Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - Duke and Georgia Tech Set for EPIC Showdown | Second Best in ACC?

Episode Date: October 14, 2025

ACC Football Shakeup: Duke vs. Georgia Tech Clash for Second Place. Is Miami's reign already in jeopardy?Alex Donno and Kenton Gibbs break down the pivotal matchup between Duke Blue Devils and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, both undefeated in ACC play. The hosts analyze Duke's revamped offense and Georgia Tech's formidable front seven, questioning if this game will reveal the conference's true second-best team. Miami Hurricanes' dominance faces scrutiny as Donno and Gibbs explore the team's ability to finish games strongly against tougher opponents.Don't miss the hosts' bold predictions for potential upsets, including SMU's chances of silencing Death Valley against Clemson Tigers.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!SupplyHouseJoin the free TradeMaster program today and score serious perks like priority shipping, lower prices, and a dedicated support line. Visit https://www.supplyhouse.com/apply-for-trademasterto sign up for free and use promo code SHCOLLEGE5 for 5% off your first order.  WayfairGet organized, refreshed, and back to routine for way less. Head to https://Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. PelotonLet yourself run, lift, flex, and push forward. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread+ today at https://www.onepeloton.com. Rugiet150,000 men have made the switch →https://Rugiet.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGEUse code LOCKEDONNFL to get 15% off your order! DoorDashWith DoorDash Streaks, you save every Saturday you order — stack it up all season and you could save up to $250. Order this Saturday. Keep the streak alive. Fuel your gameday — only with DoorDash. Terms apply. Promo period through 11/18.MazdaIt’s the small details that make the big plays. And just like there’s more to every player, there’s more to a Mazda vehicle. Mazda. Move and Be Moved. GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at https://www.monarchmoney.com/lockedoncollege for 50% off your first year.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.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.

Who's the second best team in the ACC? We're going to find out this weekend. You are Locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Shout out to the Everydayers, and thank you so much for making Locked on ACC your first listen. We're available free wherever you get your podcast. We're free on YouTube. We're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

He is Kent and Gibbs, former NC State Defensive Lyman, co-host of Lockdown Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono, host of Lockdown Canes, and today's episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code Lockdown College for $20 off your first purchase. On this loaded episode, we'll take a look at the Week 8 slate in college football, who in the ACC might suffer an upset loss. We'll talk about players of the week, including an interesting trend that's developing among ACC Player of the Week award recipients. And all right, so Kenton, before we get to the biggest question for every contending team in the ACC,

I want to ask you, the game 12 noon this weekend in Durham, North Carolina, Duke Blue Devils are one and a half point favorites at home against number 12 Georgia Tech, so essentially a pickum with that point spread, is that game between two teams that are undefeated in conference, Georgia Tech undefeated overall, but could that game tell us who is the second best team in the ACC behind Miami? It could. It also could not. Hear me out. Hear me out. Hear me out. Hear me out. And I know you're thinking that's a cop-out answer. There are multiple teams that are playing excellent football right now. And we are not acknowledging some of them because of, well, you are who you are, but I'm going to tell you something. We have to stop looking at the helmet

and look at the product that is coming from the players in those helmets. For example, if we look at UVA, they have played darn good football this year. They're one of the three right teams in the ACC for a reason. They're one of the three for a reason. So it is very possible because Duke, I said that they get right against NC State. I said it before the season started. I said that game against NC State is where their offense figures it out. And statistically speaking, their offense has gotten.

exponentially better since that game. They have taken care of the ball better. They have controlled the clock better. There is almost nothing they have done offensively worse since that game than before. So they're playing great ball. Georgia Tech, obviously. I mean, you talk about physical. You talk about a team.

Imagine, if you will, a nerd school once again punching you in the mouth. I mean, they're coming downhill so quick. People are starting to see, is that? Is that Brett Key or is that Paul Johnson? Who's that coaching that offense over there? I just see quarterbacks diving at me head first. I don't understand what's going on. So you've got a team that you've got that with.

And one of the more underrated parts of Georgia Tech, they're front seven. Oh, they got some dudes. Oh, yeah. They got some dudes in that front seven that are excellent at stopping the run as well. So you look at Georgia Tech and what they've done. They could absolutely, if they dominate this game, I feel like then I'm comfortable saying Miami

and then a little gap and then Georgia Tech and then a little gap and then Virginia Tech and then everybody else. Apologies UVA fans. I've given you all your respect. I didn't mean to call you the wrong team. I follow that. But I think that you have that kind of hierarchy established.

But in this game, if we see something where it's extremely close and it's a back and forth affair and we see Georgia Tech once again playing down to their opponent or Duke's offense can't get it going, but neither can Georgia text. Then we got to have a conversation about is UVA the team? Because again, objectively speaking, what have we seen from the UVA outside of the NC State game

besides them with a prolific high-powered offense, which we want to say you got to play both sides to get to the ACC championship? Historically, has that been the case? Historically, have there not been teams that were only great on one side of the ball that they just got a couple breaks to go their way. Because it would have been the same way for Miami last year. If you get a couple breaks to go your way in that Syracuse game, you walk away with that win.

And now you're in the ACC championship game with a defense that couldn't stop me and Donald. Okay? If me and Donald decide to put on some jerseys to get to backfield, well, who's this Alex character? Do we need to consider him for running back in a week? So, you know, I really and truly look at these teams and say, next week we'll give us a lot of answers.

I'm just not sure that those answers are definitive enough for me to poke my chest out to say, ladies and gentlemen, the Duke Blue Devils are the second best team in the conference by a mile. Well, before we get the answers, we have to ask the questions. So if I look through the teams that are undefeated in conference plays so far, like the contenders for the ACC championship, what's the biggest question mark for all these teams? Like we can start with Georgia Tech and Duke because they have the big matchup this weekend. And with Georgia Tech, like my question for them is, because they've answered questions already this season, but the question I still have is, are they going to play down to the competition, as they sometimes do, as they already did against Wake Forest? They were able to survive that game a few weeks ago.

But, you know, the last couple of years, we typically see Georgia Tech play at their best when they're going up against the Miami's and the Georgia's of the world. And then they tend to have, you know, the sleepy games against the lesser opposites. So that's my big one for Georgia Tech. My big one for Duke, you know what? I'm not sure what my question is for Duke. I think my question would be, are they truly the team we've seen for the past couple of weeks, or are they the team that looks so uneven in their non-conference schedule? Can they keep the turnovers down?

Because as you stated, when they keep the turnovers down, they beat everybody. When they shoot themselves in the foot, and that's not to take any credit away from the teams who beat them. But, you know, Duke tends to aid the opponent in beating them when they lose committing all these turnovers. Absolutely. And my questions would be very similar because Georgia Tech has shown the propensity. When you play the best, you are the best. You go blow for blow with the best of them, right? It's like a boxer who every time you put them in a ring in a prize fight, oh, they can do it.

You never know. They might even get your first round knockout. Lord forbid you put them on the undercar. Lord forbid you see him fighting in Tijuana all day. they're going to hit that mat early. That's who Georgia Tech has been, right? You needed a call to go your way to beat Wake Forest. That's just an objective.

You needed a huge big-time call to go your way. But then on the flip side of it, they have looked. Again, you put them up against the best. And all of a sudden, you're just like, is this a national championship team? Is this a bona fide playoff team? And you have to ask those questions because we see how last year, Georgia was running through.

All of these teams in the SEC like a Tomb Raider. They were just whooping the wheels off everybody. And then here comes old Georgia tank. No, their season's been up. They've been down. Oh, they won some games they shouldn't, lost some games they shouldn't. Eight overtimes? Eight overtimes to get rid of them.

So this is absolutely a team that you ask yourself, what can they do and how can they do that? For Duke, though, I have a slightly different question to you now. Here's my question for Duke. Manny Diaz, how long is the master of disguise been? ain't going to work defensively. Because it seems like some of these older quarterbacks and more experienced coordinators are starting to figure it out. It seems to me like Duke is playing more high-scoring games than we've ever seen by a

Manny Diaz coach team. And Dono, you know this better than anybody, right? You are a Miami guy. You covered him when he was at Miami in all these different places. And for the most part, Manny could stop anybody. He just couldn't score with the best of him. Now his score. is out of control, but even in wins,

he's struggling to get stops. Now, granted, these past few weeks have been better. So that plays into the question you asked of who are you? Are you this dominant team that we've seen the past few weeks, which make no bones about it? They have been flatly dominant in all of their guys.

I want to say, what is it? Three, four, five straight double digit wins or something like that. Three straight double digits wins. 12 against NC State, 35 against Syracuse and 24 against California, this is a team that is dominant right now, but you absolutely have the right to ask that question. Me, I'm asking, who is your defense? Because I think I got their offense

pick. I know. Y'all can't run the ball, but between Koso Brown and Darien Minsa and all of those receivers, including the Ivy League transfer in there as well, they've got some dudes that can do it in the passing game. I'm just wondering, who are y'all defensive? That's a great question. I can't wait to hear Kenton's question about Miami because he told me, spoiler alert, I don't know what his question is, but he did tell me he thinks he's going to piss off some Miami fans with his question. We can also talk a little Virginia as well on the other side.

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For your next listen, make sure you check out our other shows. Kenton, Gibbs, and Grayson Boone, do an awesome job on Locked on Wolfpack, covering all things NC State. I cover all things Miami on Locked on Cains. All right, so Kenton, my question for Miami, you know, going at they still have seven games left to play all acc games by the way for as good as Miami has looked their first five games has them ranked number two nationally a long way to go and I want to see this team actually close the season out um I think they're a lot more balanced

than they were a year ago in terms of complementary football the defense has been considerably better than the one you mentioned that couldn't stop me or you a year ago so I I think that they have the tools to actually finish the job this year. But a year ago, they started 9-0. They lost two of their final three regular season games and missed out on an ACC championship game and on a college football playoff berth. So I need to see Miami finish out the season. What is your question about Miami and why is it going to piss me off? Well, I'm upset because me and you have a very similar question just for different sample sizes. Because my original question, I had to think or something because this Miami team has looked very good.

And at first I said, well, the question is, can they get off the bus properly? Because if they do, they're going to be an ACC championship game, you know. But then I thought a little deeper. And I said, what has been Miami's Achilles Hill? You want to know if they can finish off a season? I want to shrink that down. Can they finish a game in dominant fashion?

Yeah, fair? Can they finish a single game? Yeah, I'm not pissed off, by the way, at that question. Yeah, I'm not pissed. Donno, it's concerning. It's concerning. We can pretend all day and night. Like, hey, you're always going to be good enough to where you can give up these 14.17 point deficits in the fourth quarter.

We can pretend like that's always going to be the case. You're not. You're not. Like, objectively speaking, I don't think that they're that good to where they play their worst game. Another team plays their best game. And they can do what they've done in the fourth quarter so far this year. And everything is okay. You can't.

You can't. It's not going to work. I don't know if it's a Mario thing. I don't know if it's a Dawson thing. I don't know who it is that decides in the fourth quarter. All right, guys, we're running a challenge. We're going to win the game with no passing allowed in the fourth quarter, everybody. That's a rule.

No new rule. No more throwing the ball allowed. And then all of a sudden, defense is saying, okay, well, man up across the board, stack the box, and they won't be able to run a ball. And for as good as your, y'all's offensive line is, as good as your running game is, when it's balanced, it's a different story when there's a gap, a hat,

a gap, a hat, and an extra in the box for any gap that's unaccounted for, that free roamer that's like, oh, yeah, I'll figure out. I'll get in where I fit in. That offense has to figure out, hey, at the end of the game, we can still do what we do. We will not abandon who bought us to the dance. Because they got bought to the dance and the Rose Royce,

and then as soon as they get to the party, they get a wandering eye. So I'm, oh, look at that. Yeah, I know the ballast offense got us wearing the most beautiful gown in the ball, but let's see what that guy over in and keeps spitting in the punch is doing. Like, let's see how he's feeling about us. What are you doing? What are you doing?

That's not, you know. So for Miami, my question is, can you finish a game in dominant fashion? I want to see it. Against good teams, it has not been revealed this year yet. I need to see that before I fully buy into Miami, not just as an ACC contender, because the ACC contender, all they got to do is get off the bus.

That's my question. Can you show up to the games? Can your plane arrive in one piece? If so, congratulations, you'll be in Charlotte. But in terms of getting the goals that are laid out before them now that they have looked so good, can you finish? Because you're not going to be able to get away with that in the playoffs.

You may not be able to get away with that an ACC championship game in terms of getting up and then said, all right, that's it, boys. We got a double-digit lead to fourth. Let's pack it in. I agree. And it's everything. It's not just play calling. It's also execution.

Because in that Florida State game, where you never felt like they were going to lose the game, but it was a little frustrating watching FSU score 19 unanswered points when they were getting blown out. And it was execution. You know, play calling did get very conservative. I think a lot of that is by design, as you mentioned, whether that's a good thing or not. And the defense was committing stupid personal foul penalties left and right. And you know what? I agree with you.

A lot of Miami fans agree with you. think a lot of people in that building, and Coral Gables agree with you, because after that game against Florida State was over, Rubin Bain didn't look all that happy. Like he looked, you know, didn't look like a guy who just won a big rivalry game, looked like a guy who was dissatisfied with the way they finished the game. Same thing with Mario Cristobal was some of the things that he said. So Miami, by the way, they're Friday night game. So don't let that catch you off guard. They're hosting Louisville on Friday night. Louisville's a talented team.

they've had, you know, issues, especially on the offensive line, they've had issues. Miami's favored by 13 and a half points, Kenton. That's a big number. So in order to cover that spread, and Miami, I think, has the talent to do it. And being the road team in a Friday night game is never easy. So Miami has the talent to do it. But if they're going to answer that question you just asked, they're going to cover that 13 and a half point spread. They have to close the game strong.

They do have to close the game strong. And here's the thing. I'm deeply worried about our boy Miller Moss over there. I'm deeply worried about him. He's struggling. He's struggling. And like you said, the protection has not been there.

And I'm going to tell you, if you can't protect against this Miami team, oh boy, they got these two jokers over there about the name of Bain and Mezzadour, okay? And I'm telling you, it ain't going to go well. You know, you're going to try to double one of them, and then the other one's going to be all over your quarterback.

And then you're going to try to double that one. And then the other one, it's a very sick sadistic game, those to a play with quarterbacks. But I'll tell you this much, if they cannot protect and if they cannot make it a situation where they're balanced office, I've talked about how much I've loved their running backs all off season. And they embarrass me, Dono. These backs are embarrassing me.

This ain't the Duke Boxing from last year, averaging eight yards of carry. This ain't the Isaac Brown from last year. I don't know where those guys went. If you all could stand up, please. If you can say present when your name is called during roll call, please do so because I haven't seen you. You've been no shows all season. if Louisville can make this game one where it's close enough for them to be balanced,

if they keep within striking distance, I feel like they've got a good shot. Because again, Miami by and large, late in games, it's still yet to be seen if Mario has the coaching chops to get it done late in a close game. That's still a legitimate question, I feel like. And in this here, Schnellenberger Bowl, somebody, somebody is going to prove to be the more balanced team. and that team is going to be more effective. Miami has a slight edge in terms of defensive line because Louisville's defensive line

is one of the best kept secrets in America, I feel like. They're very good. They just don't get the recognition. Offensive line, this is a massive cast. I'm not about to sit here and play with you and say, oh, Louisville's offensive line and Miami's offensive line are even comparable. It's like they're playing different sports out there.

But at the end of the day, this is a Friday night. This is a rivalry game with a trophy on the line, by the way. The Snellenberger boots, baby. The Snellenberger boom, this is one of my favorite trophies. It's one of those underrated trophies in college football. It is. It's a great trophy.

And so I look at this game and I say this is going to be, it could be an exciting game or it could be, you know, it'll be Desmond Bain. I'm sorry, it'll be Hurricane Bain singing love songs. Yeah, he'll be singing love songs to Miller Moss all night. Hello, hello, hello, it's me. It's important to me that you know you are not free. You are on my field, baby.

It'll be one of the other. One of, speaking of Bain and Mezzador, like, one of my favorite moments and gifts of the season so far is Miami against Florida State, like Castellanos, like the pockets breaking down. He's rolling out to his right, and Akeem Mezador is standing there. So then he shakes and starts rolling to the left, and Rubin Bain is like, boo. And then he ends up getting taken down by Mezzador. It's been like that all season so far for Miami. Going back to the questions, I want to get a question on Virginia, who is Cinderella right now in the ACC. They just keep winning.

They just keep winning in overtime. They're undefeated in ACC play. My question, even though they lost to NC State, which was a non-conference game, weird, I know, but they are undefeated in ACC play. My question is, are they really talented enough to get over the finish line? They're playing hard. They've been very opportunistic. Tony Elliott is like one of the better stories because this guy was on the hot seat coming to the season,

but this is still a team. They're not that much different than the team that wasn't bull eligible last year. Now, their quarterback Chandler Morris, who was not here last year, was doing an amazing job, but I still, like, I have my doubts that Virginia actually has the talent to win the ACC.

See, and that's a very good question. That is a very good question in terms of the talent of Virginia. I think offensively, they have plenty of talent. My question is, can that defense, hold up just long enough. Can they be just opportunistic enough? Because Dono, we talk about how easy Georgia Tech schedule is down the stretch. I want you to look at this as objectively as we can, okay?

Okay. The rest of the season, here is the schedule and tell me how many of these games Virginia will not be favored in. Washington State. They'll be favored. Wazoo's awful. North Carolina. They'll be favored.

North Carolina is awful. California. They'll be favored, I think, yeah. Wake Forest. Favored. Duke. Probably an underdog. Well, I don't know.

Is it home or away? The Duke game is in Durham. It's in Durham. So they might be like a one and a half to three-point underdog maybe. Okay. And then obviously the Commonwealth Bowl against Virginia Tech. Oh, that's an easy one this year. I'm trying to tell you, Dono.

The question for this team, can your defense hold out? Can you, because to me, the biggest surprise is not Chandler Morris being who he is. Because many people could have predicted Chandler Morris is going to be good there. Many people are not shocked by that. That running game that they got there, the fact that Taylor is so hard to bring down, that is what is shocking so many people. And that is what has people saying, this Jamari Taylor kid is maybe Sunday bound. And so that plus an offensive line that keeps getting better and better and better.

And you ask yourself, can this defense hold on long enough? And here's why I say, can this defense hold on long enough? They've lost one game this year, 35 to 31, okay? So in the one game they lost, they allowed 35 points. But other than that, they allowed 38 against Florida State, which you could say, well, that was in overtime. So that was a little bit extra on top of that. Okay, fine.

But then against Louisville, you allowed 27. The question for this team, can your defense do enough to keep you where you are? because that offense, we know what Virginia's offense is going to be just about. I don't think anybody would be surprised that they average 30 and 35 the rest of the season. It's a high-octane offense. Defense, can you show up enough? Get one or two takeaways, one or two stops in the right moment to put y'all where y'all need to be. Because if you can, they can end up like Wake Forest a few years ago.

That Wake Forest team didn't win the ACC Championship. Kitty picking in a fake slide got that accomplished, which, by the way, very nasty work. Oh, yeah, I forgot about that play. Very nasty work. by Kenny Pickett. And all those pit fans called me everything by the child of God and saying he wasn't the first round pick.

Look at them now. But anyhow, you've got a situation where you can go. I'm not saying they'll beat Miami. I'm not saying they'll beat Georgia Tech if they go. I'm not saying either one of those things. I'm saying they can get there if they can just be opportunistic enough. By the way, there is a, I think we brought this up a couple weeks ago,

but there is a possible scenario. And I'm not saying, and as a Miami guy and you know, Kenton, I, I'm very, I try to stay very humble about Miami. I'm also very superstitious, so I don't like to get ahead of myself. But there is a scenario where, because none of these three play each other, Miami, Georgia, Tech, Virginia, none of the three play against one another. They could all be undefeated in conference by the end of the year, right? And if Miami goes undefeated in conference, they're going undefeated because they only have

ACCC games left. The other teams have non-conference left on the schedule or in Virginia's case they already lost a non-conference game against NC State. There is a scenario where Miami is 12 and 0 and ranked number one in the country after 12 games, and they may not get to the ACC championship game if both if both Virginia and Georgia Tech go undefeated in conference because there is a tiebreaker. The tiebreaker, if they're all three undefeated, is winning percentage of conference opponents, which Miami has no control over. So, You want to talk about a scenario.

If you think people already think the ACC is a stupid conference, can you imagine if Miami is undefeated ranked number one or number two in the country at that point? And they don't play in the ACC championship game because of a tiebreaker that they have no control over. And you know what else that would guarantee Miami? A home game in the playoffs. Yes, right. And a buy week. I was about to say, you get a buy week, you get a home game.

And if you end up on the side with the orange bowl, you can end up in back-to-back home games off of B'all. Oh, that would be insane for Miami. That would be insane. But I'll tell you this much. I doubt that all three of these teams go undefeated. Yeah, same here. Same here.

I would like to see what this looks like going down the stretch. And I'll tell you this much, Donnell. I'm more intrigued by what if we get some coastal chaos down the stretch? What if we get complete and utter anarchy down the stretch? What if Georgia Tech loses to do but then beats Georgia? Yes. What do you do if you're the committee? Because Georgia's your golden goose and the last time you saw him, what happened to him?

You know, so there's a lot of very interesting things here to say. And I'm going to tell you, Kea is right there. He's right there on the precipice of beating Kirby Smart. And right now, it's only coaches who got that little crimson A or the little crimson helmets with the numbers on the side and all their fans were those weird fedoras and whatnot. That's the only team. It's got Kirby's number right now. But Georgia Tech is right there to being another one of those teams. So I'm very intrigued to see what would happen if we get true coastal chaos in that fashion to where Georgia Tech does not make it.

But they end up a one-lost team with a win over Georgia. What would you do? That would be nuts. All right. Well, when we come back, there's an interesting. trend if you look at ACC players of the week over the past few weeks. Plus, what's the most likely upset in the conference this weekend? You want to keep it locked right here.

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Download the game time app, create an account and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, that's promo code, locked on college, all one word for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. Download game time today. Thank you for making Locked on ACC your first listen. So if you go through the ACC players of the week, you got a couple of few pit panthers on there. a linebacker of the week, Kyle Lewis,

receiver of the week, Des Reed, who just tore Florida State's defense to shreds, and quarterback of Pitt, true freshman in his second start wins again, Mason Heinzschel. And the ironic thing about this, Kent, I actually saw a Florida State fan was the one who posted this on X

and like, yeah, he's right. Three straight weeks, the quarterback, the conference quarterback that goes up against Florida State wins conference quarterbacks. of the week. It was Chandler Morris from Virginia. It was Carson Beck from Miami. Now it's Mason Heinzschele of Pitt. That's usually something that indicates your defense is not playing too well. If three straight quarterbacks win conference player of the week off of playing your defense.

Hey, Donno, quick question. What does Desmond Reed line up for a majority of his snaps? Running back. And he shredded them at receiver. Yeah. Yeah, they got some problems over there in Tallahassee, man. This is nasty business. Thank God they're playing Stanford this week, because Stanford, not very good at throwing the ball. I don't know. I mean, I think Ben Go Branson might be in line for conference quarterback of the week this week based on the trends. I'm not joking, Dono. If Ben Goldbranson wins ACCC player in a week, Mike Norville is going the way of Coach Franklin. You understand? Yeah. Yeah, he wouldn't survive the way. If they lose in Stanford, he's,

He's not coming back. Not just losing the Stanford. Losing the Stanford by them throwing the ball all over you, hit the road, Jack. And don't you come back no more. Don't, you can't allow that. You can't allow that. Stanford hasn't thrown the ball that effectively against anybody. I mean, that's, ooh, that'd be a real tough one to see there.

But I will say this. At least these quarterbacks that you're saying are lighting up Florida State. You can look at it and say most of these guys, you project them to have pretty good career is going forward, right? You look at Chandler Morris, you know, he had a story career leading up to this and is now leading one of the best teams in ACC C sends the Florida State win. They're still undefeated outside of the NC State game without that win over Florida State, right?

You look at this team and you say to yourself, well, Miami, top five team in the nation, you live with that. You live with, hey, that's that. If you let a Stanford team that was not able to throw the. ball around the yard against the mighty San Jose State Spartans. Yeah. San Jose State. Little mountain West talk.

You can't. That team has a better second area. Pack it up. Pack it up, Mikey. It's been real. It's been fun, but it ain't been real fun. Coach Norville, you get to have the best job there is, which is fired college football coach. Go take your 60 million and go sit down somewhere.

And by the way, did you see, though, James Franklin, despite the fact that he is a fired college football coach with a $50 million buyout, it's not a regular buyout. Like he has a clause in there. It's like a good faith clause. His agent must be so terrible at his job because he has a clause in his contract where he can't do what a lot of fired coaches do and just kick their feet up and relax. He's got to get another job. It doesn't have to be coaching. It's got to be either coaching or broadcasting. So Penn State only has to pay him if he gets another job,

and then they pay the difference in salary. So I don't think that was a Jimmy Sexton deal. I don't know who, you know, they say that James Franklin is bad in big games. His agent is bad in big negotiations because that is not a good contract. Oh, no, no, I think it is. Really, if you really think about this, Dono, right? You really think about this. He goes on and gets a job, you know, broadcasting for Vanderbilt for a year or whatever, right?

Like, oh, it's a Vanderbilt coaching legend. You know, we should bring him into the locked on network. And guess what? He'll have the difference of what we get paid and what he was getting paid or what he was supposed to get paid in terms of $58 million. So congratulations. You're going to earn $59 million by that, but no, I'm just joking. But you're going to make the whole joint back, basically,

because, again, it's not like, you know, it's not like this is a situation where he's in a terrible situation or nobody's going to want him. objectively speaking, they were one of the last four teams playing football last year with Drew Aller as their quarterback. Yeah.

Like, and people can tell me whatever lie you want about Drew Aller. I've got two eyes. I watch football. Same. I know what I saw. And I told everybody before that game, if this game comes down to a quarterback battle, Riley Leonard will beat out Drew Allen.

And lo and behold. So I really do think that, you know, his agent, that looks like, a bad clause on paper until you get into the fine details of it it's like you know if he ends up on uh fox sports or valley sports doing uh you know three seconds of of like oh yeah i'm on fan dual sports and i'm a broadcaster and they pay me 10,000 dollars a year yeah yeah that's sure the buyout got cut a whole bunch for Penn State now didn't it nudge nudge that's right yeah he should his next job he should accept the salary of one dollar per year and just let

Penn State pay the difference. Hey, now, a lot of CEOs, they're saying that that's how the CEOs are avoiding income tax. They get paid in stock options, which are not income. They're not technically income. So, you know. All right. Well, let's take, so tell me, tell me which game has the biggest possibility of being an upset. It looks like the biggest dog this weekend is Stanford at 17.5.

point underdogs at home at 1030 p.m. against Florida State. I think, well, if there's any doubt if Florida State's still playing for Mike Norvell, we're going to find out this weekend. But Stanford is a big underdog there. Pittsburgh is a 10 and a half point, or sorry, Syracuse is a 10.5 point dog at home against Pittsburgh. Yeah, I don't think Washington State's beating Virginia. Virginia's favor by 17 and a half. But we'll throw that out there. Here's one that's interesting to me, Kenton. SMU, 9.5 point dog at Clemson. We already saw Syracuse win in Clemson several weeks ago.

So I guess the odds makers feel like it's a different Clemson team that it was back then. Cal is a 10.5 point favorite against UNC. So UNC is a double-digit dog. And Louisville is a 13.5 point underdog against Miami on Friday night. Who do you see? And we're not talking spreads here. Outright, upset win. Who do you think is the most likely team to pull off an upset this weekend?

Well, we got to leave Lee Sterling out of this because we don't have what I perceive to be a wrong team favorite this week. We do not have a wrong team favorite. However, with that in mind, if you had to tell me, I've got to put all my chips on one of these dogs pulling it off, if I had to put all my chips to the middle of the table and say, hey, somebody with a spread that's bigger than three points is going to find a way to pull off an upset in this one, I'm going to tell you, Death Valley is going to be deathly quiet

if I had to pick one. I think that... Because SMU is a good football team. They are. They are. They're not as if there's some crappy team. And not only are they a good football team, they've been getting better every week.

They really and truly have. And it has not been respected because they played against the Syracuse team that didn't have Ricky Angelly or Steve Angelly. I don't know why it makes Ricky Adjali or Ricky College of Steve Ange. You made them one perfect quarterback. Exactly. Exactly. And then they beat up on a Stanford team that has an interim coach and somehow got $50 million from one football player that was not Andrew Luck.

Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. But, you know, I get why people are skeptical. But my question would be, what has Clemson done to show you their new team? beat up on two teams in very similar positions. Beat up on a UNC team whose coach, everybody is 90% sure is leaving. And the only recruiting he could do on a college campus was of a 24-year-old woman.

Like that's, what are we? Oh, you beat up on a Boston college team, which it's incredible to think that UNC may not have the worst coach named Bill in the conference, but they might not. That team is awful. That team is terrible. So I look at this game and I say to myself,

I love me some Rhett Lashley. You've got two programs headed in opposite directions. You've got a Dabo Coast team that seems like they're unsure themselves. They're not exactly confident. Like, sure, you got two games to shake back. But if I was to say, based on what I've seen so far, who do I believe in more? I would say SMU because, again,

they have shown that they can jump out to leads on good teams. They just cannot sustain those leads. And it seems like a lot of bad breaks are happening for them this year. But Death Valley seems like they've got a lot worse things going on there in terms of bad breaks and needing to come back against Troy. So we'll see who comes out on top. I expected to be Clemson. But if I had to pick one, if I had to, give me SMU. I'm with you.

Huge thank you, as always, to Kenton Gibbs. You can check him out at TJF underscore Kenton on X. Locked on Wolfpack is where you find his other show. Find my other show at Lockdown Keynes. and on X at Alex Dono, and we'll talk to you again next time on another episode of Lockdown ACCC. We are part of the awesome

Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team, every day.