Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC SQUAD - Which ACC Head Coaches are on the Hot Seat in 2025?

Episode Date: July 17, 2025

ACC football shakeup looms. Will Virginia Tech's Brent Pry and Florida State's Mike Norvell survive the hot seat?Alex Dono and the ACC Squad break down crucial matchups against SEC powerhouses that could make or break coaching careers. The crew analyzes Clemson's dominance in Pro Football Focus's top 50 players list and debates the Tigers' national championship prospects. Plus, shocking speculation about Nick Saban's potential return to coaching. Could the legendary coach find a new home in the ACC?Don't miss this insider look at the ACC's most pressing issues and the bombshell discussions that could reshape college football's landscape. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Two of the ACC coaches on the hottest seats happen to open up the season as heavy underdogs against Marquis SEC opponents. It could get ugly real fast. Let's bring in the squad. You're talking ball with the ACC squad, sponsored by game time. From Florida State to North Carolina, from Syracuse to Miami, and from NC State to California, it's the local experts of the Locked-on Podcast Network, bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive. of 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. Shout out to the everydayers and thank you so much for making the ACC squad your first listen and your first watch. We're available free

wherever you get your podcast. We're free on YouTube. We're part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. On this loaded episode, we got a way in on the Nick Sabin Rubers. I mean, Sabin is really interested in coming back to coaching. Which ACC program would he fit in with best? I want to talk about top 50 college players according to pro football focus. Clemson, spoiler alert, is really, really well represented. But let's talk about coaches on the hot seat. Now, Kenton Gibbs, by the way, we got Kenton Gibbs from Lockedon Wolfpack, Grayson Boone from Lockedon Wolfpack, Jackson Holzer from Locked on Syracuse. I am Alex Dono from Locked on Caines. Kenton and I also host Locked on ACB. And we were talking about ACC coaches on the hot seat, Kenton, but, you know, two of those top four,

Brent Pry at Virginia Tech, they rank as the hottest seat, according to CBS sports. Mike Norvell at Florida State, I think he's got too big of a buyout to fire him anytime soon, but they have him at number four. You look at the teams that their squads open up with week number one. So you got South Carolina for Virginia Tech, and the Hokies are nine and a half point underdogs in that one. That one's going to be played at the neutral site in Atlanta. Florida State is going to host Alabama to open up the season, and they're 13 point underdogs.

Kenton, I'll let you buy the first round. Are either of those games going to be won by an ACC team? Well, I guess it's fitting for me to buy the first round because those coaches might have a buyout to do it in a few here. I'm worried about both of these teams, but much more worried about Florida State. And I'll tell you why. Although I believe that South Carolina is about an equivalent team in Alabama, maybe even better.

And I know people are going to look at me crazy for that. But I really and truly believe that. The problem is Florida State has gone about this in a way they've given Alabama bulletin board material. And even beyond their star quarterback giving Alabama bulletin board material, they have issues of continuity in a major way. I have told everybody that after last year, I have enough data on first. year transfer quarterbacks to know by and large for the most part it's going to be an adjustment

unless you're walking into a situation where you've got a bunch of guys around you who were stars or close to stars like what cow mccourt had last year with all the respect to meeks he was the only one in that food that was like this is a fresh face who was he everybody else gadsden we knew him he was a he was a ball player before then pain yeah he elevated a level last year but even before then we him as a legitimate threat. At Florida State, you're breaking in everything brand new out the gate against a Bama team where I'm just saying, man, you got deficiencies everywhere, and now your quarterback is throwing his old teammates under the bus. He's throwing DeBoer under the bus somehow and they're not even on the same thing. It's very worrisome. As opposed to Virginia

Tech team, when you bring back a start quarterback that although it feels like Groundhogs Day, we believe in them every year, this may finally be his moment to show up and show up. out big time. They bring back a lot of return production. Ali Jennings should be healthy this year. You're looking at a very different situation for those two teams. So I'm deeply worried that, you know, Norveille seat might be hottest fish grease by week two. Yeah, piggybacking off of Kenton here. I'm fascinated by Florida State this season because, yeah, the buyout was way too large last season. So you gut the entire staff outside of Norville. You've got to do what you got to do. this season. If you underperform, I mean, I doubt they'll be two and ten again, but like,

if they underperform whatever that metric is for them this year, what do you do? Thomas Castellanos, I know y'all talked about him on here a couple weeks ago. I wasn't on here for that. What are you doing? What are you doing? I can understand being confident in yourself, being confident in your team. You're in a new scenario. You're excited about what they may bring. To say that Alabama doesn't have Nick Sabin to save them and that, you know, basically making out Taylor and DeBoard just to be some regular guy. Brother, what are we doing? You quit on your team at Boston College.

What ground do you have the stand on to act like you are, you know, the superstar of this newfound Florida State team. Oh, best of luck to you. No, I don't know. I don't know what you do with Norville if you underperform, at least on that level again. Brett Pry, I think is, like you said, an interesting case for Virginia Tech again. and he's catching a bunch of strays off of a video game, kind of funny enough.

College football 26, they have these new walkouts and everybody's using Virginia Tech because they have intersaman in the game. And I keep seeing the same comment. Man, this would be a lot cooler. Virginia Tech was a decent program again. Brett Pry, brother, you better wake up and smell the roses

because if you don't recourse correct there as well, he might be up out of here. I think there are a couple more coaches that are very interesting to talk about. and how about Donos die Mario Cristobal? What's his seat going to be like? Is this a year for Miami with Mario Cristobal where, okay, even if they underperform, he's still going to get another year?

And that becomes the year where he's on the hot seat? Or could this be like a surprise sneak attack where if they go, you know, Carson Beck and his health, you know, that's kind of a concern. Not healthy. They underachieve this season. they go five and seven, six and six even. They just barely make a bowl. Is that going to save Moray or Cristobo?

Would they pull the plug there? And they have them at seventh on the list. And I just found that fascinating because with Christopal, it's always a little weird, always very good with recruiting. Last year it seemed like it might be the year for Miami to finally get over the hump. Then obviously we know what happened at the end of the season. But that's so far in his tenure the only time where they really came close to performing relative to expectations.

So I'm just wondering, Donno, when is it going to be Mario Cristball's potential time? Is it this year or is it maybe next year? Here's the way that I'll look at it. I think ranking him seventh is about right with the buyout as the added context. Because he's owed $56 million. But at the same time, though, they're a little inconsistent with that because Mike Norvell is owed more. I'm not sure his exact total, but it's a lot more than $56 million. So it's like the buyout was kind of taken out of context for Mike Norvell,

but was kept in context with Mario Cristobal. So first of all, I mean, the question is, and you painted a scenario where, you know, God forbid Carson Beck isn't healthy. I mean, as of right now, he is. So it would have to be a setback, you know, for something to go sideways. But that possibility is always there to lose your starting quarterback.

And yet, if Carson Beck were to go down, the drop off is pretty massive because Miami's backup quarterback, Emery Williams, is the one who blew that bowl game. where Cam Ward took the seat in the first half and then, you know, Williams couldn't complete a forward pass and couldn't hold the lead. So there is a big drop off. Now, assuming a relatively healthy Miami team, including a healthy Carson Beck, yeah, I think, you know, the, where Miami fans are drawing the bar this year as to what would be like a satisfying season would be get to the college football playoff. I don't think that's where Mario's bar is, like in order to really

put him on the hot seat. Well, I mean, I guess it is, but Miami's also got a pretty tough non-conference schedule. So when, you know, two of your non-con games are, you know, against Notre Dame and against Florida, which you can see Miami hypothetically losing either or both of those football games. Like, it's hard to draw the line to actually fire the man or put him on the hot seat. It's probably more in the seven-win or the eight-win range, assuming your quarterback is healthy. So I think the seat could get warm for Cristobal if Miami underachives. this year. I think it would take a lot. It would take like a, you know, like a six win type of season for

the seat to get outright hot because, you know, the other part of it is, you know, Miami's administration, front office, whatever you want to call it. Like, they really like Christobal. And I think they value the stability that comes with him kind of being the CEO of the football program. So he's not skating on thin ice. Like he is very well appreciated by the administration and the athletic department. So I'm not saying it's impossible to get on the hot seat. It happens all the time in college football, but I think it would have to be a really, really bad, which for Miami would be like six or seven wins is bad.

Like for some schools out there, hey, you're bull eligible. That's an okay season. It's obviously not the case for Miami. But it would take something really bad for him to get on the legit hot seat after this year. The other reason why I brought it up is because we're talking about the matchups in Virginia Tech, you know, having to play South Carolina and Florida State and week one having to play Alabama.

Miami's got Notre Dame in week one. You know, what do Miami lays an egg in week one like those other teams do? That's why I wanted to bring him up. It's like, but I don't think getting beat by one of the best, by one of the best offensive line running back combinations in the nation in week one will be a killer for that season.

Like I don't think anybody will look at it that way. And even beyond that, that game is expected to be competitive. Alabama, Florida State, I, you know, I kid you not. And honestly, I think if that, McKenton, if that game is competitive. And that's what I was just about to say. If Florida State loses by a field goal, that's a win.

That's the way. If Alabama gets a walk-off field goal to win that game, and now that is why Norville's seat is so hot. We are talking about a situation where Mario can potentially win that game and it may not move the needle exponentially to where everybody's into Miami fan base. It's like, he's good for years now. He beat Notre Dame. It's not that way.

But we're talking about a Florida State program that all four of us have seen win at least one national championship in our lifetime. At least one. Actually, multiple. Not that I think about it in our lifetimes, except for Jackson maybe, because you were born when Syracuse won theirs. So I see this as a situation where that's a proud program. And we're talking about, hey, if you hang within three, you did good. that's unacceptable for Florida State. And in the grand scheme of things, that is unacceptable out of Florida State.

Well, I want to talk a little bit more about, we can continue on this topic, but also top 50 players in college football this year, pro football focus put out their list. Clemson absolutely dominates the top 10. So, I mean, Davos Sweeney, that's a coach who is not on the hot seat, nowhere close to it. You want to keep it locked right here. We got the squad assembled on this brand new episode of Lockdowne ACC. Folks, we've been having such a great time. The dog days of summer are more fun when you have Fandul,

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If you're new to Fandual, new customers can bet just $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Open the Fandual app today or visit Fandul.com to get started. Thank you for making the squad, your first listen, in your first watch. So real quick, guys, I want to talk about some of the other coaches that are considered to be on that hot seat. So we mentioned Brent Pry at number one. You got Justin Wilcox at Cal at number two, Tony Elliott number three with UVA. So it's like on the Tony Elliott thing, I guess I'm just relieved to see that like Virginia would actually still care enough about

their football program to even put them on the hot seat at this point with how much apathy is surrounded them. But definitely Justin Wilcox at number two. I mean, Kent, we've talked so much about this, how there's apparently a power struggle within that program with Ron Rivera as the GM and who's going to be calling the shots there. So yeah, if Wilcox doesn't do some winning this year, he might be out. I mean, Wilcox could be out, but I want to go back to Elliott for just a second here. Virginia's athletic director is in a very interesting position because you were once a national powerhouse in basketball and then your coach quits right before the season, literally after basketball media days, right before the season. And then your

women's basketball team turns out to be one of the worst in the conference. And then your baseball team isn't as good as they were advertised to be. We're up and down throughout the season at points in time. This is a situation where it doesn't matter how apathetic you are about that sport in particular. Get off your behind and do something. You are an administrator that's paid handsomely to do a job to bring athletics to relevance or prominence in something. And so that's really a situation there. With Wilcox, I don't understand it.

Based on cows' expectations, based on the obstacles placed in front of cow, even if we take away the internal power struggle, you are moving into a new conference on the other side of America. You could talk about SMU coming to ACC and how that's a step up and it's a difference. Guess the difference between Dallas and the East Coast in time to time, in terms of time difference. Guess how much the time difference, guys? An hour.

you're looking at three, three of those for Cal. And we're saying, oh, yeah, you should be fine. Everything should be okay here. Oh, yeah, you should be okay replacing your starting quarterback, your top four running backs, your entire wide receiver room. Oh, by the way, you had a couple of DPs get drafted last year. Oh, and your lineback in court. That was phenomenal last year.

All those guys are going to in terms of guys to play big snaps. I don't understand what else Wilcox can do or if you believe anything beyond like, hey, player retention is his job and his job solely. well hell, Kyle, I don't know if y'all have the money to make that make sense for you. So I think Wilcox being on the high seat is a little bit unfair, but, you know, hey, fair is a place where you eat foods that'll kill you and get on terrible rides that'll kill you. So it don't exist in football. Yeah, what's interesting is I think like the expectations of these schools, like if you're

Virginia, what are your expectations of your football team? I mean, from an outside perspective, I'd say probably six and six. Like that, if you're getting anything more than six and six that you're, UVA, respectfully, that's probably just a bonus. So if you're consistently not even reaching a bowl, even if it is Tony Elliott as your head coach, well, you're not meeting expectations. So I would expect a change to be made if that continues here in 2025. Cal like Kent was talking about, it's an interesting situation. Whether there's a power struggle there with Ron Rivera, I don't want to get into that. But with Cal, it's kind of the same thing. Although,

Cal used to have bigger aspirations than I'd say what they currently do. Like, I grew up on Aaron Rogers and Marshaun Lynch and Deshawn Jackson at Cal or even Jared Gough somewhat recently at Cal. Great players coming out of Cal, we've kind of fallen off a bit from that. So what do you get at a Cal in 2025, especially when their program was essentially stripped all the way down to the studs with the transfer portal? I don't know. I mean, maybe Wilcox will be on the hot seat. I guess I wouldn't necessarily be surprised, but it's going to come back to expectations.

What are you expecting from Cal Bears in 2025? thought. Well, along those same lines with Virginia and Tony Elliott, again, goes back to making a bowl. And you can make an argument that Tony Elliott probably should have been fired at the end of last year because he had been there for three years and not one single bowl appearance. And so now he's entering year four. I mean, I don't care what school you are. If you are a power conference program, at bare minimum, the expectation for any new coach would have to be within three years, you elevate the team into bowl, That should just be the bare minimum of any program in the country. He's already been there for three years and they haven't made a bowl. So if they don't make it in year four, he's gone. There is no discussion here. I don't care that it's Virginia football and, oh, they should have low expectations. You know, this isn't Virginia basketball.

You got to make a bowl game in college football if you're playing in a power conference within four years of having a head coach. Otherwise, you simply don't care. In which case, that's fine. Don't spend any money then on football. go put it all into your whatever other programs you would like to do and just, you know, release a press statement saying, hey, we don't care about football anymore. Don't come to our games.

We don't care. You know, just do something like that. The other coach that's interesting here at number six is Dave Doran because it's same thing with expectations. He's actually done a really good job at NC State. He's just been there for a long time. Yeah. And so I think with NC State, I mean, Kenton and Grayson could probably speak more about

it's just it's fatigue we understand what nc state is now and i don't know what's going to happen with them this year but assuming it's another one of those typical day of doran years it's going to be maybe some highs and maybe some lows but they're never they're always going to leave you wanting maybe just a little bit more at the end of every season and some years that's good right some years it's good especially early on but when you've had a coach for a very long time eventually you're like all right i want more than what he's already been given the question is I guess we can talk about in the third segment. What else is out there for NC State if they were to go get rid of Dave Doran,

who has actually done a very good job for them? You know, I talked to, first of all, for Elliott, I was for him being let go last season. I don't call for coaches being fired off. I'm not against it, though. I wouldn't have been up in arms about that. But he did get the Mulligan because of the shooting incident that happened in year two where it was like, oh, man, that kind of shook up the team in a major way.

So that's most likely what got him in that extra year. But in terms of Doran, I was talking to an older listener of Grace and Oz in terms of Larko Wolfpack. And he used the phrase, you can spend forever with your wife, but not your girlfriend. And Doran's starting to feel like a long-term girlfriend. I said, oh, my God, that's, that's, I'm not going to, he's married and I'm not, okay? He's been married for 30-some-odd years, but I'm not. So I'm not going to go against his wisdom in terms of relationships. I can't even get off the date, that at this point.

But I will look at him. I will look at that. And I'll say, I get the sentiment and the frustration of, again, Dorn has raised the floor. The ceiling has not been. And so I understand why that fits the analogy of, well, if you were the guy, if you were the guy for the job, you would have got us to the levels that Chuck Amata had us at.

You would have got us to the level that, And this is sad to say, but before Chuck, you got to go back to Dick Sheridan in the 80s having you at high levels. And, you know, that was quite a time. But that, again, that's the 80s before Donnell was even running around here playing football or whatnot. So, you know, you're looking at a situation where it's just the, I hate to call during the long-term girlfriend instead of wife, but it's starting to get to that point where it's like, we got to do something here or else people are just going to get naturally agitated with. the success that hasn't finished. Jackson and Kenton both said it well.

It is fatigue. And as plainly as I can put it for NC State fans, like an encapsulation here, NC state fans just want to play for something. They want to feel like they're in contention for some kind of something, whether that's an ACC championship or a 10-win season, a New Year's 6th bowl.

We've had none of that. In 13 years, we don't have a single one of those instances to show for. And so that's why you see, NC State fans football season's coming up. They're like, oh, can we just talk about basketball? I never thought we'd say this, but can we just fast forward? Like, that's where we're at now. And so, you know, what Jackson was saying in terms of what Coach Dorn has produced at NC State, in the grand scheme of things, he has done a good job. There's NC State fans that

will disagree with that. But historically speaking, NC State is like a six and six, seven and five program. Dorn has won eight plus games, even nine games a couple of times, the last four to five years. So he's done a good job at NC State. And when you go back to expectations, it's like, okay, well, then what else do you want? Do you want 10 wins? Do you want a New Year's Sixth bowl? Do you want an ACC championship? I mean, even less than that, an appearance in the ACC championship. We haven't even had one of those. So when you're in year 13 and you are empty handed in the examples I just gave to you, it's the definition of fatigue. It's like, well, how much longer does need to get to where we're at.

And when you're looking at the 2025 season, the over under for wind total is six and a half. It's like, are we, we're still doing this, I guess. I mean, what are we doing now? So, yeah, it just feels like you're just spinning the tires in the mud, kind of hoping and praying that eventually you'll get unstuck and find 10 wins. We will circle back to Dave Doran,

but when you talk about expectations, a team that has them, and they're very high this year is Clemson. And another example of that fellas is, I was going through a shout out to Max Chadwick at Pro Football Focus, who is one of the big players who put this together. So PFF's top 50 players in college football for this season, you know, I look through that top 10, expecting to see almost all, you know, SEC with some big 10 sprinkled in. In fact, Ohio State has the top two players in the country, Jeremiah Smith and Caleb Downs. But a lot of Clemson in that top 10, fellas, three Clemson Tigers in the top.

top 10, according to pro football focus best players. You got defensive lineman Peter Woods at number three. Then you've got Cade Clubnick at number seven, Clemson's quarterback. And at the end of that top 10, edge rusher T.J. Parker. Now, Kenton and I, we did a crossover episode with Locked on Nittney Lion, Zach Seiko. And he was really pushing the angle of, hey, maybe we get Clemson versus Penn State and the national title game.

I mean, guys, just based on all the hype coming in for the Clemson, Tigers, would you say this is a, you know, maybe national championship appearance or at least deep college football playoff run season or bust for them? Well, I want to say, wow, really. I don't, I don't think with what Dabo Sweeney has done there, it's that or bust. I think it would be a letdown. I think it would be a disappointment. But when I think of like a, hey, this or bust type season, I'm thinking like, if you don't get this, your seat gets hot. And I don't think that happens for, uh, oh, no, I don't think the seat is going to get hot.

hot. Oh, so isn't a disappointment for him to not make a big player run? Absolutely. I think we can agree there. That's all we say. Absolutely. I had a thousand percent agree to that. That is something where, you know, the talent's there.

You bring back so much talent offensively. You bring back the most returning production in America. You get a defensive coordinator that was one of the best in the nation last year. When everybody knows, Dabo Sweeney and Dabo Sweeney and Brent Venables belong together. Okay? that that's just what it is. So one of them needs to go outside the others window with the boombox playing Mariah Carey We belong together

because they need to get back together. But Tom Allen, heck of a defensive coordinator as well. You think that you solved the problems that you had defensively last year because their inability to stop the run was so uncanny for Clemson. You have never watched the Clemson team and thought, the way to beat them, run the ball,

get physical with them, get tough with them. And yet that counterintuitive as it was, that was the strategy last year. So I look at that team this year and I say, the defensive lines another year older, star studded as always, two of the top 10 players in America. The offense, K. Klupnik has matured.

The ugly little larva has developed into this beautiful butterfly that they expected coming in. And that wide receiving core, stars everywhere. Yeah. Guys that are going to be playing on Sundays everywhere. They should absolutely be looking at a deep playoff run or disappointment this year. I think a couple years ago, they go eight and four in the regular season and we all started writing them off.

I think that tells you all you need to know about the Clemson Tigers football program right now, which is they don't care about eight, nine, ten regular season wins or any of that stuff. They want to be in the college football playoff and they want to win a national championship. And so I think Clemson Tiger fans would probably tell you the goal is to win the national title this season. I don't, I, I'm sure if you put it like a lie detector test in front of them, they'd probably be okay with making the final four or something like that. But even then, it's like, you're Clemson. You've won two national titles in recent memory here. This is one of the elite programs in college football.

Nobody's talking about Ohio State like, oh, you know, if Ohio State, if they made the college football playoff, is that successful or not? Like, no, Ohio State, did you win the national title? And number two, did you beat Michigan? You might want to flip that honestly. I don't know what it is nowadays, what their priority is from the national title or beat Michigan because last year it was the, I don't know, but that's my point. Alabama football this year. What do you think their expectation is?

Win the national championship. If they don't win the national championship, uh-oh, what went wrong? We need major changes. All that fun stuff that all you like to do. So that's kind of where Clemson is. They need, it's national championship, get there or bus. Otherwise, it's all right. It was another good year of Clemson, I guess.

But that's how high the expectations are there relative to practically every other team in the country. You heard it here first, folks. Jackson Hozer is a Thomas Costellanos truther. If the board doesn't win a championship this year, they don't have Nick Sabin to save them. Take it away, Grace. No, I was going to say, especially with Clemson,

like, I think it's pretty well established that they are a blue blood. Like, they're not a budding blue blood. They're not so blooming. to figure out, no, they are a blue blood. And when you are a blue blood, it is your expectation every year to play for a national championship. And this year is no different. In fact, they might have even have a better team this year than they did last year. And so I know they're, they're football team. They use the hashtag all in. They're all in. I like they, I guarantee you that if you ask any person on that team, their goal is a national championship. Now, to Kenton's

point, if they play in the semifinal, is that a failure of a year. I wouldn't say so, but all these lists that are coming out like top five quarterback and club Nixon in it, top five defense, top five this, top five that, top 50 players in the country, and they have three in the top ten. All that really tells me, it just kind of reconfirms everything. In the ACCC specifically, it's Clemson and it's everybody else. They have the most talented team, probably the best coaching staff. They got Tom Allen now as their DC. That's crazy. I don't think that gets talked about enough. It's Clemson and it's everyone else in the ACC. And then you, you know, You zoom out big picture.

I do think Clemson can make a very deep run in the CFP. They might even find themselves at the very end. Coming up next, when Thomas Castellanos made his comments about Nick Sabin, I think Big Nick took it personally because now there's all this chatter. He wants to coach again. Is there any team in the ACC that could be a fit? You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on the squad.

When we were having our pre-show chat, the NC State contingent, They may have talked us into something here. All right, because, all right. So if Nick Saved, and Greg McElroy said this during SEC Media Days, which are going on this week, we'll have ACC Media Days. I'll be out there. Kenton will be out there. Maybe can I convince Jackson, Grayson, you coming out there this year?

We can get you guys out there. I will not be there, unfortunately. I can't make it, but cheering you guys on. How dare you? So, you know, Greg McElroy and then Lane Kiffin also comments on it like hinting that Saban is getting that it. He's been retired for about a year and a half, but apparently he wants to come back to coaching. I wonder if that could be maybe he tries to scratch the NFL itch again and win a Super Bowl. That's one thing he hasn't done. But we already

have Bill Belichick coaching North Carolina. And Kenton, you talked me into the idea that if we could get Bill Belichick on the UNC sidelines against Nick Sabin on the NC state sidelines, you talk about bringing that rivalry back to national prominence. I think we just did it. Hear me out. Hear me out. Nick Sabin, before Alabama and excluding the Miami Dolphins,

where were his last head coaching stops, right? LSU. Traditionally, LSU has not been seen as like, hey, they're the big dogs on the block in the SEC. Traditionally, they've been seen. Not before he got there. Exactly. They were seen as, you know,

oh, they're right there. They've always got the talent, but they never quite got there, right? Where was he at before LSU? Michigan State, a place that lived in a relative shadow to the national brand, that is, the University of Michigan. Michigan's a Jordan school. North Carolina's a Jordan school.

Why not play the foe to a school that's a Jordan school? I know they weren't a Jordan school back then. I get it. I understand. Hear me out. Follow me here. Ms. Terry. You know, North Carolina Springs, they're wonderful.

You know, it's a wonderful time. It's a great time, okay? I know y'all want to get out of that heat and humidity in Georgia. I know y'all don't like all that. Listen, come on up to North Carolina. We got mild seasons, you know, there might be a little bit ready for time and time, but it's mostly mild here.

You know, I think that this is a great place to retire. We got your old buddy, Matt Brown, out of retirement, to come on to the triangle. Come on to the triangle and decide to keep whipping on North Carolina. Come on, Nick, we're here for you. They need a new coach. They keep saying that what a new coach. Raleigh? What? Who would be the better new coach for Raleigh? Then a guy, a school that,

their, you know, tradition hands in the dirt, ag school. Nick Sabin, it's a match made in heaven if you asked me. If you get the edge, Nick, you got our number. Give us a call. I actually think this makes a lot of sense. Because, first of all, I think NC State basketball hiring Will Wade changed a lot of how I felt about NC State because I never felt before they hired Will Wade, and I know it's a different sport, that they were really, that they had the finances to actually do something like that. And then to not only hire him, but then double down and see what they did in the portal. It's kind of amazing what NC State did. It's just like they popped out of nowhere. Like, oh, we're going to fire our coach and I don't know what we're going to do.

And then, oh, we're going to hire like the hottest eye on the market. And then we're going to go ham in the transit portal. Where did that all come from? What happened there? So I'm thinking about NC State football and I hear this stuff about Nick Saban and I'm like, hmm, well, you've had Dave Doran for so long and he's done a good job, at least from an outsider perspective relative to NC State expectations, but he's been there for so long and you want more than what he's giving you. Well, how many other coaches on the market are going to be able to give more than Dave Doran? Probably not many. Chances are NC State would probably be looking at some coordinator from another school and hoping that that coordinator becomes the next Nick Saban.

Well, what if I told you that that guy that's available is actually Nick Saban? It's probably a risk because he's been out of coaching for a little bit now. This is going to be his second year out. It's a different era from when he was coaching, although he kind of at the end of his tenure, got more into the NIL and the transit portal and all that. But still, it's different now than it was five years ago when he was at Alabama. Even then, five years, it's different times nowadays in college football. But still, it's Nick freaking saving.

He would come to NC State and probably overnight, assuming they would also keep CJ Bailey, by the way, he could put that team in the playoff in year one. He would probably recruit like crazy. Everyone would want to play for him in the transfer portal. You know if NC States open up the checkbook for them, they're going to open up the checkbook as well on the portal with NIL. I think it's a good fit in the ACC.

What you've seen with Belichick at the Blue School down the street, Nick Sabin coming to Raleigh, North Carolina would dwarf that exponentially. Oh, yeah. The passion of the NC State fan base is not something that gets talked about a whole lot on a national scale because we haven't accomplished a whole lot, but you would see a reckoning on the football side. We talk about a basketball. You would hear it. Donno, you would hear it in South Florida if Nick Saban arrived in Raleigh, North Carolina.

It's so funny that Kent and I have not discussed this before right now. and he immediately tried to petition Ms. Terry. That was my scheme that I was going to do. I don't know nothing about Ms. Terry, but I feel like she loves a nice garden. I will garden that woman's garden every single day. If she chooses to make home. Yeah, yeah.

Me and Grace will be there. We'll be there. We got to make sure that the legumes and the beat. We got to make sure that they're rotating right, all that good stuff, make sure. You probably hire a professional to do it themselves. Well, but recruiting Terry Saban, that's the right strategy. Because Ms. Terry, because I remember when, you know, Nick spent those two brief years with the Miami Dolphins.

One of the reasons why he left was Terry Saban did not like Miami. Now, they got a place in Palm Beach, which is close to Miami, but it's very different from Miami. She didn't want to be in Miami anymore. That was one of the reasons why he took that Alabama job. And that worked out pretty well for him. Let me tell you something, don't know. I've been doing recruiting for, uh, in terms of, you know, recruiting for regular jobs and tech and all that for almost a decade now.

When you're hiring executives, you always got to check in with the misses of the mister. If you win them, you don't want the candidate, okay, out of the size of a million dollar business, I'm telling you, the way did I get it done every time, well, let's talk to your old lady. Let's get her in here. Let's get her in the call. Come on. Let's get the kids in. Yeah, let's get the dog.

Let's get Sparky in here. Let's see how it feels. You know, and I'm telling you, Ms. Terry, you will love, love, love the triangle. Okay. They got everything you can walk. We got everything. We got the RTP, we got the wineries and all that. We got whatever you can walk.

We got the mountains. We got the beach. You name it. We got it. I'm honestly looking at other. Sorry, you can go, Grace. Oh, you're good. Go ahead.

Go ahead. Okay. I was honestly looking at the other teams in the ACC. And I was, I'm really trying to figure out where else Nick Saban would maybe fit. But what about Florida State? Florida State if Norvel, you know, failed to take that job? Yeah. Would he want to be up there? Like you want to be in Tallahassee? Yeah. I was just about saying you just said they left the state of Florida because they didn't like it last time. And you're walking.

Oh, no, they like Miami. It's how that Tallahassee is very different. I'm just wondering if they would care about northern Florida. But you know that that's going to be a pressure cooker from day one as opposed to NC State. Like if you get NC State to 10 wins, great job. If you get Florida State to 10 wins and you leave them there perpetually. they're going to get an itch to replace you. They're going to get the edge. What the hell is they doing getting us to 10 wins? And that's it. At NC State, you'll get built to statute.

You'll get built to statute. How many teams in the ACCC right now would drop everything that they're doing and hire Nick Saban as their head coach? How many teams? Oh, about three quarters of them. All of them, but Clemson, probably. I would say probably all about Clemson. Yeah.

Hold on. No, no, no. Syracuse, there's no way they would fire a friend to go get Nick Saban. With what he's done so far, They wouldn't do it now, but I'm sure if Syracuse were to not make a bowl this season, and even with all the recruiting, if you tell me Nick Saban's available, I'd be like, you know what? But also, like, discipline devil's advocate. Like, I'm not going to sit here because I know we obviously, Nick Saban, no question, best.

This is Nick Saban that we're talking about. Yeah, but it's 73-year-old Nick Saban. Exactly. Exactly. But 73-year-old Nick Simon was in the playoff. And that's the thing, like he didn't like the transactional nature. sure that college football has become like he retired because he didn't want to deal with this era. And now we're talking about him two years later coming back.

Like I don't think this is the perfect hire that it would have been five or six years ago. Like I said, three quarters of the ACC would absolutely drop everything. But the people who have a true up and comer or you're at the top already, you're not replacing your coach. I'm sorry. Do you think Miami would realistically say, Mario, get your tail out the door. Nick's here. Oh, they wouldn't.

The guy who's exactly. Exactly. Most other teams would, but if you got an up and coming or you have the top already, hey, actually, I'm good. With all due respect, I think the best team I would consider it is Georgia Tech. And I don't think they think about it too long because I think that he loves that place. He's an alum. He bleeds that school.

He bleeds Georgia Tech. He wants that team to be great so bad. I could see them considering it, but I think they would stick with them. And I think they're the best team I would consider. Everybody else above them, there's no way. With all due respect to Brian Key and Georgia Tech, if Nick Saban says, I want to coach Georgia Tech, he's coaching Georgia Tech.

It's that simple. It's Georgia Tech. Like, hello? For short term. It doesn't have fit the narrative of like, oh, you're kind of like the second fiddle school and you're going to take them. I mean, they're second fiddle of the University of Georgia. Right, right.

And the APC, I mean. But for short-term gains, that helps Georgia Tech. For long term, you just kicked out an alum that, was beloved to get a 73-year-old. Or Nick, it's not 73-year-old Joe Schmoe off the street here. It's Nick Saban. So, yeah, what is, with all due respect to Brent Key and Georgia Tech, right? Has Georgia Tech been in the college football playoff?

No. No. Have they been to the ACC title game? Yes. Not recently. A few or five years ago, maybe. Okay. They were the Paul Johnson there.

Yeah. They went to Paul Johnson. Yeah. Okay. But have they really done that much? Okay, there you go. There's your answer. Like, I'm sorry. I mean, look, if Georgia Tech were to go out and they'd win, you know, 11 games and everything like that and no cool. Yeah, of course they're not going to fire Branky for Nick Saban. But you know what? They go out. They win seven, eight games. That's cool. Nick Saban wants to coach Georgia Tech. Absolutely. They're going to hire him and say, you know what, Branky? I appreciate you. You're an alum. You're always welcome here. But you know what, Nick Saban? Stepping on the toes of an alum that has your program ascending for a guy that's been retired for two years is not good business. It's just not. If he wins a national title with Georgia Tech, that's good business. He makes a knowledge of a one play with Georgia Tech.

That's good business. Well, if you guarantee a national championship, everywhere would take him, including Miami. If you're going to take him to a national championship or is it? Who is more likely to win a national championship? Brank Key or Nick Sabin? You pick. You might only have a few years with Nick Saban, but in those few years, you might actually do the thing. Or at very minimum, you're probably going to make the college football playoff and consistently compete for ACC titles. Fair enough. I'm sorry. I'll take that three years because I don't know if he's really ever going to be able to do that.

I think he's right. We'll leave it on that note because, man, we went a little long. Sorry, Jarvis. We appreciate everyone. We appreciate everyone for making the ACC squad your first list. And make sure you, check out not only all of our other shows, Locked on Cains, Locked on ACC, of course, locked on Syracuse, locked on Wolfpack, but make sure you check out all the other great shows, including Locked on SMU. So that's the newest show on the college channel. I want to welcome in a team that nearly won the ACC last year. We're so glad that they have now a voice here on this network. We'll talk to everyone next time on another episode of the squad right here on the awesome

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