Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - Mack Brown FIRED by North Carolina Tar Heels + ACC College Football Playoff Representation Talk

Episode Date: November 26, 2024

Can the ACC make a splash in the College Football Playoff? With the surprising firing of Mack Brown from the North Carolina Tar Heels, the landscape of ACC football is shifting. Dive into the latest developments as we explore the potential for teams like the Miami Hurricanes and Clemson Tigers to secure their spots in the playoff.Join Jackson Holzer and Kenton Gibbs as they break down the implications of Mack Brown's departure and analyze standout performances from players like Kevin Jennings and Kyle McCord. Discover how these changes could impact the ACC's representation in the College Football Playoff and what it means for the future of college football.Don't miss this engaging discussion packed with insights and expert analysis on the evolving ACC football scene. Listen now for a deeper understanding of the strategies and players reshaping the league. For your next listen, check out the Locked On College Football podcast! From NIL deals to never ending conference realignment rumors, Spencer McLaughlin gets you ready for an exciting season on the gridiron! Click HERE to listen now. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your Team. Every Day.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. 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.

Mac Brown is fired by North Carolina. You are Locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, everyone, and welcome into Locked on ACC. I'm Jackson Hulzer, the host of Locked on Syracuse, filling in for Alex Dono, the host of Locked on Caines. And joining me today, obviously, is Kenton Gibbs, former NC State defensive tackle and the host of Lockdown Wolfpack.

And on today's show, we are talking about the firing of head coach Mack Brown over at North Carolina, plus how many ACC teams are going to be in the college football playoff this season and how can the ACC maximize the amount of teams that get in? Plus our final thoughts on week 13 and we award our players of the week. Now, before we get to all of that, this episode is brought. to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Creating Account News Code Lockdown College for $20 off your your first purchase. So the big news this afternoon, Mac Brown fired by North Carolina. I see that Kenton Gibbs is in a suit and tie. It appears that he's going to be interviewing for the North

Carolina job, which is now open. So shout out to Kenton. Congratulations. We totally understand here at Locked on ACC that I understand the greener pastures that is being a head coach at North Carolina. seriousness 10. What do you make of this firing? Well, first things first, Jackson, they don't got enough money to make me coach you and say, I don't got enough. You know what I mean? In the words of Kendrick-Gumar, it's not enough, okay? They don't have enough. They don't have enough.

Oh, everyone has a price. And my price is very high. It's very, very high to go over there to that school, and I refer to as the Dirty Foot Club. But Jackson, some people would say I'm dressed in interview. Some people say I'm dressed for a few. Because I'm devastating, Jackson. I'm so disappointed by this.

Matt Brown was a man with a vision, a man with a heart after the play. He's a coach that I wanted to see there. I wanted at least five more years of Matt Brown. Okay. And here's the thing. Here's the thing. Sometimes people get out of line and forget who they are

and just where they are in the world. Okay. North Carolina has gone to six, straight bowl games under Mac Brown, right? Do you know how many times they have ever done that in program history? Not often. Maybe under the first time under Mac Brown. Correct. You're correct, Jackson. The first time under Mac Brown. And so I look at this and I say, as much as I joke about loving Mac Brown being there because NC State would beat up on them, I think that this is one of those firings where teams forget

where they are and everybody imagines we're going to hire our signet. The next hire is going to be our signet. And people forget, you could go through what Nebraska has going through after Pallini. You could be a team that, you know, I'm sorry to tell you, you are just perpetually on the cusp, never quite that team. And you could tell yourself, well, we'll never know if we keep around mediocrity. That's fair. I'm not disagreeing with you.

You are putting yourself in position to potentially get a better hire. you're also putting yourself in a position to get a lot worse. That is both things are true. Everybody said, oh, getting rid of Jimbo was going to solve it all for Florida State. They were going to be all right after getting rid of Jimbo. It looked like after the last season, they were going to be okay. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. They got their highest of highs and then they came back down on the earth and got their lowest of lows.

But you get my point. I really and truly look at this situation. And I say Matt Brown is the type. And you know, because of how everything went down with Beheim and Syracuse, sometimes when a guy is a lifer, you got to let him carry on a little too long. You got to like, yeah, he's supposed to be out. The Beheims, I get the Beehime comparison, a little bit different. But with Beheim.

I agree. I agree. With Beheim when he was kind of fired via retirement, they kind of, they kind of said to him, like because it was the reporting of that was very weird it was like he's been fired and then it was like no he actually retired which leads me to believe that they were going to fire him if he didn't retire having said that let's relate it back to fram brown here or not fram brown map brown there's only one brown left in the ac c's the wing he has the most wins in north carolina history two stints by the way 88 to 97 2019 to 2020 for obviously 2005 national championship with Texas.

It's kind of weird how this whole situation unfolded because he said to the university he wanted to come back. And the university's like, nope, you're not coming back. You're not coming back, Mac Brown. And they're going to let him coach the final game of the regular season. Again, a lot of these folks, that's so weird. I mean, you're the host of Lockdown Wolfpack. I mean, obviously the two schools are.

playing this Saturday. I mean, you want to talk about a dead man walking. I mean, we're going to witness that on Saturday. Mac Brown is literally going to be a dead man walking. I would caution Wolfpack Nation and anybody who wants to bet on the Wolfpack because of this firing of this. There is rarely ever a group of players as motivated as a group of players who feel like their guy, the guy who bought them in, the guy who believed in them, the guy who said, you a division one player you're an ac c player come on to us there is no more fired up team than a team who believes that guy has been fired unfairly and this is what i mean by you know the behem situation and the brown situation they're brothers and sisters their siblings not twins right it's not identical

one for one but it's very closely related because had they sent him out to pass that way of hey listen man just announced that you're retiring we will not bring you back next year but just announce that you're retired. That would have been a very different situation than the administration going, hey, listen, dude, you're fired. We're telling everybody you're fired. It is what it is.

What's you going to do about it? Because now that galvanizes players to say, you know what to hell with it? If these are Matt Brown's last two games left, what better way to go out than beating the Wolfpack that he hates and that he knows hates him and then winning a bowling?

this is a team that will, you know, you talk about Dead Man walking. It's different when the players are like, about a guy. They're going to play for the Dead Man. Exactly. They're going to give everything they got for that Dead Man. It may be weekend at Bernice, but damn it, they love Bernie. They love Uncle Bernie like it's the Bernie Mac show. Okay, that's what's happening here.

So in all seriousness, I think that, you know, this situation wasn't handled the best, especially with this firing coming a week after him saying, I sit with the kids and that's when I want to stay around. that this conversation, if you were going to fire him, should have been had then. Like what? I don't understand. I don't understand the timing now. I guess that's what I'm saying.

Why is it right now? I agree. I agree. Why not wait another week? And it's unclear, by the way, you mentioned the bowl game. The reporting out there is that they don't know if he's going to coach the bowl game or not. Oh, come on. Come on.

That's classic. Why didn't he just wait till after the season to fire him? That's all they have to do. I'm sure they gave him the option to be like, hey, if you announce that you're stepping down after the season, like, we'll take it that way because we're not going to bring you back. I think they understand it from that standpoint. But how do you let it leak right now? Even if the most sympathetic I could be to the University of North Carolina situation is if they told him, hey, regardless of what happens in these last X amount of games, you're not coming back. And then he comes out with that statement.

And even then, I'm not sure that I'm going to tell everyone he's fired. Even then, you know, how rosters or how coaches sometimes put out a statement, hey, this player's no longer on the team, right? Instead of saying they're kicked off or they're gone. You don't know whether or not the player took a leave or whatever. Don't sometimes say dismissal. Right. Every now it is like the nice way of saying you're kicked out.

Right, right. But sometimes they're like, hey, you know, we're not going to say exactly what it is because we like this kid. We want them to get this act together. He just couldn't. I feel like this is one of those moments where they could have did the same thing. Hey, Mac Brown is stepping down. And that's it. And let him come out and say, I'm not stepping down.

They're firing me. And you live with that. But to me, don't fire. And again, my question is, Jackson. What about that Boston college game made that much of a difference to you to where the situation changed to where you had to do this. I don't know. Honestly, I mean, they could have,

they could have done it after the James Madison loss, if that makes you feel better. And that would have made sense. And that would have to be 70 points to JMU. I mean, I would have understood that. If you give up 70 to JMU and you're like, hey, you're gone. I'm not mad at you.

Then I'm sympathetic and I'm understanding. But post that JMU game, if you tell anybody, hey, Ken, a team is in the ACC, they're going to lose by such a margin that if James Madison did not score in the second half. They still would have won the football game to what happened. If you tell me after that game, that team is going to make a bowl game in a Power 4 conference, I called your liar.

I said, oh, this is funny, this is jokes. They found a way to do it, and you still fired him in. Again, if you fire him in, then, that's a fireball offense. Hey, get him out of the pain. Oh, yeah. But waiting until now, you put yourself behind the eight ball in recruiting. You've put yourself behind the eight ball in terms of the coaching search. You put yourself behind the eight ball in so many regards.

And I get that UNC is not as bad of a job as many people make it out to be. I get that. I know it's a pretty good job, actually, in the grand scheme of college football. But with that in mind, do you think that that won't be in some folks' heads in terms of, is this a long-term place I can stay or not based on the way that this was handled to it for a UNC legend? The best case, I mean, we can go over coaching candidates, at least that On 3 has in a moment here. But I guess the way you would use it is almost like a stepping stone school where if you go to North Carolina and you have unprecedented success, you win like four straight years of 10 plus games. Well, then you can parlay that job into, say, if an Alabama opens up or a Georgia or something like that.

So I'll hardly agree. But here's the thing, Kenton. that's like most schools in Division I college football. There's like very few where it's like you drop everything that you're doing. So take that for what it's worth. As far as coaching candidates, I saw a few that were listed in on three. Arthur Smith was one that's floated out there,

former Falcons coach, currently with the Steelers. What do you think of him? Dan Mullen, I think would be a solid higher in my opinion. The other one that was very confusing that they had listed was the current. SMU head coach, Rhett Lashley. That one made no sense to me.

People, folks don't understand how deep that money goes in SMU, and it's the perception that this is an American athletic conference team. Do y'all know, I understand. No, no, I'm saying that's the perception, you know, because remember, even ESPN when they had read, oh, what did they put up as the graphic? AAC. AAC. So, and these people are making a lot more than you and me to do this thing, Jackson. You know, that's just the reality. So that's the perception. But do people not realize that team is not taking a dime of ACC money for years?

For years. And they were like, hey, we got the boosters. We got the facilities we need to be able to do what we do. This year, it doesn't make sense for a variety of reasons. Number one, he just signed an extension. Absolutely. Through 2030. And you got to pay for that buyout.

When you buy the new coach, you've got to buy him out of that old Cool. There you go. And I don't think they're going to do that. But I've seen coaches leave while under contract. So let's go to a different point, which is that why the heck would he move from SMU to UNC? Like he's doing well at UNC is a good job. It is not one of those jobs where you drop everything that you're doing and you take that job. So I don't see why Rhett Lashley would do it. If North Carolina fans disagree with me, feel free to let us know in the comment section, But the big news this afternoon is that North Carolina head coach,

North Carolina legendary head coach, I should say, Mac Brown has been fired by the university this afternoon. I'm Jackson Holzer and that's Kenton Gibbs. Coming up, we are going to talk about maximizing ACC playoff teams. I know we're talking a lot about football here, but I just want to let you all know that basketball season is now in full swing, whether it's NBA, college, going to ACC basketball games. They're always exciting.

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off. Download game time today. What time is it? Game time. Last week, there was a podcast on this channel. I wasn't hosting it. Okay, that was Alex Donnell with Locked on Caines. He was the host, and he'll be back, I believe, tomorrow. Okay, so you can say your farewell wishes in the comment section at the end of this podcast. But there was a podcast. cast year about hey if the ac c is not careful they might have no playoff teams uh-oh well now we've arrived at the other extreme kenton because the ap poll has three teams in the top 12 so kenton what are your thoughts and can the ACC potentially get three teams in the college football playoff? What do you think?

They absolutely should. The ACC absolutely should have three teams. Everybody is jumping and screaming and shouting about this South Carolina team. If they find a way, if they get a win against Clemson, we should seriously talk about them in the playoff. Well, why would Clemson not get that same look with a better record and a head-to-head win? why would Clemson not get that same love and consideration in that situation? I would love for somebody to explain it to me like I'm 12.

Hey, this is why South Carolina deserves that consideration and Clemson doesn't, despite this being both of their last game of the regular season and neither team making their conference championships. So honestly, this is both of their last game. Hold on, unless Miami loses, of course, unless Miami loses. This is going to be most likely their last game in terms of, of, in terms of, you know, what we're looking at for before the playoff. Why, what reason could you come up with that, you know, South Carolina's resume is that

much more impressive, mind you, with a head-to-head loss. So Clemson should absolutely be considered to be in. And again, if you switch conferences, if you switch conferences and say, you have two one-loss teams, one of your one-loss teams lost to a team that was undefeated, up until week 10 or 11. Another one of your one lost teams has the number one offense in America and a guy that should be in the highest of conversation, him not being in the high of the conversation and not being the highest in frontrunner.

I get him not being the frontrunner, but not being in the conversation in a meaningful way. If you're talking about Cam Ward, the Maxwell Award watch list or finalists came out, and he wasn't listed on there. They had Dylan Gabriel from Oregon on there instead, which made no sense. And that's exactly what I'm saying.

That's exactly. If you look at this Miami team and you talk about what Cam Ward has done, and you look at the Oregon team and talk about what Dylan Gabriel is done, no disrespect to Dylan Gabriel. He is a bad man. Cam Ward is more than just the straw that stirs the drink. He is the cup. He is the ice cubes.

He's the salt around the rim. Hell, he's the tequila and the thing as well. So I look at this situation, I say to myself, you know, there's a lot of disrespect being lobbed towards ACC, despite the fact that Cam Ward exceeds his numbers, at every single point. So, you know, I look at this thing and I say, if there was another conference, there would be no doubt about three.

With a two lost team and two one lost teams, one of them whose one loss came to a team that was undefeated late, you're just not going to see it. But here we are. We're the ACCC. It just means less, apparently, so there's less respect. So the way I look at it for this weekend, there are a few things that really need to happen for the ACC, okay?

And I'm honestly very conflict. because I'm a Surrey, I'm locked on Syracuse host. I'm a Syracuse alum. I'm a Syracuse fan. And in the best interest, I want Syracuse to win, but in the best interest of the ACC, they need Miami to win. Absolutely. It's very, very conflicting right now.

Yeah. I think I lean more towards I want Syracuse. But here's the idea, all right? This weekend, you need Miami to win. They get to the ACC title game. They're 11 and 1. They're pretty much a lock at that point. You need SMU to win because,

Yes, SMU is going to play for the ACC championship. But if they lose, that's their second loss. And if they get that third loss, they're done. They're not going to take a three loss, SMU. So you need SMU to win this week. So the worst they can do is have two losses. And then he got Clemson. Clemson at, what, nine and two right now?

They're playing South Carolina. If they win that game, not only do they bolster their chances of making the playoff, but they eliminate South Carolina. It's not going on it's done. They would have four losses. They're out. I hope the committee is not going to take a four loss SEC team. I don't think they will.

It's okay. That's what needs to happen this weekend. And then going forward, here's my thought on this for the ACC title game. We're looking really far down the line here. I think it might be in the best interest of SMU wins it. I think the committee would be more likely to give an at-large bid to Miami simply because of the brand name Miami,

I agree, then they would SMU. Because SMU, oh, you just got to the ACCC. Oh, you're not very good. You lost to Miami in the ACD. I think it's in the best case of this. The best thing to happen in the conference is SMU runs the table. They get the auto bid.

They take Miami and hopefully Clemson sneaks in at 10 and 2. That's the way I look at it. That's the path to getting three teams in the college football playoff. Here's the thing, right? In a perfect world where we actually have real, let me not say that, in a perfect world where we have real ball knowers watching this thing and measuring it out, it doesn't take a one specific scenario to see two one loss teams and one two loss team from a Power 4 conference get into the college football player.

In a good world, in a just and fair world, unfortunately, a fair is where you go to eat bad food. kill you and get on terrible rise that would kill you. So the reality of what we're sitting and looking at is the situation that you described is the only situation where we get three teams in. You have to, Clemson, and I'll take it a step further, Clemson cannot beat South Carolina. They have to throttle those boys. I don't think a three point win is enough. I don't think a one point.

They would also need help outside. I mean, I think Indiana needs to lose to Purdue because they don't want to put in Indiana, but if Indiana is 11 and 1, I don't think they have a choice. 11 and 1, one loss to Ohio State. Mind you, Ohio State was scoring with 37 seconds left on the clock when they very easily could have, you know, hey, we're going to go ahead and nail this out. But again, when you look at Indiana and say,

oh, they got blew out when they played a real team, Texas against Georgia ring a bell anybody? Or is that just, again, and that, you know, it just means less everywhere in the country, not just an ACC. What I'm saying is that if Indiana loses this week to Purdue, they're 10 and 2. and if Clemson wins, they're 10 and 2, and the committee is going to take Clemson over them.

I get you. The brand, the brand bias will absolutely lean in Clemson's favor. Absolutely. If we're looking at brand bias right now, is there a world where we could see, let's say, a Florida state beat the defending national champion and the national runner up, go undefeated, say for one game against the number two team in the nation, and people consider them to not beat? in the top five? No. No. Despite what you think about the ACC,

that brand bias of, hey, we know the spear, it would absolutely rear his head. So I agree with what you're saying, Jackson. I'm just saying it should not be that way. But ifs and buts were berries and nuts,

squirers will never starve. Here we are in the real world where the exact situation you laid out is exactly as it has to happen, but I would throw on the caveat that Clemson has to dominate South Carolina. If Clemson dominates South Carolina,

Miami and SMU is the conference championship, and SMU wins a close football game, I think that's your only path to getting in three from the ACC. Because I think that a two-loss Miami, one of those lost is being extremely close. Really, both of those losses being one position. Yeah. Yeah, both-laws of tech is not,

I mean, nobody cares about Georgia Tech outside of the ACC, but I'll spoil it right now for those that may be watching outside of the ACC. Georgia Tech is a good football team. They are. They are a good football team. physical as hell. They'll beat you all.

But the committee members are not going to see it that way. See, they'll look at Georgia Tech and they'll think that they're Vanderbilt, except there's a team that actually lost to Vanderbilt. No, they'll think they're Oklahoma. Oh, except there's a team that lost to Oklahoma, too, isn't there? They'll think they're all. Why do we keep running and all these teams that these doctors are lost to? But you get the point.

You seriously get the point. You know, again, in a perfect world, I don't think that there's a debate as to whether or not three getting in the world we live in we are having to have a very narrow path to the three because like you said if miami beats sm u if miami throttles sm u sm u sm u they're cooked rightly or wrongly oh yeah they're done they're not getting the shot if clemson beats south carolina last second field go nobody's going to give them respect nobody's going to say oh you be they would need a lot of help I mean, they would also need Texas A&M to lose to Texas, and they would need Indiana to lose to Purdue. But my question is, why would they need, to me, Texas A&M in Texas should be a playing game, basically, because who the hell has Texas be?

Who have they been? So if you come in and we're talking about two losses now, that should be a very different scenario. Hey, you lost every game you played against the right opponent. We got to get you out of there. But again, Jackson, this is what we talk about with the conference bias and the brand bias. because again, what brand is bigger than Texas? Everything's bigger in Texas and definitely long. Texas is one of those jobs where you kind of have to stop what you're doing

and take that job. That relates to the last segment. That's how being Texas is. Absolutely. Texas is one of those. I don't give a damn where you are. If Fran Brown goes on to lead Syracuse back to the Ernie Davis Day's type of success and all of a sudden, the Texas calls.

I hope that Syracuse. is in that predicament one day. That would be ideal. That would be perfect. Isn't that the goal? I mean, ideally, Fram Brown would stay, you know, 30 years and lead Syracuse to 10 national titles and everything like that. But if you're telling me that they can have, you know, five, six years of tremendous success,

which is like unprecedented since the 80s and the 50s of Syracuse. And then he leaves to go take a job at Texas. What the fuck? I'm okay with that. That's fine by me. I'll sign on the dotted line right now. What did Brad Piss say in the glorious Bages? You'll take that deal?

I'll take that deal. Yeah, the alternative was, right? Having Dino Babers for eight years and getting one 10 win season and that was about it. So I'll take a lot of success and then he leaves for another job. But that's our discussion on the amount of conference teams, ACC teams, I should say, getting into college football playoff. The good news, I don't think there's going to be zero. There's at least going to be one.

I agree. maybe two, outside chance, three. Now coming up, our last thoughts on week 13. Get ready to tackle the NFL action with Fandul, America's number one sportsbook, because right now new customers can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if you win. The Fandle Sportsbook app gives you everything you need to place live bets on the NFL all in one place. So when you get a hunch in the middle of a game, you can check out the latest stats, view live, play by play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets.

Speaking of the game of the week in the ACC this Saturday, Miami trying to clinch a spot in the ACC title game. All they got to do is go up north and play the Syracuse Orange who are currently 8 and 3. Miami is a 10.5 point road favorite. What do you think of those odds? That is up for you to decide. All you got to do is visit fandle.com to join today and you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets. If you win your first $5 bet, that's fandle.com. never waste a hunch and make every moment more with Fanduil, an official sports book partner of the NFL.

All right. Our last thoughts on week 13 are players of the week as well. Kenton, let's start off on offense, your offensive player of the week. Yeah, so, you know, there were a lot of guys I could look at and say, hey, you played a really good football game. You played a great game. but I think that there's only one guy. If you watched his game and you saw how he cooked up in this game, I think it's very hard to give it to anybody but Kevin Jennings.

I mean, he absolutely destroyed Virginia. When I tell you, every time you thought, oh, he's about to get sacked, he pulls a little Houdini move and all of a sudden he's free and finding an open man downfield. So I think that Kevin Jennings of SMU, again, everybody who knows me knows how much I let up on the Express. I was so happy when they got in. Everybody said, oh, Ken, you can't be having it. He said to prove that. Hey, we got SMU. I'm all right. I'm happy with that. And I'm happy with his performance. I know I have bias here. I know. But can I read you Kyle McCord's numbers here? Talk to me. 470 yards. Completion percentage of nearly 80%. You ain't wrong.

Two touchdowns and no turnovers. I know I'm biased, but I mean, come on. Hey, listen, I had to leave it for you. I had to leave it for you. If it was me and Dono, I would have took him. But it's your guy. So I had to let you get your guy, especially with all the slander off lobbied his way. I can't switch up and join the team now after a 470-yard performance. But he did.

He played his tail off. He really did. I know people will say, well, it was against Yukon. Well, Kevin Jennings did it against the mighty Virginia Cavaliers. And we're not talking about basketball right now on the podcast. They're not a very good football team. They're not. Cam Ward did his performance against Wake Forest and the other contender Fernando

Mendoza who had an excellent game against Stanford. So it's not like they all played against the juggernauts here. So I gave it a Kyle McCord for 470 and two touchdowns. Kenon, what about your defense? You know, defense was a little bit tougher because I looked around the conference and I said there were a lot of guys who played some really good ball this week. And it's always tough to come up with like, hey, who was the most impactful guy? who was the guy that showed up and showed out the most in a week where we're getting down this we're getting down to the nitty gritty and we're seeing players ball out at a very very very high level but there is one gentleman in particular he has been doing it all year i have given this young man love all year he may have done one thing that is upset me and that's get mac brown fired donovan azoraku come on down baby

Donnie is a past rusher supreme. Two sacks, two and a half tackles for loss. He showed up and showed out big time this week, as he's been doing all year. Let's be very honest. He is one of these sack leaders in the ACC for a reason. He is relentless. He is quick twitch. He is surprisingly wiry strong, much stronger than this frame would imply.

And I'll tell you, that get off. It's like he's Usain Boat covering a ton of ground and a hurry out the blocks. You know, he was always. also in contention for me as well. And spoiler to the audience here, me and Ken, we did not consult each other on these lists. So there was going to be other names. I mean, we would have just doubled down on them. But we didn't. That's the good news here. I got Mish Powell over at Miami. I really gave it to him because of the play he made in the second quarter against Wake Forest. It's about midway through the quarter. Miami's up 10.7.

And Wake Forest is driving. They're driving. They're down by. three points. They're well within field goal range. It looks like they're either going to tie or potentially take the lead. And you know with Miami, they can kind of give you a little stare at times, right? It kind of can. Absolutely. And then comes Mish Powell perfectly reading a wide receiver screen and taking it over 70 yards back to the house, put Miami up 177. The irony of it is that Wake Forest stored on the ensuing kick return. But in that moment, I knew, I knew for sure after that play, Miami's not going to slip up at least this week.

They're not going to slip up this week. Maybe, hey, who knows about this? Who knows about third? Who knows, right? We never know about that one. But at least I knew they are not going to just have a home dud against Wake Forest. So Mish Powell gets it for me because he completely changed the game, made the most impactful play for Miami in their win over Wake Forest.

Those are our players of the week. Last thoughts on week 13, anything on your mind? You know, again, I'm just very disappointed with the timing of this firing. And again, this isn't me joking about Mack Brown being a good guy that's going to allow NC State to get more wins against you. I mean that from a very genuine standpoint. Why here, why now? Why in this very moment, you know, in the middle of rivalry week, do you announce,

Hey, by the way, before you play your most heated rival, your coach is gone. So how fun with that. You know, I think that that's just a moment where you just look up and say, what a disappointment. And one more final thought here, there should be no way that the ACC is even debating. There's even a possibility of less than two in a playoff. There should be, there's not a world where you can tell me that two ACC teams have not earned the right to be there. You know, it breaks down to a very circular logic of we believe. you're the best in preseason, therefore you are the best in order to keep them out.

I told you this in the preseason. I told you on those squad episodes, those preseason rankings, they don't die. Kenden, they don't die. And listen, I didn't disagree. We think you're good. Unless you're Florida State and you are so absolutely terrible, it's like we could never like get rid of that perception of like, oh, maybe they're just not that good. Or maybe they're much better than we thought they were.

that's just how it is. I guess for my final thought, I kind of agree. I mean, I do agree with you on the Mac Brown. I just, the timing of it is just really confusing. There's no sense for it to leak out on a Tuesday afternoon right before you're about to play your biggest rival.

Makes no sense. And then you're going to have him coach. I find it weird, but I get it. I guess they're giving him the option to do it, which is pool. He's under contract for now. And I agree with you.

There should be at least two ACC teams in, possibly three. I'm Jackson Holder, the host of Locked on Syracuse. That is Kenton Gibbs, former NC State defensive tackle. Now the host of the Lockdown Wolfpack. And guys, if you're tired of me, well, good news for you, Alex Dono, the host of Lockdown Keynes. He should be back tomorrow hosting this podcast. But it has been a pleasure filling in for Alex Dono.

So thank you all for the support. And everyone, I will see you all for the ACC squad episode. which is coming out on Wednesday.