Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - NICE: ACC off to SOLID START in Bowl Season | Georgia Tech's NARROW Loss & Virginia BEATS SEC

Episode Date: December 29, 2025

ACC squads shake up bowl season with unexpected wins and wild finishes. Virginia shocks Missouri in the Gator Bowl, while Georgia Tech’s promising run stalls in a heartbreaking loss to BYU. Can Miami capitalize against Ohio State and push the ACC’s postseason record into elite territory?Jackson Holzer and Kenton Gibbs break down Georgia Tech’s quarterback transitions, Pitt’s puzzling bowl loss to East Carolina, and the implications of Tony Elliott’s physical style at Virginia. The debate heats up over Clemson’s decline under Dabo Swinney: is it time for a new direction, or can the Tigers adapt to modern college football? Plus, an early preview of the Cotton Bowl stirs questions about Miami’s scoring potential and Ohio State’s dominant defense. Don’t miss this energetic bowl season recap and a look ahead to ACC’s football future. Everydayer Club  If 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! GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.RugietIf you’ve been thinking about taking the next step, now’s the time.Head to https://Rugiet.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGEto get 15% off your order for a limited time.Rugiet Ready. Feel present. Feel confident. Feel ready.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The ACC and bowl season has been not bad. 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 in a locked on ACC. I'm Jackson Hole. So the host of Locked on Syracuse. That's Tenton Gibbs, host of Locked on NC State Wolfpack. Thank you so much for making Locked on ACC, your first listen of every single day.

here on the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. And we're always free and available wherever you get your podcast on the number one sports podcasting network. And on today's show, we are going over some of the big bowl games over the weekend in the ACC. And so far, the conference in general has been pretty good this bowl season. So all that and more coming up here on today's show. And before we get to everything, this episode is brought to you by Ruggier. If you've ever been thinking about taking the next step now, now's the time.

Head to rougiette.com slash lockdown college to get 15% off your order for a limited time. Ruggiet ready, feel present, feel confident, feel ready. I think for the ACC this bowl season, Kenton, it's been pretty good. I mean, the overall record, if you count Miami, is four and four. But you also have to keep in mind, Miami is one of the eight teams remaining that is still playing in the year of 2025, most college football. football teams are right now preparing for the transfer portal. Miami is simply preparing for Ohio State, which is going to be on Wednesday night. But let's start off talking about some of the bowls over the weekend on Saturday.

You had Georgia Tech versus BYU. Kenton, what are your thoughts on this one? You know, it was a really, really good game, really valiant effort by Georgia Tech. But that was a spectacular showing by both teams. And I'll tell you what, at the end of the day, when I watched that game, I walked away saying this is the essence of what college football is. That was two teams that were extremely excited to be there. That was two teams that wanted to lay it all out on the line.

And they were led by two quarterbacks that, no, with all due respect, both Backemire and Haynes King, they know that their NFL prospects are limited. They know that. They know that they're not the prototype of what NFL offenses are looking for. and yet and still, they put on the best shows that they could. And so I look at that game and I say, congratulations for putting on the hell of a show for both of those teams. Obviously, as locked on ACC, we wish Georgia Tech would have got it done,

but to see Haines King deliver one on a dime down the sideline to get them that close to be able to potentially close that thing out with a game winning TD. It was a great game. It was an exciting game. And ultimately, we came up short. but you know, I will say ACC bowl season overall so far

to me, I struggle to say it's been anything outside of really great to fantastic. The ACC is a conference, and I know what you're thinking. Four and four, what do you mean anything short of greater fantastic?

The ACC is the only conference with a top 10 win in the postseason so far. That's not inter-conference. That's it. just us. The only other top 10 win was Alabama over Oklahoma. That was

it. Two SEC teams. So technically it doesn't, you're not measuring your team against another conferences, big dogs as a measuring stick. We got that accomplished. And then when you look at the losses, I would say, hey, you take some of those on the chin. Obviously,

the pit loss is probably the biggest, most glaring. You take that on the chin and the Clemson and Clemson losing to a team. that did not have a head coach and it has a lot of their guys in the portal. You don't want to see that. But other than that,

Cal didn't have a head coach. You kind of not, you know, are you overly surprised about that Cal team in that situation? And that being the result? Not really. Other than that, you've seen teams in this, in the playoffs or not in the playoffs.

But in this postseason, you have seen ACC teams do what they're supposed to do, especially one that we're going to get to, a little later in UVA pulling off the upset of Missouri. We will get to Virginia and Missouri. First of all, by the way, Georgia Tech lost that game to BYU, 2521. I should have mentioned that. I think you hit the nail on the head as far as ACC representate

or how they represented the ACC by Georgia Tech. But I also have to throw this out there. What a tough way to end. Yeah. It's just Georgia Tech this season, they started. started 8 and no. They were 9 and 1. They recovered from the loss to NC State by getting a thrilling win over Boston College. It felt like maybe they had saved their season with that win. And then they closed the year by losing three straight and getting shut out in the second half

of the Pup Tarts Bowl, where Haynes King, the entire game, by the way, only had seven carries. Haynes King only seven carries. It makes you think, really? ain't staying his best when he is getting out in space and he is running with football. So I didn't love that. And I can't help but think this about Georgia Tech if this was truly the year for them. It felt like this was it for Georgia Tech. Like I still think they can be a good, solid program in the ACC, but it felt like this was their opportunity to have a year where they get to the college football playoff.

you had everything going for you. You had Haynes King. You had the offensive coordinator. You still have the head coach. So Brent E, he knows what he's doing over there. But now you're losing Haynes King. You're losing your offensive coordinator, Buster Faulkner. And you're losing your quarterback succession plan in Aaron Philo.

So is tech next year going to be remotely close to what they were this past season, where at one point they were nine and one and looking like the team that was going to represent at the conference in the CFP? I mean, you're not wrong. One and four down the stretch is rough. But here's what I also want to let people in on in terms of those looking at Georgia Tech saying, oh, well, he told you their early season, early season success was a fluke and so on and so forth.

Here's the deal, right? Of the four games that they lost going down the stretch, because if you want to say, when they won a bunch of close games early in the season, and, you know, some of those, they needed help from the officials and so on and so forth, that same energy can be applied to this one and four down the stretch. Of all of those games that they lost, of each and every one of those games they lost coming down the stretch, only two were by double digits,

NC State and Pitt. Georgia, a team that many people feel like is the favorite to win it all this year, you lose by seven. BYU, a team that only, there are only two losses on the season, came to a Texas Tech team that is undefeated when they're starting quarterback plays. So you're looking at a situation where you're saying this team is on the precipice of greatness, but you do have to ask that question.

The only problem is this, Jackson, we're in college football. This ain't the NFL where you've got a finite window with these guys. And it's like, hey, you're going to have to pay everybody. You can't pay everybody. And this guy's coming up. And that guy, objectively speaking, if we're looking at Brent Key doing this, and mind you, this was him as a first time head coach. This was his first time ever managing. Well, how do we handle 8-0?

How do we do this? What does this look like? And for reference, Georgia Tech had not had that record since World War II. Huh? That's a long time ago. That's how long it's been. World War II. That's how long it's been since they had that type of record.

So when we talk about that, I want to make it clear that we have to give this proper perspective in terms of, I think Brent Key's going to figure it out. He's figured out how to put together a winning product. Good on you. But now you've got to figure out how to break that ceiling. Because right now he's pressing up against that thing. you've got to find a way to break it and turn Georgia Tech into that national powerhouse, which, I mean, they're in Atlanta. They're right there in the territory, hotbed of talent.

They're in a place where you can pull some really, really great players. So ultimately, this is a team. I don't think they've hit their ceiling just yet. But I do understand people who think so because of the two quarterbacks leaving and whatnot. I think they'll be just fine. Give it some time. what you described in terms of breaking that ceiling and becoming a powerhouse, that's the hardest part.

For a lot of coaches, they can build bowl teams. They can build teams that could maybe start 8-0 or have a 9-win season. It's can you build a team eventually that can compete for a national championship? That's the hardest part right now in college football. you're losing Haines King, you're losing the offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner, you're losing Aaron Filo, who was the quarterback succession plan. And so we'll see what Brent Key is going to cook up this offseason and whether or not Georgia Tech can at least replicate the success they did have in this 2025 season.

But you want to know a team that definitely had a lot of success this season, Virginia, and they got themselves a nice bowl win. So we'll talk about that next. on Locked-on ACC. Let's talk about something most men don't bring up, but absolutely should. Stress from work, money, life. It doesn't just switch off at night. And when it shows up at the worst possible time,

Ruggiette-Ready is designed to help you take back control. Ruggiat-Ready is a next-gen prescription treatment created to support both the brain and the body, so you can feel present, confident, and ready when the moment matters. It's easy to understand why over 150,000 men have already made the switch. If you've been thinking about taking the next step, Well, now's the time. Head to rougiette.com slash locked on college. That's RUGIET.com slash locked on college to get 15% off your order for a limited time.

Ruggiat ready, feel present, feel confident, feel ready. The SEC has fallen. Just kidding. But the SEC did lose a bowl game to the ACC. You have Virginia knocking off Missou in the Gator Bowl. It was a real offense barn burner. By that, I mean Virginia won the game 13-7. Kenton, I'm just going to tee you up right now.

Have at it. I love this. I love this so much because, number one, I've talked ad nauseum about how much Elliot deserved good things, but we know this is college football. It's not about what you deserve. You don't get it. You get what you earn. And this team earned a tough win.

And the interesting thing is, I find it so funny how all of a sudden everybody becomes the context cops when the SEC loses. There was no context cops when the ACC had a bad bowl season, when we had a bad ball. But now that the ACC, by the way, by the way, that's multiple teams that were ranked for a majority of the year, if not all of the year, that the ACC has beaten at this point in terms of Texas A&M beaten by my. Miami and now Missouri beaten by UVA. The reality is you could talk all you want to go, there's all these opt-offs, did matter. It didn't matter for the ACC.

When people talk about Georgia putting out shalacking on Florida State after Florida State was for the playoffs a few years ago, folks don't talk about the fact that a vast majority of Florida State's too deep was gone. People don't talk about that. They just say Georgia played that game and dominated. dominated them by 50. They didn't say, well, verse didn't play,

Fist didn't play, this guy didn't play, that guy didn't play, all these NFL guys did not play because nobody cared. It was about this is the end result. This is what happened. And the end result of this game, which, by the way, Missouri had a top 10 edge in America, according to the drive boards playing.

Missouri had multiple guys who are going to be playing on Sundays playing. So ultimately, I look at this. this game and I say, shout out to you, Tony Elliott. Shout out to you guys. You did what you needed to do. You got a tough, harder win. This wasn't easy, but they got it done just like they have all year

by out physical teams. Because whether you believe it or not, Virginia has been a team that has run the ball on people all year. All year long, that's what they've done. And they did it again in this one. And also, Tony Elliott took

some really brave choices and some really bold moments to go forward on fourth. And it worked out for them more often than not. This was a masterclass by Tony Elliott, who is known as an offensive guy, won a ugly, slug-fest rock fight type of game. And you know what? At the end of the day, it doesn't, it's not who can get to 50 the fastest. It's who has one more point than their opponent when that clock strikes zero.

And ultimately, that's what UVA did in this one. Shout out to the whoos. Virginia clinches and 11 and 3 season, not quite its best season since World War II, but it is its best season by win percentage since 1952. So seven years later, not bad for Virginia this season team that didn't necessarily have the highest expectations. And lo and behold, they go to the Gator Bowl, they play an SEC team in Missouri, and they got the job done.

I think like you said, nobody was saying, oh, Florida State when they played Georgia, they had all these other players that were out, and Georgia actually tried in that game. Florida State really didn't because, well, they kind of got screwed out of the college football playoff. That's another conversation for another day. But you're right. There was no sympathy for Florida State in that bowl game against Georgia.

But so with that being said, we're not going to give the sympathy for Missouri or any context or the fact that Matt Zollers is simply not a very good quarterback. And maybe he should not have been playing anyway. for Missou football. So congratulations to Virginia on getting themselves a Gator Bowl victory, 11 and 3 finish to this season. Let's now move on to another team here,

and this team is actually a bit disappointing. This team, let the ACC down this season. But to be fair, and we're talking about Clemson here, it shouldn't always be about Clemson in the ACC. It really shouldn't. They've been carrying the mantle for far too long in this conference. We've needed another team to step up. Granted, Miami seems to be doing their part this year.

But Clemson in this game, I mean, they tried against Penn State in the pinstripe bowl. And they lose 22 to 10. I feel like this game is to find Clemson season in a nutshell where they have talent, they have players, and it just, it never materialized. You know, this is a true. fact, this is a true fact here. As much as we want to talk about where the blame lies and a lot of people want to blame K. Klubnick for this thing. And everybody keeps pointing to the David Hale, the David Hale tweet about the quarterback records. Have you seen that tweet, Jackson?

Remind me of that tweet? So it's a tweet about the quarterback records at Clemson. And it has, uh, Kempark. K Klobnik's record and every other quarterback who started at Clemson from 2014 to 2022. Yeah, all those quarterbacks, I'm sure, had ridiculous records. And then you have K. Klobnik with all those losses. K. K. Klobnik is 26 and 14. Every quarterback between 2014 and 2022 is 110 and 15.

Now, here's the thing. it is partially on K. Clubnick, but this is why I say it's never just on the quarterback because those other quarterbacks did not have to deal with Dabo Sweeney in antiquated ways holding them back. By and large, they did not have to do that. Dabo Swini was doing the new ascending rising thing when most of those other quarterbacks were there,

when Tosg Boy was there, when Deshawn Watson was there, when Trevor Lawrence was there, when Kelly Bryant was there, they were here. They're going up. This plane is clearly taking a landing at this point in time. And I think that we can all agree it lays at the feet of dabble. He had the opportunity to change. He has the resources to change.

He has the resources to do this a different way. Losing to a coachless Penn State team, you want to talk about opt-outs? You want to talk about guys in the portal? You want to talk about guys who don't have their guys? Losing to that Penn State team. Tyler from Spartanburg needs to get back on that line. He needs to get, Tyler from Spartanburg needs to get back on that line

and give dabble every single thing he could ever ask for plus some because he's earned it at this point. I was going to ask if it's fair to question if Clemson's ever going to return to the same glory it once had with Davo Sweeney, I think you just answered it right there. Until they decide to play the game that everyone else in college football seems to be playing, I don't think Clemson's ever going to have the same upside like they used to have. It's not to say that Clemson's done, Clemson's finished,

they're never going to have good seasons, they're never going to be able to win the ACC or make a college football playoff. But Clemson in its heyday was one of the few teams that could win a national championship. This is a team that beat Alabama in its heyday twice in national championship games, one of which was a complete beatdown with a true freshman quarterback by the name of Trevor Lawrence, but still true freshman quarterback against Nick Saban completely shredded them in a title game. Those days appear to be beyond.

It's like it's just not going to happen. Like yeah, they were in the playoff last year. They won the ACC, but they were not a serious threat to win the national championship. This year we thought like, okay, they brought up. back so many of the pieces that they had last year and they were a good team. So they should be good this year. And it never materialized. And here you had Davosweeney. He's not really using the transfer portal a whole lot. It just seems like with Clemson for one reason or another, they just they don't seem to want to adapt to what is going on. I think they know what's going on. I'm not going to

sit here and accuse Davosweeney of not knowing what's going on in college football. But it just seems like for whatever reason. He's like, no, I know that my way used to work and he's just being too stubborn and he refuses to change. He doesn't want to tamper like literally every coach in the country is doing. He doesn't want to go out and use the transfer portal. He still believes that this is 2017 and that you go into high school and you get the recruits and you tell him we're going to stay here for all four years and we're going to win national championships. You can do it to some extent, but you need those other pieces from other teams because that's what other teams are now doing. So unless Clemson plans on having the number one recruiting class every single year,

I just don't see how they're going to be able to return to their former glory. Even if you do have the number one recruiting class every year, they're going to be misses. Recruiting is more art than science. We get it. You know, if you look at championship teams, they do have the most blue check prospects and whatnot, but you also need to go and supplement places where you do have a miss or two with a high quality, with a high quality, you know, portal guy. And even beyond that, there is, and I'm not going to say any names or anything like that,

but I will say there is a shift happening in college football in general to where everybody's always talking about, oh, we want guys who want to play football, not just guys who are chasing the biggest check or whatever the case may be. Here's the reality. Some of those teams that have the squad full of mercenaries, guys who are chasing the biggest checks, they're running laps around you.

So maybe you do need some bad chasers. Maybe you do need some guys who are, if those are the guys who can get it done on Saturdays, and I know that that sounds counterintuitive. I know that that sounds bad. All I'm saying is if you're Davos Sweeney, you have to figure out something because we're in a results-based business. that's the reality.

What matters most of people here is the final score. It's a lot like what Will Wade was talking about the other day with NC State where he said, we have great academics, which I love because I'm from an academic background, love the great academics. We've got nice guys, but we're running a competitive basketball program. And we need guys who are going to get these things done on the court that need to be done. What Dabo has done in terms of, you know, making their performance. program holistic, making sure that guys who are injured and out for the season still feel included,

making sure that everybody graduates, making sure all of those things. We can never take away how he revolutionized the totality, the holistic approach to not only building football players, but building young men. We can never take that away from them. But what we can say is definitively the product that he is putting on the field is not to the standard which he created for himself. No, it's nowhere near there. So he has to figure out what needs to change for me to get back there because I, realistically, I don't know how long he survives at a place like Clemson where now winning is the expectation.

Winning big is the expectation. Being atop the conference is the expectation. The belief about this team coming into the year was this is going to be our first ever undefeated champion. And lo and behold, we still. are not going to have one in this playoff era so far. So, you know, that's just what we're looking at. Is he on the hot seat for next year?

I wouldn't say next year. I'd say it's warm. I'd say it's getting warm, but I don't think unless it wins like four games next year. Like if he has another year like this, I think the next year his seat will be hot. Fair enough. I don't think that I don't think 2026 will be a year

where it's like, all right, Davo, win us 10 or you're out of here. Yeah, he is certainly a candidate one day to be a victim of his own success. You win so many games, you win titles, you win conference titles, and then you stop doing that. Even if you're still putting out decent results, nobody's going to sit here and say, you know, seven and five and making a bowl is a terrible season for most teams in college football. But when your program was once the number one team in America for many years,

yeah, it's pretty bad. You know, if Alabama suddenly became that, what do you think Alabama would do with Kailin DeBoer? Exactly. Like Clemson used to be one of those schools. Eight wins a year would have gotten you a statue. They're no longer that because of that ball. Eight wins a year gets you,

hey, it's been real. It's been fun. We're going to pay you a nice little severance. You can join us here on Lockdown ACCC. There you go. There you go. Davo, we got to see you guys. You can get Davosweeney on line one.

There we go. Let's put it in the call. All right, all right. Well, coming up, we got one more bowl game to talk about over the weekend. And then we'll give maybe some initial thoughts on Miami and Ohio State. So stick with us here on locked on ACC. Fridays always feel different during basketball season. And Fandul is making them even better.

Every Friday night before the game tips off, Fandle gives fans a new way to kick off the weekend with NBA Happy Hour. NBA Happy Hour is your official pregame, a limited time window where special offers drop right inside the Fandul app before the action even starts. The timing is perfect. It's right before the games and right before the weekend starts. So before tip off, check the Fandul app and see what's dropping during NBA happy hour every Friday from 6 to 7.30 p.m. Eastern. A little basketball, a little action, and a whole lot of Friday energy.

That's NBA happy hour only on Fandul, the official sports book partner of the NBA. One more bowl game to talk about here on locked on ACC from this past weekend. We got Pitt and East Carolina in the military bowl. this is a game where the ACC is not exactly proud. But to be fair to Coach Nardousie after East Carolina won 2317 and Pitt finishing 8 and 5 on the season, I don't think Pat Narduzzi cared all that much about this game because it was not against an ACC opponent, right?

Pat Narduzzi, as much as I like the guy, this season has me walking away questioning him more than ever. How do you lose to a significantly less talented Eastern Carolina, or I'm sorry, how do you lose to a significantly less talented East Carolina team with significant losses of their own in terms of not only coaches, but also players. And I get it. You've got opt-outs and all those things.

But it just seems to me like there is not enough emphasis around that building on it. We need to win everything we do. We need to win everything we do. It started with the whole, oh, Notre Dame could be. this by 70 and we it wouldn't matter to us i want to just let you all in on a fun little secret about what what the difference between that is and how i have said this for a very long time and nobody ever wants to believe ken about this but it is the honest to god truth since the statement of we can uh we could lose this game by 70 i could care less i want to win the next two

you know what their record is? Well, they lost to Notre Dame. Then they won the following week against Georgia Tech. So it's one in three. Correct. Ladies and gentlemen, the jury, I'll rest my case. Loserville begets losing. Loserville mentality begets losing.

You want to win everything. You should want to win every single thing. Everything. I don't care what it is. I don't care if it's a power walking competition. I don't care if it's a wing eating competition before the bowl. I don't care if it's who can pack the most lunches for the underserved communities before the bowl game. I want my team to win all of it, all of it.

There isn't a win some. We can win here, not win here, because if you're picking and choosing when it's okay to win and lose, what do you think happens with your players? Oh, it gets amplified. It gets worse for the players. And now the pirates are sitting there. dancing on your grave, 2317, after a win, which, again, they had as many, if not more, guys of importance in their too deep sit out as you.

And yet, you could not get the job done. This is the one black eye that would keep me from saying the ACC has had an excellent bowl season so far. This is the one black eye where I'm like, there's no way you could spin it. There's no way you can propagandize it. There's no way you could, you know, there's nothing you can say about this loss to make it better. This was just a flat old whoopin by a team that showed up

and was more prepared than you on that day. So shame on you, Pitt, for letting that Loserville nonsense invade your team. Well, I'm not going to blame the players because at the end of the day, when you have a head coach that simply doesn't care, and he doesn't, then it's not on them. Well, imagine if, imagine if, like, your, your local mayor was like, you know what, I don't really care about the city.

You know, I don't, I don't really care about the city during these months. I care during these months, but not during these months. Like, what do you think is going to happen to the citizens of that community? You think they're going to care about the city either during those months? Like, you're only as strong as what your leaders are. And when you have your leader saying, well, you know, we could lose to Notre Dame by 70 and it won't matter. Which, spoiler alert to Pat and Arduzzi, it does matter because you can win the ACC, and as we learned this year with Duke,

still not make the college football playoffs. So Pat and Arduzzi, maybe next time actually read the rule book and understand that the rules this season, we're not saying power conference champions. It was the best conference champions. Next year, I believe it does change to power conference, but that's another conversation for another day. I would have fired Pat and Arduzzi after those comments. I would have definitely fired him after the game against Notre Dame.

you know, it's Pitt. And Pitt is happy with their eight and five. And most programs in the country would take eight and five every single year. So they're not going to fire Pat Narduzzi. In fact, they're probably going to announce a 10-year extension for Pat Narduzzi for the fact that he went eight and five this season. And, you know, Mason Hintzel, I think has a bright future with that program. So I'm not going to sit here and say they're completely screwed and they can't be relevant in the ACC. But just I can't envision them being more than what they are when they have a head coach that's just like, you know what? You know, we could lose this game and be okay.

We'll be fine. It's all good and dandy. We don't need to beat Notre Dame. We can lose by 70. We can lose by this. It's a bowl game against East Carolina. Who cares? If that is your mindset, then it's like, okay,

so what's your mindset going to be actually when you play in a meaningful game when it matters? You're able to, you're that good. You're that good of a coach where you can flip a switch. You can flip a switch. Really? Like that, that's how it is. Imagine if Nick Sabin said something like that. Now, imagine, you think Nick Sabin would,

ever say something like that we've got a better chance of seeing folks in hell wearing a mink coat yeah pretty much pretty much it's just i i i feel for those pit players and i would not blame a single one of them and they decided to transfer out of that program because that coach i i don't get it i don't get it with him you and me both brother you and me both he's the duality of a coach last coastal coach to win in ACC championship. He is the best of times and the worst of times in the coach all in one. And it's just like, why are you like this, Pat? Why?

Does he love the game? I think so. I think so. I really do. Does he love the game or does he not love the competition of the game? Ah, that's a great question. That's a great. That leaves me with something to chew on.

I'm not going to lie to you. I should not be asking that question. about a head coach of a football program. Do you like, do you love the game and do you love competition? Like say what you want about Fran Brown and Syracuse. I can promise you Fran Brown loves the game and he loves the competition. Dave Doran and NC State, you can criticize him all you want. You're not going to question whether or not he loves the game or whether or not he loves

the competition. Do any coach right now? Like, can you ask that question about them? No, it's assumed. You know that they do. They may not win. They may not have the results, but you know they care. Pat and Arduzzi, I don't know.

know if he really does. I straight up don't. And he's just like, okay, I'm good at where I'm at and, you know, that's it. I'm just getting my paycheck now and we're going to go eat in five every single year, which is fine. It's fine at Pitt, but he's never going to be more if he continues to have that mindset. So I'm moving on from Pitt in East Carolina. Sorry to all the Pitt players. Miami, Ohio State, quick preview here. What are your thoughts initially on this matchup? Obviously, we'll dive deeper into it tomorrow. I still believe the line sits at nine and a half, which is quite interesting to me that there hasn't been any motion up or down in the time since this game was announced. Honestly and truly, I still feel very similarly at how I expressed before in that I believe that Miami has a better chance that people are giving them credit for.

I just think that that Miami team or that Ohio State team is too stacked at too many places. But again, love me some Miami. If they got it done, I'd be the loudest person screaming outside of Day County. that, you know, hey, I told everybody they have a chance to win this ball game. Because I've talked about this before. That is a young Ohio state team. Every time we've seen them off a layoff against the top team, their offense looks like they are stuck in the mud.

And so would I be super shocked if they resemble that same kind of sluggish, lethargic offense and Miami is able to potentially get a win all that? A little bit, not really. But ultimately, I think that's what it's going to be. I think it's going to be that rock fight that Ohio just barely comes out on. Ohio State barely comes out on top of it. The fact that the line hasn't moved at nine and a half, it tells you that the books got it right.

Oh, well, see. The book's not it right. The public is thinking the exact same thing that. And when you have a nine and a half point line, I think it's assumed that you're giving the other team a chance to win. It's not Ohio State by three touchdowns or something like that. It's Ohio State by the equivalent of like 31, 21. And if you lose a game, 31, 21,

chances are at some point in that game, you had a legitimate chance to win it. Oh, 1,000%. The way I see it right now, we're a couple days out. I just, I wonder if Miami is going to be able to score some points. Yeah. Because I do think that Ohio State's offense may be sluggish,

like you were saying, but I have full faith in that Ohio State defense to shut down, basically, anyone in the country. country. If they can hold the Heisman trophy winner down to 13 points, a guy who's going to be going to the Las Vegas Raiders in late April, I think they can handle Carson Beck

in the Miami Hurricanes with all due respect to them. So I just wonder if Miami could even get to 17, which I think is going to be the number for them at minimum in order to win this game. I'm not mad at that. I'm not mad at that at all. If the idea is this game is going to be a race

to 17, that's the type of rock fight I'm expected. And can Miami get to that 17? That's a very good question because Carson Beck, while he did not turn a ball over against Texas N. Were you blown away by his performance? No, no, but he didn't, he didn't have to be like great. So you give him credit for the win, but it's like, is that, if he does what he did against Texas A&M and he does that for the Ohio State game, does Miami win? Probably not. No. And Ohio State is a significantly better defense than Texas N. But I will say, I will say Carson Beck's stats in that game got kind of deflated by some turnovers that didn't have a ton of do with him.

You know, if we take away that Tony fumble, how does the rest of that drive very likely go based on where they are field position-wise and everything, right? Like that they have momentum. They're moving the ball. Things kind of happen the way they did. So again, I think that I think the books and the fans have it wrong here. I think America has it wrong. and I'm okay to go up against the world and look insane, but I think Miami has a much better shot than a 10-point spread

or 9.5 point spread would indicate. Well, we will give more thoughts on this game tomorrow here on Locked-on, ECC. I'm Jackson Hulzer, the host of Locked on Syracuse, Kenton Gives, host of Locked-on, NC State Wolfpack. And speaking of which, we will be back tomorrow to preview Miami and Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. And folks, thank you so much for watching. Thank you all so much for listening.

this podcast, be sure to hit that like button. If you really enjoy the podcast, be sure to hit subscribe. It's all your friends, bell locked on ACC, and we'll see you all again soon.