Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - CHOKE: Duke Blue Devils SHOCK as Cayden Boozer's Turnover COLLAPSES 19-Point NCAA Tournament Lead
Episode Date: March 30, 2026Duke Blue Devils suffer a historic NCAA Tournament collapse after blowing a 19-point lead to UConn, marking their biggest choke since last year’s meltdown. Is Jon Scheyer’s postseason strategy now... under scrutiny? Hosts Alex Donno and Kenton Gibbs break down Duke’s systemic issues, highlight Cayden Boozer’s costly late turnover, and question whether top freshman talent is enough to sustain championship runs. The conversation covers the Triangle’s wild offseason drama, with UNC searching for a new head coach—Billy Donovan leading the rumors—and NC State reeling from Will Wade’s abrupt departure. Clemson’s spring football game reveals Chris Vizzina as the frontrunner for QB1, but lingering doubts remain about his command and the Tigers’ defense. Can ACC teams recalibrate for a new era, or will last season’s setbacks haunt them in 2026? Everydayer Club If 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! 5-Hour ENERGY Have your cake & drink it too. Birthday cake-flavor is back, no fork needed. Vanilla-y cakey flavor, caffeinated kick, and no sugar. It's party time. Order Now at https://5-hourENERGY.com or Amazon. Mazda Like our players, we’re driven by the details. Highlights make the reel. But the work behind them makes it count. The all-new Mazda CX-5. More to move every side of you. TurboTax This year you’re getting a major upgrade — Intuit TurboTax now has in-person locations nationwide. Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today. Robinhood You’re no longer just a spectator. Play by play. You decide. Trade Every Play with Robinhood. Now available across the U.S. Download the Robinhood app now to begin. Futures and cleared swaps trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC., a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm. SupplyHouse Visit https://SupplyHouse.com/tm to learn more about becoming a Trade Master. Use promo code S-H Five College for 5% off your first order at https://supplyhouse.com. SupplyHouse. Real people. Real service. 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 Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. During the tournament FanDuel is offering$300 back in Bonus Bets every day for ten days. Visit https://FANDUEL.COMto 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.
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The Duke Blue Devils might have just given us the biggest choke job in NCAA tournament history.
Well, at least the biggest since their choke job a year ago.
You are locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day.
And then there were zero ACC teams left in the tournament as we head into the final four.
he is Kent and Gibbs from Locked on Wolfpack.
I am Alex Dono from Locked on Cains,
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On this loaded episode, we got some notes on the Clemson football spring game,
which happened the other day,
including clarity on who is way ahead right now.
for the starting quarterback battle, although Dabo is not ready to call it just yet.
The battle rages on, but there's a clear leader there.
It's been a wild basketball.
I mean, it's not offseason yet, but for most of the teams, except for it's the offseason.
And in the triangle of North Carolina, it's been especially crazy.
And Duke has now entered the chat, Kent and Gibbs.
I was reminded of a couple of things on Sunday.
first and foremost why March Madness is the best, the craziest,
and the most unpredictable spectacle in the sports world.
When the Blue Devils had a 19-point lead against Yukon in the first half,
Yukon could do nothing.
Duke's defense was smothering and dominant.
They were up 15 points at halftime.
And Duke, I learned this stat today, Kenton,
number one seeds when leading by 15 or more,
halftime, we're 134 and 0 until Sunday. Duke becomes the one. And we'll talk about how,
really, it's not fair to pin it on one final play, but oh my God, that Caden Boozer turnover with
with 6.4 seconds left, the shot with 0.4 seconds left by Yukon. That was some of the greatest
I mean, not great if you're J.J. Jackson of Locked on Blue Devils, but him aside, that was some of the
best drama we've ever seen in the tournament.
Dono, I hate to say it, but it had nothing to do with what happened on the court today.
This was in line for over a month now.
This loss was in line.
You know why?
What is the location of the final four in the national championship this year, Donno?
I don't even know.
Where is it?
I believe it's St. Louis.
I believe that's where it is.
Now, what is the relevance?
of that, some would ask, right?
Well, every
time the final four
has been there, every
single time, I'm sorry,
it's in Indianapolis. Let me correct
myself, it's in Indianapolis.
Every time the final four has been
there, and
Duke has won a national championship,
they lost the NC State
in the regular season in that same year.
Now, this year,
John Shire, went against the grain.
He didn't want to follow that tradition.
And so you get what you get.
You took that regular season win,
and now you've got the biggest collapse,
one of the biggest collapses in NCAA tournament history.
We do the knowledge here at Locked on, NCCC.
We do the knowledge, okay?
But in all seriousness, Donald, Caden Boozer was the one
who had the biggest blunder that we see publicly,
but there were plenty of blunders by Duke that led to this point.
You do not blow a 19-Bus.
point lead.
And that is all of a sudden a thing of, well, it came down to one play.
Donnell, football has the biggest scoring plays, right?
Like even a grand slam in baseball, you don't score as much as you do in a football game
when you score a touchdown, right?
Right.
What about a basketball game when you hit a three-pointer and you get filed,
but you go to the line and get you an extra one?
That's not as much of a touchdown, right?
No.
So how the hell?
If there's no 19 point play in football, why are people acting like there's a 19 point play in basketball?
This was a systemic collapse by doos.
Everything that they did after taking that 19 point lead made it very clear.
They were fat and happy and the living was easy.
Hurley and his guys, you got to know, they're never backing down.
They're never giving up.
You could think that the Yukon Huskies with Hurley as their coach, they're like a,
a villain in a horror movie.
They're the super villain in a horror movie.
You know why?
Because you think you stabbed him through the chest.
He just rises up.
And he's got some Michael Myers' qualities to him.
Like the blood vessels start to swell up during the game.
I'm expecting his head to explode.
Head button referees?
Which, by the way, that should have been a technical.
I get it.
You don't want to call it technical in that moment.
Yeah, you can't.
But that should have been a technical.
But that's neither here nor there.
The reality of this is,
you had to know that this team was going to be insane.
The fact that you got a 19-point lead
says how much more talented you are than that.
The fact that had Caden Boozer simply held the ball,
let them foul you, go to the line.
If you make one of the two free throws,
what then happens?
The best that they can do is take it to overtime.
It's with a miracle.
That's the best they can do.
But instead, you try to throw it away and say,
oh, I'm going to be the guy that wins the game.
And that's what you get.
Even if you hold it, and it's a back court violation, they still have less time.
Yeah.
There would have been like point.
There would have been like what point two left on the clock if you'd take in the back court?
If that.
And I don't even think they were at risk of a back court.
But even if he was, you still put yourself in a better situation of what ended up happening.
So this was a collapse of epic proportions.
And the same way I made fun of the Dirty Foot Club, I've got to talk about Duke here.
Because this is terrible.
This is foolishness.
This is not, and I'm going to tell you something,
as much as people talk about John Shire
and as much of a Shire defender as I have been
and saying, how much better can your results get?
This is inexcusable.
This is inexcusable.
You cannot have that play in that moment.
And here's the thing.
That's part of the deal.
If your deal is going to be,
we're going to buy the top one and dones.
We'll get them in for a year and they're going to go about their way.
You have to be aware.
oh, freshmen are going to make freshman mistakes.
So you got to overcoach it into them.
Hey, if we're in this position, this is what we need to do.
Hey, be cognizant of the clock because that'll control what we do.
That'll dictate.
We don't need to get this ball past half court.
We don't need to do this or that.
We don't need to make this dangerous pass.
I know that it's different when the live, you know,
all the things are flying by your head and everything going to a million miles
per hour.
But in those moments, we must compose ourselves.
But again, that's just one moment.
the collapse, the lack of defensive intensity.
You can talk about Caden Boozer and what he did there,
but who on that Duke team looked locked in defensively
for the latter parts of the second half?
Who on that team was ready to protect the room?
Who on that team was shuffling the puppies defensively
on a perimeter and keeping up with guys?
Nobody.
So we can blame Caden Boozer,
but I don't know of any sport with a 19-point play.
And if you do know about it, tell me about it.
Because in every sport I know about, your score in ones, threes, twos, sixes, maybe.
But that's it.
19 points, things went wrong again and again and again to get them back in the game.
Yeah, and listen, I, you know, obviously, Caden Boozer is, he's having the worst 24 hours of his life right now.
It's going to take people a while to get over it.
I appreciate his maturity and his accountability after the fact.
You know, he said it, and you know what?
I'm going to say you went too far when you said this, Caden, quote, I ruined our team's season.
Like, I appreciate his accountability.
But again, Kenton, I see the face you're making.
It took an entire team to ruin their season.
He was responsible for one ugly turnover at the end of the game.
So I appreciate Caden trying to put it all on yourself.
But you talk about everything, Kenton, that went wrong in that second half.
You let Terris Reed, Jr. of Yukon just take over in the paint and chew you up.
Duke got sloppy.
13 turnovers in the second half, which led to 16 and 0 points off turnovers for Yukon.
Like, that wasn't all on Caden Boozer.
Like that was on everybody, like you said, for becoming complacent.
Oh, we got a 19 point lead.
We're up 15 at halftime.
There's no possible way we can blow this game.
Well, if anything, Kenton, we talk about that opening round against Sienna, like where Duke, you know, they took their opponent lightly.
And yeah, they won the game, but they didn't lead until like more than midway through the second half.
You would have thought the lesson about complacency would have been learned in that first round.
How do you let that creep in against a two seed?
You con.
You can't.
Exactly.
And even beyond that, how do you not have anything in place as John Shire to stop a guy that's hot as fish grease?
You have the size down low.
You have the size and ability to say, hey, hey, guys, Terrace is tearing us apart.
Let's do something about this.
Let's send a double.
This is what we've got to do.
But again, to me, the game was on easy mode for too long.
Yeah.
You know, Donno, I know you got a kid, so you probably let him play the game on easy mode.
And so he thinks when he plays you.
He's a legend.
That's what I'm saying.
And so when he plays you, he's like,
why is triple option not working on third and 21?
What is this?
It works every time against the computer.
And there's like, no, no, no, baby.
You got something different going on right now.
I am at this point, I am very close to putting John Shire on fraud watch.
And people are going to say, but can three games lost this year?
And all three were in the last possession and did, da, da, da, da, if I gave Donald his budget in terms of recruiting.
and the brand of Duke behind him,
Dono wouldn't lose more than 10 to 12 games a year.
And I'm being very aggressive
and being mean to Donald right now.
I know.
I'm offended.
10?
I feel like them boys,
you can roll the ball out.
I'll say, just go get a bucket.
And they'll, you know,
you ain't going to lose more than 10, 11 game.
So the reality is John Shire needed to make adjustments.
He did not.
Hurley did make the adjustments.
John Shire needed to,
recognize my team is getting sloppy with the ball and say hey guys rain it in we will lose this
thing this game is not over there's a ton of ball game left he did not yeah one coach did those things
one coach did not do those things and the results are everybody's looking at kate and booze
are saying oh the worst boozer twin is the reason he's the reason but at the end of the day
hurriedly put on a coaching master class in the second half and shire put on the disaster class and you get
What you did?
Well, and listen, with Shire, this is not his first rodeo when it comes to blowing massive second half leads in the second half of games.
I guess I already said that, blowing these massive leads in big NCAA tournament games.
So we have to talk about that.
And we got to talk about the craziness in the triangle.
I mean, the offseason in Raleigh, the off season in Chapel Hill, now Duke has to face the music after what happened on Sunday.
You want to keep it locked right here.
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And Duke, I know they're feeling terrible right now in Durham.
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But we still need to spotlight Cameron Boozer and the season he just had.
The way he and his brother elevated Duke throughout a great regular season,
although a tournament that comes to a disappointing,
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All right, Kenton, let me go back to the two words you uttered before the break.
Fraud watch in talking about John Shire.
And it's like, you know, I was talking with a friend of mine earlier today who took it a little too far.
Okay.
buddy of mine's big college basketball fan was saying well hey hubert davis blew a 19 point lead in the tournament and he got fired shire blew a 19 point i said knock it off like john shire john shire and hubert davis are not the same uh yeah let's let's hold pump the brakes a little bit okay this is not the same thing uh we're not putting shire on the hot seat or anything like that kenton i'm not doing that because he's you know he's been huge budget yes but he's built he's
building juggernauds. Duke has had tremendous regular seasons, but there's something about Shire
in the postseason, though, Kenton. We have to have this conversation. When they blow a two-touchdown
lead with eight minutes to go against Houston last year, they're up 14. They blow the game. They're up
15 at a half time this year. Here's a pattern. I'm going to tell you, this blown lead is less
concerning than the Houston blown league, even though this one was bigger. Let me explain why.
Yukon is just a better team than that Houston team. Yes. Yes. Yes. Houston's leading rebounder
in that game was six nine. He would have been the shortest person in Duke's front court.
Six nine out there bullying my watching company. Bullying them. Hey, hey, hey, these my boys. Get away.
Back up. All you. Back up.
They had a seven-footer that did not grab a singular rebound.
What?
What?
That to me was more concerned because I think the talent disparity between that Houston team and this Duke team was different.
But guess what happened in both?
Sometimes we all, I love to say this.
It's not about your exes and your O's, it's your Larry's and your Joe's, right?
But the deeper you get into the tournament, not only do the Lairies and Joe's get closer,
the X's and O's get closer too.
So now all season, when you're playing, let's say, Miami that can't shoot to save their lives,
they got some big fellas.
They get down here, can't shoot to save their lives.
You're playing the NC State.
Your biggest player is Van Allen Luke.
That's the only player that's worse something down low, with all, you know,
with all the respect to our other beings,
and you know what it was this season.
He was the only one that was worth something meaningful,
and he's, you know, down there by itself at 6-9,
you can get away with that.
But when you got Connecticut on your head,
when Yukon is on your head all of a sudden,
oh, now Reed is on your head.
Now they got shooters everywhere.
Now it's, oh, man, what are you going to do?
The X's and O's start mattering as your Lairies and Joe's get,
you know, the difference gets smaller,
and we've seen it.
And almost every professional.
league in the NFL. We've seen it. Because at that level, all of your Lairies and Joe's are 1% of 1% of 1%
guys. All of them. So you can transform a team. But later in the tournament, we see the same
thing. And again, Shire once again falls flat. He does things that gets him to lead. He does,
he comes out and he throws an amazing punch. He sets the table with that jab like nobody's business.
He creates distance and all that. And then once they say, all right, he's pulling back straight.
Let's do something about this. He has no confidence.
for their count. And every time he ends up laying flat on the mat with the ref counting him on
out, because that's what keeps happening to Duke every time we get to these big games in the tournament.
I'm not saying that John Shire is a bad coach. I'm not saying that he's situationally bad.
I'm not saying, oh, give John Shire a double-digit lead and that's your recipe to winning.
No, I'm not saying. Yeah, I wouldn't go that for me.
Yeah, I'm not saying that at all. What I am saying is John Shire is at a point where he's not on the hot seat,
but it's getting warm because Duke basketball does not measure their success via regular season success.
That's not who Duke is.
Duke basketball does not measure their success by ACC championships.
And that is a credit to them.
It's the same way that I said, I'm not going to say Miami's back because they went to a national championship.
No.
The expectations for Miami football is different in terms of them being back.
If NC State achieves what Miami achieved this year, it'll be, oh, my God, they've arrived because it's
different than what NC State has historically done.
And that's just, Don's got true.
I'm an alum of the university.
Gave three tendons for the thing.
For those of you who can see,
I'm pointing to some scars here of whatever surgery done.
But the reality is, Duke, I'm not saying fire, John Shire.
It's just that standard.
He's not meeting it at the moment.
Yeah.
You're right there in the triangle, Kenton.
I mean, have you ever seen it offseason like this?
And obviously, you know, Duke's not going to be changing coaches or anything.
but they're having an answer for a collapse in the Elite 8.
UNC is looking for a new head coach.
Still, nothing official yet.
Billy Donovan is the front runner,
and he didn't deny his interest in the job,
so he's not lying about it.
He's clearly interested.
And then NC State got completely stabbed in the back by Will Wade
as we covered on this show.
Have you ever seen an offseason like this in your parts?
I'm not joking when I say this.
I don't think I've ever seen, not just in the triangle,
any group of schools that are clustered together in this way
have as bad of a time in one offseason.
I mean, not only did Hubert Davis get fired,
he got fired because he blew a 19-point lead as well,
the biggest lead ever blown in the first round of the tournament.
Not only did he blow the biggest lead ever in the first round of NCAA tournament,
it was to an Atlantic 10 school.
Yeah.
Yuck! That is tough.
And then you get NC State.
that's like, oh, you know, NC State fans were defending Will Wade at the end of the season saying, you know, this is a terrible finish, but they're going to be better next year.
And this is the worst team he'll ever have at NC State and all that.
He promises everybody in their mom, oh, yeah, I'm coming back.
We're going to do great things in year two.
I'm building for year two.
Well, I guess the one truth he did say is this the worst team will ever have at NC State.
Unfortunately, it's also the best team will ever have at NC State.
So, you know, there's that.
And then with Duke, of course, the national, the empire, right?
Darth Vader and the clones and everybody's like, oh, my God, we don't want to see this team win.
And now America's dancing in the streets because once again, Shire and company fade down the stress.
So this is a very tough time for college basketball in what is known as the Hoop State, the greatest producer of high school basketball talent in the nation.
This is a very tough time for a group of schools that none of these schools would say,
hey, basketball doesn't matter here.
We are a football team school through and through.
We are a baseball school through and through.
Hell, they don't even have hockey, so they're definitely not that.
It's just unfortunate to see that this is how, you know,
these three have ended their season or how their offseason has gone.
Because, again, it's, you know, it's hard to comprehend how you get one coach leaving after one
year, one coach who's part of the lineage of coaches and whatnot that are part of the family
at that school being kicked out after a huge deficit being erased. And then one coach who
has all the resources in the world, has the, you know, kings would envy the bounty that he brings
in every year to get players and yet you continue to fall short. This is nothing short of a very bad,
no good ending to the tournament for the triangle.
Yeah, no doubt.
Clemson just held their spring football game,
and we're getting more clarity on their quarterback situation,
which remains very much a question mark heading into 2026.
But Dabble will share his take.
You want to keep it locked right here.
We're not done yet on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC.
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Your first listen for your next list and check out our other shows.
Kent and Gibbs and Grayson Boone do a great job talking all things about that Judas Will Wade and everything NC State on Locked on Wolfpack.
I talk all things Miami on Locked on Cains.
Kenton Clemson just had their spring game on Saturday.
So, you know, we get details from the unofficial stats that were kept and from what Davos said afterwards.
The game was not televised.
It was open to fans there at Death Valley.
And they always have a good turnout for their spring game.
I give the Clemson faithful credit.
It was a free open to the public, but not televised.
So Chris Vizina, who was getting QB1 reps, he led the Orange team.
The Orange team defeated the White Team 23 to 3 for what that's worth.
It was first stringers on both sides of the ball on the Orange Team against the backups on the White Team.
I don't think they had too much of a chance there.
But Chris Vizina, as the Orange Team quarterback, led the way with,
95 yards and a touchdown.
So what Dabo had to say after the game about the quarterback position,
he noted that Vizina is in pole position to start the opener against LSU.
And he said Vizina didn't do anything to back up in terms of like back down from the starting
spot as he enters summer as the lead horse.
It looks like Tate Reynolds, a true freshman, who had a good,
showing at the spring game. Tate Reynolds
looks like he's going to be the second
string quarterback, so maybe something
for the future. So that's what we're looking at
at the QB position, Kenton,
pole position for Chris Vizina
and a true freshman, Tate Reynolds, possibly
being the number two.
I keep saying this.
And, you know, Clemson fans get mad
at me every time. Why has
Vizena not locked this job up yet?
Why has he not locked the job
up yet? You were playing
in this game with the ones.
against the twos.
What do we, why, why is it not like,
definitively he's our guy?
He, he has to do something wrong.
He has to do something very deleterious to the team or himself
for us to say that these other guys are it.
Because I'm looking at this thing and I'm saying,
he's been here forever in a day,
and even beyond being here forever in a day,
now he's had the whole offseason as the guy.
He's sitting in that front seat.
Like you said, pole position.
So when they say first team offense, you're up, he trots up there as the quarterback.
What are we doing?
Why are we still having this conversation?
There's something going on there.
And I'm going to tell you, the reports out of Clemson Camp, I don't know how true this is,
but there was allegedly like 30 plus interceptions thrown by the quarterbacks over the course of Spring Bowl.
I didn't know that.
Again, that is just what is being reported.
I am not sure if that is accurate.
I want to be very clear about that.
I tell y'all when I have an inside source that I know like, hey, this is what I know and this is how I know.
It's being publicly reported as well as doing a little bit of back channeling.
I've heard from some folks who, again, I'm not going to say I got the best relationship.
I've been locked in with it for years.
I got sources like that.
Not here.
Not this time.
I'm not telling you that.
It's being reported that they turned the ball over a lot.
So I'm a little concerned.
And I think that Clemson fans should be, too, in terms of, hey, this thing should be put to bed now.
You've had the whole offseason as the guy.
You've had the whole off season.
Get the receivers together.
Get the guys together.
Say, hey, I know we got some injuries in the receiver room.
I know we got some things living in us right now, but let's get some chemistry.
How about it?
Let's throw this nine route so I know how you're liking on the back shoulder so you know how I'm going to put it on your back shoulder.
Let's throw our comeback so you know how it's going to come out.
and you know, let's do it.
And it's still not, not, you know, locked up and solidified.
That's a little bit, a little bit, you know,
worrisome for me if I'm a Tigers fan.
Are you bullish on the Clemson defense this year?
Because something else, and again, it's the spring game.
So you're going up against your teammates.
And in this case, the orange team were the first teamers,
the white team with the second teamers.
So the orange team, first team defense had nine sacks.
But it's like, does that just mean the second team offensive line isn't any good?
Like I don't know what to do with that information.
That's a lot of sacks in one game.
I don't know what that means for them.
I'm not sure.
I'm not sure if that means anything
or if that's a whole lot of something simply because,
like you said, it's a spring game where it's ones versus twos.
Like that, to me, any stats that come out of the spring game ones versus twos,
ball them up, throw them away.
Because guess what?
Whose Clems is first game of the season, Donald?
Is it LSU again?
I believe so.
I believe they're going down to Debt Valley in Baton Rouge.
And with that being said, do you think they're going to see Clemson's second?
Do you think they're going to see Clemson's second team?
If they do, it's a big problem.
Exactly.
No, no, no, no.
They're not going to see LSU's second team.
Exactly.
Do you think that in any game this season, anybody's going to try out their second team to try to beat Clemson?
No.
So, you know, the stats from a.
a glorified scrimmage, you know,
like something that's a little bit more intense
than a pep rally is,
ball it up, throw it in the trash.
You know, I'm not sold on their defense.
I do think that their defense will have improvement from last year,
but I'm not sold on like, hey, this is the biggest thing.
They'll be, they'll go back to being
Brent Venables coach Clemson defenses.
That's a high bar. That's a high bar.
I think the world of Brent Venables is a defensive coordinator.
And I think he should have been
the Bud Foster Wright generation, but hey, and each man there's the fire to go see if he can go
at his own way and, you know, he's doing so. But yeah, I don't, I think this defense will be good.
I don't think they'll be like world beating. Whatever you do over there, Vazina and the boys,
you'll be all right because you got us. I don't think they'll be that. Yeah, so the sack leaders
from their spring game, Vic Burley at defensive tackle had two and a half sacks.
Landon Merritt at defensive end who transferred from Colorado,
rare Clemson transfer had two and a half sacks.
Linebacker Kobe McLeod had a sack that went for a safety.
Defensive end, Darry and Mayo had a sack in two and a half TFL.
So those were some of the top performers individually on defense for Clemson in that spring game.
And again, I mentioned it wasn't televised.
They are going to do, the ACC did this last year where like,
I don't know if anybody's televising their spring games this year,
but everyone's going to get, like,
they're going to get that off-season special
where they're all doing filming behind the scenes for spring football.
So Clemson's going to have a special, I think, next month.
I think every program is going to have one on an ACC network.
So that will be our opportunity to see what actually went down,
unless you were there at the stadium,
for the rest of us, we'll see what actually went down that day.
I mean, let's be honest, Donno.
We know it's like reading somebody who's
to the live autobiography.
It's, it's not going to tell you that I went out, got hammered, and crashed into a sign.
It's going to instead say, I faced adversity in a very tough time in my life that I was able to recover from with the help of family and friends.
And it's like, buddy, the adversity was your bad decision making.
Okay.
But, you know, when you let people paint the picture themselves, they'll always say, oh, I did it the right way.
I did it the best I could.
And, you know, little bumps in the road.
And that speed bump was a human, buddy.
What do you mean?
That's more than a bump in the road.
We might need to investigate why that happened.
But, you know, I'm not, I walk away from Clemson's spring game.
And I want to make this clear.
This isn't an indictment on Clemsonville.
I think that this is for everybody, right?
NC state is the same way.
NC state is no longer doing spring games at all, right?
I'm not a hater of that.
I just know it is what it is.
With people transferring in the way they are, you need every rep you can get.
You don't want to have, you know, oh, well, let's do the pomp and circumstance.
That's a good point because for people who don't know, the spring game counts as one of your practices.
Yeah.
Like you can only do, what is it, like up to 15 practices?
And the spring game has to count.
So some schools choose not to do it in front of the public.
And that's my exact point.
At the end of the day, these coaches won every practice they can get.
And it's one of those things.
It's a lot like inflation, how whenever a new rule or a new,
thing comes in where they're like, oh, this is causing inflation now.
Well, when that thing goes away, do the prices ever go back down?
I noticed they never do.
It's a weird thing.
And it's the same thing with, oh, well, because of the spring portal,
we're going to close off all of the spring games and we don't want anybody seeing our
player.
Don't know, does the spring portal still exist?
No.
I mean, the shadow portal, but last time I checked, we have not had to use this yet for
the shadow.
We haven't had to do the shadow portal.
portal. We're ready for it. Come April. We're ready. We prepare. We prepare. You know, I mean,
we're ready to mask up for the shadow portal. But last time we checked, it doesn't exist anymore.
And we're still not going back to getting spring games in the traditional way that they happen.
So again, this is not an indictment on Clemson. I know Clemson Tiger fans think I hate their
university. I hate their school. It's not the case at all. It is much more the case that, I mean,
I just think this is the new way of the world that everybody's going to keep it behind closed doors.
and even for those who do, it's going to be ones versus two,
so you can't actually get a good read on,
hey, is there a defense turbo dog crap this year?
Hey, can their quarterback not complete a forward pass?
Is that something that, is that concept unfamiliar to him?
We won't know.
We won't know until game one.
And that's just a new way to world.
I love it.
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