Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - BOMBSHELL: Pittsburgh's Recruiting EXPLOSION Shocks ACC | House vs. NCAA Settlement ROCKS College Sports

Episode Date: June 9, 2025

PITT PANTHERS' recruiting blitz stuns college football world. Is Pat Narduzzi building a dark horse ACC contender?Alex Donno and Kenton Gibbs break down the Panthers' impressive 10-commit haul in just three days, highlighting the national reach of their recruiting efforts. The discussion shifts to the game-changing House vs. NCAA settlement, with guest Brian Smith offering insights on its potential impact on ACC programs like Wake Forest and Boston College. Florida State's recruiting challenges take center stage, as the hosts analyze Mike Norvell's strategy and the pressure to secure top talent. Don't miss the in-depth analysis of the Seminoles' upcoming season and the win total that could make or break Norvell's tenure in Tallahassee.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGEfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.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.

What is going on right now in Pittsburgh? Over the past three days, Pat Narboosy has absolutely been cleaning up and recruiting. 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 Locked on ACC, 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 Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

I am Alex Dono, University of Miami alumnus, host of Lockdown Cainz, co-host here of Lockdown ACC. Kenton Gibbs will be hopping in it a little bit, and today's episode is proudly brought to you by Fanduel. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. On this loaded Lockdown ACC, we'll talk about the top rivalries in the conference as we are, I think 82 days away from actual college football being played. We'll talk about the impact of the House versus NCAA settlement, which was officially approved on Friday. But we got to talk about Pitt cleaning up and recruiting right now.

So let's bring in the man that I refer to as the recruiting overlord. He is the host of the portal here on lockdown. He's also the host of Lockdown Seminoles. Brian Smith is with us. You alerted me to this, Brian. Since June 6th, three days ago, the Pitt Panthers have landed 10 verbal commits in three days. Is there something in the water there in Pitt right now? I just think that Pat and Arduzzi is the obvious recruiting genius that we just didn't know about.

That's what this is, Alex. No, like he's the antithesis of what you would think of as a recruiter. He's about as soft as a porcupine. but 10 commitments in three days is just insane. So I just want to state tip of the cap to everybody involved at Pitt. I don't care where you're recruiting. 10 and three days is one of the biggest recruiting heaters I've ever seen. And here's the thing.

Like they've got a couple of kids from Texas, Georgia, they got Florida, they got Virginia. And they got some in-state kids too. But Pittsburgh doesn't normally recruit nationally. They've changed something. I just learned of this this morning. Like when I added it up, I kept seeing Pitt like on the commitment list, but when you look at it, like rivals the way they do it, they've got all their numbers based on the date to kids. I'm like, holy moly, 10 guys. Look, you can say whatever you want.

Oh, they're not recruiting all the week kids. There's some pretty talented players in there. Jaden Dunbar is a kid that I know. He plays at Thomasville, Thomas County Central. It's a 6-5 wide receiver has a tremendous amount of talent. It's another kid Florida State has missed on. Don't get me started on that. But they also got Isaiah Williams, a linebacker out of Virginia that's a very talented guy that's a speedy player.

He will fit in Narduzzi's defense very well. And again, they got kids from all over. They got a kid from Houston area, a kid from Baltimore. This is pretty impressive. So I'm not saying Pittsburgh's going to be a top five team in a couple of years. But when you do this kind of stuff, it makes me wonder if you've changed enough to elevate your program. And again, congrats to Norbusy and his staff. Yeah, for those who are watching the video version right now,

I'm sharing my screen with their Rivals.com page. And, yeah, since the 6th of June, they've landed three-star defensive tackle, Lincoln, Hoke, unrated offensive lineman, John Curran, three-star edge rusher, rest in layman, three-star DB, Kentrail McCrail, McRae, clearwater, Florida. You talk about national recruiting, three-star linebacker, Isaiah Simmons, A couple of unrated guys, tight end and wide receiver, Wyatt via Real and Jaden Dunbar, who you mentioned. Three-star offensive lineman Mike Vanderrude, unrated offensive lineman, Nicholas Howard, and athlete Damon Ferguson at a Baltimore three-star player.

So, yeah, you talk about the recruiting heater, Brian, and the importance of national recruiting. And, like, you know, Pitt has been hanging around. They had a bizarre season last year. You want to talk about streaky. They won their six. So for half of the season, Pitt was mathematically an ACC championship contender. And then they went on to lose their next seven, including the bowl game, to end the year. But obviously, when you're talking about a Narduzi team, you're always going to be strong on the defensive side of the football.

They had a great linebacker core last year that was referred to as the sharks. They had a nickname, forced a lot of turnovers earlier in the season. Do you think Pitt could maybe, you know, obviously the players were talking about, right now the recruits are not going to be on the team this coming season, but do you think Pitt could be maybe a dark horse in the ACC this year? Well, you've got a returning starting quarterback, and as you noted, their defense, they're always going to be a really big pain to deal with because they come up with so many different ways to pressure the signal caller. And anytime your quarterback's under duress, we'll see. But once the film got out on the

offense and some of the adjustments they'd made, they struggled a little more. especially in clutch situations. So the question for Pittsburgh this year is very, very simple. Can Pittsburgh take that next step forward in a close game where they were not good last year? And when with throwing the ball, something that Narduzi probably hates saying out loud. It's like a four-letter word to him. I mean, he's he's 1953 old school. I'm sorry, he just is.

But they started to do it a little more last year. And they also did it a little bit in the back in, but not enough. and then turnovers like just untimely penalties. They shot themselves in the foot in those back seven games. So can Pittsburgh be a nine-win team this year? Would it surprise me? No. They're the team that nobody wants to play.

But at the same time, if you think about media, you, me, or anybody else, who's really going to pick Pittsburgh in the top five of the ACC? How many people do you think will vote Pittsburgh even top six? They're one of the hardest teams to protect six games, then seven games in two different directives. Like, that's hard. So we don't really know what we're going to get. And Pittsburgh just plays a traditional ACC schedule.

I don't know what they're over under is at Fanduil, but I guess six and a half, seven, something like that would be my projection. This is a team that returning starting quarterback, maybe you can, maybe a couple of the kids they had transfer in will be bigger impact. That stuff makes it really hard to the transfer portal. How well does a team assemble?

and become congruent. I mean, we talk about that when I join you for Locked on Cains or you join me for Locked on Cimble. That stuff's hard. And I'm not saying that they don't have the right coaching staff to help make that happen because it sure looks like they figured it out last year. Then they fell off a cliff. So it can go sideways.

I don't know. Maybe some of their NIL, by the way, with the recruiting has improved. And maybe that will help some of the congruency this year. There's a lot of question marks. But that is a team that I would put an asterisk by in the ACC rankings. because they could go a lot of different directions. That might be the biggest flying ointment for anybody picking their order of finish.

Yeah, we'll talk more about NIL because the way NIL happens, it's still going to be a thing, but the House settlement changes everything, including who's going to be getting the checks from here on out. And I also want to talk a little Florida state because, you know, as there's positive Pittsburgh recruiting momentum, It's not been as positive for FSU, although they did just land a commitment recently. And Miami, Miami's had like all the biggest stars visiting the past couple weekends, but haven't gotten a verbal commitment out of it yet. You want to keep it locked right here. We're only getting started on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC.

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For your next listen, make sure you check out our other shows. We got Kenton Gibbs in the building, who is the awesome host of Lockdown Wolfpack. And I thank Kenton for holding it down for me as I was somewhere in France eating croissants last week. I was too big time to join my own show last week. So thanks KG for holding it down. So make sure you check out Locked on Wolfpack and Locked on Cains. And Kenton, I guess you got some good news on Friday with the House versus NCAA settlement getting approved.

I'm hoping you get a nice fat check because you played during the era of back pay. Am I right? You and me both, man. I'm right up against it because I had a medical retirement situation. So I'm going to put it in some calls to see like, hey, I play. in 2016. What's going on? Am I? Do I need to get a check cut or what's up? But no, in all seriousness, you know, this House settlement. There's a ton of, ton of details to get to. And I'm glad we got our recruiting ace, Brian Smith, to talk about. Yeah. And Brian, I know Ken and I both want to know,

how do you see this affecting the ACC? Because when we talk about the revenue sharing, it's like the 20 and a half million. That's not the minimum. That's that that's the C. That's the feeling, right? So, I mean, are all the ACC programs going to have 20 and a half million to share with their athletes every year? Does that put the ACC at a disadvantage compared to the SEC and the Big Ten? I'm curious what Ken would probably know best about this, but do we really think Wake Forest? No. I'm just going to throw out three schools here. And you tell me what you think. Wake Forest. No, absolutely. Virginia, like football for Virginia. It's made. That's iffy.

That's a tough. Possibly. Yeah, I think they might be able to put it off. It's a state school. It's bigger. Wake Forest I don't feel very good about. And then if you really want to look at like Boston College, like they just, I don't, I'm not sure about that one either. So, you know, it's rough.

If you have a really good basketball, like Virginia's got basketball. Like they've had your weight of that haven't been as good, but, you know, they want a national, they've been really good. So there's a little bit of a different look at that. But Wake, wait, four. forest like their NIO, and I'm not trying to be mean, is not good. So they could be the bottom dragger in this weed moving forward. I mean, their head coach left, didn't want to deal with it and all this stuff, and they didn't have a lot of NIL anyway.

So I think that the 20 and a half could be detrimental to a few teams. However, Clemson, Miami, Florida State, I mean, from what we've heard with Kenton's least favorite school in Chapel Hill, they've got NIL now. NC states the one that's right there in the middle that I'm curious about. I haven't heard much about that. I'll let Kent speak to that. But those schools should all hit that every year. And then in addition, their collectives should pick up.

And I'll get into the due diligence how this works. It becomes a ridiculous bureaucracy. I know everybody's shocked with that with government. But those entities will have the opportunity to give guys and gals, their own endorsements on the side as well. They just got to go through the clearing. It's annoying, but they should have plenty. Those programs I'm not worried about.

Duke's another one that's interesting because they've committed to football, I don't know where that's going. That's long term, but obvious with basketball is Duke basketball. Virginia Tech, we'll see. Not Georgia Tech. I need to see more. Georgia Tech should be a recruiting machine. It's in Atlanta, and it never is.

I don't think their NIL is that great. So we'll see. but Syracuse is the other one. Haven't heard great things from Jackson Holzer about Syracuse, NIL, but I've heard it's gotten a little better because that's a basketball school. For football purposes, I wonder how that's going to work. That could be an interesting dynamic because they've got a real coach. So they haven't been good at football in quite a while.

So maybe this will change around and some of their donors will pony up a little bit. So we talked about the team aspect of it and how it affects the teams. But let's talk about the individual for a second here. Let's talk about the players. One of the lesser discussed parts of this is that the NIL aspect is supposed to be reduced to, hey, you can only get fair market pay for whatever your services are, whatever service these athletes are providing. Is that something that you see sticking here? Is that something that you're like, oh, we're one lawsuit away, and that lawsuit is probably going to be filed today.

We're recording this on the 9th. That lawsuit will be here on about the 10. What do you think, Brian? Well, I decided to take the smart route and ask a few. and my lawyer buddies about this. And I got different answers. The consensus was for a very short time, this will settle as people try to figure out how to attack it. But the problem is the words that the people in the NCAA and athletic directors loathe like four, four, their words. And that is employees. We've got to make them employees. There's no collective bargaining unless your employees. But what

happens when their employees benefits? That is a four letter word to these people. They're stuck. because like MLB, NFL, soccer, anything, they're employees. They get benefits like getting like he had in medical. There's benefits from that stuff when you get into the whole legal aspect. If you're a pro player, can you imagine what an NFL, baseball or anybody like that, place, pro? Man, if they got something that happens down the line because they don't want to get sued, they'll take care of that stuff.

They might have to fill out some pay them. They're taking care of them. They're trying to avoid it. They're not saying it, but they don't want to do it. deal with any of that. That's what the problem is here. So Kenton is right. There will be lawsuits, but I was told that because of this, there are different entities that can and do, judge how much somebody's worth this. But we're talking about A teenagers, which that makes it even harder. Because this isn't a 26-year-old that's in his second contract out of MLB,

making $25 million a year. It's a different kind of deal. And secondarily, if the local car dealership wants you to do 10 ads? Who's to say that what they're going to pay isn't value to them? It's just right. So I think Kenton's point is right. And this is where it gets murky. For those that don't know, any deal, this is hilarious. That is over $600 has to go through the clearinghouse if it's part of your collective. Well, every deal is over six. How are they going to have the manpower to do that. The slowness of it, that's going to make this really annoying.

Really annoyed. So I don't know how they're going to do this because these kids got to make timely decisions. And in my experience, this stuff is not quick at all. That does not work. So I'm going to tell you what's going to happen and they're going to try to get away from this to say it's not. There's just going to be a bunch of cash payments again because they're not going to wait on that that's common because they're not going to wait on this clearinghouse especially like

we just talked about Pittsburgh had 10 commitments well some of those kids got deals they've got to get cleared now and that's fine but do you really think these kids are going to wait because the spots are getting filled up at other schools if I don't get this deal here it doesn't work out well the other three schools I'm looking at their that's not how this works so the clearinghouse has a disastrous problem during specific times a year too and right now is commitment season And they're just getting ready to start at July 1st. Well, some of these kids are committing between July 1st and July 10th. Timing is awful.

Because nothing starts fast. They're not going to be churning out. That's checkmark. That's an X. It's not how it works. You've got hundreds and hundreds of athletes just in football. That doesn't count soccer and all the other stuff. Good luck.

I said we hire Kenton to be the guy that supervises how fast they do this stuff and see how that goes. Well, for a nominal fee, I'll be. I'll be checking off lots of checks. I'll be approving lots of checks, for sure. I'm expecting more antitrust lawsuits because just to me, the idea of trying to define what fair market value is, it sounds very un-American. Like, we're in a free market. Capitalism, baby.

I always learned growing up that market value is what somebody is willing to pay you. Like, that's how you define what someone's value is. So then, I mean, what's to see? say, you know, if a certain student athlete, we still call them that, is more marketable than another, like, well, what's to say that the quarterback shouldn't be getting, you know, a deal 10 times higher than, you know, a backup offensive linemen? And how, how do they define that? And how do you go about defining that without collective bargaining? So I feel like, you know, maybe a few problems have been solved with this. And I, to, I think the point that gets buried a little bit too much because

people tend to focus on the negatives more than the positives. I think the positive of the $2.8 billion in back pay that's going out to hopefully Kenton and others. I think that's a positive that should not be overlooked here. But I also feel like this settlement, it tries to solve every problem with one settlement. And I don't think there's a way to do that without creating a hundred more problems. It's like the hydra. You cut off one head and then two new heads emerge.

Yeah. Yeah, most definitely. So let me ask you this on the recruiting front, Brian. We talked about schools that we think would do well, schools that, you know, won't do well and all that. But I want to focus on the players just one more time here. Is there any position group that you see getting a big pay bump potentially as a result of the house settlement being approved? And any position group where you say, hey, they're making big bucks now, but you better snatch and grab it while you can as a result of this 20.5 being labeled as the cap you can pay for a team. you're going to like this a lot, Kenton. It's going to be the big guys. Because in the last couple of portal cycles, what have we talked about on this show and others? How many offensive linemen in particular,

the guys you used to battle getting the portal that are good, not the guys that ain't playing? It's a low number. So the guys that are on rosters already, look, if you want to keep it that way, how good. Think about this. The guy's battled when you were at NC State,

when your left tackle was hurting the second string guy came in, was the O line the same? No. No, man. There's a whole different ball game. That's what I'm saying. So those guys will get paid and then the easy low-hanging fruit answer in certain situations. Like if your quarterback leaves, it's one thing you're not going to be as good.

But the political structure of that, we know what your boost. Like the phone calls to the AD from your top boosters. He doesn't even want to look at his screen on his phone because he's afraid of who's, what do you mean we lost our quarterback? I already donated this. So the quarterback position, because if you don't have that, you're done, I think they're going to get paid too. I'm curious on some of the other spots, but linemen on both sides of the ball,

you've got to have it. In quarterback, yeah, I think they're going to do very, very well. So what I'm hearing is, the baseball needs to save up a few more ducats in Coral Gables, if he wants to keep that big man machine move. Well, I mean, I got to give Miami some credit. They've got plenty of linemen. Now they've got to go win some games.

They're not short in the trenches. They're not short. I have been told that they need to go and win some games. I only get that comment 100 times on every Locked on Cain's episode that I do. I'd like to know what your comment section, Brian, looks like in Locked on Semitals. I mean, when Kishon Henderson canceled that OV, shut down his recruitment, you know, choosing Houston over Florida State.

Now, I understand Florida State has had a recruiting win since, but how are things going on the trail for Mr. Norville? They did get Whitley Cadeau, my guy that Kenton will love 6-5-2-95, can play noseguard yesterday out of Booker T. Washington and Atlanta, they found an under-the-radar guy that I loved his film. I didn't know who it was. They brought him in for a visit. And I'm like, okay, this kid can play. And he's got all the measurables. You're looking for. DQ Fork, linebacker from IMG, had a great visit. I think they're going to get him. He's a guy that's six foot 232. Looks like he's a professional heavyweight boxer. He's one of the most yoke human beings. I've ever seen in my life. There's a few other guys that had on visits this weekend. But here is the key question. Florida State has done an incredible job, incredible, of getting the recruits to campus.

Who's going to commit now? And who's going to stay committed? Out of the guys that they had committed before, Cadeau committed, they had nine guys committed, which is a solid start. But seven of the nine had planned to take OVs to other schools. That is the definition of, not committed by me now kenton or alex want to comment on that you go right ahead but i'll go in on

my own opinion on this one that's not committed okay you guys want to go another direction far away but the kids don't see this as a viable program until they see it on the field the problem is all the visits happen in may and june and by mid july they're all committed it's a it's a problem and the other thing even though Florida's in the same boat, their other arch rival, they're rolling in recruiting now all of a sudden. If Florida starts doing really well and Florida State doesn't pick commitments up,

that is not good for Norville and his staff. Again, this is all political. Fans not only want to see their team win, sometimes it's kind of gross in a way, but they're more happy to see their rival lose. Now, Kenton might speak to that too, but that's another story. So Florida starts doing well.

Miami's recruiting. better than Florida State. So the nose are in on everybody. I need to see them get over the top, though. I'm hearing all these good comments from a bunch of different guys, but when are they going to pop? And are they going to back it up by, okay, I'm committed. I'm not taking other visits. Like, there's a lot to this. Florida State recruiting is fascinating. Some of their fans are nervous, and so am I as to walk on Seminoles host, because this is a do-or-die-die situation because you can't fall further behind your rivals and recruit. You just can't. And we're at that point. The rubber meets the road right now. You know, you're absolutely right there, Brian.

17-year-olds, they change like the wind blows that's kind of the nature of this thing. And then you talk about taking other official visits, I can tell you right now, there were certain situations I had going on at home where I had the tail coach, listen, I love your school and all that. I got to go and see these other places. I got to, you know, get the cookie cake and enjoy all the free food and all the good things for this weekend. I got to go and enjoy that. So that absolutely is a portion of it.

But you're right. If you're committed and you know, especially now that they're paying kids for visits and whatnot, oh, baby, this is a different, this is different territory than what I was in, okay? If I'm getting paid, hey, the cookie, to hell with the cookie cake from Illinois. I'm at NC State and I'm happy to be here. So, no, I get you a thousand percent. Let me ask you this in terms of, in terms of Florida States recruiting and some of the battles that they've had recently. I know that you talked about your opponent losing sometimes important. Miami locks up Campbell.

He shuts down his commitment. Like you said, Florida is rolling in terms of their recruiting. Is this a pivotal season for Florida State in general to say, hey, this is where the rubber meets the role for you one to go to one of the big two conferences, if that is going to happen soon? I think so because if they go, let's say they go five and seven, it's just throw a number out there and they can't even make a bowl. look they're a major brand they're really good at baseball they're really good sometimes in basketball

they've had their seasons and all that the football is the engine for that school like for dono for miami it's the same it's why those schools are big rivals and it brings in the dollars and they just invested a gazillion dollars in dope campbell and all that is the big ten is likely to scoop them up that's i think it's the big ten but that's well that's another rabbit hole to go down to another day but if you see you see you see you see that's the big ten but if you see you suck. You don't have as much leverage when you go in. Like, do you get the same equity that everybody else does? Or is it kind of like to deal with SMU or something? Like, you need full boat. That's why you're in this situation to begin with. So yes, and secondarily, I could be wrong on

the exact math here, but it's about 50 million that they would owe Norville a little, maybe slightly less. So if they, they're not firing him after this year, barring them and going like two or three wins. They can't do it. Financially, they can't. They can't do it. So that means you would be dragging him into the 26th season. How do you think recruiting is going to go next summer if you're coming off like a five-win season? Then the next head coach is in a super hole. Are you going to be able to get the coach you win? The coach you want. I mean, this is pivotal. If they could just win seven games, it'd be okay. But they need to win eight or nine to kind of get their mojo back and gain full credibility.

And I need to see it. I mean, they won two games last year. I mean, I got to see it with my own eyes category. You guys can speak for yourselves as well. But if they don't, I think that really could hurt them. They can't have another catastrophe. Cannot happen. Well, I think Kenton and I should dive a little bit deeper on that when we come back.

But a huge thank you and shout out to Brian Smith, who works double time here on the network, as Kenton and I both do as well. You can catch Brian on the portal. Follow him on exit. L.O. underscore the portal and check him out on Locked on Seminoles and follow his personal ex-accounted FB Scout underscore Florida.

Brian, thank you so much for the time. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. So come up next. What is the floor of wins for Florida State? We will table the top ACC rivalries for a future episode because I want to dive a little bit. It's a lot of meat on the bone with that one. We're not done yet.

You want to keep it locked right here on locked on ACC. And you know, Kenton, I know, depending on who you talk to that covers or follows Florida State. You get a kind of a wide range of feelings heading into this upcoming season. And I notice like, and I'm not saying they're wrong, but a lot of Florida State folks are a little bit bullish on this upcoming year. And I would say Vegas is kind of bullish as well in Fanduil.com because they're over under is seven and a half wins, which would mean, you know, eight wins or seven when you fall one of those numbers coming off a two-win season. If you win eight games this year, like that's a dramatic improvement.

Some Florida State folks feel like they can compete for an ACC championship this year. So not everyone is pessimistic heading into the season. So what do you think the number is? Like Mike Norvell has to win X number of games to keep his job next year or at least stay off the hot seat. I think Mike Norville, you know, from the financial aspect that Smitty talked about, Mike Norville has to win at least four to keep his job. I think anything under four, you're cooked. I think really with four you could be cooked as well,

but I think that's like the minimum that they would even consider bringing them back. Because three or lower, you can't. There's no way. I don't care how you cut it, how you slice it. You're at Florida State. You cannot have two seasons through which your win total is five. You cannot do that under any circumstance. But now, when you look at this schedule, you know, you talk about, oh, people are very bullish on this team.

I'm sorry to tell you, I feel like that's a lot of name recognition. I really and truly do. I'm not saying that this team is going to be horrible, but I think that they have a pretty decent schedule ahead of them. Because when I look at this schedule, I see a few games off the rip that are going to be tough, and not only that they're going to be tough, it's where they're positioned.

That first game against Alabama, listen, this ain't Nick Sabers Alabama. This is not. However, I think that Alabama is that much better than Florida State to where game one could decimate that team for the future. Where they're stuck looking up like, well, damn, maybe we are in a serious outfit. So I see a potential floor for this team of four to five wins. I really do. I see a ceiling for this team.

I think ceiling, I still don't see a world where they get eight, but maybe in terms of regular season. but with a bowl game, I can see him getting an eight and eight and five. I can see it happen with a bowl game. They end up in the right situation. I can see him when an eight. But this regular season schedule, I just think it's as much as we talk about, you know, oh, well, it's only one or two out of conference games that are tough. That's tougher than everybody else.

I'll give you East Texas A&M. I'll give you Kent State. I'm not sure I want to give you Virginia, but I'll give you that one. Pitt, I can't give you that one. Miami can't give you that one. Stanford, I'll give you that one. You're up to four. Wait, fours, I give that one.

That's five. I can't give you Clemson, can't give you Virginia Tech, can't give you NC State, can't give you Florida. I can't give you any of those. So, you know, mind you, some of those teams I said, I'll give you and I'll grant that. We don't know what they could be or what their product could look like. So honestly and truly, I see a floor of three, four, a ceiling of seven to eight. Yeah, and I think I think the number that would get him fired, I think would be four wins or less. Like I don't, you know, I know again, I would be very expensive, a $50 million buyout, which maybe they could negotiate that a little bit.

Maybe Norville would be so ashamed that they would be able to negotiate that down a bit. But yeah, I don't think it would be too loud from the boosters. Like you couldn't bring him back after four wins. five wins, maybe enough to keep the job, but the fan base would be so pissed if they only win five games would be really awkward. And yeah, I mean, I think, I'm not even sure what the floor is, to be honest. I mean, maybe the floor is three or four wins, the ceiling. Maybe if certain things break correctly, I mean, I, you know, I'm the Miami guy, but obviously, you know, Miami at times has struggled against Florida State, even going up to Florida State, the games in Tallahassee this

year. So I'm not going to say that's a guaranteed win for either program, but if that one breaks in Florida State's favor, they have maybe a shot at eight wins. So we'll have to see how it plays out. You know, next time I want to dive a little bit deeper into the House settlement with KG and also want to talk about top ACC rivalries and not just rivalry games that the ACC is involved in, like Clemson versus South Carolina or the backyard brawl with Pittsburgh and West Virginia, but straight up ACC versus ACC what are the top rivalry games in this conference? We want to get to that and so much more next time

on another episode of Lockdown ACC. In the meantime, make sure you follow Kenton at Lockdown Wolfpack and TGIF underscore Kenton on X. Follow me on the Lockdown Kane show and at Alex Dono on X. Make sure you smash the like button, subscribe on Apple podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your pods.

And we'll talk to you next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC. We are part of the awesome Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. NCAA, call me up if you need an NIL talk.