Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - DISPUTE: Lane Kiffin INSISTS 9-3 SEC Teams DESERVES Playoff, But Miami HURRICANES and Big Ten SHATTER That Logic?

Starting point is 00:00:00 So the biggest difference in ACC media days when you compare it to the SEC, a lot less complaining. 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 is Kenton Gibbs from Locked-on Wolfpack. I and Alastano from Locked-on Cain's. And on this episode of Locked-on ACC, some shocking betting recommendations from an article on covers that will have a couple of ACC fan bases, I think very angry.

Starting point is 00:00:40 I want to get to that. Now, before we, well, after we drag the SEC for all their complaining, I will say that Pat Narduzzi said something about the Big Ten, that I'm like, all right, Pat, like, quit while you're ahead, buddy. You don't have to be saying so many ridiculous things at one ACC media day. but for these SEC Media Days, Kenton, and there's some parallels to draw here between the ACC, I want to start with all the complaining, or maybe you could say lobbying from the SEC to try to get more of their teams into the college football playoff.

Starting point is 00:01:16 So the commissioner Greg Sanky went on this little diatribe about how the college football playoff criteria is unsatisfactory, that he does not accept the way that they weigh at large teams. He doesn't think they give enough, I guess, preferential treatment to the SEC because you're in the conference that just means more. Something I thought was even more ridiculous, Kenton, was what Lane Kiffin said. I got the quote for you here.

Starting point is 00:01:48 He said, until we can get into a world where people can actually look at teams and say, that team that is nine and three with their skills, schedule is a better team than that 11 and one team in a different conference, which now I think we aren't even close to doing that, I think it causes a problem. I'll just give you the floor, Kenton. Should we be automatically putting 9 and 3 SEC teams in above 11 and 1 ACC and big 12 teams? Donno, I'm going to give you some stats and I want you to tell me which conference this is, okay? we're talking about playoffs last year 2025 playoffs okay this team scored zero touchdowns zero points per game oh and one against fellow power for teams that are not from their

Starting point is 00:02:39 conference in in the playoff what conference am i referring to i mean you can't be referring to the cc because there's so much better than everyone else so i'm going to say uh big 10 right big 12 Texas tech did not score a single point against Oregon and, you know, you kind of got what you got there. But now let's go to another one, okay? That was your warm up question. That was a softball for you. Here we go.

Starting point is 00:03:04 Now it's going to get real difficult. Two touchdowns, 11 points per game, 0 and 3 in playoff games that were not against teams from their conference or a group of six teams. 11 points per game, two touchdowns across all three of their games against teams from other conferences. Where are we looking at? What's conference? I mean, it's got to. be the ACC, right? Incorrect. That is the SEC.

Starting point is 00:03:30 There were only two conferences that won football games last year in the playoff that were against power for teams, not from their conference. That was the Big Ten and the ACC. What do those two look like as opposed to the pitiful? I would say a different word, but I don't want to lose our clean rating here. But these two conferences, SEC and the Big Ten and the ACC, I'm sorry, the Big Ten and the ACC, 11 touchdowns for the ACC, 12 touchdowns for the Big 10, 25.5 points per game for the Big 10,

Starting point is 00:04:01 21.5 for the ACC, 3 and 1 for the ACC, 3 and 1 for the Big 10. So again, if you break it down into tiers, one tier where the Big 2 are would be the ACC of the Big 10. The other tier where the rest of the guys are who could not win a game against a team that wasn't named, Tulane against the team that wasn't already in their conference was the SEC. So we should just put in nine win teams just because, meanwhile, Alabama got their backs

Starting point is 00:04:36 kicked in. Meanwhile, Ole Miss got the floor mop with them against the Miami team that did not make the ACC conference championship game. Meanwhile, you're looking at time after time after time in these past few years since everybody's been getting paid a conference that is. defeated. Take your ball. Go home. Start your own own thing. Start your own thing.

Starting point is 00:05:00 Do whatever you want to do. But at this point in time I'm tired of seeing, well, you know, our schedule is so tough and we just we grind and we beat each other up. Back in the day, that was allegedly the reason why you were winning all the national championship. But now that you aren't winning, oh, it's so tough. It's Schrodinger's

Starting point is 00:05:17 schedule, everybody. The schedule that's so tough, it gets you ready to play national championship games. But also, it's so tough. You're not ready you don't have the depth, you don't have the manpower left to win a national championship. But somehow everybody else is scheduled just so easy. It allows them to whoop on your head. Right.

Starting point is 00:05:34 It's like so the big problem with what Lane is saying. And you just, you just debunked it by pointing out how the SEC has actually performed in the playoff. And they're still, they're getting more teams into the playoff than any other conference. Like they want the whole thing. Like, like they get more teams in than anyone else, but they will not rest until it's an SEC invitation. but they haven't actually performed in the playoffs over the past three years. And so basically what Lane Kiffin is lobbying for, what Greg Sanky, the commissioner, is asking for,

Starting point is 00:06:06 is really just judge us based on what we think we are, based on the preseason rankings. Let's not actually have to go out there and win our games. And it's like, I mean, you're not in a position to say that? Like I would take that argument more seriously if it was coming from the Big Ten commissioner right now than I would from the SEC commissioner. Because guess what? The Big Ten are the ones that are winning all the championships right now, not the SEC. Again, I very simply make the point of if in all of this talking about whose schedule should be what and who should be let in or who should be kept out,

Starting point is 00:06:44 in all of this talking, when we take away what you did against group of six teams and against each other, you did not piss a drop. You didn't piss a draw. You did nothing. It's not even like Old Miss dominated teams or dominated a team outside of the SEC and then ran into an absolute buzzsaw in Miami. And Miami was a very good team last year. Miami was not predicted to go to the national championship coming into the playoff. That's just the reality.

Starting point is 00:07:16 It took multiple upsets. Even after they upset Ohio State, they were not the favorites to go to the national championship from that side of bracket. So again, Lane Kiffen said he wanted Vegas to do the odds. And now it's we want three-win teams in. Well, you know what I want. I want for teams that have successful results

Starting point is 00:07:36 when they go against other teams, I want those teams in. I want teams who line up against their peers and say, hey, let's have it out. You go get your best guys. I go get my best guys that we can recruit to stay at our school for this year. and we'll have it out at the 50 yard line.

Starting point is 00:07:53 And whoever has the most points, when that whistle goes off for the last time, whenever that clock has all zeros or we've run out of overtime and two-point conversions, who's got the most points? That's what I like. I don't like Vegas. I don't like, oh, well, this team,

Starting point is 00:08:10 and we all know if this team played this. We don't know a damn thing. We don't know it. Hypothetical. The SEC are hypothetical world champs every year. And the AP voters. they know it. Well, if that's true, then the AP from week one or preseason through the last week of the

Starting point is 00:08:28 playoff, it would be very similar, right? It would be very similar. If the AP knew, Jane Franklin would still be in Happy Valley. Drew Allen would be a number one pick. Kay Klupnik would have been a Heisman candidate, right? And a national champion. And a national champ. If the AP knew.

Starting point is 00:08:45 Unfortunately, guys like me and you, we do our best of predicting based on what we have. see. That's all we can work on. And in college football now, we're seeing team turnover, especially in the ACC, up around that 35 to 40 percent range. That's how much teams are turning over from year to year, 35 to 40 percent. We've never seen anything like that. This is an unprecedented time. So I'm not going to crap on the media and say, oh, the AP got it wrong. Because the AP was getting it wrong before there was turnover like this in the conferences where one-third of your team was going to be brand new every year.

Starting point is 00:09:21 So I'm sitting here simply saying, why in all you want, SEC? Why in all you want? But at some point in time, when the ball is put down, the old Miss Rebels got to play to Miami Hurricanes and what's going to happen? At some point in time,

Starting point is 00:09:39 the mighty Crimson Tide, and you want to know the funniest thing, and I'm going to let you go to break out to this, because I know we really deep in the weeds here. That Indiana team, was said to be the team that should never be allowed back in the playoff just one year ago. Or I'm sorry, two years ago. And I think you and I both said that too.

Starting point is 00:09:59 And we both, but no, no, no, I didn't. I said that Tennessee. I think I did. I said that if you're going to say Indiana doesn't belong in, Tennessee should also never be back because Tennessee had the largest margin of defeat in the first round last year. But nobody would fix their mouth to say, oh, the volunteers should never be allowed back. They ain't pissed the drop since T. Martin, was walking that campus.

Starting point is 00:10:20 T. Martin. But again, you're crazy if you say that Tennessee doesn't belong back, but Indiana doesn't belong back, and then they go and run the table to next year. They go in. They put belt road everybody so bad. Cheating conspiracy started up, and you're going to tell me that

Starting point is 00:10:36 your conference needs more than half of the invites. Because you already have five of 12, but now we need even more. We need to make this thing 16 of 24. If we ain't got two thirds, it ain't enough. And, you know, You can't imagine how tough it is to play in Starkville. You can't imagine how tough big blue nation is.

Starting point is 00:10:54 Oh, Florida Gators, even when they got a coach, that's a dead man walking. He's a bad boy. Stop. Again, we lined it up in this conference and your playoff teams lose to our teams that don't make bowl games. Proof by Florida State beating Alabama last year. That's what we do in the ACC. We lined it up and we win actual football games, not hypotheticals, not in Vegas. We win it on the field.

Starting point is 00:11:16 I couldn't have said it better myself. Now, with that said, not every quote that came out of ACC media days was perfect because, all right, Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi said something. It's like, all right, let's not get too crazy. Pat, let's quit while you're ahead, all right? You want to keep it locked right here because we're only getting started on this brand new episode of Lockdown ACC. Folks, this episode is brought to you by Odu. Running a business should not feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together. one app for accounting, another for inventory, another for sales, and somehow none of them

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Starting point is 00:12:20 it's about having everyone working toward the same goal. That's true in sports, just like it is in business. I mean, instead of complaining about scheduling and about playoff criteria, what Miami Hurricanes did last season, they put a team on the field that made a run to the national championship game, beat two SEC teams out of the playoffs on the way to get there, because great organizations win because operations matter. And that's why you should get Odu.

Starting point is 00:12:46 Try it free today at Odu.com slash locked on. that's O, D.OO.com slash locked on. Thank you for making locked on ACC your first listening. He's Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack talking all things NC State. I'm Alex Dono from Lockdown-Kane's talking all things Miami. All right. So something Kenton that Pat Narduzzi said during ACC kickoff media days, all right, Pat, let's cool it a little bit.

Starting point is 00:13:18 So he said, quote, the Pittsburgh head coach said, after about two years in the league, the ACC, I said, this conference is better. He said compared to the Big Ten, it's better than the Big Ten. It's got more skill. I've said that for years, and I'm going to stick to my guns. You look at our record in bowl games in the SEC and the Big Ten. You look at our record in the regular season.

Starting point is 00:13:43 We don't have a losing record. We have a winning record against those teams. Now, here's the problem, Kent. He's factually incorrect. Okay. The ACC's record against the Big Ten is six and nine over the past two seasons, 17 and 26 over the past five seasons. And the Big Ten has had the last three national champions, been a little longer since the ACC has won a national title. Pat Narduzzi himself has a losing record at Pitt against the Big Ten. So I don't, like, you could say it about the SEC.

Starting point is 00:14:18 The ACC had a winning record against the SEC last year. factually true. When you start just saying stuff about the Big Ten, yeah, not so much. Let me put on my spin hat for a second here. Let me put on my Paul Firebub, Lee, decide, take the top off the Mayback hat right here. Okay, here we go. Donno, he was only half wrong. Hear me out. Hear me out. Come with me here. Come with me. He was wrong and saying, I'm sticking to my guns. We are the better conference. People forget. People forget. get. Narduzi is one of the longest tenure coaches in the nation.

Starting point is 00:14:57 He said when I got here, two years in, I said the ACC is more skilled. Now, mind you, he got there in 2015. In 2015, that was when Florida State was kind of coming down and

Starting point is 00:15:14 you're looking at a Clemson team that was in their heyday, hitting their peak. You're looking at the Georgia Tech teams that have Paul Johnson on the sidelines and they were cooking, you're looking at a conference where you could not just take a week off and all of a sudden you were good. You were looking at some of the best football in the nation in the ACC at that time.

Starting point is 00:15:41 At that time. You were looking at. You were looking at Beamer Ball still rolling, doing good things. Has Darduzi been in cryos sleep for like the past eight years still? But see, but see, this is. This is what the spin is for, Dado. This is what the spin is for. You got to spit it.

Starting point is 00:15:55 You got to spit it. Because, again, I'm objectively speaking. If we're continuing Narduzi sticking to his guns, he's wrong, right? But Narduzzi is also a defensive coordinator. He's one of those guys, right or wrong, I'm going to stick beside it. Doing through it through, I am who I am. Pat Narduzzi, if y'all don't know, runs cover four religiously. Religiously.

Starting point is 00:16:14 That is his whole, like, hey, my linebackers are free to flow and figure it out. And my DBs, cover four. You got to know it. We barely take one linebacker off the field, let alone too. You are hard up to see Pitt and die. Now, Dono and I know that. And Dono and I, I'm not going to ask about Donno's salary, but I know both of us don't make millions of dollars to do this.

Starting point is 00:16:36 And yet. Billions over here, buddy. Oh, see? See? What I'll be? I'm undershooting my guy, Dono. But you see what I mean in terms of the reality of what we're looking at here is Pat Narduzzi to stick to my guns type of guy.

Starting point is 00:16:50 and he's just sticking to his guns. He at one point in time, like he said, I thought it two years in. He was correct. He was correct. At that time, if you look at the overarching theme of, from 2016, which was his second year in the league, to about 22-ish, who had more national championships?

Starting point is 00:17:10 Us. Okay. Us. But if you expanded over the broader reach and say, hey, you still sticking beside that? He's just one of those guys. He's loyal to the soil. He's the folks that were playing on the Titanic as it was going down saying,

Starting point is 00:17:27 it's an honor playing with you, gentlemen, and he continues. I'm not that guy. Put me in the lifeboat. I'm actually, we going to get out of here. You know, you say women and children first, I'm a child of God. So put me on that lifeboat. But he's one of those guys. He's just going to go down playing.

Starting point is 00:17:41 I mean, I appreciate what you tried to do there. And I will go as far as to say, Pat Narduzzi should hire you to be his spokesman. because you did a much better job with whatever that spin session was with what he said. He goes, okay. So Narduzzi, Kenton, he has, since he's been the head coach at Pitt, he has faced Big Ten opponents seven times while at Pitt. Would you like to know his record against the Big Ten? I'm against two and five. One and six.

Starting point is 00:18:15 Yeah. A little hot around the collar. Is it? I mean. Dono, my client request a brief recess for us to regroup. And we'll be right back with an updated kind of strategy here. But my client wasn't prepared for facts to come into this thing. I can't remember what politician it was,

Starting point is 00:18:36 but they were doing some fact-checking during real-time during the debate. You said you wouldn't fact-checked. That's how me and my client, Mr. Narduzi, feel right now. We will be back to you after this commercial with a reworked strategy of why the ACS. is birded to the big team. Well, with that said, I mean, listen, I wish Narduzzi all the success this coming season, I just, you know, I don't know if the ACC is quite ready to overtake the Big Ten just yet.

Starting point is 00:19:03 We will find out. If you find a woman that's lower to me like Narduzzi is to the ACC, you'll be here at Wedding Bells. I'll be joining you on the other side of nuptials, all right? Yeah, no, for sure. You know who's not loyal to a couple of ACC teams covers. They put out a few best bets for the ACC this coming year. And I encourage you guys if you're going to make those wagers do it at Fandual.

Starting point is 00:19:30 But I don't know. I think the fans of Georgia Tech and the fans of Cal, I'm talking to you, Calgary. You're not going to be happy with their preview. You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of LockdowneACC. Thank you so much for making LockdowneCC your first listen. For your next listen, make sure you check out our other shows. Kenton Gibbs and Grayson Boone, host Lockdown, Wolfpack, talking all things, NC State.

Starting point is 00:19:59 I'm Alex Dono. I host Locked on Keynes talking all things, Miami. Now, one of covers his best ACC bets for this year, they put out three of them. I'm not going to argue with this one, Kenton, Miami to win the ACC at minus 135. I definitely don't think that's the best value because everyone else is in the plus money. But I mean, listen, man, if there ever was a time for Miami to win the ACC, championship for the first time ever. I would think this year

Starting point is 00:20:27 with the team that they have versus the rest of the rosters in the ACC, if not now, maybe never. You know, this is one of those moments where you've got to say, all right, if it's not going to be them, who's going to be that team? Right. And obviously, Miami has, I mean, they got guys everywhere.

Starting point is 00:20:43 You know, if you thought rocking that huddle, you're more likely hit a future pro bowler than you are a future account. And that's just the reality of what Miami's working with. That may not be true. of pretty much any other team in the ACC. And again, that's not to be disrespectful. It's just to talk about what we're really looking at in terms of the odds here.

Starting point is 00:21:03 So, you know, I would, I'm not surprised by that. And like you said, it may not be the best squeeze. It may not be the most juice out of that squeeze. But it is one of those things where it's like, I'm pretty sure if I squeeze this lemon, some juice is going to come out. Yeah, yeah, 100%. But there are other two best bets, Kenton. It's going to anger a couple of fan bases in the ACC.

Starting point is 00:21:27 Let me give you both of them because these are similar bets, just two different teams. Their next best ACC bet is Cal under six and a half wins and Georgia Tech under six and a half wins. I especially with Cal, I'm going to have a lot of egg on my face because I have Cal finishing fifth in the ACC. So if they win six games or fewer, I'm going to be able to. looking pretty bad in a few months. And I think Georgia Tech will be better than over under six and a half wins as well. I think Georgia Tech finishes very close. I think they're right there on the line.

Starting point is 00:22:05 To be honest, I don't think a ton of Alberto Mendoza. I just don't think there's a lot there, but I could be wrong. I have not seen them play. So it's very similar to Lincoln Keenholz. But the difference is Lincoln Keenholz has a proven quarterback whispered. It's like, hey, you give him a sentient room. that thing might throw for 1,200 yards, just because that's what, you know, Brom does.

Starting point is 00:22:28 Kyle, on the other hand, I mean, their schedule alone. Like you, I'm hard up right now to say they can't beat UCLA, Syracuse, Wagner, Clemson's probably going to be a loss. UNLV, Virginia Tech, wait for us, SMU is probably going to be a loss. NC State on Halloween. Well, didn't Cal keep SMU out of the ACC championship? championship by beating them last year. And mind you, that game was in Cal.

Starting point is 00:22:56 So they're going to be in Dallas. In Dallas this year. In Dallas. Okay. With, you know, YNW Melley told you what he had on his mind. And I think that they may have a similar thing on their mind in the SMU for that Cal team that kept them out the playoffs. But then after that, you've got Virginia Stanford Pitt.

Starting point is 00:23:16 I could easily, easily see seven in there. But again, the question is. is it's not just about the talent and the ability. You also have got to ask, how good do you feel about Tosh support? Because I think that's what this is more than anything else. But I'm going to tell you, Kyle Gorrhythm, I'm riding with you. I'm riding with you.

Starting point is 00:23:36 I'm taking the over. I'm taking the over. I believe in this Kyle team to get themselves seven. Hopefully, just don't come at the expense of my NC State Wolfpack. You know what I mean? If you can just spare us what, you know? But in all seriousness, I think that the cow gets the over. Georgia Tech, I think they stay on the underside.

Starting point is 00:23:52 despite the fantastic facts they got. I am looking at Georgia Tech schedule right now, and I think I agree with you and with covers. So, you know, they open again at Colorado, which I think is a win. Yeah, I think they beat them last year, and I think they'll beat them again. Then they play against Tennessee,

Starting point is 00:24:14 which is, you know, pretty tough game. I hope they win for the sake of the ACC. Then they play against Mercer, obviously a win. And play against Stanford, probably a win. Against Duke, could be a win, but not a guaranteed. Against Virginia Tech, that's on the road, tough. Home against Boston College, that's a win at Pitt, home against Louisville. Those could both be losses.

Starting point is 00:24:40 At Clemson, it's probably a loss versus Wake Forest at home. Could be a win, but I don't sleep on Wake. And then at Georgia, which I know it's a rivalry game, and they usually keep it pretty close. But yeah, I don't think I see seven wins there. You just gave me five locks and three could be a wins. Five locks, three could be a wins. If we count each win as a half a win, that puts you exactly at six and a half. Yeah. So the handicappers, they, although they're very wrong about cow, and you know what it is, you know what it is, they said it's too expensive to live out there in California. You know, that Bay Area, the air is too nice. They don't really got mosquitoes.

Starting point is 00:25:18 You know what it is? You know what it is, honestly? I think the sports books, they have to put Cal's number a little low because most people will see Cal without really knowing how much talent they have and just say, oh, no, they're going to go under. So I think probably, if anything, the action probably puts Cal because Cal to me is like one of the more easily dismissed programs for whatever reason. So I just think a lot, probably the public probably sways it that way. again i work in early stage startups i work in places that are out there and all that good stuff i'm gonna get out to memorial sometime in the near future i'm going to be out there and calgarythum bring your best tailgate because i believe in you i think that this team is going to get them seven or more this year i think that they're going to go to over i think tosh support year one he's going to go to over and a lot of things

Starting point is 00:26:10 that hurt other coaches he doesn't have to deal with because he doesn't know a world without nile he's never been a head coach in the world without an a else. So he, oh, yeah, this is, this is how we recruit. Yeah, you got to pay the guys. That's, that's what it is. He knows all that stuff. So even if this year ain't the year, next year, I think they'll, you know, they'll, they'll be in better territory. But even in year one, I think he's assembled to staff well enough. And who's their GM again, Dono? Who's their GM? Ron Rivera. Ron Rivera. I think that's a pretty good guy. Super Bowl attended, you know, Super Bowl headed two coach, NFC championship coach. I don't think that's a pretty good guy to help you out with the owner field to help you set up your staff

Starting point is 00:26:50 and say, hey, if you don't have the experience, that's fine. But here's what you're going to need to get where you want to go. You know, it's always great to see Robert Rivera at media days. I don't think he was there this year. Yeah, no, I didn't see him there this year. But I'm going to tell you what, man, I believe in this cow team. The Calgaryth has me. And I have the Calgary. I got your back, boys. I believe in the Gold Bear's getting done. Yeah, well, we appreciate Kenton. We appreciate the everydayers. We'll talk to you next time. on another episode of Lockdown ACC.

Starting point is 00:27:18 We are part of the number one sports podcast network, the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - DISPUTE: Lane Kiffin INSISTS 9-3 SEC Teams DESERVES Playoff, But Miami HURRICANES and Big Ten SHATTER That Logic?

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