Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC SQUAD - What Analysts Say About the ACC Ahead of Week Twelve

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

ACC football descends into unprecedented chaos with five one-loss teams battling for the conference championship. Can any of them survive the gauntlet to reach the College Football Playoff?The squad breaks down the messy race featuring Georgia Tech, Virginia, Pittsburgh, SMU, and Duke, while traditional powers Clemson, Miami, and Florida State watch from the sidelines. Key matchups include Clemson at Louisville on Friday night, Duke hosting Virginia in the week's premier game, and Pittsburgh's brutal stretch against Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, and Miami. Pat Narduzzi's controversial comments about not caring about the Notre Dame game spark debate about conference priorities versus playoff positioning.The conversation shifts to ACC basketball's freshman revolution, spotlighting Cam Boozer, Caleb Wilson, Kai Anthony, and other first-year stars already dominating the conference. From Boozer's first-team All-ACC trajectory to Carmelo Anthony's son making immediate impact at Syracuse, these freshmen are reshaping the basketball landscape.Tune in for brutally honest assessments of which ACC football teams actually deserve playoff consideration and which freshmen will crack the All-ACC team. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The ACC is an absolute unmitigated mess, and I have no idea who's going to emerge from the heap. We better assemble the squad to figure it out. 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.

Hey there, what's up? It's Thursday, November 13th, 2025. Welcome into this week's episode of the ACC Squad Show. And we're trying to figure out if we should send anyone to the CFP or not. I think we would all answer equivocally. The answer is no. Maybe we should just look ahead to baseball season or something like that. joining me on the show today from locked on syracuse mr jackson holzer from locked on fs u sennels mr brian smith from locked on blue devils jay jason and half of the host of locked on wolf pack mr grace and boon i'm your host today isaac shade host of locked on tar heels you're joining us at the place to get your ac c content every single day it's part of the locked on podcast network which fellas now the number one sports podcast network in the entire galaxy yes That's right, the entire galaxy.

We're number one. Special shout out to all you every dayers who have joined us. Great to be with you. Here's where we're headed on the show today. The ACC is a mess, but somebody's going to come out of this thing and head off to the CFP. Who on earth is it going to be? Could be JJ's Blue Devils.

Then we'll look ahead to this week's slate where we've got five one lost teams. Is there any hope for the two lost teams remaining? And then also we got a look on the hardwood where there are a slew of insanely talented, freshman already making an impact on the ACC. In fact, this week's ACC co-players of the week are both freshmen. Fellas, what on earth are we supposed to make of our conference? Virginia loses at home to Wake, Louisville loses at home to Cal. Duke loses at Yukon. Clemson beats Florida State 2410 in a game that maybe could have been the ACC Conference Championship game preseason and now it's laughable. Here's the question. It's funny.

I'm going to ask it this way and then somebody's going to laugh at it. Is there any hope in all of God's green goodness that we could have more than one ACC team in this year's CFP? No. Do you want me to reply? I just wanted to see what the response you all had. No, is the absolute unequivocal answer. They might not even get one.

We shouldn't. We probably should not have one. Here's where things sit right now. there are five one-lost teams Georgia Tech Virginia Pitt SMU Duke which guys that means that there is no Clemson no Miami no Louisville no Florida state that we're looking at even making the championship game much less being our representative so let me ask you this way is there any hope that either of the two lost teams Miami and Louisville will jump one of those one loss teams but that would mean that four of the five one loss teams have to lose again. Never say never if the season has taught us anything so far at this point, you know, that someone could back door their way into this thing, with given how the ACC's been. That's a fair statement to be really on. I might be the most true statement we hear all night. I got a question. I got a question. Is there anyone in the ACC who you think can win a

national championship? This year? Yeah. No. No. Hell no. No. We're talking football, right? This is Still football? I'm just glad we could all laugh at the futility of this conference this year. I love how, like, we can sit here and complain about how there's anti-ACC bias and everything like that, but the reality is that this conference just isn't good right now. It's just not good. There are no good teams in this league. And by good teams, I mean, anyone who has a remote possibility of winning a national championship.

There's not even a team you can make, make the case that, you know, you know, if it breaks right, they could maybe make the semifinal. Like, no, all these, whoever is lucky enough to get the one bid from the ACC, and I say lucky because I don't know if they would actually get the bid because, remember, you're not guaranteed a bid just because you win your conference. It's the best five power, it's the best five conference champions. It doesn't mean you have to be a power for conference just to get in. But the team that gets in is going to get slaughtered.

That's just what's going to happen in all likelihood. They're going to go in there. They're going to be, what, the 12 seed? 11. It'll be the 11, it's, because 11 or 12, whatever it is, and they'll get to play, you know, how about Georgia? Okay, cool. That doesn't sound fun.

That's going to be awesome to talk about. This conference is bad. You know what's crazy. Georgia against Virginia. Georgia against Virginia, you're not excited about that, Jackson? I mean, I'm honestly concerned Well, Brian, Brian, Brian,

going into that game. You just said it, Brian, Virginia at Georgia in Athens. What is the line of that game? Like, that tells us how many, like 14 minus 14? Like, what's the line of that game? 14. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. 34.

No, no, 34. 17, 18. Yeah, I mean, legit. Three possessions is the line in that game. 100%. Sanford Stadium will be Liddy. Grayson, what were you about to say? The longer I sit here and look at it,

I don't know if the ACC will end up getting a team because we know that Duke has a pretty favorable path to get to the conference championship. If they win that and get the auto bid, I'm not sure they're going to be ranked higher than, let's say, a USF if they go on to win the American because they're currently, what, 24th right now? If they keep winning, they're going to be ahead of Duke.

but then there would have to be a sixth conference that would get ahead of the like the ACC champ would have to be sixth to not get in right does that make sense the fact that i'm bringing this up is in fact a problem two gets four losses and that's one of those is to you con yeah they got blown out by illinois i know people will say well it wasn't as bad as the story in gates but the reality is so is 4519 5 turn of yeah okay So we've got, of these five one lost schools, Georgia Tech has at Boston College and then hosting Pitt, Virginia is at Duke hosting Virginia Tech. Pitt is at Georgia Tech hosting Miami. That doesn't seem hopeful for Pitt.

SMU hosts Louisville and then is at Cal. Duke hosts Virginia is at North Carolina and then hosts Wake. Of those five, do you think that two can come out still having just one loss? Do you trust anybody in this league? this is a really easy question. Absolutely not. No. Yeah, I think everybody will have two losses walking in, if not three, into the title. Like, I mean, if Miami somehow found their way into the title game still, would it surprise any of us?

And they could. So Miami and Louisville are the two two loss teams. Miami still has NC State at Virginia Tech and at Pitt. That's their remaining schedule. They'll find a way to blow it. If the Pitt game, I'm just going to go ahead and call this because I've lived in Florida. If that game is cold and snowy and wet, South Florida kids ain't playing ball there. That ain't going to work.

But if it's a dry track, no, seriously. I don't know. You're right. Now, they'll be in Parkas before they get on the plane. So that's my only concern for them there. But Pitt, they got Notre Dame this week, and they're going to be beat up. Then they got tech in Miami. That kind of eliminates them.

That they'll be too beat up. I don't know if I, nothing against JJ here, but Duke, like that team is. It's civil. It is dysfunctional in so many different ways. JJ, what's your response to that? You see it every week. I mean, yeah, it was so disheartening to drop the Yukon game in the manner in which that they did when the offense has been so great

throughout the course of the season, but in the losses, it's been costly turnovers from Dary and Mintsa, who's, again, he's been awesome. It's just you can't have as many turnovers and keep trying to find ways to win games like that. So, yeah, of the teams that are out there, it feels good to still have a chance mathematically. But also, as you just listed, Isaac, so many of these teams that are still in the hunt only have two ACC games left because they either have a buy week still to come or they've got their rivalry game out of conference. Whereas Duke still has to go unbeaten in three conference games, knowing how crazy the ACC has been this year.

And we'll talk specifically more about the Duke Virginia game coming up. So let's hang on to that. But JJ, I mean, you make a great point. The more games you got to play as unpredictable as these teams are, there you go. So, Grayson, let me ask you this question. It's ACC Championship Saturday. The two opponents in that game have a total of how many ACC losses, two, three, or four?

I'm going to say. Does that make sense what I'm asking? I'm going to say three. I'm going to say three. I think somebody's going to have one and the other loss. Okay. So you think we will have at least one two lost team in the ACC championship game? Correct.

Yes. Okay. Jackson, you agree? I agree. It's just too cluttered right now. It's hard to envision that two teams are going to walk away from this with only one conference loss. No. It's either going to be three or four.

And four of the five have a game against one of the other one lost teams. The only one that doesn't is SMU, but they host Louisville and then. have to travel out to Cal. And so it's just, man, it's tough to know, boys. I mean, do you trust SMU? No. Yeah, they lost to Wake Forest.

I know they beat Miami and then you lose to Wake Forest. It's just like, what? Not only they lose, brother. They scored 12. That's not good. This is a Paralyana. More than that three games in a row at this point. That right there disqualifies all kinds of things.

But by the way, I know we'll get into it later. I'm curious if anybody's heard anything on Chandler Morris in regards to his health and anybody that has any quarterback injury stuff, we need to talk about that. We got quarterback injuries. Okay. Yeah, Syracuse is struggling with that right now. Well, let's get into it. Out of all the bad teams in the bad conference, we might be the worst.

We're terrible. All right. Then we got to look ahead to this weekend where we've got a. Clemson at Louisville game that a lot of us on this show preseason predicted would be the ACC championship opponents and it's just now a random Friday night game. But the big game of the weekend is somehow Virginia at Duke. So we'll get to that and much more to get ready for this weekend. Coming up in just a second. Right after I'd tell you about Fandle y'all, the NBA is back and there's no better place to get in on that action than Fandle, the official sports betting partner

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actually counted for the conference standings. Right now, Fandul is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet win. So head on over to fanduel.com to sign up and play your game with Fandle, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Welcome back into this week's episode of Locked on ACC Squad show, your first listen of the day. And thank you for making locked on the number one sports podcast network in the world. You're listening to the ACC, which is not the number one conference in the world. I can tell you that we, uh, from a football standpoint or maybe fifth or six, hopefully right now. Let's look to tomorrow night's game, Clemson at Louisville, 7.30 p.m. Eastern on ESPN or something else for those two of us who still have YouTube TV.

this is a game that preseason multiple of us picked as an ACC championship game. But now it's a whatever game on Friday night, although Louisville, even with that loss, sitting as one of our two lost teams in the ACC. Brian Smith, as you look at the makeup of this game, it's funny to ask it this way, but can Clemson play spoiler to the Cardinals? Well, their defense and their front's starting to play a little better. You can ask Florida State who, I mean, they shot themselves in the football. foot about 125 times in the first half of that game last week.

But they're not going to be easy to move the ball on. And right now, Louisville's quarterback, man, like outside of, no offense to Jackson over here, outside of Syracuse, you might have the least trustworthy quarterback in the league in a clutch moment. And that's the guy at Louisville. So if they don't protect better than I expect is Louisville's biggest Achilles heels, the offensive line, I like Clemson. And I think they'll win by double digits because I don't think they'll be able to block them.

Grayson, what do you make of it? I don't think I've ever been less sure of a potential outcome of a game. I mean, Clemson, what the hell do you look at at this point? They're four and five. Maybe they're playing better now, but like Clemson is four and five. Clemson, okay? Louisville. Now, Isaac, you posed a question.

Can Clemson spoil Louisville? Louisville's already spoiled. So there's that. So like, does Louisville have to get up for this game? I don't really know. Like how do they, how do they respond to losing to Cal? Because that was your season ahead of you and you let that get away. So, yeah, this is most certainly a football game.

It will be played on Friday night. I think that's all I got for now. But Grayson, the reason I post it that way is Louisville is one of our two lost teams. There are some things that could break where they still make the ACC championship game. They don't deserve it, though. They blew it. No, I agree. That's how we all feel right now.

Grayson is, you're preaching to the choir right now. Like, okay, you sure, Louisville, go ahead, you know, beat Clemson. Clemson isn't good. They're four and five. Like, I, I, I, we've given Clemson enough chances here on this show to actually be something this year. They're nothing. They're four and five. They're done.

They have to, they, they're fighting to just make a bowl this season to make a dabble has to talk about refs to become relevant for Clemson to be relevant. Right. Right. You lost a Duke and we're talking about the refs. The refs. You lost to Duke. Duke just lost to Yukon. Like, who's going to win this game?

Okay, fine. They're at home. I'll go with Louisville. Oh, wait. Last week they were at home. They lost the Cal. So who's going to win? No clue.

No clue. I don't have a pick. Okay. Well, speaking of those dupe, go ahead, JJ. You were about to say something. The more I think about this, I think I'm in the, you know, you asked Grayson earlier, two losses, three losses, four losses, whatever. And all week, I've been thinking about all the various tiebreaker scenarios and how difficult of a decision this could get down to.

At this point, just let everybody have two losses to make tiebreakers even more impossible to figure out because that's honestly what this ACC season deserves. Flip a coin. We're getting very close to like a tribal council situation. It's like the Friday Night Lights movie, right? Remember they go to that diner because there's three teams and they flip a coin to see who's going to. Man, it's crazy. Okay, JJ, I'm coming right back to you because the game of the week in the ACC, as we all expected it to be for week 12 or whatever this is, is Virginia at Duke. These are two of our five, one loss schools. So one of them, guys, I don't know if you know how math works.

One of these schools is now going to have two losses in the ACC. It's the wildest thing, JJ, this game is at home for you, 3.30 Eastern on Saturday, ESPN2. I just said it Duke favored at Fandul by six and a half. What do the Blue Devils have to do to bounce back from losing to Dan Hurley, Alex Caraband, and Yukon? No, that was, yeah, absolutely. I think looking at this game in particular for Duke, quarterback play is obviously got to improve, which is crazy that you're saying that when you're talking about Derry Amensa,

who's been atop the country and passing yards per game for the entire season. But the bottom line is this year, when Duke has protected the football, nobody has stopped them. This offense has racked up yards getting up and down the field. And Brian pointed it out a little bit earlier. There is a major question at the quarterback spot on the opposite side line with Chandler Morris, the Virginia quarterback, who did not practice early in the week. We will see how that progresses throughout the course of the week.

Tony Elliott is not even labeling this a concussion. It's just an upper body issue is what they're labeling it there at Virginia. But it was so clear in the tackle that was made. Duke did not look too good after that play played out. So certainly that's going to be a big indicator into how successful I think that Virginia will be able to be in this game. Okay. Look, here's the other thing.

Of the rest of our one lost teams in the ACC, only one of the others is playing an ACC game, and that's Georgia Tech at Boston College. Let's just, can we just, well, I guess we shouldn't assume it's going to be a victory, but please, dear goodness, Georgia Tech. I'm looking at you dead in the eyes, Brett Key. Do not lose this football game. Okay. The other thing is Pittsburgh is going out of conference hosting Notre Dame.

You know, Notre Dame plays an ACC slate. Pitt, let's just say, their games, their remaining games are hosting Notre Dame at Georgia Tech, hosting Miami. If there is some crazy world where Pitt can mess around and go three and O in that, they're in the ACC championship. game and have done something notably by starting by beating Notre Dame at home. But here's my question to you, Jackson Holder. Is that laughable that I would even suggest that that might happen this Sunday at what I still call Three Rivers Stadium? Yes and no.

They're not going to beat Notre Dame. That's the problem. I mean, they're already giving it up. They're already giving up on Notre Dame. Pat Narduzzi already in his press conference is giving up on Notre Dame. He just doesn't care. He's asked, do you care about the game? No, I don't care.

It's not a conference game. They're probably going to play all backups. You might as well. It doesn't matter. You don't want to get anyone hurt. You're already going to get beat up anyway from Notre Dame. They're probably going to kill you up front. So I don't think they're going to beat Notre Dame.

Can they beat Georgia Tech on the road? They can beat Georgia Tech on the road. Can they beat Miami at home? Absolutely. Miami is not good. Oh my goodness. How were they ranked number two in the country at one point? They are not good at all.

Did you see the first half of the game? against Syracuse? They were lifeless. If they were playing any college football team with a pulse, they would have lost that game, totally would have lost that game. They wouldn't have even been competitive with the way that they started out. They were brutal. But you know, you're going up against Ricky Collins, so you get to be brutal for two quarters and you can still be zero, zero. Miami is not good at all. So you want to sit here and say, yeah,

Pitt can go on the road to beat Georgia Tech. Of course, I'm not a believer in Georgia Tech. I don't believe in anyone in the ACC. Could they beat Miami? Yeah. Are they going to beat Notre Dame, who ironically lost to Miami? Probably not. They're not going to beat Notre Dame.

I think they'll beat one of Georgia Tech or Miami. You do? I don't like the chance. What is more likely to you? I would say that the Georgia Tech game, because Georgia Tech doesn't have the defensive players to put up with the physicality that Pitt plays with,

and their running backs catch the ball well and that quarterback. I know he's a true freshman. That guy just makes weird plays that don't even make any logical sense. He's good, man. Like, that kid's eventually going to get paid to play football, and I ain't talking about NIL.

So Georgia Tech will probably get smoked by them if I was to guess defensively. They'll score. Pittsburgh's defense will give up some plays, but I think they'll go. I think right now I'll go ahead and go. I think Pitt will go to Georgia Tech and win. If I'm not mistaken,

I think I actually predicted that on last week's show. I do think that Pitt is going to beat Georgia Tech. But real quickly on Narduzzi, what he said, he's right. I mean, he's... I know he is right. He's right. However, you can't say that because now,

how do you approach this game? Everyone knows that you don't care about the outcome. Do you even bother playing Mason Heinchel? Do you just go out with Holstein? I don't think it's a bad idea per se, because if your goal is to make it the ACC championship, going full throttle against a Notre Dame team that has to go full throttle, by the way, Notre Dame cannot afford to mess around and lose this game. So they will be going 100 miles an hour at you.

How does Pitt manage this game? I think that's a massive question in my mind. I think it was, he's just playing reverse psychology on Marcus Freeman. He's like, I'm going to get Notre Dame to relax and not do anything. And we're going to cut the guns blazing. That's not going to work. That's just that that's not going to know. Hey, quickly, Grayson, while you're talking before we move to our final segment, the other two loss team is in action.

And you guys, the NC State Wolfpack, are traveling down to Coral Gables this weekend. Can, can NC State give Miami their third ACC loss? Grayson, what do you see? Because I think Miami kind of stinks. I'll say they can. NC State can win this game. Do I think they will? Probably not.

I mean, it is a homecoming game for C.J. Bailey, so maybe you get some kind of bump out of that. They're coming out of a buy, so they've had some extra time to get some guys back healthy, Hollywood Smothers and Justin Jolie, to name a few. They got their guys back if they can keep, you know, relatively the same game plan against Georgia Tech, where basically a race to 50, if you can go out and try and put 50 on Miami, maybe you got a shot. But I think Miami's defense will pose a different task than Georgia Tech did. So I think Miami's going to end up winning that game. This is an audition game for C.J. Bailey.

And Miami fans do know exactly what I'm saying. The people are saying this. This is what the game. DJ Bailey goes out there 400 yards, four touchdowns, leads NC State to a win. Someone in Miami is going to be calling in January. You may hear people complain about that. I will not be one of them. I'll be happy.

Interesting. Interesting. Grayson Boone. No, I want to win this football game. That's all. Oh, you just, okay. Next year, next year, brother. You want to worry about the future in the future.

You just want to win a game. Okay. I'm going to want to know. I have one game ahead of me this weekend. I'm trying to go one and oh. Grayson's playing for now. Mario Cristobal is playing 4D chess where he's like, boys, we're going to tank this game so we can get C.J.

Bailey next year. That's what's happening here. SMU, the other one lost team is idle this weekend. By the way, Rhett Lashley, their head coach is going to be in studio for this week's college football kickoff. So make sure you check that out on 5. TV boys. We got to talk some hoops because the nation has been taken storm by this incredible crop of freshmen and the ACC is a massive part of that. We'll get you up to speed and I want to ask

the guys how many of those freshmen are going to make the ACC teams in the postseason. We'll get to that throughout the show in just a second. Right after I tell you about supply house, when the opening whistle blows on a new repair, get your crew moving forward with supply house. Order today and see parts on your doorstep tomorrow over 280,000 plumbing, HVAC and electrical items from the most trusted brands in the business. Their real-time inventory and honestly times keep you from punting projects while their industry leading customer service always has your blindside covered. You need parts fast for a project? No worries. Supply House has next day delivery. Man, talk about a game changer. They've got part finder tools in 3D schematics that can save you

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By the way, look at Jackson, Holzer Johnny on the spot, changing his background to what is still the Carrier Dome, aka fine, whatever JMA wireless thing. Camboozer at Duke, Caleb Wilson at North Carolina, Mikhail Brown Jr. at Louisville, Newell Obdelos at Virginia Tech. Wilson and Obdelas, by the way, co-ACCC players of the week, Mozilla down in Atlanta at Georgia Tech, Shelton Henderson at Miami, Matt Abel in Raleigh with Grayson Boone, Kai and Anthony up at Syracuse, Tister Ritter at Virginia, Jalen Harrelson at Notre Dame, at Bucca O'Core at Stanford, who is the third leading score in the nation right now, and that's not even mentioning all the rest of the dudes on Duke's stable of players. You guys,

my question to you, Jackson, I'm actually going to start with you, since you've got Carmelo's offspring happening up there in Syracuse, how many freshmen are going to take up one of the 15 slots on the three all-ACC postseason teams? I think at least five. I think so. That's a lot. You're already at five, yeah, I think five. Grayson, do you, is that because you think it'll be more or less. I'm going to go a little bit less. I'll say like three. That was my take as well. Three, Brian? Yeah, I just think a lot of kids, like, Boozer, I've seen play live. Like, I've been around him that is lock, stock. Oh, yeah, that makes sense. I've met him, like, that's first team all ACC, one and done. Screw you guys, I'm out of here, the whole nine yards. But not many kids are built

mentally like he is, as well as physically. How many of those guys are going to be good in February right before the ACC tournament and all that. I can see a few guys coming close, but I'll agree with Grayson. I think three is more likely. Jay? I'd probably lean closer to five than three, just given how talented this group is.

But then, you know, the more I think about it, it's like, man, I'm cut down the number of spots for the great experience players that you've got in this conference as a whole and a lot of guys that are going to make big time plays for their team this year. But, you know, someone like Cam Boozer, Caleb Wilson, at North Carolina, Mikhail Brown, those are absolute locks.

What the kids been doing at Virginia Tech, Isaac, you hammered the pronunciation there, which was remarkable. He's been awesome to watch this season. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he's on it at the end of the year. And it just takes another one to kind of make the list there. So I'm actually going to lean more towards that five number than three. Yeah, I mean, of the 15, if you're giving me overspore,

split the difference. Like four, yeah. Thank you, Grayson. Yeah, I mean, because you start thinking about the other players that are likely to make this list, like a Marcus Burton at Notre Dame, for example, right? Like they're going to be on there. But when we talk about 15 slots and like, it's not just these freshmen are talented. It's how high level and impactful they already actually are for their teams.

I'm going to take the over on five. Now, I mean, we're not going to blow past it. But I legit think it could be six or seven of those 15 slots when you start to look at the entire impact of all these dudes. I mean, it is something pretty crazy to behold right now. That said, yeah, JJ, I think the three names you said are probably the obvious ones with Abdelas. It's those four. And then beyond that, you just need two others to pop.

And then you've really got something going. Now, it's interesting, though, fellas, because it feels like lately, you know, we had Cooper Flagg, obviously was the conference player of the year last year. But both in the ACC and nationally, it's been dominated lately. by more senior laden or upperclassman laden teams. However, we're now past that COVID eligibility. And maybe the freshmen are going to start having more of an impact.

And there's something to that. Grayson is asking in our chat, sorry, just behind the scenes, everybody, if somebody's glitching, it might be me. Are others of you experiencing a glitch as well?

I'm good right now. I'm good. Okay, perfect. We keep on trucking. welcome behind the scenes everybody so um like as you look at that um it's going to be really interesting to see how that all um plays out jackson i want to come to you because with kai and anthony being like a living legend in this league how big an impact do you think he as we think about the freshman versus the upperclassman as you look at say him compared to a j j starling

what level of impact will anthony have for this orange team through two games, he looks like a top three player on the team already. And I'm not trying to disrespect the other players on Syracuse. I think that's just how good Cayenne looks right now already. And I'm pleasantly surprised because I knew going in that he was a good score. Like that's what he was built up to be. He's going to come into college basketball and he's going to score. But you look at where he's ranked and it's like, okay, he's around the 30s.

Okay, so is he going to pop right away or is this more going to be like he's going to pop in year two? He's good right away. The kid can do basically anything on the offensive end already. Like he does need to get bigger. He does need to get stronger. He's still young. We get all of that. It's only been two games against mediocre competition at best.

Not mediocre competition. I'm being nice there. You know, lower mid-major teams. But he looks like a top three player on the team already. J.J. Storling is out right now. with an injury. We don't know how long he's going to be out for. I feel perfectly confident with Kai and Anthony right now as the starting two guard.

It's like they're not missing it. They didn't miss a beat in the last game. They didn't miss a beat in the season opener without JJ Starling. So Kyan looks great. And it's not just because his last name is Anthony. Like he's legitimately a really good basketball player already. J.J, for your school and for my school, I think they are going to both be led by freshman.

Camboozers should be by all sorts of metrics, Duke's best player, same for Caleb Wilson at North Carolina. But elsewhere in the triangle, Grayson, it's an interesting thing there because I think Matt Abel is a massive contributor for this team, but I don't think we project him to be the best player

or the leading score on this team, right? Like that's probably Daryon Williams, for example. How do you see Abel's role fitting into what's going on with this team? Man, it's only been two games,

but he's been giving us, a lot, not just in scoring, but Matt Abel, the true freshman, is our second leading rebounder, which is crazy. He's like 6-2, 6-3, he's a guard, second-leading rebounder. I know it's only two games, but he's been able to do so much outside of just being a pure score, which he is, but he can get on the glass, he can assist pretty well as well. He's averaging three of those a game. He takes care of the basketball. He's just been a jolt of life into the lineup anytime he comes off the bench. I think that if he can finish somewhere around, I don't know, like eight to nine points a game, that's going to raise the floor and the ceiling of this Will Wade bunch.

And we're talking about everyone else. The freshman that he recruited might just be one of the most integral parts of this roster. Man, that's so interesting. Speaking of freshman, JJ, let's forecast ahead to next week because one of the premier highlights of the early part of the season is the Champions Classic each year includes Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, and Michigan State. This year, it will feature your dynamic freshman Camboozer against, who many project to be the number one player in the NBA draft next year, or certainly the two of them

are, you know, both top three in the draft, and that's Darren Peterson. We saw Darren Peterson and Kansas play North Carolina last week. JJ, we're going to get to see that match up with another Tobacco Road team. What do you project ahead of this Kansas Duke game next Tuesday? A whole lot of highlights. First and foremost, when you think about the star power that's on the floor playing in Madison Square Garden, Darren Peterson has been so much fun to watch. of Kansas. I know that's not in our ACC equation, but like you said, he's one of the top players in the entire country.

And Cam Booser, in his debut against Texas, finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds, a double double to start his college career. And you were underwhelmed because an exhibition wins against Tennessee and UCF power conference opponents.

Cam Booser average 28 and 17. I mean, he's putting up video game numbers so far to this point. I don't see anyone out there really stopping him or slowing him down anyways. I think we're going to see a dynamic game being played out. All right. Going to be a lot of fun.

Can't wait to see it. And by the way, it's been great to see the ACC in totality off to a better start this year. Many, like as we record, the only ACC loss is Boston College. So come on, Eagles, what are you doing? But it's just feeling much better than it was last year. But still a lot of room, the ACC has to grow. We'll obviously keep our eyes on. that as the season goes. Great to be together today for the ACC squad show. Again,

make sure you check out Jackson Holes are unlocked on Syracuse, Brian Smith, unlocked on Seminoles, J.J. Jackson on Locked on Blue Devils, Grayson Boone, and Kent Gibbs on Locked on Wolfpack and all the rest of the stable of ACC shows, as well as mine locked on Tar Heels. Great to be together. We'll do it all over again next week. Hopefully Donnell will be back unless the Wolfpack go down there and take care of business and then he might just stay away for another week. We'll see what happens there. This has been the locked on ACC show. It's all part of the locked on podcast network, the number one sports podcast network in the world. Your team every day. We'll see you next week. Peace.