Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC SQUAD - How Nico Iamaleava Entering Transfer Portal Impacts the ACC

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

Nico Iamaleava's entry into the transfer portal is shaking up college football. Could this move redefine the landscape for the Tennessee Volunteers and the ACC? Dive into the latest buzz around college football transfers, where the spotlight is on quarterbacks like Nico Iamaleava and Carson Beck. The discussion covers the NCAA's challenges in regulating transfers and NIL deals, with insights from hosts Alex Donno, Jackson Holzer, Kenton Gibbs, and Isaac Shade. Explore Trevor Pena's surprising decision to leave Syracuse and the potential impact of Carson Beck's move to Miami.Will these transfers alter team dynamics and strategies? Tune in for expert analysis and insider perspectives on these game-changing developments. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The transfer portal is heating up. Tennessee's Nico Iamaleava has been all the rage so far, and he's already been linked to two different ACC schools. Let's assemble the squad. You're talking ball with the ACC squad, sponsored by game time. 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 ACCC squad. Shout out to the everydayers. And thank you for making the squad your first listen. We're available free. Wherever you get your podcast, we're free on YouTube. We're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandual. Right now, new customers can get $250 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. It's all about the football portal on this episode, transfer portal losses, portal needs in the ACC, and potential wants. And so again, this keeps coming back to the ACC with Nico leaving Tennessee. And so, well, we know Nico can't go to another SEC school because the SEC does

not allow inter-transfer, inter-conference transfers in April. So it's got to be a different conference. for a hot second we had North Carolina linked to Nico. That got shot down pretty quickly. But Jackson Holzer from Locked on Syracuse. We got Jackson from Locked on Syracuse. We got Kenton from Locked on Wolfpack. We got Isaac from Locked on Tar Heels. I'm Alex Dono from Locked on Cains.

Jackson, I'll let you buy the first round. Are you buying the newest Nico Iamaleava links to Syracuse? Well, at first I think we need to start off by saying we're assuming we're going to to air this on Thursday and this is Tuesday so things can change quite a bit between now and then and also where the rumor is coming from. It was actually a report from Clay Travis, if you want to believe him, great. He listed four teams that were focused in on Nico or that Nico is focused on. It was Tulane, Texas Tech, UCLA, and Syracuse. And then about an hour after his report, it's reported by On Three that Tulane is out. And that would mean that three, three,

teams are guests are in this Nico Iamaliava sweepstakes, which are not really sweepstakes anymore because it seems like all the big dogs are out. Oh, it would be so ironic. This would be so ironic if Syracuse were to be the team that lands him. I don't think it's going to happen. I still believe that someone is going to pay him more than probably what Syracuse is going to be willing to pay him. But it would be so funny if he were to go to Syracuse. and week one, he's playing against Tennessee. Because you think, oh, he can't transfer within the SEC. That means, you know, he's not going to face an SEC school.

And then he picks Syracuse. That would be something. Yeah, the irony is a thousand percent why Jackson wants them at Syracuse. You know, I, too, wish that made this time but date me for the irony, you know, stick it to all those NBA players, the Redfield guys. So, hey, the little guy can win one every now and the end. It'd be great, strictly for ironic purposes, of course. But what are we doing here?

Who are we kidding? Can these coaches please get over themselves? And what all is, oh, we don't want a guy like Nico on our team. I have seen some of you all's quarterback rooms. I have seen them play football. They're not good at that. They're not good at it. Literally, one passing drill from UNC,

and all of a sudden, everything shut down in terms of we don't want hard knocks anymore. We don't want anything to do with it. Everything be televised. And they're out on Nico. Why? Why? What are we doing here? What's really happening that everybody's quarterback room is now so short up that you don't

have any opportunity to take a chance on a guy like this? And I'll tell you, for as much as everybody says, oh, well, he's going to want too much money. Here's the funny thing about wanting money or whatever case may be, right? you can only get as much as the market will pay out. If the market for sports guys, for ball sports guys with big opinions, all of a sudden became a million dollars a pop, hey, David Locke, I'm sorry. Hey, Jarvis, I know you backstate.

Y'all take it easy. I'll go. They don't pay me a minute. But it's not that. It's not that. So you stick where you have. Don't worry about it. You ain't included in this, okay?

You're probably the reason Nico ain't coming to USC. he said he need to have a nice hair associated with that program. But in all seriousness, we need to get over ourselves here. The young man didn't kill anybody. He has a camp around him that makes bad decisions. But it's not the first time we've seen this. It won't be the last. But isn't that important, though?

And again, I don't want to make it sound like he committed a crime. He clearly didn't. But, like, if you're Syracuse or UNC, you apparently already said no, and they're crystal balled for the South Alabama quarterback. to end up there. Like, don't you say, hey, this guy created a tremendous distraction. He held out of a practice there in Tennessee. And we've heard stories about the agent and the father being difficult to deal with.

It's like, I can understand it to an extent that unless you really, really, really need to take a chance on him why you may want to stay away from the circus. What do you think South Alabama says about Lopez? You think they say good things about him? you think they say he's a team player who doesn't care about self, who do whatever it takes to get the South Alabama Jaguars a win? Did he hold out there? If he cares so much, why is he in the portal?

My point exactly. My point exactly. We keep pretending, we keep sitting here pretending, oh, Nico's the bad guy for wanting more money. Let me tell you something. If the portal stopped allowing transfers based on money, it would look extremely different. We wouldn't have a mass exodus out of Cal's backfield today.

Yeah. Programmed. Today. And that's where we have to remember the history of this thing is that NIL and transfer portal were basically birthed at the same time. And there's all this overlap between them. And in this era that we're just ending now, also COVID eligibility. Right.

So it was just this whole bundle that came together. And that's part of why like the NCAA. And I guess that's what I got to keep going back to. I can't blame the players for the NCAA's inability to put regulation around all of this. Like I want to over and over and over again lay this all firmly at the feet of the NCAA for their futility. What is the NCAA supposed to do? See, they've existed for over 100 years.

And they fought tooth and nail to not have players be paid. They bought tooth and nail to keep the transfer portal as strict as possible. It wasn't long ago where if you wanted to enter the portal, you can do that, but you're going to have to sit out a year no matter what.

And in order for you to not sit out a year, you would have to get a valid reason why. You would have to get approval. So the NCAA has already had these harsh rules and restrictions in place. The issue is you really can't put in any of these rules because of something called NIF. your name, image, and likeness.

If you put rules on the transfer portal, you can only enter once, ah, you can't transfer it in the conference. I'm shocked that nobody has challenged the SEC rule thing with, you can't go in April to another story. Or you sit out of year. Like, I'm shocked because someone's got to challenge that and be like, you can't hinder my ability to make NIL.

That school is willing to pay me more money than that school. So therefore, you're hindering my ability to make NIL money. And you can't do that. You just can't. It's not allowed. So I don't know what the NCAA is supposed to do. Now, as far as Nico, it is embarrassing that he is being labeled as this bad guy and not a team player. Why is this happening?

Well, he was holding the team hostage for the college football playoff. The only reason why this is all hoopla is because he played like crap in the college football playoff. They end up winning the national title. Nobody would give a rats behind. but that's neither here nor there. He has a point. NFL players, when they get in the playoffs,

they get a bonus. They don't get paid for, it's not free when they play in the playoffs. They get a bonus. So Nico's saying, hey, you pay me for the regular season and maybe a conference championship game. You're not paying me for a playoff.

I want a little bit more money. I have no problem with him asking for that. And then he's like, oh, I want to enter the portal. I want more money. I'm looking at Carson Beck and Miami making $4 million. I'm stuck here at around. on two million. Can you just give me more money? And Tennessee has every right to say, no, we're going to put our foot down. And now every coach in America wants to be on this moral

high ground here. For what? He didn't break the law or anything. This is stupid. It's hard. It's hard to compare this direct. Let me say something real quick, Kent. Sorry for cutting you off, but it's hard to compare this directly because, you know, NFL players have contracts where all this stuff is clearly defined. It's so much messier because the problem that these coaches have is if you have somebody who tries to hold you hostage for more money and then you capitulate to them, then what's to stop the rest of your roster to line up and ask for more NIL money? Like that, it can't happen.

I mean, and sometimes NFL players do try to do that. You've got more leverage against them because of their contracts. Like, unfortunately, I think Josh Heipel did the only thing he could do and that was say, see you later. Like, we can't, we can't do this for you. But I want to go back to what Isaac said because he's a thousand percent right. The NCAA squows too tightly for too long. When you think about the inception of the phrase student athlete,

it came to deny a young man who had a massive brain injury that caused him to lose cognitive function for the west of his life, workers' compensation. That's where this came from. So this is not a situation where the NCAA said, we're going to be sensible and we're going to make sensible rules all the way along the way. Oh, while we're having a Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, we'll make sure the players are broken off a chunk of that. That was not what happened.

The NCAA ran a cartel and said, hey, we are squeezing the mess out of this. To the point where a story where a guy like Cam Newton gets money pays to his dad's church, is seen as like this terrible thing. In the Bible Belt, by the way, in Auburn, guy from Georgia pays into his dad's church and people are looking at him like he's the villain, and now we're shocked to see the end result

is everything is going completely off the rails up a crazy train. What did we expect when you told us, oh, these guys are bad guys, they're getting tattoos, they're trading gold pants in for tattoos. They're terrible people. Oh, oh, these guys are adding cream cheese

on a free bagel, they need to get suspended for a game. What did we expect would be the end result? As opposed to, again, just making simple rules. Donno's got a kid, ICE's got a few kids. They both know when you are a parent, if you squeeze everything and your kid and you're a helicopter dad, every second, every second you're there, what happens when they get some freedom? They lose their damn minds.

That's what's happening with the NCAA. They squose everything too tight. Not if the players got freedom, they've lost their damn minds. So then what is the NCAA supposed to do now? That's the issue. We can go back in time and talk about how many mistakes they made in the past. And I agree with you they made mistakes in the past. But that's the past.

It's about the future. And what I'm trying to tell you is that I don't know what they're supposed to do. They are a flimsy organization. That organization might as well not exist. But I don't know what you want to do. Like former committee, talk about it. I would rather them like form a committee than sit there on their hands like this. and just good luck everybody good luck and let the players lawsuit slapped on them and they're going to

lose literally they tried to all this happened Diego Pobie got two players more years of eligibility like they keep losing there's not players to the table bring the players to the table and let's what a solution is you need the players to unionize and have a collective bargaining agreement which effectively ends amateurism because at that point it is full-blown professional. But that is the solution here. There is nothing the NCAA can do now. They are getting destroyed in the place that matters, which is the court. They're getting killed.

We just said somebody was stuck making $2 million. Amateurism's gone. We just said somebody stuck making $2 million. Amateurism is out the door. Amateurism is correct. And I agree. My group, let's go about 20 minutes ago. Well, okay, we can continue this because I agree with Jackson, by the way, that the NCAA, they've been completely new.

I don't think they've won in court since before the, before the O'Bannon, you know, name image and likeness thing. But I also want to talk portal because North Carolina, from Charlotte or from Chapel Hill to Raleigh to Syracuse to Miami, there's a lot going on in the transfer portal. Losses, potential gains. Yeah, you want to keep it locked. right here. We're only getting started on the squad. Scaling your business requires the right expertise at the right time. With Upwork, you can find specialized freelancers in marketing, development, design, and more. Experts ready to help you take your business to the next level. Upwork gives businesses flexibility by connecting them with top freelance talent across multiple

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Visit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That's UPW-O-R-K.com, Upwork.com, to connect with top talent and grow your business today. Thank you for making the ACC Squad, your first listen and your first watch today. Make sure you check out our other shows for your next listen. I host Locked on Cains, Jackson Hulzer, host Locked on Syracuse, Isaac Shade, host locked on Tar Heels, Kenton Gibbs, hosts Locked on Wolfpack, along with Grayson Boone, does an awesome job. Check out all the shows on the ACC channels because we all work really hard to bring you guys the top content. And, yeah, the transfer portal has been a big focus.

So, all right, let me, I let Jackson buy the first round. I definitely want to talk about a certain Syracuse transfer, but I'll let Isaac. by the first round this time out. And so again, North Carolina was for a hot second linked to Nico. Nico doesn't look like the direction that the tar heels are going to go in for a quarterback. Tell me about the G.O. Lopez links from South Alabama. Do you think that's going to be the guy? Here's what's funny.

You know how like with the Nico thing, there was one, like it's, he's crystal bald by one person on 247. So everyone starts saying things like 247 sports as an entity has crystal balled Nico to North Carolina. Well, it's not it's not 247 as an entity. It's Brendan Sonone. Is that how you say his last name? The guy from. Sononi. Oh, Sononi.

Yeah. Well, I'm going to call it Brendan Sonono because this ain't happening, right? He's an FSU insider. And here's what's funny to me. I'm looking at 247 right now. This crystal ball is still on the website with him crystal balling Nico to Carolina. Literally the same day that he crystal balled Nico to Carolina, like hours,

that was like eight in the morning at 5.23 p.m. The same day back on Monday, he crystal balled Gio Lopez from South Alabama to Carolina. There's one crystal ball for Gio Lopez to Carolina. It's the same dude, Brendan Sino, no. I don't know like what, what's happening in Tallahasse. I'm so confused by this thing, right? Are they going to bring in two quarterbacks?

Well, no. I don't think that's going to happen. Well, and here's the other thing. It's like when we talk about, you know, Donald said he wants to talk portal out. Carolina lost a lot of their quarterbacks, but we've talked about it. They're all like not, not power four level quarterbacks, right?

They're out the door. You still have Max Johnson, who's recovering. He's been throwing some, but he's not back in game action yet. Carolina didn't do a spring game. They did practice like a, a pro on Saturday night and you had, you know, Brown, the transfer from Purdue and taken all the first team reps. And so like there is this talk about Carolina bringing in a quarterback, but you've got

him and you've got Bryce Baker and you got Max Johnson when he eventually gets back. And so do you want to introduce somebody else into this mix after you've already broke spring camp? I feel like Kenton would have a better understanding of those team dynamic conversations than I would. So I'd be curious his thoughts on that. But like the whole Niko Geo conversation with Brendan Sonono, CBing both of them is weird to me. I mean, I've said all along that this is the worst time to enter the portal. And that was Nico's biggest sin.

It wasn't attempting to negotiate a bonus during the playoff. It wasn't hopping in the portal with the intention to make more money. It was specifically the timing. Because camp, in terms of when you talk about spring ball, You go into fall camp with a debt chart that was set nine times out ten by spring ball. So it's different now that transfers are so ubiquitous and they don't have to wait a year anymore. When I played it, it wasn't that way. But normally the transfers were already there or the transfer were starting at the bottom of the depth chart.

You've got to work your way up. You're starting with the freshman. And, hey, this is just what it is, dude. If you're a guy, if you're a dude, show it, prove it, and earn you. your way up. It's just, again, I don't know what the new landscape of it looks like, because it's really a case-by-case basis for coaches in terms of which coaches do believe if you come in as a transfer in the fall, work your way up for the bottom, or we promised to certain things, we're going to make good on our promise. We told you you were going to be the starter. You've got to come in and

do something terrible to lose this spot. So, I mean, either way you talk about it, when you talk about the team dynamic and the chemistry, whoever that quarterback is, if you bring them in, if you bring them in. If Lopez is your guy, if Nico is your guy, they have no reps with UNC's receivers. They don't know what their tight ends did route looks like. They have no clue. They have no idea what their quick out looks like. I don't know. I don't know how they run that. I think I know what it looks like, but you know, that's just a generic setting based on we've played football before, not based on I've seen this player do it. Do you think that's ultimately why what's happening with these quarterbacks, specifically Nico is what's happening because he's a quarterback?

Because the way I interpret that is if Nico was like some star safety, would he really have that much of a problem finding a new team that would pay him? So the problem is the problem is this. We all forget that we all know we're in America, right? We act. It's the land of opportunity. You get paid as much as somebody wants to pay. Well, what factors into how much you get paid?

who needs your skill or ability, who has the money to pay you for your skill ability. Again, I'm still calling around, you know, Turner with them closing down. It's the market for bald guys with hot takes dropped a little bit. But if it were to boom, if something were to happen like that, if we're in Nico's case,

you talk about the two things. Is the opportunity there and who needs your talent? Who has the money? Think about it this one. Donald, do you know the date or the week? Give me about the time frame. When did Miami pay back? January 10th, 2025.

January 10th, 2025. Okay. So do you see what I'm saying here? Most other quarterbacks who got big checks in the portal, got them at about that time. So you're looking at, Nico needed two things in order to get what he wanted. A school that has money and a school that needs a quarterback.

The problem is the schools that have money don't need a quarterback at this. for. If there's a team that needed a safety and they had the money to get, sure. But with the money that he's demanding, safety is not a premium position where you're like, the best thing that we do before we do anything else, we're going to lock up this safety position. Nobody's going to have a better strong safety than us. People do that with quarterback though. So I don't think the schools have had that $4 million that he's looking for hang around that haven't already paid that to a quarterback that they desire. I guess that's fair, but there are teams. that need quarterbacks and there are teams that have money.

They might not have four million what he's asking for, but you're telling me like Notre Dame doesn't have, they can't scrounge together a few pennies to figure out how to pay Nico. I mean, they could use it. But Marcus Freeman doesn't want daddy an agent around. I don't care how good.

That's what I was saying. Nobody was going to be right, wait, and there's a pretty good bad out. We're talking holier than down places. Of all places, the place that has literal touchdown Jesus over the, looking their end zone, you don't think they're going to get too sanctimonious? That's absolutely

they are, Notre Dame is everything that I talk about when I say, hey, come off your highways. Come off your highway. Stop being so sanctimonious and go win a bargain. And this is, I don't think it's about being sanctimonious. I think it's about, hey, we hear that this guy might be a distraction coming along with the dad and the agent. We just don't want that here. I don't think it's about being sanctimonious. Teams just don't want that. There's no bigger. distraction than losing football games. There's no bigger destruction. There is no bigger.

Nobody wants to ask you questions about anything else other than that. So what happened in this game? How do you get it turned around? What's the problem with the passing game? And by the way, I have on good authority, Notre Dame really believes in their quarterback situation. They like, really, I agree. Really believe in their quarterback.

Jelly and two other guys you can play. That's the only reason why I'm like, because I highly doubt, even as sanctimonious there, Marcus Freeman ain't no fool. After N IU lost, that man's seat was hotter than fish grease after one game. And he took that team to a national championship shortly thereafter. And people are still not like, oh, he's going to be a life of there. So I don't think that anybody who doesn't, who has the money and doesn't believe in that quarterback situation,

I don't think that anybody fits those criteria in terms of what Nico is looking for money-wise and a quarterback situation. I don't believe it. By the way, Kenton, you were talking about bald guys with hot takes. I'd love to see you start a show called Hot Guys with Bald Takes. I would like to keep our clean rating, and that does not sound like that type of show. It does not sound like that type of show. That's very fair. You're your own.

You don't have to. We'll see what happens. Not my niche audience, but I'll store it in the recess for sure. Well, coming up next, hot guys with bald takes on Trevor Pena and other ACC players who are hitting the transfer portal. We're not done yet on the ACC squad. Guys, I'm certainly not done yet with Fandual. The NBA playoffs are almost here.

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after the game tips off, you can even combine live prop bets into a same game parlay for a chance to win big. Don't miss out. Head to Fandual.com. claim your $250 in bonus bets today. Let's see if Jackson Holzer and I can make a deal for Trevor Pena. So the man who was at or near the top in every receiving category for Syracuse last year. I mean, he was second in receiving yards, top in receptions, top in touchdowns last year. Pena had an awesome year with Syracuse. He's hitting the transfer portal.

Miami is one of the teams that's listed as a possible. landing spot along with Texas Tech. So, I mean, Jackson, were you surprised to see Pena hit the portal? Why do you think this is happening? Stunned. Absolutely stunned. He was named a team captain and Fram Brown, the head coach of Syracuse, for those that don't know, said multiple times how excited he is to have Trevor Pena back.

In fact, an NIL event back, I believe in December, maybe January. My time might be a little off on there. But regardless, it was over the winter. He was like, yeah, Trevor's coming back. Trevor's coming back. He didn't enter the portal in the fall. That was good, right? So when I got that notification on Tuesday that he was entering the portal, I literally

had to check my phone and make sure it was not April 1st. I thought this might be an April Fool's Day joke. I was shocked. And as far as why he's entering the portal, I think we all know why he's entering the portal. It's the money. He had the opportunity at Syracuse. The role was going to be there. for him once again.

I don't think he's concerned about the quarterback situation because nothing has changed between the last portal window and this portal window. I don't think it's a, he didn't get along with the head coach. There's some talk on Syracuse Twitter right now about a heated leadership meeting the night before he entered the portal. I don't think it was some heated meeting that got him in the portal. I think it's very simple.

A school or two, maybe even three, swooped in and said, hey Trevor, we're going to pay you a lot more money than what Syracuse is going to give you. And that's why he's entering the portal. What a terrible guy. What a terrible guy. What a horrible human being. The evil that is corrupting college football is Trevor Payne. You ladies and gentlemen, let's blow this story.

No, but seriously, I mean, is anybody shocked by this? By the way, by the way, again. We joke a lot on this show about who does tamper, who doesn't temper, whatever that looks like. I do find it interesting. I talked off air with some recruiting folks, and one of the schools mentioned as a heavy temperer is very much so in play here. Texas Tech, you're talking about Texas Tech, right? No, no, no. Guns up.

They know them to do a little bit of looting and shooting. I'm just saying, I'm just saying. I know you're not talking about Miami. You must be talking about Texas Tech. Miami doesn't. They always play by the rules. I mean, that's what they did with Carson Beck, right? Oh, God. For decades, for decades, for decades, ladies.

But in all seriousness, this is, I mean, I am shocked to see Trevor Peña leave too because this is, this is a moment for me where I'm like, dude, even if you do go to a place where you think you have a better quarterback or where you know you have a better quarterback situation, that guy doesn't know you. He literally does not know. You haven't thrown with whoever that guy is.

You don't know what the timing is. like, is his ball a little high? Is it a little low? What does it look like? It's really late in the ball game to do this. Again, I'm just very shocked by the timing of it all because it's like, if you're going to leave for more money, do it when the most money is on the table. Do it when everybody's bringing their bags up and saying, hey, now's the time to get paid.

Don't wait until people are like, we've blown our big wad, but we've got a little something in the back left way. I think this goes back to, though. I think I agreed with everything you said about quarterbacks. I think for most every other position, it's a little bit different, though. Like, it's tougher to bring in a new quarterback in April. I don't think it's as. And yeah, I know the receivers have to catch passes with the quarterback,

but I think bring it in a new safety. Wait, is that how this game work? That's how this works? I mean, I read football 101 last night, and that was in chapter three. So, yeah. Well, wait, wait, wait, I'm not saying it's tougher from a standpoint of like, he's going to have a tougher time finding a home. I'm saying, again, what goes into you getting paid, who's got money, who needs your services?

The most people had the need and the money at the end of the season. That's all I'm saying. I'm sure he's going to go get paid more than he would have Syracuse. But why wait is my thing. Can I counter with that? So there was a report that came out on Tuesday, and it's an incredible report that Syracuse was paying him fair market value and that he was certainly not underpaid. So Syracuse might have stepped up in the winter to pay him to keep him.

But it's also possible that Miami might have scrounge together a couple more pennies because I'm going to let you in on a little secret about NIL. There is no salary cap to NIL. You can always go get more money. So Miami might be sitting here saying kind of need a slot receipt. we didn't really get one in the portal. Did Casey Concepcion go to go to Miami?

No, that was like they're hard to, right? They didn't get him to Miami. Didn't know. Didn't happen. They didn't get them, right? So now they're sitting here saying, we need a slot receiver. We need someone to replace Xavier Restrepo.

We're entering this new portal window. This Trevor Pena guy's pretty good. He set Syracuse. He's in the ACC. We've seen him. We got some good tape on them. We like them. Can we put together some more money?

Can we beat out Syracuse's offer? Yeah. And so maybe, that's what happened. Maybe Trevor Pena's market was different back in December than what it is now, because teams, they can always raise more money in NIL to give to these players. Well, it also is something to add on the Miami situation. So by the time Carson Beck decided to go to Miami, it was very late in the process because he had declared for the NFL draft and he backed out of that. And so by the time, I think it was January 10th was the day, the portal had been,

been open for a. I think the portal was technically closed in terms of new players getting in by that time. And so most of the receivers who were deciding do I go to Miami or somewhere else didn't know Carson Beck was going to be the quarterback. They thought maybe Emery Williams is going to be the quarterback of Miami. So Miami was able to kind of raise their, at least change their situation with Beck, which is something they didn't have during the winter transfer portal. Miami did get one receiver, C.J. Daniels from LSU to come in the winter, despite not really not. knowing who his quarterback was going to be, but like Miami's kind of late on their receiver shopping list because they didn't have Carson Beck to sell to receivers for most of the winter window.

I also don't think that Trevor Pena really cares about that. Like I don't really, I'm not interested to hear what he says in an interview because I don't think Trevor Pena and whether he wants to believe it or not or whether you would agree with me or not, he is a slot receiver. Slot receivers get undervalued. That's just how it is. always has been and probably always will be. So his professional future, I don't know if he has much of a professional future.

I think he's going to, at the very least, make an NFL training camp, but I don't know if he's going to get drafted really high. And who's to say that if he stays at Syracuse or goes somewhere else, regardless of the quarterback play? NFL teams, no, they're not stupid. If they know that your quarterback is garbage, but you're a good place, player, they're not going to care. They have people making hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars to make these decisions to pick the best players. So I don't think quarterback play really is

much of a factor here. I think this is Trevor Pena saying, this is like my one shot to capitalize on my market value. And I might as well do it now. Because if I don't do it now, I might not ever get that chance because best case scenario, I'm a sixth round NFL draft pick trying to make an NFL roster and I'm probably out of the league within three years because that's what the average is in the NFL. I have never heard the phrase. We had, we didn't have, uh, Carson Beck to sell to receivers and I never want to hear it again. I never want to hear such a phrase. Carson Beck versus Emery Williams. Like, isn't that a better selling point? Are you? Yeah. I don't think it matters. He's, he's a better third. I don't. He's a better third. I don't

I think he's good enough. I think it does matter. I think receivers want to know who they're catching footballs from, and Carson Beck is a much better selling point than Emery Williams. Well, that I agree with it. I don't think he's good enough to be a selling point. I just don't think that.

I don't think. Come on. I mean, through for 3,400 yards last year. You're acting like a chop liver. The only count, the only point you can make, well,

he's not healthy. If he's, if he's not healthy, he's not healthy. And you don't have a selling, like that's just got cleared a few, days ago he just got cleared the throat. Right. But like that's it. If he's helping and functional, he's just fine. Can y'all name me the game that Carson Beck took over?

That's all but say, hey, this is a $4 million man. This is like the Kyle McCourt situation all over again. Like the guys at Georgia, he does pretty good, but because he had these lofty expectations that he didn't live up to, now all of a sudden he's, he's not very good. He's going to go to Miami. Two full years as a starter in Georgia throws for $30. 900 yards plus and 3,400 yards plus, and you act as if he's throwing for 2,000 yards out there. I guarantee you the guy's going to be all ACC if he's helping next year. I guarantee. Donno, if you were throwing to Brock Bowers, you'd probably get 2000. You probably get 2,000. He wasn't throwing to Brock Bowers last year. No, no, he said 3,900,000, 2 years ago.

He said 3,400 without Brock Bowers. Again, if you have better players around you than everybody else, I'm expecting that. That is the minimum of what I should see. And again, Cal McCord went no damn $4 million man. So that I'm not about to do it. Kyle McCord went from throwing from Marvin Harrison and Mecca Buka to Syracuse. And he turned out okay.

And by the way, Carson Beck in his year without Brock Bowers, 3,500 yards, 28 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Now he threw a lot of picks. All right. And also, and also hold on, hold on. let me also add in Georgia had the most they led the nation in wide receiver drops last year, led the country, and they also had the 100 second ranked rushing offense in the country.

So that affected back as well. I will not tolerate Carson Beck's slander as if he's a bad quarterback. He's not bad. That running problem, it couldn't be at all related to quarterback's efficiency of team stack in the box. It couldn't have none to do with that. It goes over. We're finished here. We're finished here. We appreciate everyone for making the squad. Your first listening to your first watch. If you want to, you can check Kenton out at Locked on Wolf Pack.

You can definitely check out Isaac at Locked on Tar Heels. And with Jackson Holzer, have we just become best friends? You can check him out on Locked on Syracuse. Okay, my brother. Okay. If they end up with Trevor Paine, we are not best friends. Well, by the way, if you check out on Lockdown Cains, we're having a conversation with Jackson about Trevor Payne. So you want to check that out. Hey, my coach knows how to use slot receivers. I know how to use slot receivers, Bill.

Right. He has to go be the next to West Walker. Yeah. Well, we'll talk to everyone next time on another episode of the ACC squad right here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day.