Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - BOMBSHELL: ACC Left WITHOUT Top 10 Teams After Miami and Georgia Tech STUNNING Weekend Losses

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

Miami Hurricanes collapse under penalty avalanche against SMU while NC State Wolfpack stun undefeated Georgia Tech. Can Mario Cristobal fix his November curse, or is Miami's playoff dream dead?Alex Donno and Kenton Gibbs break down the Hurricanes' self-inflicted 26-20 overtime loss, examining Cristobal's troubling 4-9 November record and Miami's chronic discipline issues. The discussion shifts to NC State's dominant 48-36 upset victory, highlighting CJ Bailey's performance and the offensive line's dominance against the Yellow Jackets. The hosts debate College Football Playoff implications after Miami and Georgia Tech dropped from the top 10, questioning why ACC teams face harsher standards than SEC programs. A heated conversation follows about Dabo Swinney's $10,000 fine for criticizing officials after Clemson's controversial loss to Duke, sparking broader questions about officiating accountability in the ACC.Tune in for insider analysis on coaching accountability, playoff politics, and why head-to-head results should matter more than predictions.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!DoorDashWith DoorDash Streaks, you save every Saturday you order — stack it up all season and you could save up to $250. Order this Saturday. Keep the streak alive. Fuel your gameday — only with DoorDash. Terms apply. Promo period through 11/18.SupplyHouseJoin the free TradeMaster program today and score serious perks like priority shipping, lower prices, and a dedicated support line. Visit SupplyHouse.com to sign up for free and use promo code SHCOLLEGE5 for 5% off your first order. GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Kenson and I are in very different moods coming off for this weekend. Miami loses another game with just a comedy of errors of self-inflicted wounds. What else is new? But NC State pulled off the victory of the weekend. You are Locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Shout out to the everydayers and thank you so much for making Lockdown ACC 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. He is Kenton Gibbs, who I know enjoyed his homecoming game over the weekend with NC State Beat in Georgia Tech. He's the co-host of Lockdown Wolfpack and a former NC State defensive lineman. I am Alex Dono, host of Lockdown Keynes, and this episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the GameTime app. your account and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase.

On this loaded episode, a Dabo Sweeney rant, which I actually thought was a good rant, got him fined $10,000 by the ACC. NC State, as we mentioned, pulled off a just a massive victory, and ACC chaos is back because just when you thought Georgia Tech might run the table, look what happens. Just when you thought Miami might run the table after losing a couple of weeks ago, they fall at SMU. All right, so Kenton, let's start with that. And you can imagine I've talked a lot about Miami's 2620 overtime loss to SMU a lot.

All due respect to SMU, this was a situation where I didn't think either team played well, but Miami made more mistakes than SMU in this game. Like I didn't come away from this one saying, hey, this was a Ret Lashley masterclass. Hang that Kevin Jennings performance in the Louvre. Like I didn't feel that way. And this is not to dig anything away from SMU. Miami is rightfully getting hammered. I mean, Kent, in a game where penalties have been an issue for Miami all season long,

you could even argue going back to previous seasons, right? They've had games when they lost to Louisville a couple of weeks ago, they committed nine penalties. When they, you know, kind of flirted with disaster against Florida State in a victory, they committed 11 penalties. At SMU, they commit 12 penalties. for 96 yards. Miami's defense literally held SMU to negative rushing yardage in regulation, but they gave them a football fields of free yardage in the game.

And that's a reflection on coaching, right? I know the players are actually the ones out there executing and committing penalties, but when this has been an issue all season long, if not longer than a full season, Kenton, whatever Miami is trying to do in practice to limit, correct, and mitigate the penalties, it's not working because this thing is getting better, not worse. And we'll talk about Miami's approach and play calling as well because there were a number of different issues. But I think you have to start with the penalties. It's a sign of an undisciplined team. Well, it all starts with the head coach. And it's almost as if someone had warned Miami has King Get Rightitis and they've had it for some time coming down the stretch.

How do you think Mario Cristobal would have reacted if somebody would have said, Miami, really good team, always had the talent, just can't get out of its own way. You think Mario would have said, yeah, I've got to figure out a way? Or do you think you would have said, my first year, we were about to have no players drafted for Miami for the first time in a few decades? Which one do you think he went with, Donno? He went with, yeah, my first year, we were about to have nobody drafted because of the previous coaching regime.

That's what he went with. Well, after that, Dono, I'm sure that if ACC Network were coming to Miami to talk to him about the upcoming season, he wouldn't still double down on we didn't have any talent when I got here. He wouldn't do that. He would be a man that takes accountability and says, it's on me. I've got to fix it. He would do that, right, Dalu? You would think. And to be fair, he has said things like that. He said it. It hasn't been done, though. Yeah. Yeah. And at the end of the day, that's where all of this starts and ends. The lack of accountability that starts with him, then spreads his quarterback who said, I executed the play called.

I executed what they called. They ran the same stuff all night. I don't know what you want for me. Hmm. Interesting. I'll defend back on that because you probably saw. So, you know, they do what they do on X and they put out a seven second clip without the question. The question was actually was the SMU defense running things different when he said they were calling the same things all night.

So it was it. And it's like, listen, man, I'm not. like Carson Beck made a critical error in that game. Actually, I thought he played well. You know, the overtime interception was a backbreaker. But he wasn't the reason why they lost that game. They should not have been in that situation. I thought he played well in that game.

Either way you cut or slice it. I look at Miami and I say, Donald, you know their record. So you tell me, what's their record in November under Cristobal? They are four and nine in November with Mario Cristobal in four years. And November is still. young this year. We'll see how that finishes this year. Four and nine. Four and nine overall in four seasons. Parts of four seasons. Yuck. That stinks. At the end of the day, Mario Cristobal has to get more creative with his play calling. He has to get more creative with what he's doing down the stretch

because I tell people all the time, freshmen often have success for a few games. And then all of a sudden, when a tape is out, teams catch up. My is a good enough team to where it takes more than a few games to where even if you do know the game plan, you still don't have a guy to block Mesidor just waiting. You still don't have a guy to block Bain just waiting. You still don't have a guy that's like, oh yeah, he can get open against Besson every day to week. Teams just don't have those.

But at a certain point in time, the margins start to get thinner and thinner and thinner. And if you lack the creativity to do something new, if you lack the ability to say, objectively what I have done this far in this month has not worked. What do we need to change? You're going to get the same result. You're going to get the same results. And honestly and truly, Miami fans who are calling for Crystal Ball to be fired, I think that it's a bridge far too far for me.

I think it's a bridge too far for me. However, I do understand the frustration when you see the results that Miami has gotten on the recruiting trail. And you say, well, wait a day. a minute. But how are we losing to these teams that are not close to us on the recruiting throw? So I do understand that frustration. But I would say, Christopal, look at the man in the mirror. Start with you and say, what can I do better? It ain't about me getting up at that podium, saying, well, it's been me all along and I need to get it fixed. It's about getting it fixed.

It's about getting the fix. The best apology or the best way to move forward is change behavior. And at this point in time, Miami needs change behavior in the month of November or else you're going to get what you get. Yeah. And to something you said, and yeah, Miami fans are frustrated. You know, I talk to Miami fans every single day. But to what you said, I just want to make this clear, he cannot be fired right now. You know, people were going crazy over LSU paying, what was it, a 54 million buyout for Brian Kelly. Mario Cristobal's buyout is $61 million.

He cannot be fired right now. So that's a non-starter. Like I'm not doing shows about it on Locked-on Cain's because it would be a waste of everyone's time. So what we can talk about is everything you said, looking in the mirror, adapting. And like the good news is, and I know like this hasn't been enough to get over the hump, but the foundation of the roster is there for what Christabal said, you know, four years ago about the talent not being there. The talent is there now. Like it's one of the more talented roster.

in college football. So the foundation of talent is there. He recruits at a very high level. I think the evals from him and his staff have been very good, not only in recruiting, but in the transfer portal. They brought in some really, really good players. Like, I'll start with this. Like on Miami, Mario Cristobal has no question raised the floor, because before he got there, like the floor was five or six wins, right? The floor is like eight wins now. I mean, Miami's six and two. If they go two and two, the rest of the way, they win eight games, that's probably the floor. right because they're they're not going to lose to syracuse this saturday um they might lose to nc state though nc state is is on a heater after last weekend and then virginia tech and in pittsburg so like they

they might go two and two in that stretch they might go three and one of that stretch they're probably not going o and four or one and three in that stretch so i'm looking at like an eight-win floor now but they're not hitting their ceiling like they're clearly not hitting their ceiling and a couple other things you were right to bring up the uh the predictability that you know when when the tape gets out there and you're in the month of November, yeah, the margin get thin because people figure out. Another thing that it just people have brought this up, Steve Kim, who's actually a boxing analyst who also covers Miami has brought this up.

With Miami's offensive approach, the clock control and shortening the games, that works against them against inferior opposition. Because when you shorten the game and shorten the number of possessions for yourself and for the opponent, guess what? that's erasing the talent advantage that you have. The more possessions you have when you're the more talented team, probably the more you're going to score and the more distance you're going to create.

But when you shorten the freaking game, that's how you lose to an SMU that's far less talented than you or a Louisville team that's talented but not as talented as Miami. Like you shorten the game, that's how you lose against teams like that. And the confusing thing about it is, again, why are you not adapting? your wide receiver court has been one of the best surprises of the ACC, period.

You cannot look at a bunch of other position groups and say, we expected them to be bad and they've come out to be as good. At best, people thought that Miami's receiving court was going to be pedestrian. They were not going to be a net positive. They weren't going to kill you. Not going to make the highlight plays, but they aren't going to, you know, and they've come out and made the highlight plays game in and game out. So why would you not say, you know what?

We do like to run the ball. we do like to be physical. We do like to suffocate the life out of the game. But maybe we need to try something a little different. Maybe we need to say, hey, we're going to go up tempo a little bit. And we're going to see how this works out for us. We're going to see. I understand being who you are.

I understand being, you know, don't forget who bought you to the dance. I understand that. But at this point, the same person that you bring and keeps stepping on your toes every time November comes around. she gets two left feet every single time November hits then all of a sudden y'all can't do no waltzine no flamengo y'all can't even do the cup and it gives you the direction it tells you to the right to the right to the left to the left not kid you know it tells you and y'all just can't figure it out so at this point in time that predictability has to be broken and that to me is the biggest thing here because the talent

is there the talent has always been there for the most part for Miami but it's super there now There's not a world. Everybody's not breaking bringing Ruben Hurricane Bain out of their locker room. Everybody not bring a CC. Those don't grow on trees, guys. There's one. Maybe two in the country.

Two, maybe. You don't see those every day. So, you know, I look at this team and I say, there's no excuse. There's no reason to be less than a perennial playoff continuum. There's no reason to be less than to still not have an ACC championship appearance

under crystal ball is insanity. It feels like, am I missing something? What's happening? And it doesn't appear that this year will be it either. They still have a chance. So let me leave that out there. There's still a chance. They need some help.

But it appears that it won't be, it won't happen this year either. Again, Miami fans, I understand your frustration because y'all are one of the 15, the 10 to 15 programs where eight wins a year ain't enough. At NC State, we'll rename the field after you. It would be named Crystal Ball Field. at Carter Finley Stadium

if you win eight games a year. At Miami, eight games a year, Snellenberger wouldn't even leave his pipe out of recruit's hospital for that. What are we doing here? Jimmy Johnson wouldn't get out of bed but it's perfectly wafted here for that. Yeah, and talk about the chances.

I mean, Miami's not mathematically eliminated from anything yet, but with two ACC losses, they would need a ton of help to get into the ACC championship game. The Wolfpack actually helped us a little bit winning that game against Georgia Tech, that they would have to lose another conference game.

You know, in terms of the college football playoff, I think there's an outside chance that if they go 10 and 2, they could get in. But even though Miami has a head-to-head win against Notre Dame, if they both finish 10-and-2, the committee is already setting up for putting Notre Dame in over Miami, despite the head, which is ridiculous.

But it is what it is. But Miami's got to go 10-2 first, right? That's not a guarantee. But when we come back, we got to talk about your PAC and what they just did against Georgia Tech. I know you were worried about that. I had a feeling Dave Doran was going to get this one done. You want to keep it locked right here. We are only getting started on this brand new episode of Lockdown ACCC.

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think, oh, it's a pretty good seat. Then you pull up the in-seat view, not so good. You find seat game time gives you all of the best features guys best prices too take the guest work out of buying college football tickets with game time download the game time app create your account and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again that's promo code locked on college for $20 off swipe tap ticket go download the game time app today thank you so much for making locked on acc your first listen for your next listen make sure you check out our other shows we've We've had some happy episodes this week of Locked-on Wolfpack featuring Kenton Gibbs and Grace and Boone. Not so happy this week on Locked-on Cain's, but Kenton, let's talk about your Wolfpack.

You know, you were, you sounded kind of gloom and doom before that game against formerly 8 and 0, formerly number 8 Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech's fallen six spots, by the way, or eight spots down to number 16 now. and the pack pull off of 48 to 36 masterclass. How did that unfold in your eyes, Kenton, and who were the MVP? Well, you know, the biggest MVP, and by the way, man, we keep your grubby hands away from them, is our quarterback, C.J. Bailey, he's one of the biggest MVP's, but also more than C.J. Bailey, I want to give a shout out to the offensive line.

Let me tell you what a signature is of great offensive line play. When the quarterback looks good and the runnerback looks good, especially when you got a backup running back in there. Hollywood Smothers, one of the top five versions in the nation, was out for this game. Justin Jolie, one of the top past catcher tight ends in the nation, out for this game. And yet they put up how many points down there? 48 points. Now, for those of you who do not know, for those of you who do not know, if you go back

and look up every NC State game from this season, not one time against a power for, I'm sorry, not just a power for it. Not one time against an FBS opponent has this team put up 40 plus points, not once. They only did it against Campbell. That was the only other time they put up 40 points. 583 yards of total offense. Yeah. Without Jolene Smothers.

Without 583 yards. The offensive line dominated. Dominated. I mean, they controlled this game up front. You know, C.J. Bailey had time to sit back there, make a sandwich, make his first read, make a second read, pick up the Reader's digest read of the month, take a look at that and then find an open Teddy Hoffman downfield and all those types of things. Noah Rogers showing up as the young man that he is and the defense did just enough.

Grayson and I talked all offseason about the fact this defense was not going to be dominating. We had a mass exodus of defensive backs at 1159 in the winter portal. It was like, well, what are you going to do? But with that in mind, we said if this defense can just hold on enough, the offense has the potential to create the fireworks that are going to win them some ball games. And this is what happened. Do you think anybody will look at their defense allowing 36 points and say, oh, man, fantastic game by those guys? No, never.

But the thought was, the thought has always been with me in this defense, just do enough. Just steal a possession here and there. Just find a way to come up with a crucial turnover in the right moments. And I know that the interception came on the game ending hell Mary that basically didn't matter. But if you watch that game overall, NC State's defense did just enough. They bit, but they didn't break. Just enough. They let Georgia Tech get close and say, all right, that's enough.

Get a field goal here. Just enough to come away with the win here. So all in all, the offensive line deserves all the love in the world. Coach Tudj, Coach Garrett Tudj, his birthday recently passed. Happy birthday to him. that brother that offensive line they put on the performance that was cake and candles everywhere because that was a great great job that was fantastic and and as a result of the two games that we've talked about already this is it is what it is man congratulations to smu congratulations to

nc state but on the flip side with two top 10 acc teams both losing the acc no longer has a top 10 team right now. So now the top ranked team in the conference is Virginia. Credit to them, they keep winning football games. Virginia at number 12. Georgia Tech, I mentioned, fell to number 16. Miami fell to number 18. Louisville, number 14 also.

I don't want to forget them in there. So number 12, Virginia, number 14, Louisville, 16, Georgia Tech, and 18, Miami. But no teams in the top 10 right now. I'm hoping that, you know, we have some strong finishes. the season and that problem works itself out. But that's obviously, you know, from an outsider's perspective, they're not looking that highly at the ACC at this moment. And it's, and it's not fair. It's not right. It's the same thing that we always talk about with, oh yeah, we got seven to Oklahoma because they've had so many great wins, Donald. They've had all the great wins,

you know. A loss to Texas means nothing, despite the fact that Archmanning has looked like, like a double scoop of behind back there, but we're going to pretend like, oh, yeah, that Texas team, they've got all the talent. And we knew they were going to piece it together eventually. Yeah, okay. And yet we have one-loss teams

that are being disrespected in a very major way. Has Georgia Tech Lick dominant all year? No. I'm not going to sit here and say they've whipped the wheels off everybody in front of us. Has Oklahoma? No, certainly not. I don't think so.

I don't think even in their wins. I don't think they've looked like some dominant juggernaut like some force of guy. Ooh, you beat a true freshman who was playing this first ever road game in one of the toughest environments in the nation. Oh, great win against Michigan, I guess. Okay. But I mean, so the Florida state win doesn't matter over Alabama

because there's different teams now and the result would be different. But the Michigan win is still a great one. You know, it's all this type of stuff that when you put two and two together, it never holds up true. but I think that it's a sign of the depth of the ACC. It really and truly is that you have to show up against everybody. A NC State team that was on a losing street against FBS teams showed up and said, hey, actually, we still got some ball to play.

We still got some life left in this. We're still kicking. A SMU team start off the season, terribly, terribly. A Miami team that had everything in front of them if you win this game. and yet Miami Rat Lashley pulls the troll job all of the former Miami guys is captains and says hey, we got something for you

and he did and he did I think it's a sign of how good the ACC is it really really and truly should be seen as that but again it just means less here I guess well and I brought up an example before we went to break last time around and again this is obviously hypothetical because I'm not guaranteeing that Miami will do this,

but if Miami wins out and goes 10 and 2, Notre Dame wins out and goes 10 and 2, Notre Dame's 10 and 2 would include a head-to-head loss to Miami. And the court of public opinion right now, in that hypothetical, seems to think that Notre Dame would get the knot, if it comes down to one final playoff spot and you have a 10-2 Notre Dame, 10-and-2 Miami, Notre Dame having a head-to-head loss to Miami.

Like Heather Dinnich, ESPN reporter who reports on the college football playoff committee, like she's usually pretty familiar with their line of thinking has said, she thinks that the head-to-head win for Miami would be trumped by Notre Dame's late-season success versus Miami's, you know, late-ish season blunders, that Notre Dame would advance over Miami despite the head-to-head. And it's like, Kenton, like, I, okay, and I, and I, I threw that out there kind of in an open-ended way on social media. And I had a bunch of Notre Dame fans in my mentions like,

hey, well, dummy, I mean, if you were to match these teams up right now in a neutral site, who would be favored to win? And I say, yeah, Notre Dame would, but then why do we play the games? Like, does that trump the head to head? Like Miami literally beat Notre Dame in the only time they actually met this season, not in the hypothetical. And this is what happened. And even as a Miami guy,

I bashed the committee, you know, two years ago when they kept Florida State out undefeated because they didn't think Florida State could win without their starting quarterback. It was hurt. They earned it. And I was one of the few Miami guys not like laughing at Florida State in that situation. I thought they should have been in. And I said it then on this show and I'll say it again, that could happen to Florida State. That could happen to anybody. Like if Miami and Notre Dame both both go 10 and 2, you can't just say, well, Notre Dame would beat them probably on a neutral field. so they get in and Miami doesn't. Why are we still talking about Vegas? Why? Don't get me wrong, right?

Hey, Fandu pays the bills around here. You know, we just got a little help pad to bill. We ain't got to get too much into that. We get it. We get the sports betting as an important part of the American sports lexicon today. But, Dono, for all of Vegas's wisdom, were Drew Aller and Archmanning not the Heisman favorites this year? Yeah.

Hmm. Kate Klubnick was also up there. Oh, Kate Klubnick also up there. And yet, and yet, we're being told by Lane Kiffin and by Notre Dame fans and by all of these fans, well, if you look at who would be favored? Well, who'd be favorite if they played? Well, neutral sight.

And, well, it does not matter. Those two. You know how you saw who would be favorite when teams play down on? You know who would, how you solved that? You line it up. Yeah, line it up. Now last time I checked, Donnell, maybe I'm crazy. Maybe I'm crazy.

Maybe you crazy. Maybe so Notre Dame fans, y'all tell up, did they or did they not line it up? Did they or did they not line it up this season? And what happened? What happened? Miami won. When I played a cash tech, we were not picked one a single game in the state playoffs my junior year, state champions.

And then, and then when we came back, beyond round two, Two, nothing. Another ring. It does not matter what Vegas says, what the reporters say, what the media said. When you line the damn game up, that has to matter. Because if it's about, if it's all about who's predicted to win, why do we do anything beyond say, hey, guys, congratulations. Let's simulate the season. Exactly.

Congratulations. Congratulations on getting the best recruits, guys. We're just going to do scrimmages, introscribns. Nobody has to play anybody else. And with that, we know who everybody is. Oh, you know, if Florida State and Alabama play now, Donno, it's a different thing. Both teams are different things now. Alabama's been hot as fish grease and that was their quarterback's first start and, you know, it was all these things.

Hmm, interesting. Thomas Costalano started with Florida State last year, Donno? Is there something I didn't know about that? Oh, no, Gus Malzah was at Florida State last year. Wasn't he? He was there? No. No.

So they were breaking in all new stuff too. So it was two teams breaking in new stuff. And one of the worst teams in the ACC turned out to be one of the best in the SEC. But, oh, Vegas says, Vegas. Donno, it's about Vegas. To hell with Vegas. I was wrong about the first game. To hell with my opinion.

What matters is when they line it up. If my opinion mattered that much, NC State wouldn't have been partying on the 50. I thought that Georgia Tech was going to run all over that team. But guess what? Sure did. Guess what? Vegas was wrong. I was wrong.

Donald was wrong. We were all wrong. Because when you line it up, funny things tend to happen. And I'm going to leave it right there. Well, Dabo Sweeney is big mad and it got him fined. I mean, $10,000, I'm sure he can handle it. But I got to stand up for Dabo. And I hope more coaches do this.

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But Duke does pull off the quote unquote upset on the road at Clemson, 46 to 45. But it actually came down to a two-point conversion. in regulation, not in overtime. Duke scores what would have been the game tying touchdown. They get the two-point conversion to win the game in dramatic fashion. But on Duke's final drive, and I take nothing away from Duke, but, you know, Dabo Sweeney of Clemson was big mad about a questionable pass interference call on 4th and 10 that extended the drive and allowed Duke to finish the game and come away victorious. And Dabo had a post-game rant, Kenton. He called it repeated.

one of the worst calls he's ever seen. And those comments drew him a $10,000 fine from the ACC. The statement from the league was, Sweeney's post-game comments regarding the officiating were in direct violation of the ACC sportsmanship policy that states public criticism of officials or public comments evaluating the officiating a particular contest is not in the best interest

of intercollegiate athletics. Individuals associated with the athletics program are prohibited, therefore, from commenting while acting in an official capacity on officiating rather than directly to the conference office. They said the ACC considers this matter closed and will have no further comment. But what annoys me about this is, I just want the accountability to go both ways, okay? The ACC is so quick to find coaches for speaking out. I've been covering this league a long time. And I know you can never expect officiating to be perfect. Always going to be mistakes. This game is officiated by human beings. All human beings make

mistakes. But the volume of mistakes and game changing mistakes committed by officials in this league is atrocious. And I never, like we saw this from the SEC earlier this season. Like Auburn has been hosed in multiple games this year. And you have had officials demoted and reprimanded because of that. Correct me if I'm wrong. I might be wrong, but I don't recall the ACC ever doing that. Like, I do appreciate now that they put the replay sessions on TV to provide more transparency. Transparency is great, but transparency and accountability are not the same thing.

I've never seen the ACC, and again, anyone can correct me if I'm wrong about this, but I don't see the league ever demoting, reprimanding, fining, firing officials for making terrible calls because it seems to happen a lot in this league, but then they have no problem finding a coach for complaining about a call that decided their game. Absolutely. And for a reference, the fine that DaBosweeney paid, if it was on the average American salary, the same percentage, it would be a $57 fine. So you wouldn't want to lose your $57. Gotcha. Gotcha. You'd be okay. You'd be all right. You know, you wouldn't die off that $57. But in all, all seriousness, you're absolutely right, Donno.

This thing has been happening for far too long, has been happening for far too long. I'm surprised Dicker didn't get this type of fine when the Georgia Tech jump off sides was not caught. I'm surprised Gordon didn't get this type of fine. I'm surprised Doran didn't get this type of fine when the same thing happened against Duke where a young man was clearly off sides

and, you know, he just doesn't get the call and then C.J. Bailey throws up an interception and what should have been you going up into halftime up 10 ends up you going in the halftime down three. You know, that was a massive swing. I'm surprised that more coaches aren't willing to say, what to hell with this? Take it.

Take the 10,000. Take whatever. Because this is, it's getting to the point where, you know, I'm a big believer in you shouldn't be blaming the officials and the officials shouldn't be controlling the outcome of the game. But, man, do your job. You're paid to do this. You're paid to do this.

This isn't free. This isn't free. I'm not expecting you to do your job perfectly, but you're paid to do it. I'm a recruiter when I'm not doing this. You think I could put 10 off-sites wrong and just look at them and say, well, if you criticize me as a candidate,

that just means we're going to injure candidacy. No. No, I can't punish the people who I've wrong. The ACC gets to do that, which is a shame. It's a sin of shame, you know? Because, again, that pass interference, I did not like it one bit. I did not like it.

And the reality of this thing is Clemson has not been good this season. Everybody can argue, well, you shouldn't have been in that position to begin with. But the reality is the game of football, the whole point, is to be one point better than your opponent. Within the rules of the game, be one point better. And Clemson did enough to be there, but a call prevented them from being there as well, which is unfortunately.

Outside of the fact that it would theoretically make games longer, is there any good reason why calls can't be reviewed and overturned, like in terms of like past interference calls? Because you can't overturn those, right? Like, is there any good reason for that? You know, the same way that baseball is now calling for robo amps, I may be in the minority here. People may say, well, Ken, that's insane.

I want robo refs. I'm going to say it. I hate the fact that anytime there's a trend of offensive linemen talking about how they do their job and what they do, it's always just them telling the world, yeah, we be holding. We hold. And nobody cares. I'm sick of it. If there's holding on every play, either change how the rule holding is written or throw the flag every play. One or the other, the choice is yours.

I'm a big proponent of and people don't like it, especially my fellow defense lawman, get rid of the rule. If it happens every play and we're not going to call it, get rid of it. Get rid of it. If these calls cannot be reviewed, we have to have some type of comeuppance or recompense for getting them wrong. You can't just constantly say, well, we don't want the games to be longer and we're not going to hold these rest accountable for getting it wrong. So what are we doing here? What's the point? Yeah, and like I looked it up and there are a few circumstances where past interference can be overturned,

but none of it is because the call was bad, right? So the only exceptions is if they determined the ball was tipped, which is obvious. Tipped ball can't be past interference. So an official can say, hey, we got overturned this. It was dipped. If the ball did not cross the line of scrimmage or if the receiver was out of bounds. But, I mean, okay, so you can overturn a pass interference call by certain technicalities.

But, I mean, listen, it's possible sometimes a referee in the moment throws a bad flag. and if they take a look at it, they might realize, you know what, this was an awful call that's deciding potentially the outcome of this football game late fourth quarter. I should be able to review that and then come out and say, you know what, there's no flag on the play. Like, it just seems too simple to me. I agree. I agree. And it's not just about passing affairs. Again, I think all of these calls, you should be able to look at it and say, wait a minute now.

This young man was held by mile. This is clear. He's turning away. The offensive lineman has his shoulder pad and is pulling him back, despite his best protestations the other way, that we should be able to do that. We should be able to say, the same way we review targeting,

we should be able to look at all these calls. We should be able to say, wait a minute, hold on. Was that holding? Was that passive interference? Was that off-size? Was that, you know, a player in the neutral zone? Whatever the case may be. Again, I'm not a proponent of,

well, this call helps the team I like and this team hurts the team I don't. I'll be the first one to tell you. You can go to any of my social media pages. And I say it. When my team gets a call, I'm like, ah, that's a little questionable. I'll say you.

For the call. Exactly. Thanks for the call, I guess. But realistically, we need to do a better job or the officials need to do a better job. And the conference needs to be more transparent because maybe they are demoting and maybe they are doing those things. But I've never heard about it. I've never seen the release.

I can't find record of it happening at any point since 2015, that that was the last time an officiating crew got demoted it. And listen, that might just mean they didn't make it public record, but I can't find any record of it happening in 10 years. And that's what I'm saying. Maybe they're keeping it under lock and key. But at the end of the day, we have seen some officiating that cannot stand. You can't have some of these calls in some of these moments. And you just swallow your whistle and say, oh, let the players decide the game. Well, yes, the players should decide the game. But they should do so within the. rules. If it's passing the fence in the first quarter, it's passing a fence in the fourth

quarter. If it's holding in the first quarter, it's holding in the fourth quarter. If it's off sides in the first quarter, it's off sides of the fourth quarter. We can't just, oh, well, it's the end of the game, so we're going to swallow our whistles, knock it. Yeah. Great stuff, as always from Kent and Gibbs. Enjoy that W, my brother, and enjoy basketball season starting this week. We're going to talk more about that throughout the week. So it's Will Wade season. It's Jay Lucas season for me. I'm excited about it. Yeah, I'm excited about Cain's basketball as well. Team is looking pretty good.

Well, we'll see. We'll see. They play their opener on Monday night. Make sure you follow Kenton at TGIF underscore Kenton and on Lockdown Wolfpack. You can watch me on Lockdown Canes and at Alex Dono on X. And we'll talk to you next time on another episode of LockdowneCC. We are part of the awesome Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team.

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