Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - LAST STAND: Are Clemson and Dabo Swinney Heading Toward a DRAMATIC Coaching Shakeup in 2026?

Episode Date: April 28, 2026

Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney faces mounting pressure as whispers grow about his potential last season at the helm. With Clemson’s win total projected at just 7.5, hosts Alex Donno and Kenton Gibbs debate whether Swinney is truly on the hot seat or if his storied resume grants him a longer leash. Are shifting standards among the Tiger faithful signaling a changing of the guard in the ACC coaching landscape? Hot seat conversations heat up across the conference, with Mike Norvell’s future at Florida State under intense scrutiny and questions swirling around Bill O’Brien at Boston College and Fran Brown at Syracuse. The episode also tackles the brewing chaos of college football’s transfer regulations as Texas Tech faces a quarterback crisis, raising the possibility of “shadow portal” transfers. Which ACC coaches will survive the pressure cooker—and could high-stakes gambles reshape next 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! Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get one-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game.   FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The buzz is growing that this upcoming football season could be the last stand for Dabo Sweeney at Clemson. You are Locked-on ACCC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. He is Kenton Gibbs. I am Alex Dono, and on this episode of Locked-on ACC, if anything could cause that shadow portal that we've all been wondering about, unauthorized transfers in April and May, if anything could bring the shadow portal about, this Brendan Soresby situation at Texas Tech.

That's the kind of thing that could make the shadow portal happen. We will explain which ACC coaches enter this season either on the hot seat right now or could be on the hot seat by the end of the year if their teams don't perform. Kent and Gibbs, is it fair to put Davo Sweeney in that category? Clemson's over under on wins this year is just seven and a half. I know he's a two-time national champion, but Clemson's been on the bit of a downward slide. Is Dabo Sweeney, is he or could he be on the hot seat in your mind?

No. I think that this is even in today's society of what have you done for me lately, even in the world that we live in where people are like, oh, you only funky is the last cut and all that, we also need to remember if you're somewhere where all the music, before you started playing stunk, people are going to be okay with you dropping a couple stinkers here and there. Now, is the relationship going to get strained? Yes. And is Davos Sweeney, the type of guy that I can see his ego being like, y'all are thinking about getting rid of

me and him leaving himself? Or y'all are talking to me like I'm doing something wrong and leaving himself? Absolutely. But in terms of a clean firing, I mean, You know, this is a situation where it would have to go multiple years. And when I say multiple years, I mean darn near a decade of admiring and mediocrity before I feel like Clemson would move on from Davoswene. And if we go back a decade from where we are now, he's in the middle of winning national championships. So I don't think we're quite there yet. Don't get me wrong.

I'm not saying it's impossible. Anybody who knows anything about sports knows, even with the best of the best of coaches, at some point in time, you end up kind of, you know, we saw what happened to Beheim at Syracuse where it's like, oh, well, I'm not retiring. Well, we're getting a new coach.

And that's extremely rare. But for the most part, before that time comes, guys like Dabour like, you know what, I'm good on this. I'll go somewhere else and do something else. Yeah, it's reading an article today in the Greenville News, where they talk about Clemson's upcoming season and on Davosweeney's future. They have a section in here that says, will Clemson fire Davos Sweeney if the Tigers struggle again?

They write, college football analyst Josh Pate said that the 2026 season could be the quote unquote last stand moment for Sweeney, even if the Tigers surpassed their projected win total, which is seven and a half. But Pate asked, what if they win eight games? What if Clemson goes 8 and 4? Is that a successful season?

Have we really gotten to the point where the over could hit for Clemson's win total and people would still be disappointed to the point where they want change? I think we have, he said. Ari Wasserman from on 3, another national host, said that if Clemson struggles in 2026, it could be another example of a top coach in the sport failing to adapt properly to the new era of college football. and we talked about this story, Kenton, a couple of weeks ago. CBS Sports's Cody Nagel made a bold prediction that this may be the final year that Sweeney coaches at Clemson. But what are you, like, what's the sense you get Kenton from Clemson fans?

And Clemson fans, we would love to hear from you in the comments. Absolutely. Please let us know your thoughts on Dabo because the Clemson fans that I've heard from, I think they have. the right to be a little frustrated with the way things are trending because Dabbeau set his own standards so high, right? I kind of feel like I feel and hear people defending him less and less because it used to be they kind of blame the rest of the system for being sort of corrupt. And it's like, you know, Dabo is so virtuous because he does it the old way. So I sense some of that defense is maybe waning a little bit because they understand the rest of

college football has changed around him. But I don't think I've talked to any Clemson fan who's outright said they want him fired. I think that they are, they're wanting him to adapt, I think, within the system. But I don't think I've talked to anyone who's outright said, it's time for a clean break and let's move on. I don't think they've gotten to that point yet. Well, no. And here's the thing, right? As a coach, it's never about the most extreme folks.

because there's always going to be those people in your fan base. Every game is a referendum on your coaching legacy. Every single one. Doesn't matter if you won more championships than Nick Saban and Bear Brian combined. The minute you lose, oh, he was a fraud all along. We knew it. You know, there's always going to be those. But when you lose the middle round, that's when you're in trouble.

When you lose the middle ground, because the sunshine and rainbows crew, they're always going to say, hey, we'll root for you as long as you're our coach. and we've rooted for dear old state, we've rooted for dear old Clemsle, we've rooted for such and so for as long as we can remember we'll always be tigers and as long as you're a target,

we'll support you. There's always going to be those people, right? But the largest glut of folks is somewhere towards that middle, somewhere towards that center, and when you lose them, when they're looking around like, hey, man, I'm not sure

if we can continue on like this. That's the problem. And to what you were saying there about, oh, they were no longer defending him saying he's doing it the right and virtuous way. Well, it's a simple answer. They weren't winning anymore. Nobody cares. Everybody pretends to care about right and virtuous or morally bad and all that good stuff in sports until that final score hits. When that final score hits, none of us give a damn who did it morally right, who did it the right way.

who, you know, it just, the annals of history are not written by the morally right. They're written by the winners. That's just what we're looking at, especially, especially in terms of sports, where we're going to see a point total at the end of that game. So ultimately, of course they're not defending anymore, Donald. Do you think if Davosweeney had done what everybody predicted Clemson to do and became the first 16th and no national champion last year, do you think anybody would be saying anything other than,

oh, see, this is what doing it the right way? hits you, he did it the right way and it worked out. Everybody needs to follow his back. Of course they would. But if Eps and Butts were bears and us, squirrels will never starve. We live in the real world. We live in a real world and we live in a results driven business. And his results ain't been much. You know, for as curious as people are about Davo's future,

I think to your point, it wouldn't be fair to say he's on the hot seat. But there are definitely some ACC coaches, especially a certain ACC football head coach who is on the hot seat. We're going to go through the ACC coaches when we come back and tell you who's on the hot seat right now or who will be if their team underperforms. You want to keep it locked right here. We're only getting started on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC. Folks, we're only getting started with Fandul.

The NBA playoffs are in full swing. Every possession matters. If you're looking to get even closer to that action, and Fanduel has a great offer to get you started. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. That's right. Turn five bucks into $150 in bonus bets just for getting started. I love using Fandual during the playoffs because everything I need is right there in one place on the app.

You can check the stats, the trends, the matchups before making your picks, which makes the whole experience feel just a lot more informed. Whether you're looking at player props or just following your favorite stars, it adds. another level of excitement to every game. It's really an easy app to navigate, and it makes playoff basketball even more engaging from start to finish. Head to fendual.com to get started. Fandual, play your game.

Folks, if you're an everydayer, it's time to sign up for the Everydayer Club. You can go to Lockdownpodcast.com slash Everydayer and join the Everydayer Club for each and all of your favorite shows on the Lockdown Network, including Lockdown ACC, How about Locked-on Wolfpack with Kenton and Grayson, Locked-on Keynes with me, or hundreds of other shows.

Go to Lockdownpodcast.com slash Everydayer. You can get exclusive ad-free versions of our episodes, other great exclusive content, including Discord chat access with other listeners and your favorite hosts from the network. Go to Lockedonpodcast.com slash Everydayer. Thank you so much for making Lockdown ACC your first listen for your next listen. Make sure you check out Kent and Gibbs and Grayson Boone. who do an awesome job talking all things NC State on Locked on Wolfpack. I talk all things Miami on Locked on Cains.

You know, Kenton, Dave Doran, any long-term concerns there? I know that, like, I remember you and I talking like during the season when things were in kind of a rough patch early on, where Doran's future seemed to be in question. He seemed to solidify it late in the year. So what's the temperature on Dave Doran and NC State for next season? the unfortunate part about, you know, the entire Dave Doran and NC State tenure, the unfortunate part is the fact that he has not raised the roof.

However, he's raised the floor far beyond what you would ever see as a floor for NC State. So he personifies the fact that I say on here all the time and that you'll hear me say a million more times if you keep listening to show, at most colleges you can win eight games a year, and there'll be a just stature. Doren's on pace to get itself built a statue at NC State. Like if he can get himself a couple of 10-win seasons, now granted, that is saying, hey, in year 13, 14, 15, 16, do what you haven't done in the previous 12. But Doran's seat is very cool.

There was speculation about him retiring. He spoke in kind of a vague cryptic way hinting at like, I'm kind of getting tired of coaching all together. And, you know, as far as the money aspect and all that, he's made plenty. He's good. He's not, you know, not the pocket washer man, but he ain't going to be hurting if he decides to never coach again. So, you know, Dave is, Coach Doran is in a similar situation to Davo just without the

national championships. Like Dave Doran is a lot more likely if he had a three-win season or so to where they're like, all right, that's it. Bye. Enough, right? He's in that situation as opposed to Davo. But with that being said, you know, his seat is not, as it currently stands, is not hot at all. And plus, the biggest thing, he keeps whooping the wheels off the dirty foot club.

And there's nothing NC State fans love more. If you beat your rival, especially because now rivalry week is the last week of the season, it just gives something to the fans every single time. I don't think there's any question that the hottest seat in the ACC is Mike Norvell at Florida State. By now. Right. And so the conversation we had about Davosweeney does not apply to Florida state fans. If Mike Norvell were to get fired tomorrow, there would be a celebration. There would be parades in Tallahassee. Like they're counting down the days. And like, don't get me wrong. If Mike Norvel can surprise everybody and go, you know, go 11 and 1 and win the ACC next year, obviously the critics would be forced to come around.

but there's really an expectation there that they're just waiting for that moment. What's going to be Mike Norvell's last game here? The conventional wisdom is the only thing, the only reason he hasn't been already fired is just because the buyout is so large after he's signed that extension there two years ago. So he's got the hottest seat. And like Kenton, we, you know, to what Josh Pate said about, you know, if Dabo were to go eight and four at Clemson and actually go above their projected

win total, like, would that be enough to make fans happy? I think you could say certainly the same thing about Mike Norvelle. Now, Florida State's win total is not as high as Clemson's is, but even if Florida State, if they were to go eight and four this year, they would still want Norvel out, right? Like, it would take something extraordinary for him to save his job and get that fan base back on board. So, you know, the biggest difference between Davoswini and, and. Mike Norvel is not only the actual fact of national championships,

which is a huge fact. Let's not just throw that out, right? But it's also where they are, right? When you think about Clemson before Davosweeney, there were less national championships since there have been since Daveno Swin. That's a fact. What can Norville say, I have more of this than any coach in Florida state history?

that's to the positive. Does he have more ACC championships than Bowden? No. Then Jimbo? No. What about national championships? Do you have more national championship? He could compare himself to Willie Taggart favorably, but not Jimbo Fisher or Bobby Bowden.

And watch this. If you cut Norville's tenure off at the exact spot that Tagger was fired, he actually doesn't prepare favorably. Yeah, that's a good point. He actually doesn't. So, and this is not me saying that he's a worst coached or anything like that. This is just saying the overarching history of Florida State says that is a major

brain. That is a borderline blue blood, depending on who you ask. Sure. And you think that you can skate by with these past couple of years as bad as they've been? No. Absolutely not. Again, there are other schools where if you had Norville success, right, If, for example, if Elliot would have won the ACC championship last year, that buys them at least two years after day.

At least two. Yeah. As long as the next two aren't complete in total, one, two win disasters, maybe even three, maybe more than three, you look four or five and I, you still going to get your three years for winning a CCC championship. Florida State's not that place. It's just not. It's just not. So, you know, it's a situation where Mike Norval, obviously. It's on the hottest seat there is.

And he needs to show, this is why you're saying, eight Wednesday and no, because he needs to show not just we can get back to being a good team. We can get back to the Florida State stand. Yeah. Yeah. And you know what? You know, we talked about a week ago about Florida State increasing their athletics budget by about 50 million. I think I left a very obvious angle off the table because we talked about,

you know, possibly, you know, raising money for a conference realignment move, but also maybe allocating extra money to athletics could be for the Mike Norvelle buyout. I think that we left that angle off the table when we shouldn't have because that's another thing we have to think about. So Norvel is obvious. He's got the hottest seat in the ACC, really the hottest seat in the country. What about Kenton, a couple of coaches coming off of two win seasons? Bill O'Brien and Fran Brown.

I mean, at what point, and I feel like Fran is probably more well-liked in Syracuse right now, despite the poor season last year and maybe than O'Brien is at Boston College. I don't get the sense, though, that BC's administration is really all that aggressive to make moves like that, so he may be able to buy himself more time, O'Brien, just because, you know, they're not going to be as bloodthirsty as some other programs might. but both of them have to show something, right? When you come off of terrible seasons like they just had, you have to show you have a pulse.

I mean, it was two wins for Boston College. What was it, three wins for Syracuse last year? I want to make sure I get that right. But like you obviously have to show an element of bouncing back after you have two and three win seasons. You absolutely do. And I'm going to tell you this, Fran Brown has had less time there and the quarterback injury angle, right?

You bought in Ricky Collins, and I told everybody this at the end of the offseason or at the end of spring ball last year when they bought in Angelia. I said that they're not comfortable. They're not comfortable because you have to spend resources. Forget the money. You had to spend your time talking to that young man. Hey, we want you here. We want you here.

We want you here. To get him to leave Notre Dame and come to you. You had to spend the time to do that that you could have been spending according other young men to coming your school. And why? You weren't comfortable with the backup quarterback situation that we saw why after he went down. Now, with that in mind, Fran Brown is not,

he doesn't have an unlimited leash. Ten years, first, ten wins, first year at Syracuse, big job. Or great job, big deal. Did amazing. That won't last if ever. Bill O'Brien in Boston College, I'm wondering what's going on. I said from the day he got hired, who does he have nudes of in the background?

We're like, who does he have incriminating evidence of? Like, do you got people going to a certain island that they shouldn't be on or something? Because how do you, number one, keep getting these jobs? But number two, you keep failing forward. I haven't seen a team that Bill O'Brien comes. They're a bad team. He leaves. They're a really good team.

Oh, man. You know, we were lost in the desert. O'Brien came and we were saved. Who said that? Who? Nobody ever. I've got multiple teams that can say, yeah, we thought we were one or two pieces away and then we added Bill O'Brien and we ended up 12 pieces away.

So I don't know what's going on at Boston College or how he continues to get jobs and be so beloved, but I have not seen anything out of his resume as a head coach to tell me he's a good roster builder. He's a good X and O's guy. He's a good motivating. I haven't seen it. I will give him credit for, I think he's a maybe slightly above average offensive mind. That's it. Slightly above average. That's it. I'm not considering him some guru. I'm not saying, hey, this is the Sean McVeigh of college football. Every time you see him, you know his offense are going to be humming. No, if I say that, I mean, they'll literally be humming on the sidelines. Just watch the game go like, hmm, mm-hmm.

because they're not going to be on the field too long. So, you know, I don't understand why his seat is not hot turd. But like you said, Dono, they just don't appear to have the appetite to be successful in chestnut it. Well, so a seat that is hotter than both of those because I still, in a weird way, I don't feel like Fran Brown's seat is hot. Because like you said, quarterback injury last year, you know, your top wide receiver is injured is going to miss at least half the season this year. year. But what about another bill, Bill Belichick? Because we know for as much as they get their hires wrong often, North Carolina is, they're aggressive. So, you know, they have no problem firing people. Hiring the right people has been more difficult for them, but they have not

been hesitant to fire people when it doesn't work out. And so I would think for Bill Belichick, who we talked about had zero players drafted this past. weekend comes off a four and eight season. And, you know, it's not as if when they hired Bill Belichick, they thought, oh, this is a young coach. If it's a five or a six year build, we have patience. Like, you, you don't hire Bill Belichick in what was his late 60s. So you can hear, is he in his 70s already?

I believe he is in the 70s. Yeah. You don't hire. Right. You don't hire Bill Belichick in his 70s thinking this might take three or four years. Like, that's not, you know, if you don't. produce a lot better than four and eight, I've got to think North Carolina would make a move, or maybe Bill were to make his own move and say, this is not for me.

You know, Bill Belichick has not commit to the bid. He hasn't fully committed to being a college coach. He hasn't. He hasn't done the things necessary to show like, hey, I'm all in for success right now. It's much more of a, this is a side project. It's cool to, you know, I'm here. it'll be nice. And I'll give you a prime example. I'm a big believer in the way that the little things manifest themselves is an indicator of the big things. Dono, you were there in ACC Media Days, correct?

Yeah. Did you stick around for when North Carolina went up there? I didn't. I was gone. I'd bailed by then. There was a difference between North Carolina and every other program in the ACC. Do you know what that was?

What was that? every single team was led up by their coach and their players following in behind them. Every single team came in through the exact same way. Coach walks in first with the players trailing right behind him. Coach, three players, boom. That's the format for all the teams in the ACC, except the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. You know how the Tar Heels did it?

The players walked in. Bill Belichick goes around to complete. separate way walks on stage from the other side and I knew it was him and I knew how he was moving because it was like the people treat the man like he's the Pope you just saw the crowd split in a way and that was last July he was probably meeting his players for the first time even though he'd been on the job for like five months hello hello so you know it's just one of those things that it's just like you're not committed to this because if you were committed to admit it to being a head coach, a college football

head coach, you would make it clear. Hey, man, I'm here to do things. Sure. I'm going to do it my way. I'm going to kick my flavor my way, but I'm also going to respect what makes college football, college football. Some of those traditions that make it

college football, some of the little idiosyncrasies that, like, nobody notices it's a big deal until you do it differently. And now it's like, why are you doing it? Why are you so special? You're coming in through a secret backdoor entrance as everybody else just comes in through the front and marches with their team. Again, it shows a disjointedness in that program that's like, because Donnell, you and I have been

going to ACC Media Days for years. Have you ever seen that at any of them? Have you seen anything besides the coaches, players walk in together? No, they all do it the same way, except. All do it the same way, except Bill. So he's not committed to the bid. His seat should be extremely hot. His seat should be hot as fish grease in the middle of July. His seat should be on fire darn near. It should be like Johnny Bleds when he says, flame on. That's how hot his seat should be.

Because at this point, I've talked about you can lose and be endearing to the community and be active and involved and this is my alma mater and all these things. Bill Belichick doesn't have any of those things. So you don't have great on the field stuff going on. You don't have great off the field stuff going on. You're not endeared to the community. That seat should be scorching. Yeah, I agree with you.

When we come back, if there was ever a scenario that could create ghost transfers and a shadow portal, that scenario is unfolding right now. You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on locked on ACC. On our Monday episode, you know, we covered this crazy Brennan Sorsby story, the new starting quarterback. I don't think he's going to be the starting quarterback now of Texas Tech. transfers over from Cincinnati. There's an NCAA investigation into his sports betting,

which could cost him his eligibility. He may never be able to play again. And it will also make it almost impossible for him to ever get drafted into the NFL because who's going to trust him now because you're not allowed to bet on games in the NFL as you're not in college football. So, you know, the bottom line, Kenton, and it seems like, you know, Texas Tech knew nothing about this. otherwise they wouldn't have accepted this player.

So I will give Texas Tech the benefit of the doubt because if they knew anything about this, you would know stay away from this guy. Some people even think that maybe Cincinnati might have exposed this because, you know, he was like suing them because he didn't want to have to pay them a buyout. But it's like, I don't really believe that either because if Cincinnati knew about this, like for years, then they're complicit in this cover up and they could be in as much trouble or more trouble the Texas Tech. So I don't believe that either. I don't know how this story got exposed, but it got exposed.

So what's going to happen now, Kent, into Texas Tech is there's a very real chance that their QB1 is not going to be allowed to play this year. Their QB2, their backup is coming off an ACL injury and may not be healthy for the start of the regular season. I don't know anything about their QB3 or their QB4, but I don't think these guys have any experience. Now, as we're getting ready for the shadow portal here, Texas Tech is a team that is going to be in the hunt or would have been in the hunt for a national championship coming out of a, what should be a, would have been a very easy big 12 conferences it was for them last year. But now you're down a QB1 and possibly a QB2. So I've seen people, Kent, and hypothesize, would it be worth it for Texas Tech to bring in an unauthorized transfer question? quarterback knowing by doing this, we're going to get our coach suspended for half the season, and we're going to be forced to surrender 20% of our football budget, but it might actually be

worth it for them to find a high-level starting quarterback that gives them a chance to win. You thought you could run from the shadow portal, and it arrives all the same, Dono and Kenton. cannot avoid me I am inevitable now with that being said I do look at this I do look at this situation and say this is the breeding grounds for the shadow portal and ultimately when you

look at what we thought was going to happen the idea of how the shadow portal was going to be broken from my end at least was somebody who's going to try it and here's how they were going to try it something like this was going to happen and when they try to break it what they're going to do is they're going to say

hey, we don't need you to rule in our favor right now, but you know what we do need an emergency restraining order. And if you get us that emergency restraining order, we'll go through the season and we'll talk about whether or not we did this legally, whether or not we tampered with the kid and all this and all that. And here's the thing. Again, tampering gets so loose. It's so loose when you really think about it.

It cannot be somebody who works for the university, right? But don't know. Are any public or public or private school, are any of the collectives officially affiliated with the school? I think some of them are now. It's a weird gray area since the House settlement. I don't know if I can give you a yes or a no on that. Some are. But what I do know is you don't have to look too hard to find a lawyer who's going to say legally, this entity is separate from a school. legally, the wording of tampering says that it has to be an employee of the university.

This person is employed by the collective. Now, yes, the collective may be loosely tied. It may be an entity with a third-party contracting agreement with the university. However, it is not a direct, this is a member of the program who did this. This is somebody who was hired as a 1099, for somebody who works as a third-party vendor for us, who then did do-da-da-da. You see how loose that gets?

And watch what the actual result of this is. One of the boosters, one of the people in the collective, texting somebody, let's say that your son was the one who was going to be the quarterback to replace him. Hey, Dono, we got $5 million to spend on your kid. Now, we know he could throw that thing off platform. We know he could throw it on time. We know that he could, hey, he could, he could,

hit the egg off your head from 50 yards away. How about it? How about come get this $5 million. They ain't paying you like that over at, let's say, Maryland. They ain't paying you like that. They ain't paying no $5 million over at U-Dub. Come on, man. Come on down here.

Come get this money. Come get this $5 million. You already entered the portal anyway and went back to Washington. Come on out. Come on. Get yourself some good $5 million worth of loving down here in Texas there. I'd be tempted if I got that call. But you see what I'm saying.

But you see what I'm saying. There's so many ways because of the looseness in which it was written for what is and is not tempering. And the head coach could be very aware of it. McGuire could be right in on it. But if he has not text about it and there is no paper trail and somebody text him, hey, coach, we're going to make off of this kid. And he says, I cannot say anything to that young man as a member of the university. And then he meets up with the person who sent him that text and say, go get him.

Make it more than five, actually. Make it five point five. Call me from the pay phone. We can't talk about this here. Hello? Hey, FaceTime. We can avoid them stage three wiretaps if you know, you know. But it's that type of deal where ultimately this is the type of moment.

If the shadow portal is to happen, I think this is the greatest test of greatest litmus test, especially since Texas Tech. They're the Red Raiders. They know to be a little wild. They know the Red Raiders. And I would argue if they don't, and it does, I haven't, to be fair to Texas Tech, like I'm not trying to make a thing that's not a thing because I haven't heard anything about them trying to get a ghost transfer.

And if they don't, maybe that will show you that what the NCAA is threatening to do, it actually works. Yeah. Because Texas Tech is in prime position to if we want to save a 2026 season where we can contend for a national championship if we have a quarterback. If they don't go out and get a quarterback, that means what the NCAA is doing is working for once. I never thought I'd say that.

I agree. I agree. This is a great case study to see like, oh, do people actually abide by this because you're one position away and you know you could give somebody a raise? You know you could get somebody that for Ralee treatment. Hey, man, come on, come on. Stop playing with them over there.

What they offer you over there, man? They poor. They ain't got no money over there. We got five. We got five on it. What do you say? Come on. I'll buy you out of that and I'll still give you the five. Come on. Come talk to me. We appreciate everybody making Lockdown ACC your first list. Make sure you follow Kenton on X at TGIF underscore Kenton. Check him out on Lockedon Wolfpack. Check me out on Locked on Cains and follow me at Alex Dono. And we'll talk to you next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC. We are part of the number one Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. The Shadow Portal Burner is not me.