Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC SQUAD - Miami Hurricanes, Florida State, Transfer Portal Landing ELITE 2025 Quarterbacks

Episode Date: January 16, 2025

Quarterback transfers are shaking up ACC college football! With high-profile moves like Carson Beck to the Miami Hurricanes and Miller Moss to Louisville, the landscape is changing fast. How will these shifts impact the ACC's power dynamics?Join hosts Alex Donno, Jackson Holzer, Brian Smith, Grayson Boone, and Isaac Shade as they explore the latest coaching changes, including Clemson's strategic hire of Tom Allen. They also dive into the national championship predictions, weighing Ohio State's "team of destiny" aura against Notre Dame's challenges. The discussion covers key players like Thomas Castellanos and Cam Ward, and the influence of NIL deals on recruitment.Don't miss this engaging analysis of ACC football's evolving scene. Tune in for expert insights and lively debates! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Mighty Hurricane just added Carson Beck in the transfer portal, and the ACC is going to have some high-profile transfer quarterbacks next year. Let's bring in 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 ACCC, 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 so much for making the ACC squad your first listen and your first watch today. We're free wherever you get your podcast. Free on YouTube. Part of the awesome Locked on podcast network, your team every day. I am Alex Dono from Locked on Cains and Locked on ACC. We got Jackson Holeser from Locked on Syracuse. Brian Smith from Locked on Semittles. The prodigal son has returned. We got Grayson Boone from Lockdown Wolfpack, Isaac Shade from Locked on Tar Heels. On this episode, we are going to give our takes and our predictions on the national

title game. And do we claim Notre Dame? I know Notre Dame is not technically ACC and football. Everyone like me, you're all shaking your heads, though. But we'll talk Notre Dame versus Ohio State. We'll talk about Clemson and Miami finding new defensive coordinators. Miami also added their new starting quarterback late the week. Carson Beck from Georgia.

So friends, some of the high profile transfer quarterbacks who are projected to start next year, Beck at Miami, Thomas Castellanos now at Florida State. He went ACC to ACC. Miller Moss at Louisville, Darien Mensa to Duke. We'll ask Jackson if their starter came in through the portal. Ricky Collins now at Syracuse. But first time, long time seeing Brian Smith. So, Brian, I'll let you buy the first round.

And which ACC team do you think has won the transfer portal when it comes to quarterbacks? I'm going to cheat on this one. I'm going to say Louisville because I trust Brom. Miller Moss. It's not a bad call. He's a really good quarterback, but Brom's an even better quarterback coach. And I also like Isaac Brown, who's from your neck of the woods. handing him the football is a good thing.

Second down and three is always great for quarterbacks. So I'm going to go Miller Moss. and Louisville, I know everybody thought I was going to say Castellanos, but there's still too many moving parts for me with Florida State to guarantee that. That could be a tremendous opportunity. I mean, Cassiano is going to give you the whole season or after eight games? Is he going to say no mas? I'm out. Well, I'm not going to comment on that right now, but.

Ham Ward. Hey, did you have been 12 and a half games? That's true. Four and a half more, Donno. Congratulations. Yeah, I'll take it. Meaningless bowl game? He doesn't play after the second half. Hey,

bowl games aren't meaningless. Come on. Because you actually won one. This is me pouring one out for the bowl games because they're dead done and done. Shade is not playing around today. No. He's not. Shade is what he's doing.

I've thought about starting a segment called Throwing Shade. I think that needs to happen. Oh. Good. I like that. I like that. Allow myself on the Wolfpack to sit that one out this week. We know why Ketton's not here, right?

DB, what a miserably refereed game that was. Can we just go to the hardwood for a second and say that? Oh, sure. It was a ridiculous display, I guess, if you want to consider that of basketball. It wasn't quite basketball, but it was something. Both teams were just bad. Gosh. Anyway, sorry.

Now, Jackson, there's been some quarterback news of Syracuse. over the past week. Kyle McCord had been seeking the waiver to play an extra season, but he didn't actually wait for whether or not he was going to win the appeal. He decided it was last Friday. McCord decided he was going to go pro and not, you know, wait on the results of that waiver process. So what does Syracuse do next to quarterback?

So first off, I think it would have been interesting to see what the ruling would have been because had Taya McCord been granted a waiver, I think that would have set in motion giving everyone a fifth year of eligibility. I think that would have been the nail in the coffin for that rule, by the way. As far as what Syracuse is now going to do, they already added in the portal.

They had a backup plan in case. They were waiting on Kyle McCord, but their backup plan was also someone who I think was going to be okay with potentially sitting for a year. And he's from LSU. It's Ricky Collins. He's a high upside.

guy. This is a former high-end four-star recruit in 2023. I'm sure Brian knows a ton about Ricky Collins, but at the same time, we've hardly ever seen him. He's thrown seven career passes. I cannot tell you whether or not he's going to be good, but I also can't tell you whether or not he's going to be bad. So you know what? Assuming he wins the job, and they're not going to give it to him at Syracuse, he's going to have to earn it, but assuming he wins that job, we're going to find out against Tennessee on opening day in late August, whether he's good or not. Ricky's very talented, but I don't think that was what he was hoping the first game was going to be. I'll speak for Ricky on that.

Well, what about Grayson and Isaac? What do you think about the quarterback additions? And Isaac, didn't Bill Belichick ad? I saw somebody with these flowing golden locks of blonde hair. So Belichick is out there adding quarterbacks as well. Me? I wish it was you. No, Carolina's quarterback room is really weird because Jacoby Chriswell, who was the starter

most of this year started the year as the third string quarterback has another year of eligibility. Max Johnson, who got hurt in the first game of the season, has another year. If he wants to stick around and is healthy by that point, Bryce Baker is an early enrollee, just enrolled right now as a highly thought of incoming freshman. Brian can speak more to the national thought on him. But then also Ryan Brown comes in as a transfer. So it's really kind of hard to know what to make of the Carolina. in a quarterback room right now.

Go ahead, Grayson. Sorry, my fault. No, I actually love Brian's pick of Miller Moss. I think that was a really good pickup for Louisville, but I'm also interested in Mensaw for Duke. I think Duke hit him with a wild overpay. We'll see how that pans out for him. But Mensa had a really good year for Tulane,

and I think his game will translate really well to the ACC. So I have my eye on him, but overall, I think Miller Moss may have been the top quarterback coming into the ACC, and that includes Carson Beck, Mr. Dono. Yeah, I'm gonna you guys are disrespecting Carson Beck. I'm gonna say Carson Beck. Thank you, Jackson. I'll say it.

So now he's bad. Okay. I'll say it. Thanks. Here's the inaugural throw in shade right out of the gate. You ready? Georgia is a better team without Carson Beck at the end of the year. Fact.

Because they have a bigelian guy. What is that saying? That they're back on my... It says that Carson Beck wasn't doing enough to make those dudes awesome. There was a program name. Alabama that benched their starting quarterback at half time in the national championship game. The backup quarterback was to a tag of Aloha. The starter was Jalen Hurts. Sometimes Carson Beck is neither of them. It's not a bad thing. Carson Beck is not even smelling

either of those dudes. He's going to be drafted. I mean, I don't know. I don't know if he's going to be the number one overall pick like Cam Ward is about to be. But Carson Beck is going to be drafted. And Carson Beck did not have the weapons people thought he had. in Georgia. I mean, they led the country and wide receiver drops. He also didn't have a good offensive line this year. And at least, listen, we can criticize Miami all we want to. But one thing you cannot criticize about Mario Cristobal is the offensive line. I mean, first time in my life, I've covered a team between the hurricanes and the dolphins where I've not had to worry about an offensive line. So Carson Beck is going to have a lot more time to throw at Miami that he did

the last year at UGA. And be in the ACC rather than the SEC, which, you know, you know, that's That's helpful. I'll ask this too, Dono, does his elbow surgery bother you at all? Like, does that bother you in the slightest? Potentially, you're paying for damaged goods here. Yeah, no, that's a great point. Like, I worry more about that than I would about the actual performance on the field last year. So what the elbow injury is likely going to cost him is he's not going to be able to be a full go during spring football, which it puts you to a little disadvantage.

I think he's going to be able to throw a little bit in spring, but certainly not be a full participant in practice because you just can't risk it. You know, he seems like he's going to be good to go by summer, so he would be ready for the start of fall camp. But yeah, in the meantime, like I'm going to need Carson Beck to do whatever he can when it comes to film study, learning Shannon Dawson's offense, you know, getting comfortable with his teammates because he's not going to be able to do a whole lot of physical stuff for the next few months.

So I think the mental reps get even more. It does like I think he's going to be okay. Like I'm not expecting him to enter the season injured, but what I worry about is the elbow recovery costing him, you know, reps in spring football, which I do think are valuable. Because it's essentially Tommy John surgery, isn't it? It's a little different. Like the way they do it for football versus the way they do it for baseball is a little bit different.

But yeah, it's essentially, it's essentially that. But it's actually as the same surgeon. that Brock Purdy had for a similar procedure, and he seemed to have had a pretty quick recovery from that. So, you know, fingers crossed, he's going to be okay, but he's got to rock the rehab, and he's got to rock the mental reps. I think assuming that Carson Beck is healthy,

I'm not going to say he will be the favorite, but he will be a favorite to finish first team all ACC. Oh, yeah. I think that can't be argued. And look, you're coming off having Cam Ward for a season. You're not going to find anyone better than Cam Ward. who might be the number one pick in the NFL draft. But I think Carson Beck is about as good of a consolation prize as you're going to get.

And he is someone who's probably not going to happen, but he does have number one pick upside. Granted, because that was the expectation heading into last season. That he was going to have this big year at Georgia once again. He was going to be the number one pick. And he had a good year. But I look at Carson Beck and I'm like, I think he was more of a victim of the expectations.

He had a really good year. But when you expect the guy to be like, hey, this is a number one pick right here. You know, every team, they should probably be tanking in the NFL for this guy. And then all of a sudden he has a couple mediocre games. You're like, I don't think he's really that good. But in reality, I think Carson Beck is a really good quarterback. And assuming he's healthy, he is going to be one of the favorites for all ACC next year.

For a second there, I thought you're talking about Kyle McCourt. That, that storyline sounded almost. Honestly, it has a great point, BB. Hey, Donno, has Beck come out? and said how much of a role going to be with his girlfriend was. Like, and not that that's not a good reason to go. Like, that's a great reason to go. But it's just funny in an in an NIL era that it's like, no, it's still about where's

the kid's girlfriend, right? Like how often even pre NIL was that the thing we're looking at? Yeah, he's, he's only done one interview that I've seen it. It was with with 24-7 sports. And I don't think that came up. But he's, he's already, he's already been in a couple of TikTok videos with Hannah Cavander. She and her twin are, they're good, very good basketball players, but they're, they're TikTok stars. And so he's been in a couple of TikTok videos with Hannah.

And so I'm sure that played a part in it. Like, again, you know, for as good of a recruiter as Mario Cristobal is, probably the number one recruiter in this situation was Hannah Kavana. Was right. Well, I would imagine. Yeah. So coach Christobal should probably send her a nice little thank you basket. Absolutely. I mean, you know, and maybe she gets a referral bonus or something.

I don't know how that works, but. They gave him a $4 million check. There is your thank you basket. Yeah. Well, you bring up the $4 million. And it's like we talked about Darry and Mensa earlier. I think it's going to be a good quarterback at Duke. Had a great year of Tulane.

But it's funny because so Mensa, Mentsa committed early in the transfer portal. And then there were all these reports. And listen, we, I assume that these are somewhat accurate that he signed a, a two-year $8 million NIL deal with Duke, which is $4 million per season. And then, you know, a few weeks later, Carson Beck signs with Miami for, you know, reportedly somewhere between three and four million for one season. I keep seeing these headlines like, and I think people just love to smear Miami. It's like Carson Beck becomes the highest paid player in college football history.

But it's like, wait, he might be making less than Derry and Mensa. Like people seem to have forgotten about Mensa. It's still Duke football. I don't know if anybody believes it. That's a good point. Yeah. If he signed for Duke basketball, you know that would be all over the front pages. That's because it's more realistic. Yeah, right. That's a good point. Well, I want to talk coaching changes as well. There's a couple new defensive coordinators in the ACC. I thought Clemson made a very interesting hire someone with head coaching experience. I mean, you know, right now, I guess you can't have the Brent Venables reunion just yet because he's still employed by Oklahoma. Oklahoma, but hiring Tom Allen, you could have done a lot worse than that. You guys want to keep it locked right here. We're only getting started on this brand new episode of the squad. Oh, I love the action that

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ACC Squad, your first listen and your first watch today. Alex Dono from Locked on Caines, Jackson Holeser from Locked on Syracuse, Brian Smith from Lockdown Seminals, Grayson Boone from Locked on Wolfpack. Isaac has to do some basketball coverage tonight. So we thank Isaac for his contributions. Now, you guys, we'll circle back to Miami who hired their defensive coordinator from Minnesota, Corey Heatherman. But then a couple days after that, Clemson gets their new DC. they go and poach Tom Allen from Penn State. Obviously Penn State had a really good year, getting to the semifinal of the college football playoff.

And I like the move for Allen. Like he, his personality seems like it's going to mesh pretty well with Davo Sweeney. And this is also someone with a lot of years of head coaching experience, was it at Indiana as their head coach. So I really like this move for Clemson. And you guys, I give Davo a lot of credit for, you know,

despite an ACC championship season, and he realized our defense was not up to snuff. We needed to go out there and upgrade. Actually, it's priceless. As someone who participates in the textile bowl with Clemson every year, this move worries me. In fact, I think Clemson might have just taken another step to being Clemson of like 2016 to 2018.

If you go and poach one of the top defensive coordinators in the country, you bring back nearly, I mean, seems like their entire offense, probably outside of Mafa, Clemson's going to be a force to be reckoned with in 2025. I think Tom Allen's a fantastic defensive coordinator. He had Penn State rolling with nearly anyone. He held Ohio State to only 20 points. I think that's something to tout around.

I think Clemson's going to be real dangerous with Tom Allen. That schedule in the ACC will help them because they still have a front seven that's different than probably anybody else is in the ACC. That's the other thing. Is he the same DC as a guy that's now in Norman, Oklahoma? I will say no, but he's still a heck of a lot better than what they had. I mean, Clemson didn't maximize their talent. So Grayson brings up a great point. I pretty much agree with what these two said.

It's another good hire for Clemson. They're going to be one of the favorites for the ACC again. And, you know, all those takes about how Clemson's demise and everything like that after their loss of Georgia, all of a sudden, it's just every, it's just been going downhill since, actually, it's been going uphill since for Clemson, downhill for everyone else who thought that Clemson was done. And on that note, guys, I mean, Clemson, they should be, we're going to have those ACCC media days coming up this summer and the media is going to vote on this. But I would imagine Clemson is going to be pretty big favorite to win the conference next year.

And it's not only defensively, they've got a lot of young talent on that defense. I thought they underperformed a little bit, but their defense is going to mature. And I think Tom Allen is the right guy to lead that group. But also, I mean, Cade Clubnick, I mean, Kenton and I, you know, preseason, we ripped them a little. little bit on Locked on ACC. We're both eating crow because Clubnik had a really good year. And then you get that stability for another year with the same quarterback club Nick who's coming back for a senior season, continuity with offensive coordinator with Garrett Riley, talent to throw the football too. So a lot of other teams have instability and changes. But, you know, Clemson, Clemson to me is a team

that I think could really peak next year. And they just won the ACC. They kind of won it through the back door, you know, with three losses, they kind of snuck into that championship game and did what they did. I think next year, Clemson is going to be more of an 11-win type of team versus the nine wins where they snuck in this year. I don't disagree. There's a chance Clemson runs the table. Florida State's not Florida State anymore. Syracuse isn't going to sneak up on anybody. Neither is Georgia Tech. Everybody's got them on recognition. There's that team in Raleigh that we need to see them step back up. I won't make, yeah, there's a certain guy on this show that would like that. Don't hold your breath.

Yeah, right now I'm extremely down on a certain head coach in Raleigh because I just don't think you can recruit well enough on offense in particular. But Miami's the wild card. Yeah. They're a wild card every year. So, I mean, is there a team that's even close to Clemson in the ACC next season? Maybe. Yeah.

Louisville, maybe. Maybe Clemson has a problem in Miami. I don't know, but it's not going to be very many teams. Clemson's like the regular season, they went nine and three. correct? Correct. They went nine and three, and I'm looking up the stats right now. They had the 73rd ranked defense in the country. They let up 389 yards a game. And they went nine and three. Yeah, just going up 20 spots with a senior quarterback that is starting in his fourth different season, good luck beating them, especially in Death Valley. Yeah. That is not going to go very well.

They'll probably win just about every close game. Experience matter. better coaching staff, same systems coming back on offense. They're going to be very, very dangerous. And they're using the portal now. They're playing the season, by the way.

They're playing LSU. Oh, that's true. If they win that LSU game, then it's going to be real hard. Grayson, how many guys has comes to taking two or three? Three.

I don't three now. Very many. Yeah, but the quality. That's all we need to do is just fill a few holes. Like, they'll get one more than last year. Exactly.

I mean, I said they wouldn't sniff a title again until they used the portal. This might be enough because they got a senior quarterback to go with it. They got a couple pretty good players already. So we'll see what else they had, but they got a big roster coming back to. It's very senior latency. And you're right to say that Miami's a wild card. And if they're able to cash in that wild card status, fixing the defense or trying to do that is a big part of it.

And not surprisingly, Miami also had a defensive coordinator vacancy. and they hire, it's a little bit, I actually thought Miami was going to hire someone of the profile of a Tom Allen, a little older, a lot of head coaching experience, but they went the other way on it, Corey Heatherman, who he's, he succeeded everywhere he's been, including, you know, he was at Minnesota last year as their D.C. And when he took over, Minnesota had the 69th rated offense in the country. He got them to number five. Miami had the 69th ranked offense this year. Can he get Miami to the top 10 or the top. five. I mean, the talent is, I don't think Miami is deep enough on defense. There is definitely some talent there. You know, guys like Rubin Bain, Wesley Besant, who underperformed a little bit last season, he's going to try to get them back on track. Akeem Mesidor is coming back for his sixth year next year. And so, you know, this is someone who doesn't have as long of a resume as Tom Allen, but I'm wondering if Corey, Corey Heatherman, who I had a chance to see him and and meet him yesterday.

The guy looks like a Viking. Like, I wouldn't want to let that guy down if I was playing on his defense. So, I mean, if Miami can get the defense right, who knows, because that's what let Cam Ward and company down this year,

fellas. Well, Miami just needs to be able to keep teams under 20, 21 points, because they'll still score a lot, and they've got really good running backs in an offensive line. They just can't be a civvist,

but that secondary last year was comical. I'm seriously, it was comical. Jackson knows it first. Yeah, it was Swiss cheese. I mean, I mean, you guys had a legit quarterback, but they got smoked by some teams offensively that their quarterback was not in their Cam Warren realm, not even in stratosphere.

So they don't fix that. It won't matter that they went out and got Georgia quarterback and got all these other points. They got to fix secondary. Yeah. Hey, talk to me, Brian, about the staff changes at Florida State, especially Gus Malzon coming in at OC. Now, that's a guy with a lot of experience, very long. in the tooth, Gus Malzahn. What's the chatter been down in Tallahassee?

Well, there's a lot of things with that. Gus has worked with Norville. They were together at Tulsa. So that's the connection. They think that their systems can blend. I still need to see it because I always worry about too many cooks in the kitchen. Gus is a play caller and he's a very stern guy on what he wants to do. But he was the guy coaching the GA slash receiver coach, who's now his head coach.

it's bizarre how it's kind of turned around. We'll see how that works, but on defense is where I'm more experienced thinking about the way it looks. Coach White is a D.C. He's bringing pot roast, as they call him, the defense coordinator from the D-Line coach.

That's the key. They're going to run a 3-3-5. In Florida State's one of the few schools that ran a 4-25 that has the big bodies to run a three-man line. They got massive players. I think that'll be the biggest change. And they brought also Evan Cooper.

from Nebraska. He was a South Florida guy. He played at one of the public schools in Miami back in the day. I think they're recruiting better already. They've got guys that have continuity that know each other. They can't be. There's no way it's going to be worse than it was last year. First off, I know that's not even like jumping over an inch, but still, they could be one of the most improved teams in the country that potentially. So I like what they did. I'm surprised that they did as well as they did, but they went out and spent a lot of money too. You lost me a pot, I think if you can't get it done with a man named pot roast, just blow it all up. It's not even worth trying anymore.

If you can't get it done with pot roast, that's exactly. That's incredible. Well, Terrence Knighton's his name, but everybody calls him pot roast. That was his nickname when he was in the NFL, and it's just stuck. And he likes it. So we just call him far. You can't win with pot roast. You drop the lawsuits.

You just cancel the football program. Oh, here we go. Here we go. There's all relevant. Yeah. Are those lawsuits still going? Like, I feel like, you know, Back when Florida State was coming off, you know, 13 and 0, 13 and 1, every day people are talking about the lawsuits.

I haven't heard a peep about those for like three months now. You and me both. And for the record, as I stayed all the time on locked on someone else, I hate covering the lawsuits. It is so boring. Because these lawyers are all just posturing and making crap up as they go. I have no interest in it. When somebody decides something, I'll report it. Until then, not so much.

Maybe they realize that if they leave the ACC, they're probably not going to be in a Power 5 conference anymore. So they might have to go elsewhere. They might have to join the group of five. Hey. I don't know what's going to happen, but I don't think it will end quickly. That's the only thing that I'm assured of. They could go independent like Notre Dame, who's playing in the national championship game. But the Buckeyes are big favorites.

Let's talk about what we think is going to happen. on January 20th when Ohio State takes on Notre Dame. You guys want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on the ACC squad. Guys, I love prize picks. I haven't playing prize picks since 2021. So to have them aboard with us on the lockdown network, I love it. Prize picks is the place to get real money sports action.

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McLaughlin on Lockdown College Football. He does an awesome job. I'm sure he'll be talking about the championship game coming up. Locked-on college football, it's available free, wherever you get your podcast and available free on YouTube. Now, first and foremost, I like the reactions you guys gave me at the top of the show when I asked if we in the ACC, if we're if we're claiming Notre Dame because my guy Kenton said earlier this week on locked on ACC, he wants to claim Notre Dame. Now I'm a Miami guy. So I've hated Notre Dame since the 80s. And yeah, I'm old. So I cannot claim the fight. Are any of you in here claiming the crying Irish this week? No. No. Notre Dame does its own thing. It's an independent, but they're smart on how they do business. That's what it is.

If it was basketball, you have me. If we're talking about the NCAA tournament championship, Ohio State versus Notre Dame, it would be a very weird matchup for basketball. But yeah, you got me there because Notre Dame's in the ACC. Not in football, though. Last time I checked. We did get that one year, the COVID year. They were, they were football members for that one year. So we had them then. I couldn't believe the ACC just folded like that and just let Notre Dame walk all over them for only one. Yeah. That was beautiful.

Let him come in, win the championship. Yeah, right the hell out. It was crazy. Now, what do you think, what do you guys think is going to happen on January 20th? I'll let, I'll let Jackson start and we can go around the table. Because personally, I, I don't think they have the firepower to hang with Ohio State. I have note like Notre Dame I think has the defense to make the game close for a while and interesting. But at a certain point, Ohio State, who also has a heck of a defense, I think it's going to run away with this one in the second half, probably win by double digits.

Yeah, I'm pretty much an agreement with you on that. I don't, I think this could be one of those games where it's one possession in the fourth quarter. And then the final score looks a little bit different than how the game actually goes. I think it's going to be relatively low scoring. but if I had to make an early prediction, I would say Ohio State 24 to 10. I think these are two defenses that are outstanding. And we know that, you know, Ohio State's offense is great too,

but you can stop them. It has been done before. They can be somewhat stopped. They can be somewhat slowed down at times. But I do think they have just a little bit more firepower against the team like Notre Dame. And they're just going to have that late field goal, late touchdown.

and I just think it's going to be 24-10. Go ahead, Grace. My worry for Notre Dame is Riley Leonard as a passer. We know he's a great athlete. He's very good at running an RPO, especially when you have Jeremiah Love in the backfield. That always helps as well. But I'm not convinced that Riley Leonard can get it done well enough

through the air against his Buckeye defense. I too think Ohio State's going to run away with it late. I got them by at least 10. I think it's going to be somewhere in the ballpark of like 31, 20. Buckeyes, 31.20. I've got 3121, so Grayson and I think I like. Notre Dame has so many moving parts on their offensive line that it's insane. The right guard shouldn't play, but he might have to.

Their backup left tackle might be replaced by the guy that he took over for earlier in the year, but now he was playing guard. They've got musical chairs on the O line. How do you think that's going to go against four guys that are going to play in the NFL? NFL and the D-line from Ohio State. Probably not well. No. Yeah, it's like it's just, it's a war of attrition in Ohio State's had a lot of problems up

front with injuries too, but Notre Dame's a mass unit. Like they've lost like four or five starters from their defense and they're still unbelievable what Al Golden has done. But at some point, even if it's just one play where one of those guys hits a big play, do you really think Notre Dame's going to be able to win? The only way they can, in my opinion, is that they get a freebie off a block punt or something. like, but they're great at. They need a free touchdown.

And I'm not trying to pick on them, but Ohio State staff has puckered before. If Notre Dame got up 14 to 3 because of a big turnover, a pick six or something, that would be their chance. They can't play from behind. Yeah. So if they play even or up, they got a chance. But after the first quarter, if it's not that way, Notre Dame is true. I'll say this too about Ohio State. They definitely have that team of destiny feel to them right now.

After they got embarrassed by Michigan, the SEC comes up to the shoe and they trounce them. They get a rematch with Oregon, beat them by 20. And then you face Texas in Dallas and you get the 80-some-odd yard fumble recovery through the heart of Texas, they're calling it. This looks like a team of destiny if I've ever seen one. So if that isn't a reason enough, I think the Buckeyes are going to take this one. That's fair. Yeah, boy, was that an awful call by Sark to do that toss? That was one of the worst calls on every.

In the red zone. Oh, my goodness. They had one day to go and had a first down. Come on, man. Come on. You're freaking Texas, bro. Come on. You know, it's going to be interesting, though.

Let's say Ohio State wins this game. They still lost to Michigan. They did. So I'm very curious. I got to find Ohio State fans here and ask them, okay, would you prefer to win the national championship or beat Michigan? I'm just saying that. I don't know.

You don't take the chance. I mean, you got to take the title, but like, they still hate Ryan Day. Like, I grew up close to the hard line. Those people are in a cult. It is a cult, straight up. No if-ins or butts. It's the worst fan base in college sports. Oh, there's no quite.

Like, if Ryan Day wins his championship, he's the guy that the fans are not going to give any credit to. Because to them, he's still the guy who loses to Michigan. They're good credit to everyone but Ryan Day. Yeah. It will be a very interesting offseason to discuss all of that about Ryan Day. And I'm going to hear all kinds of things about it, and I'm going to enjoy all of it, as I'm sure all of you. If he wins the title, I think he should, he could probably have his choice of other jobs. You take a, I think he should win the title and then put both middle fingers up and leave Columbus on top and show the fans out of way.

Why would he leave? Where else is he going to go? What better does it get to then Ohio State? Well, I mean, I mean, Syracuse would take him. I mean, I love Frayne Brown. Okay, here we go. That's my point. Where else are you going to go, man?

You're at Ohio State. You get replaced Mike Norvell after he wins four games next year. You're going to go to Florida State? Have you seen the meme where it's like, I accidentally became important at work and it's ruining my life? That's Ryan Day. He is a living and body of that. That is a great meme. That's fantastic.

That is absolutely fantastic. Well, on that note, I want to thank everyone for making the squad. your first listen and your first watch today. A huge shout out, of course, to Jackson Holzer from Lockedon, Syracuse. Make sure you check out his work. Brian Smith at Lockdown Seminels, Grays and Boone, Locked on Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono from Lockdown Canes. Make sure you smash that like button and subscribe.

Of course, you could be listening to this on any of our channels or on Lockdown ACC. Make sure you subscribe to all of them on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your pods. And we'll talk to you next time on another episode of the squad right here on the Lockdown podcast. Network, your team every day.