Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - DEEP DIVE: Georgia Tech and Wake Forest in the SPOTLIGHT on Thursday Night to Open Week 1 of ACC Football

Episode Date: September 2, 2026

ACC football returns as Georgia Tech looks to overpower Colorado with a retooled ground-and-pound attack. Can Justice Haynes and a rebuilt offensive line impose their will on Deion Sanders’ Buffaloes, or will Colorado’s explosive new offense throw a wrench in Georgia Tech’s plans? Hosts Julian Council and Kenton Gibbs break down key player matchups, roster turnover, and the tactical questions facing both programs in this prime-time opener. Wake Forest kicks off the season behind quarterback Gio Lopez’s reunion with OC Rob Ezell and a brand-new offensive line. Will the Demon Deacons’ belief and offensive overhaul be enough to dominate Akron and set the tone for a bowl-bound campaign? The conversation highlights pivotal quarterback battles across the ACC, the league’s most intriguing storylines, and which teams have the inside track as the road to conference supremacy begins. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! KALSHI For a limited time, Download the Kalshi app and use code [LOCKEDON] to get $10 when you trade $10. . 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. Square Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at https://square.com/go/COLLEGE ! #squarepod ULTRA POUCHES Don’t sleep on Ultra Pouches. New customers get 15% Off with code LOCKEDONCOLLEGEFOOTBALL at https://takeultra.com! #UltraPouches #ad 5-Hour ENERGY Bring on the sweetness with Cotton Candy 5-hour ENERGY®️ shots—available online now at https:/5hourENERGY.com or on Amazon. Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel College football Saturdays are already packed with reasons to get excited, and this season, FanDuel is giving fans even more ways to get in on every matchup. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COM 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.

Week one of ACC football is here. We'll preview the Thursday night slate right here on Locked on ACC. You are Locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to another edition of the Locked on ACC podcast. I'm Julian Counsel, and he is former NC State football Letterman Kenton Gibbs. And today's episode of Locked on ACC is brought to you by Fandleon. college football Saturdays are already packed with reasons to get excited.

And this season, Fandle is giving fans even more ways to get in on every matchup. Join all the action at fandle.com. We have made it week one of ACC football is finally here. And there are a ton of things that we're excited to watch this coming weekend. We'll tell you what those are to close out today's show. But there are two games happening on Thursday that we have to break down first. Wake Forest hosting Akron at 7 o'clock Eastern Time on the ACC. network. But in prime time on ESPN, it's Colorado heading to the flats face off against Georgia Tech yellow jackets there inside of historic Bobby Dodd Stadium. Georgia Tech are six and a half point home favorites while trading at 68% over on Kalshi. Kenton, we made it. What are you looking out for in this game between the jackets and the Buffaloes?

You know, I'm looking for a lot of things. I'm going to start here. I know a lot of people are going to tune this out and say, hey, is this locked on ACC or what? But first thing, first, the way that people treat Dion Sanders, right? He's had health problems that are very serious, that are to the liking of, you know, I grew up in the Midwest in the 2000s. I remember how Jerry Kiel was treated when he had seizures and all the problems that went along with that. And the way that Dion is getting absolutely no grace whatsoever. And it's like, oh, he's the most arrogant, most selfish guy ever, and he can't coach a team up.

When we watch those Minnesota teams not be very good, but we knew, hey, coach has some extreme health situations going on here, a couple toe amputations and more cancer surgeries than we can even mention, and Dion don't get that grace. But now, enough of that, onto the on the field stuff. What am I looking for? I'm looking for how unique, how diverse is this Georgia Tech's offense? Because I've heard again and again and again that he was not happy with how Haynes King Reliant the yellow jacket offense was last year. He was not happy with that. And that makes sense, right?

It's one thing to lean on your quarterback as a passer, but when you need to use him as a de facto battering ram, yeah, that may not be great. So I'm intrigued to see how they kind of manage that we're going to get Alberto running, we're going to get Haynes running, we're going to get Hoseley running. We got a whole, we got four backs deep that we can all run the ball with all of them. how do they distribute that in a more, in a way that keeps these guys healthy and fresh throughout the entire season? And does it have, Alberto have some of the same injury problems late that we saw from Haineskey? Yeah, that's a good point.

And they do now have a new OC and George Gatsy, who is one of the famed sons there from Georgia Tech now going back and taking over the OC roles as they lose their OC Buster Faulkner down to Florida. And that is pretty spot on about Dion, what he went through last off season, dealing with. with the cancer scare, having amputations. And I do think that was a big part of Colorado going three and nine. Yes, they lost his son, or Sanders. They lost Travis Hunter, the Heisman Trophy winner as well. But when you don't have your coach for a large part of the offseason, it probably has an impact on how your team's going to perform that year.

Now, I do question how he builds his rosters, but we've seen it work in the past, albeit with Travis Hunter and his son should or some other players that were key. So interesting to see what Colorado is going to look like this season. I do have a few things I'll say about. them. But focusing in Georgia Tech, yeah, I am very curious to see what the offense is going to look like, guys. They're likely going to be a ground and pound type of team with Justice Haynes, Malachi, Holesley, Trey Maddox, Chad Alexander, all the backs that they have. And this is a new look offensive line that they're rolling out there.

Now, Ethan McKinney's back at left tackle and then Malachi Carney's back at right tackle. But new left guard, new center, new right guard. Brent Key seems to be pretty excited about what they have up front. and certainly at center. He's been talking up this guy, Jameson Riggs, after looking at what they had last year in Harrison Moore, he thinks it's an upgrade. And if he thinks it an upgrade, I agree that's an upgrade.

So how is that line going to be able to win at the point attack tomorrow night on Thursday? That's something that's certainly interesting. And then the wide receiver room, they lost all their receivers as well. It's not just Haynes and James gone. And Jamal Haynes is gone. But look at what they have, Malik Rutherford.

He's no longer here. Eric Rivers is no longer here. They do bring back Jordan Allen, who's the only receiver from last year's team, who's on this year's team who had a reception last year. And then they bring an Isaiah Furman from my alma mater, Elon. He was not even out there during the spring. And then Dalen Penson was a two-way player in high school, played DB last year.

He's now a receiver. Like those are the starting receivers going into Thursday night's game. That has me raising an eyebrow about what this passing game is going to look like because they want to clearly play on their own terms, be a team that runs the ball. But eventually, you're going to get into some shootouts. You're going to begin into a position where, yeah, throw the play. football and what does Mendoza look like, yes, but what does the receiving core look like as well? Yeah, that's absolutely a very valid question. I asked there. In the portal era, we're seeing

turnover in terms of like 40% on some of these teams, right? And when you look at that in terms of, well, what does that look like? How does that actually play out on the team? You're going to see specific position groups decimated sometimes. We saw it a few years ago with NC State where every single defensive back hopped in the portal at the 11th hour and kind of, you know, left from in a bad way. We saw the same, we saw the same thing with Georgia Tech this year

where a lot of guys jumped to the portal, some guys graduated, whatever the case may be, one guy with a reception is coming back. So you're absolutely right to say a quarterback that we've never

seen throw the ball at the college level at a high clip. And a wide receiver core where only one player caught passes at Georgia Tech last year. And listen, I think very highly of that receiver from Eli

because that's a big body right there. I'm telling you, Georgia Tech, if they don't love nothing else, you know, they love them a big body receiver. I'm a lion's fan. I grew up on Megatron, RIP to Demarius Thomas and all that he was. Darren Waller in kind of that same vein there, even though he was more of a tight end, but he was a wide receiver while it was at Tech. They thrive with those big old wide receivers. I would love to see what they can do here. But you're right.

That is a very, very valid concern to say, what will the passing game look like? Because I think they can get by Colorado without much of a passing game. I think so because of just the sheer difference in terms of mass. And as we all know, mass kicks you know what when we're talking about moving furniture on the line of scrimmage. But there will come a time where a team meets your mask with mass, where a defensive coordinator says, hey, listen, you got to show me something. You got to prove something to me. You got to prove to me that your quarterback can pull that thing back over his shoulder and hurt me.

Until you do that, we will go one safety high at most. and then they'll have to pass it. But this game, I think you can get by it just playing bully ball. Yeah, I agree. And I think that game you're talking about is probably next week when they host Tennessee in primetime and ESPN on that Saturday. Jim Knowles, who comes over from Penn State, was at Ohio State when we won an national championship.

He's now the D.C. at Tennessee. This is going to be a completely different falls front than the one they're going to be facing off against Colorado. We're being honest here. And speaking of that Colorado front was reading some of the Colorado sites out there before doing the show today. and the depth on the defensive lines, surprise, surprise, surprise, is a concern throughout the offseason for Colorado, although it sounds like they feel good about what they have as far as the interior. They have four guys they feel good about, which at minimum, week one you need for getting more than that throughout the season, of course.

And they have three edge guys, they feel are capable starters. And you talk about the depth, they got one guy who's ineligible, which that feels like every team has one guy they're waiting on as far as eligibility goes. Another, no longer on the roster. or another's battling injury, and there's another who's missed a bunch of time during preseason with an ailment who's now back. So that will certainly be a matchup on the offensive line versus the defensive line of Colorado to watch out for special teams. That's probably an advantage of Georgia Tech as well in the kicking game.

Aidan Burr is back. Colorado, not really sure what they have there. And this is a team that we saw last year had that same issue, had to go for a period of time and fourth down. If that's going to be the case against a remade Georgia Tech defense, Jason Seymour taking over, that could be something that will hurt the buff. but I am very curious about Brendan Marion, who spent last year at Sacramento State as a head coach,

he comes over to be the OC. He has his go-go offense. And with Juju Lewis back at quarterback, had experience last year, guy from the Georgia area, Atlanta area, he's back home. He is a highly-touted player. He's got some guys throw-to,

like DeAndreux at Texas last couple seasons under Shark. Camp Perry was a thousand-yard receiver at Miami, Ohio last year. Danny Skidaro comes from San Jose State. So, interesting to see what they look like offensively, as if this one becomes up-and-down game, I'm curious if Georgia Tech can be able to handle that in the passing game. So I think next week's probably the game where they're going to have to throw, drop back and actually make some plays,

where they can probably just lean on their offensive line their physicality against Colorado. It's certainly a game I feel like Tex would win with their win total being six and a half going in the season. Colorado at four and a half. So Vegas not thinking that the buffs are going to be a bowl team. But Kitten, you think that Lake Force is going to be a bull team. And you still like Gio Lopez. And you were worried about him when he got to chop a hole last year. Well, we finally get to see Joe Lopez back in that Rob Azell offense on Thursday as Wake Force opens up the season against Akron and the dash.

We'll talk about that game here in just a moment on locked on ACC. If you've got a sweet tooth like I do, you know how tough it is to find that perfect treat without all the sugar. That's why Cotton Candy Five Hour Energy Shop brings that nostalgic flavor back in a whole new way. This is that classic cotton candy taste you remember, but with a tasty caffeine boost and zero sugar, it's a quick, easy way to satisfy that sweet craving while keeping things. simple and on the go. I've always loved cotton candy. Anytime. I go to Carolins, go to any sort of festival. Go to the movies. If they have it, I can't stop eating it, but I can't have sweets all day long. This is a perfect alternative. The flavor really does bring that throwback fruity vanilla vibe, and it's surprisingly smooth. I like how convenient it is too. It's just a small portable shot. I can grab whenever I need a little pick me up. It's become my go-to when I want something sweet without going overboard. Bring on the sweetness with cotton candy five hour. energy shots available online now at five hour energy.com or on Amazon. All right, back here on Lockdown, ACC, taking a look at the Thursday night slate heading

here into week one of ACC football. Already broke down Georgia Tech hosting Colorado at home. Now Wake Forest hosting Akron, who was one of the worst teams in FBS last year. I expect that's probably going to be the same case again for the Zips. The Mac is a conference where a lot of schools out there, to. not have the money to have competitive rosters, especially in today's landscape. I'm surprised that Wake is only a 24.5 point home favorite against Akron, while they're trading at 95% over on Cali.

7 o'clock, ACC, NAC. What are you looking out for when watching the deeks on Thursday night? Peaches and Irves said it best, reunited, and it feels so good. Gio's got his guy back. He's got an offensive coordinator. He's going to let him fly. is going to let him do his thing. Everybody remembers Ezell for the Nick saving impression,

but I remember him for leading the South Alabama offense. That was explosive. That was lethal. That thing was, you never could count them out because you had Gioad quarterback and Rob Ezel was going to call up something. And Wophewell. Exactly, exactly.

So you've got multiple points of, hey, these are my guys, this is where I'm comfortable, I'm back in the saddle with them. I think Dickard is going to be off to a heck of a start. And don't get me wrong. I don't think that Akron is the bar for like, oh, yeah, they're going to show you something. I mean, it's in the state of Ohio for crying out loud. I should tell you, all that you need to know about the Zips.

But with that being said, you're looking at a situation where this is a Wake Forest team that has something that is more dangerous than anything else in the world. They've got belief. They've got belief that they get shocked the world. Because last year, they were picked to finish. near the bottom or in the bottom three of the conference, bust out nine games. This year, people are like, we guess we'll put you above the Bill O'Brien's

and Bill Belichick's of the world. We still don't expect much. But they within that locker room, they within that locker room, they know because they've seen it. They've seen success. They've seen Winston-Salem be rowdy and rocking and as rocking as it can be, basically,

because they're a good team. So I truly believe that this is going to be a bowl team. I truly believe that if there was such a thing as comeback player of the year in college, or especially for the ACC, Gio Lopez will win it because he's going to rehab his reputation in the major way. And I think that there are going to be some ACC teams this year that after that game against Wake Forest, they're going to just scratch their head and say, now what the hell just happened? How did we lose this ball game? Yeah, and actually, apology is to Akron. They weren't one of the worst FBS teams last year. They went five and seven,

but they still not been great under Joe Moorhead. 2 and 10, 2 and 10, 4, and 5 and 7 last year. He's 13 and 35 there. I don't know why he's doing this. He could have been an OC for any major program, and it said he's slumming up there at Akron. I was thinking about Kent State, also in Ohio. So that's another reason why they're terrible,

according to the Michigan man right there next to me in Kenton Gives. But yeah, I can't wait to see Gio. I'm rooting for him. Honestly, I am. I'm sure there's a lot of Carolina fans who are interested to see what he's going to look like back. in a familiar system that's actually going to utilize his strengths, unlike what they were doing last year in Chapel Hill.

We don't need to relitigate it, but we watched the games. We saw that they didn't ask Geo to get out of the pocket a lot. They didn't ask you to run the ball. And I will wonder throughout the season, if they ask him to run a decent amount, how he's able to hold up because he did get injured against TCU. Now we already had the car accident he had been in that we all found out post that game. He was injured against UCF,

missed a Clemson game. had a couple of Knox last season. And if he's going to be the guy relying on at Wake at quarterback, they're going to utilize him the run game, he's got to be able to hold up throughout the season. So that is one area of concern I do have for Gio when looking at last year and taking away what he looked like in Freddie Kitchens' offense.

And hopefully no one ever has to be a part of a Freddie Kitchens offense again in the game of football. So God, oh, that's so bad to watch. But Gio, I'm interested, man. And the running back room as well, I would watch to see what they look like. DeMond Claiborne no longer they. But Ty Clark's the guy who seems to be the top back.

Katie Daniels coming over from Florida. I know that Cam Lemons, who we had on a couple weeks ago, the breakdown week from Demon Digest. He was telling us that Deuce Lawrence, the freshman is a guy to watch out for, certainly going to be watching him. And if Geo's going to have success, if the running back room is going to have success,

the offensive line has to get going. Five new starters. All five of the guys who were starters last year have either graduated, transferred, or backups on this roster right now. They've got to jail quickly. because they don't really have a lot of time to do so if you look at their schedule coming up because it's Akron on Thursday,

then it's at Purdue next weekend. You should think that they should have a chance, but that's a powerful opponent. We'll see. Then it's home against Miami. It's at Louisville. You got two weeks to figure it out up front. Otherwise, this whole thing could be sideways.

Now, I don't think going to the season, either one of us are thinking that they're going to beat Miami and they're going to win at Louisville. But you would like to be competitive in those games. They certainly could be if Gio Lopez is a Gio-Lopez. as we saw it, South Alabama. And certainly if that defense led by Cam, sorry, Lankson Hardy, his brother, Cam Hardy's another guy to watch out for,

but Lanks and Hardy and Gabe Kerski kind off the edge. Those guys can get back to what they did last season. You could see this being a pretty balanced outfit with Gioch quarterback and that defense doing what they do. And again, Jake Dickert, defensive guy. Absolutely. And the thing that I love about Dickert, he uses guys like chess pieces. He just moves them all around the board.

You don't know where the queen is going to be. You never know. You never know with him. You know, and I love me some Jake Dickard for that reason, for the fact that he does not try to fit guys in his system. He says, you know what, I've got these guys. Let me build a system around them. Let me find ways to put this guy. And if this guy's versatile enough, I believe they had a safety last year or a guy who was listed as a safety, that 20% of his snaps came at linebacker.

Like, that's the type of stuff that we're looking at and we're talking about with a coach that knows what he's doing in the same thing. saying, we're going to move pieces around here. We're going, oh, you see them. Now you see him. Now you don't. Oh, you think he's dropping in the deep half? L.O.L. He's rushing the passer.

There's a lot going on with a Jake Dicker coach defense, and those guys need to be on their peas and cues. And he is absolutely getting them there. He's getting the best out of this squad. I think it's going to start in terms of week one with more getting the best out of that squad. But again, I've got Wakemaking a bowl game. I don't give a damn what Vegas say. Vegas, you know, people may say.

say, Kent, they got algorithms, they got data sciences, you just got your gut. Well, guess what? I think my gut is more than enough here, okay? I've drunk enough kombucha to get my gut health right for the next 10 years. I think that we're going to go, or that Wake is going to go to a way. Wake is

fine. You are a citizen of the great state of North Carolina, so sure, you can claim if you'd like. But yeah, Wake, the over under wind total according to Fandall's sports book is five and a half. So if you're on the over, which Kenton obviously is on, that's a bowl team. And I'm feeling pretty good about them being a bowl team as well.

I guess one other thing I'd look at is the wide receiver room. You have Carlos Hernandez back out there. He was a top receiver last year, but you lose guys like Sterling Burke Halters, now at Texas, Chris Barnes at Oklahoma State. What do the new guys coming in? Like Antonio makes him from Louisville. He's listed as a starter. Cam Shanks from Arkansas,

listed as a starter, what can those guys do to be able to create that good rapport with Geo? Seems like throughout all the camp reports I've read from the Demon Deacon's Digest on 247 sports also. by Guy Conor O'Neill doing Deacons Illustrated over on 3 Network. Gio and Carlos Hernandez, they're on a great, you know, path together to have success this season. But what about everybody else? Also that Titan Room as well.

So expecting the Demon Deacons to go out there and look, I feel like they got to cover this one. Winning only by 24 points is not enough. They should go out there and blow out Akron on Thursday night. So hoping to see that, expecting to see that from Jake Dickert and his team heading into year two of a year where this could be another exciting season. for the Demon Deacons, but a lot of things to be excited about heading in week one in the ACC. Kent and I will tell you all on the other side what we're most excited to watch during week one here on locked on ACC.

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Back here on Locked on ACC, week one of ACC football is finally here. tonight have Wake Forest hosting Akron 7 o'clock on ACC. Network followed by Georgia Tech versus Colorado over on ESPN at 8 p.m. in Midtown, Atlanta. A lot of things. I'm excited to watch this weekend during week one across the ACC. What are you excited to watch out for this weekend? You know, I'm excited to see all of these quarterbacks that there's no film on that

we've never seen them throw a ball. This is a group of quarterbacks that while it is a little bit, bit worrisome that we haven't seen these quarterbacks do something, we're going to get to see something. That's the beauty of the unknown. That's the beauty of the fact that Alberto, how much have we seen him do? Lincoln Kingholz,

how much have we seen him do? I mean, you know, we've seen so many guys coming into the conference this year that we've Milton McKinsey, Mason McKenzie, right. Mason McKinsey, right. Mason McKin I got you. I think about the UCF quarterback. That's the wrong guy.

McKinsey Milton. McKinsey Milton, there we go. Mason McKenzie, a guy that everybody keeps saying, well, he comes from the same conferences, Trinidad Ash, we'll see, we'll see, we'll see what's going on. So as much as everybody's talking about, oh, well, this guy was diss at his last stoper, we haven't seen this guy be good,

or we haven't seen this guy be that. Lo and behold, even me with my disbelief in Grokbeyer, hell, I didn't believe much in Boeh-Prabula, look at how Vanilla Vic turned out week want. So, you know, I am very excited to see all of these quarterbacks who there's just no film out on them yet. I'm excited to see all of Dave is worn in week zero. Come on now. Come on now that we saw some good ball from some guys that we were not expecting it from.

So ultimately, I'm excited to see a lot of these guys that there's just no book out on them yet in week one. Yeah, week one. Yeah. Keenholz, I'm also excited to see what he looks like. I talked about this several times in the show already, but my most fascinating quarterback situation to be heading into the season is that one in Louisville, considering that Brahms gone with the veteran guys like Jack Plummer,

like last year with Miller Moss. There we go. I was like something, MM, something. And then Tyler Shuck, who's doing great job down there, New Orleans with the Saints. But now you've got a guy who has multiple years of experience, It's a guy who has not really played that much. And if it really is true, that last year in Columbus,

the quarterback competition between Lincoln Keenholz and Julian Sayne, who went on to be a Heisman Droperian Finals. So it truly was as close as people say. So it was nothing. Then this could be a huge situation for Louisville to have a quarterback coming here with Isaac Brown, with Keywan Brown, with Trey Richardson coming from Banner, both the tight and room being to the level that Joe, that Jeff Brown wants to be.

and then the pass rush that they have could be some serious business here. Now, we'll talk more about Louisville and Ole Miss on Friday's show, but I'm excited to see that pass rush, what they have with AJ Green coming back, with Clem Leuven, bringing in Tyler Thompson and Carolina. I can't wait to see that. Mason McKenzie as well, that situation where Bill O'Brien said to Jill Milrow, you're not a quarterback. He said to Tommy Costalanos, you're not a quarterback.

And here he is with another running quarterback after the pocket guys didn't work from the last few years. Even Chris Vizina. Well, he proved me wrong. Well, he proved, hey, you ain't seen enough of me to know what I am and surprise all of it. I'm ready. Is that if Vizina proves you wrong, is that in a Clemson winning effort or is that just him balling out in Clemson still losing? Even if Clemson loses, if he is not part of the reason they lose, like if he, he can't play decently.

You've been in the program for four years at this point, playing decently and enough. If he shows up and shows his behind, if they lose 4245, brother, you've done your part. You've done your part. You have shed me up. You have proven me wrong. More part to you. But I, you know, he can do his part in the loss. But if they show up and it's a 24 to 17 game, yeah, nah, bro.

Nah, I was right. What if he goes out there and throws for 317 years? yards and three touchdowns. Will you be impressed in? Very, very. Okay, well, let me ask you this. Were you impressed last year when he did that against SMU? No.

Let me explain to you why. Let me explain you why. Okay. Being the backup quarterback is a different situation than being the starter. When you are the backup, you are coming in to a situation where they're not game prepping for you. You are the other guy where you can surprise some guys and knock them off. If you think I'm lying, look at DJU stats when he came off the bench as a backup for Trevor

Lawrence during the COVID year. And look at what happened when he became the guy that everybody said, okay, well, what does you want to do? What does he want to hit? It's a whole different, it's a different type of ball game. So ultimately, if you're telling me, hey, you've been the guy all offseason, everybody thought you were going to be the guy. Now it's your turn.

And he goes out there and does it. Hats all, credit where credit is due. Coming in as the backup, getting one game where it's like, hey, we're going to make everything simple, don't think too much, just take what's in front of you and you do that, I'm not so sure that that's a convincing effort. That's fair. And you look at LSU's secondary and that's been a school that's touted itself as DBA, so as Ohio State, so as Texas.

But, I mean, DJ Pickett's a five-star guy. That was the whole Jaden Daniels situation about him wearing number five. That's a dude who's going to be someone to watch out for. PJ Woodland's back in that secondary type benefit from Boise State. Your guy, to Marcus Cooley, I guess you're former guy. he's actually looking like he's going to be a backup at LSU. So that just shows you how improved that. Secondary should be on the season.

So, yeah, if he throws for three bills, three touchdowns on Saturday night in Baton Rouge in that atmosphere, I think we're all going to have to be left impressed, I would hope. I guess the other thing, J.K.S. Can't forget about him. He's going out there on Saturday night. Late night, we got ACC after dark with the Cal Golden Bears against UCLA. And it's not just JKS. It's also the new weapons that he has. You got Ian Strong coming from Rutgers, Chase Hendricks from Ohio.

You got Cooper Perry from Oregon following Natasha Poy. And you got Dorian Thomas from Mexico. Then Adam Muhammad running the ball from Washington as well. Like I can't wait to see that game. Because you look at all the ACC games we got going on. Obviously Louisville Ole Miss. That's going to be one that we're going to be talking a lot about. Clemson LSU.

People are excited about that game. Monday night, FSU. Maybe Mike Norvell's last stand, State faceoff, SMU and Florida State. But I look at it, man, like low-key game. maybe not a lot of people are focused on is Cal UCLA. Like that's a game. I'm excited to see. Yeah, no, a thousand percent.

And I'm going to tell you what, you know what's interesting about both of those West Coast teams. Both of them have first year coaches. Both of them are in the top 20 of recruiting right now. Both of them. Chesney is doing a great job on the recruiting trail. La Poy has been outperforming what we see from Cal historically by a good bit. And Chesney's kind of surprising because he's a northeast guy.

Yes. Well, LePoy is at least from the West Coast. came from Oregon. You would think he understands what a recruiting apparatus looks like. But for Bob Chesie to be doing that at UCLA, who just fired their AD for whatever reason, that's surprising.

Yeah, and I'm going to tell you what, when you look at the entire scene of kind of how everything played out and all that good stuff, this is a situation where Tosh Lepoy is from one of the most famous high schools in the world in D LaSalle. Everybody remembers that,

hundred-something game win streak that they had where it just seemed like, sooner or later, it's inevitable. It was like running from Jason in the movie. You can run as far and fast as you won't. If you ain't Jamie Lee Curtis, brother, you're going up to the Lord. That's just what it was. That's how they felt. He went from there to play a Cal himself to then, even in his coaching career,

mostly spent on the West Coast as well. He is a West Coast guy through and through. Chesney has done a great job on the recruiting trail and whatnot. The only question is, how long do you think you keep Chase? me there if you're successful. With LaPoy, even if he is the greatest coach that there is there, I doubt it. I highly doubt that a first-time head coach that is coaching his alma mater is looking to go anywhere. I really have a hard time believing that.

Yeah, I agree with you. Same thing with Brent Key, staying there, told you tack. I would need to know what the sport looks like in five years. And my guess is UCLA is probably going to be in the Big Ten or whatever it's going to look like. and that's going to be a desirable job to where Bob Chesney, if he loves life in Westwood, may not be looking for a bigger job unless it's like, you know, one of the jobs in college football.

So, yeah, excited about that game. And we'll talk more about that on Friday as we have a full slate of ACC football going Friday night where Miami, they travel west of Stanford, Clemson Ellis. We'll talk about all those games coming up here on Lockdown ACC on Friday. But that's going to wrap up this edition of Lockdown ACC podcast for the Lockdown podcast Network, where your host, as always, Julian counsel and Kenton Gibbs.

Again, y'all subscribe and follow the show for free over on YouTube and wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Be sure to follow us over on Twitter at Julian Council and at TGIF underscore Ken. In the meantime, be safe, be happy, be whole. And we'll talk to y'all on Friday as we continue to break down week one here in the ACC.