Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - BOMBSHELL: Clemson's Dynasty CRUMBLES as Syracuse STUNS Tigers | Is Dabo's Era OVER?
Episode Date: September 22, 2025ACC football landscape shaken: Clemson stunned, Miami rises, and Duke triumphs. Is a new conference powerhouse emerging?Alex Donno and former NC State defensive lineman Kenton Gibbs dissect Clemson's ...shocking loss to Syracuse, questioning the Tigers' cultural issues. Miami Hurricanes' dominant win over Florida takes center stage, with Reuben Bain's stellar performance reshaping the defensive narrative. Florida State's impressive victory, Syracuse's quarterback woes, and Duke's upset over NC State round out the analysis. Gibbs offers insider perspectives on NC State's special teams struggles.Tune in for expert breakdowns of ACC's shifting dynamics and potential playoff implications.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!5-Hour ENERGYEnough with boring, flavorless caffeine, it’s time to give your caffeine a flavor upgrade with 5-hour ENERGY®️ shots. Get the favorites you love or be bold and try something new in-store and online at https://www.5hourENERGY.com or Amazon today. SquareTo learn more, go support your favorite neighborhood spot and see what Square has been up to in your neck of the woods. And then if you have extra time, check out https://square.com/go/lockedoncollegeThe Game CapGrab your team’s classic bar or retro circle designed hat and use code LOCKEDON for an exclusive discount. Head to Because legends wear The Game. Head to https://thegamecaps.com 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.MazdaIt’s the small details that make the big plays. And just like there’s more to every player, there’s more to a Mazda vehicle. Mazda. Move and Be Moved. 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.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at https://www.monarchmoney.com/lockedoncollege for 50% off your first year.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.
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Dabo Sweeney said last week that if Clemson is tired of winning, they can get rid of me.
Maybe Dabo was the one who got tired of winning.
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your team every day. He is Kenton Gibbs, former NC State defensive lineman and co-host of Locked on Wolfpack.
I am Alex Dono from Lockdown-Kane's, and today's episode is brought to you by Fanduil. Right now,
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Download FanDuel today. On this episode, we'll talk about the collision course that Miami and Florida State are on.
And what could be an ACC championship game eliminator in October?
Sammy's got the by week coming up. Florida State has Virginia, who, by the way, quietly, Virginia's having a really good season. So we'll see what happens on Friday night. We'll do our week four recap. I know, unfortunately, didn't go Kenton Gibbs's way for the Wolfpack, but at least he got to watch Bill Belichick lose again. So there's that. We'll talk about Syracuse, unfortunately, losing their starting quarterback for this season. Steve Angelly is out with an Achilles. But Kenton, let's talk about.
the Clemson Tigers right off the bat.
And again, I don't want to take anything away from Syracuse because, you know,
their only loss was to a very good Tennessee Volunteers team.
You know, they had an overtime thriller against Yukon.
They probably could have played better in that game.
They steamrolled Colgate like they were supposed to do.
They go into Death Valley and they take it to the Clemson Tigers,
in a game when Clemson had no answers for Syracuse's offense,
and Clemson's offense continues to look like a hot mess.
At what point do we take something away from Clemson?
At what point do we start saying, you know what?
The teams that beat you are not necessarily world beaters.
They're just you beaters.
Do you remember that point last year, Dono, I believe it was about game four or five for Florida State,
where we start to realize, all righty, this team is just not very good.
This has nothing to do with all these other teams being great.
This team just ain't very good.
And I'm starting to get that feeling from Clemson because all the other games,
I could say, hey, K K. Klobnik was playing well.
He was playing well enough to get you a win.
It just didn't work out in his favor.
Hey, you know, they have problems stopping the run.
But if they would have gotten in the advantageous situations,
they would have done the job in terms of that pass rush being what they were supposed to be.
This, we're getting to a point now where the guys that are supposed to be their superstars
have been some of the biggest disappointments in all of college football.
And I don't think I'm exaggerating.
I don't think I'm exaggerating to say,
T.J. Parker, I believe he finally got his first sack of the season in this game.
So congratulations, he's tied for roughing the passers and sacks now on the season going into game.
Like, this is, you can't, you can't live like this.
You can't live like this.
I give Syracuse their credit because you showed up and you beat that team.
But remember what I said last week, Donna.
You cannot spot every team in America.
13 to 17 point leads and just know, oh, we'll be all right because we have so much more talent than you.
The problems that we saw against Troy were the running game and we thought, oh, well, the secondary is going to be fine.
They just need to stop the run.
In this game, first Stephen Jelly threw all over them, then Ricky Collins did.
And it's like, right.
Okay, so you can't stop the pass at a high level.
You can't stop the run at a high level.
Well, other than that, how was the play, Mrs.
Mrs. Lincoln. How was it?
And mind you, mind you, here's the worst part of it all, Donald.
You ready for the worst part of it all?
I'm ready.
How many of the games has Clemson played away from Death Valley to this point?
Oh, one, George Tech.
One.
And they are one and three with that one win being a comeback victory over the Troy Trojans.
This team, you know, I don't like calling team seasons over prematurely or over early.
They are 0 and 2 in conference, right?
O and 2 in conference, they have no shot at an at-large bid at this point.
Their only hope is to win the ACC outright.
You talk about Florida and Florida State, Miami on a collision course.
One of those teams would have to lose twice.
Not to mention Georgia Tech.
Georgia Tech would have to lose.
Actually, they would have to lose three times because they have the tiebreaker against
so all of these teams, you're now sitting here and saying we need more and more help.
Last year, they need to help from one team.
They need, hey, hey, Syracuse, do the thing against Miami.
Do the thing and we'll be fine.
And this year, we're looking at a situation where we are two ACCC games in for them.
And we're already saying, okay, you need at least three teams, at least three,
to give you major help along the way.
They are in trouble, especially for a team that we were thinking,
is this going to be the first ever 16 and O we see?
Is this going to be the first ever 16 and O?
Run the table through the regular season and then get to the playoff,
get your by, and run the three in the playoff.
We thought that that was the fourth.
84% of production of Lash and returning,
and this is what you put out?
Dabo did not lie when he said,
if they start paying players, I'll go do something else.
we thought that that meant he'd get another job.
What he meant by I would be a coach is I will become a coach who loses very often
the minute that players start getting paid at a high level.
I mean, here's the thing.
I know it's not going to stop people from talking about it,
but Davosweeney's not going to get fired.
He's not going to get fired because he built that program into what it is.
Also, for what it's worth, I think his buyout is around 60 million.
So there's 60 million reasons why Davosweeney is not getting fired anytime soon.
And I would also say maybe he deserves the benefit of the doubt for two national championships and what he built there.
But do you think Davosweeney is going to become self-aware enough?
Now, he thinks about himself a lot.
He comes off as a bit of a narcissist when he starts yelling out his resume, you know, instead of taking accountability for the shape that the team is in right now.
But do you think this now becomes a wake-up call?
I mean, Kempton has money.
Like if he chooses not to spend it in bidding wars in NIL, that is a conscious choice by Dabo Sweeney.
Like Clemson has the ability and the financial prowess where they can spend money like upper echelon
programs if they wanted to.
So it's not an issue of not having the finances.
Do you think this is the wake up call for Dabo that even though he said, hey, we're not
going to be in the paying players business, is he going to have to start doing that more?
Is he going to have to start actually bringing in?
He did bring in three transfers this year.
Is he going to start having to use the transfer portal the way that the elite programs are?
Does Dabo actually figure that out or does he keep doing what he's doing?
Donno, you're not going to like this because my take on what's wrong with Clemson is the exact opposite of the national media at large.
Everybody's saying they're not spending money on players.
They're not spending money.
They're not getting the top players.
I strongly disagree.
Strongly disagree.
You had three players that were coming in that were top 10.
They have a cultural rot that's starting with the head coach.
Like you just said, this is a situation where dabble, when confronted with what he is doing,
when confronted with what is the reality, where your team is, he doesn't say, we have got to be better and it starts with me and leave it there.
He doesn't own, hey, I'm a big believer in always, if you're going to do it, work the sandwich method.
Sure, you can talk about the reasoning of why things are happening in the middle somewhere, but you should always start it.
and ended with it starts with me, it ends with me.
You're the $100 million man.
You're the man that made enough money to where you don't have to work another day in your life.
Your kids don't have to work.
And probably their kids, if they just manage the money right,
if they're just good stewards of the money that you've made as a coach,
it starts and ends with you.
Whenever something happens at a program, if it's inappropriate,
they cite the head coach with a lack of institutional control.
Why?
because you are the grand pooh-ba.
You are the one making the money.
He needs to step up and own this because now there's a culture.
Kay Klubnick at his post-game pressure.
You know, every time we got some momentum going,
they had players faking injuries.
I don't give a damn.
I don't care.
You are Clemson.
And you're talking about a team that went to overtime with Yuckeye.
And you're going to sit up here and tell me, oh, they're faking injuries.
That's what they're supposed to do against you.
that's what they're supposed to do.
But guess what?
The head coach is always, if they want to, if they're tired of winning, they can get rid of
me.
If they're tired of winning instead of saying, well, it does look like we have some problems.
We got to fix.
Now your star quarterback, your Heisman front runner guy that was coming into the season,
your first round quarterback that everybody thought was the next one coming into the season
is making excuses.
So guess what happens now?
He makes the excuse.
And then when you ask the star receiver, why aren't you doing what you're supposed to do?
He makes an excuse.
And then you ask to start the end, why you aren't doing what you're supposed to do.
And now excuses abound because it starts at the top.
And it trickles its way on down throughout your program.
Tyler from Spartanburg was the first one to see it.
And I know Dabot and his team don't even take live calls no more because of Tyler from Spartanburg.
But Tyler was right.
Tyler is right.
You have an expectation.
You have a standard.
And you're not living up to the standard.
But Dabo don't want to own it.
So K don't want to own it.
So nobody wants to own it instead of everybody saying it starts with me.
Now, Syracuse was actually fined $25,000 for faking injuries,
but that wasn't the highest price they paid for that win.
It also came at the expense of their starting quarterback.
We'll talk about the Angelli, Ricky Collins situation.
Also, so many other big results this past weekend, including Miami winning a rivalry game
against Florida, rising up to number two, Florida state.
again, taking care of business against bad opponents,
but I won't take the Alabama win away from Florida State.
North Carolina, not so good there for Bill Belichick.
We're only getting started.
You want to keep it locked right here on this brand new episode of LockdowneACC.
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the way, we're just talking about that UCF win over North Carolina. Just want to say we're thinking
of UCF and the family of their offensive line coach, Sean Clark, who just passed away on
Monday at the age of 50. Like I can't even imagine, you know, with a heavy heart, I say that,
because I know that that weighs heavily on the UCF family right now. May coach Clark rest in peace.
And I was so sorry to hear about that news. So Kenton, let's stick.
with that game for a minute because this was the second time this year that North Carolina
played against a legitimate opponent, a powerful opponent.
They're 0 for two against the Big 12 now.
Thanks a lot, UNC.
They lost to a very good TCU team week one.
By the way, TCU just beat SMU.
You will get to that.
Josh Hoover went off.
North Carolina played against a couple of easy opponents to get two wins.
And then they go up against UCF.
And Kenton, quite frankly, again, it wasn't competitive.
They get blown out 34 to 9 in that game.
I think this goes to show you Bill Belichick and company are a long way away.
So, Dono, I want to hit you with a very interesting fact about this, this, you know, UNC team and what they got going on right now.
Against fellow powerful opponents, they are 0 and 2 with a current total score of 82 to 23.
Oh, it doesn't sound good.
82 to 23.
These teams are averaging 14 points per game.
I'm sorry, 41 points per game, 41 points per game to, you know, North Carolina's 11 and a half.
Yikes, yowsers.
This is Stinksville to the highest level.
I mean, everybody's saying, hey, and I will say this.
will say this. As much
as much as I joke about, you know, not
liking UNC and all that, I'm going
to give Bill Belichick some advice.
I haven't made as much money as him.
I haven't won as many Super Bowls
as him. I'm 30. I don't talk
to women as young. Never mind. We're not going
to do that. But what I will say is this.
The reality of what I
have seen from this North Carolina team,
Bill
William Belichick,
look at me right.
right now, okay?
He's looking.
Don't worry.
Stop starting Gio Lopez.
Max Johnson is clearly better.
All right?
And even if your argument is, well,
Max Johnson comes in the game when the other team takes their foot off the gas
and they already will just try to put him in the game first.
And maybe the team won't get to the point where they get to take their foot off the gas.
So again, Mr. Belichick.
Please stop this.
Stop this.
Don't drag Geo Lopez out there no more as your storm.
Okay?
Just try something.
All right.
So meanwhile, I was at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Saturday night.
The Miami Hurricanes, they, as a result, they improved to number two in the AP poll.
They're only behind Ohio State now.
Kenton just completely outmussled the Florida Gators.
And now, like, Billy Napier's hot seat is now boiling hot.
thanks to what Miami did.
26 to 7 was the final score.
I guess the headline was on the negative sense.
It was the worst game that Carson Beck has had at Miami.
He was off.
Florida's passing defense has been very good.
Beck through an interception was not really in time with his receivers.
But when Miami needed to take over the game up front,
they started to steamroll Florida's defensive line.
Miami had 100-yard rusher for the second straight week
and Mark Fletcher.
Marty Brown, actually, I thought was the best player on Miami's offense.
Their second string running back, who led the team in receiving with 53 yards,
scored two rushing touchdowns, had 80-some yards rushing,
would have had over 100 except, I don't know,
and I can't complain too much about this because it didn't cost Miami the game.
But did you see the play when Marty Brown clearly was moving forward,
got out of the pile, scored like a 50-yard touchdown,
but the SEC official had whistled it dead for forward progress,
when forward progress never stopped.
Like it was a very, and that was a momentum changer because Miami would have been up 20 to
nothing after that, that it was still 13 to nothing.
Florida scored to make it 13 to 7.
Things felt a little dicey there for a while, but Marty Brown played great.
And this is to me, obviously Miami has some things to think about and polish during their
biweek just in terms of getting the passing game back in sync.
But in Carson Beck's worst game as a hurricane, everything else picked him up.
And Ruben Bain is the highest graded player in the entire country per pro football focus.
He's averaging a 95 grade out of 100.
He had a 44% pass rush win rate, 10 pressures in the game, had a sack and a tackle for loss.
With Rubin Bain and Akeem Mezzitur on your defensive line, you get a feeling Miami's going to be in every game they play this year.
I will tell you what.
What a beautiful surprise it is when your stars show up in star.
Those folks in South Carolina cannot relate right now.
Ruben Bain has been a walking hurricane.
And I'm not just saying that because he played for Miami.
He has left a path of offensive destruction.
Did you know that this is the, I believe this is the third or, no, no, I'm sorry,
you all have played two FBS teams, correct?
Three.
I'm sorry.
This is the third team in a row.
This is the third FBS tackle in a row that he has given a past,
a past blocking grade of under 20.
If you are going to see Rubin Hurricane Bain,
you are going to be half of what they consider average.
That is how good he is.
This kid is a freak.
He is phenomenal.
He is doing his big one.
And I'll tell you what,
the blowing that play dead.
I think it was,
I think it was just a very confusing call.
But I'm going to say this.
from now on in inter-conference games,
get an officiating crew from another conference.
Don't get an officiating crew from either one of your team's conferences.
How many times do we have to see this refs show play out
to where everything seems to be going good?
And then all of a sudden, a very strange call
goes in the direction of the team whose referees
or whose conference the referees are from.
But Miami manhandled this team, you know, you talk about everything that Miami has been and has done this year.
I will tell you, the biggest thing that has surprised me about this Miami team,
they have a bunch of diaper dandies and first year guys that are showing up and showing out.
Malachi Tony's out there bullying DBs in terms of blocking.
You got Marr, who's been a heck of a running back so far this season.
and him and Fletcher have been a one-two punch
from absolute hell on most of these defenses.
This is a situation where Miami is not only having their stars show up,
but the other guys are coming through as well.
And it all starts because on both sides of the line of scrimmage,
it's not like they're decent.
No, no, no.
They are setting the tone, period.
Against Notre Dame, one of the best backs in the nation.
Oh, Jeremiah Love, he's the guy.
He's going to be the first round.
He's going to be all these things.
They set the tone.
Against USA.
The Byron Brown train is hot.
He's coming down the pipeline.
He's a physical runner.
They're a physical offense.
They set the tone.
Against Florida, well, they're missing their star defensive tackle,
but lagway's good if you let him get time.
And, you know, they can stop the run a little bit.
They set the tone.
So those big fellas, the beef of that Miami team,
they're setting the tone, which is what we expect them to do this season.
But this even exceeds my expectation because I expect the Roobay to be good.
This young man, I'm telling you, they're about to start doing edits of him,
with very unsavory characters to try to say,
he doesn't belong on the field.
He doesn't belong here.
He was at those parties.
He was on those lists.
He don't need to be here.
So if you look at the AP top 25 now,
Miami moves up from number four to number two.
You know, they jump Penn State.
Penn State is playing a bunch of cadavers, Kenton.
Like they haven't played anybody yet.
They do play Oregon this coming week.
So that's a huge game.
And if Penn State beats Oregon,
again, they'll probably move back into the top two.
We'll see how that goes.
Miami also jumped LSU.
I guess probably part of the logic there is Miami looked better against Florida than LSU did,
the common opponent thing.
You know, so Florida State drops a spot to number eight, which like, I guess there's
nothing they could have done, right?
Because they did what they had to do.
They completely rolled Kent State 66 to 10.
They scored eight rushing touchdowns in that game.
No matter who you're playing against, that is absurd.
eight rushing touchdowns in that game.
But just unfortunately, Kent State, and they beat East Texas A&M in their prior game.
So Oklahoma gets a ranked win against Auburn and moves ahead of Florida State.
But I mean, Kent, for Florida State, like, I hate to see them drop a spot.
But if they take care of business on the road against a pretty good Virginia team on Friday night,
Florida State's probably going to move back up a little higher into that top 10.
You know, Clips just came out with an album called Let God Sort them out.
and then the AP poll, I'm going to let the wind sort them out.
Okay?
Yeah.
Penn State and Oregon are going to play each other very soon here.
Yeah.
There's somebody, exactly.
Somebody's going to drop behind Florida State out of those two.
Because how do you keep one of them in front of a team that has demolished everything
in their path?
Florida State looks like the Florida State of old.
This is what we were expecting last year, guys.
But better late than never.
Better late than never.
They are absolutely whooping the wheels off the folks.
And even if you said they haven't played nobody outside Alabama, you can only play who's in front of you.
And they dominated those things.
They dominated Alabama.
Exactly.
They dominated number 17 in the polls as opposed to LSU who got five turnovers and, you know, had to work to pull it out down the stretch against a Florida team that is no longer ranked.
So I look at this situation and I say to myself, this is a Florida state team.
Just keep winning.
Just keep swimming.
You saw what happened last year when you start reading your people.
press clippings, start getting too big for your britches, start thinking all these nice things
about yourself, because everybody's telling you how cute you are and how good your dance is,
and they want to see you and ends up, you got to earn it, and they've been earning it so far this year.
So just continue. Just keep at it. And again, I have never been happier to be wrong about a
player in their potential performance than with Tommy Casalanos in the first game forward.
I've never been more happy. So just keep it on. He's bawling. Yeah, and he had a little bit of an
injury scare against Kent State. He hobbled off the field, left the game at half time.
But he's okay from what I understand. Like, it's not a long-term injury. He should be back Friday night
against UVA. Georgia Tech, by the way, the other team that's ranked from the ACC at number 16,
those are the only three ACC teams ranked. We'll go through more of the scores from this past weekend,
Kent, and I know it was a tough one for your Wolfpack as well. You want to keep it locked right here.
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Real quick, Kenton, we mentioned it at the top.
Unfortunately for Syracuse, they're starting quarterback Steve Angelly,
non-contact injury.
Those oftentimes can be the worst ones in the third quarter against Clemson.
Angelly, it turns out his season is over a ruptured Achilles.
But so his his understudy,
Ricky Collins, finished the game strong.
Doesn't seem like they have to alter the playbook for Collins at all.
And I'll remind folks, that was allegedly a razor tight quarterback competition
between Angelie.
So it wasn't like Angelie had been anointed the starter.
Collins really pushed him.
They actually sent Ricky Collins to ACC media days in July, not Steve Angelly.
So, and credit to Syracuse's offense, their playmakers are stepping up, seemingly no matter who's throwing them the football.
So, I mean, obviously, you never want to lose your starting quarterback, but, I mean, Kenton, how much of it hit do you think the Syracuse Orange will take with Ricky Collins at QB?
Maybe a little bit, but I don't imagine this is going to dramatically alter the rest of their season.
I agree with you that this is not going to dramatically alter the rest of their season, but even more importantly than that, this is because,
there was a true quarterback battle, this is a guy who
had plenty of reps with the ones.
Now, granted, he's going to have to get reaccharmated
now, right? We saw it
in the game. There were plays. Things
just seemed a little bit off. But
with that being said, I'm expecting
this offense to not miss a beat because
now they're two for two
in terms of quarterbacks and having
them be leaders in the nation and passing
through their first few games.
So it's a very quarterback friendly
system. I'm expecting Ricky
Collins to do good things in it.
And I would say Syracuse's season is far from over.
I'm not going to look at this team.
Again, based on expectations coming into the season, everybody said,
if you could just get six wins, you'll be all right.
If you could just touch on six.
Well, how close are they to six at this moment, right?
You're already halfway there.
And you have multiple unranked teams in front of you.
You've got a North Carolina team that has not beaten a single,
that has not even, and I mean this now,
they have not scored double-digit points on any first-team defense of any FBS team.
they scored seven against TCU,
and it wasn't until TCU had clearly put their backups in
that they scored 14 points.
Against USF, they put up nine points the entire game.
So you've got that on your schedule.
You've got a Boston College team
who very well could have stopped Stanford from finishing the season defeated.
With all due respect to Stanford,
that's not a world-beaten team.
And even they beat Boston College.
and Thomas Costellanos looks like he was right at this point.
You know, it looks like, you know, the kids say who going to win the breakup?
Hey, brother.
Hey, brother.
I'm just saying, one of you got big, you got a couple kids and the other one that's going on to make millions.
I'm just saying, that's what's going on in that breakup.
But in all seriousness, they've got multiple games ahead of them that are very wonderful,
very, very wonderful football game.
So if I'm Syracuse, I've got to feel good about where I'm positioned right now.
And again, this team is going to rally behind Ricky Collins.
because this wasn't a situation where it's like this is some scrub or some nepo baby that nobody wants no no no this is a guy that everybody felt like hey either guy if they're to start a we're okay either way and so i think that'll be all right meanwhile duke improved a two and two they got their first conference win beating nc state in durham 45 to 33
kenton the story for me on this one i i still believe nc state has the potential to be a better or at least as good of a football team as duke but
he can't lose the turnover margin minus four.
I thought that was the big story in this one for NC State.
They lost this game the way Duke has lost previous games this year
by getting hammered in the turnover margin.
Donald, imagine if I told you an offense was going to have two,
two, 90 plus yard drives, and they were going to score 33 points in a football game.
You would say that's normally a recipe for success, correct?
I'd say so, yeah.
Okay, well, sometimes you get what you get.
And in this game, the turnovers, the sloppiness, the poor execution,
NC State lost a lot of little battles that you cannot lose.
For example, true freshman return of Teddy Hoffman once muffed a punt inside the five-yard line.
And the second time, he fair catch the punt on the five-yard line.
That tells me about executional errors in terms of after the first situation where he muffs the punt,
If I am the special teams coach, I'm going up to that young man, grabbing them by the collar and saying, hey, hey, buddy, come here.
Put your heels on the 10 yard line.
And if that ball is higher than your shoulders at the 10 yard line, you get out of the way.
You don't field it.
You don't touch it because what do you have to game if the gunners are closing in and you field it at the five?
Devin Hester can do that.
You ain't him.
You ain't him.
You know, shout out to the Miami legend.
He can do that.
Nobody else.
All the rest of y'all, let that ball go.
So, you know, it was a lot of little errors like that,
mishandling on a power read option and all that.
But credit to Duke.
Credit to Darien Minson.
They took advantage of NC State's mistakes and put up 45 points.
And at the end of the day, a lot of Wolfpack Nation is scrambling and saying,
oh, this team is terrible and all that.
if you paid attention all off season, anybody who follows
NC State closely told you, this defense was going to be problematic.
Yeah, I told me that every day all summer.
I said all year, hey, they just need to be opportunistic.
What does opportunistic mean, Dono?
Force a couple turnovers here and there.
This is Duke's first game of the season, including against Elon University.
Quick question, Dono, do you know where Elon is?
Just give me a state.
He's the CEO of X.
and Tesla and where is the university located?
It's in North Carolina.
It's a private school.
I know I was today years old when I learned that.
Exactly.
You don't even know where the school is,
and yet they were able to force a Duke turnover.
NC State was not.
That is the problem.
Right now, NC State's defensive linemen
have more interceptions of their defensive backs.
That is the problem.
They keep running into the problem of you have to get off the field
and they are bad on third down, bad at force of turnovers.
Credit to Duke.
They did a hell of a job.
Derry Minta, hell of a job.
That running game was shut down until Duke needed to play at the end of the game.
Then boom, 70 yards.
So, you know, credit to Duke.
We're going to have a lot more to breakdown this week,
including 2 and 2 now SMU.
Are they just a pedestrian team this year?
Now, they're yet to play an ACC game.
It's all been non-conference,
but I don't really like what I see non-conference from the Mustangs.
Also, we still, three games in the season for Louisville, I have no idea who that team is, just based on the level of competition they've played.
So when we're talking about Florida State, Miami on a collision course, Georgia Tech, you know, possible ACC championship contender, you know, Syracuse has gotten our attention.
Like Louisville should be right in there.
I just don't know who they are.
SMU, I think we're starting to learn who they are.
So we have a lot more to break down this week.
make sure you follow Kenton at TGIF underscore Kenton on X.
Check him out on Lockdown Wolfpack.
He and Grayson had really good episode, you know,
kind of breaking down what went wrong against Duke over the weekend.
I host Lockdown Keynes.
Been having a little fun at Billy Napier's expense for the past couple of days.
I have no doing that.
We'll talk to everyone next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC.
We are part of the awesome Lockdown Podcast Network.
Your team every day.
