Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - CANES FLIP: Miami Lands Five-Star Donte Wright, ACC Rivals STRUGGLE in Recruiting Race

Episode Date: May 11, 2026

Miami Hurricanes shake up college football by flipping five-star cornerback Donte Wright from Georgia, fueling debate: can Mario Cristobal’s recruiting success become the new norm for the ACC? Insightful analysis explores Wright’s versatile skillset, Miami’s national approach, and why most ACC programs are struggling to keep pace. FSU’s recruiting uncertainty looms large, with Mike Norvell’s job security casting doubt over top commits like Kaden Henderson as conference rivals eye potential windfalls. Alex Donno, Kenton Gibbs, and Brian Smith spotlight Virginia Tech’s resurgence under James Franklin, Louisville’s knack for finding underrated talent, and SMU’s puzzling quietness despite fresh resources. Plus, conference shifts prompt Georgia–FSU non-con cancellations, while Wake Forest and Syracuse gear up for a historic, if quirky, showdown in Toronto. Can the ACC close the gap with SEC powerhouses, or is Miami the lone contender? This episode is packed with insider perspectives and key developments that could shape the league’s future. Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast Rocket MoneyLet Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join athttps://RocketMoney.com/LOCKEDON.   WayfairHead to https://Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. Wayfair. Every style. Every home.    FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get one-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game.   FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Miami just flipped a five-star cornerback from a big-time SEC program. Let's talk about where the Cains and the rest of the ACC stand in recruiting. You are Locked-on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. He's Kenton Gibbs from Locked-on Wolfpack. I'm Alex Dono from Locked-on Cain's, and this episode of Locked-on-ACC is brought to you by Fanduel. Right now, new customers can bet just five. and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins.

Head to fanduel.com to get started. On this loaded episode of Locked on ACC, more international games in college football, including we're going just north of the border for the 2027 season opener involving two ACC teams. We've gone south, we've gone over the pond. We're going north of the border now. Meanwhile, unfortunately, some big non-con series

continue to get canceled. Florida State and Georgia, their upcoming home and home is scrapped. But let's talk recruiting because we have the man that I affectionately call the recruiting overlord. He is the host of the portal podcast here on the Lockdown Network, also the host of Lockdown Seminoles. Brian Smith is with us. So Brian, you know, there's still a long way to go to National Signing Day in December,

but we're seeing probably more blue chippers come off the board early than usual in this cycle. Over the weekend, Miami actually flipped a really big one. Dante Wright, five-star cornerback from Long Beach Polly in Southern California, had been committed to UGA since June. Miami was battling Oregon for a possible flip, and it's the Keynes who get his verbal. Now, we'll see if they can keep him through signing day, but he has apparently shut down his recruitment, canceled his OVs to other schools, which is a good sign. But how big is that flip for Miami and for the ACC?

It's always good from a perception standpoint, first and foremost, but Dante Wright's just a really good football player. If you put him at nickel, if you put him at boundary, if you put him to the field, wouldn't make any difference. I think he could play safety. Out of all the corners in the class of 27, and it's a tremendous year for corners,

maybe the best one I've seen in the last decade. He's the most physical. I think he plays like a safety when it comes to hitting, which never goes out of style, but he can cover guys. I mean, he's in California. He's in L.A., like he's playing against dudes, and he can cover, too. I don't know how you rank him specifically because I think he's a hybrid player,

but those kinds of players are really valuable in today's game because look at your Cains. You don't think they're going to move Malachi Tony around this year. Like, yeah, you're going to be, yeah, you know what I mean? Against special players, you've got to come up with stuff. He's one of the guys that can move around to at least sort of mitigate. Offense always has the advantage because you know where the ball's going. But he can help you.

And, of course, he's going to Miami, so he's not going to worry about Malachi either. The point is still the same. Versatile DBs that hit, give me all you can give me. So when you think about Wright's commitment and his, you know, entire process so far and everything that's happened, there's been a lot of memes online dropped where you see AI generated Mario Crystal Ball shoving, you know, shoving Kirby Smart into a locker, right? It's the obvious old, oh, he shoved him in a locker joke because he's taking this. recruits and all that. But is this a trend that you see as sustainable for not just Miami,

but for other teams in the ACC, you know, in the long run, because there's been a lot of turmoil that are outside of sports that may be negatively impacting the SEC in the way the ACC teams don't have to deal with. So what say you in terms of, is this a one-off where it's like, hey, Miami is Miami or could this become a trend for the ACC? I think it's more Miami is Miami. They recruited the national level. Right now, Florida State, we'll get into that. I'll have my rant on this show here in a few minutes. It will be epic.

And SMU, I thought they were going to turn into a juggernaw. They got cash. They got cash. The recruiting is just okay. And I don't know what's going on over there in your neck of the woods with Clemson. Kenton, if you're from that area now, you're entrenched in the Carolinas. They got 30 guys coming in front. visits at the end of this month. It's a nice list, but they only got a handful of guys committed.

They're not getting the quarterbacks like they used to. They're not getting the trench guys like they used to. Well, I'm just going to say it. Recruiting-wise, the league's in trouble. I don't see it working out too good for me because this is Jim Phillips calling you to try to say, hey, let's be a little more positive here. It's not that bad. It can't be that bad. I'm being pretty nice because I don't know if another team in the ACC, will finish in the top 15 of recruiting. I mean, Miami will. I mean, that's kind of low-hanging fruit.

Yeah, but outside of Miami, you don't see anybody else in the ACC finishing the top 15. Not necessarily. I mean, there's a possibility. I keep thinking SMU is going to hit it. Right. Louisville's class is pretty decent right now, but it's a bunch of three-star kids and they've got one local guys at corner that's a really good play.

We'll talk about them in a second. But it's going to be a lot of 15 to 30 range. Well, but if someone else was going to get into that top 15 or top 10, I mean, the program that you cover, Florida State, like there. And obviously, obviously Mike Norvell is the reason because I've, I've talked to families of recruits before who have said like they really like everything about Florida State except they don't want to go where they don't know who the coach is going to be. So it's like if they can get their ducks in a row, Brian, that that would be the team that would be challenging Miami for top 10 classes. They got Jamari Foreman committed, Mackay Williams committed, Gregory Batson committed. These are guys that could play in the bottom there.

That's the good news. They ain't had no commitments in a minute. And I know this isn't going to surprise anybody falls recruiting. The guys I just mentioned, they're all top 300 recruits. Mackay is probably a top 100 recruit, which is my opinion. Get out of the Tampa area, Miami and a bunch of other schools are after him. How many of those guys signed with Florida State? That's the question.

I don't care who you commit to with all the turmoil. oil and I've said it a hundred times I'll say it again here I think Norville's getting fired after Miami kicks their butt down in hard rock he's getting fired and Mackay's attached fair or not to Norville he really likes the guy players pick coaches not schools no no alumni or fan wants to hear that but that's how it works you know the school doesn't recruit you the coach recruits you so Florida State, if they don't get things turned around this year, and by the way, their second game is SMU, their third game is Bama.

Good luck after they play at New Mexico State. I mean, that'd be a hard start for Miami or anybody. You know what I mean? That's a tough way to go. They probably have overall the toughest ACC schedule. No season is going to impact a recruiting class more than this one for Florida State because they're not doing that well with the upper echelon guys. Kate and Henderson's a kid out of Tampa, Jesuit,

lifelong Noel fan. arguably the best linebacker in the country. I had a face-to-face conversation with it. He's worried about the coach. Do you blame him? I mean, he doesn't know who it's, I mean, every kid I talk to. It's the same way. They don't even hide it.

So, like, Kenton, you got recruited. I'm sure some of the school is recruited. You were like, I don't know if this school, you know, this coach is going to be here. That's a factor. Absolutely. I decommitted from the first school I committed to because I played with the defensive line coach's grandkids and his grandkids.

his grandkids told me that he was leaving. And the defensive line coach, the defensive line coach was a guy. He was from Detroit, just like me. Me and him, we understood each other. We were like, you know, two peas in the pile. When his grandkids were like, oh, he's leaving. I'm like, oh, man.

So I decommitted. And he called me after I decommitted and said, man, what's going on? I said, your grandkids told me you leave it. He said, I ain't going nowhere, man. I'm going to be right here. And two years later, brand sure freshman year, I had a pretty good game against North Carolina. And guess who I saw on the island?

lines over there. I won't say his name, but guess who I saw sitting right through those sidelines and baby blue? The guy who recruited you. The guy who recruited me that I decommitted from because again it was like when your grandkids tell me you leave and they ain't got no reason a lot to me. So Brian, I absolutely get you

and you're right and Don I'm going to pass it back to you after this. But let me ask you this. What we're seeing out of Florida State is it going to have a cascading effect to where other ACC teams can potentially sweep up some of that top You just talked about one of the best linebackers in the nation,

lifelong no offense. I doubt that he would say, well, because the nose are bad, I'm going to Miami if he's a lifelong, you know, nose guy. He's probably going to Texas A&M, I believe, right? Henderson. Miami is recruiting him hard. So you tell me, will this positively affect

other ACC teams or is it like, hey, we so far out of the race for these top guys, it doesn't even matter. Like, even with Florida State being bad, none of us can benefit from. I don't think it's going to help because how many of the guys that are below the Miami-Clemson, Florida State realm are ever in on the Caden Henderson's? I mean, realistically, like, North Carolina should be.

I've said this for 20 years. I know you hate them, but you understand. Like, it's the state school there, and they got a ton of money. There's no excuse, and they have failed miserably over and over. Virginia's never been invested in it. BC has no money. Georgia Tech based on their two commitments. Yeah, they've got two.

They obviously don't have no money. Louisville might be the one, especially in Florida, because they've always recruited it the most. And they've got a hell of a head to them. I think Brahms are really, like his game planning. You can ask Dono. He still has nightmares about it from what we're doing. Every night, I see they've got three quarterbacks on the field.

What is going on? He wakes up like, yeah, yeah, man, oh, fire with the bag over his head. Brom, no more interceptions. Yeah. So outside of Louisville. who they do have quite a bit NIL. I don't think many of those teams are really going to benefit because tech doesn't have it.

I think the AC, I mean, I'm just going to say it. We're borderline implosion if it wasn't for the really good coaching at SMU, really good coaching at Louisville. Obviously, Miami's got a good staff. Those three, I don't know how the hell we label Clemson. I need to see their May 29th weekend for recruiting. They're bringing in 30 dudes. And it's going to be the weekend for that big,

I think George is having one, Clemson, like one other school or just a whole bunch of visits are happening. But these other schools don't have the NIO to go get Caden Henderson. His other visits are like Notre Dame, Alabama, Texas A and Miami. It's big fish. So it really hasn't changed much. Well, you know, you said something that gets me thinking, and I want to ask you about this when we come back. You talk about players, you know, committing to the coach. Like we saw when James Franklin left Penn State for Virginia Tech, like for that immediate class of 2020.

He took a lot of his groceries with him over to Virginia Tech. And Virginia Tech, I do see them top 25 in most of the recruiting rankings right now for 2027. So I want to talk about the James Franklin factor when we come back. You want to keep it locked right here. We're only getting started on this brand new episode of Lockdowne ACC. Oh, my friends, we're only getting started with Fandual. The NBA playoffs are here where every possession matters. If you're looking to get even closer to the action, Fandual has a great offer to get you started.

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locked on Seminoles, Locked on Wolfpack, Locked on Cains. Go to Lockdown Podcast.com slash Everydayer and become an Everydayer club member today. Thank you so much for making Locked on ACC your first list. Alex Dono, Kent and Gibbs, and we're joined by Brian Smith from the Portal Pod and from Lockedon Seminoles. All right, so Brian, you know, you talk about investing. And obviously, Virginia Tech is not there yet. but they've injected a lot more funding into their athletic program. They're paying a lot of money to James Franklin,

even though he's still making a lot of money from his previous employer at Penn State. And he's had success on the recruiting trail, and he recruits that DMV area very well. How has Virginia Tech been trending this cycle in recruiting? And can they eventually get themselves into that conversation where they're taking blue chippers? Oh, you're muted. They started to already because they got defensive linemen, four of them in the bag. Kent and I know will like that, including is Joseph Buchanan and a kid out of McDonough school outside of D.C.

One of the best defensive linemen on the East Coast. They've got 3D linemen out of Maryland in general, which is a great state. And if you're going to rebuild, it's best as far as crystal ball inside out. If you can, inside out. I'm not saying you don't need quarterbacks and receivers and all that. They have the speed eventually to come into the program. That's easier. There are a lot more big-time receivers than there are big-time defense alignment, just numbers.

I think they're starting to get that way. They've got 11 guys in the bag. They're about halfway home. I don't know how many they'll take. It kind of depends on what they want to do with the portal. Virginia Tech's an interesting study because of that. But I'm looking at this list. They got to Marcus Brown, who's a really good receiver out of Virginia committed.

They don't even know who their future quarterback is, and you get one of the better receivers on the East Coast. that's a good sign. He's a six three kid. I got a feeling that Kenton's going to really hate Virginia Tech very soon if he didn't already. So it's going to be one of those programs. It probably goes in in North Carolina and gets a few kids. That'll be the key. How do they recruit south of them? Virginia Tech sometimes steals from the Carolinas and vice versa. Those two states have went back and forth forever. Like the school that Kenton hates more than any other sign maybe the greatest player of all time by the name of Lawrence Taylor. He's from Virginia. Like those states, they go back and forth. So I'll be curious to see if they can get any of the North Carolina talent because I'll just say it, none of the North Carolina schools are doing anything right now that's really that exciting. So if they can get some of those to go with the D.C. area, why couldn't tech be that one school that sneaks in and is a top 15 recruiting class? If they can get a few of those guys, it would be possible.

But this is year one. People are going to really want to see what they do on the field, too. Florida state season, it's more important than any other in the ACC for how it finishes. that's not really debatable. Virginia Tech's probably number two, because it's year one for James. Are you just going to be a show pony and be an eight and four program,

or you're going to really go out there and show something. We need to see it on to the gridiron. You know, it's not exactly fair to talk about NC State and the fact that we ain't got no money. The richest man in the state of North Carolina is an NC State grad, and he refuses to give the sports.

He's strictly an academics guy. Oh, gosh. We've tried to explain on air, hey, when you win more, all of a sudden your enrollment goes up, that endowment goes up. Do you think people go to Tuscaloosa, Alabama because of their great math programs? I don't think so. You know, NC State already got our Research One Institute status. You know, academically, we can't do nothing else.

We can't get no better. You can't do higher than Research One. There's no Research Zero Institute. But, you know, I digress. I digress. Speaking of money, speaking of teams who should make it happen, speaking of teams who could make it happen, you know the recruiting side of this like nobody else, Smith.

Who is a team that their recruiting is better than what you would think their national cachet is right now in the ACC? Or is there none? Is every team in ACC recruiting so poorly? It's like, hey, nobody's national, nobody's recruiting is keeping up with their national cachet or appearance. Louisville would be the closest.

Again, Miami's in its own realm. Yeah, well, it makes sense for Miami. If Miami came out with a top 10 class, nobody's like, Miami's punching above their weight. Who could have saw this coming? Right. I would say Louisville, they do a tremendous job of finding kids

in Alabama and Georgia and Florida. Dono and I've talked about it. They always, like the brown kid, the running back, he's from right down the road from Coral Gables. Yep, that's right. Miami didn't go after him. Oops. I mean, every now and then you won't miss one down there.

There's so many good players. Louisville said, come on down. He's averaged like seven yards of carry the last two years. Yeah. So, I mean, he's unbelievable fast. He's so fun to watch. Miami don't want no back under 215. If you smart on 215, hey, get out of here.

Get out. Go play some weight, bro. What are you doing? They'll find a few Florida kids. There are three stars. They'll find a few kids in Georgia and Alabama. They're three stars. And they coach them up.

So I give them the benefit of the doubt. Again, the other one that I'm really a little surprised by, and I'm looking at it right now, they do have Malachi Ziegler committed, but they only got four guys committed right now overall, and that's SMU. They got a boatload of money. How do you have four commitments? God, they had so much success on the field. I know.

And you want to know the craziest part? You're in the major metropolitan area in Texas. You're in a major metropolitan Texas. They should be a top 15 recruiting operations. operation. Yeah. I'm starting to think, well, actually just really doesn't want to deal with how this works. And I'm not saying I blame him, but you signed the contract. This is the deal. It's like, you know, certain people can't do certain jobs. Kent and I, we're probably not going anywhere to grow here. Okay, we would never make any money. Donno, probably not either. We're not going to make it happen in that. But there's a job for us to do this. We talk about what's what we like. Yeah. Well, RETs should be coaching it and recruiting it. Again, they got Ziegler committed. If anybody goes to Watt, he's legit. Like, he's big-time quarterback.

But you've got to have linemen. They don't have anything like that. They've only got a little over 20 guys set up for official visits. Wow. That's surprising, given the fact that they're less than 30 minutes away from Duncanville High School. If you know ball, you know how important Duncanville High School is to the national scene. Exactly. Dallas South Oak Cliff and Forney and all these programs around there, Cedar Hills.

all those schools. I'm not seeing their name enough with the upper echelon. Maybe somebody needs to do a deep dive on why SMU's not in on more of the big boys. I mean, Kenton's right. They're located there. Donald's right. They're winning. I know I'm right.

They got money. Hell, they told the ACC they didn't need to get paid for how many years it is. Like they got cash. This doesn't add up. That's the one that I'm a little concerned about. The ACC needs SMU to go up, especially like, kitten's position. He was a de-Wineman. If they started getting some of those high school linemen,

you know that he's going to scheme it up on offense. That's Locke. The dude can coach. But you've got to have linemen eventually. Well, and that's also, it's extra surprising with SMU because it seems to be the only major program in the state of Texas that isn't benefiting from oil money, right? Because you look at the way all of a sudden Texas A&M and Texas are running lapse around the rest of the SEC in recruiting.

I mean, Texas Tech has become a recruiting powerhouse. I know they have other issues right now with Brennan Sorsby. You'll get a little too active on those parlays. But it's like you see all of a sudden schools in Texas are surging where, you know, schools like before NIL back when it was, you know, McDonald's bags full of, you know, whatever and cars from the local dealership, that's when the Alabama's and the Georgia's used to thrive. But now that NIL is out in the open, it seems to be every school in Texas except SMU is benefiting. You know what the irony of that is? When they got in trouble way back in

the day and got the death penalty, their main guy was in the oil industry and everything else. So it's, yeah, it's fine. I'm sure there are some people that could do it. Again, this is an internal deal. I don't care how much money you have for the portal. It's more expensive to go port. And it's not close. Yeah. Especially with lineman. You and I talked about the other day on your locked on Kane show. There's a reason that A&M in Miami really want Mark Matthews. It's a bigger pain in the butt to find tackles in the portal. If you don't have offensive tackles, when you get into the final eight, final four, you're done.

You will be embarrassed. There's no way around it. You got to pay. If you don't, that's fine. You can be like me and everybody else on this panel today and watch the games on TV. That's it. So you got to choose wisely. And again, utmost respect for Ashley.

and his staff coaching. But I would rather than be coaching guys that are even better. It's as simple. Bowden, you say it all the time. I always thought that I would beat you if I had better players than you. It's pretty straightforward. So it kind of worked out for Bobby. They finished in the top four, 14 years in a row.

That's insane. I'd say that worked out, yeah. Yeah. Well, we got other matters, ACC football to discuss, including cancellation of a home and home between Georgia and Florida state why that happened what happens next and more international games coming up for the acc i know after kenton gets his tan down there in rio he can he can go north of the border the

following year to watch some acc action you want to keep it locked right here we're not done yet on this brand new episode of locked on acc we're certainly not done with rocket money if you've ever opened up your bank account and thought where did all my money go you're not alone keeping track of subscriptions, spending, and bills can get overwhelming fast. But that's where Rocket Money comes in, helping you take control of your finances all in one place. Rocket Money tracks all your subscriptions in one spot and can even help you cancel the ones you don't need with just a few taps. It automatically categorizes your spending. So you can actually see where your money is going.

And you can set budgets, get alerts, and stay on top of upcoming bills right in the same place. It just makes everything feel more organized and gives you a clearer, picture of your finances day to day. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at rocketmoney.com slash Locked On. That's RocketMoney.com slash Locked on. Thank you for making Locked on ACC your first listen. For your next listens, make sure you check out our other shows. Brian Smith is rocking and rolling all day long on Lockdown Seminels and on the portal

pod where he talks all things recruiting transfer portal big picture college football stuff Kent and Gibbs and Grayson Boone hosts Locked on Wolfpack talking all things NC State I talk all things Miami on Locked on Caines all right so Brian with with Florida State and obviously this is happening around the country when it comes to since the SEC and ACC have moved to the nine game conference schedules you're getting home and home scrapped around the college football landscape. So Florida State and UGA just canceled, I think it was 27 and 28,

an upcoming home and home series. I mean, is either side blaming the other for canceling it? Like I always see the Notre Dame and USC fans go back and forth blaming the other side. Is either side blame in the other, or is it just one of those things where it was mutual with the new scheduling? Allegedly it's mutual. but let me take my seminal thoughts to decide for a second.

Let's not kid ourselves. Gentlemen, let's have a little fun with this. First game, I think the first one was a doke if it had been played. Even with that being said, what do we think the line would have been for that game? You could pick the date, I don't care. Georgia, about how many? 15? At least 14, yeah.

I was going to go a little more conservative for the road game. I would have gone like, Georgia, I don't know, maybe I'm being too kind. Georgia minus 10 and a half in Tallahassee and UGA minus like 14 and a half in UGA. Those are fair, but bottom line, Georgia wasn't losing. I think the only way that they looked at it, like, well, Alabama did get beat by them. That's technically true, but it's just another game where you would play somebody and beat up your players. One of the new themes here, and this, I hate this for the guys and gals that go to games,

to buy tickets, pay those seat licenses, they want a few more cupcakes in there because they know the season's long, they want those backups to play, and they want to rest their starters more. Probably not, I mean, you're probably going to beat Florida State, but you're not going to rest your starters in the beginning of third quarter. That's name the game. Kirby's trying to win titles. That's the only thing it matters in the Georgia's top of the sport.

Florida State's just trying to find a way to get to the weed whacker bowl. So it's different right now for both programs. It's sad, man, but it's true. I'm mad right now. You know what I just read, Kenton? I just lost a recruit to Duke. So something we were just talking about. I mean, this is not in basketball.

God have mercy. You don't have to call Jay-J-J-D-Rae. When Manny Diaz is shoved you in the locker, when Manny Diaz is on the recruit dress of you to locker. There's some things you need to discuss. And by the way, I got some people angry at me on social media over the weekend because I saw, and I don't know how popular this is among like all Florida. state fans, but I saw a Florida state account.

They had, you know, an AI Photoshop Mani Diaz wearing the Florida State polo and like, let's bring him home. And I commented and I'm like, if this is who they want, their program is hitting rock bottom. And then I had I had Florida State fans and some Miami fans because there's some Miami fans who still love Mani Diaz for whatever reason. I had people going at me. Oh, look, he did so much at Miami with almost no. I'm like, no, he didn't. I'm sorry. But I do think Mani D.

is a much better coach today than he was five or six years ago. So I give him credit for that. But still, Brian, I don't think that's who Florida State wants to, you're getting another Mike Norvell if that's the case, in my humble opinion. I think he's a better pure coach, but he doesn't, he can't go in and get the kids did it. Again, this is a recruiting situation. Bowdoin was right 40 years ago.

He's right today. May he rest in peace. It's about the players on the field. There's, man, he's at the right school. like Duke Fitzmanney 218. He's a polo wearing shirt and tie wearing. Like I met

the guy once, super nice guy. Yes. You know, I was there to see a guy that we've all heard of. Jeremiah Smith. It was at a shamanide practice. I've never heard of him. Yeah. It's a random thing. He was there. A great guy. But he can't, you know, this is when he was at Penn State.

He can't get those kinds of kids. He doesn't relate to him. He doesn't. He was brought for money and all that. he doesn't relate to those kids. He's at Duke. That's the right spot. That's, it's true. So I get the whole Florida State connection,

and he would probably have a good defense, but the offensive score 24 points a game, they'd be boring, and they would be 7 and 5. I don't know. If you're a good defensive coach, it's more offensive masterminds floating around than it is guys who can really scheme up something to stop. You know what I mean?

The only problem is those offensive masterminds, they're taking off. As soon as somebody see your offense, average 30 points a game for two years straight, hey, we have some millions to give you, sir. Come on over here. Come on over. You know, we don't care what the rest of it is. They take it off. But speaking of taking off, Donald, tell us about this game north of the border.

What's going on? All right. So I'm seeing a 2027 season opener between Wake Forest and Syracuse. course the game everyone wants to see. They're sending it to Canada. They're sending it to Toronto. And like, I don't know, I almost feel like, are we declaring war on Canada for sending them that game to open up the 2027 season? Wake Forest loses their home game for that one.

But no, in all seriousness, I actually do think, I mean, it's usually not the best games, the ones that they send overseas. Sorry, Kenton to NC State and Virginia. But it's like I do like the idea of growing the game overseas. I just I feel like Canada already knows about American football. Like they have the other CFL up there. I can see the value in Europe and South America. But how do you feel, Brian, about sending Syracuse and Wake Forest north of the border? Well, it's one less game that I'll be talking about.

I mean, if it's up there, I know it's not important. Like that's that I mean, those programs like are just. is that the NIL deprived bowl? Is that what we're going to call it? I guess so. They're going to try to go send them for some Canadian money, maybe. Maybe that's where the money is now. That's the thing.

The NIL deprived bowl in Canada. Let's go to the Meehanivens. Let's be nice. Let's be nice. It might be the broke boys bowl, but still, we still. I like that. But hear me out. We don't know what these programs are going to look like in 2027, right?

Dickert's put together. He put together one of the. quietest. One of the quietest eight-win seasons. Nine wins or nine. Nine. Yeah. Correct. One of the quietest nine-win seasons we have ever heard of, especially in the state of North Carolina, where you look around and you're like, wait, who else is winning at this level right now? The pickings are slim. And Syracuse, Calvin Russell's going to be back. Who knows, you know,

what the rest of what they're going to be able to do? Syracuse is prime and due for some more financial investment in those programs. You know, you can't bring in the Jerry McNamara. You can't have a guy like our guy, Fran Brown, and not give them the resources. You got two of the really good up-and-comers. And to leave them with no money, that's just terrible. And again, Dickard is doing a fantastic job.

Now, I don't know if he'll still be there in 2027 because of how good of a job he's doing, but he's doing a fantastic job for him. So while this game is not our marquee, while it's not our big brands, this could be a good football game. You know, they got themselves some Tim Horton's after the game. They got Tim Hortons up there like we got McDonald's. They got Tim Hortons everywhere.

Get themselves a good but none and not a muffin, good little something after the game. You know, the broke boys bowl would have some good sponsors to it. Maybe that Mr. Digger to end up in Tallahassee and resurrect the program. Who knows? You know the crazy part? I could actually see that happening. I think the dickard is a hell of a coach. I do too.

I don't know if he can recruit because that's a whole different animal for his two schools, but he knows the X's the nose. And I'm going to go out and let him and say he's just a little better than somebody that's in Tallahassee right now on that. That's a hot mess up there right now. We appreciate Brian Smith. As always, you want to follow him on X at FB Scout underscore Florida. Check him out on the portal pod and on Locked on Seminoles.

make sure you follow Kenton at TGIF underscore Kenton. Check him out on Lockdown Wolfpack. Check me out on Lockedon Cain's and follow me at Alex Dono. And we'll talk to you next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC. We are part of the number one sports podcast network, the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.