Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC SQUAD - Miami Falls JUST SHORT in National Championship | How this Affects the ACC

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

Miami Hurricanes fall short in a nail-biter against Indiana Hoosiers for the national championship—can the ACC bounce back next season? Key moments, including Carson Beck’s costly interception and Fernando Mendoza’s Heisman-worthy touchdown run, define a hard-fought 27-21 showdown. With special teams mishaps and Miami's offense stifled by Indiana's stellar defense, the ACC squad break down what separated the contenders from the champions. The panel tackles seismic shifts in ACC football, from Clemson’s painful transfer portal woes and contract controversies at Duke to Syracuse’s uphill battle for relevance. Heated debate erupts over NIL contracts, lawsuits, and the escalating price tag for top quarterbacks—will this reshape college football’s future? Plus, early outlooks for North Carolina, NC State, and more keep fans guessing: Who’s poised to be next year’s surprise playoff team? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Miami Hurricanes fought the Indiana Hoosiers for 60 minutes, but let's talk about why the Cains couldn't get the national championship over the finish line. And let's assemble the squad. You're talking ball with the ACC squad. From Florida State to North Carolina, from Syracuse to Miami. And from NC State to California, it's the local experts of the locked on podcast network, bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming ACC weekend. 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. It's always sad when college football season has come to an end, but a heck of a national championship game to break down. You know, I'm not in the best mood this week. I am Alex Dono from Locked on Cains. We got Jackson Holzer from Locked on Syracuse, Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack, Morgan Thomas from Locked on Clemson, J.J. Jackson from Lockdown Blue Devils.

who may or may not be suing me over the Dary and Mensa transfer and Isaac Shade from Locked on Tar Heels. Thank you all so much for making the ACC squad your first list. And we're available free wherever you get your podcast. We're free on YouTube. We're part of the number one Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. And on this loaded episode, we'll talk about the outlook for next ACC football season. I'm hoping top to bottom it's a better year. I mean, the ACC did get a team into the national championship game, but it was a weird 20-25 in ACC football.

We're hoping for a better one overall in 2026. But let's talk about this national championship game where I contend, and I've talked about this already this week with Kenton Gibbs from Locked on Wolfpack. Miami obviously played very, very hard and gave Indiana a tougher test than the other teams they faced in the college football playoff. but you can't make too many mistakes against a team that will never beat themselves. And this game ultimately decided by about five or six plays, including a couple of really, really tough special teams gaffs by Miami, including a blocked punt for a touchdown. But I'll let Jackson Holzer buy the first round on this one.

Your big takeaways on a Miami college football playoff run that comes down to a 2721 loss against Indiana. my big takeaway was that I feel for Miami fans like genuinely like that was a very, very difficult, tough loss. And it was in the national championship. So we were talking before the show and Isaac mentioned how you have to be appreciative of the season that Miami has had. And they have had a tremendous season. They deserve credit for that. And they fought better than anyone else. against Indiana.

And they had a shot. If I told any Miami fan before the game, you're going to have about a buck 40. You're going to have to go down the field. You need a touchdown to win the national title. I think every Miami fan, knowing how difficult this matchup was going to be, would have taken that scenario.

And they got that scenario. And it's unfortunate that just one mistake ended it. So my takeaway is that Miami had a phenomenal season. They had a phenomenal playoff. They deserve all the credit in the world for that. But Indiana was simply the better football team. I'm going to say this. There is, you know, as much as people don't really put in the context,

what happens in the world around this, Indiana football, maybe Indiana football historically. However, in this year of their final eight games, five of them. Five of their last eight, including two playoff games, were decided by 30 points or more. And they're undefeated. So that means they're beating people by 30 or more, more often than they are beating people by less than 29 or so. This team, you know, at the end of the day, you have to give Indiana their credit.

The thing that Miami was known for all throughout this playoff run, dominating up front, controlling the clock, controlling the ball, and you were, it was real sparse and you had to make something out of it every time you touch the ball. Well, Kurt Signetti said, turnabout is in fact fair play because this was, I mean, it was, it was a master class of Christopal ball in essence. They held the ball. I believe the time of possession was what, 36 minutes or so to Miami's 23. I can give that exactly, Kenton. Indiana held it for 36 minutes. and 24 seconds, Miami had it for 23 minutes and 36 seconds. Yeah, that's the type.

That'll do it. That'll do it, you know. I mean, and then on top of that, you get a pump block in this game as well. Again, Miami has nothing to hang their heads about. Miami played a fantastic game for the most part, aside from a couple of crucial miscues. Aside from the game ceiling interception and the pump block, what more can you ask for?

You have Mark Fletcher's longest run of the year in this game. You were going to hold Indiana to 20 points offensively. 20 points. I mean, you're holding a Heism winner to 20. Mark Fletcher is running wild. You can't really ask for too much more. It's just unfortunate that they went up against what is, in fact, a buzz saw that we all knew of Indiana football,

who couldn't have predicted. this coming into the season. Two years ago, who wouldn't have thought coming off a three and nine season for Indiana? A remarkable job, Signetti has done there. All the pictures that people were throwing around of like, hey, here's a picture of Indiana's football stadium two years

ago. I mean, it's wild how empty it was. Donno, you mentioned as you were setting this up, how this is a fundamentally sound team that doesn't beat themselves. It almost became like this cruel irony for Indiana where they had that second and

to basically ice the game because the canes had to take their first time out. And basically you get that yard. I mean, it's not quite victory formation, but just about plus you kick and it that. But they get the false start. And then it flips to the other side. And I forget if it was second or third down here in real time, but there was the bad roughing the passer.

Man, I felt bad for Carson Beck. He was ate up on that. But it was almost this cruel irony of, Indiana is right there on the doorstep going to win. And then this fundamentally sound team that never beats themselves has these two penalties that allows Mr. Beck to waltz down, not waltz down the field, but march down the field and do what he did to Ole Miss in this shining walkoff moment. And I was like, holy cow, this is going to be a crazy story for Miami to wreck the Hoosier dream story. And I thought that's where it was headed and that was going to be the storyline. But man, we all know how it ended up.

But gosh, what a crazy ending to this game. You know, when I look at this game and I say what happened here, at the end of the day, I want to acknowledge more than anything else. Miami's keys to the game, they accomplished a vast majority of them. The things that everybody around the nation said they had to do, they accomplished most of those things. Everybody said that Bain and Medzador had to be game records. Were they not?

They were there. That was more pressure. I want to. And Mendoza specifically shouted them out post game. Like that was one of the first things he said. Yeah. And hey, Jackson, stop it. Baines' arms are too short. He's a little too stubby. Let him fall somewhere in the mid-teens. Maybe a big cat team and a cold weather play. Never mind. We ain't got to talk about that. But in all seriousness, this was a game in which Miami accomplished most of the things that people said that they would have to. The only thing that they didn't was the time of possession thing. Mark Fletcher ran the ball very well. if you take away that 50-something yarder, it was not like they did precious little outside of that, especially in the second half.

First half, different story. First half, absolutely bottled up. But the biggest thing is, and I know people are going to say, oh, it's a moral victory. And, oh, we don't take moral victory. The reality of this is down double digits at half, they continue to fight. They continue to persist. How many teams have we seen that were 10 points down to Indiana or even closer, but they were down? and then the second half comes over, and they absolutely get steamroom.

Mario and his crew deserve credit for the adjustments that they made. It just so happens to be that in that big moment, Carson Beck said, time for a Beck ball. Time for one of those old-fashioned, give me that old-time religion. I just need to lob one to a corner here and threw up that good toaster's true. In the big moment, in the big moment, Fernando Mendoza did deliver on four and five. Oh, gosh, did he? Wow. And, I mean, it was unreal.

We'll be seeing that highlight forever as college football fans. I thought it was noteworthy as we kept talking about going into the game. In the college football playoffs, the two games prior, this was a quarterback in Fernando Mendoza that had more touchdowns than incompletions, right? As we said, eight touchdowns to five incompletions. And if you're Miami, the guy had 11 incompletions in the title game and didn't throw a touchdown pass. It wasn't until that fourth and five scramble that he was able to get into the end zone

and make that miraculous play to put Indiana in a really comfortable spot. I was watching it with friends and throughout that fourth quarter kept thinking, you know, there hasn't been a turnover in this game. And football fundamentals 101, you want to win the turnover battle. And yes, you had the big special teams block punt if you're Indiana, but finally they get the lone turnover on the game in Carson Beck Center. that ultimately sealed it. Dona, what were you feeling?

I've been wanting to ask you this. We're four minutes into the third quarter, down 10 to nothing, but like just before the 57-yard touchdown. Kind of where were your emotions? Where were your thoughts at that moment? I was genuinely concerned that the game would get away from Miami, even though it was reached a point where the defense was clamping down and making some stops.

But until Fletcher woke the offense up, at that point, I didn't have any reason to believe Miami could score on that defense. Like, Indiana's first half defensively was so dominant with the way they were swarming to the football. I mean, Miami had a couple of their signature short yardage situations in that first half, or usually just by sheer bulk, they're able to get a yard on third and down. But they couldn't do it against Indiana. And nobody was open. And I was talking with Kenton this week that, you know, you could measure the space Indiana's D.Bs were giving Miami not in feet or in yards, but in millimeters.

Like it was such tight coverage. You know, the referees were letting them play a little bit. I thought that on both sides there maybe could have been a few more pass interferences that could have been called, but they were letting them play. DBs were on receivers like glue. And so, you know, that Fletcher touchdown kind of opened things up for Miami's offense and gave them some more confidence. and then Fletcher continued to step up. Malachi Tony stepped up. But before that touchdown, Isaac,

I was really starting to lose any hope that Miami could even be in that game. It's Morgan's fault. It's Clemson's fault. It's Daubo's fault. This was supposed to be your year to be the 16 and 0 undefeated sweetheart. So Miami fans laid this loss

that nobody else's feet, but dabble swimming. Because it was on you. You had the quarter, back you had the top five edge rusher you had the top five defensive tackle all in there and next thing you know we look up like wait a minute they're playing Penn State in the Penn Strike bow what is this what what they're playing football in a baseball stadium you know I'll personally blame Morgan for this loss for the ACC I mean maybe it's just me maybe it's just me but I'm holding your feet to the fire on this

with mr. Thomas I guess I deserve it since I've been skipping out on you guys for so many weeks now You know, welcome back. I'm glad to be here. Thank you. I would say, Dono, I love the game. I did feel like that Miami was on the edge of losing it, but it was really refreshing to see them reset after halftime and just drop a big 57-yarder, as Gibbs said, you know, like you've got you got a longest run than did all year, you know. I am not going to be that sympathetic in the sense that you paid a lot of money for Carson Beck, and that's what you got, you know, and we knew that that's what he was going to do. So, you know, I mean, was I hoping to see Michael Irvin give the belt to an actual Indiana fan? Yes, I would have paid for that. Yes, yes, I would have. But it didn't happen. You know, whatever Ray Lewis whispered to Carson Beck, you know, we may never know.

But unfortunately, he kind of made a big, big boo-boo at the very end. But, you know, was he worth $5 million or however much you paid for him? I don't know. One thing I'll say is that this is the new age of college football. Any team can be in it in any moment. You mentioned Indiana playing with no fans, just a few. years ago to now being where they are. Miami, desperately wanting to get back to where they are. Now, you have no Ohio State, you have no SEC team, you have Clemsons down. I mean, all of the

ones that the teams that you normally expect to be in this weren't. And honestly, I'm okay with it because if it moves college football forward, you know, and provides games like that, like you mentioned, JJ, where Mendoza just had the finally the Hysman moment. He won the Hysman, didn't actually have a Hizman moment. And then he had it. And then they just pan to his parents. And that was just like, okay, I hate college football for a lot of reasons, but I love college football for that.

Yeah. And Mendoza, you know, for as much as Miami tried to frustrate him, as much as any other team has this year, you could not keep him down for four quarters. I mean, the drive that he engineered and ultimately he finished it on that quarterback draw for the 12-yard touchdown. And according to Miami's defense coordinator, they knew the QB draw was coming. They were trying to communicate Wesley Besant, you know, Miami's linebacker couldn't get the call out to enough guys before the play. But Mendoza was tremendous. They had to convert four, or sorry, two fourth downs on that drive, including the touchdown run to get there.

So that was his Heisman moment. I will put a little respect on Carson Beck's name, though. For as much as I can fault him for the game-sealing interception, Miami wouldn't have been in that game, if not for the fourth quarter drive that he put together against Ole Miss. So you have to take the good with the bad. It was a double. We got the full spectrum of the Carson-Back experience.

We had the good in the game winner. Yeah, we had the good in the game winner against Ole Miss. And then we had the flip side of that in the national title game. But, you know, Miami makes a deep. run this year. We'll talk about who could be next, next season. I want to get outlooks, not only on Miami, but on NC State, on Clemson, on Syracuse, who I'm sure is going to contend for an ACC football championship next year. On Duke, obviously with uncertainty over the quarterback situation, and on North Carolina, you want to keep it locked right here. We're only

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Get Discord chat access one-on-one text messages. A discount on the amazing locked-on merch store. I mean, people were asking me for years, where can I get my locked-on merch? You can get it now and at a 15% discount when you're a member of the everyday or club. So you can get insight on all the teams that we cover here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. And I want Morgan Thomas from Lockdown Clemson to buy the first round on this one.

You know, ups and downs for the Clemson Tigers this year. There's a lot of Davos-Sweeney narratives out there about adapting to modern college football and all that. What's been the big buzz on Clemson's football offseason so far? And what kind of a bounce back do you expect for next year? Losing the Penn State game was pretty frustrating all around. They won the last four games, one South Carolina, which we thought righted a lot of wrongs, but then went into the Pennstripe Bowl, as Kenton mentioned in a baseball stadium and lost in the Yankee Stadium. But, you know, the biggest thing that was glaring from that is that they just have no depth.

And a lot of their reason for no depth is multiple years of Davos-Sweeney only replenishing with high school players. and then those players not sticking around as long as he would have liked. The biggest kind of reality check this offseason has been maybe graduation rate being at 98% is not going to be what the new era of college football needs anymore. And that's unfortunate because student athlete seems to be getting fuzzy, more fuzzy as we continue to go. As you mentioned, Carson Beck last segment, he made a joke. He doesn't even attend classes. So, you know, it's hard to say what you have to do or don't have to do nowadays.

But what I will say is that Clemson actually went into the transfer portal and tried to use it. But it feels after now two weeks into it, you can no longer enter into the portal. But there's a lot of players still out there. Dabo went and got a large amount of defensive players and one offensive player. it feels as if he's still trying to, you know, he's like the newbie to the club. You know, it's like he's trying it, but still trying to play the transfer portal in a Dave Ramsey sense, you know, trying to be extremely, extremely cautious with his money and doesn't want to overpay anybody and doesn't want to chase anybody down the pocketbook, you know.

And so the worst thing that's happened, the biggest headline that happened last week, is that Luke Pirelli, this is not public knowledge till tomorrow, but the prize pick linebacker, Luke Forelli, was given a text message from Pete Golding on Friday and said, hey, we'll give you double your, what Babo offered you if you leave. And so he was in class when he got the text message, and now we haven't seen him since. so all signs are pointing

to... Morgan, please tell me that he literally got up and walked out in the middle of class. Nothing would be better. You know, I mean, I just feel bad because his English 102 teacher

may be waiting for him to come back next week and he's not going to be there. But... If someone gave me that text, I would walk out, I'd be like, yep, I'm done. $2 million or turning your homework.

I mean, it's a hard decision. But, um, So, yeah, so that's been the biggest frustration right now on social media is that basically the prize possession, the guy to go right next to Sammy Brown and have two, the ACC defensive, freshman defensive player of the year to join Sammy Brown now is going to Ole Miss because, all because, get this, T.J. Daughtry left Ole Miss to go to LSU, who used to be T.J. Dudley on Clemson's team. many years ago who was caught doing something inappropriate in the locker room and got kicked off the team. So it all comes around full circle. You lose two linebackers out of this whole situation. So at the end of the day, though, I think the fan base is kind of deflated again.

You know, we were pretty excited going into week one of the transfer portal. And unfortunately, in a lot of the message boards that I'm involved in, it's a lot more questions still to be answered. Man, that's that's tough. A rundown. Yeah, that's a very detailed rundown. It is. You and Kurt Signetti giving these details out here, Morgan.

I love it. And I'm not happy about it, just like Kirk. I'm not happy. I'm going to tell you this, Morgan. I'm going to tell you this. When you think about, you know, these guys and whether or not the graduation rate and all that matters and whatnot, you graduate from college to do what. You get your degree for what reason? It's a work job.

Money. Yeah. You get a job to do what? Make money. Make money. If somebody offers you seven figures, you've skipped a step. That one step has been, you know, you go to get the education, to get the job, you get the job, you get the money, you go home, you build a nice little life with that money. If you can skip a step, you skip a step.

But I will say this, Clemson is in a very interesting place right now because, like you said, Davo is a newbie to using the portal. however that pause is still on the side of that help therefore they still have those expectations nobody's ever going to lower their expectations as long as dabble is at the wheel and say all right climson should be a seven-win team now because they're not good at the portal it's still like no we remember sammy walkins walking through that door we remember tosh boy walking through there we remember deshawn watson Trevor Lawrence Travis etienne dexter lawrence all these guys walking through that door so i think clemson is in a very precarious situation speaking in all those players, they went and got back to the offensive coordinator and Chad Morris, who brought in those

players. So bringing back the past. Full circle indeed. Now, I feel like the futures for Miami and Duke are very much intertwined. And, you know, this situation is constantly evolving. So by the time people hear this, see this like apologies if the situation has changed at all. But it's very well publicized. You know, Darien Mensa of Duke is trying to get into the transfer portal. Miami has been the reported destination now. Like over, over the weekend, the buzz that apparently Mensis camp was hearing was that Duke wasn't really going to pull, put up a whole lot of resistance other than like, you know, negotiate a buyout for his NIL rights. But then Duke woke up Tuesday morning and chose violence. They decided to file

a lawsuit against Mensa. And, you know, the part that was immediately updated J.J. was the judge denied Duke's request on Tuesday morning for an immediate injunction to stop Mensa from entering the transfer portal. So he will be allowed to hit the transfer portal. But then there's still the question of, will Duke be able to allow his NIL rights to transfer to Miami or anywhere else? And what can they do? And then there's sort of the gray area of can you treat him like an employee. or someone he's who's being paid to play football when he's actually being played for his marketing rights. So how do you keep him from going somewhere else? I feel like this whole thing is above my

head. I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on TV and radio when I can. But what's the buzz, JJ at Duke in terms of, you know, I mean, is there any chance to Harry and Mensa could be the quarterback next year? Do you think that ship is sailed? I mean, that feels like a fever dream at this point. I don't see a world in which that becomes reality. but it has been so strange following this as it unfolds, Donna, because I'm with you. When I'm having these conversations, I'm going to remind people,

I've got a broadcast journalism degree, nothing at all in the world of law and trying to figure out, you know, what these next steps are. But it is so important. I think this very much so could have an impact on college sports as we see them. That same very judge had to recuse himself from further proceedings because he's a Duke basketball.

season ticket holder. So this is wild in its own right. But yeah, I think for Duke, they're just wanting to figure out a way to make sure that, you know, Mintsa isn't able to walk away from this NIL agreement that they thought would be until December 31st, 2026. I just want to say, oh, go ahead, Jackson. I just wanted to say, thank you Duke for actually doing the right thing, which is making this a mess. this is exactly what they should be doing. Because I'm all for, like, players getting paid and players being able to seek out what they're worth

and players being able to enter the transport. I'm all for that stuff. I've been very, very clear. But I'm also very clear on this that when you sign a contract, you sign a contract. And Derry Mentsa signed a contract that basically locked him into Duke. And so he wants to get out of it. And he wants to go to Miami,

which we all know he was tampered with, but the NCAA is not actually an institution. Oh, he was a lot. Duke is not alleging that, actually. Duke is not alleging that Miami tamper. Duke is alleging that Mensa reached out to them first. I'm just saying. Duke knows that he's a little because Duke knows that it's a losing battle anyway. You can't win a tampering battle because tampering doesn't exist. I mean, tampering does exist, but tampering punishment does not exist. There's no point in going after it. You're going after the money aspect of this. And you want to make this a mess. You want to make Dary and Mentsa feel it. Like you want Dary and Mentson feel it. Like you want Dary Mentson be like, okay, man, we paid you. We made you like the highest paid quarterback in all the college football last year. You were locked into this contract. We understand you want to go get more money, but you sign this contract. So guess what? We're going to make your life a living, you know what? That's what we're going to do. You're going to sit through court battles or you're

going to make you hire them. You're going to have to actually pay for them as well. And, you know, our mindset is going to be, we'll drag this out as long as humanly possible. If you want to sit on the bench, you can sit on the bench and return to Duke and actually play. Or, you know, you never play for Miami. The point being is that Duke is doing exactly the right thing. That's all I wanted to say. I will say this. It is not just a possibility that he either plays

for Duke or goes to get paid at Miami. There is a secret third thing where he could go play for Miami and the judge decides or whatever judges over this decides. Actually, those marketing rights are kind of ironclad. You cannot. He signed an exclusive

deal with them. So you're going to play for the love of the game like they used to do back into 2010s, which was forever ago, you know. But even beyond that, I do want to just acknowledge something that Donald said there. He said, Duke woke up and chose violence. Brother, I'm from the west side of Detroit. If you give me $4 million, if you tell me that I pay $4 million for something that is not coming to fruition, but you don't understand the level of violence that would be distributed for that type of money. Okay. That's a whole different ballgame. But But this is a, like Jackson said, this is a mess.

This is going to be messy. This is not going to be clean. And I think that this won't just be setting the president for one thing. I think there will be multiple major presidences that come out of this debacle between Darien and Duke and, you know, who can do what and what deals are ironclad and what the pay structure looks like out of those things. Because, I mean, objectively speaking, like Jackson said, a signed contract is a signed contract. However, I thought these deals weren't pay for play, but they are pay for play.

That's my thing. That's why to me, I think the resolution of this dispute is going to be, at worst, Darien Mensa is going to have to pay them $4 million. Like, that's what's going to happen. Like, again, it's not, they cannot force him by NCAA rules because it's not an employment contract or a football contract. It's not a pay for play contract. It's not a you have to be enrolled at Duke contract.

it's a contract of at the time you signed it, we determined your marketing value to be $4 million per year. I think to get out of it, he or someone's going to have to pay Duke $4 million. Life wallet. It doesn't matter for him, though, because he'll have to pay four, but Miami will give him 10.

Exactly. And that's what I think the resolution is. It's like it's a win-win for me. No, what it really should be is what Kenton said, he should be playing for the love of the game. You can play for Miami all you want, but all the money he makes actually goes to do. I'd sign for that.

I'd let that happen right now to him. I think Miami fans wouldn't mind it either. Miami ain't paying him no day of $10 million now. That is crazy. Oh, that is crazy. Do you, even if we talk. And like, unless there's some sort of guardrails put up, which we all know is not going to happen,

give it like three to four years. It's going to be $10 million easy. Yeah. And you're going to first thing 15 to $20 million. You think this is going to stop? I don't disagree, but what I'm saying is what we're seeing right now with also how they're coming in with the revenue sharing aspect of it and how much can be allotted to whom, 10 million handicaps, everything else. You can't do much if you give out 10 million and try to do the revenue. I don't think that there's much of a way to survive that.

I think there is because I don't think that this is stopping. I just think that people are going to keep throwing money, money, money, money. Dary Mentsa was the highest paid quarterback at $4 million last year. And now all of a sudden he's entering the transfer portal because $4 million is like middle tier money now. In one all season. And two years ago, it was like you're paying your quarterback like a buck and a half like $1.5 million. That's crazy. Yeah, more didn't make that much.

Like he was making a couple million. The money is exploding with these guys. Now it was, you can't get, you can't get anyone decent in the. transfer portal without a minimum of at least half a million dollars. Like, it's just that simple. Like, the money is crazy right now. So, yeah, $10 million for a quarterback this year, I would not be surprised. $20 million in a couple of years wouldn't be surprised because there's nothing stopping it.

Last thing I want to say, because I know we've got to get to a break and other people want to be able to talk about their ACC teams and whatnot. Duke's doing the right thing in suing Dary and Minson. Something needs to change with the makeup of the sport. hope that everybody sees this. You know, at the end of the day, Derry and Mintsa is not going to play football for Duke again. That's fine, well and good. He's going to go down in the record books at Duke for all his passing yard.

Took Duke to an ACC title. I mean, that was unbelievable what they were able to experience. But something needs to change in this. Hopefully it gets to the point where these athletes do become employees and there can be true value to a contract that you sign. Until that happens, nothing's going to change. I don't think that happens until we see lawsuits like this brought forward. So that is where I think Duke is in the right here. All right, well said.

Well, I want to get an outlook on North Carolina, Syracuse, NC State. I don't know, maybe these guys don't want to give it. Well, I'm going to go to Jackson Holeser next, just so you know. You want to keep it right here on the Lockdown ACC squad. Thank you for making us your first listen. And make sure for your next listen, you check out all of our other shows. Morgan Thomas does an awesome job on Locked on Clemson, JJ Jackson on Locked on Blue Devils, Isaac Shade, locked on Tar Heels, Kenton Gibbs, Locked on Wolfpack, Jackson, Holzer, locked on Syracuse. All right, Jackson, just tell me the starting quarterback for Syracuse next year will not be someone on a lacrosse scholarship.

Can we start there? I can't even hold it together. I can't. I mean, like, it should be Steve Angelly. And then they go get Malachi Nelson and they're out there saying, bring me Greg Paulus. Yeah. And then Malachi Nelson is going to compete to be the starter. Oh, boy.

Oh, boy. You know, I was listening to all these talk shows today and I'm hearing you guys talk about, you know, what a great story of Indiana is, right? You know, if Indiana can do it, why can't this school do it? Yeah, it's not happening with Syracuse. It's not happy. Have you seen their transfer portal class? Like, what do you want me to say about their portal class? What have they done?

They've swapped bodies. I'll give them that. They swap bodies. It's a start. You know, you know, that's it. Did they get better? Not really. But, you know, if you have a healthy Steve Angelly,

maybe you win six games. Have you seen their schedule? I don't know. That's the Syracuse football off season. It's kind of like a, yeah, yeah, kind of like a back to reality. That's what it feels like. You know, Fran Brown is just too normal. We've seen in these past few years. No, he hasn't showered enough. That's the problem. Well, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to tell you, we've learned in these past few years. Your coach has to be a special type of cycle to do this at the high. level and Fran Brown's just like this normal chill guy that you're like seems like type of guy would have a drink with of course after he showers and they win a darn ball game but he seems like a cool guy and I think that's the problem. Signetti never smiles. He's just always on the

side line with that little people's elbow eyebrow just I don't I don't think that's the problem with Fran Brown. I think Fran Brown at Syracuse if this was 2017 he'd get this team on track. We were talking about the money. I don't that that's my theory. with Syracuse right now. I don't think they have the money. I'm looking at these guys. They're getting in the transfer portal, and I'm like,

I know Fran Brown's background and how he came from Georgia. Do you think that he thinks these players are good enough? No, no. Okay. So then if it's, if he doesn't actually,

like, he can say whatever he wants, any coach can say whatever they want. They're going to all the buzz words, buzz phrases out here. You know these guys are not actually good enough. Okay, we can start there. They're not actually good enough. So if you know that,

why aren't they good enough? because you don't have the money. It's just that because the transfer portal prices for these players are going up and up and up and up and up. And Syracuse is just kind of like not being able to compete. It's that simple. I mean, hearing him say nobody gets two male except a little homie from Ohio State was not a great look.

It was not a great. Objectively, like you said, that money keeps going up and up and up. And, you know, but hey, can we talk about somebody's team that we actually think is going to win some ball games next year. Is that? Your team, sure. Sure. We didn't have to start with NC State.

I just said anybody's team was going to win some ball games. You know, beat us. Well, hey, you know, NC State is going to score a lot of points next year. We know that for sure. I mean, we have loaded up on receivers and tight ends and everything you can imagine offensively in the portal. Now, will we be able to stop with running nose with robot-tussing, tissue, and three COVID boosters?

Probably not. But it's going to be entertained. It's going to be fun. CJ Bailey's going to set some records next year because, you know, we've got everything you could want out wide. I mean, you talk about excitement in the portal. Every time you look up, this is how much skill position talent NC State has added. We just added a 6-4, 200-pound receiver who is averaging 20 yards per catch. And everybody's like, hey, we don't need any more pass catchers.

That's how good that everybody's expecting these past catchers to be next year. You know, the guys who are supposed to stop the past catchers, hey, we're figuring it out. It's a journey. You know, it's a euphemism for their bad. It's a journey of defensive discovery, okay? We'll get there. One step out of time. One stop at a time, we'll get there.

You know, how will get those. They'll suck, but it's okay. How will get those stops? heaven only knows, you know. You'll play Malachi Nelson and get all the stops in the world. Hey now. There you go. We're still working on glasses that make Dave Doran see every team as UNC.

We're still working on that technology so that we could get ourselves an undefeated season one of these years pull off a little signetti action. But until then, you know, we'll put up points and C.J. Bailey's going to be great. Well, speaking of UNC, let's give Isaac Shade the last word on what Chapel Bill is up to there in North Carolina.

Well, I think the quietness or remember this time last year, that was all anybody could talk about was Bill Belichick. And I think the quietness of this offseason is a nice reminder of what is not happening. Now, one of the things about the portal era is the best players are often the dudes you're able to retain and keep. There were not many of those that you wanted to keep around Chapel Hill, but a few that I think are important. Melkart Abuja Day, who was second in the ACC and sacks between two gentlemen that we saw play on Monday evening. Jordan's ship is back. He might actually catch a few passes if they can have somebody that can throw it more than 10 yards down field. Ju-Ju June is back. The breakout freshman running back from last year, Bullet Goss is out the door, taking his best Dantrez-Siles, Van Allen Lubin approach, heading off to Raleigh. So I think that's really good. I liked Bullet Goss a lot. Obviously, the big question is quarterback. There is a young man who's playing in the AFC championship this weekend in year two in New England, who covered a world. of sins for the North Carolina tar heels that we've not seen

anybody else be able to do since Drake May left. Now we're just watching his wife bake cookies all bake miss long. You can go look that up. Carolina brings in Miles O'Neill from Texas A&M. Who recruited him to College Station? I'm so glad you asked. A guy named Bobby Patrino, who is now the offensive coordinator of the Tar Heels. Yes, we have removed all motorcycles from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Billy Edwards comes in from Wisconsin. And so I think it's going to be the two of them really fighting it out because Gio Lopez is gone.

Bryce Baker, who I thought really could have stepped up, is transferred. He's gone as well. Travis Burgess is a stud quarterback coming in. He's an early enroly. So I think it'll be between those three guys of Tori Newkirts in the room as well. But the issue for the Tar Heels is what Jackson said about Syracuse. Last year, one of the only things that Carolina had going in their favor had nothing. nothing to do with talent. It was all about the schedule. And Carolina had an easy schedule and they

still couldn't make, hey, this year, you've got TCU and Dublin, you got Notre Dame, you're at Clemson, at Duke, Louisville, Miami, NC State. Like it's a much more difficult schedule that, again, is not going to help Carolina. Jackson asked who can be the next Indiana. I don't think it's the Tar Hills in any way, shape, or form. You're so pessimistic about your team. So pessimistic. You're going to be Do what, KG? I say, y'all take care of my boy CJ Saddle over there in Chapel Hill,

you all take care of him, okay? That's what you're doing. Y'all better take care of them. Chapel Hill is right down the street from Riley. I come get my boy if y'all don't treat them right. Yes, sir. Treat C.J. Bailey right over there because if it doesn't work out with Darian Mentso.

Tempering! He's a tapering! I'm starting to believe that the transfer portal in terms of submission date, I think, is now a vague suggestion. Yeah, it is. What is stopping anybody from just deciding to enter the portal? A lawsuit? Miami got a guy last year, Xavier Lucas, who never actually got into the board.

He just, he underproped. There is no actual date. Like, you can still do it. Why not? Maybe what they should do is in-season trading. Like, why not? If we're going to sit here and open the can of worms, I mean, let's start swapping. Let's have a trade deadline.

That would be fun. selling we're selling are you you started to open a can of worms that maybe we'll pop the top on that next week because we're out of time but we'll get into that he's jackson holzer from locked on syracuse kenton gips from locked on wolf pack isaac shade locked on tar heels j jj jackson locked on clemson i'm alex dono from locked on kane's we'll talk to you next time right here on another episode of the ac c squad part of the number one locked on podcast network your team every day.