Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC SQUAD - What to Expect in Week Five for the ACC

Episode Date: September 25, 2025

Is Dabo Swinney finished for the Clemson Tigers? The ACC is changing up its scheduling. Florida State vs Virginia is on Friday, and more Week 5 previews! Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms��🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOACC?sid=YouTube Locked On College Conferences, HBCU, Basketball & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnCollege #ACC #CollegeFootball #CollegeBasketball Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Clemson Tigers lose again. Is Dabo Sweeney's relevance essentially finished? 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 ACC squad. The ACC has been turned upside down, and the squad is assembled. So you've got the conference is adding nine conference games and a minimum 10 power for opponents. You've got Clemson, everybody's preseason pick to win the ACC, essentially eliminated already, two games into their conference schedule. Thank you so much for making the ACC squad your first listen.

We're available free wherever you get your podcast. We're free on YouTube. We're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is brought to you by Mazda. Like our players, we sweat every detail because when you make every move count, pulling off the unexpected is only the beginning. Stay tuned later for highlights in this week's moving the game forward. Mazda, move and be moved.

I am Alex Dono from Lockdown Keynes on this episode of the squad. We got Isaac Shade from Lockdown, Tar Heels. We got J.J. Jackson from Lockdown, Blue Devils. Kenton Gibbs from locked on Wolfpack and all right, Kenton, 32, the Syracuse Orange beat the Clemson Tigers, 3421, I should say, in Death Valley. Dabo Sweeney had melted down before that game, pointing everyone to his resume. We've won eight of the last ACC, eight of last 10 ACC championships. If Clemson's tired of winning, they can get rid of me.

And then Clemson goes out and does that in a game where, and best, of recovery to Steve Angelly. The Syracuse starting quarterback suffers, unfortunately, a season-ending injury in the third quarter. Ricky Collins has to come in. Never really felt close for the Clemson Tigers. I mean, Kenton Gibbs is, we talked about it the last couple of weeks, the alarm bells at Clemson, but is this now becoming something that will define perhaps the end of the Davos-Sweeney era at Clemson? This is the nail in the coffin. What? This is the nail. I'm being very serious right now. I know people are going to say, or actually, let me not say this at the nailing

the call. This ain't the last moment. Let me not say that. But this is an important domino. This is an inflection point at which we will look back and say, what are the two to three defining moments? This may be the second to last one. I have talked about this on this show, and I will say it again.

Dabo is doing that theme where it's everybody else's fault. Oh, I can't. You know, they've won so much under me. I can't be wrong. Why is that? Why is that? What does that mean? Yeah, they've won a lot under you in the past.

And what does that have to do with what you are doing right now? This is the ultimate lack of accountability. You are supposed to be held to a different standard, and you should enjoy being held to a different standard. When I was a kid and me and my sister got the same GPA, and my mom would be up my behind about it, but she would tell my sister, good job. I didn't understand it because I was eight.

I was eight. I didn't understand the mismatch of expectation, right? Now that I'm 30, I get, oh, my mom saw your aptitude for success academically is higher than that of your sister. That's the expectation. There's a difference. Same thing. I feel like your sister just caught astray here somehow.

No, no, no. My sister is the first person in this episode. My sister is the first person in our family to get a master. So for all of the lack of academic success that she had when we were kids, she found a way to get more degrees than me. I just got a bachelor. But the reality of this thing is simple. Dabo is sitting here and he's shown we can be more successful.

They're being less successful. They're one and three. They have not beat a single power for a team all year. And here's a more interesting part. They've trailed by double digits in every single game that they played against power four teams this year. And they were down double digits against Troy as well.

And so they were down double digits in every single game they played this year. And we're the problem, Davo? They were down by 20 points in this game. It was 34 to 14 for the third quarter, basically. And you're going to sit here and tell me that we've got the problem. And the media is the problem.

And Tyler for Spartanburg is the problem. And J.J. Jackson is the problem. Isaac is the problem. Alice Donald is the problem. It's everybody but dabble. This is, I take it back saying it's the nail in the coffin, but this is one of the biggest inflection points that when we look back and say,

what are the moments that characterize Clemson's downfall, this will be it. Because this is something that I will give Florida State their credit. They turned around their cultural route in what seems like a year. Clemson, you've got to do the same thing. Clemson, you've got to come back and say, this is who we are.

Everybody holds themselves accountable. starting from the top and working its way down. But when the man at the top, it's always everybody else's fault. And he said, well, you know, Isaac's kid missed a kick last week in his soccer game. And you're talking to me about winning at Clemson. Don't nobody give a damn about that soccer game with all due respect. And it's always been a thing about Davo that's rubbed me the wrong way. Like I remember, you know, covering two years ago when Clemson came down to Miami

and they lost a really close game, you know, Cade Clubnick, you know, took off. and ran when he was supposed to throw. But then after the game, Davosweeney threw him out of the bus. Like, it was like, man, okay. Like, even if it really was his fault, I'm not used to coaches immediately saying, oh, yeah, this is exactly what that guy did wrong and he cost us the game. And that seems to be his personality is to not take accountability into, in my opinion, I'm no psychiatrist, but he comes off as a narcissist to me.

And remember the bubble screen on third and one against Florida State, that same season when they said, what happened? Oh, we should have never, I don't know why our coordinator called to play to put him in that position. This has been bubbling under the surface for a while, but he had talented enough players to cover it up. Now that that's starting to not be the case and that talent is starting to be equal level with everybody else, it's starting to be a good.

But I'm going to be quiet now because I'm going to let somebody else talk because I've talked enough about how Davo wants to distract from his film. First off, here's the good news. Clemson's not going to lose this weekend. So they can rest on those laurels because they literally are off this weekend. And then here's what's kind of funny. The next Saturday, October 4th, they're headed to that little picture right over my shoulder there, Keenan Stadium, where they're going to play Bill Belichick in North Carolina.

That's a slump buster right there. Sorry, Isaac. So there's a slump buster because we've seen what the tar heels are. UCF. Wow. Anyway, here's my question for us. there was the string of phenomenal quarterback play for Clemson through so much of this. How much of it is on Cade's shoulders, but like if you put Trevor Lawrence into this lineup,

does it change things? That's what I've been trying to think about. Like, is it solely on like, we're not doing it? Is it solely on, right? Like, think about how just insanely dynamic the Clemson defense has been for so many years of their greatness. where from a player personnel standpoint do the biggest issues lie or is it above them and it doesn't matter what the players are doing. Does that make sense? I'll start with the line of scrimmage on both sides has not been nearly what we thought it was going to be for them. They're supposed to have

the best defensive line in the country because I'll say something like you bring up Cade Clubnick and obviously he's no Trevor Lawrence. He's no Deshawn Watson. He's not one of those guys. But then at the same time, 24, Cade looked like he was, you know, not necessarily those guys, but like in that conversation. Like he had a really good year last year. I don't know what happened this year. Yeah. And even going beyond that for just a second here, you want to talk about it, even if you insert, insert, rather, Trevor Lawrence. Clemson is going on a unheralded street or on a, you know, a laughable street in a way that is not positive at all. Clemson has been known to produce defenders that make all ACC and are the ACC defensive players of the year,

year after year after year. Right now, under Davos-Sweeney, they're on their longest drought of not having a player be defensive player of the year. They're going on year six, and it's not going to be a Clemson defender this year, which means it's going to make seven years straight of no Clemson defenders winning ACC player of the year. Now, for a reference on why that's important, this was an actual stretch. 2019, Isaiah Simmons, 2018, Cleland Farrow, 2016, Ben Bullware.

2014, Vic Beasley, and 2010 DeQuan Bowers. So that's the type of stretch and type of falloff we're looking at in terms of defenders performing for the Clemson Tigers. It's Trevor Lawrence. It's Deshaun Watson. It's Taj Boyd. It's Kelly Bryant. I mean, there have been quarterbacks who don't even live up to NFL billing that

have helped put Clemson in a good spot. When you look at a team that struggles, I think you first and foremost go to that quarterback position. So fair or unfair, you've got to start with Ted Klubnik, who all of them. us believed would be one of the top quarterbacks not only in the conference, but in the entire sport. NFL GMs were starting to get excited about what this guy could be at the next level. And it's just wild to think about how far off we are. The other thing that was a little surprising to me about Saturday's game too, there was an hour and a half weather delay during

halftime. You're still down 10 points. How much more time do you need to find some way to rally your troops and try to let them know the weight of this. Like we are staring one and three. And like we're staring at it. You don't get those opportunities often. Typically, Kent and can speak to this as a former player. Half time. You're ending. You're out. They had an hour and a half to try and clean things up only down by 10 at that point. And still, still came out so flat in the second half. Really embarrassing. And we were chatting over the weekend, fellows, like in the midst of games in our ACC, uh, hosts chat and Jackson was saying those exact things. Obviously, we wish he was here today

to be able to like dance on Dabo's grave a little bit, but good grief. Like, like he, you could tell he was worried about that exact thing, JJ, that you just talked about. And clearly it didn't matter. Even with their quarterback going down in the third court. I mean, it's, it's crazy, y'all. I'm starting to think that Dabo's losing his touch as a motivator. I'm starting to think that he is running into problems that again, you can't, it's not easy. to come back from. And again, this is why I give so much credit to what Norvale is doing this year, because so often when I see a coach lose the culture, that's over. It's over. You don't come back from that. When the culture is established as something different than what it's been for years,

it's over. But Davo has to publicly go out and make it all on me. Put it all on me. It's all about me. It's all about what I've done wrong. I need to be better. Or else this team is going to continue their streak of one and three and getting worse. They're going to continue that no ACC defensive clarity. They're going to continue all those bad things that you don't suspect of Clemson in the 2010s and 2020. Well, coming up next, I'm going to give all of us an opportunity to amend the things that we said about a month ago right before the season started.

Because I think all four of us in some way, shape, or form had Clemson in the ACC championship game. Not saying it's impossible, but at 0 and 2 in conference, probably not happening for Davo this year. So who do we see in the ACC? ACC title game come December and Charlotte. And the ACC has now revolutionized their scheduling. They're copying what the other power four conferences are doing. However, nothing's easy in the ACC. We'll explain. You want to keep it locked right here. We're only getting started on the squad.

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Now that we've seen what we've seen, and Clemson is close to being mathematically eliminated from the ACC championship game, who do you think are going to be the two teams that match up in Charlotte come December? Yeah, I definitely was one who thought Clemson would be one of those squads. that would be not only winning the ACC, but I was going as far to say this is a team that seriously could go out and win a national championship. I think if we go back to those preseason predictions,

I had Clemson and Miami still feel good about what Miami's shown so far. And then I think you've got to stay in the state of Florida with what it's looking like right now. To me, through the first four weeks of the season, the two best teams in our conference have clearly both resided in the Sunshine State when you look at Miami me and you look at Florida State. For me, guys, I'm with you, JJ, with what you said.

But guess what? Not this Saturday, but next, those two teams that you just mentioned played each other. Yep. And to me, this is going to be a scheduling quirk that's going to decide the other team. It's one of those two. Right now, I'm going with Miami. I think they look better than Florida State. But let me read to you, boys, the rest of Georgia Tech's ACC schedule.

Please do. At Wake Forest. versus Virginia Tech at Duke versus Syracuse at State at Boston College hosting pit and then UGA, which obviously won't matter in the ACC standings. So because of the schedule that the yellow jackets have in front of them, in my mind, they got to run the table to do it because I don't see Florida State in Miami, whichever loses that game unless they trip up losing another. So if Georgia Tech does what they should do, and again, we looked at it the other week,

And if I remember correctly, they're favored in every one of those games. It's going to be Georgia Tech. And I'm going to go with the canes beating Florida State and then also getting into that championship game. Dono, the diamond tester is going to come out in a couple weeks. Sure. It's going to come out in a couple weeks because I think it's a chance that Florida State chain fake. I know, I know everybody's going to say Florida State has looked fantastic and all those good things. They blew out Bama.

That's a Bama team that dominated every. everybody since then. But who have they actually dominated since then? The mighty Kent, the Kent State, whatever they are. That may ain't played nobody, neither have they. And you can say Wisconsin is somebody. Are you sure about that? Because Bickle is almost unanimously voted as one of the hottest seats in the Big Ten in Wisconsin. They're trying to sue to keep players part of the program. Donald knows that intimately well. So they've got some problems up there. But here's the thing. I'm not saying that Florida State has no shot. I'm just saying I want to see them up against the team that I think is really, really good.

Because I had a feeling, you know, I believe that Bama was going to whip the wheels off of them, but I didn't think that that was going to say much about Bama. It just turns out I was wrong about how good Bama was or was not. But that is still to be seen. But like you said, Isaac, the wreck is rambling. Haynes King is scrambling. George Hotech is moving their way. to Charlotte.

They are going to be in the ACC championship, not just because of the schedule, but because they have the two things that travel, a run game and a defense. Those are the two things that you need when it gets late in the season, when it gets rainy, when it gets nasty outside,

when it gets mucky, when it gets cold. You need both of those, and they have both at a high level that they've shown off multiple times against power four teams this year. I got Georgia Tech and Miami in the ACC championship.

Yeah, I agree. And but like a part of me, I would love to see Miami versus Florida State twice. And that's Jim Phillips's dream matchup. That would make you a ton of money if that was your ASEA. They've been waiting more than 20 years. They've never gotten that ACC championship game. Like that would be probably the biggest thing for the conference. But I'm with you guys on thinking, I'm going to take a leap of faith on Georgia Tech this year.

Like I just think that they are, they're a more complete team that they've been the past couple years. past couple of years, they've always shown up for the big games. And I know that. They beat Miami two straight years. They took Georgia to eight overtimes last year, but they tend to slip up in some of the lesser games, but their schedule is so lesser the rest of the way this year. And I feel like the same way I feel Miami's built a little different than it's been the last couple years. I think the same about Georgia Tech. So I'm going to go Miami versus Georgia Tech in the ACC championship game. All right. So the big news in the ACC this week, fellas, is the move up to, and the SEC just announced this weeks ago that they're going to nine conference games. The Big Ten and the Big 12 already do it.

The ACC is following suit. It was announced early this week. The ACC is going to go to nine conference games, which it's fine, I guess everyone else is doing it. But I like the fact that the ACC, and you need this when your conference is not as strong as a couple of the others are, that Jim Phillips is mandating that you have to play 10 power four opponents. So in addition to your ACC schedule, you can't do like what the Penn State, Nittany Lions are doing this year, playing a bunch of junior colleges outside of their, you know, their big 10 schedule. You have to have an extra power four game.

The SEC mandates the same thing. But here's what makes a nine game schedule, a little more complicated for the Atlantic Coast Conference. Like nothing's easy with the ACC. It just means less, I guess. So because there's 17 football teams in the conference, not 16, not 18, because there's 17, you can't mathematically have all 17 teams play nine conference games a year. So the way the ACC has to do this is one team per year, rotating basis, is only going to

play eight conference games while the rest play nine. I'm yet to see it written anywhere how that's going to work if there are tie-breaking scenarios. Like I feel like this is going to be opening Pandora's box if it comes down to it. But the ACC live 16 teams and Kenton, I'll let you buy the first round on this one. 16 teams will play nine conference games. One will play eight. Well, I'm sorry, but this is, we don't have 16. I'm sorry, we don't have 17 teams.

We have 18 teams in the ACC, right? I mean, at ACC tip off, there are 18 teams represented there, right? Yes, that sounds factually correct to me, Kenton Gibbs. Oh, okay. So what's going on here? Oh, that's right. We still giving Notre Dame all of the milk without having to buy the cow. Hey, hey, listen, I get it, Phillips.

I get it. You want to have these agreements with Notre Dame and you think if you're favorable to them, everything will work out. Y'all remember the COVID year where we gave a bunch of Notre Dame players, any Notre Dame player that was decent, won a postseason award that year. Even if players that played their same position were statistically better in every way.

I'm looking at you, J.O.K. and Peyton Wilson. I'm looking at that, but that's neither here nor there. I'm saying this to say, at some point in time, you have to lock down Notre Dame into a firmer commitment or at least saying, hey, you all are going to count as an ACC game now.

Even if you don't want to join, we don't care. We have to do this because mathematically it hurts us to not have you in. Mathematically, we have to work out some wonky stuff and tiebreakers and it's going to end up like it was on Friday night lights where we're flipping a coin to see who goes to the ACC championship and whichever two teams get the same. If it's heads or tails, whichever two teams get the same one, they go and whoever is wrong is up. We don't want to do that. So Notre Dame, get your tail in here and commit to playing more of our guys. How about? How about it? Because at this point in time, this is an embarrassment to the conference that we have,

are imposing this, hey, you've got to play non-conference games. And we're taking a step further than everybody else. You're going to play 10 power four. I love that. But we're still at, we're still at odds. And we're still going to have to figure out some potential weirdities or oddities here because we don't have that 18th team when in reality we do. They're right there. And they've got agreements to play multiple teams in our conference. Hey, shouts to Boobie Miles and Mike Winchell and Friday Night Lights. That's great stuff from KG. There's also, we've got the wrinkle of several of these schools in the ACC thinking Clemson, thinking Georgia Tech, thinking Louisville, and who's the fourth? There's another one that's Florida State.

Florida, yeah. Has a non-ACC rivalry game Thanksgiving week, basically. And so that is going to be their 10th. But several of these schools, like Clemson, who just signed this 12-year agreement with who was it again? Oh, Notre Dame to play. And so that would give them a little. 11 games. 11 games for Clemson.

That's something that has got to give. There's all this. We're already seeing the SEC schools cancel some of their scheduling agreements they've made because of this new rule. And so I think there's a lot more to be done and ironed out and figured out here. But it just felt like we got a rush to get this figured out and announce so we can say it, even if we don't know what the crap we're eventually going to do. Something's got to give. I like the Notre Dame call.

But we'll see it's a weird, weird thing, boys. The point you're making, Kenton, is that we have seen. that in 2020, during the COVID pandemic, there was a 10 game schedule where Notre Dame played all 10 ACC games. The ACC honored them. So many players got recognized as all conference selections, yada, yada. They've done this before. If you're Notre Dame, you've done this.

You've experienced life in the ACC, and you do it in every other sport that's out there. It's super easy. And look, it's just at the end of the day, like we're talking about, the math doesn't math with 17. team. And I like it when it does. And so let's figure out a way to make this 18 teams within the conference so that you can commit to that 19 game schedule. Otherwise, they're saying, you know, everybody, 16 teams will play nine ACC games. Somebody's only going to play eight, but then they'll

have to make up for that by making sure they have at least two power five games. If we can get Notre Dame just to suck it up and join a conference, that would help them out and benefit them. all these problems are for not. Well, that's my thing, JJ. I don't even need them to join the conference. I need the ACC to grow a spine and say, you know what? If you're going to sign all these agreements and do all this, you're part of, we're going to consider you part of our conference schedule now

so that we no longer have to do all this, figuring out and all that. I either want him in or I disagree with you on that, Kay. I either want them to be in or out. I don't need them to get more of that milk for free like you were saying. Well, here's my biggest thing. They've already signed the agreements. and they've already said, well, we're going to play the bigger brands more. The other part of them in this agreement that I would like, even if you don't want to join as a full member,

you still have to play a rotation of these teams instead of picking specifically the biggest brands, because that's not fair to Miami. That's not fair to Clemson. That's not fair to Florida State. You're going to have to play one of the most powerful teams, one of the most powerful brands in all of sports, not just college football, not just America, and all of sports, Notre Dame is. and you got to play them and that won't count towards your nine. What?

What are we doing here? That won't count towards your 10 for power 14. What are we doing? Hey, why are we so caught up on adding somebody? Why can't we just like kick out to like, let's get rid of Boston College or something like that? That seems like clearly the reasonable choice.

Out of the curb. Addition by subtraction. That's where I'm at. See what happens. AJ Black is still offended wherever he is. Exactly. See what I. We wanted you to the toy.

We were asking. No, I will, I will be okay with getting rid of Bill O'Brien. Getting rid of B.C. altogether is a different story. Okay, let's, let's hold our horses here. All right, fine. Somebody's got me. Are we keeping Stanford just for the GPA? Like, I mean, I know they just got in, but do we really need you?

NC State, let that happen. I blame Kenton and Grayson for that one. Hey, I'm sorry. I like Cousin, Cousin, Cousin'clock, because of Stanford being in the mix. Ah, say what you want, say what you want. Call me a bad guy. I like him being here. I love SMU being here.

That makes my heart smile. So you're never going to give me to apologize for that. If I've got to apologize for the Pony Express to be here, it'll be a cold day in here. It'll be a cold. Let's talk about some week five games when we come back. I'll steal the phrase from Kent and Gibbs. I think we're going to find out if the Florida State chain is for real this Friday night.

You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of the ACC squad. This episode is brought to you by Mazda's moving the game forward. For those who believe it's not just about playing the game, It's about redefining it. There are moments that do more than just put points on the board. They move crowds, they move culture, and they keep moving the game forward. I got to say, Justice Ross Simmons, receiver at Syracuse, keeps making plays after plays.

He scored two touchdowns against Clems. All he does is catch touchdowns. He moved the game forward, guys. 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 Lockdown

ACC squad your first listen for your next listen. Make sure you check out our other shows. Kent and Gibbs not only hosts the regular Lockdown ACC with me. He also hosts Lockdown Wolfpack with Grayson Boone. He does an awesome job. JJ Jackson on Lockdown Blue Devils covering all things Duke and Isaac Shade covering all things Belichick

and all things UNC basketball. He also hosts Lockdown College Basketball with Andy Patton. and they do a fantastic job right here on the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Now, you know, Kenton, I am, maybe you guys disagree, but I am expecting Florida State to go into Charlottesville on Friday night and win. Like I, and I know, like, they haven't played a real opponent since week one, and maybe Bama wasn't expecting Florida State to play the way that they did.

But they look so much more physical to me. And Tommy Castellanos looks like such a. weapon always moving the chain, staying in front of the chains. I think they're going to be able to have success on the ground against Virginia. Now, the catch is, I'm not saying it's going to be easy because Chandler Morris, UVA's quarterback, he's having an awesome start to the year. He's got over a thousand passing yards, an eight to one touchdown to interception ratio. Like, I think Virginia is going to have some juice at home on a Friday night. I just think Florida State looks better and more physical to me. I don't know what to do with the spread because it's,

Florida State minus six and a half. I thought that number would be a little bit bigger. I think they win by seven to ten points on this one. Isaac, what do you think? Yeah, I agree with you, Donno. I think like Virginia has shown some proclivity on the offensive side of the ball, but I'm still waiting to see if it's for real. That was something.

Actually, we were having a debate about that in our locked on tar heels discord over the weekend because nobody was watching our game anymore as UCF pounded the tar heels into the ground. But we're trying to figure out like, is Virginia? you know, I think they were one of the teams along with Stanford that coming into the season where like they're in Virginia Tech, like they're not going to have anything. But I feel like so far, at least the Virginia offense has looked better than I thought it would be. But this is, I think, a moment where we find out if that's true or not, right? Like what's going to happen in Charlottesville at home with Florida State coming to town wanting to, you know, I know Florida State's 3 and O,

but this is their first ACC game. They're wanting to continue to prove that last year was an anomaly. and so I'm with you. I think ultimately they come in and I'm not much of a betting man, but if I was, I think I would take Virginia, or excuse me, Florida State to win outright here on the road

and definitely cover that six and a half. Do you see how much fun Gus Malzahn is having again as an offensive coordinator only and not having to worry about being a head coach anymore? I mean, the Auburn alum in me is having all the throwbacks and flashbacks watching this guy. This past week,

I know it was. Kent State. I understand that. Golden flashes, by the way. I got that wrong earlier. 498 rushing yards for FSU. 775 yards of offense. They did it against out. They've just done it offensively all season long. I am excited to see how they continue to play looking forward. I hate to be the guy that's already looking ahead to that Miami game. I just, yes, Chandler Morris has had a good year for Virginia. I don't see them being competitive with FSU whatsoever this weekend. Donno, I think that multiple chains are going to get the diamond tested within the next two weeks.

I think multiple chains, we're going to put that beep rep. I'm going to stay quiet about the teams, but I have plans that I cannot tell you. The haters were for it. But I will say this, UVA offenses, their high power. They keep the sticks moving. They got one of the best returners in the conference as well. They're an offense that is going to keep this game close. The question for me is what is Florida State's defense about?

I think that's what you're going to learn in this game at a high clip. Their offense, I mean, Gus Malzahn, when you think about Tommy Castellanos, he was a Gus Malzon recruit at UCF. He was made for this system. He was made for it. So I will admit, I was wrong about the fit in whether not they be getting clicking right away because they've gotten it cracking like a bad bat in this off the back they have gone right away and run the ball and move the chains as they wanted to

I do see them winning this game I'm not sure if it's going to be as lopsided as you originally thought dono I do see them winning but I see it being by somewhere between three and six I think Virginia Cup well oh I like that yeah go ahead Isaac donno I was just going to say the game I'm most looking forward to in the ACC this weekend is the smallest point spread of ACC versus ACC. The smallest spread of any ACC game is Stanford only favored by two and a half against San Jose State. Anyway, that is tied. The smallest spread in an ACC game is Louisville on the road at Pitt. They're favored by three and a half. And Donno, you asked us in the last segment about our ACC championship teams, competitors. I remember back to that, that episode,

we did preseason where I believe Louisville got a couple votes for that ACC championship game. I feel like I might have even added them in alongside Clemson. Louisville's three, no, they haven't played an ACC game yet. They got to go on the road, go up against Eli Holstein. I'm just, I'm really interested to see what is Louisville, what is Louisville on the road? Because if they want to make any ACC noise, I think you got to start this weekend, obviously, because we got Georgia Tech looking good like we already talked about in the schedule they have. Kings got to stay healthy. We've got, you know, the Florida state of it all, the Miami of it all. If Louisville wants to be a competitor, I need to see it on Saturday at noon Eastern on ESPN.

And let me, let me add to that. And I've said this to Kent in a few times on locked on ACC. I have no idea who Louisville is. Yes. Like I know who they should be because I was pretty stoked for them with the Miller Moss pickup. We've seen what Jeff Brom has done with quarterbacks in the transfer portal the past couple of years. we know what Isaac Brown and Duke Watson are capable of. But in the one, like not even that difficult game, but in like the semi-real game that Louisville has played so far, they didn't look very good against James Madison. The 28 to 14 final score, not as close as the game or not as, you know,

a lot closer than the final score would indicate. And Isaac Brown had to break off a late run to really put that game away. Like that was a little bit dicey for them. So I just don't know. Like if you're talking about finding out who's changing, is real. Maybe the Louisville chain is. I just don't know based on the three games that they've played so far. The other two opponents being complete cupcakes and they had a buy week last week. So I think you're right to bring up this game, Isaac, because this is going to show us against a tough pit team and a

tough pit defense. It's going to show us who Louisville is. I agree to an extent because Darduzzi shows us a tale of two cities in coaching form every game. He shows you some absolute defensive mastery. and then all of a sudden his offenses forget that their objective is to move the ball forward. I mean, the loss against West Virginia, there were times where their offensive ineptitude was so bad. You were legit wondering, like, who's called in place? Why does it read not in the game? What is happening with this offense time and time again? And so it's in the worst part about Narduzzi is it's not just the offense either because there's often that oftentimes that series or two where you get two to three straight pass interferences against their deep.

because that's the style that Narduzzi plays. It's aggressive. It's in your face. That's kind of how he does things. So I'm very intrigued to see how that game plays as well. One of the best backfield tandums in the nation in Brown and Watson going up against the sharks. Kyle Lewis, the company. What's going to happen?

Eli Holstein, can he return to that magic? He has not recaptured that magic from pre-injury last year yet. He just has. Can he do it against this Louisville defense that, with all due respect, they had two quarterbacks, a quarterback that only came in the game to throw the ball that was moving the ball somewhat effectively down the stretch against them, that's a big question mark for Louisville. So I'm very intrigued by that game as well. By the way, here's a quick note for you guys.

Both Isaac Brown and Duke Watson, Duke didn't play in their last game. They're both questionable heading into that game on Saturday. Like, I, you know, questionable. It could mean 50-50 that they play. I maybe one, at least one of them will play, but that's something to look out for. Rutt Role, if neither one of them are available, I'm taking pit in whatever points you all, you all put down on it.

Because with all due respect, I don't think Miller Moss can get it done. I like Dakari Collins. I like Bell. By the way, Dakari Collins shares for a lot of NC State found itself a great landing spot at Louisville, and I love seeing him make plays over there. I'm not sure Miller Moss is that type of guy that you win because of. And I don't think that they have the weapons outside of those two backs

that can make this situation when we're, hey, Miller, just don't kill us and we'll win this game. Well, we appreciate everyone's time here, as always. Make sure you check out Kent and Gibbs and Grayson Boone on Locked on Wolfpack. Check out Isaac Shade on Locked on Tar Heels and Locked on College Basketball. Check out J.J. Jackson, Locked on Blue Devils. Check me out on Locked on Cains. Kent and I also host Locked on ACC. We'll talk to you all next time on another episode of the ACC squad right here on the awesome Lockdown Podcast Network.

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