Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - Can Miami Hurricanes maintain their #1 spot in ACC rankings?

Starting point is 00:00:00 As always, our ACC power rankings are indisputable, but can any underdogs spoil the party this weekend? You are locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. We thought with Clemson and Pitt both losing last weekend, it's time to re kind of shake up our ACC power rankings as we headed a week 11 in the college football schedule. Thank you so much to the everydayers for making. Locked on ACC, your first listen and your first watch today. We're available free wherever you get your podcast. We're free on YouTube.

Starting point is 00:00:42 We're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This Friday episode is brought to you by Fandual. You can start the season with a big return. New customers can place a $5 bet and you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets. If you win your first $5 bet, visit fanduel.com to get started. We'll talk about possible week 11 upsets as we head into a schedule where you've got six games involving ACC teams this weekend. We'll talk about the top 10 quarterbacks in the ACC.

Starting point is 00:01:11 That'll be another power ranking we have. But Kent and Gibbs, we will start with our ACC power rankings because, again, things got shaken up a little bit where we had, you know, last weekend four teams that were unbeaten in conference. We knew somebody, though, had to go between Pittsburgh and SMU. And we weren't really expecting Clemson to lose at home, even though, you know, Louisville's got a very good team. So the rankings get shaken up a little bit here.

Starting point is 00:01:37 Oh, absolutely. Why wouldn't they be? I was rocking with Pitt because Pitt was undefeated and they had shown me nothing but, hey, we'll find a way. We will always find a way. They didn't in that one. So, I mean, naturally, you have to look at them a little differently. And Clemson, in the words of Kenzsche with Mar,

Starting point is 00:01:57 I think it's time to watch the party die because the party of national relevance for Clemson. I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt. When they came out here and won all those games back to back, whooping the wheels off, folks. I said, okay, this is who they are. That game was an exception. Not so fast, my friend. So, yeah, some power rankings need a little bit of strength.

Starting point is 00:02:20 Yeah, so the last time we did a power ranking, which was a few weeks ago, we actually, just because, again, it's a power ranking. So, you know, record obviously does play a part in it. But we had actually had Clemson ranked above Miami last time around. No longer. Clemson has fallen on this one. The Miami Hurricanes are number one in the power ranking.

Starting point is 00:02:44 And, you know, Kenton, they're the only undefeated team overall in the ACC right now with a 9-and-0 record. They've got quarterback who's now the sole Heisman Trophy favorite. Cam Ward is now plus 185. He's ahead of Travis Hunter on that. He's been obviously we still have a few weeks away before we're talking about who's going to New York. But Miami's got the number one offense in the country. Their defense has struggled at times, but they've made big plays when they've needed to. So the hurricanes are number one.

Starting point is 00:03:16 And then the other team who controls their own destiny to play for a conference championship are the SMU Mustangs. We've got SMU number two. Let me give you three and four. than we can digest this a little bit. So again, since this is a power ranking, and I obviously overall records matter, but head to head, I think matters probably even more. So we've ranked Louisville at number three,

Starting point is 00:03:41 a spot ahead of Clemson, despite Louisville having lost an extra game this year compared to Clemson because that Louisville Cardinals team just went into Death Valley for a night game. Clemson hadn't lost in, I think, 11 years at home at night. And Louisville went in there in Almond's, outplayed them and got it done. So we've got Louisville at number three and Clemson falls from number one in our previous ranking down to number four. Let me tell you something. When you go into somebody's crib, bank that baby and put him to sleep, well, you're going to get your love here.

Starting point is 00:04:13 You're going to get your respect here. I, the games have to mean something, which is something Donald and I say a lot, and head to head has to matter. Unless you two are on diametrically opposed sides, like obviously had Florida State come over the way to beat Miami. We wouldn't have been like, oh, Florida State's number one now because they beat number one. But in this instance, Louisville and Clemson were close enough to where this went for Louisville showed us, this is the Louisville team that we've been waiting on. This is the team we believe was possible. And really, this team in certain ways is even better than what we thought was possible.

Starting point is 00:04:50 because Tiger Shuck didn't have a great game by any stretch of the imagination. And yet they still came away with a winner of Dead Valley. Donald, somebody had told you, Tyler Shuck comes away with no passing touchdowns and a completion percentage under 75%. But Louisville walks out of Clemson that night as a winner. What would you have said? I would have said Clemson would probably have had just a string of catastrophic turnovers. Now, they did have a couple field goals blocked,

Starting point is 00:05:19 but I would have thought this would have just been an absolute, you know, just a folly of self-inflicted errors by Clemson. Absolutely. I would have called up my grannies because I can't say it properly, but she can leave that dope alone. That's what I would have told you. If you said, Father Shuck has no touchdowns, they come out of that game, will win it. So, you know, more hard to them. Those guys showed up and showed out. Yeah, no, no doubt about that.

Starting point is 00:05:43 All right. So we got Miami, SMU, Louisville, Clemson rounding out the top four, you know, Pittsburgh. They just lost for the first time this past weekend, but a convincing loss against our second ranked SMU. So Pitt falls to number five. And then, Kent, I've got Syracuse at number six. Now, I know you like to go back and forth with Jackson Holzer. Like we saw that a little bit on the squad. We see a little bit every week.

Starting point is 00:06:09 But did I rank Syracuse too high? I mean, they got pounded by Pitt a couple weeks ago. They did bounce back, though, against Virginia Tech. but it was Virginia Tech was not at full strength. But still, 6 through 10 was difficult for me. And I think Syracuse with the resume they have, I put them at number six based on some head-to-heads. Barely beating a team,

Starting point is 00:06:33 missing their starting quarterback and running back. By the hairs on your chin-y-chin chin, after a massive comeback, in normal circumstances, would get your tail knocked right on down. Fortunately, for the orange, We are a fair and honest bunch here on Locked on ACC. And the two teams directly behind them are in a very similar situation where they're losing,

Starting point is 00:06:59 but they're losing because they don't have their guy. They don't have their guys rolling. So they get to stay at six for now. Yeah, and I've got them, and it's primarily based this one on record. I have Syracuse's spot ahead of Duke at number seven. But then the teams you're referring to Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech, Virginia Tech comes off that tough loss. Georgia Tech has lost a couple.

Starting point is 00:07:29 But that's without players like Haynes King and Jamal Haynes on the Georgia Tech offense and like Chiron Drones and Bayshaltoutin on the Virginia Tech offense. Yeah. And you know, when I look at this in these power rankings, this is the reason I'm not saying, oh, Syracuse can't be here. and they were dominated by a pitch. And, you know, they barely be a handicapped Virginia Tech. At the end of the day, barely be to still be.

Starting point is 00:07:57 At the end of the day, when you talk about, oh, well, you know, these guys are out, that guys are out, this team's injury report. At the end of the day, the world does not care about labor pains. Show them the baby. Nobody wants to hear about who was available, who wasn't. Everybody's got injuries at this point in time. you got to make it happen. Syracuse has done so at a high enough clip to make sense for him to be there. Yeah, all right. So the remaining from 10 to 17, North Carolina at number 10, NC State at number 11. They'll have a- vehemently disagree.

Starting point is 00:08:32 Okay, okay, okay. Boston College at 12, Virginia 13, Wake Forest 14, Cal 15, Stanford 16. and there's one that's left that was preseason number one. So remind me who's at the dead last in the ACC? Now, technically they're not dead last in the standings because they do have actually a victory over one of the teams in front of them. But you call a spade a spade. This team has quit. They're the what is it, the souls or the, oh, the nose, the Florida State Seminoles.

Starting point is 00:09:13 That's right. be dead lies. I'll tell you this much. War Chant or whoever is putting out those videos of your coach running that race. Do you know how bad it is that this team didn't even get together the next day and say, all right, we got to redeem ourselves. We got to like make it look like everybody still care. This is nasty business all the way around.

Starting point is 00:09:35 Tallahassee has the nastiest piece of business I've ever seen because I've never seen such a falloff and literally like, eight calendar months. I've never seen anything like this. No coach change. Yes, you change quarterbacks. Yes, there was a lot of roster turnover. But to go from a top five to 10 team in the nation, even with the snub, right?

Starting point is 00:09:59 Honestly, you were a top four team in the nation, but again, the snub puts you at the five. To go from top five team in the nation to one and eight, I've never seen this before. So, all right, give me your grievance on, on 10 and 11 where I had UNC 10th, NC State 11. All I'm saying is this. NC State is hitting their groove.

Starting point is 00:10:21 They're hitting their stride. They're whipping the wheels off of people. I don't understand how, you know, you get, you give the nod there to a, a dirty foot club team that let James Madison hang 70 on the more. 70. Oh, well, I get it. It was such a long time ago, and everybody's a different team from there. Sure.

Starting point is 00:10:48 But with that in mind, is beating Virginia and Florida State in consecutive weeks a needle moving? It doesn't mean what it used to. I'll give you that. They did beat Florida State more convincingly than Miami and Clemson did for what that's worth. But maybe Florida State has more given up now than they did in the Clemson and Miami games. I'll tell you this. maybe, maybe that team is legit. And this isn't even the argument for how good NC State is

Starting point is 00:11:16 because I don't think a one-point win over Kyle because their kicker botched one of the closest and easiest kicks you could possibly make or nearly putting up 60 on Stanford mean all that much. But what I do know is getting 70-piece. Yeah. By the James Madison Dukes. And you know what's funny?

Starting point is 00:11:39 I talk about Florida State not having to fall off after. No head coach, Shane, no change in offensive coordinator, all that and that stuff. James Madison did have those things because Sid was there last year. What's James Madison had all those things and hung 70 on you, and we're just like, that's one game. It happens. No!

Starting point is 00:12:01 No, it doesn't. You want to know how much that doesn't happen, Dono? Yeah. We all know that 70 is their highest score of the year. But I want you to take a crack what James Madison's next highest scoring total was this year. And I'll exclude one other game. I'll exclude one other game because they did put up 63 the week after against Ball State. And they're both group of five teams.

Starting point is 00:12:27 But other than that one offensive performance outside of North Carolina and Ball State, what do you want to know what their highest of the year was? I'm going to guess 45. Wrong. 39. Oh. They also only scored 13 points on the Mighty Gardner Webb Bulldogs. They also only score 14 against Georgia Southern. Well, and the other hilarious thing about, and you won me over on this, by the way.

Starting point is 00:12:54 But the other hilarious thing about JMU hanging up 70 on North Carolina, correct me if I'm wrong, because I watched most of that game, but it was a while ago now. It was all offensive touchdowns, right? Like they didn't score any defensive or special. Like it was legit. Their offense went out there and scored 10 touchdowns in the game, if I'm not mistaken. I do believe you're correct. But even if you aren't, here's an even more embarrassing fact about that game, Donald.

Starting point is 00:13:23 Here's one that should make them cry, scream, and throw up over there. Oh, they did have one pick six. Here's what's most embarrassing. Here's what's most embarrassing about that game. They score 70, right? Even if James Madison did not score another point after. they still win that game. And you're telling me that, listen, I'm not saying NC State's world beaters.

Starting point is 00:13:47 I'm just saying I know a team that stinks when I smell it. I know it. All right. When we come back, not only do we have our quarterback power rankings, but I got a bone to pick with Kenton. We'll explain after this. You want to keep it locked right here on this brand new episode of Locked on ECC. I already know you're keeping it locked to LinkedIn jobs, because when you're hiring for your small business,

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Starting point is 00:14:55 That's LinkedIn.com slash Lockdown College to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Thank you so much for making Lockdown ACC your first listen and your first watch today. If your next listen, make sure you check out. our other shows. Kenton and Grayson do an awesome job hosting Locked on Wolfpack. I host Locked on Cains. Those shows are available like this one free, wherever you get your podcast and free on YouTube. So here's the bone that I have to pick with you, Kenton. I think you've come around on Miami, but earlier this year, before Miami had

Starting point is 00:15:30 faced Virginia Tech, you kept saying Miami hasn't gotten a win against a Power 5 coach who's still going to be employed at the end of the year. Oh, my God. This is the This is the bone. This is the bone. The Florida gators have put the vote of confidence in Billy Napier, who Miami beat convincingly 41 to 17 week one. Miami beat Florida more convincingly than I think any other team that they've faced so far this year. Scott Strickland, the athletic director of Florida,

Starting point is 00:16:04 made what I think is an excellent decision today to announce the continual employment of Billy. Napier. Billy Napier is going to be the Florida head coach we think for at least another year. So your comment about Miami at that time not having beaten a Power 5 coach who will still be employed at the end of the season is now deemed factually incorrect.

Starting point is 00:16:26 It was factually incorrect. And you know what? I shouldn't have said that because I can't predict who it's like if you and your old lady beat another couple down the street at Sharrades and I mean, y'all work the wheels off you. You put laid on it on thick. And that couple argues all the

Starting point is 00:16:42 You know both of them are cheating on each other constantly, and they hate each other. You can tell they're like Megatron and not from this problem. They used to be close, but they hate each other, right? And I said, oh, Dono, that's the rage game don't count until you beat a couple whose marriage is going to make to the end of the year. And then we get Christmas pictures from them. Who could have predicted that this was going to happen? That couple shouldn't still be together. But, hey, in the words of Lackwada Blues, sometimes the coach and an administrator have an understanding that nobody else has just,

Starting point is 00:17:12 I'm lying. I misquoted that. The real quote is a man and a woman. But for the sake of the parallels here, the coach and the administrator are the man and the woman here. Just foolishness. Just foolishness. But you were right, Donald. You were right. He is coming back. So I have to eat crow. I will eat one medium done steak to take up for this because I was wrong. And I deserve a punishment for that. How do you usually eat your steak? Oh, I eat a medium. Yeah. I'm not actually punished. I'm like, I'm the anti-nose one, two, three guy. That's it. I'm never going to put up my intestines up to something crazy. Absolutely. By the way, as soon as I saw the news that the Florida AD, like he endorsed Napier, of course, I sent a text to Brandon Olson from Lockton Gators.

Starting point is 00:18:02 He's not too happy about it. And then I, you know, I'm friendly with a couple of other people. I mean, Brandon and I are very tight, but I'm friendly with a couple of other people. who cover Florida. Like I went on, I wouldn't call us friends necessarily, but I did make an appearance on the high top sports network. And one of their hosts claiming today that, you know, as soon as Strickland, the Florida AD said what he said today,

Starting point is 00:18:28 that, you know, supposedly this guy is hearing from a bunch of gators, boosters that they're going to be pulling their funds away. So maybe they're going to try to force a move being made with Billy Napier. But we're not here to talk about him any long. You know, Lockdown SEC does a good enough job of that. I'm sure that's a big topic on Chris Gordy show today. But, okay, how about this list of top, top ACC quarterbacks? I was initially going to do a top five.

Starting point is 00:18:56 I decided to do a top 10. I didn't have the energy to go through because there's a lot of really good quarterbacks in the ACC. There's a lot of really bad quarterbacks, especially in Tallahassee. So I only wanted to take the list so far, okay? Cam Ward, number one, I don't think that's disputable at this point. Not at all. What about my two and three?

Starting point is 00:19:18 Because I could go either way on these and be content with it. I've got Tyler Shuck of Louisville at number two, and then I've got Kevin Jennings of SMU at number three. And I know the stats don't necessarily reflect it with Jennings, but his poise, his dual threat capabilities, because he's the third leading rusher among ACC quarterbacks this year. You can obviously see not only the success that SMU is having, but the success that was caused by making the quarterback switch in Kevin Jennings' favor.

Starting point is 00:19:47 So I'm comfortable with him being in the top three, but do you think he could even be number two ahead of Shuck? I would say no, because Ducks Lows are not as bad as Denny's lows. Shuck's lows are like, he missed on some throws, but all in all, he wasn't sharp, but he didn't turn the ball over. Jennings Lowe's, he was acting like Oprah Winfrey when he was looking at Duke defenders. You get a pick. You get a pick.

Starting point is 00:20:14 You get a pick. Hey, do you want one to? You know what? Everybody gets a turn over. It was nasty business in Durham, but they made it out alive. And again, I think that that's the delineation for me. Like, I think that at his peak, he's better. I do.

Starting point is 00:20:31 I think at Jennings' peak, he's above shut. However, it's the same reason I had Louisville rank where they were in the pretext. season, I'm not just going off peak. Your valleys have to matter, too. And Kevin Jennings valleys are like, this is unplayable. Like, they got to put Preston in at some point. That makes sense. So I've got Cade Clubnick and number four. You know, I know that like it's easy to like drop, you know, the stock for Clemson weighed down. But Clubnik's having an excellent year statistically, although they didn't really look like they had any answers when they were down double digits against Louisville. But what do you think?

Starting point is 00:21:09 You're making some faces at me. What do you think about Clubnik at number four? Oh, you're right. I just, I just would like to tell everybody. I know I thought I was wrong, and I will say this. Kay Clubnick is better than I gave him credit for. But the way folks were talking to me about Kay Clubman, oh, you would have swore the next coming, had to walk through the door. Oh, now look at you. Cry and screaming and thought, y'all were down, double digits and couldn't throw the ball

Starting point is 00:21:34 downfield at all. And y'all are not. You know, y'all know how y'all treat it over Kay Clubning. And the y'all who exists, you know who you are. You know how y'all talk to me week after week. Oh, Clay, put up 50 on your boy. Cain was done at halftime against your boys. Now look at you. Unfortunately.

Starting point is 00:21:56 Yeah, I mean, I feel a little vindicated because, you know, of course, on Lockdowne Keynes, especially, I do a lot of episodes about Cam Ward because he's probably the single most exciting player to ever put on a Miami Hurricanes uniform. There's been a lot of them. I don't say that lightly, you know, having seen guys like Michael Lervin and Ray Lewis and Ed Reed put the uniform. I like Cam Ward is absolutely electric. And I've had, you know, throughout the season, I've had comments on, you know,

Starting point is 00:22:24 locked on Kane's YouTube from Clemson fans who were like, he's overrated. Cade Clubnick is way bitter. Look at Cam Ward throwing interceptions and intercept. I mean, yeah, Ward, Ward, he throws some interceptions. You know, he said it this week that the big thing he wants to continue to improve is his ball security. But, you know, when you get a five touchdown performance like you did last week, you can tolerate the one interception that he threw. That's that's the gunslinger mentality from Ward. All right.

Starting point is 00:22:53 So let's go five through ten here. Haynes King from Georgia Tech, you know, you especially you see his value. He put up monster numbers last year. You see his value when he's not out there. So he's number five. Kyle McCord from Syracuse. I've got him at number six. Kiron Drones, Virginia Tech.

Starting point is 00:23:14 I've got him at number seven. And honestly, preseason, I would have told you way higher. He's got a big opportunity against Clemson this weekend. We'll see how he does. C.J. Bailey at NC State. I've got him in my top 10 now. He's rising at number eight. Malik Murphy at Duke.

Starting point is 00:23:29 I've got him number nine. Fernando Mendoza at Cal. I know Cal has not had ACC success, but it's definitely not Mendoza. his fault. Not at all. Not at all. I mean, top five passer in the league in terms of passing yards. And here's a very interesting stat that most people would not believe of all starting quarterbacks who have started a majority of the season, he has the second highest completion percentage behind only Haynes King. That's it. That's that's it. He's completing 68.5% of his balls. What more can you

Starting point is 00:24:06 backs of a guy, especially considering coming into this season, wasn't the word, hey, Jaden out is going to be electric. He's going to be dynamic. He's going to be special. They got backs behind, Jayden. All you got to do is hand off left, hand off right, don't turn the ball over. And lo and behold, he's having to carry the whole thing. He's having to carry the entire play.

Starting point is 00:24:29 He's looking like one of those waitresses at Chili's when they are bringing out the fajitas with the little sizzling sauce and the triple dipper and the table next to you. He's carrying the whole thing. So you've got to give me those some luck for that. The other credit that I give to Chili's servers, by the way, a lot of other restaurants, like how, you know, because there are certain restaurants where they'll, like, they'll put your order into, like, a little touchpad or something. But then there's a lot of restaurants where you've got, like, a table for five.

Starting point is 00:24:57 And they're remembering that. Like, I could never be a server. Like, if I can't have a note pad or something, no thanks. Listen, if I can't tap, if I. If I can't tap the app, that's right. Yeah, yeah. I'm cooked, okay? 17 years of playing football, ladies and gentlemen,

Starting point is 00:25:13 this brain ain't what it used to be. No, no, no doubt. Well, I want to look at the schedule for this weekend, ACC football. Who's most likely to pull off an upset win this week? You want to keep it locked right here, my friends. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of Lockdown ACC. Guys, our friends at Robin Hood,

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Starting point is 00:26:35 and you still have three or four regular season college football games to go. More than half of the NFL season still left to go. Guys, if you're ready to tackle the NFL action this weekend, get it on Fandual, America's number one sportsbook. Because right now, new customers can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if you win. The Vandual Sportsbook app gives you everything you need to place live bets on the NFL all in one place. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live play-by-play.

Starting point is 00:27:05 much more right on the same page where you place your bet. Just visit Fandual.com to join today. You'll get started with $150 in bonus bets if you win that first $5 bet. That's Fandual.com. Never waste a hunch and make every moment more with Fandual, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. Thank you for making Lockdown ACC your first listen today. If your next listen, check out Lockdown College Football. Spencer McLaughlin does an awesome job hosting that show.

Starting point is 00:27:34 Kenton Gibbs also co-hosts a show on that channel. So you guys want to check it out, three and out and all the other great programming on the Lockdown College Football Channel, available free wherever you get your podcast and available free on YouTube. All right. So I appreciate that for three point stance. My bad. Three and out. You do it was three or something. Three's company, you know.

Starting point is 00:27:57 It was three. And you would think, you know, somebody who covers Miami, I haven't seen a whole lot of three and outs, at least, you know, this year on offense or defense. I haven't seen a whole lot of three and a That's the problem. You ain't seen enough. And you just, you thought that's got to be three and out somewhere around my end.

Starting point is 00:28:13 Fortunately, it's not our show, but I appreciate it. So I look at, there's actually out of the six games involving ACC teams this weekend, only two of them have double digit spreads. You know,

Starting point is 00:28:26 Florida State, double digit underdogs, 26 and a half point underdogs at number 10, Notre Dame. I mean, I know Notre Dame did, People will point this out. They did lose to NIU earlier this year.

Starting point is 00:28:41 Still, you feel like hell would have to freeze over for Florida State with the way they've been playing this year to go into South Bend and pull off an upset. The problem is South Bend might freeze over. And seeing Floridians have to play in a cold South Bend, there's going to be some nasty business there. It's going to be tough, to say the least. And not to mention, even if this team was, motivated and the weather might be a factor. This team gave up. They don't give a damn.

Starting point is 00:29:13 They just, hey, you get somebody else to do it. You get somebody else to do your stupid race. Get somebody else to fill this B gap. Get somebody else to block this defensive end. Get somebody else to hold on to the ball. Get somebody else to make the right read when the ball is in my hands. Get somebody else to do it. I'm good. So, you know, I don't see a world where Florida State wins this ball game. I could potentially maybe see a world where they cover, but Notre Dame needs style points, and I think they're going to try to run the score up on our friendly old nose. That's a great point. Yeah, because they don't have a conference to win, so their path to the playoff includes style points. You're 100% right. Then the other game of

Starting point is 00:29:55 the double digit spread is number four Miami on the road at Georgia Tech. Hurricanes are favored by 11. Now, here's where, and, you know, people can, you know, you can accuse me being biased or whatever, but I, I have a hard time, even if Haynes King plays, I have a hard time seeing Georgia Tech pull off this upset. I know what happened last year. I don't expect that sort of a game to play out again. But styles make fights, Kenton, and if Georgia Tech, and maybe they can score some on Miami, a lot of teams have scored on Miami this year. But defensively, it's not Tyler Van Gogh. Dike running through that tunnel this year. It's Cam Ward running through that tunnel. And you would feel like for Georgia Tech to actually have a chance to beat Miami through a four-quarter game, you would need to have a really successful pass rush and you would need to have a successful passing defense overall. They have neither of those things. Georgia Tech is, you know, against the pass, their bang average at 59th. It's probably not that sort of past defense is going to slow

Starting point is 00:30:58 Cam Ward and Xavier Restrepo down. And I was looking up their SACs stats, Kenton, 126 in the country in Sacks this year is Georgia Tech. So that's going to make it really hard because to beat Miami, even if you can score on Miami's defense, you're going to have to slow down their offense at some point. It's hard for me to see Georgia Tech doing that. And I don't think that they will.

Starting point is 00:31:21 I would think that they can. I mean, when you look at this team and you say, okay, what have they been from the jump, right? When we look at what Florida State is and knowing who they are now, here's a very interesting fact about that loss that they suffered at the hands of Georgia Tech in game one. Do you know what Florida State's high score all season is? I do. It was that game. It was that game, 21 in that game.

Starting point is 00:31:52 Not only that, Georgia Tech's defense over the last three games has allowed 34, 24, and 34, 24, 24, I'm sorry. Yes, 34, 31 and 21. So, I mean, you know, I really and truly, don't get me wrong. Like, allowing 21 against Virginia Tech, good job, way to go. But every other game, they've looked kind of rough down the stretch. And like you said, if you can't generate pressure, if you let Cam Ward sit back there, make a sandwich, check his NIL deals,

Starting point is 00:32:25 call his girlfriend, call his side chick, call his agent to see what the NFL is looking like and they didn't get rid of it. Xavier Restrepo is going to get open. Oroyo is going to get open. Brown is going to get up. They have guys everywhere that can get it done. And then if you do too much to try to generate pressure,

Starting point is 00:32:42 well, then they've got these pretty big backs that come down here. Like, oh, you thought we were going to throw the ball, but actually, here's a 230-pounder for you. Oh, that one started bringing the smaller back. He's 220. pounds. So, I mean, I think that they're going to have a very tough time. So other other possible upsets, Virginia, seven and a half point underdogs at Pitt, Pitt looking to bounce back. You know, this is such a close line, but Duke are three point

Starting point is 00:33:11 underdogs at NC State. Virginia Tech are six point underdogs at Clemson. This one's basically a pick-um. Syracuse, two-point underdogs on the road at BC. Cal are actually Wake Forest or seven point underdogs at home against Cal. Out of those other games, who do you think would be more likely to pull out an upset? I hate to say this. It's probably Duke because C.J. Bailey has been putting up Masterclass after Masterclass. However, Duke's passing defense is number one in the conference. And don't get me wrong. Don't get me wrong.

Starting point is 00:33:52 They got absolutely hosed last week and not hosed, by the rest. I mean, they just got whooped. They got, you know, Miami came through and said, hey, we're the number one offense. We'll show you why. And Duke has not played a single top 40 passing office, top 45 passing offense outside of Miami. They haven't played one yet all year. Oh, yeah.

Starting point is 00:34:13 But Annie Diaz knows how to disguise some coverages. If his defenses can't do nothing else. And that's the problem. I have a feeling that we may be in for a CJ Bailey disaster class. I want to be wrong. I want to be wrong here. I would love for the sharks to look at me like, again, you're stupid, you know nothing. We were super right about this game.

Starting point is 00:34:35 I'd love to see it. I just have a sneaky feeling, a sneaky suspicion. Duke pulls this one out of and rather. Yeah, and on the flip side, if CJ has a really good game, my respect for him, which is already very high, is going to go even higher. So we'll see how that one plays out. But I hope everyone has a great weekend and enjoy. the games coming up. Make sure you check out Kenton and Grayson on Lockdown Wolfpack. Follow

Starting point is 00:35:00 Kenton on X at TGIF underscore Kenton. Follow me on X at Alex Dono. Make sure you check out Lockdown Canes. And we will talk to you guys again next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC, part of the awesome Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day.

Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - Can Miami Hurricanes maintain their #1 spot in ACC rankings?

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