, but the fact that you're going to have a veteran presence could serve to clean up some of those late game mistakes. that keeps dooming Duke late in the NCAA tournament. Spot on. I mean, obviously, when you've got the experience from these past losses, that's what you want to build on.

And Caden Boozer is going to improve and grow from this at the time. We're all talking here. Caleb Foster is expected to return for Duke. There might be a last into the transfer portal. But, yeah, it's going to be an embarrassment of riches for sure. We're just trying to counter what everyone else is doing in the ACC and make sure they remember, you know, where basketball runs through the conference.

Oh, yeah, we were going to forget. We were all going to forget if we got people like you reminded us. Exactly. Exactly. And for my in state, NC state guys, I mean, this has to be sort of a brutal transfer portal cycle and brutal offseason because Will Wade up and gets out of there just completely dumps NC state to go back to LSU. And then you see North Carolina cleaning up in the portal.

You see Duke cleaned up in the portal. How are my NCC? state guys taking all of this positivity coming out of the other two North Carolina schools right now? To be honest, we're used to it. I mean, this has been decades of the blue bloods running all over us. No, I mean, that's dramatic. But it is what it is. I think Justin Ganey and NC State, the new head coach, he's kind of working behind the scenes right now. Things are taking a little bit longer to develop. But if you get the right guys in the right places, then it's well worth the wait. But I do think NC State, you'll see some more names and commitments come out here pretty shortly. Obviously, we're

Recording this on Tuesday when Matt Abel has now committed to UNC, that one stings a bit. Young player four is just a freshman, five-star freshman. He had a lot of promise, and, you know, you would hope to keep a guy like that around your program because he's got a whole lot of talent. But to watch him now walk across the street, put on one of those blue colors, I wish I could wish him well, but obviously I can no longer do so. At two brute, et tu-brut, which also translates to you-too-brute. this because that's what

Julia Caesar said is he was stabbed in the back. And that's how I feel right now. I can't believe this. You know, we look at our head coach who told everybody in their mom, I'm not going anywhere. I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving. And you know, LSU fans had their fun trolling and all that.

But again, every single media person in the triangle, be it from me and Grayson, up to people who've been doing this for 30 years plus, been doing this since before most of us, everybody here, except Smitty, with all due respect, was alive, all had the same exact news and information, and he leaves us, and now Matt Abel goes to the Dirty Foot Club.

I cannot believe it. I can't, this is, you know, I'm not mad at Duke's success, especially in basketball. A, it is what it is, you know. The Dirty Football Club, they are who they are, whatever. But I'm going to tell you, I'm going to tell you, if you look across the landscape of, of guys defecting from NC State over to the dirty foot club. It don't work out too well for him generally. We've seen this time and time again in the transfer world.

It's happened with us, multiple football players. And what happened to him? Pick your man's up. What happened to your boy? What happened to your boy? And now we've got a guy who is one of our highest rated recruits in quite some time going over there as well. You know, it really is just an extra twisting of the knife

that has been the proverbial stabs in the back of NC State. this off seat. And so, so wait, so what you're saying, Kenton, is that are you praying on Matt Abel's downfall here? Is that what's going on? What? T. Grizzly wouldn't understand how hard I'm praying on this downfall. If you know, you know, this is, I have never. I have, you know, normally they say prayers up. Prayer is down, actually. Prayer is very hard down here. Because, again, I tell guys all the time, anybody who knows we know, I don't have a problem with players going to where it's best for them and I don't have a problem with player moving. I've been very firm about that. But I've told everybody, there's only two places an NC state basketball player can transfer

to, and I will not be happy for him this off-season. It's right down the street to the dirty foot club and down the back of the rules. That's it. That's it. That's the only places on earth you go. You could go back and watch the tape. I wish MJ Morris well. I wish Hollywood smothers well. I wish Noah Rogers well. I wish all these guys when they decide, hey, there was best, for me is not NC State. I wish them all well. But to go there, in the words of T.O., was I at odds with him? Because this is the only school we had odds with. I do want to interject that in recent years, we've had one, Mr. Dantres-Stiles and Van Allen Lubin pulled a reverse of this, that once were tar heels and then became wolf pack. So now I just, I think things are starting to even out, fellas,

that now some of the Wolfpack are switching over to the Tar Heel side. It's not the same. It's not the same. It's not just a further indictment on the current landscape of college sports right now. Rivalries to these kids, I mean, they kind of just don't matter anymore. The fans are going to be up in awe and white knuckle and over news like this. But, I mean, the kids, they're going to look for the best spot. A lot of times monetary aspects, yeah, that's nice.

But the blurred lines of a rivalry, you don't, it doesn't mean. that much. And it's not just an ACC thing. You see it in other conferences as well. But man, for us, I guess for Kenton and I to witness this and right in our face, it's, it's unforgivable. I mean, where I come from. Grayson, I'll give you, I'll give you another example of that too is Texas wide receiver Parker Livingston goes from Texas, crosses the Red River to Oklahoma. And something you never thought was going to be a possibility. And there were financials mixed

in there as well. We're reaching the end of the segment. But I did, I did, I did, want to bring this up too because North Carolina, maybe even bigger than Matt Abel, was able to sign Terrence Brown Jr., the shooting guard, transfer from Utah, averaged about 19 points a night, four assists per game as well, playmaker for a high scoring Utah team. All of a sudden, it looks like Michael Malone and Carolina, they've got a good thing going on in a time where we didn't really know where Carolina was going to go after they fired Hubert Davis. Either one of you guys can take this one. I'll simply say this. Last time, UNC went to the professional ranks to get a coach who won some Marines and all that good stuff, didn't work out too well for them.

In all seriousness, as much as like I joke about these things and whatnot, I seriously wanted them to, if I'm going to talk about from a standpoint of what's good for the ACC, and I know that this is hard for me to take my wolfpack tinted glasses off. I wanted them to get a Billy Donovan. I wanted them to get one of those college guys who had had immense success and was going to be. available because this Michael Lohyer, I mean, it just doesn't make a ton of sense. You know, you look at a guy who could not win with one of the greatest centers of all time and one of the greatest playoff risers we've seen in recent history and Jamal Murray and Yokic. It's just, it's, I'm a little bit confused by that, but we know Carolina's going to put that money into basketball.

They're going to get top players and all that. Now, will they develop them? will they use them properly? That is a different question. But will they get top players and recruits? Oh, absolutely. I will say this too. It almost seems like North Carolina panicked. It seemed as if Billy Donovan had said, hey, I'm going to finish out the season with Chicago. And now we know that he decided to step down. Dusty May said no thanks. Tommy Lloyd said no thanks. And they panicked and said, what is going to be the thing that can give a jolt to the program and give a jolt to the people who are in control with the finances? and they ended up with Michael Malone.

And I'm with you, Kenyon. I don't know. I don't know if this is going to work or not, quite frankly. We'll see. I mean, it's been a big addition for the Tar Heels after losing so many players with the Hubert Davis news. But I'll tell you what, these are nice transfer portal pieces that they're able to put in place. And I think that it's good for the ACC when North Carolina is back at a signature spot

within the sport of college basketball. I think that's really, really big for the country. conference, guys. Oh, is it, is it good for the conference? I do. I cannot agree. And this is why I tell y'all. And this is why I tell y'all, that is not a real rivalry. I grew up with Michigan, Ohio State. You would never hear in your life, you would never hear a Wolverine say, it's good for the sport of college football when the Buckeyes are good. Brian Smith, you down there with Alabama, Auburn. Would you ever hear somebody screaming Warren Eagle saying, it's good for college football when the tide is rolling. Oh, no.

No, only with Duke Carolina. It's good when they're good, because we're friends, we're pals. We take pictures of each other on a date, kind of nervous. That's who we are. Kent, I could turn the camera here to my Auburn University degree that's hanging on the wall, right, and speak with the Iron Bowl perspective to myself.

And yet I just, I like beating the rival at their best. Yes, it's fun from time to time to be able to laugh at, oh, look how lousy things are going. But it's also a really, really damn good feeling that you cherish when they think they're at the absolute top. And then they're reminded of who the true king is. As much as I can't stand, Will Wade, the one thing that that absolute Judas gave us at NC State is the largest win over the dirty foot club since 1980. So maybe even before that. That, my friends, is what I want. I don't want my enemies to be close.

As Conan the barbarians said, to crush one's enemies, that is what is good. One more thing. One more thing before we take a break here. What is that called the dirty what club? Dirty foot club. What is the tar hill? It is quite literally a foot that is dirty from tar being on it. It is a dirty foot.

I'm not going to lie. I had no idea. I was like, there could be like three different words that he is saying right there. I just wanted to know. I just wanted to know. Hey, we're just getting started on the ACC Squad show. Coming up next, Ashton Daniels is named the Florida State starting quarterback. Is Brian Smith excited about this or not so much?

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All right. Welcome back to the ACCC squad show for this week. Grayson Singleton. Kenton Gibbs, Brian Smith, J.J. Jackson, and Grayson Boone, a full house here with you today. And Brian, I'm coming straight to you, my friend, because Ashton Daniels is the starting quarterback for Florida State. The transfer from Auburn wins the QB job. Your reaction is, sir, what? surprised because they just had the post-spring press conference with Mike Norvel, and he not only said there were two quarterbacks competing, they've got a juco coming in this summer named Malachi Marshall. He brought him up that he was going to compete. That was like a week ago.

What suddenly changed? This is very weird. I'm okay. I wanted there to be one, but how do you go from we've got three to we've got one in a week? That makes no sense at all. To that end, I don't know what you guys think about that one because I'm still mesmerized. When I heard this few hours ago, I was like, I don't even know what to say. I got a podcast about this on my show tonight. It's just very odd. Yeah, I still don't know. Here are the positives that I see from this.

I know Ashton from the days when he was playing at Beaufort High School just outside Atlanta, great kids, kind of guy you can rally around. He can run the football. He will fit Norville's offense. And he'll get more reps now that he's the guy. But the receiver is all offseason. That's good. He's a leader.

people will follow him. That's great. And he's experienced he's played at Stanford and he's played at all right. All those are good. But the bad, Kevin Sperry, the other guy that he's competing with, are they going to be able to keep him around? There's always that question. If he's not going to get any action this fall, how's that going to go? He's pretty highly touted he's a kid out of Texas. That's important. Then that Malachi Marshall guy, he led Iowa Western Community College, the Juko National Title this last year. If he's not really going to be involved and he's going to be like the third team guy are they going to be going to keep him around and then of course what's to deal with this like long term like what what is the

objective of naming it now after you just completely backtracked i have no idea and i'm i'm sure kenton'll have some kind of sly comment about it but i can't come up with anything like it's really just befuddling to me i don't understand as much as i would like to say something sly i'm I am legitimately dumbfounded. Let me tell you why. When you think about what you get in adding Malachi, Malachi Marshall, you're getting the Juco player of the year, offensive player of the year, right? You're getting a dynamic guy.

He can do it all. He can do it through the air. He can do it on the ground. He can do it all, right? That's a long-term play if you're not going to start him right away. The number one or the offensive, the juco offensive player of the year who has three years out of his ability left, he ain't going nowhere for free. So if this is a win now move, why would you not take that money that you gave to him to be a third string quarterback and say, hey, I'm going to find another place to put this that will help us win today?

But Mike Norville doesn't have the type of job security to do this type of move. As a matter of fact, here's an interesting fun fact about Mike Norville. He is the first coach in college football history since this thing has been made by ESPN. to be at the top of the coach's hot seat to start the off season two years consecutively. He's the first one ever. Not normally a guy being in number one, that's the death nail coming down. Or if you do well enough to cool off that seat, you don't get number one next year. He's number one twice now.

And your thought is, and your thought is let me invest in three years from now. This is foolishness. Well, you're right. That's a great point. And I will bring that up on Locked on Seminoles, by the way. they needed more defensive help, like legitimately. I mean, Kent, you play D-1. You know how hard it is.

Play defense. It's a deal. You don't have dudes because you don't know where the ball's going. The defense player's got to chase all day. It's harder. And they came up short on defense. Now you've got at least one guy that you invested in that's 13 quarterback. That's a talented player, whether it ends up being Sparie or Marshall.

One has got to be 13. I mean, honestly, it just reeks of financial irresponsibility. and just a bad and just a bad team construction philosophy as well. JJ, Grayson, what y'all think? I've just thought that a decision's been made this quickly. I don't want to cut you off there, Grayson, but like, what? It's the middle of April.

Yeah, to me, it just kind of feels like reshuffling cards on the deck of the Titanic. I mean, I think we can all understand that Norvel is essentially like a dead man walking. Unforeseen, like a miracle happens down in Tallahassee, but I don't know. To Brian's point, to essentially announce that there will be a competition, you have another guy still coming up to be in the mix, but then to immediately contradict yourself and just name a guy who has some ACC familiarity, obviously, played for Stanford, but didn't exactly like the world on fire.

I know it's Stanford with all the respect, but I don't know. As you might be able to tell, my expectations of Florida State are slim and none. Go ahead, go ahead, Brian. Oh, okay. So the other piece to this, too, is that how did you figure this out so fast because if you look at the career trajectory of Ashton Daniels, right? Ashton Daniels at Auburn, we know, was not really given a fair chance to win that starting job because Auburn paid a crap load of money to go get Jackson Arnold, a former Gatorade

player of the year in the state of Texas over from Oklahoma. And that job was going to be Jackson Arnold. So we never really learned about Ashton Daniels because he was thrown in in emergency duty after the coach had already been fired and the season had gone down the toilet. So we didn't really get a fair shake of what Ashton Daniels could be. And in the case of Marshall being the Juko player of the year, you would think you would give him a fair shot because, oh, I don't know. Remember when Trinidad Chambliss came down from D2 and lit the world on fire? You would think that would allow some coaches to be like,

all right, let me at least see what I got here and give it some time before I make a decision. It just seems like such a rushed decision by a coach who already knows he's probably already out the door. That just goes right back to the other point. And he was very calm in his press conference and did a nice job. He articulated all of it. He brought up Malachi. What are you gaining by doing that? At that time, I had no problem with it.

But again, there's been multiple big outlets say this is going to be an announcement. Knowles 24-7 and on three and a whole bunch of places. So all those people aren't getting that information, almost simultaneous. It's coming. What is the difference? I mean, unless the players came to Norville, and I guess this is just a flare I'm throwing up in the air, hoping for some help here. But unless the players went to Norval and just said, hey, this is the guy, that's the only possibility I could see. And that's a Hail Mary.

That's the only one I can come up with. That's pretty unlikely. But if anybody else has got something far away. But you know what? even in that situation, I've said this time and time again, coaches are giving players a little bit too much leeway in some of these decisions. Because if that's the case, let's look at, you know, Notre Dame and then decided not to play in their bowl game and saying,

well, the captains decided that we didn't want to play. Sometimes you've got to step in as a coach and say, nah, dog, nah, because the reality is if you're bringing in a Jukal offensive player of the year, at this point, right, are you really comfortable with your quarterback situation. Look at Syracuse last year. Everybody said, oh, you've got Ricky Collins, and I can't remember who Ricky Collins was competing with at that time,

but they bought in. But they bought in, they bought in Steve Angelly towards the summer. He came in after spring because he was in Notre Dame last spring. That's my point. That's my point. Holland won the job and still lost it 10 seconds after spring was over. And that's my exact point. When you bring in, when you have a guy,

that you announce as the guy. Why are you bringing in an additional guy if you feel comfortable? Now, after watching Syracuse last year, hey, I get it. I get why you went comfortable with Ricky Collins, brother. The concept of a forward pass very hard for him, very hard.

I understand. But if this is your guy and you're good with him, why are you bringing in a highly touted quarterback to push him or to be in the room in this situation? When you know your time, you're on the clock. Do you know you have 30? Yes, 30 minutes. That's it, brother.

You better do something and do it now because I have a very sneak suspicion. Mike Norvelle is going to be pretending to be a head football coach by Halloween this year. I just have a very sneaky suspicion about that. Because, of course he will. He already undercut his own confidence. Exactly. They play my hand and then they get a buy week.

What are the odds that Mike Norvell is the coach after the buy when they play Clemson? Very low. Before we wrap up this segment, I'll just give some love to Ashton Daniels here, guys. This is good news for him. While it might be consuming for everybody at large, for Ashton Daniels specifically really good news for him. Second time this show,

I'm going to reference that Auburn University degree that's hanging on the wall over there. I am a little educated. But it was, you know, to go, like you guys said earlier, that going into last season, not expecting to be got Jackson Arnold's ahead of him in that locker and really having to fight for playing time throughout your years. Stanford and not having the biggest highlights of moments.

Florida State is viewed as still one of the football programs in this conference. And here out of spring, you've earned the right to be a starting quarterback there. I think that's really fun for him to be able to sit there and reflect and celebrate. Yeah, that's a good point. And again, he's a great kid. He's a really good dude. He's the kind of person you want your family around. Yeah, no doubt for sure.

Grayson Boone, last word. Best of luck to him. That's all I got. Actually, no, one more thing. Brian, what's your in percentage? What's your confidence level that Ashton Daniels will start week one? I would say 80 or 90. I mean, there's always a chance somebody gets banged up in fall camp.

Sure. If you're going to retract your three-man race statement can go with one, going into fall camp, he better the first time the coaches and everybody welcome in the media. that it'll be like once. He better be getting all the reps five feet in front of the cameras. Yeah. You got to back up your statement and he better look good that day. But outside of him getting hurt against New Mexico State, it's going to be him.

And then the only game it really matters. Grayson will be probably tuned into this. SMU goes to Tallahassee to probably beat Florida State. That's when the questions will happen. Let me ask you this, but to end the segment. How many quarterbacks does Florida State start in 2026? That is a great question. I'm going to go with two.

and I think Malachi will play at some point as well. Look, this is just the nature of football. Running quarterbacks get beat up. And Ashton's a strong kid, but he's probably going to get beat up. Kevin Sperry is a battering ram too. It wouldn't be shocking. And by the way, Malachi Marshall's listed at a buck 70. He needs to eat some peanut butter and jelly and probably kind of go on the diet

that myself and Kenton and some other guys are on for at least a little while. But that's ACC. football at a buck 70 you better be like an outside receiver and he is not playing quarterback so and by the way you still got a four-star quarterback in the 2026 class by the name of jaden o'neal in this whole quarterback room as well so should be some fun times in tallahassee Brian you got one more thing now just just prepare for anything that you expect to happen not to happen that is the Florida state way oh my goodness great times down there Florida state coming up next Fan duel is telling us that the ACC could shape up to be a three horse race.

Is Fan duel correct? And spoiler alert, it doesn't include Florida State. We'll round out the show talking about that next. All right, welcome back to the ACC squad show. We got Grayson. We got Kintin. We got Brian. We got JJ.

And we got Grayson as well. Is this the first time that we've had multiple people with the same name on the same squad show? Has this happened before? I think this might be number one. Yeah, locked on ACC. Definitely first. Yeah, this is the first. I'll say I confused myself reintroducing everybody.

Hey, Fandul has dropped their odds for the ACC Conference Championship game. And I want to throw all these by you because this is crazy. So Miami is the runaway favorite. That's no surprise at minus 140. SMU is the next shortest at plus 700. And then Louisville is the next shortest at plus 800. After you get by those three, the next shortest odds, is Clemson at plus 1,600, and then you get to pit at plus 1,700.

Guys, it looks like the ACC could be shaping up to be a three-horse race between Miami, SMU, and Louisville, and then there's everybody else. Grayson, take the first word on this one. Do you see anybody else crashing the party, or do you think it's going to come down to those three? I would say that sounds about right to me. I think Georgia Tech is an interesting name to keep in mind. I've been reading a little bit on Georgia Tech just randomly. There's some belief that there won't be much drop off.

I find that hard to believe, but I will be intrigued to see what happens down there in Atlanta. But the top three there, that sounds about right to me. No mistake that Miami is going to be the runaway favorite. Obviously, you add in Darien Mentsa, you add in a bunch more portal pieces and they retain a good bit of a national championship runner-up team. They're going to be expected to be right there. I think the shock for me is Clemson being, was that plus 1,600, you said? When's the last time Clemson has been that high for an ACC title odds? That's a new world we're living in.

But, no, I think the top three, there's really no surprise there. Maybe Pittsburgh might have something to say about that. I think they're an interesting bunch this year as well. I'd love to throw NC State in the mix, but, you know, six and a half is our win total. That's the Dave Doran special. So I'll keep my mouth shut for now, but I think the top three is about right. You know, the thing that I look at that is most interesting with this, you can kill the man, but not the idea. The reality of coastal chaos is still with us to this day.

When the Atlantic teams were running things, it was order around this thing. When Smitty's nose were running it, when James Winston and Dalvin Cook came to town, trust me, I played against those guys. It was order in the court. When Dabo Sweeney had Clemson as an absolute unit, there was order in the court. But now we got Duke and UVA in the football championship. What is that? What is that? Shire and Bennett ain't on the sidelines.

And you're telling me that we've got an ACC championship with those two. What's going on? What's going on? This is Miami is predicted to be the favorite, but y'all want to know a fun fact about Miami? since they've been in the ACC. Guess how many conference championships they have? Two Segg. Correct.

Everybody throwing up the O's as if we're Oregon fans. Yes, zero. So this is a situation that's very interesting to me. Miami obviously has a wonderful roster. I mean, everybody, I was concerned about their offensive line and everybody's saying that Jackson Canwell is an absolute stalwart. Like that freshman's got the goods to where he's getting fitted for his gold jacket in about 15 years if he stays healthy.

And then you look at the backfield where, of course, you're bringing back Fletcher and whatnot. You look at the Y receiver core. You got Barcate, who is Mintz's favorite target. Who was, sorry, JJ, Mensa's favorite target at Duke. And you've got Malacatoni returning as well. You've got a ton of talent on that team. So it makes sense that they're in the front. It's just they've never done it before.

And then even with the two teams behind them, SMU, Grayson, y'all got a ton of replace on defense. Your guy, I love Wakobi. I thought that he was one of the most underrated safeties in the nation. Obviously, he's going on to the NFL. And then Louisville, why does everybody believe in Keenholz all of a sudden?

What has everyone seen that I haven't? I don't get it. Come on now. You know, the man I've got to live football. It's because of the head coach. Fair, yeah, fair. If there's going to be one guy to turn around a quarterback in the Atlantic Coast Conference,

give me brawl. But that's the thing. All the Brabs guys before this had some starting experience to where, like, if you look at Plummer, he had his moments at Purdue where you said, oh, that's a starter. If you look at the last quarterback, they had the one from USC, he had his moment, Miller Moss, he had his moments where you said, oh, Miller Moss might be the next great Lincoln Riley quarterback.

He had his moments. Lincoln King Jose had no moments but handing the actual guy some water, giving a good signal on the sideline, giving the little dummy signal to make. sure that Stallions can't steal him. That was his moment. That was his only moment. So I'm a little confused as what everybody see. Yeah, no, I've talked about this on my show numerous times. I don't understand the hype around Louisville. And if you look at Louisville as well, sure they brought in Keenholz and sure they brought in some nice guys, Tyler Thompson from North Carolina,

the pass rush that SMU was going after in the portal. They brought in some good dudes. But you look at the dudes that they lost. I mean, the wide receivers. one of the running backs. When you look at their portal losses or their departures to the NFL, that team has been crippled. And you juncted pose that with the fact that you don't really know what you're going to get from Lincoln Keynes this year because we don't know what he is as a college player. I don't understand.

I don't understand the steam around Louisville other than Jeff Brom. To me, this is Miami and then SMU and maybe Louisville. but I really don't know. It's interesting. SMU and Louisville play each other week three, by the way, could determine who plays Miami in the conference championship. All depends on that bad Wi-Fi going to be tap dancing on your grave, Grayson. You better not.

You better tell your boys to get up for that game or else we're going to hear another. Cardinals. That was a bad Wi-Fi joke if people couldn't pick up. What was doing there? Let me add this. Those early season matchups are huge. Obviously, you want to put yourself in a good position. But we did see tons of chaos down the stretch last year that put Duke in Virginia in a position to even be able to play for the ACC championship game.

I noticed we haven't talked about the reigning ACC football champions much this segment for some reason. Duke plus 8,000. That's crazy the drop off that is there. And he believes in Walker Eaget. He believes in one great. I'm not going that far. Look, if I'm picking an ACC champ today, it's Miami because I believe in Derry and Mintsa, that dude is incredible.

It still hurts to this day in the 11th hour at the closing of the transfer portal that this guy's able to get in there, that Cooper Barcate's able to go as well. I mean, it really stings. I just want it for comparison's sake. if you look at these Fandle odds. I mentioned Duke 12th, the 12th best odds in an ACC conference. It's got seven, I mean, that's way down there that you're seeing the reigning champs. You look at the SEC, Texas won, or excuse me, Georgia won the league a year ago.

They've got the second best odds. Indiana won their conference. They've got the second best odds in the Big Ten. This is just insane that our conference, the champion, has fallen off this much, but it just goes to show you better pay for that quarter. because he has a whole lot to do with the success that you're going to have. I'll pose a question to the class here. How seriously are we taking Tony Elliott from last year to this year?

What do we make of Virginia in 2026? They brought in two quarterbacks. They brought in two quarterbacks. There's a possibility. I'm not going to dive into it. You got to give him credit last year. Sure. That offense was good.

Now, they didn't have a good running back. They had two good running backs, too. I don't, is either one of them back? I know Taylor's not back. Yeah, I know for a fact, Taylor's going. The main guy, I was like, this guy said NFL player. Holy crap. How's he at Virginia?

And then on top of that, their defense was at least competitive. It was a hell of a lot better and it had been because I thought they were going to win like four to six games last year and just be Virginia. Their offense came out and they were really good all year. Now, again, the quarterback situation's changed. But if they get anything out of that, they can at least be the flying the ointment for somebody. Maybe they beat one of the teams that they shouldn't. So their odds are 1700. They're right there with Pitt. Anything's possible. So let me ask

that question to everybody. And Kenyon, go first on this one. If somebody's going to upset the apple cart and break into that top three of Miami, SMU, and Louisville, who would be your pick to do that? Well, since JJ Jackson started the homerism, I'm going. Okay. We saw Lake Forest a few years ago. We saw Wade Forest a few years ago get to the ACC championship with an offense because there was no D at all. Sam Hartman showed up and every time he had the ball last, you were sitting there saying, damn it, we're going to lose. Him and that slow mesh, they're going to walk the ball down the field and we're going to lose this game. Well, there's a young man in Raleigh right now that returned to Rale by the name of Cedric Bailey that we love. Mr. C.J. Bailey is the type of quarterback

that you could absolutely see getting it done. And that doesn't even mention the type of wide-offs that he's got out wide. That doesn't even mention of Victor Snow from Buffalo, who we got to watch his fan duel. But that young man is as explosive as they come when he gets the ball in his end. We got a receiver, 6-4 running a 4-3 from Ab State. That's the type of stuff that we're talking about on the NC State's office, not to mention Duke Scott who went for 200 yards when he was asked to start into mop-up duty for Hollywood Smother.

So I'm not saying that NC State's going to be the team this year, but I'm just saying if you can give CJ Bailey the ball last in a couple games, you know, Dora can do something that he's never done before. And besides, really, last year we had an ACC championship, a champion that didn't win 10 games in the regular season. Dora could win an ACC championship without winning 10 games, as Duke showed you the blueprint for. How'd that feel, KG?

How'd that feel? The whole is it. It's a good move. Yeah, it did. It did. It did feel great. I'm not going to lie to you. It felt great. Give me Pittsburgh because they got Mason Hintrell back. I'll just take the safer out. For a freshman quarterback last year, he was impressive.

Yeah, I noticed that Duke beat Virginia in the football championship game. I know that Duke beat Virginia in the basketball championship game. No, I'm not going to go that far. Grayson, I like what you said earlier with Georgia Tech, guys. I'm convinced that whatever the Mendoza family says, becomes reality, right? Like we're going to see Fernando be the number one pick taken in the NFL draft here this week.

Alberto's now there in Atlanta. I'm buying the stock. I'm buying the hype. So if I got to pick somebody outside of that top three, again, my heart belongs to Derry and Mintsa and even still through this bad breakup that we've had, like I'm wanting the best for the guy. But if I have to pick someone outside of the top three,

the Mendoza's made me a believer, man. So I think Georgia Tech can get it done. I'll probably say Pitt. I like the returning quarterback. And it feels like a program that it may not be a steep assent, but it's going a little bit up. I honestly think Georgia Tech is going to take a step back this year. But Kenton, to your point, C.J. Bailey,

I think he's right there with Mason Heinzsche. In terms of that group that's behind the top three, they might have the best returning quarterback of all. of all of those, those teams that are looking to crash the party. Anybody got anything last minute before we get out of here for today? I'm going to say I like Pitt a lot. The only problem is all the sharks are gone. All the guys that made their lineback in court what it was these past couple of years,

they're all gone. And here's the thing. As a huge Tony Gibson believer who was like, oh, he can turn anybody into a good linebacker. He can turn any defense into a good defense. At some point in time, personnel matters. at some point in time, you know, you've got to get dudes in there and losing Rashine Biles to Texas, losing Kyle Louis to the NFL,

at some point in time, as much as I love Narduzzi, and anybody who knows who knows, I love Mesa Pat Narduzzi. That is a coach's coach right there. That is a football guy through and through. There comes a point in time where it's like, all right, show me something. You've got to have guys that have done it, and I just don't think they do on the defensive side of the ball, which feels very odd to say about a Narduzzi,

our Narduzi Coast team. That's fair. 100% agree. Well, gentlemen, this has been a lot of fun, man. Hopefully we can do this all again. Appreciate you guys tuning in today. Appreciate you guys hanging with me today. I'll see you, boys.

Take care. Absolutely. All right. Appreciate you guys all listening to us here today. It's the ACC Squad Show for Ken and Gibbs, Brian Smith, J.J. Jackson and Grayson Boone. I'm Grayson Singleton. Make sure you tap in with all the individual shows,

every day or clubs as well. They're in the link in all of our show notes. We'll see you guys next week. Take it easy, everybody.