Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - Brian Kelly Is NOT The One Who Should Be Talking About "Not Buying Players," ACC Post Spring Ranking

Starting point is 00:00:00 Brian Kelly says, quote, we are not in the market of buying players. If anybody's going to be stepping on that soapbox, I don't think Brian Kelly is the one to do it. 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 for making Locked on ACC your first listen and your first watch today. We're free. wherever you get your podcast. We're free on YouTube. We're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Alex Dono from Locked on Cains. He is Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack.

Starting point is 00:00:45 On this episode, we will be talking about post-Spring football ACC power rankings. Some of these teams may not be belonging this high in the rankings. There is a distinction in recruiting it in the transfer portal, something only Miami and Florida State have done within the ACC. see, we will talk about that. But we have to start with Brian Kelly's soapbox quote from the other day. This episode is brought to you by Fanduel. Make every moment more. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet.

Starting point is 00:01:19 It's $150 with any winning $5 bet. Visit Fanduel.com slash locked on to get started. So Kenton, Brian Kelly, and I know he's not an ACC head coach, there are ACC tie-ins here. Brian Kelly of LSU, who, LSU on the surface, it looks like they have a defensive line problem. They were very aggressive in at least hosting transfer portal defensive tackles for visits. They didn't land the guys that they hosted. Some of their top targets were Dominic Williams, who ended up going to Oklahoma,

Starting point is 00:01:55 Simeon Barrow, who ended up going to Miami. That's one ACC tie-in right there. And in a recent interview, Ryan Kelly was asked, hey, where are you right now with defensive line recruiting? He says it hasn't fared well, quite frankly, because we are selling something a little bit differently. We are not in the market of buying players, he says. When you hear that from Brian Kelly, what are your thoughts, Kenton?

Starting point is 00:02:22 This is so interesting. This is so fascinating because you aren't in the business of buying players. But, Domino, what's one of the features of team facilities that I make fun of the most? What's the thing that I constantly talk about? If your players need this thing, they're not going to be good football players. Lazy Rivers. You know why I make fun of lazy rivers being in school so much? Why?

Starting point is 00:02:51 LSU has a lazy river. That's a pretty big deal to their school. That's right. I'm pretty sure. I'm not a thought of this shortness, but I'm pretty sure Bama has one as well. And my point in saying all of that is you drop money into all of this dumb stuff. I wish we had a bleat button because I would say what I really want to say. It's a three-letter word, I mean, four-letter word that rhymes with Pitt.

Starting point is 00:03:14 But you drop money into all of this dumb stuff and you sit here and you pay your players too. You had Odell Beckham before you were there walking up and down the sidelines giving $1,000 handshakes to guys after the national championship. And you are the school to say, we don't buy players. Baby, you're bitter. You're angry. You're upset.

Starting point is 00:03:43 What's on your heart? What's on your heart? Again, if there was anybody to, if there was any big school coach that could sit on that, I think maybe devil is the only one that has that authority. But you, Brian, you? Listen, your outrage, your moral outrage here is this fake as a southern accent when you said that you were happy to be part of LSU family, whatever the hell that is.

Starting point is 00:04:15 It's embarrassing. Buck up, win the recruiting battles, do what you need to do to win the recruiting battles, or shut the hell up. Those are my options for him. Because this is embarrassing. It's the new nature of the game. I'm sorry that you now have to give the players the money instead of giving facilities. of these the money. I'm sorry that you not have to, you know, make sure that your players are

Starting point is 00:04:34 compensated instead of giving them a spaceship locker room where, you know, the young man that got drafted out of Texas was looking around Kansas City's locker room like, I'm so disappointed. This is not that. You got to pay your players now. I'm sorry to tell you, Brian. It's part of the game. You hit something on the head there that if I think really the one coach in major college football who has been a very successful head coach. I think the one guy who could step on that soapbox, and he has, he has, is Davosweeney, right? Because that's the only coach that I can think of in a major power four program who literally

Starting point is 00:05:13 is not in the business of buying players because he doesn't embrace NIL and he has zero embrace for the transfer portal, does not bring in transfers. And then the other parts of the hypocrisy with Brian Kelly is, you know, you talk about, not only pouring money into facilities, which is something he's very willing to do. He's also very willing to take big direct deposits for his own check because last I check, Brian Kelly is on a 10-year contract that guarantees him $95 million. And with incentives, some of those are easier to reach than others, with incentives, I think it could be north of $100 million that he ends up making it us to.

Starting point is 00:05:51 So you got a $95 million man saying, we're not in the business of buying players. Now, I think, you know, someone in the media who broke this down very well and clearly was Andy Staples of On 3, I think he brought up a good point on what Kelly was doing with that interview. He's very much pandering to the anti-NIL crowd. And that that's a big faction of the college football fans, that even the anti-NIL crowd are like smart enough to see through it, that he's being a little disingenuous here. But he's pandering to that anti-NIL crowd because there's a portion of college football fans. out there who love to hear quotes like that. That's right. We're not buying players.

Starting point is 00:06:32 We still believe in amateurism. Coach, I'm so glad you're standing up for what's right and for the college football that I love despite the fact that it's a little bit disingenuous coming for him. But to a point, and maybe Kelly just didn't want to articulate it this way or he thought it would sound more powerful if he said we're not in the market of buying players. But okay, if you want to say, hey, we thought with B.C. specific defensive lineman, maybe the juice wasn't quite worth the squeeze. Maybe it wasn't quite worth spending as much as they wanted or as much as these other teams spent on them. I think people

Starting point is 00:07:09 could respect that to an extent. I mean, it's not as if that would make the players look any worse than what he said. We're not in the market of buying play. That basically tells you these guys were out for the money and we were not willing to pay them. So maybe he could have just said in reality, Kenton that, hey, maybe we just thought these particular defensive linemen were not worth as much money as they wanted. So we're moving on. That's probably what really happened. And here's my, here's my final thing on this whole diatripe here. I don't, I don't understand why, sure, you'll win over Jimmy and Rustin, Louisiana, who was already a Tiger fan with this. sure you'll win over Bobby and Omaha who likes college basketball more than the NBA

Starting point is 00:08:00 because they just play the game the right way. You'll win over those guys. But here's the problem. Here's the problem that you run into. At the end of the day, does Jimmy and Rustin or Bobby in Omaha, do they suit up for you? Are they going to help you out? You need... You know, their defensive line is so thin, they might need those guys to suit up a

Starting point is 00:08:24 tackle. And guess what? If you've got a 510 pale guy who would throw out a hip trying to play pickleball on the field trying to stop a platform block, oh buddy, it's going to be a bad time for your linebackers. It's going to be a bad time for your DBs. There's going to be safety seeing elephants on parade, which means big bodies moving towards them down the field. And it's not just going to be a screenplay, which is, we'll explain that later during the season. Don't worry. But long story short, your goose is cooked if that's your situation. Again, if you lose the battle, you lose the battle. Bow out like a man. I understand that Dirty Macin is part of recruiting in college football. But generally, the Dirty Macon happens when you're on the phone with recruits. Dirty Macon to the world is just so. I want to say it's beneath you, Brian, but you've shown us the man that you, are time and time and time again. And to be honest, again, he's a clown who wets to bed every big game, every chance he gets in a big game. You did it before NIL. You're going to do it after

Starting point is 00:09:37 NIL. You're going to do it after you can pay your players up to $22 million for the roster. You are a habitual bad wetter. It's what you do. It's who you are. Don't blame NIL. Blame the fact that that's who you are. And it's easy to always blame externally. Externally, oh, my problems are never my problems. It's always everybody else's fault. But I'll tell you this, when you refuse to acknowledge that you play the hand in it, guess what happens?

Starting point is 00:10:09 You remove your power to fix it. Eight and four incoming for LSU, maybe seven and five. Congratulations, boys. because again, they're better than everybody else. They're the ones that don't pay for years. They're so much more regal and pristine than the cleaner program, even though, didn't they just run out a national championship winning head coach for some off-to-field activities that were very salacious?

Starting point is 00:10:34 I recall that. But I agree. Again, they're the bastion of cleanliness. No, that Brian Kelly's there. Well, coming up next, something in recruiting in the transfer portal that only Miami and Florida state have done, and is this going to pay off for both of these programs in the long term? We are locked on ACC. We're only getting started. You want to keep it locked. We're only getting started with Yahoo Finance, my friends. Let's get straight to the point. You want to grow your

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Starting point is 00:12:32 national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube, and now it's also available on Amazon Fire TV and the free Fire TV channels app. It's called Lockdown Sports Today, and it's here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Lockdown, plus the national shows covering every league. Find Lockdown. on sports today now available on the Fire TV channels app. Alex Dono and Kenton Gibbs with you here on this episode of Locked on ACC. So, you know, Kenton, you notice like the top programs in the country, you know, the gold standards out there right now like Georgia, you know, Michigan coming off the national title.

Starting point is 00:13:08 Alabama, obviously, with the coaching change, they had a lot of portal movement. But the top programs in the country still tend to focus more on high school recruiting than portal. then there are certain programs that are like 80% portal. I think FSU was a little bit of an outlier with the season that they had last year, which was primarily through portal. But we're seeing the high school recruiting really waking up for Mike Norvell and company. In fact, Florida State and Miami are the only two teams in the ACC that have this distinction

Starting point is 00:13:41 from last recruiting cycle, the class of 2024, into the transfer portal class of 2024, where the Miami Hurricanes and Florida State Seminoles are top 12 in both categories. They both have top 12 recruiting classes and top 12 transfer portal classes. Do you think that these programs, and obviously, you know, on competitively, Florida State is ahead of Miami, or at least has been ahead of Miami, even as the Lockdown Keynes host, I fully admit that based on recent results. But do you think these programs can find like a perfect marriage of portal and recruiting, or does it have to trend more towards recruiting in the future? This is a very interesting question, and it feels a little loaded, but I'll say this.

Starting point is 00:14:26 It's more art than science. I don't think that there's an exact number where it's like your tipping point for no longer being a good team. 20% of your roster is made up of portal because in portal, there's also different ways to do it. The way the Florida State did portal under Norville was, crucial because he understood chemistry. He understood culture. He understood that for the most part, even if your lineup is made up of a majority or of half portal guys, those portal guys need to be here for a while. Jared Burs had multiple years there. Jordan Travis, multiple years there.

Starting point is 00:15:06 Johnny Wilson multiple years there. There were very few guys that are out of their portal classes that is just one and done rentals. So it's, I think that you need to do both at a high level. And I think without both, you end up in a shaky situation where you end up very top-heavy with no depth in terms of like a Clemson where you don't do portal at all. And you've just got like, hey, we've got to develop these high schoolers. And if that misses, then you're cooked. And it's also, you know, it's like anything else, right?

Starting point is 00:15:40 If you have, if you're saying, hey, I like somebody who's a home body, right? I like a partner who's a home body. Okay, great. If they stay home literally all the time, you're like, let's go for a walk in the park. Let's go for ice cream. Let's go to State 48 or something. I feel like getting dressed up once in one nights. And they're like, no, I want to stay home.

Starting point is 00:15:58 You're like, okay. And if they're always like, no, I never want to be in house. Every single day needs to be an adventure, you're going to get tired. It's the same way with roster management. You need to marry the two. You need to find that sweet spot. And that sweet spot is different for everybody. If you have, for example, if you're talking about NC State right now,

Starting point is 00:16:18 the thing that I had most talked about they needed was to get a quarterback in recruiting because they kept doing these one-and-done rentals. It was Armstrong last year. It's going to be Grayson McCall this year. But both of those guys last year, and then they're gone. And I said they need a guy or a couple guys that's like, this is going to be our guy for the next three, maybe four years. They went out and got that in C.J. Bailey in high school recruiting.

Starting point is 00:16:44 And then you combined that with the Nora Rogers out of the portal, a Justin Jolie out of the portal, you know, plenty of guys out of the portal, Jordan Waters and Hollywood Smothers. Everybody in that group I just named except Jordan Waters, they all have three to four years of eligibility left. So that's what I mean in terms of, I'm sorry, Sorry, Jolie has two left, but you get what I'm saying. And everybody has a lot of eligibility left because, again, you marry the two.

Starting point is 00:17:15 You don't just have a, hey, we got to go out every night. If we ever have a day where we're not going to Perry Steakhouse, I'm leaving. And you also need, you know, don't want, hey, we got to stay in every night. I don't even want to go to McDonald's. I just want to stay in and cook every day. You know, neither one is great for you. So and then, you know, on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, and we'll talk about this a little bit more when we look at the post-spring power rankings,

Starting point is 00:17:38 but what Clemson is doing or not doing in the transfer portal, where, you know, Davoswini, again, he's the guy who can step on that. We're not in the market of buying players. So, like, he can say that and mean it legitimately. They brought in zero transfers. And you just have to wonder, and it's not like they haven't lost any players.

Starting point is 00:17:58 They've lost players, but they're not replacing them in the portal. They're only replacing players who transfer out through recruiting, which means, you know, you're younger, your depth might be a little bit more questionable. I think there are certain areas like defensive line where Clemson will be in very good shape, you know, despite, despite some of the outgoing departures. But, you know, do you look at them and like, do you really worry about their depth this coming season? Because I still think the biggest concern for me is I don't know if they have a bona fide star at quarterback with Kade Klubnick. But at the same time, you have to wonder if not dealing in the transfer port,

Starting point is 00:18:35 portal at all in this day and age, can you really put out a championship caliber deep team without working the portal at all? So the problems, okay, so let's discuss the problems with each because I believe that that kind of feeds into Clemson's problems and they are a very direct result of that. The problem that you're looking at here is if you go all portal, you risk losing your culture. You risk losing that, hey, what makes us us? What's the essence of us? We don't know.

Starting point is 00:19:07 We weren't from here. I played at West Virginia for four years. I don't know what the hell your culture is here. I just came to get this check and play some ball type of deal. You risk losing that to where, again, all these guys coming in for all these different places around the country, they don't know your culture potentially. And you have that, which, again, that's problematic for chemistry issues. And it creates a great haves and have nots in your locker room, which is a little upsetting. Because if the half step out of line one time, if you're paying the guy a million dollars and he's not showing up to meetings or not doing something the right way, this guy is making 10 bands and doing everything that he's supposed to.

Starting point is 00:19:46 That's $10,000 for those who you don't know what the band is. Those guys are disgusted and, you know, mad about that. So that's, you have problems with stuff like that. And again, you have one year rentals. So you got to hope that all those old guys are ready to get in your sister. and play right away. That's the problem there. Now we talk about dabbedo's problem on the side of the high school recruiting. Every recruit means so much more because every time you miss, you know that we have to wait two to three years to replace that young man. And as much as,

Starting point is 00:20:25 here's the thing, you're right about Clemson's supposed to be in a good spot for D-Live. I think there are one or two injuries away even up front on D-Live where they have a ton of talent from having to have guys who have not played meaningful football at all have to play 40 snaps a game, which if you know anything about DLine, 40 snaps a game is a big time deal. So you're looking at a situation where with Clemson and not doing a ton in the portal like Miami and FSU, you're up against it. You're so tough up against it because, again, the portal should be used, in my opinion, to supplement and fill out where you need immediate help.

Starting point is 00:21:05 Where you need to replace a macuba, you need to have somebody where you're like, hey, this is a senior. We trust him. He was an all-conference guy. He destroyed the Mac conference. We're going to bring him down to the ACC to see how he does. You can't do that now.

Starting point is 00:21:21 You're having a young man that you can say, he destroyed California high school football. We're going to bring him on down here, and he's been in the program for a year. We trust that he's good now. We trust that he's ready to do what needs to be done. So I think that the problem that Clemson has is not only with depth, but it's even with your starters.

Starting point is 00:21:38 If they play no meaningful college football, I'm trusting you when we're in live action and everything is flying at you and you feel like, oh, man, I don't know what's going on. You're going to settle down and play more experience than you are, which, to be honest, I think that that's why playing Georgia game one is one of the biggest mistakes they ever could have made. And I know that they did that and set that. that up before NIL is what it is now.

Starting point is 00:22:03 But those young guys, I think those young guys are better served by getting their lab legs under them and figuring out and getting some confidence before they see their first real test per se than getting destroyed out the gates because that's, that's the time iso style of coaching where it's like, I'm going to put it through a gauntlet early and later we'll be all right. But it's like you can't do that in college football. College football doesn't give you throwaway games. And there's not a 64 team tournament where it's like, hey, we'll,

Starting point is 00:22:30 When we get to the back end of the season, if we're playing our best ball, we'll be able to win the 90s still. No, you won't. You'll be able to win a citrus ball. Congratulations. Coming up next, looking through this CBS Sports post-Spring football power rankings in the ACCC, a couple of things got our attention. And it's not even just at the top of the rankings, something in the middle. And I think Kenton Gibbs might like this one. We'll talk about that so much more when we come back on this brand new episode of Lockdown ACC.

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Starting point is 00:23:33 Locked on and make every playoff shot count. Fanduel, America's number one sports book. Alex Dono from Lockdown Cains, Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack with you here on Lockedon ACC. So, you know, Kenton, this is adjusted power rankings from CBS sports after, you know, transfer portal's not completely done, but it's, you know, the dust is settling. And of course, everyone has finished their spring games. Before we take a look at the top of their ACC power ranking,

Starting point is 00:24:05 where they have Florida State at one, Clemson at two, Miami at three. I want to take a look at the middle. They give NC State some respect at number four. But how about five and six, Kenton? They've got Virginia Tech at five ranked ahead of Louisville at number six. This might be the only publication that I've seen that actually considers Virginia Tech in front of Louisville. I wonder if this is a reaction or even overreaction to a lot of the negative headlines surrounding Louisville's. transfer portal.

Starting point is 00:24:37 Oh, it absolutely is a, at least a reaction, whether it's an old reaction is still to be seen. But I'll tell you this, I have said all offseason, Virginia Tech is my team to watch out of that. That's what I said. I think you like this. Yeah. Those teams that are predicted to be at the bottom or whatever, the lower middle part, Virginia Tech is a team that I've had circle for a while in terms of what they're bringing back, who they are.

Starting point is 00:25:02 And the fact that Virginia Tech is regaining that culture. They're regaining that lunch pail mentality and all that good stuff. Because, you know, even looking through the history now that I think about it, Virginia Tech has never been known as being the biggest most physical team, but they have always outskinned people and all that, which is, you know, it's something that now I'm like, hey, I don't know if y'all know this, you not. But Foster ain't walking through that door. Get you some beef up front.

Starting point is 00:25:27 get you some, you know, some massive young men to kind of man the fort there. But I do think that there's something weird about having Louisville at six. Because while I don't believe in Tyler Shuck, while I do think that he's not the goods, I believe that Brian Brom could coach up you or I on that team to get to at least eight wins. I think eight is like a floor for them. Seven, eight is like a floor for them. Maybe I'm wrong. But I think Louisville down at five is, I mean, down at six is a little interesting, but we'll see.

Starting point is 00:26:04 We'll see ultimately. I will say this. Miami is the preseason national champs every year. They, in the preseason, in the preseason, they're going to win it all every year. The ACC is theirs. This is the year they come back. This is the year that, I'm sorry to tell you. Ed Reed and Ray Lewis are walking through that.

Starting point is 00:26:27 door. I'm sorry to tell you. Okay. And more did Dico Maui Noah are walking through that door? These are fine players. Rubin Bain? Listen, I'd love to, you know, what did they used to say on X-Files all the time? I want to believe. I want to believe in Miami. I do, Dono. I really do. I really do. I grew up my teams in the South, because Michigan was always my actual team. But my teams in the South were always Miami and Florida State. I love those games. I love watching them play. I loved everything about it. I struggle to believe in Miami every year because every year is supposed to be, oh, they've got all the pieces. And it's like, well, you know, I got to see it. I got to

Starting point is 00:27:10 see you show me something. And I think that Miami is going to show us the problem I was talking about on the other end of Clemson, where your main guys are, you've got a few too many portal guys at those key positions where it's like, y'all need to adjust right away. You're going to be running meshes out of the read option with a quarterback and running back who just got here, just got here. And it sounds like a small deal because you're like, oh, these guys are almost professionals. They can do that. These guys have to deal with school and sport. These guys have a unique band of things they got to deal with.

Starting point is 00:27:47 And again, what is the culture at Miami is the biggest question? What is established as this is who we are? This is what we put our hat on. Because you want to say power running, but have you actually seen them be that good at that? You want to say, hey, they hang their hats on having a defense that lights out. But you and I can both agree on this at minimum. Miami's defense may be the sore spot this year. So where do they hang their hat?

Starting point is 00:28:13 And what is the culture two things that you got questioned? I mean, I think they hang their hat on the line of scrimmage on both sides of the football. You know, when you talk about the defense, I think the area that I worry about a little bit that could be soft if certain young players don't step up is the defensive secondary. I think the front seven on papers in really good shape. The defensive line is one of the deeper groups in the ACC just in that part of the defense, the offensive line, same, same deal there. So I think that's, and that, you know, you go back to what Mario Cristobal identities have been going back to his previous stops. It's always been line of scrimmage. And then you hope that you have the piece in Cam Ward quarterback that can,

Starting point is 00:28:52 you know, try to bridge the gap to some of the other stuff. But listen, I'm fully, as a Miami guy, I am fully in the camp of I need to see it to believe it. So I'm fully a lot of what you said I agree with. Now, I do think, you know, what you're saying about, you know, if you're arguing with the power, it's not like the power ranking has them at number one. I think if they had Miami at number one, then I could say, even I could say, okay, let me take a step back. They got to earn it.

Starting point is 00:29:17 I think number three is a reasonable spot. And I say that even though, you know, I know NC State at number four. That's a team that beat Miami last year. Like I get that. So I just, I think Miami's roster is, is dramatically better than it was a season ago and not having, you know, a human interception playing quarterback is hopefully going to make,

Starting point is 00:29:36 going to make a difference as long as, as long as Ward can keep his fumbling down. So I understand that. We're going to have a lot more to get to this week on Lockedon, ACC. So you make sure you subscribe. Hit that subscribe button, whether you're watching on YouTube or listening to the audio version,

Starting point is 00:29:50 Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you get your pods. He is Kenton Gibbs. You can check him out on Lockdown Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono. You can check me out at Lockdown Canes, and we will talk to you again next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day.

Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - Brian Kelly Is NOT The One Who Should Be Talking About "Not Buying Players," ACC Post Spring Ranking

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