Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC SQUAD - Can Florida State UPSET Miami Hurricanes, Mario Cristobal?

Episode Date: October 24, 2024

Welcome back to ACC Squad, your premier roundtable podcast for all things Atlantic Coast Conference! In our Week 9 preview episode, hosted by Alex Donno from Locked On ACC, we’re gearing up for an action-packed weekend of ACC football with in-depth analysis, key matchups, and expert predictions. Join us as we break down the exciting games on the horizon and discuss the implications for each team’s season. 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 is essential for getting ready for game day! In This Episode: Comprehensive previews of Week 9’s crucial matchups Breakdown of team strategies and player performances Predictions from Locked On podcast hosts on game outcomes Spotlight on key players to watch this week Don’t forget to subscribe to ACC Squad and click the notification bell for the latest updates and in-depth coverage of ACC football. We want to hear from you—share your thoughts in the comments below and tell us which matchups you’re most excited about! #ACCSquad #ACCFootball #LockedOnACC #Week9Preview #ACC2024 #FootballPredictions #BostonCollegeEagles #ClemsonTigers #DukeBlueDevils #FloridaStateSeminoles #LouisvilleCardinals #MiamiHurricanes #NCStateWolfpack #NorthCarolinaTarHeels #SyracuseOrange #CaliforniaGoldenBears #GeorgiaTechYellowJackets #PittsburghPanthers #SMUMustangs #StanfordCardinal #VirginiaCavaliers #VirginiaTechHokies #WakeForestDemonDeacons Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Cam Ward had another big game. Miami stays unbeaten. They've got competition in the conference. Let's assemble the squad. You're talking ball with the ACCC 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. will definitely be fun. Squad up, you're part of the ACCC squad. Heading it a week nine of the college football schedule. This is the ACCC Squad. Today's episode is brought to you by Fanduil. Place your first $5 bet and you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed. Visit fanduel.com to get started. On this episode, we have Jackson Hulzer from locked on Syracuse, big game for Syracuse coming up on Thursday night.

And we've got a couple of smiling faces down there, Grace and Boone and Kenton, Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack because they found a comeback dub and they found their quarterback. I will say, gentlemen, I'll buy the first round this time out. I'm a little bit disappointed that we don't have Dalton Pence in here from Locked on Louisville because I wanted to be able to have a face to face with him after Miami's dub. And also, J.J. Jackson from Locked on Duke because Blue Devils pulled off their first ever victory against Florida State last weekend. But, you know, guys, as we see the, for what it's working, The Heisman Trophy race is coming a little bit more clearly.

It's Cam Ward, quarterback of Miami and Ashton Genti, who's putting up video game numbers at running back. They're at the top of the odds at plus 200 right now on Fanduel. And you needed every single one of Cam Ward's four touchdown passes against Louisville, because that game, that game was a shootout. It was a barn burner. Miami's defense has taken years off my life. but I don't know who's going to stop them from scoring because it doesn't seem like they can be stopped right now. I mean, you've got a little bit of everything in that offense.

You have, Mario Cristobal has established his style with those two big backs. Martinez and Fletcher, you just think, oh, God, I just got done tackling one 230-pound guy. Now they're going to bring in a fast guy. Wrong answer forehead. You got another six-foot tall 200-pound, 220-pound back coming down your head.

Fletcher. So they're phenomenal offensively. You talk about a guy who keeps rewriting the record books at Miami in terms of Xavier Restrepo, who is second leading the ACC in yards, second in ACC and touchdowns and all that. And O'Royo has been a revelation at tight end to everybody outside of Coral Gables. Within Coral Gables, y'all knew what he was, but everybody else was. Who's this kid? Where did he come from? And so you have a ton of things on that offense, but that defense couldn't stop us. I mean, for Christ's saying, you know, I think Jackson Hosier might get a little loose on those corners.

I'm sorry. I'm a good slot receiver. I'm sneaky. That's what I'm saying. You know, you've got the set of speed. He plays the game the right way, all that good stuff. But in all seriousness, you understand why I'm rightfully concerned about this team in terms of play.

I think regular season, they'll be fine. They'll do enough to get to the ACC championship. But boy, I'll tell you, that defense, like you said, they take years off of your life. they take a lot of happiness away from people who like to see tough, hard-nosed defensive games. If I may, I'll buy around for the state of college football right now. Every week, just delivering on the biggest of stages. And ACC specifically, this Miami-Louville game, you know,

it's the epitome of what we love the most about college football. A high-scoring game, nobody can stop each other. You're texting your buddy's Miami question mark. Oh, wait, Louisville question mark? Who's going to come out with this game? It was electric. And that's so much fun this time of year. So, yeah, I mean, Dono, you have a ton to be excited about with the offense.

The defense, I know maybe you don't have much hair left, but if you would, it'd get even grayer than it currently is. It's, I mean, that defense is probably going to be make or break for Miami in terms of how the rest of the season is going to go. Louisville, I expected them to show up, and they did, but just couldn't quite match punch for punch. What a game, though, for the ACC. Yeah, I expected it.

Sorry, Jackson, cut you off. I was expecting it to be a shootout. I wasn't expecting it to be a combined 97 point. And it was defense optional on both sides because obviously Louisville didn't do a whole lot of that either. So here's my thing with the whole defense thing. We have to do, we do have to kind of remember it's college football, right? Like, defense is now optional. This is why across all of college football.

So, yeah, I mean, ideally, if you're Miami, you don't want to give up 45 points to Louisville. or 38 points to Cal or 34 points to Virginia Tech. But at the end of the day, nobody's playing defense across college football. And quite frankly, even the best defenses in college football, I don't think can stop the Miami offense to begin with. So when it comes down to Miami and their aspirations, I mean, I'm not too worried about their defense

because, honestly, I don't think anyone plays defense regardless. My brother or Christ, are you okay? Have you watched football? He said it himself. You can't stop the high-powered offenses in college. You can't do it. You can't stop them, but you can at least hope to contain them. I mean, damn, did the defense is always anybody in Louisville?

Fine, contain them, like hold them to 30? 30, yes. But to me, that's not playing defense. If your goal is to hold every team to 30 points, like, that's not defense. And here's my only thing about that. If you say whole teams to 30 is defense, Miami still has not played defense in three games. They still have had every single game against a Power 5 team that will have their head coach

because Florida, I'm still convinced Billy's going to get fired. I don't care what nobody said about Lagway and then potentially getting to sick. That man is gone, okay? Every other Power 5 team, let's see, or Power 4 team, you allow 34 to Virginia Tech, 38 to Cal, 45 against Louisville. That's not defense. That's defense. have not seen anything this atrocious in terms of from a top team since what west virginia

when pat white was there like you can't live like this donno if florida state if they do bad against florida state yeah if if if like hangs like 30 or 40 on them like then we can really have a conversation like then that that that's an issue if you're letting up that but chances are it's going to be a get right game for miami anyway they'll let up like seven points or 10 points to florida state they'll win 56 to 10 and we won't have to be worried about their defense for at least a week yeah because i i think i think the x factor there would be the rivalry factor and if like if there ever was a game when florida state would show up this should be the one at the same time i've watched a lot of florida state football this year they've had shocking trouble running the football because

they were supposed to be one of the best rushing teams in the country they've struggled to protect their quarterback. Obviously, they've had a quarterback crisis now where they're relying on some combination of Brock Glenn or Luke Cromen Hawk. And when they had DJ Weongla Lele, he was even worse than the other two guys who are playing now. So I get what you're saying. You never know. College football is a weird sport. And again, it would not surprise me if this is the game when Florida State stops having as many catastrophic drops, catastrophic bad snaps, pick sixes. Maybe they play their best game this week. Even if they're at their best.

Look, they haven't scored 20 points in the game this season. That's how bad for the opener. The opener, they scored 21 then since then. My apologies. They did put up one more point than I said. They put up 21 in the opener and have not done it since. Even in the game they won, they won 14 to 9. Yeah.

They're actually a team that plays relatively decent defense. They're not going to be able to hold down Miami. No. They're not going to hold them down at all. It's going to be, I think at minimum, Miami's going to get 35, like minimum 35. They're probably going to get into the 40s, maybe even the 50s. Is Florida State going to crack 20? Probably not.

I get the rivalry factor, but I mean, like, come on. Come on. I'm not worried about their defense this week. But that's the problem. And hold on, KG, you're sticking with the Florida State offense for a second. They just got beat by Duke, despite Duke having 180 yards of total. It's all the offense they needed. 180 yards.

And that's what I was just about to say. I'm not concerned about to me, the Florida State game means nothing, means less than nothing aside from the rivalry aspect. When we look at who these teams actually are, if Miami has aspirations of not just playoff, but being serious in the playoff, right? Which, which by the way, I also want to acknowledge this Miami team has been a lot more phenomenal than we could have imagined,

because now we're not just talking about are they in the playoff? We all have them as a firm playoff lock, right? I think at this point we can all agree that, correct? They would have to suffer something catastrophic, but chances are they're going to be in. Exactly. So we all have them as a lot. So congratulations to them there. So let me not say this next part without saying, congratulations on having a season that has been so divine so far that we have to say,

hey, this team playoff lock. But with that in mind, when expectations reset in real time, we can't just do it in a negative way where it's like, oh, we thought you were going to be good at yourself. Therefore, expectations are dropping a lot and we'll be happy with less. It also works in the opposite. Miami has played so well this season offensively. They play well enough as a team this season that damage you need to stop somebody.

And stopping Florida State, Florida State stops themselves. They can play zero on 11 ball, and I'm not sure they can put up 40 points. You understand? They can play quite literally seven on seven against high schoolers, and I'm not sure if they'd be able to put up 40. So with that in mind, if I see this Florida State offense put up points, that's atrocious. But even if Miami's defense looks just unblockable, unbearable,

just a swarming force, I don't give a damn. Everybody's look like that against Florida State. of the top 12 teams though of the top to let's like look at the AP top 25 are there any teams in that top 25 you actually think can like really stop miami's offense though like is there anyone really there if you talk about purely stopping no no but if you talk about hey we can hold you to enough to where you got to hold our guys to 35 or less there are multiple teams like they can do that absolutely not a doubt in my mind Fair enough. Fair enough. Well, we got some big games to talk about, including one that is taking place tonight with the fighting Jackson Holzers

who have an opportunity to give Pittsburgh, Pitt, 6 and O. Jackson has an opportunity to give Pitt their first loss tonight. You guys want to keep it locked right here. We got the squad. I'm Alex Dono from Locked on Cains. We got Jackson from Locked on Syracuse. We got the Wolfpack double team today.

We got Kent and Gibbs and Grace and Boone. We continue right here. on the Lockdown Podcast Network. Folks, there's some big spreads this weekend. So you want to be checking out these numbers at Fandul, America's number one sportsbook. Miami three touchdown favorites at home against Florida State, Virginia Tech, double-digit favorites at home against Georgia Tech. We've got Duke, 11.5 point underdogs at home against SMU this week.

You want to check out all the numbers at Fanduil. And if you're an NFL fan, you probably are. You can start your season with a big, return on Fanduel, America's number one sports book. When you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats. If you live, play by play, and so much more, right in the same page where you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. That's Fandual.com, America's number one sports book.

Thank you so much for making this episode of the squad, your first listen and your first watch today. Make sure you check out all of our other shows, locked on Cains, locked on Syracuse, Locked on Wolfpack and all the other great shows on the ACC channel and Locked on College Channel. So all right, Jackson, I actually, you know, this is something Kenton and I disagree about. We talked about this earlier on earlier this week on Locked on ACC. I am leaning to Syracuse to handing a home loss to number 19 pit. Syracuse, I believe, is more battle tested. They've faced two teams that were ranked at the time that they faced them this year. I would probably trust

Kyle McCord a little bit more than I would trust Eli Holstein, given the experience factor. And McCord's been lightened it up this year. So I am leaning ever so slightly to the orange. So we're recording this on Tuesday. Obviously, it gets released on Thursdays. It's going to be right before kickoff when people are actually watching this. There's one player I'm really keeping an eye on. And that's Trevor Pena, because right now at this moment, he's dealing with an injury. And we don't if he's going to play as of this moment. And here's why I'm mentioning that, because one of Pitt's biggest strengths is their pass rush. They have 18 sacks in six games. They can get to the quarterback. Go ask how they just sack that guy six times. All right. And one of the reasons why

Syracuse lost to Stanford, that loss really does sting is because they couldn't contain the Stanford pass rush for whatever reason. It was just a really, really off game. Just everyone was really flat, right? One way that Syracuse has done a really good job of beating those teams with pass rushes is their short passing game. And the main guy involved in the short passing game is Trevor Pena. That dude gets open very, very quickly. And McCord, when he's targeting Pena, it's almost unstoppable. All right? So if he can't go for Syracuse, that is going to be a massive, massive loss. I don't know exactly how they're going to adjust to that. If he can't go, if you can go great.

That being said, I still think Syracuse is going to pull this out. Wow, you gave us like 20 reasons why they won't and then, but they're going to pull it out. I just have a gut feeling. I don't know. They haven't won there in like 20 years. They've won in Pitt in 20 years,

but I think it's time. I think it's time. Pitt and Syracuse have similar offenses, and they also have similar mediocre defenses, mediocre's maybe being a little bit generous, but okay, let's call them mediocre. I think Syracuse is going to eke this one out 34, 31. You know, if things happen because it's about time,

I've been living on this like 29 years without a single date with Meg Dostalian. It thinks this don't come to us just because it's about time. This pit team has been a team that all year they have just found a way. They have not shown themselves to be faulty enough to say, oh, look, it's Stanford. We're going to lose a game at home here to these guys. We're going to leave one of the best 50-50 ball guys in the nation one-on-one here, even though our head coach is a defensive backs coach. So with that in mind, Narduzzi has, I agree that when you go man-for-man, talent for talent,

you know, if you were doing a money spread worth of players, sure, Syracuse would win that matchup. But I think Narduzi is that excellent of a coach over Fran Brown. that he's going to find a way to win this game. Again, this pit team, Eli Holstein, has been kind of down these last couple of weeks, but he's due. I think he's really and truly due. He's shown me enough to make me believe he is this excellent player.

We might as well name the ACC rookie the year after him because he, up until these last two weeks, every week he played, he won that award. And then you talk about Reed out of the backfield. I thought that Syracuse had the best dual threat back in the league. That's what I thought coming into the lead. And now all of a sudden, we got a guy that's leading his team in rushes and leaving the team in rushing. And a slight second, an ever so slight second in receiving on his team in Desmond Reed,

I am telling you right now that pit team is physical. And I don't know why they like to give up the big play in the way they do. Well, we know it's because Narduzzi loves quarters and he'll never abandon it regardless of how much it gets beat. But with that in mind, I truly believe this pit team's. stays undefeated because that's what they've shown so far. They've shown to be a team with a propensity that no matter how bad you get them down, no matter what it is. If you don't kill them, if you don't put them out their misery, they're going to come back. And Syracuse hasn't been the team that's put folks out their misery so far this year. I'm actually riding with Jackson on

this one. I think the Syracuse Orange go on the road and get it done. And Wolfpack found out the hard way how real the Syracuse passing attack is. I think that they're going to have enough firepower in a fire against fire match up here. I like Syracuse to get it done on the road. And to my point about Pena being out of why I'm still, or Pena potentially being out of why I'm still picking Syracuse, I think they got enough depth at receiver that it's a big loss. And if it's long term, that's, that's tough. But for one game, if you're telling me, all right, we got to count on Jackson Meeks, who's got 459 receiving yards, or we got to count on Arronday Gadsden a little bit more who is, I don't know, an all-American tight end. We got to count on the Quinn Allen anymore, who's one of the best dual. threat running backs in the ACC, if not the country? All right. Fine by me. They still got enough talent on the outside to where, yeah, Trevor Pena can't play. Sucks. They can still overcome that injury. They're also getting Marcellus Barnes back. He's a true freshman corner. He's been outstanding when he has played through those two games. You left that out with

Elyle-I-O manner, that one-on-one contested ball guy at Stanford. Yeah. Barnes wasn't on the field for that because he got hurt earlier in the game. And I'm not saying the outcome would have been different, but he's definitely the best corner on the team right now. So him being back, I think is helpful for Syracuse. And once again, I'm going 34, 31. I don't know. So we're trusting a true freshman to handle one of the biggest assignments

of his career and what is the biggest moment of his life up until that point. We're saying, hey, if he was on the field, I trust that all. They were putting, Kenton, they were putting him one-on-one with Iow Manor until he got hurt. He got hurt very early in that Stanford. He got hurt in the midway through the first quarter. But he was traveling with him. And ifs were Fips, we would all be drunk instead of sitting here like sober men telling each other who's going to win this ball game. I'm sorry to tell you, Jackson.

The reality of this game is simple to me. I look at these two teams and I say they're similar in a lot of ways. I think that both of these teams have done amazing things. Both of these teams are better than I would have expected. With that being said, I look at these two teams and I say, what's the divider? What's the separator? To me, both of the quarterbacks are very good quarterbacks. I don't really think there's that much of delineation over of McCord over Holstein.

I think there's a slight gap there. But when I look at these teams, I say, this is going to come down to the coaching. And I like Fran Brown. Listen, if Fran Brown puts me wrong here, I'm not upset at that at all because I'm rooting for Fran Brown as a guy who has, having a hometown reunion and being like, hey, this is home for me, this is where I want to be at, and doing it for what seems to be the right reasons in the world where everybody's leaving for the biggest bad possible. I'm rooting for the brother.

With that being said, again, I'm hard up to pick against a Narduzi team that's rolling because when Narduzi teams are bad, they're bad. But when they're good, all you need is a fake slide. And all of a sudden, that team is winning some championships or some sort. There is one thing I do want to say that I'm going to agree with you on. and that is that kill shot factor and talking about, you know, getting Pitt down, Pitt has shown the ability they can come back, right?

Yeah. Well, you guys actually learned at NC State that Syracuse does sometimes have a trouble of kind of, they have a trouble knocking you out, right? Yeah. So they go against Georgia Tech and you think they're up 31, 14 in the fourth quarter. They're going to knock them out, right? Well, Georgia Tech stores a touchdown like late in the fourth quarter.

Okay, fine, it's 31, 21. Then they recover an onside kick. They store another touchdown and Syracuse had to sweat a little bit to close that one out. Obviously, we know what happened against Stanford. They're a play away. They could not deliver the knockout blow. Holy Cross, don't care about that game. At UNLV, they go up multiple possessions multiple times during that game.

They had to come back in that game ultimately to win it. They couldn't really deliver the kill shot until quite literally the last play of the game against UNLV, right? And against NC State, Syracuse was controlling that game. in the fourth quarter, that game was over, and then all of a sudden, we're going to let up to 70-yard plays. We're just going to let it happen, and we're going to make NC State kick an onside kick. Like, we're just, I will agree with you on this, that if Syracuse is going to have to deliver that knockout blow.

Like, if they go up 14-0 in this game against Pitt, I'm not going to be like this game's over. Like, that's just not how it is because Pitt can store. They've shown the ability to come back. I still think Syracuse is going to win, but you are right. Kenton that sometimes Syracuse, they don't love to, they like to let their opponents hang around a little bit too much. You play with your food too long. Somebody else going to eat it. That's just how it's going to work out every time for you.

So we'll see if Pitt can stay undefeated this weekend. Pit is one of four ACC teams that are ranked in the AP top 25. And there's something funky about that. I want to get to that when we come back because there's, and maybe they're not the only ones in the ACC who get a little bit of disrespect on this. You guys want to keep it locked right here. We got the squad together right here on the Lockdown College Network. I am so proud that we can endorse prize picks. Guys, I have been playing prize picks since 2021. It helped me get through the latter part of the pandemic once sports got back.

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That's Locked-on College is the code. prize picks is the app you guys want to check this out on prize picks thank you so much for making this acc squad your first listen and your first watch today uh all right so if i look guys at the ap top 25 now uh you know my miami stay they're seven and oh they didn't move up i didn't expect them to move up unless georgia lost obviously they didn't because georgia was number five at the time so i i'm not surprised miami stayed uh where they were at number six you've got Clemson did move up a spot to number nine now. And then we go down and we look at Pitt at number 19,

SMU at number 22. And I know I did pick Syracuse to pull off the upset against Pitt. At the same time, all Pitt has done is win. They're 6 and 0 on the year. And to have multiple two lost teams ranked in front of them like Alabama and Ole Miss. I know the SEC is always going to get favorable treatment. But it's like, as Kenton Gibbs always like to say on Locked on ACC, at what point should the games matter? Like at what point?

Because a listener of mine on Locked on Cain's made a great point about these SEC teams with multiple losses. It's like in the ACC, if you win a close game, they treat it like a loss. In the SEC, if you lose a game, they treat it like a buy week. I want to know something here because the thing that I keep hearing for everybody, the thing I keep hearing is, oh, Pitts beat nobody. Pits beating a bunch of nobodies. Pits beat nobody. So tell me about these teams and tell me if this sounds like

a somebody or nobody to you. Furman. To nobody. I don't know who that is. The Paladins ain't a real team. I know Furman from an upset against Virginia in the NCAA tournament one year. Okay. Shout out the

Keyhe Clark for throwing that ball away like that. Middle Tennessee State. Nobody? No comment on that one for me. Okay. I lost to them a couple years ago. Okay. Wait forward.

Hey, listen, I can admit, they'd be an NC State, but that's a damn nobody. Let's stop playing. Let's be very real about to say. Georgia Southern. Hey, shout out to Jack Chambers, you know, wherever you are in the world. I hope you're doing well for yourself, brother. Nobody, right? And then we look at South Carolina.

Another nobody. I'm sorry. What the hell is that? What's so impressive about that that? And I can say, you know what? Despite your two losses, I'm okay with ranking you as the 18th best team in the country. I don't get it.

Are you giving them credit for a close loss to Kentucky? For a close loss to LSU? Meanwhile, Pitt has gone on and done what they were supposed to do every single week. Yeah. Well, it's a combination of a couple of factors. Yes, they're giving them a lot of credit for the close loss to LSU. And quite frankly, it's SEC bias, and that's just how it's always been that way. And we talked about this last week, how like preseason expectations and everything like that influenced the voting for as long as time.

Like that's just how it is. It's when you're ranked high and you're perceived to be a good team, you have to prove that you no longer deserve to be in that category. And when you are a team that's not perceived to be very good, you've got to prove why you should be in that category. And people are going to find every excuse in the world to keep you in the same category that you were in in the, preseason. That's just how it is. And if Pitt, here's the, here's the great thing about this. We got a new system now. Every team before the season, they have, they control their own destiny now. There's no longer you can go undefeated when your conference and not go to the playoffs. Guess what? You go undefeated. You win your conference. You're in. So for people who are outraged over

this, pit should be higher. Pits undefeated. Wise Ole Miss ahead of them. Guess what? guess what, Pitt? All you got to do is just keep winning. Just keep winning. If you keep winning, we won't have a choice. Eventually, they'll have to rank them really high. Eventually, if they win the conference, they'll just get a top four scene anyway. It's a new system. So I'm not going to get all worked up about, oh, this team's 18, this team's 19. To me, keep winning. If you keep winning, eventually the results will happen. But see, my problem is this. The same thing that we were talking about last week, You see how it went from just Miami to now it's, well, it's all of the SEC that gets the bias.

And then it's, to me, the point of the game is never to, and this is me speaking as a long-time Lions fan, right? When people say things like, oh, the rest don't favor the Packers, you just shouldn't kick field goals. You need to score touchdowns, and that's how you mean. It's not about, hey, Pitt should have, pit has to be so much better than everybody else because they were perceived as bad that if they were. run the table they get in. Sure, ideally, in a perfect world, yes, it shouldn't be like that. It should be, hey, if you have shown that you're good enough, if you have shown we're a one-lost team,

maybe even a two-loss team that did not make our conference championship because we lost through two of the top, maybe 10 teams in the nation, in whoever they would lose to, I don't see how we could look at that and be like, hey, it just went out. That's the only deal here. Meanwhile, we're looking at the Ole Miss saying, Oh, you sweet, poor darling. Oh, Lane Kiffin is just so wonderful.

Oh, Jackson Dart with his little sit floor depression, sitting in his postgame interview all sad and moping. Unless you did things. They did game plan thing. What the hell is that even me? Everybody's doing a game plan thing every Saturday. I'm looking at this from the standpoint of, I'm not just looking at for when they're undefeated right now.

I'm looking at for when Miami has a loss or two. I'm looking at for when Clemson, one of those two teams is not going to be undefeated here. That's just how it works out in terms of in conference. I'm looking at for Pitt, who they've shown up and shown up, if they are to end up in the conference championship. Same thing for SMU. Why would they not get the same loving consideration when all of those teams have better resumes? SMU is another team that's a damn travesty because they're behind all of these teams when they're only lost to an undefeated BYU. I was going to say, why is SMU below Pitt?

That was my big question I was going to ask. Sometimes we value the record too much, and sometimes we don't value it enough because I think we can all agree that SMU is, at least at this point, has a better resume than Pitt, but Pitt's 6 and 0. We're counting half games now. So you're 6 and 1 versus 6 and 0. So now one team's 19 and the other is 22. But that's my point exactly.

That's my point exactly. I can't look at a world where SMU is rated. behind these teams where Vanderbilt is on your heels, not because it's Vanderbilt, but because that's a two-lost team. That's not just the two-lost team. That's a two-lost team that you don't even look at them and say, hey, they have been just downing, they have been balling, they have been crushing it. You have a loss to Georgia damn state. If you're going to tell me that you're in the same stratosphere as SMU, knock it off. Just because you're here's the good news, at least I think this is good news. It might not be good news. It might not be good

the college football playoff committee. And obviously we all know it's a 12 team playoff this year. So some of that's going to be out of their control with conference champions getting in. So some of that is taken care of. Now, they've also said they're not going to use the AP or the coaches poll rankings to influence their own rankings. So maybe what we're talking about right now is going to end up being moot when it comes to who gets the CFP at large beds. But the reason why I say maybe that's good news is, I mean, what did the, what, of the CFP due to Florida State last year?

Like, we don't know. Are their rankings going to be better than the AP rankings? Maybe, not necessarily. You're absolutely right. We've seen it time and time again. And this is why I said, I don't like this, this whole bias thing and this whole SEC just means more thing to begin with because we saw it last year with a 14th playoff when you get to arbitrarily decide, well, this team just, they're not going to be as good.

I'm not sure that they're going to be there. we expanding the playoff didn't mean, and I said this as soon as the playoff originally expanded, it didn't mean that the debate would stop. It just moved up from. It actually made it worse. Exactly. Exactly.

It just moved back from who the top four teams or who are the top foot. So, you know, I look at this and I say to myself, again, the games have to mean something. These teams are what they actually do. The product that they put on the field has to mean something, not just your divine right based on your ESPN 300 rankings coming out, high school. Who gives it that. At some point in time, you've got to put the ball down and has to mean something beyond Florida State getting absolutely waxed taxed and trade by everybody who comes

to the door. To Jackson's point, though, this is the time of year where you can't hide in the rankings. You're going to have to prove it one week or another because every single game in every conference from here on out, it's a war. So SMU is only 22. Somehow they dropped one spot by a 30 point win over Stanford. They're going to have to continue to prove themselves. Pittsburgh, same thing. They're going to have to prove themselves on Thursday evening. So nobody can really hide. I think Vanderbilt, you can also throw in the conversation. Somehow they get into the rankings over a 10-point win over one of the worst teams I've watched all year in Ball State.

There's only, I mean, the clock's ticking for some of these teams. You can't, you can maybe run for a little bit longer, but you can't hide. Well, the clock is ticking for us, and we appreciate everyone who made this locked-on-ACC squad, your first listen and your first watch today. Make sure to smash that like button. If you're watching us on YouTube, if you're listening to the audio version, make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your pods. For Jackson Holzer from Locked on Syracuse,

and make sure you check out all of our shows, by the way. For Kenton Gibbs and Grayson Boone from Lockdown Wolfpack, I am Alex Dono from Lockdown Canes, and we'll talk to you after another exciting week of ACC football. We'll talk to you next time on the squad. Your team every day.