Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC SQUAD - What Happened In Week One for the ACC

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

Alex Dono and the ACC Squad break down all of the major action from week one across the conference. Florida State looked dominant against the Alabama Crimson Tide. The Clemson Tigers fell in a slugfest against the LSU Tigers, the Miami Hurricanes made a statement against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Bill Belichick's tenure at North Carolina is off to a rocky start and much more! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

33rd NFL team. Really? Let's bring in 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 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 ACC squad. Week one is in the books in ACC football. We storm into week number two. Welcome into the squad. Thank you so much to the everydayers.

I think that's Kirk Herb Street's dog that is taken over for Isaac Shade from Locked on Tar Heels. We got Jackson Holeser from Locked on Syracuse, Kenton Gibbs and Grayson Boone from Lockdown Wolfpack. Believe me, neither of them were going to miss this episode after what happened at Bill Belichick on Monday night. J.J. Jackson from Lockdown Blue Devils, and I am Alex Dono from Lockdown Cainz. And thank you so much for making us your first listen. This episode of the squad is brought to you by Mazda.

Just like there's more to every player, more dedication, more attention to detail. There's more to a Mazda vehicle. Stay tuned later in this episode for highlights in this week's moving the game forward. Mazda, move and be moved. All right, Isaac Shade, there's no hiding in this one. I know you wouldn't hide. I was watching your immediate post-game. and you stood in the paint after that disastrous 48 to 14 loss in Bill Belichick's debut at home against TCU. Maybe TCU is the best team in the country. Maybe we'll find out. But Isaac, North Carolina, outside of that first drive, which was majestic, didn't look prepared, weren't tackling well, weren't executing well.

I mean, outside of that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? It was that kind of night for North Carolina. So, Isaac, I'll let you buy the first round. As you noticed, Dono, I've invited Pete Herb Street's dog here to face the music for me. So I'll just, no. I also I'm not sure what you're talking about. I turned the game off after that first drive and forcing TSU to punt on their first drive. So I'm actually not sure what happened after that.

Did something go awry? Because I figured that was it and it was over. No, look. No, it was over. Here's the deal. Clearly, Carolina had a good script for that, opening drive. But guess what? Freddie Kitchen, who had been turned over the offensive coordinator duties, clearly was not ready for anything else the rest of the game after that initial script,

which was great. Let's recognize that. But everything after that, here's the next four drives on offense. You ready? Minus 11 yards, zero yards, one yards, pick six. There you go. There's your first half, right? And then you come out a half time. TCU gets the ball back and you're thinking, hey, look, maybe you can get a stop here and then go, well, first play from scrimmage, 75-yard scamper, and Kenton's doing his happy dance over there. I could feel it, the ground's shaking underneath me with it. It's funny because last week on the show, I said, Carolina could win 10 games or four games and nothing would surprise me. I had also said multiple times this week, Carolina could win this game by 50 or lose this game by 50, and neither would surprise me. Well, we were a fortunate,

uh, victory formation, kneel down away from giving up that 50 burger. And so, I mean, it was just an absolute dumpster fire in Bill Belichick's first game. Thankfully, though, that one loss counts as much as if Carolina had lost by one point. So now you learn what you need to learn. You throw away the film and then you move on. The big question for me going forward is Gio Lopez, who was named QB1, got injured late in the game on a scoop and score. Oh, by the way, the third of three turnovers that all resulted in scores from TCU. good grief.

And then in comes Max Johnson. Great story coming back from that gruesome leg injury last year and puts together a really nice drive looks precise, working through his reads, leads a touchdown drive, touchdown pass to his brother, the tight end, Jake Johnson. So Carolina now has to figure out what they're going to do at quarterback. You don't learn much for the next couple weeks because they're at Charlotte. They host Richmond before going down to Orlando to spend a day at Disney World and then play UCF. So we'll see what happens.

Wow. just so disappointed that you're still running with this narrative that them winning 10 games or them winning by 50 wouldn't have been surprising. But you know, Isaac, you're a basketball guy. So let me help you out a little bit here. Please do, KG. Let me let's bring you on the field a little bit here, okay? Normally, when you have a coach that's never coached this game at this level, you're in a bad way already, right? You're already not off to a great start. But then when you go beyond that and say your quarterback has never played at the Power 5 level, and then you've got the other quarterback with a mechanical leg,

you're in some really deep water at that point, okay? And then the only player on your team from the year before who isn't an accountant who's probably going to play on Sundays is now playing up in Columbus, now you're in the deepest of waters. Now the waters are over your head at this point, and that's what we saw. We saw a team that was over their head.

in domination by the horned frogs. I mean, what an embarrassing show, but this was not surprising for me at all. I said when you said, oh, they could win 10 games and that wouldn't surprise me. Why wouldn't that surprise you? Because this has never been that type of team. And you bring in 70, count them, 70 new players.

And you expect all of them to mesh in jail within the span of anywhere from four to two months? Come on now. We all knew this was coming. We are, if you know, ball. You knew this was coming. And after a week where I was absolutely lousy with the picks, this weekend was just a nasty work for me with picks.

But I'll tell you what, watching Gio Lopez's picks may be feel even better. Watching Bill Belichick's team, most points ever allowed by a Bill Belichick coach team. Hey, Grayson, life like this sure is sweet. Hey, Jay, Jay, life like this can't be beat. Oh, it's a great thought to be in a triangle if you're not in Chapel Bill. And I'm leaving right there.

If it isn't the consequences of their own actions, it's almost like a hire built extensively on optics was destined to fail. 70 players entering your program was never a good idea. The Bill Belichick experience was never a good idea for fundraising maybe, but I think they forgot you got to actually produce on the football field. What an absolute debacle we witnessed in Chapel Bill last night. it was so strange, I think, aside of the final score and all that, but just to watch how, like, completely discombobulated the team was, like, no communication, lack of game plan. It seems like they had their first series scripted, and then outside of that, they're just going to win it, I guess, 48 to 14.

Did they think it was going to go like this? Like, what was their thought entering this game? Did they think they were going to win? I don't know. I don't think TCU is like a world beater. I think Carolina made them look like one. good Lord. I mean, I'm not surprised. I'm actually happy to see this. And to think you actually got Michael Jordan to show up to a football game and to sit there with the school wearing the Jordan

brand gear. I mean, what a just unbelievable first drive that is. We're cutting the cameras to Roy Williams and MJ in the booth, just absolutely love and life. And then the game continued. Wow. Wow. I feel so bad for Isaac Shade. He's he's sitting there taking this like a champ. Like I feel like I need to call like security like round the clock to stand outside his house because Kenton's outside knocking on that door. Like come on. Not even threatening. Not even threatening.

KG's just smiling like a Cheshire cat. He's so happy, you know. We just want to talk, Isaac. Come outside. We're not going to jump you. We're not going to jump you. Come on outside. You mentioned it.

Like Saturday, watching Ohio State in Texas and seeing Bo Atkinson fly around making plays. So my wife is a big Texas fan. I'm just sitting there with my head and my hands wondering how you let Bo Atkinson get away. That was painful. And I think the worst part about all of this for me is now the narrative being spun is, well, he doesn't have the talent. Well, he doesn't have the talent. Oh, boy.

It's almost as if somebody had warned people, hey, in the NFL, those third string white guy receivers that you keep making great are this much slower than their more athletic counterparts. It's a bigger discrepancy when you get to college and all of a sudden, you've got a guy that's going to learn Enterprise rental car as soon as he's done. And he has to check a young man that's name is going to be called very early in the draft. It's almost as if somebody said, Bill's going to have to sit on couches. and win recruiting battles, which, by the way, CJ Sadler, cast technician, who's committed to UNC, if you can hear this, reconsider. Don't do it, reconsider, resubliving.

You sure on the subject, you sure. But I'm a digress. I got to save a technician when I can. Jackson, I'm going to let you take it over. I'm sorry. So the only thing that I want to add to this, well, first of all, with North Carolina, I was also in that boat of North Carolina

can win 10 games this year. They can also win two games this year, and nothing would surprise me. What I learned after the TCU game, is that North Carolina can absolutely not win 10 games this year. Their ceiling is a lot lower and their floor is still probably about to wins. The only silver lining there is for a Carolina fan really here is that it is week one. And week one is always fascinating because you truly don't know after only one game

how each team is really going to be. TCU in their last two 10 win seasons entered both of those even. years unranked, including the year where they went to the national championship game and lost to Georgia. They were unranked heading into that year. Nobody really thought TCU was going to be that good of a program. So if you're a Carolina fan, you're only silver lining from this. And it's a stretch is that maybe just maybe TCU is one of the better teams in the nation. They're not getting a lot of respect yet, but they'll get the respect down the line later on in the season. That's about it if you're a North Carolina fan because other than that, I mean, talk about a first impression.

I mean, here's something else about the talent. Another Carolina podcaster said this on Tuesday of this week. And I thought it was so well said. This for North Carolina is a 10-win schedule with a five or six-win roster. And I thought that was so brilliantly put because as you guys said, it's just not there, right? Like ahead of the game, here's my other point. Donno, I'll turn it to you. I know you're about to say something.

they were talking about, hey, the scouts are here really only watching two Carolina guys. One is Thad Dixon. The other is on the other side of the ball are on the other side, Marcus Allen. And I tell you what, I don't know if a few boys were watching Carolina on defense, but they, TCU picked on Marcus Allen play after play after play. That's number 29. That poor boy got burned all night long. I do not know what that film room was like sitting there for him.

But holy smokes. he just got embarrassed on national TV with no other football games on and they're going to have to figure something out there because dad nixon's going to be able to do it but somebody else has to match it on the other side of the on the other side of the formation well on a brighter note even though clemson let us down before we get there dono before we before we get there and before we get off of this it has been an off season where you can't say bill bellichick without saying jordan hudson and i just wanted to tip my cap to the internet and the memes that we were able to see throughout the course of the night

as well. From asking for concession stand money to having to leave early to make bedtime, all the thing. Have you seen the one where she's got the ball carrier running down the field in that dress? She's picking them up and putting it out. It is phenomenal. I will text you guys right now. I didn't want to cut you off, Dono, but I just wanted to make sure we tipped our cap to the internet because they, They were on point during this game. Unlike Bill Belichick, the internet stays undefeated. And Florida State and Miami are undefeated to start the year after pulling off upsets against top 10 opponent.

I mean, the Florida State upset was massive. We'll talk about that and how they're moving up in the Associated Press poll. The week two poll has come out. You want to keep it locked right here. We're only getting started on the locked on ACC squad. My friends, are you still paying full price for gas? Stop leaving money behind. Get real cash back every time you fill up with the free upside app.

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Upside app now using our limited time promo code, football for a limited time 25 cent per gallon bonus. That's promo code football. Offers vary by user and location. Go to upside.com for terms and conditions. Folks, this is Mazda's moving the game forward. Brought to you by those who believe it's not just about playing the game. It's about redefining it because these moments do more than win. They push what's possible. They remind us to go that extra yard, shift into that extra gear and keep moving the game forward. I'll tell you who moved the game forward this past weekend. Tommy Castellanos, Florida State starting quarterback, he talked all that trash leading up to the Alabama game. Nick Saban won't be there to save them. A lot of folks myself

concluded didn't think he would back it up. And boy, did he. What a performance. Tommy Castellanos at quarterback led the Florida State rushing attack, which put on 230 total rushing yards against Bama with Castellanos leading the way for 78 yards at a touchdown along with 152 passing yards, no interceptions in the game. That was a big time performance. And that's what keeps fans and players moving forward, always chasing that next great moment. When you follow what moves you, the unexpected is only the beginning. And just like there's more to every highlight, there's more to a Mazda vehicle. Mazda. Move and be moved.

Thank you for making the ACC squad your first listen and your first watch. I'm Alex Dono from Locked on Caines. We got Jackson Holzer from Locked on Syracuse, Isaac Shade, who stood in there like a champ from Locked on Tar Heels, J.J. Jackson, Lockdown Blue Devils, Grayson, and Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack. Frankly, my friends, one of the most surprising winners of the entire weekend had to be the Florida State Seminoles. So we'll start with them before we get to Miami over Notre Dame. The Seminoles were 13.5 point underdogs at home against the Alabama Crimson Tide.

And all off season long, we kept hearing about Alabama, one of, you know, the top defensive lines in the country, maybe them and Clemson jockeying for who's got the best defensive line. And I really doubted how Castellanos would perform in this game, especially after all the bulletin board material he provided to Alabama. But guys, Castellanos absolutely ran over the Crimson Tide. Gus Malzahn called a tremendous game on offense. Tony White called a tremendous game defensively. The Seminoles look completely transformed compared to that two and ten debacle from last year.

Now, listen, there's a lot being talked about in Tuscaloosa about. You know, maybe Kaelin DeBore has really lost a lot of that Sabin discipline. But, you know, yeah, maybe Bama is not your father's Alabama Crimson Tide. But we got to give credit to Florida State because they were prepared. They were physical. Alabama was not. So sad. Too bad.

Don't care. Nick Sabin wasn't there to save him. Looks like we were right. I mean, it looks like Thomas Costalanos was right, right? It looks like he was right in saying that because all of the reports that are now seeping out, oh, the board doesn't have this team focused. He doesn't have them as discipline. Their practices are a lot easier than they've been.

Well, all of those things are on who? The head coach. And looks like Thomas was right. Looks like he was right in saying, hey, Sabin was the one keeping everything together down there. And the minute he left, that team starts wreaking to the high heavens. But more importantly, it's not just that they won down. It's how they won.

You punched that team in the mouth. repeatedly. You didn't win that game by Squirrel White just going off and going legend and having a 200 receiving yard game. You didn't win this game by Thomas Costalanos turning into the second coming of Drew Breeze or something like that. And everywhere you look, he was hitting somebody right between the numbers. It was physicality that Alabama was completely unprepared for. And on both sides of the ball. You know, there was no way. that you could have talked about Alabama's offensive line as an Achilles Hill.

And yet, Simpsom was on the run all night. That it was not like he was back there making sandwiches just chilling behind alleged potential number one overall pick, Jayden Proctor. It wasn't, or Caden Proctor, rather. It wasn't what happened. That wasn't how it went down. The defensive line feasted and beasted all night. The offensive line got them some good tied chops in there.

This was a hell of a game for Florida State. Thomas Consolanos deserves a ton of credit because he spearheaded that rushing attack and he backed up the words that were very big. Hey, all credit to Florida State. Way to go. Way to put on for the ACC. I think Florida State's a playoff team. What are they going to make the playoffs?

They didn't just beat Bama. They crushed them. They throttled them. They punched them in the mouth. And by the way, I also apologized to Thomas Tostiano. I'm one of his biggest critics. And you know what? He shut me up.

Big time. And so now I've basically done the complete 180. I look at Florida State's schedule right now. You just throttled Alabama like that. Where are they going to lose this year? Where? Lose to Miami. If Florida State continues to play that way,

there are maybe three teams on the schedule that have a chance at beating. And if Florida State really is that good, they'll find a way to win some of those games. This team now should have playoff expectations. They crushed Alabama. They might be the biggest winner of the entire weekend, if we're being honest. LSU would like a word. I'm talking about from an ACC perspective.

Oh, yeah, for sure. Did we not learn our lesson from Georgia Tech last year after upsetting Florida State and everybody being like, oh, they're great now. This is the squad. Now, they're going to do it now. They decimated the defense. You know what the differences between Georgia Tech and Florida State? Florida State is Florida State.

Georgia Tech is Georgia Tech. Wait, hang on. But what was Florida State last year when they went to? They had a down year. And what I'm telling you right now is down the down year. That was a catastrophe. How they played Alabama? You think Alabama's going to stink the whole year?

Maybe they must stink the whole year. They might. I mean, they lost Oklahoma and Vanderbilt last year. Like, you know. And they went nine and three. Jackson, I'm still getting to ruin my mood after watching, having the most successful hate watching my life. Only Jackson Hozier could get me worked up after having.

I have never seen my ops be as down bad as I saw North Carolina, you know, earlier this week. And you had to come in and ruin it with this blast for me and nods. Okay. How are they going to do against Texas A&M Commerce? Here's a win. Penn State. Win. At Virginia.

Win. Miami at home. That's a tough one, but you're at home. Pit at home. Here's the deal, Jackson. in theory. Stanford on the road.

Again, we're talking about this team as if we know for certain they are a proven commodity that is miles beyond what we saw from Georgia Tech last year after game one. Guess what? Both teams had one game

several sizes against top 10 story programs. That's a fact. That's just a fact. And what you're telling me is Carolina's going to be 11 and 1. I appreciate that, Kent. And that's good to know. All right. Now we're just saying anything.

thing I guess. Get me off. Carolina is not going to lose. Donno, just kick me to the back. I'm leaning into the absurdity of the moment. I'm leaning into the absurdity of the moment. Clearly,

I don't believe that and it's not true. We need a same. Florida State all of a sudden actually does make the playout because I don't know where they're losing except maybe against Miami. I think at Clemson's tough at Florida's tough. At state. Three of their last four games are at Clemson at State at Florida.

They could go one in three. If they play like they did against Bama against those teams, they're going to win for the most part. I mean, okay. So if I'm going to get a jerk reaction thing based on week one, Florida's beaten Clemson because Clemson didn't look that good against LSU. They also played against LSU's a really good team already. And that was a close team. I think both teams are just really good, although there are concerns once again with K.

Klubnick against really good teams. Yeah. That's not here. We're talking about Florida State right now. But I think both are good. What we're assuming here is that. that Alabama is a good football team. At this point last year,

you would have been saying the same thing about Florida State and Georgia Tech, right? Like, because of the week one of it all, right? Like, I've got a fantasy football draft coming up, uh, or that just happened a day or two ago.

And look, I'm not going to overreact to week one when some rando dude scores two touchdowns and run and get him off the waiver wire. Similarly, I don't, like, I don't know what Alabama is. They could end up being incredible.

And Florida state proved it. or Alabama could be what Florida State was last year. And we just don't know yet. The thing is, Isaac, with that fantasy football analogy is sometimes you don't want to overreact, but next thing you know, it's the next Darian Foster. Like if fantasy football is fantasy football, like two touchdowns in week one, next thing you know, they have 16 for the whole season. And here's the good news.

I snatched Darian Foster off that waiver wire and rode him to a championship. I did not. Even with Bama last year, they were not good against unranked teams. That is who this Bama squad. is that is not a new thing for them they lost to a Vanderbilt team that was unranked they lost to an Oklahoma team that was unranked they lost a bowl game to a Michigan team that was unranked what are we doing here pretending a mark of the Kalin de Boer era they lose to unranked teams that's what bama does now can you thought that Alabama was going to throttle Florida state in this game now

now all of a sudden it's the other way around and you think that bama stinks so maybe maybe Maybe you're right. Maybe they do stink. I don't think that they stink. I'm saying they have a pattern of losing to unranked teams that is just a flat out fact. Kalin DeBoar has lost more games to unranked teams in his two years than Bama did. I mean, then Saban did in virtually all of his combined. I'm not saying that Bama's a terrible team. I'm saying Berm is a very volatile team. They play with the best of them. They go out to Georgia and show Georgia, oh yeah, we're a great team and we can beat you even if you're a national contender. But then they go see Diego Pavia walking through that door and they pissed down their leg.

That's who they are. And I thought that because this game had a lot of talk, a lot of hype, national stage, I thought they were going to show up. I was wrong there. I can admit that. I can admit Florida State looked fantastic. I'm not denying that. But what I am saying is calling them a playoff team based off this one game and saying, I don't know where they lose. is absurd, Jackson.

It is absurd on its face. I can get there with Jackson. Go ahead. I can get there. We got two of them. Yeah. It must be the Auburn alum in me, seeing Gus Malzahn back over there on the sidelines,

going back to 2013, seeing what Nick Marshall and Trey Mason did and connecting the same dots with Thomas Castellanos and Jalen Lucas and forgetting that the offense was able to do that against the SEC, and then Malzon's now cooking. looking up against ACC defenses. I can get there. I don't think it's out of the crazy world that things have been set on this show.

I don't think that's certainly one of the more absurd things. Well, you're not setting the bar very high when you say crazy things that are set on this show. Hey, Dono, anything good happened for the, for the Keynes on Sunday by chance? Well, I want to get to that when we come back because I really hope Jackson Holzer has that same big playoff energy when it comes to Miami after their victim. against formerly number six Notre Dame. You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of the ACC squad. And speaking of Miami, guys, it's almost the weekend. It's time to look back and crown this week's MVP on who delivered powered by DoorDash,

just like you can win every Saturday with DoorDash streaks, saving more every time you order. Here's a player who delivered when it mattered most. Let's break it down. We'll go with Ruben Hurricane Bain, Miami edge rusher who had a sack that helped seal the game, had an interception, had two big run stops, a tackle for a loss, graded out at 93.5 out of 100 on pro football focus. That was a huge performance. And guys, when the pressure was on, Ruben Bain came through. No hesitation, no delay. And if you've been watching week after week, you know, this performance probably wasn't a fluke and won't be. And just like Rubin Bain delivered for the Miami Hurricanes, DoorDash delivers.

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Terms apply. Promo period is through November 18th. Got a little close in the fourth quarter, gentlemen, but a successful debut for Carson Beck at Miami. And my most important objective in route to Miami's 27, 24 victory against Notre Dame, for Beck, protect the football, make good decisions. He did both of those things, two touchdown passes, zero interceptions, and you're going to have to hit some big plays.

You know, none was bigger than. And in this case, the catch was better than the throw, but that one-handed touchdown grabbed by CJ Daniels. But I think the big things that made me feel good about Miami's performance was going up against an opponent like Notre Dame, and in that Marcus Freeman era, especially, they're typically beating people at the line of scrimmage. They're typically winning the time of possession,

and they're typically winning the turnover margin. Notre Dame was plus 18 in the turnover margin last year. Miami actually beat them in all of those things. They won consistently at the line of scrimmage, three sacks to one. They protected their quarterback better than Notre Dame did. They had, I think, around 35 minutes time of possession, and Miami won the turnover margin plus two.

So, I mean, Miami's been stacking talent under Mario Cristobal guys for the last few years. And you can certainly see they have the type of roster that I think. And we'll see if Jackson agrees, but I think could be a college football playoff team this year. I do agree. And I think that that should be at bare minimum, the expectation for a team like Miami.

I mean, at minimum, I think Notre Dame is really good. And I think we can all agree that Notre Dame is really good, too. Miami stopped the run of Notre Dame. They stopped the run. How many teams last year were able to successfully do that against a team like Notre Dame? Not, not many. Jeremy, I love back there. It ain't easy to stop the run.

I thought Miami was more balanced team than they were a year ago. Their defense, top to bottom was much better, much better coached. And sure, they hit a little adversity in the fourth quarter with Notre Dame tying the game. But guess what? They went right back down the field. And so I look at Miami and you take a look at the rest of their schedule, just like you do with Florida State. that's going to be a big game. Well, first of all, Miami before that, they got Florida at home.

You don't want to take them lightly. You can get by them. You got at Florida State. You win one of those two games. All of a sudden, everything starts to open up if you're Miami. This is a team that should be competing for an ACC championship, and they should absolutely be in the college football playoff after what I saw in week one. Miami is going to play several more really big games this year,

but I think this is one they really needed. And after they really deflated down. the stretch last year. Primetime marquee game, top 10 opponent. You had to have this one. And my challenge to them last week was, can you stop the run? They did it.

The defense looked to be an improvement over last year, which is more than likely the biggest question I'd imagine Dono coming into this season. They look improved. Carson Beck didn't turn the ball over. In fact, Miami turned Notre Dame over twice, didn't turn the ball over any times themselves. That's the recipe to stay in every game they play this year.

whether it's a great opponent or a mediocre opponent, if they stay on this path, they will be in the CFP. You know, to say that they stop the run is an absolute understatement, if you're truly being honest about this thing, because you take away one 30-yard run from Jedarian Price, and you're looking at 15 carries between him and love

for a total of 48 yards. That is, to say that that stopping the run, They dominated up front. Ruben Hurricane Bain, welcome to number one draft pick conversations now, because there is nobody else that has put together a clear body of work that, you know, we don't have that Trevor Lawrence, Joe Burrow type guy this year where it's like, hey, he's it. It's him.

There's no if, and bans or butts about it. We don't have that type of guy this year. And I'm going to tell you, the way Ruben Bain played, I believe one of the tackles blocking them had a 10 pass-grade, pass-blocking grade. Yeah. It was Anthony Knapp, the starting left tackle, who's really, like, at least I thought, is really good.

Like that was- He ain't going to be starting for very long. He keeps that up. A 10. And a half? For those of you who don't know, it's on a scale from zero to 100. Okay? So this is not even like a regular F. This is one of those F-minuses that Mr. Crocker would give on fairly odd pairs.

This is one of those bad boys. But you know what? It's hard to have any. anything better than that. When Ruben Bay was being an absolute menace the entire game, they dominated up front on both sides of the ball, which to me was surprising. I expected a rock fight in which both teams were, you know, giving a little, getting a little, that wasn't the case at all. It took, it basically took Miami saying, all, we're going to go into a shell and let the clock win the game for Notre Dame to even get back in the thing. Okay. This was a hell

of a performance by Miami. And I'm going to tell you, it leaves me saying the talent is beyond their coaching staff, let's wake up. Let's wake up. Y'all have been the problem for some time down there. Let's wake it up. Let's not, you know, when you got your foot on somebody's neck, TCU showed you what to do. Get to stumping.

Get to get to jumping, okay? Get to doing a little Irish jig on that thing. Do your little river dance on the neck. Don't just say, oh, we got them down. All right, we've done enough. I was thinking about that, hold on, I was thinking about that late game stuff a lot, though, but it's like there's a certain amount of damned if you do, damned if you don't about it. And I always think, especially when I've got Jackson Holes are sitting next to me,

you know, I think about how Miami, you know, blew that 21-0-0 lead against Syracuse and how, you know, how Miami was so past heavy late in the game. They weren't eating enough clock. And so it's like, okay, so yeah, Miami kept running the ball late in the game. if you throw the football, incompletion stops the clock, and then everyone jumps all over Christobal if that happens. God forbid you throw an interception, the worst thing that can happen. And if you try to run the football to the outside,

you risk plays getting blown up and lost yardage. So yeah, Miami got super conservative, but they also did it because they trusted their defense. And unlike last year, they actually had a defense capable of pulling through. So again, I'm not necessarily saying that Cristobal played everything perfectly through the game, but I do want to remind people that if you're throwing the football and going for the jugular against a secondary like that,

a lot of bad things could have happened. And let's big picture this thing a little bit too, if we can. Unlike the Alabama Florida State game, I watch this game. And as CJ Card develops, this feels like a game with two teams that do both have CFP aspirations, right? Let's remember week two last year. Notre Dame loses to whom Northern Illinois am I remembering that correctly and then wound up being one of the last two teams. team standing playing Ohio State on the last night of the season. Miami, Notre Dame, Notre Dame obviously will, they're kind of step brothers to our show here because they're

ACC light and football, whatever. But look, both of these teams, I think have great hopes of being one of those 12 teams playing for all the marbles. It's possible that Notre Dame literally does not lose another game from here on out. That includes the college football playoff as well. So it's a massive, massive victory for Miami because this is one of those. resume building wins that you're going to look back on in late November saying, hey, we beat Notre Dame and Notre Dame's out here 10 and 1, 11 and 1, we should be the three seed instead of the four seats, something like that. It's a very, very big win for Miami. That said, that said Notre Dame has to beat Texas A&M, not this weekend, but the weekend after,

because they ain't got nothing left on the schedule after that of note. And if they lose that game, And this can be very hard from a strength of schedule standpoint as an independent to do what they need to do. And Donald, I think I think that it's tough to say he's in a damn if you do, damned if you don't situation. When the damned if you do is don't give up 17 points in a quarter. Like that's that's the, hey, as a head coach, you've given up seven for the first three. Let's maybe not darn near triple that in the fourth. I don't feel like that's a huge ask of a coach.

You know, maybe it is. Maybe that's too big. You know, I'm an NC state guy. So I've seen Doran do his best do hickey with that a thousand times where you get the lead. And then all of a sudden, inside zone is the only play that we can run now. But I'm just saying, I think that it's, it shouldn't be that big of a requirement to say, if we have the talent to get a big lead, we should have the talent to maintain that lead. Or at least nurse it to where we don't go from.

a three-score game to a field goal game. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I'm just saying that like, I don't, I don't necessarily think the conservative offensive play calling was the downfall. If anything, the final Notre Dame touchdown drive that Miami allowed, like that that was the only time when the defense didn't play well. You know, they gave up that 62 yard completion to Raradon. It was actually a miracle he didn't get into the end zone because there was nobody within 20 yards of him when he caught that football. That was a busted play. Like, that was the type of thing Miami used to do five or six times in a game last year. They did it one time in this game. And then the quarterback draw for C.J. Carr was way too easy. So I thought, if anything, it was maybe more on

that defensive possession than on the play calling. But I want to get into you guys, before we wrap it up here, let me see if I can share my screen with the updated Associated Press top 25 where you see Miami move up into the top five from number 10 to number five. Clemson falls, but just four spots. They stay in the top 10, you know, tough loss. So a close loss against a really good opponent in LSU who is in the top 10. And Florida State rises to number 14. Now, this is one of those things where, you know, Florida State was unranked preseason.

I mean, if they were in the top 25 after beating Alabama, they'd probably be. around that top 10, right? So this is one of those things where the preseason ranking hurts you a little bit. But if anything, we all know, it's week two. There's a lot more football left to play. If they keep winning, it's going to take care of itself. But the other ACC team that's in the mix is SMU at number 17. I think Louisville should be ranked.

They're in the others receiving votes category. But how do you guys feel about the AP top 25 and the ACC's role in it? It looks okay to me. Yeah. I don't have any problems with Miami at 5. Clemson. Clemson deserves some criticism for their loss against LSU, but I don't think it was the worst loss in the world.

So I would definitely keep them in the top 10. There's certainly a contender in the ACC. Florida State, I think it could easily be a playoff team this year. Look at that. They're at 14 in the AP poll right now. I think that they can rise over the course of the season. And then, yeah, you have SMU. And I'm not going to sit here and debate here who should be 24 and who should be 25 right now.

just too early. Donno, speaking of which, I know you said Louisville's in ORV, but Georgia Tech is even higher in O-R-V coming in essentially 28th place. Good win for them against Colorado. Yep. Yep. So there's that. And, you know, like shouts to Virginia, who got two votes in this thing, as well as Duke getting four and Pitt getting two. So we got all sorts of ORVs out there. Hey, listen, I don't care about who's receiving votes. I care about who's in. And, you know, I said something earlier this week about SMU moving back, but it made sense because there were some times where they struggled a little bit.

But upon looking further, upon doing a little bit more research into all the teams, because I'm only one man, I can't watch all the games. You're telling me Arizona State only moved back one spot despite being in a damn dog fight with, what was it, northern Arizona, is it? And they moved back one spot.

Meanwhile, we're sitting here looking at SMU, penalizing them for having, you know, about 10 minute stretches where you go without point. And they won 42 to 13, so the end result was pretty good. It absolutely was. It absolutely was. I just think I'm looking at that saying, all right now. What's going on here?

But yes, Isaac, you're absolutely right. Others receiving votes. There are a lot of ACC teams that are right there on the cusp. Like we always say, locked on ACC, just win your damn games. That's right. Well, we'll leave it at that. Excellent stuff, as always. Make sure you check out all of our other shows.

Kent and Gibbs and Grayson Boone. on Locked on Wolfpack, JJ Jackson on Locked on Blue Devils, Isaac Shade, Locked on Tar Heels, Jackson Holzer, Locked on Sir. I feel like Jackson got off a little, little easy today after that loss to Tennessee. There was just so many other things going on. But check out Locked on Syracuse. He'll have you covered on all of that stuff. And I'm Alex Dono from Lockdown Canes.

And we'll talk to you again next time on another episode of the Lockdown ACC Squad, right here on the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.