Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - Miami Hurricanes' playoff ranking: Bias or justified?

Starting point is 00:00:00 The college football playoff committee sent the message loud and clear. If you're in the ACC, you're not getting any benefit of the doubt. You are locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Shout out to the everydayers and thank you so much for making Lockdown ACC. Your first listen and your first watch, we're available free wherever you get your podcast. We're free on YouTube. We're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network.

Starting point is 00:00:35 your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by Fanduel. You can start the season with a big return because new customers can place a $5 bet and you'll get started with $150 in bonus bets if you win your first $5 bet. Visit Fandual.com to get started. All right. So, Kenton, I'm watching on Tuesday night, the CFP reveal. And it was very suspenseful because even though this isn't the last one, this is a pretty

Starting point is 00:01:00 decisive one because most teams don't have a game left to play. And, you know, I knew that if Miami was going to have a legit shot to sneak into the CFP, they would have to be no worse than number 11. That's because, you know, every team from the big 12 is ranked lower and there's going to be a big 12 champion. And whenever that champion is crowned this coming weekend, of course, they're going to leapfrog into the top 12. So Miami needed to be number 11. And they come out at number 12 behind Alabama at number 11. and that has been the talk of the nation, Kenton Gibbs, for the last 24 hours.

Starting point is 00:01:38 So let's get right into it. And again, listen, I obviously Miami fumbled their opportunity to control their own destiny. I get it and I'll circle back to that. But at the end of the day, does 9 and 3 Alabama, in your mind, do they have a better resume than 10 and 2 Miami? I think you're muted. Y'all already know where this is going to go based on my first statement. Sorry, Grandma, I still love you, but your tie cannot get in.

Starting point is 00:02:07 There is not a world in which here's the thing about these metrics that I cannot stand. Okay. First of all, I'm glad that everybody knows that a hypothetical Alabama beats actual Alabama by about 28 points. I believe that point spread would be about 28 and a half because hypothetical Alabama, I ain't lost the game in quite some time. Right, exactly. Hypothetical Alabama didn't lose to Oklahoma. No, they surely didn't put up three points.

Starting point is 00:02:35 And hypothetical Alabama definitely didn't lose to Vanderbilt. Had Diego Pauvian and a Heisman race for Christ, say, P you, P you. But with that being said, the reality is, to me, if you lose three games, that's one thing, sure. If you lose three games to a murderer's role, I'm okay with that, right? If your three losses, hey, you lose an extremely close from the Georgia, you lose an extremely close one to Texas. You lose an extremely close one to Ole Miss or LSU. I'm okay with that. I promise you, I can look at that and say,

Starting point is 00:03:07 you know what, at their bets, they're slightly below those. They're one play away against some of the best teams in the nation. But what I saw was a team that when they're not at their best, there are three touchdowns in the Oklahoma Sooners. That's what I saw. I saw a team that when not at their best,

Starting point is 00:03:28 they are worse than the Vanderbilt Commodore. I beg your damn pardon. I bet that's the team I'm supposed to look at and say, yeah, they've got a ton of good losses. Even if I was to use the good loss metric, the only one that falls in that category is Tennessee. That's it.

Starting point is 00:03:49 Yeah. That's the only one of the losses you can say, that looks like a playoff team and they lost them. That's it. Nobody. So, again, you know, using the current top 25, by the way, What an interesting qualifier of current top 25.

Starting point is 00:04:05 Because again, it works in this cyclical way, which is why I posed a tweet earlier when it asks, what's next, what replaces the committee. I said there should be some type of rating that is completely untethered to the coaches and a people. There should be some rating that's completely independent because a lot like the year, I can't remember what year was. But there was a year where the Sunbelt swept the Big 12, including a team that was in the Big 12 championship. guess what that should have told us about that year. Hey, sorry to tell you, the Sun Belt's the better conference, period. Period. Because the on-the-field results, you can say,

Starting point is 00:04:41 Iowa State will the beat Troy 10 times out of 11. This was that one time. Sorry, we live in a world where all three of these teams had their one time in the same year. So I look at this and I say to myself, if Alabama gets in, the on-the-field results don't really matter all that much. because, you know, this argument of, oh, just schedule a week and you'll get in. Okay, sure. But the teams that you schedule that's so weak, let's look at them for a second, shall we?

Starting point is 00:05:11 Do you talk about top 25? If we stress that out to top 30, did you know that Miami has a better record than Alabama in that regard? Or I'm sorry, the same record as Alabama in that regard, because then Louisville and Duke would both be in that category. So we're talking about 100 and what, 30 some odd teams in the nation. And if you stretch that rating out five to from top 25 to top 30, all of a sudden there becomes a different thing there. And then I would ask, what the hell is Missouri done to end up ranked in the top 25? They've gotten their head kicked in every time they played a decent team.

Starting point is 00:05:47 So, you know, I look at this and I say to myself, it's a shame. It's a travesty. It's a sham. And again, I normally get a call about this. I know my grandmother is going to have some not so nice words for me about this. Sorry, Grandma. We love me. But I'm sorry, your Todd don't belong in the play.

Starting point is 00:06:06 They belong in a nice bowl game somewhere. Just not in the year six. Just not one of the ones that are going to determine a national champion. Well, a couple things on what you said. It's interesting the point you bring up that if you were to extend it to the top 30 that Miami has the same record. But let me go back to what Ward Emanuel, the CFP chair, who, comes off like a used car salesman because he was very manipulative with his words, right? He, you know, he mentions, hey, Alabama only has one loss against teams that are currently in the top 25.

Starting point is 00:06:37 But then hold on, who ranks the top 25? That's you, right? So you, you're the one, Mr. Emmanuel and your committee members. You guys are the reason why a nine and three Duke team whom Miami beat and I believe deserves to be ranked. That should be a team that's in the top 25 and Miami having a win over that team. I mean, you know, somewhat arguably they probably fumbled it when they lost to Stanford, but, you know, Louisville being on the cusp of being ranked, I think that was a good win for Miami, especially on the road.

Starting point is 00:07:10 And the other thing that Ward Emanuel really manipulated was one of the points that he made, and you want to talk about not giving full context, all right? he was touting how Bama only has one loss to teams with better than 500 records. That was what he said. I mean, that's some real deception. So yeah, they only have one loss against teams with above 500 records, completely ignoring the fact that they have two losses to teams that are 500. Uh-oh.

Starting point is 00:07:39 Uh-oh. What's that? Oh, yeah. You know, everybody above 500, they look great. So what you're telling me now is, hey, you can sleepwalk. As much as people talk about this, just schedule easy. Well, if scheduling easy was the way to get it done, wouldn't that be Alabama's Achilles Hill this year?

Starting point is 00:07:58 Yeah. Wouldn't these teams that are just so bad and so terrible? Wouldn't that be Alabama's Achilles Hill? Because they seem to have lost the two games that without two teams that without beating them don't make bowl games. If Diego Pocke and Company do not beat Alabama, guess what? The only chance they have in a bowl game

Starting point is 00:08:17 is if somebody else drops off, because their graduation, graduation rate is high. If Oklahoma does not beat Alabama, guess what? They're not making a bowl game. So I think that it's extremely interesting how, again, Alabama gets all this love and all, oh, well, you know, they'll figure it. Oh, well, it's not fair to Bamma. Yeah, it's fair to Bamma to say, hey, you've got big wins, but you've got terrible losses.

Starting point is 00:08:42 You have some of the higher highs in the nation. Nobody would disagree with that. but your lows have to matter too. And if you talk about Miami's lows, Miami's lows are what? Losing to a team that took Georgia to eight overtime, losing to a nine win team on the row, okay. And they lost those two games, by the way, by a combined nine points. Right.

Starting point is 00:09:05 Total nine points. Yeah. Yeah. It's foolishness. It really and truly is. And beyond that, lost that by a combined nine points. Do you think, and again, I know, Oklahoma hypothetically, you know, they would never lose to a lowly ACC team. But when you look at Oklahoma and who they actually were, how do you excuse the three touchdown loss as late in the season as that was?

Starting point is 00:09:34 What was that week 12? Yes, it was, no, I think it was, yeah, yeah, I guess it was week 12. And another thing that you bring that up, another one of Ward Manuel's arguments was basically that, you know, Miami finished colder than Alabama because he brought up, well, they, they lost two out of their last three games, which is true. Miami did that, whereas Alabama went two and one over their last three games. But I think context matters here because the one was a three touchdown loss to a bad Oklahoma team.

Starting point is 00:10:03 And the other, the two that they won were against a now five and seven Auburn team. And I don't remember if it was home or the road. Does it really even matter? Five and seven Auburn team they beat. And they beat Mercer from the FC. was one of their final three wins. Fantastic. Well, well, you know, but Donna, that Auburn win has to mean a lot because Auburn would never lose to a lowly ACC team.

Starting point is 00:10:28 They, and if Auburn were, no, no, no, hypothetically, if Auburn were to lose to a lowly ACC team, it would have to be our champion. It'd have to be one of our best, right? it wouldn't be some newcomer that can't win here like Al. It couldn't be a Cal team that was early in the season without their all-world running back that we thought was going to be the guy to carry the medal. It couldn't be that situation. Hold on. Hold on.

Starting point is 00:11:00 Wait. Let me. What's that? Oh, I just got news. That was the exact situation. Again, hypothetical Auburn, hypothetical Auburn wins that game 10 times out 10. But when you put them on the field against folks, all of a sudden they don't. Hypothetical Bama blows everybody.

Starting point is 00:11:16 There's nobody in the ACC has a chance against hypothetical Bama until you tell Jalen Miller a complete a hitch pass for me, buddy. Tell me, tell me, can you do that? Can you do a little something along those lines? You know, hey, Malachi Moore, maybe don't melt down at the end of a football game. Maybe, you know, take a loss and walk off the field like a normal person. When you get to asking people that, all of a sudden, the ballgame changes. So, you know, I look at this situation and I simply say, I'm tired of the manipulation, the trickeration, the all of the, I got to distort my words and current top 25,

Starting point is 00:11:54 well, who race the top 25? Well, we do. What we got to decide who were the top 25 teams and we decided based on what we decided. Based on what? Based on what? Who the hell is Missouri beat all year? Their combined score against ranked teams this year, I believe they're negative. There are O and three with negative 30 or so, maybe even more than that. So what are we doing here? Why are they ranked? Again, they're ranked to help out all of these SECTs because now you can say, Alabama has been the ranked Missouri.

Starting point is 00:12:29 And I love coaches. Anybody who knows me knows there is not a single head coach who is not a coach of your school that is beloved more by Ken Gibbs than Eli. drink this. There is not. He's standing on business. I love me some day. You better tell him. We stand on minutes, Josh. I love me some coach drinks. But that's not a good team this year. So, you know, I look at this situation and I just say, it's really a sham.

Starting point is 00:12:54 It's really an embarrassment. And again, at what point do the games mean something? At what point do we start to say, okay, we get it. We know that you think you're the best. We know that like, hey, you won games over other conferences and all that good stuff. But you've lost some too. The teams that have dominated your conference lost to USC. That's a thing that happened. Right. So, you know, at some point in time, we've got to live in reality

Starting point is 00:13:19 and stop living in these hypotheticals where, well, what were Vegas handicapped at? What would Vegas hand? If Vegas was always right, there would be no such point in gambling because you know whoever Vegas picks, that's just who's going to win. And yet and still, degenerates like Dono find themselves on Fandul every single week. And I find plenty of ways to lose. by the well, even betting favorites. I still find the favorites don't always win.

Starting point is 00:13:43 I learned that the hard way. But I'm going to put my tinfoil hat on when we come back. We do have the ACC player of the year has been announced. And we'll also take a look at how ACC teams have finished in recruiting. You guys want to keep it locked right here. My friends, we are not done yet. We're only getting started on this brand new episode of Lockdown ACC. Better Together is back here on the Lockdown Podcast Network.

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Starting point is 00:15:05 Play with us in the locked on CFB Saturday, games contest this Saturday. Remember the coat, locked on, because winning alone is fun, but it's better together. Thank you for making Lockdown ACC, your first listen and your first watch today. Alex Dono from Locked on Cains alongside Kenton Gibbs from Locked on Wolfpack. So another thing that Ward Manuel said last night on ESPN that didn't really make a whole lot of sense to me was, you know, the teams that don't play this weekend, which is most of them, right? is only eight teams, I mean, 10, if you include group of five plus playing conference championship games, that their data points cannot change.

Starting point is 00:15:49 Essentially, he's implying that Alabama, Miami, Ole Miss, South Carolina are locked into where they're at, which would mean, you know, Miami can't pass Alabama, South Carolina can't pass anybody. But that explanation doesn't pass the smell test to me because, okay, just because these teams aren't playing this weekend doesn't mean their strength of record cannot improve this weekend, Kenton, because an example, and even though this example doesn't favor the ACC, I think it's still worth pointing this out. So you're telling me South Carolina, who's ranked number 14, that their data point cannot improve if Clemson wins the ACC championship this weekend.

Starting point is 00:16:31 They just beat Clemson in the last weekend of the season. So you're telling me if suddenly they've got a victory over a conference champion that that can't. improve their data point. Like that's one of those things that doesn't make sense to me, the common opponent thing, this idea that everybody who doesn't play is locked in to the spot that they're in. I don't know if he misspoke or it just, to me, it doesn't pass the smell test.

Starting point is 00:16:56 Oh, it shouldn't pass the smell test, especially when juxtapoles against something else that he said, in a later press conference that was not televised in terms of, in terms of the, the, I believe it was some press conference or something along those lines held afterwards some press junket. When Ags could, could SMU be knocked out of the playoff by losing? The answer was, it's possible.

Starting point is 00:17:24 Now, here's the thing. It's not even about SMU. The question is this. If you are saying that the plot points or the points of these teams, like where they are, cannot move in terms of the teams that are not play, if you're saying that theirs can't move, why are you penalizing a team that plays? Why?

Starting point is 00:17:44 And that's where everybody keeps coming up with all this. Well, you know, maybe it's better to say your team just came down with COVID or something like that. And I'm thinking to myself, what type of soft crap is this? This is unlike anything I've ever seen in my life because everything that I was raised up in, everything I was taught about, you know,

Starting point is 00:18:05 people talk about millennials being the participation trophy generation, the Gibbs household, we threw away every participant's trophy. You didn't win MVP, most improved defensive player, offensive player, best setter, best setter, whatever. You didn't win one of those awards? It was going into trash because we were taught you always compete. You never turned on the opportunity to compete.

Starting point is 00:18:26 You just don't do it. So now we're putting teams in a position where we're incentivized, not competing. And we're not even talking about scheduling easy. We're talking about for your damn championship of your conference. We're talking about filling up your hardware. We're talking about filling up your championship trophy case with some hardware. And teams are saying, well, maybe it makes more sense for it. And you've created this situation, war.

Starting point is 00:18:53 You've created it with your double speak. Well, it's possible. How? How would it be possible? Whatever happens, guess what? Even if, even if SMU, were to lose 24 to 3 to Clemson. Guess what?

Starting point is 00:19:10 They still wouldn't have a worst loss in your precious Alabama Crimson Tide. It would be the exact same losses, them, to a better team. Yeah. And this ain't just about SMU. Just about all of these teams. Put it all down on. Put the 10. Okay, because here's something, I want to throw this at you, Kenton,

Starting point is 00:19:31 and I want to make sure I'm wearing this. Okay. So the people don't take me too. seriously, but I'm also, I'm not completely unsurious when I say this, because guess what? The committee leaves themselves open to this sort of a concern. All right. So here is a conspiracy theory that I think we have to consider, all right? We're doing the knowledge that we're like on ACC.

Starting point is 00:19:53 We're doing the knowledge right now. You're doing the knowledge. So this is not only, obviously, we all know there's an SEC bias, but I think even more clearly, there's an Alabama bias when it comes to that brand. But in terms of the SEC bias thing, Kenton, this keeps running through my brain since last night, all right? You know, we know that the SEC and the Big Ten, which are, you know, known as the Power 2,

Starting point is 00:20:17 they've set up their alliance, they've held meetings, and we know for a fact that they have used the leverage with the college football playoff committee to try and, you know, lobby for more spots in the next format and more preferential treatment. It just means more. all that. We know for a fact that the SEC and the Big Ten have used the idea as leverage of, well, hey, you guys need us a lot more than we need you. And if you don't give us the most favorable

Starting point is 00:20:46 possible treatment, we can just leave and do our own playoff. We don't need the ACC in the Big 12, the way they need us or the way the college football playoff needs us. And so I can't help but wonder if, you know, if the committee opens themselves up to the possibility of giving more preferential treatment to an SEC power or a Big Ten power because they don't want to piss those guys off. You know, I may need a ten-foil hat as well here because I got a hot conspiracy that's not really a conspiracy, but it's even harder than that one. I think that what's happening right now is about ratings draws. Let's be honest.

Starting point is 00:21:24 Miami plays a fun brand of football, but Miami, as they exist right now, are not the same ratings draw that Bama is. They're just not. They're not that same draw. Miami is a city that has multiple professional teams, actual professional team. Where the hell are their professional teams in Alabama? Oh, I'll tell you, they're in Tuscaloosa. That's the professional team.

Starting point is 00:21:47 That's it. That's all. Who's their baseball team, Donno? Basketball. They might have a couple minor league teams. Basketball? What's you got? You got anything for me?

Starting point is 00:21:58 They got to have an MLS team, right? There's a Birmingham FC floating. somewhere, right? No. Okay. So that is their draw. They're going to be a bigger draw, but just say that. To me, I would respect somebody who would just say out loud, this is the grip.

Starting point is 00:22:15 This is what it is. Fight me. Guess what? Yeah, you know, because then you lose legitimacy, but you've already lost legitimacy. You've already lost legitimacy as a committee. And like I said before, if the Big Ten and the SEC want to take their ball and go home, let them. Tell them if I'm the group of five and the ACC and the Big 12,

Starting point is 00:22:39 I am demanding, not requesting, demanding that we go back to the computers determining it and taking a step further than the BCS even did, because the AP and the coaches poll should have nothing to do with it. It should be based on what you have done on the field. What has your conference done on the field? We should take Troy football with the same rating. that NC State football is met with with the same ratings that Texas is meant with with the same ratings that Michigan is met with if they do the same things.

Starting point is 00:23:14 To me, and if you force their hand, if all of these teams come together and say, hey, we're forcing your hand. We are not doing this anything that's tethered to the AP and coaches anymore because we don't give a damn who's on TV. We don't give a damn who's on ABC and ESPN1. I want to talk some ball. I want to talk who's won the games when we've played each other. That's what I want to talk.

Starting point is 00:23:37 And when you do that, that is when I believe you will force the SEC and big 10 into a corner where it's like, if they take their ball and go home, they are defect or many. And a true meritocracy, we do not hold up to what we're currently doing. We are holding up in this range because it's that brand bias, because it's that conference bias. But when you go meritocracy, what you earn, you eat what you kill and you only get what you show up and earn. you've got to win in that if they decide to leave. You won. You won because people may say your championship ain't legit. And all you got to say is we invited them.

Starting point is 00:24:10 They're invited whenever they want to come. But they decided that it was more important to hold on to what the media thinks of them than what an objective computer that doesn't know any of our teams from Joe Schmoe down the street decides should happen here. We got an ACC. Well, two of them, offense and defense players of the year crowned. and we'll take a look on this early national signing day, how the ACC recruiting classes are looking. You want to keep it locked right here, my friends.

Starting point is 00:24:37 We're not done yet on this brand new episode of Lockdown ACCC. We've been having a blast all season long with Fandul, and there's so much more football left. Guys, get ready to tackle all the NFL action, all the college football action with Fandul, America's number one sports book. Because right now, new customers can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if you win. The Fandual Sportsbook app gives you everything you need

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Starting point is 00:25:40 Your team every day. So this dropped earlier today, Kenton. Miami quarterback Cam Ward, who ends up eclipsing 4,000 passing yards, 36 touchdown passes. He's been named ACC Player of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year. Well, actually, he's been named both overall ACC Player of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year, while Boston College defensive, then Donovan Ezraku was named ACC ACC defensive player of the year. So those came out today.

Starting point is 00:26:09 No surprise on either side, right? Is there any? I mean, I guess like offensively, the only other guy that probably really had a chance was Kyle McCord. I know he did win head to head, but, you know, Cam Ward had the most impressive season there. And Azaraku was, again, a monster on defense that not enough people are talking about. Oh, absolutely. Dominaziracu has been the anchor that has held Boston College.

Starting point is 00:26:31 in place this season. He is akin to what Castiano's was last season for them. He's been that just on the defensive side of the ball. I mean, every time you look up, that and young man is in somebody's back to making a big play on their quarterback. 16 and a half sacks this year. 16 and a half. That's no joke. That's no joke there. And here's the other thing about it that I really think people need to pay attention to and really give credence to when you're talking about Donovan Ezraqa. We talk about guys who put up big numbers a lot, but there are moments where those guys they do one game of four to five sacks against nobody's bill tech, and then they disappear.

Starting point is 00:27:11 And then they go nowhere for the next three, four games, and then you see them again when they play another scrub team. Here's a very interesting fact about Donovan Azaraki. Only twice, only twice, I'm sorry, once ever during this season did he go two weeks without a sack? And even though that one time where he went two weeks without a sack, he forced to fumble against Virginia Tech. So that tells you the type of situation that we're looking at with this young man. He showed up consistently. He was there all the time for this team.

Starting point is 00:27:47 And like I said, do you think they beat Michigan State without him? No. I don't think so. Do you think they beat Florida State without him? Even knowing what we know now, I don't think so. I don't think so. I think he was the first person that had people looking at the offensive line. Like, are they okay?

Starting point is 00:28:03 Are the boys good? Because he wrecked their game plan. So Donovan is who he is. And Cam, I mean, how much do we really have to say about? Like, what can you say about him besides he belongs in the Hyder conversation? He should be in New York. He absolutely should be in New York because he was walking plot armor for how long for this team. Oh, yeah.

Starting point is 00:28:24 Well, and even, you know, he wasn't, he didn't put. up that good numbers in the lost Georgia Tech, but even in the lost Syracuse, we can agree that had nothing to do with Cam Ward. He actually had his highest pro football focus grade of the year in the Syracuse game. That was on the defense and that was on, you know, a fumble that he had nothing to do with. Exactly. Exactly. The only thing that you made me he said, oh, he did wrong, he should have made a tackle on the fumble. But yeah, when you're blaming the quarterback. And he almost did, by the way, he almost stopped that touchdown. Exactly. When you're blaming the quarterback for not making a tackle on the play where he didn't turn the ball over, guess what?

Starting point is 00:28:59 He had a pretty damn good game. Okay. So, you know, Cam Ward, he's been phenomenal all year. He has been the golden standard. He's one of the few quarterbacks ever, ever in terms of, or let me not even say ever. Actually, yeah, we can say ever. One of a few quarterbacks ever to be a one-year rental that showed up and was not good, was not very good.

Starting point is 00:29:20 He's been great from go. He has been phenomenal from go. So, you know, you got to love. what he's doing. You know, so before the show, Kent, Kenton made me feel kind of rude, but also made me feel a lot better because a lot of Miami fans are disappointed with the way their class of 2025 is panning out because, you know, they lost a couple, they lost a couple recruits in recent days. Five-star safety, Hilton, Drake Stubbs flipped to Florida, Gavin Nix, a four-star linebacker flipped to Oregon and Miami didn't land some of the flips they were trying to land on

Starting point is 00:29:57 National Signing Day. And I'm, so I'm complaining to Kent. And I'm not really complaining. I'm just saying like there's some disappointment because I still think it's a really good class, but just the vibes in Miami are not all that positive about it right now. And then Kenton starts laughing at me because I'm complaining about the 15th rated recruiting class in the country. How's NC State doing on the trip? Hey, hey, hey, we don't have to talk about that. We don't, what are we, you know, I thought that we were going to be good and have a couple guys today, Dono. I thought we were good in abacable. But since we want to take it there,

Starting point is 00:30:29 NC State is currently ninth in the ACCC in terms of recruiting classes. And in the nation overall, they are a healthy 41. So, you know, Dono is over there tripping about his 15th rank class. Oh, there's so much disappointing. Well, you know what, though? You know what makes me the happiest, Donno. You know what? What just brings joy to my heart?

Starting point is 00:30:53 What makes me smile, what makes me, you know, like Denzel said in fences when he was talking about his mystery. I got laugh until my bones ache, but I ain't leaving it. You know what gives me that type of joy? Do you know who's dead last in the ACC? The teams surrounding this team in recruiting are Troy, Bowling Green, Nevada, all above them. Then it's them. Then below them. Shout out to the Eastern Michigan evening.

Starting point is 00:31:20 was up there in Ipsilani. Buffalo and App State. Do you know who that is? With the way you're you're grinning, there can only be one inserted this. With the way, with the way Kenton is smiling, I'm going to guess it's the dirty foot club. Oh, you know it?

Starting point is 00:31:40 Yeah. When you're down there with a group of five team that doesn't have a head coach in App State, oh, what a time. I'm so, I just feel so sad for this. them down, though. You know, I just, they only have nine commits. I know they don't have a coach right now, but they only have nine signes right now,

Starting point is 00:31:59 which is like most schools have in the 20s for incoming recruits. Well, App State not only doesn't have a coach, but they're a group of five team and they have 11 commits. So, you know, it's so unfortunate, you know, it's so unfortunate. It makes me so sad, you know. But if I was a recruiting, I saw a bunch of guys lose a game and get beat up afterwards, too. I too would say, I'm not sure if I want anything to do with that. You know, I don't like getting jumped on. I don't like getting my head whooped on.

Starting point is 00:32:27 I'll have that. Yeah, so just the way teams finished in recruiting in the ACC, Miami does have the top class in the ACC. 21 commits, 15, 4 stars, an average grade of 90.78, which is that that's the 24-7 ranking. I'm actually surprised Georgia Tech has it. They got more commits. They got more commits than most of the teams,

Starting point is 00:32:53 but Georgia Tech has the second best class, Clemson, third, and Florida State, they finished fourth in the ACC, I think 25th in the, 27th, 25th in the country, something like that. It's not nearly as bad as it could have been for them. Not nearly. And I'm actually confused by their success a little bit,

Starting point is 00:33:12 because, you know, if I saw a team do that, I'm not sure I'd want anything to do with that program. because, you know, but I guess that's 29-year-old speaking. Well, also, but it also, like, they can send the message of there's a lot of open jobs here. Like, you come in and you could maybe play your first year, although that's probably not going to happen because they're going to bring in 30 portal players more than likely, but, you know, they can tell recruits. We got a lot of jobs open here. And I get that, but do you want to take a job in that type of culture? And again, 18-year-olds are smart enough to process that.

Starting point is 00:33:46 Like, that's okay. That's okay, because 18-year-old me wasn't smart enough. enough to understand certain things either that 29 year old me looks at and it's like oh that makes a lot of sense but you know that's that's how that works but i'll tell you if i saw the writing on the wall for a coach like that you know i mean and even if you look at florida situation where you're like oh billy saved this job for how long for how long okay here's what here's what happened in florida and i'm not knocking it because i i embrace the nil era i'm i understand that this is the landscape and if you if you can do this good for you.

Starting point is 00:34:17 So part of Florida's success. Now the stability under Napier doesn't hurt. And also shout out to DJ Lagway because players are excited to play with him. So DJ Lagway, their quarterback is a big part of Florida's recruiting success. But so what happened with Florida was, you know, remember up until about a month ago, they were going to fire Billy Napier. But then they decided because they had already raised Kent and a bunch of money for Napier's buyout.

Starting point is 00:34:41 When they decided not to fire him, where do you think they funneled that money. So, you know, and listen, power to you. I mean, I'm not to say Miami hasn't spent big on players and Florida State and so on. I'm not knocking it. That's just the game. And that's a big part of the reason why Florida ended up really sticking the landing in this class. Yeah. And at the end of the day, again, I look at this and I just say to myself, hey, every recruit is motivated by different things. I personally, you know, being a part of like, I can understand building towards winning, but a complete collapse, like what we saw, I don't know, hey, I get it though.

Starting point is 00:35:20 They have a very storied history, and, you know, they're never too far away from a championship. I'll say that much. They've never been that far away, that far removed. Even in this terrible season, they're one year away from being undefeated ACC champs. So, you know, I get it. I understand it from a certain aspect, but from other aspects, I'm just like, oh, that, that looks like a nasty situation. That looks like some nasty business there that they got going on.

Starting point is 00:35:48 Well, we appreciate everyone for taking the time to check out Locked on ACC. If you're watching us on YouTube, make sure to smash the like button and subscribe. If you listen to the audio version, subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you get your pods. Make sure to check out our other shows. Kenton hosts Lockedon Wolfpack. I host Locked on Cains, and we'll talk to everybody tomorrow on another episode of Lockdown ACC. We're getting the squad together tomorrow right here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. team every day. I'm talking about the 15th best class.

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