Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - GUARANTEED: Miami Hurricanes & SMU Will REWRITE ACC History With Double Playoff BERTHS in 2026
Episode Date: June 29, 2026ACC Football eyes a College Football Playoff breakthrough as Miami and a surging sleeper could secure two CFP spots in 2026. Alex Donno and Kenton Gibbs debate Brad Crawford’s bold projection, quest...ion whether teams like SMU or Louisville can make a late-season jump, and analyze how conference parity and revamped schedules might shape the postseason landscape. Does Miami’s revamped roster have enough to dominate, and which dark horse—Wake Forest, Cal, or Pitt—could shock the ACC? Athlon Sports’ preseason All-ACC team reveals surprises: Miami is loaded at skill positions but lacks offensive line recognition, while Stanford’s Matt Rose stands out on defense. The hosts break down key standouts like Gio Lopez (Wake Forest), Isaac Brown (Louisville), and rising defensive stars, while questioning whether Cal and Syracuse can disrupt the established order. Can ACC’s unpredictable “coastal chaos” set the tone for another wild college football season? Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. From the opening whistle to the final kick, Let There Be Goals on FanDuel.Visithttps://FANDUEL.COMto get started 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.
Transcript
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This college football playoff guarantee should make every ACC fan feel hopeful.
You are Locked-on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.
He's Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack.
I'm Alex Dono from Lockedon Cain's, and this episode of Locked on ACCC is brought to you by Fanduel.
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On this episode, we'll talk Athlons, all-ACC preseason team,
some surprises on there that we need to speak about.
We'll talk sleeper teams because, again, folks,
I don't think anybody thought Duke would win the ACC last year.
We can never rule out the sleepers.
But Kent and Brad Crawford from CBS Sports put out,
basically, I guess a different version of a bold predictions article.
He put out 10 college football playoff guarantees for 2026.
And one that circles entirely around the Atlantic Coast Conference is that the ACC will flex with a second college football playoff entry.
Now, last year was a weird playoff picture for the ACC because the ACC champion Duke didn't get in.
Miami did get in and were the only ACC representative in the CFP.
Crawford is predicting we get two in this year.
Is he right?
I think so.
I think so because not only do I see a surprise team,
but I think it is very possible,
while I'm not willing to guarantee this,
it is very possible that Miami is who everyone thinks they are, right?
And with that possibility on the line,
you've got one spot locked up there.
Well, who's going to be your second?
Who's going to be your second?
there's a lot of very good challengers for that spot.
There's lots of teams that could end up kind of backing their way into 9, 10, 11 win seasons
just because the way that their schedule works out and just because you get to avoid
some of the heavy hitters in the conference and the fact that some of our heavy hitters
ain't heavy hitting no more.
They, you know, I believe one of our former presidents said,
walk light and carry a big stick.
well, some of our teams are just walking light with no stick in hand.
Nothing to be seen.
Was that a Teddy Roosevelt special?
I think we went.
Yeah, we went deep for that one.
I knew it was one of the Roosevelt.
I knew it was either FDR and Teddy.
But either way you got it, either way you cut it,
you're looking at a situation where there are plenty of teams that can do that.
And I joke a lot about Wake Forest having the quietest non-win season in history last year.
But imagine if you just swapped the fates of two conference games last year for them.
right like let's just say
NC State walks out of Winston-Salem
limping away with a loss and they pull out
one more just anyone at that
point in time you're looking at
a 10-win team going
into the postseason a team that probably
makes the ACC championship game
ahead of Duke and company
and so you're looking at a
situation where again that's
little old wait fours campus
about this big okay you could
drive through that thing without you know
the speed limit is 10 miles an hour you can still get
thought it about five. So that's, you're looking at it. And that's not to disparage them. I think
Dicker's a heck of a coach. I think they're going to have better quarterback player this year.
Am I saying they're going to be the team? No. But what I am saying is, isn't their quarterback
Gio Lopez? Yeah. Gio Lopez better than, I believe it was Ashford from last year.
Okay, maybe you're right. It's hard for me. I watched Gio Lopez complete like two forward passes
in the last year. It's a hard sell for me. Here's the thing. You're talking about him leaving a team.
where the old lady or young lady of the coach
is putting out a FOIA request on the university.
So you can't really, you know what I mean?
It's like, oh, they're a terrible cop
because their precinct had no arrest last year.
Well, the chief or the sergeant over there
was messing around throwing grenades out the door just because.
You understand?
I'm not too surprised that all the cop cars
blew up and they couldn't get in the rain.
So, you know, and again, this isn't just say
Wake Force is going to be the team.
It's to say in the ACC, because all of the teams are so close and you can have a season
where you just, who gets the ball last for certain teams, you'll end up there potentially.
The teams are so close.
And other than the one or two at the top and then the glut of three or four at the bottom,
everybody else is two plays away.
SMU last year, one drive away, really one play.
And at any point in time, if they figured out, hey, we need to cover that De Jesus guy.
from Kyle.
I think we may need to cover him.
He's been lighting us up all day.
We need somebody to escort him
everywhere he goes on the field.
If he's trying to invite somebody
to the dance after this,
we need us, one of our players,
be holding the flowers for him.
If they could have figured that out,
they would have had, you know,
a situation where they were in the ACCC championship game.
So again, that second team,
who's it going to be?
I don't know.
But is there potential for a second team?
You tell me, Dono.
If SMU wins that football game
and then goes on to beat Virginia
in the ACC championship,
do they get in?
Let's look at another world.
Virginia as it played as it lies.
Virginia Duke, ACC Championship, Virginia Beach Duke,
do they get in?
They would have gotten in.
So now Miami gets in, Duke gets in.
You would have had two last year,
I mean, not Duke, Miami and Virginia get in.
Virginia would have had two last year
if Tony Elliott and company handled their business in Charlotte.
That's right.
And trust me, I get it.
With all those topsy-turvy streets and all that
some of the extracurriculars in Charlotte.
I get how you get a little loss of time,
but that they found their way in Charlotte,
they would have been all right.
Yeah, so as Crawford lines out, lines this up in his piece,
I guess like the most clear way for the ACC to get two teams in would be,
and this is making the assumption that Miami does win the conference.
And again, like I'm wearing all Miami gear,
but nobody understands better than me that actually winning the ACC
has never been automatic from Miami.
So, I mean, if you take that for arguments,
sake. If Miami does win the ACC, they're obviously going to be in. They should have a strong
season. But the way the other part of the scenario plays out, Kenton is, you know, probably the
next two best teams on paper after Miami, SMU and Louisville. Neither of them play Miami in the
regular season this year. So one of them could end up opposite Miami in the ACC championship game.
And then even if they were to lose to Miami in that ACC championship game, have they already done
enough to get in. Like, would the CFP committee, the answer is probably no, but would they have the
same energy with the ACC conference championship runner up as they had with Alabama not winning
the SEC last year? Now, I understand neither team from the ACC got into the CFP last year because
neither of them, you know, had the resume, you know, that some of the other top teams did. But if,
like, SMU were to have a really strong resume and be considered a playoff team before, they
hypothetically lost to Miami in the college football playoff.
Would they have done enough is the ACC runner up to still get in?
I think, and I hope the answer would be yes.
Well, how can you deny them would be the question for me, right?
And we've asked this question before to negative results,
because we talked about this way back when before you were even a co-host on this show,
and we talked about Florida State and said,
you can't deny a team that's undefeated.
You just can't.
They're a powerful team and they're undefeated.
So we would hope that we don't once again,
see a one-off scenario for the ACC.
The hope is that at some point in time, we stop all this,
but the ACC is uniquely bad and we have to make adjustments.
Because again, when the ACC has been given a shot,
when we've been put in the playoffs,
you say what you want about Davosweeney's latest appearance of the playoff,
first round exit against Texas,
they threw more touchdowns against Texas
than Texas secondary had allowed all year.
So what do you really say to that, right?
Like, you look at what happened last year,
oh man you know this miami team shouldn't even be in over nother dame where did miami end that thing off
again in the national championship yeah you put the acc in and overwhelmingly we show up and we show
out you even people who would say well smu got smacked in the first round do you want me to go down the
list of cc teams that have been obliterated it's become a yearly tradition we talked about i vividly
remember Kirk Herb Street talking about the fact that Indiana should never get another
invite because of how Notre Dame beat them in the post game for Ohio State and Tennessee
two years ago.
The interesting thing is Ohio State had a larger margin of victory against Tennessee than
Notre Dame had over Indiana.
And it's post game for that game and they're saying, well, this is why they should have
never been invited.
So to me, you look at the ACC and again and again and again, you give us the chance.
Just put us in the competition and we're going to show out.
We're going to show out.
People said, oh, ACC is just a basketball conference.
That only applies to basketball.
And yet, every time ACC teams get in the playoffs, hold my beer.
Hold my beer because we're going to do something special, unlike certain conferences
that their teams can only beat each other in a group of five teams in the playoffs.
And if it ain't one of those two things,
O for in the playoffs.
The absolute owes in the chat, everybody.
So, you know, I think that there needs to be some respect place on the ACC's name
in terms of should they get into.
Yes, we should get into.
Well, maybe the most controversial of these playoff guarantees
concerns the Notre Dame fighting Irish,
who, you know, they didn't get into the playoff last year.
national runners up the year before,
and they are a strong contender to win a championship this year.
You will not believe what Crawford had to say about them.
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So on this Brad Crawford of CBS Sports, 10 college football playoff guarantees for 20.
his number one prediction is Kenton.
Notre Dame accepts villain role.
Before we get into what he had to say about it,
like Kenton, you know,
what was it, Notre Dame fans are,
they're very confident, if not cocky.
They, you know, they tend to expect to be treated differently
in a different category from every other program in the sport.
Do you feel like they want to be villains, though?
Is that something they want to embrace?
No, absolutely not.
I mean, Notre Dame has always been a school that's known as the Golden Children, right?
Their literal moniker is the Golden Domers.
Like, that's who they are.
They play football in front of touchdown Jesus.
And nobody steps up and says, hey, that's a wildly blasphemous.
Let's maybe not do that, you know, a little bit sacrilegious here.
What are we talking about?
This is a team that your school knows this as well as anybody.
They're great.
They're playing another great team.
It can't just be the best of the Midwest versus the best of the South.
It can't just be Notre Dame versus Miami, right?
It turns into what?
Catholics versus convicts, which inherently, because you are throwing the label of convicts on a certain group of young men and throwing up Catholics as the other,
you're inherently saying there's an air of moral superiority.
If you watch the documentary or if you know anything about college football,
you would know those were not Notre Dame Mass Choir Boys that they had playing football there.
That was not the case.
They had a few guys themselves that might have gotten behind the wheel after having too many to drink.
A couple guys themselves that might have had some run-ins with the law.
You know what I mean?
Let me not say any specifics, but there were multiple guys that had run-ins with the law on that team.
So will Notre Dame accept villainhood?
No, they don't know how.
We saw how they handled villainhood last year when it became this thing or their villain.
And instead of simply accepting the villain, this is what told me they weren't ready to be the villains.
And here comes the Irish with the whole thing of we gave the decision to the seniors.
And the seniors did it what they thought was best in yada, yada, yada, so and so forth.
That showed me you're not ready to be a villain.
Because only in movies do the villains go down the line and explain why they did all the terrible things.
They go on this monologue of I did this for this reason and that for that reason.
In real life, more often than not, the villains just do villainous activity and move on.
You don't give James Bond the whole monologue as he's hanging upside down and you're going to lower him into the shark pit.
No.
That's not how real life works.
No, no, it's much more like the villain from the watchman where he was like, yeah, you think I'm going to do it?
No, it's already done.
I started this plan 35 minutes ago.
While you were working your way up here, the plan was going into motion.
So I don't think that Notre Dame has that type of attitude as a fan base, nor as a team, nor is a team.
And the crazy part is they have the roster for it.
They have villain football roster.
Because when you think about teams that are traditionally the villains, right,
You think of like the Baltimore Ravens, physical, nasty, tough, beat you up, just boom, boom, boom.
That's what it is.
They have the roster for it.
They don't have the fan base for it.
They don't have the coach for it.
They don't have the administration for it.
They didn't say, Bavakwa didn't say, you know, the ACC made their decisions and we'll make ours accordingly.
It was, I can't believe the way that we've been treated by the.
terrible.
A, C, C. That's not what villains do.
Villains say, oh, that's the game we're playing.
I'm going to play it a little bit better.
Wait right here.
By the way, if you ever hear somebody say, wait right here in a menacing tone,
do not wait right there.
Leave, flee the premises immediately.
But yeah, that's not what Notre Dame did because that's not who they are.
That's a life lesson right there.
And you're right.
They will not embrace being the villain.
You know, something I wanted to get into, Kenton,
because again, you know, I mentioned it even,
though, like, Duke did not get into the playoff last year.
Maybe if they had one fewer non-conference loss, they would have.
But nobody expected the Blue Devils to win the ACC last season.
Clemson, almost a unanimous favorite to win the conference.
They didn't sniff the conference championship game.
Miami, despite, you know, a really good season, didn't get to the ACC championship.
SMU fell short.
Louisville fell short.
If you were going to say, and maybe you already answered it with the night.
things you said about Wake Forest and Gio Lopez, which I didn't have on my bingo card today.
Who do you think could be the ACC sleeper this year? Because I do feel that people sleep on the
Calgaryham out there west, out west with JKS heading into his second season with Tosh at the helm
and quite a bit of talent out there. I don't know, man. Like it wouldn't surprise. I mean, maybe all the
times they have to travel east is not going to be easy for them. But it would not surprise.
surprise me because Cal to me is a team that's way too talented to almost never be talked about.
So let me say this and let me say this from a very genuine standpoint, right?
I'm not joking at all when I say there's no sustained as Atlantic anarchy.
It doesn't exist.
But you know what does exist?
Coastal chaos.
Why is that important when the Atlantic were running things, when Florida State and Clemson was the de facto ACC
championship for many, many years, many, many years.
When that was going on, we had order
around the Atlantic Coast Conference.
All of a sudden, we started letting your coastal teams
get in this thing. You know, it started with Kenny Pickett
in that fake slide. That's where it started. And we've been
on a downhill, up, down, all around journey as a conference
ever since. So when you asked me, who do I think is
the sleeper? The list is virtually endless because we've got
coastal chaos. And you know what coastal chaos entails?
How about this as a conference? The ACC had one team that went to the national championship.
The ACC had one team that was predicted to be the first ever 16 and old national champion that was broadly accepted.
The ACC had another team that went to the conference championship despite a loss to Tulane.
The ACC had another team that went on to win double-digit games for its second time in like 40 years or something like that.
Yeah.
And all four of those were different teams.
Yeah.
None of those.
I'm not listening.
It could be anybody.
It could be anybody except Boston College or North Carolina.
I agree.
It could be anybody.
I agree.
The thing is, the thing is, would I be shot to see J.K.S. in the Calgary, the dancing their way on?
on the Charlotte. No, I would not say, I could not have predicted this.
I think JKS is the type of guy you win because of.
And on top of that, defensively, they lost a lot.
They lost Forelli, they lost the entire defensive backfitting all those things.
I get that.
I'm not going to argue anybody about that.
However, how many times have we seen teams that have these surprise years just be led
by a quarterback going absolute legend?
It's possible.
Rhett Lashley and SMU.
They've knocked on the door.
You're knocking on the door.
Kick that sucker down.
And then we're not talking about the last Atlantic winner of the ACC before Duke.
Pitt, as much as you would say, they lost too much defensively.
And, you know, we're not sure if Heinzsche continues his success and all that good stuff.
I'm a huge fan of their offensive coordinator.
I think the bell is one of the rising stars in college football.
I really do.
I'm calling my shot early on that one.
I wouldn't be surprised if he has a, a.
power for job as a head coach within the next four to five years. With that being said,
I think he's enough to make their offense some legit. And I think Narduzzi is the defensive
wizard to a certain extent that if he can get out of his own way a little bit, they could get
there. And Louisville is Louisville. They're always right there. Jack Plummer played in the ACC
championship game. Yeah. That's a still blows my mind. That's a thing. And no disrespect to
Miami. Cam Ward never did. Those are facts of things.
that have happened. So you asked me who the dark horse is. I say literally anybody in the
conference with the exception. Let me throw another specific one at you real quick. What about a healthy
Steve Angelly in Syracuse? I'll tell you, man, for as much as we dragged them last year,
after the Angelly injury. Yes. When he was right and he was playing before he, you know,
ruptured his Achilles, like it looked like Syracuse could beat anybody in the ACC. I think he was
healthy. I think Syracuse can upset the Applecart. I think they can do that. I think they can ruin it for
somebody who's going, I think their best case scenario, eight wins, and you play spoiler to one of the
teams that should go. I think, you know, you think back to that season where they spoiled it for Miami.
And it was like, you were shocked and in all like, wow, Kyle McCourt's having a resurgent year and
they're doing all these great things. They never quite had enough to get to that final stage,
but they were always just like, we're right there. We're right there. I think.
think Fran Brown needs to develop that team a little bit more because your team, regardless of
position, should never be one injury away from being completely dead. And they got to fix,
they got to fix that defense because like Angel, Angelie was helping cover up a non-existent defense.
And that's, and that's my point. That's my, it's not to say that that team doesn't have a shot
in the world, but of all the dark, I put them way down on that list because I'm not sure
that they have the offensive fire power outside of Angelie.
to do what needs to be done to get themselves in that position
to not just be competitive,
but win football games to the level required
to be in an ACC championship.
We fixed the tiebreakers.
So there's no more, oh, team who ducked all the really good teams
finds a way in and slips and slides their way in
because we're five-way tiebreaker.
That's not happening anymore.
So I look at that and I say, I like Fran Brown a lot.
I think he's done a good job on the recruiting trail and whatnot.
I just don't think that they're there quite yet.
I'd be shocked if Syracuse were there.
I'd be more shocked than anybody except that bottom three trio of Stanford,
Boston College, UNC.
When we come back, Athlon Sports has their all-ACC team out preseason.
There are a lot of the usual suspects on there,
but a couple of surprises.
You want to keep it locked right here.
We're not done yet on locked on ACC.
Thank you for making locked on ACC.
your first listen. For your next listen, make sure you check out Kenton, Gibbs and
Grayson Boone talking to all things NC State on Lockdown Wolfpack. And check me out on
Lockdown Keynes talking all things Miami. Kenton, there is a lot of Miami. Let's go first team
offense first, preseason all ACC, courtesy of Athlon Sports. Let me give you their 11 and then
tell me if there's any surprise on here in your mind. So they have Dary and Mensa now at Miami
as their starting quarterback.
Isaac Brown, Louisville at running back.
Also Mark Fletcher, Miami.
They've got two first team running backs.
Actually, three, sorry, Justice Haynes, Georgia Tech makes it as well.
Wide receiver slash all-purpose is Malachi Tony of Miami.
Wide receiver, Deuce Robinson, Florida State,
which I think is the only seminal on offense or defense in the first team.
Wide receiver Cooper Barcate now at Miami,
wide receiver Bryant Westgo Jr. at Clemson,
tight end, Luke Reynolds, Virginia Tech, center, Joshua Bates, SMU, and then the other four
offensive linemen, PJ Williams, SMU, so SMU well represented on the O line,
Mikhail Bowley, Virginia, Lance Robinson, Louisville, and Ethan McKinney, Georgia Tech.
So one thing certainly that caught my attention, Kenton, and I can understand the reasons why,
but to have a Miami offensive line with zero preseason first all,
first team all-ACC is definitely a reflection of how many new starters Miami has on that unit.
Yeah, and I've talked all offseason about how as much as we expect Miami to, you know,
repeat and be at the top of the helm, or not even repeat, but to win their first ACC championship
this year, my biggest concern that I've expressed all off-season has been on the outside,
phenomenal. You've got what you need at all the skill positions. You got what you need.
the cohesion of the offensive line,
you can say,
hey,
I'm going to slot in a future Hall of Fame
or a future Pro Bowl or all pro guy
and Jackson Cantwell and he's going to be great where he is.
That still doesn't account for your other four.
That still doesn't account for the fact that I believe
the Corps three or four for Miami last year had like,
what, 50, 60 combined starts together as a unit going into last year.
That's a lot of damn football.
This ain't basketball where you play 30 a season
and it's all 60.
That's a season.
Now, football, you get 12 games, brother.
You get 12.
13 if you're really good,
14 if you're great.
That's it.
That's all you got.
And these guys had 50-something or 40-something high starts under their belt.
These are guys that played together for forever in a day.
And we joke about the power of friendship a lot.
But that cohesion, consistency, I know, hey,
he struggles to pick this up.
Hey, brother, this is coming.
Watch out.
You know, as opposed to having a new guy next to you,
it's something to be on the lookout for.
But I will say, I don't think that there are too many, you know, ups or downs or guys who did or didn't get picked where I'm like, oh, that's egregious.
You have to include this guy on here.
I think that there's an argument for some of the second team guys to make a jump up, but I'm okay if there's an argument.
I've seen in the past somewhere.
I'm like, now, where did you get to show your work?
Explain it to me like I'm five, how this guy got first team.
All right.
Let's take.
Oh, sorry, I lost you for a second.
Let's take a look at the first team defense.
The four defensive linemen.
Damon Wilson, the second, now at Miami.
Actually, there's five defensive linemen.
Cleve Lubin, Louisville.
I think we probably agree with both of those.
Will Helps, Clemson.
Melchart Abu Joade.
Am I saying that right from North Carolina?
Apologies to his family.
I just butchered your name, I'm sure.
Ahmad Moten, Miami.
Then you get to the linebacker.
Brown, Clemson, Matt Rose, Stanford, Braylon, Lovelace, Pitt, Cam Robinson, Virginia.
Then you get to the DBs, and I think that these are positionless DBs.
I don't think they differentiated corners and safeties.
Ashton Hampton from Clemson, Tayaon Holloway, Louisville, Bryce Fitzgerald, Miami, Chris Pearl at Syracuse.
Anything stand out there?
The Matt Rose Love actually stands out to me because he was the sole member of that
Stanford defense that looked like, I know what I'm doing out here.
It may not be great, but I know what I'm doing.
You know, I watched that team play against NC State last year, and I said, man, that
kid, we need to see how he feels about changing coats.
Let's see, you know, trade in that in and out.
Come get yourself a cookout box.
Come get yourself some bojangles, brother.
We got some things over here, but I'm glad that he's getting the respect that he deserves
because, I mean, there's not much to talk about in terms of Stanford football.
ball. So that's good to see. The other thing that I'm very intrigued by, the other thing that I'm
looking at and saying, you know what, can you make up the difference? Can Miami's defensive tackles
be good enough to make up for the drop off in edge production potentially? What do you think,
Dono? Is that something that you look at and you say, hey, no, the edge has got to be who they are.
They got to figure out a way to get close to band an event. Or do you think that your interior can make
up for, you know, a bit of a drop off there?
I think the answer to that second part of the question is yes.
I would also hope that they get, and again, you don't directly replace Bain and
Mezzador.
Like you can't expect your edges to be as good because that was like a generational pair, right?
Yeah.
But I think to your question, the interior of Miami's defensive line, I think looks like much more
of a strength in 2026 than it did in 2025 because Ahmad Moten, senior, who's now getting
a lot of love, he's got a really high rate.
in the EA sports video game.
He made first team preseason all ACC.
Moten is someone who ascended throughout the season, right, to the point where he was so good
at the end of the year.
I had assumed he was going to leave early for the NFL draft.
I was surprised and impressed that he didn't.
And the guy who he's expected to start next to in Miami's four-man front is Justin Scott,
who is heading into his third year as a former five-star recruit.
and he started the season as like the first guy off the bench behind David Blay,
but Blay was injured at the end of the year.
And then Justin Scott stepped in as a full-time starter and became a hellacious producer from the interior.
So I think basically with the way Miami ended the season with great interior play,
that should carry over into the upcoming year.
So I do think they're going to get an extra spark from the interior.
And I think it can make up for some of it.
But I still, I'm going to need Miami's edge rushers.
just step up, right? Because Damon Wilson, Marquis Lightfoot, Armando Blunt, Hayden Lowe,
all really good players, but they, you know, didn't play a whole lot. Well, Wilson was at a different
program dominating. But the others who were at Miami last year didn't play a whole lot because
Mesidor and Bain didn't leave the field a whole lot. So they're going to have to step up.
Yeah, okay. That's very interesting to see. But I don't think that there are any terrible,
terrible omissions or guys who I really look at and say,
hey, this guy should have made it.
There should have been more consideration here in terms of first team
because, you know, if we have more time,
we get into all the teams,
but there is a ton of talent on these teams.
And this is what I mean when I say the ACC got something to say.
The ACC is still here.
We're still battling.
We're still producing great football players.
A lot of these guys, they're going to play on Sundays
and make themselves some good money.
So, you know, I'm excited by after,
line sports taking the time and doing a deep dive into some of the best in conference.
Well, let me leave us with a little bulletin board material for the Calgarism that we love so
much. No first team preseason all ACC players at all from Cal and Stanford had one.
So that if you can't find some bulletin board material on that, stew on that for a minute.
We'll talk to everyone next time. Huge thank you and shout out to the everydayers.
Make sure you hit up that every day or club.
Make sure you hit up Kenton, Gibbs, and Grace and Boone on Lockdown, Wolfpack.
Support me at Lockdown Cains, and we'll talk to everybody next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC.
We are part of the number one sports podcast network, the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.
