Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - BUZZ: Clemson Tigers Quarterback ROOM Could See Change IN SEASON? | Is Miami Done Taking Transfer QBs?

Starting point is 00:00:00 At the moment, the Clemson Tigers have a quarterback who is in pole position to start. But could there be a quarterback controversy in season? You are Locked-on ACCC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. He is Kenton Gibbs. I am Alex Dono, and today's episode of Locked-on ACC is brought to you by Fanduel. During the tournament, Fandual is offering $300 back in bonus bets every day for 10 days. Head to fanduel.com to get started. On this loaded episode, there's a lot of

Starting point is 00:00:40 quarterback topics out there. Miami just landed a big time QB out of high school, which makes people wonder, eventually is Miami going to stop taking quarterbacks out of the portal each and every year? I think I have the answer for that. James Franklin did a great interview with On Three Sports, Andy and Ari. He made an important revelation about Virginia Tech, but also admitted a mistake he made while he was at Penn State. But Kenton Gibbs, let's talk Clemson quarterback situation, and we've talked about it a lot this offseason. Maybe he'll prove us all wrong, but Chris Visina,

Starting point is 00:01:18 who's a red shirt junior, just it doesn't feel like he's that convincing heading into the upcoming 2026 season. And apparently we're not the only ones who share that opinion, but that's how you're feeling about this, right? Absolutely. And the fact that we are discussing from, you know, people who are close to the Clemson program, hey, is a very strong possibility that he is usurped during the season. Actually, let me correct my verbiage there. You said, who is reporting this?

Starting point is 00:01:49 David Hale from ESPN. Okay. So David Hale of ESPN. I'm not saying that he's a tiger insider that he's close to the program. But we're not the first people. We're not the only people to have that thought of what's going on here? It shouldn't be pole position. He should be doing circles around the brickyard and all that good stuff, holding up the trophy, saying we won.

Starting point is 00:02:12 It's time to get ready for the season with me as the starter. So that's definitely a possibility that we're looking at. And as I've said before, and as I've said, a million times over, dabble is no stranger to playing the younger guy, playing the unconventional guy, playing the guy who may not be the fan favorite. So ultimately, when I look at this situation, I mean, it's pretty obvious. The writing is on the wall that, hey, Zina has not decisively won this battle. Yeah. Well, and, you know, Clemson has, I think,

Starting point is 00:02:39 five quarterbacks at least in their room. But interestingly enough, the one that David Hale brings up, who might end up taking the job during the season, is a true freshman, which you could look at. It's a great thing for the future. Is that the best thing during the 2026 season?

Starting point is 00:02:55 So here's what David Hale wrote, and he has some good material in his ACCC spring football, takeaway's story because he's visited a handful of programs for spring practice. He said at Clemson, I came away very impressed with freshman quarterback Tate Reynolds. And sure enough, he has quote unquote separated himself as the number two quarterback after the Tiger's spring game. And then Hale writes, could we be looking at a repeat of 2014 where the veteran who waited his turn gets the start to open the year?

Starting point is 00:03:27 But the talented freshman eventually earns the job. And that talented freshman he's referencing was Deshawn Watson. He says Reynolds isn't as obviously talented as Deshawn Watson was, but he's got a much more college-ready frame thanks to a dad who both played linebacker at Arizona State and is the longtime strength and conditioning guy at his high school, Queen Creek in Arizona. So he brings up that possibility, Kenton. Now, obviously, if you're a Clemson fan, that's kind of a double-edged sword because if you're fourth-year, your quarterback is getting benched during the season, it's probably because you're not winning

Starting point is 00:04:05 very many games. So that may be the emergence of Tate Reynolds is not something you're looking forward to just yet. But that's the beauty of dabble, right? When Kelly Bryant was replaced by Trevor Lawrence, were they losing ballgames? Ooh, that's a good point. They weren't. They were just looking to elevate. Okay, so that's, that's a great point by you. And that's what I mean by as much as I indict the Tigers and what's going on with Vizina, I'm always going to be honest with you, right? And if you have a coach where you are seeing a guy that I would most want to handle a coaching

Starting point is 00:04:39 or a quarterback change mid-season, there's nobody I would want navigating those waters more than Davosweeney in the ACC. With all due respect to Mario Cristobal, with all due respect to Dave Don, with all due respect to Coach Key, Coach Franklin, all those, all due respect to all these great coaches.

Starting point is 00:04:57 if there is one that I feel like you've been here and the way that you did it in the past was masterful, I think that I'd want my head coach to be Davoswini. So ultimately, yes, we all know the old addict. If you have two quarterbacks, how many of you have? None. Well, if you got five, what the hell is going on, right? Like, that's a whole other ball game there.

Starting point is 00:05:20 But even if we're talking about just the guys who are meaningfully in this quarterback competition, you're still looking at two to three, which means you don't have the guy. You don't have the guy that plants this flag and says, this is my team, this is my quarterback room, everybody else,

Starting point is 00:05:36 sit back and learn. Everybody else, the best thing I can do for y'all is going out and showing you the example of this is the standard at Clemson football. This is not just how we prepare, but actual performance. Because preparation, while everybody talks about,

Starting point is 00:05:48 oh, preparation is how you're great. I've seen guys who prepare the right way, but they get the yips when they're under the light. Right? So it's a standard of not only the preparation, but the on the field performance. And they don't have a guy right now that they're comfortable with saying he upholds the Clemson standards, both in preparation and on game day. Yeah, it's a good example.

Starting point is 00:06:11 You brought up Trevor Lawrence. You know, Hale had brought up Deshaun Watson. We'll see if Tate Reynolds at some point during the year gets his opportunity or will this just add a bigger chip on the shoulder of Chris Visina. and he goes out there and plays lights out. You know, kind of on a side note, we had talked in episodes within the last couple of weeks, you know, Florida State plays Clemson on Halloween. And like, could that be the loss that's the nail in the coffin for Mike Norvell at FSU?

Starting point is 00:06:42 You know, I've been talking a lot about this with Brian Smith from Locked on Seminoles. And like, he pointed out to me, so, yeah, you got the Clemson game on Halloween, but that's right after a buy week. and the team that Clemson, sorry, the team that Florida State plays before that by week is Miami in Miami. So that could actually be the one that maybe if maybe it won't be Clemson, as we've discussed before, maybe if Miami, and obviously I'd like to see it, if Miami, you know, puts a big dub against Florida State, that might be a situation where the Florida state fans are not that unhappy about it, Kenton, because that might spell the end for the Mike Norville era.

Starting point is 00:07:21 that's definitely a possibility in this thing and i'm going to tell you something i've said for the longest by Halloween he will not be the head coach that is something i've said on this show multiple times that i stand by and again i have told you that is my belief i do not have any sources at florida state that are telling me that that that's just my belief based on how their schedule is set up and what this team has been and what i'm hearing coming out of that team in terms of this offseason that does not sound like a team that now has a coherent, cohesive, much better culture than there was in the past. And that's just the reality because, again, I believe the head man sets the culture. Now, if you have one year where you got a couple of knuckleheads as your captains, fine.

Starting point is 00:08:06 I'm willing to hear you out, willing to go with you. Two of them? Hold on. You didn't have the same captains from one year to the next. You didn't have the same quarterback from one year to the next. Your running back room looked totally different when you're to the next. You overhaul the majority of your coaching staff. It's only but so long that you can continue to remove and shuffle out all these different parts.

Starting point is 00:08:30 I need a different defensive scheme. No, I need a different offensive coordinator. No, I need a different this and that. Before eventually, all the villagers start looking up at you. Like, we've replaced everything in this village except the chief. We've replaced every single part. We replaced the operations staff. We replaced the offensives coordinator.

Starting point is 00:08:49 Defensive line coach, even Coach Hagen's. Yeah. Coach Hagan. If you know anything about ACCC football, you know Higgins is not just a legend in terms of Florida State. He's a legend in terms of college football. He is. He is my litmus bar for if you truly know ball in terms of college football. That's a good bar for sure.

Starting point is 00:09:14 Because if I say the name, Odell Higgins and you don't say, oh yeah, yeah, defensive line coach, It's like, all right, you don't know ball. You don't know ball. So how much, and granted, not going isn't going from the university, just in a different capacity? Yeah, I want to make that clear. Yeah, exactly. You know, Florida State Fed like to get rowdy, even though they want to coach fired. And I'm telling you, your coach, go get fired.

Starting point is 00:09:33 They like to get rowdy with me. But the reality of this thing is very simple. It seems to me like this is a lame duck coach and the financials just made it so that they couldn't fire them. But the financials are starting to make more sense. terms of finally, you know, the executioner is sharpening his axe, for lack of a better term. Yeah, no, no doubt. Well, speaking of coaches, James Franklin, I thought it was brutally honest in an interview he did with On Three Sports, including admitting a big mistake he made at Penn State. Hopefully, the Virginia Tech head coach learned from that and doesn't make that mistake again.

Starting point is 00:10:13 You want to keep it locked right here. We're only getting started on this brand new episode of Lockdowne ACCC. I'm Clea Butler, host of Lockdown Women's Basketball, and this is Mazda's Women's Basketball Snapshot, celebrating the work no highlight reel can ever capture. The NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament Elite 8 wrapped up with the Yukon Huskies, staying undefeated at 38 and 0 after a decisive win over Norderdane, while the UCLA Bruins rallied past Duke behind a dominant second. half performance. On the other side, the remaining one seeds in South Carolina and Texas will be

Starting point is 00:10:50 determined after their matchups against TCU and Michigan, respectively. Next up, the final four is set for Friday in Phoenix with the winners advancing to the national championship on Sunday. These moments are earned off the clock, those long before the lights ever come on. The sweat, the fakes, the doubt, the scrapes, and coming back for more every time. Mazda puts that same drive into every detail. Wins define the moment, putting in the work, that defines you. There's more to a Mazda because there's more to you. Hey, if you consume Lockdown ACC content every day, we call you an everydayer. And if you want to make that status official, you got to join the Everydayer Club. You get ad-free versions of our episodes, exclusive Discord chats with hosts and other listeners

Starting point is 00:11:38 of the Lockdown Network and so many other great benefits. Go to Lockdownac.ac.c.com.com supercast.com or click the link in the show notes below and make your status official become an everydayer today. Thank you so much for making Lockdown ACC your first list. He is Kenton Gibbs, former NC State defensive lineman, co-host of Lockdown Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono, host of Lockdown Keynes. You know, James Franklin, I've come to learn Coach Franklin's a talker and that he's also very open and honest, which I really appreciate hearing from a coach. And the new Virginia Tech coach was on Andy and Ari show on On Three Sports.

Starting point is 00:12:21 They do a really good job. And part of the write-up from James Franklin's quotes, like he admitted Kenton a big mistake that he allowed himself to make at Penn State because, you know, they made that run. They were like a play away from getting to the national championship game in 2024. And that raised the expectations. It surely raised the pressure within the program. But it also at that time convinced the Penn State administration to start pumping more money into NIL and support for their roster. Like they really started investing. Like how can we build on this run we made?

Starting point is 00:12:58 And then, of course, things all went sideways in 2025. And they write the coach who tweeted 1 and 0 every Monday during every season suddenly allowed internal and external and external conversation. about the end of the road rather than focusing only on the next opponent. A program that had succeeded mightily as a process-oriented outfit started thinking hard about the results. Quote from Franklin, we made some philosophical tweaks and changes to be more aggressive and maybe more aware of these types of things. We allowed the players to have conversations and allowed the staff to have conversations

Starting point is 00:13:39 that we typically hadn't had in the past, which means Kenton, they started to talk about their rankings. They started to talk about expectations. They started to talk about the playoffs even before a game was ever played last year. And Kenton, isn't that the stuff Nick Saban used to refer to it as rat poison? Like you played the game. Like, how real is that? If you start talking about making the playoffs before the season, like, can that, is Franklin

Starting point is 00:14:04 overstating that or can that really rot a culture? Let me start here. I applaud Franklin for taking the blame, taking the, the accountability here because I talked about and I went on a pretty long diatripe yesterday about how coach whites at all it was the guys they they bad coached guys in the locker room and did it so you're guys you bought them in you signed off on I applaud James Franklin for saying this was on me this is what I did wrong here does allowing yourself to be consumed with championship and all that as opposed to each day making

Starting point is 00:14:43 you a little worse. Absolutely. A thousand percent. And that one percent worse, you know, you stack up days where you get one percent where you're not looking at this rep as, how can I be the best me in this space, in this moment? Each rep, I want to be the best with each step, right? You stack that up over an entire offseason, an entire season as well, because you're going into the season with that mentality. You get the results that Penn State gets to some extent. another part of this, which I think was his bigger mistake that I have not heard him talk about as much, is the lack of ability to identify and develop really good quarterbacks. Like that to me is as much the problem with Penn State as anything else.

Starting point is 00:15:32 That when I look back at his tenure, you had guys at the quarterback position that I say three types of quarterbacks, all the time and win in spite of, win with, win because of. When you get to the national championship level, when you get to the playoff level, when you're saying, well, we beat everybody else in the big 10, but we need to be Ohio State, we need to beat Michigan, we need to be Oregon. What you're asking at that point, either the entirety of your roster has to be so loaded, like an Ohio State, because they haven't had a quarterback that you thought they're winning because of this guy and quite some time.

Starting point is 00:16:10 But you know what they have had? They've had every other position. Best receivers, best running backs, great defenses. This defense that they had last year, they said that three guys could be going in the top 10 off of one defense. My Lord, today. Three? Some universities don't have three guys going to top 10 in the last 20 years.

Starting point is 00:16:34 Oh, yeah. I mean. Yeah. I think any program either side of the ball would be thrilled to have three. guys in the top 10. Three guys in the top 10 over a five year span for most universities, they'd be like, we crushed it. And that's them on one side of ball for one year. So that's the reality. They didn't have that and they also did not have a quarterback that you win because of. To me, if he identifies and more properly develops quarterbacks than he did at Penn State,

Starting point is 00:17:02 if he does that, the ACC is already in trouble with just who he is on baseline. The nation is in trouble. The nation. I'm being so serious right now. All of the NCAA should look out if James Franklin gets his quarterback evaluation and development together. At that point, it's cooked. That's, that's Thanos getting the final infinity stone. And we, none of us have the power to travel back in time like the Avengers did. It's over. Yeah. The other thing Franklin said that I really appreciate it, and there's a number of things we could unpack from this interview. So forgive me if I'm leaving anything out because he said a lot. James Frankl was a talker. All right. But also, he he didn't want to like take full credit, you know, at the point where he's bashing the previous

Starting point is 00:17:52 head coaches, which kind of makes sense because one of those two previous head coaches is on his staff. You know, Brent Pry, who had worked with him years ago at Penn State. It's a very unique situation when the most recent head coach who got fired comes back months after getting fired to be the defensive coordinator. That's a very unique situation. But I also like how, you know, Franklin, like, went out of his way to say, because, you know, people will obviously bash Pry and Justin Fuente, who was there before him. But like, Franklin pointed out, like, I don't think those guys had the resources that I had. So, like, he is, he is fully admitting that Virginia Tech is now investing in football. And I love to see it because I saw the same thing happen, you know, about four years ago.

Starting point is 00:18:39 at Miami, my alma mater. They weren't properly investing in football, and they started doing that. For as much as I praise Mario Cristobal, I also have to admit Mario has a lot more resources than Manny Diaz and Mark Rick and Al Golden and company had. And Franklin admits the same thing. Like they are giving me resources that I don't think the last guys had.

Starting point is 00:19:01 So I appreciate his honesty about that. But that's also a plug to say, hey, we're Virginia Tech. We're serious about football now. So that benefits everybody. Absolutely, it benefits everybody. And again, this is, you know, James Franklin, despite a lot of the reports coming out of Penn State, I never heard a report that this is a bad dude.

Starting point is 00:19:23 This is genuinely like his character. He's a man of shaky character. He's a snake oil salesman. He's a, you know, he'll talk to you and whisper sweet nothing's in your ear and then slit your throat to get what he wants. I've never heard those types of things about him. He'll step over anybody. to get to where he's going.

Starting point is 00:19:40 I've never heard those types of things about him. Right. So all of these things are in line with what I've heard about his character. And so ultimately, again, I'm excited for him. I'm excited for him because, again, we talk about the Renaissance of ACC basketball and what bought it back? Better coaching. Yes.

Starting point is 00:19:59 Better coaching. Better coaching is what allows for us to retain our top players. 43%. Do you know what that number is, Dono? I don't. 43% is the percent of all ACC returners that transfer to other conferences. Oh. 43%.

Starting point is 00:20:18 Wow. In football. You know what brings that down when you have better coaches that can say, look at who I have put into the NFL. When you have better coaches that are saying, hey, y'all were playing ODU on ESPN8 to Ocho last year. And now we've got Virginia Tech versus UVA televised in terms of, of big time, you know, we're both teams that are outperforming expectations and we're both big time. This is now the Commonwealth Cup is everything. This here battle is everything, right?

Starting point is 00:20:50 So ultimately, James Franklin is a guy that this sticks by who he is, him acknowledging, I'm being born on third base in comparison to what some other guys had here. I have advantages they do not. That's beautiful and wonderful to see. Again, James Franklin was never stated as a guy of like he's going to struggle with press conferences, but when he coaches, he's going to coach up a storm. It's in fact been the exact opposite. He knows what to say. He knows how to say it.

Starting point is 00:21:16 Very suave, very composed, very, you know, and I'm going to tell you, he's bought a new energy. That last, that last 18 months to two years, even during the playoff run, he looked a little drained. He looked a little exhausted. He looks geeked up to being Blacksburg. So with that in mind,

Starting point is 00:21:36 I'm very intrigued to see how this thing kind of plays out with him because, again, by all accounts, he's a good dude. He's a great dude. Let's see if that translates into some great teams. Yeah, no, 100%. When we come back, is Miami soon going to be done taking transfer quarterbacks every year? You want to keep it locked. Alex Donno and Kenton Gibbs with you on this brand new locked on ACC. Guys, the tournament is still here and it's one of the best times of the year. Brackets, buzzer, beaters upsets. It is nonstop action from tip to final cutdown. And right now, Fandual is giving new customers a way to stay in the action all tournament long. Here's the best part. You get up to $300 back in bonus bets every day for 10 days. That means 10 chances to stay involved throughout the entire tournament. You can mix it up however you want. Game picks, futures, even same game parlays for bigger potential payouts.

Starting point is 00:22:36 It's perfect for the tournament because every day there's something new. Different matches. matchups, new storylines, more ways to get involved as the bracket unfolds. So visit fanduel.com to sign up today. That's fanduel.com to get in on the action. Hey, what if sports were traded like markets? Now you can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robin Hood prediction markets. It's not you against the house. It's you participating in a live market.

Starting point is 00:23:02 You can buy or sell your positions live all game long. Use your sports knowledge in the moments that matter. Robin Hood prediction markets changes the game. It's people moving the action, so when momentum shifts, you can move with it. I always knew the game, but I never had a dynamic way to apply that knowledge. But now I can actually take part live in a market powered by people. You're no longer just a spectator. Play by play, you decide.

Starting point is 00:23:27 Trade every play with Robin Hood. Now available across the U.S. Download the Robin Hood app now to begin. Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robin Hood, Derivatives LLC, a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm. You know, Kenton, it was an exciting recruiting day from Miami. They had a commit announced the U and put the U hat on live on the Pat McAfee show today. High-Level four-star quarterback Israel Abrams out of Montini Catholic High School in Illinois,

Starting point is 00:24:07 second-ranked quarterback in the entire class. You know, he commits to Miami today. And I was actually surprised, Kenton. I'm not saying this is the majority. I'm sure it's just a minority of loud Miami fans. But when I was letting, you know, my listeners know, hey, I think Miami's about to land a quarterback today. Like, I was taken aback by the amount of replies I got from people are like, why would a quarterback even want to come here when we're going to portal over these guys or who cares about portal recruiting or who cares about quarterback recruiting when we just use the portal? But Kenton, my point is if you start staffing.

Starting point is 00:24:42 guys like Israel Abrams in your quarterback room in high school versus the guys that you were stacking, you know, three, four years ago like Tyler Van Dyke and Emery O'Uy O'Uyip, you start stacking Israel Abrams with Darion Coleman, who's a true freshman this year, and Luke Nichol, who I like, who's a redshirt freshman this year. If Miami fans want to eventually stop, and this has taken nothing away from, you know, Cam Ward was incredible. Carson Beck had a great year. I think Darian Mence is going to be awesome. But for the people out there who want to organically develop quarterbacks out of high school, this is the way you stop, you know, this is the way you start doing that when you start stacking the Israel Abram types in your room. So I think this is going to change in the near future for Miami. Dono, these folks don't understand math.

Starting point is 00:25:29 That's the problem. The calculus of this breaks down in a very, very specific way. Even if we say, well, Kenton, new evidence has been presented. and by and large, there's not as desperate of a gap or disparate of a gap between transfer portal quarterbacks and high school recruiting quarterbacks as there has been a past. I would agree. I would agree and I would say, okay, now guys are leaving for different reasons. And before, if you transferred, it was because you wanted more playing time, but now the NIL

Starting point is 00:26:00 and all that is much bigger factor. You have guys that are supreme players transferring out and going elsewhere. Here's the only thing about that. the reality is at some point in time, statistically speaking, you will not continue to hit on all the top guys. You will not continuously. Who is the top quarterback in the transfer reporter this year, Don't know? I mean, was it Sam Levitt? It was either Levitt or Mensa.

Starting point is 00:26:27 I mean, one of those two. I was just about to say if it was, whether it was Levin, whether it was Mensa, Menta was a top two guy, right? Yeah. Go back to last year. Who was the top guy in the first? portal. Carson Beck was right up there. Go back to last year before that. Who's the top guy in the portal? Cam Ward,

Starting point is 00:26:44 number one. Do you get where I'm going here? I do. The statistical probability that you continue to land number one, hit after hit after hit. And you can say, well, we've got money. We've got money to blow. We've got money to blow. Sometimes it's not going to come down to money.

Starting point is 00:27:03 Sometimes there may be a day where the top three to four quarterbacks are going to schools who are equally able to give them money and USC is coming after him and the kid is from Vallejo, California. That's a great point. Oh, you're coming after Bryce Underwood and wanting him to transfer. Bryce Underwood's from Detroit and Auburn is very, very close to Detroit. So what happens then?

Starting point is 00:27:30 What do you do then? And even beyond that, even if you keep landing number ones, congratulations. You've landed a bunch of guys that have been successful. what if you land one that doesn't pan out? Then what? High school development and recruiting should not be completely abandoned. Am I saying to dump all your resources in that

Starting point is 00:27:48 and don't ever look at a portal? No. But this idea, well, why would a quarterback want to come here? Miami fans are so spoiled with good players. Y'all don't know what to do with yourselves. You don't know what to do. You know, I'm not trying to throw my own fan base under the bus because, again, I'm sure it was a minority of,

Starting point is 00:28:04 like, you know, most Miami fans were really happy to see Israel Abrams pick the U. But there's always going to be some strange outliers. Absolutely. And to those strange outliers, I would simply say, the thing that I tell NC State fans all the time, and they're like, why are we getting another receiver? We don't need any more receivers.

Starting point is 00:28:23 You can never have too many good players on one two. Yeah. You can never have too many good plays in one room. Now, you could make the argument of the resources should be going elsewhere. Sure. I'll hear you out on that. But to say we should not dedicate any resources to high school recruiting, I think that that's a fool's errand to try to build at like,

Starting point is 00:28:44 hey, we'll just build great teams around the quarterback, and we'll just continue to get the top guys out of quarterback. You do not know how and what can get those quarterbacks to go where they got to go. Yeah, no, that's well said. Great job, as always. Make sure you follow Kenton at TGIF underscore Kenton on X. Check him out on Locked on Wolfpack. follow me at Alex Dono. Check me out on Lockdown Canes.

Starting point is 00:29:07 Really fun week. Everyone have an awesome holiday weekend coming up, and we'll talk to you next time on another episode of Lockdown, ACC. We are part of the number one lockdown podcast network, your team every day.

Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - BUZZ: Clemson Tigers Quarterback ROOM Could See Change IN SEASON? | Is Miami Done Taking Transfer QBs?

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.