Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - NO EXCUSES: Can the Miami Hurricanes and Darian Mensah DELIVER on Sky-High ACC Title HYPE?

Episode Date: August 4, 2026

Miami Hurricanes face sky-high expectations—can they finally claim the ACC crown after years of underachievement? Julian Council and Kenton Gibbs break down Miami’s stacked roster, from Darian Mensah’s impact at quarterback to a powerhouse running back and wide receiver corps. The show explores Miami’s pathway, key matchups, and whether their undeniable talent can translate to on-field dominance in a conference lacking standout contenders. Is SMU or Louisville the true threat to Miami’s ACC ambitions? Insightful debate covers Kevin Jennings’ quarterback prowess at SMU, Louisville’s revamped defense led by Jeff Brohm, and lingering questions around Clemson’s slide from national prominence. As the ACC landscape shifts, Julian Council and Kenton Gibbs analyze Florida State’s struggles, Clemson’s quarterback controversy, and how scheduling quirks could shake up the title race. Don’t miss this in-depth look at which program will seize control of ACC football this season. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! KALSHI For a limited time, Download the Kalshi app and use code [LOCKEDON] to get up to $500 in bonus credits when you trade $25. The Game Don't miss this chance to celebrate 40 years of The Game with 40% off your entire order. Visit https://TheGameCaps.com and use promo code LOCKEDON at checkout. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COM to play Daily Dingers and make your free pick on who’s hitting a homer this MLB season. 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.

This has to be the year Miami finally wins the ACC, right? Right? We'll talk about it right here on Locked on ACC. You are Locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to another edition of the Locked on ACC podcast. I'm Julian Counsel, and he is former NC State Football Letterman Kenton Gibbs. in today's episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the GameTime,

app create an account and use code locked on for $20 off your first purchase. Here's what we have for y'all on today's show. The Clemson Tigers had all the hype going into last season. Davos talked about being the first 16-0 team in history, and they went 7 and 6. They had more draft 6. 9 than wins last season. It was a despicable performance by the Tigers. But are we underestimating Clemson going into the season,

considering all that they've done to don't. dominate this league over the last decade. Who is number two in the ACC? We all think Miami, at least the media, voted for Miami last week to win the ACC finally this season. Who's number two? Is it SMU? Is it Louisville? Is it somebody else talk about that? But let's start off by

talking about Miami Hurricanes, Kenton, as they came into the ACC back in 2004 and they won the league one time. They spent 13 years in the Big East and won that league nine times. I understand it's the Big East of all, but that Big East still had teams like Virginia.

Tech there. But still, 22 years. West Virginia was there as well. Yes, 22 years. And yet here we sit, Miami has only made one ACC title game appearance back in 2017 where they got boat race, 38 to 3 by Clemson. There are schools like North Carolina, Virginia, Boston College, Duke, Pitt, Wake,

who have been twice. Miami's been once. Clemson, we know it's been playing times. Florida State, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, the only school that's been in league since 2005 when the ACCC title game was invented. hasn't been to the ACC title game or it's been less Miami is unfortunately your NC State Wolfpack. I'm sitting here. I'm looking at Miami this year. Everybody, it seems like at least, you know, 165 and 188 first place votes from the ACC media last couple weeks ago.

IACU kickoff believe they're going to win the ACC finally. Where are you at? Is this finally the year where the hurricanes do what they were brought here to the league to do and is win this league and be a dominant brand in college football? This has to be the year. This absolutely has to be the year for a multitude of reasons. Even if your assumption is, well, you know, there's this quarterback situation with Mentsa. There's going to be no more portling. They've got the next guy and the five-star is coming to campus and all that good stuff.

Even if you believe the ACC is only going to get worse and you're not going to see better players, better teams, all that good stuff. What it is right now and where Miami is right now, this kind of has to be the year. You talk about who's the second most talented team. There's a reason why we're not asking, who's the most talented team? Is there who's competing with Miami for most talented? Because there is Miami and then there is a gap in terms of on paper talent. But Mario Cristobal will call us disrespectful for football for even mentioning this type of stuff because he knows, as well as anybody, football ain't played on paper.

It's played on grass. It's played with large angry men deciding to move other large angry men. And maybe a couple little fast guys in there deciding to break some other small little fast guy's ankle. that's what this thing is going to be about. And so when you talk about Miami and who they are, all the talent in the world, you obviously look at Malachi Tony. You obviously look at Cooper Barcade.

You obviously look at Darien Mincer. You obviously look at Mark Fletcher. You look at one of the safeties who led the nation in interceptions for a freshman. You look at so many guys. You look at so many guys there that you say, ball player, ball player, ball player, OJ. Federer, ball player, ball player. Every time you look up, You got a new guy in there that you're like, oh, he's a heck of a player.

But the reality is you've got to go out there and win it still. So is this the year? It damn well should be. If this ain't the year, when is it going to be? I don't know. And look, schedules, we don't really know what to think of most teams in this upcoming season, especially with the landscape, how things have changed. I look at Miami and I agree with you.

Like Derry Menta was already one of the best quarterbacks in the ACC. He goes from Duke to Miami. I mean, he should be one of the best quarterbacks again in this conference. And in the nation, I still look at the running back spot and cannot believe that everybody's back. Mark Fletcher, Marty Brown, Jordan Lyle, Gerard Pringle. How did they keep all those guys? And now they may have the best wide receiver room in the country with the aforementioned Malachi Tony. Cooper Barcate also coming up from Duke.

Josh Moore is a guy that they like. And you have Van Dravius Jacobs and Cam Vaughn coming from South Carolina and West Virginia, respectively. And those guys might be backups to the other guys that we, I just mentioned. ahead of them. Like the only concerns I've read about Miami from the Miami Media Corps has been at linebacker, outside of Motory, who's going to be that next guy? Sounds like it's going to be Chase Smith. Edge could be a concern, but not really.

You have Marquis Lightfoot. You have Armando Blunt. You have Damon Wilson. If there's any concerns about can you set the edge, stop the run like Bain and Mesidor did last season, something a lot of people aren't going to focus on. And then maybe tied in. I'm not concerned about offensive line. I'm sorry, Mario Cristobal, Alex Mirabelle.

I trust him to. put together a very good offensive line and by the fact they didn't portal anybody there. Now, they've recruited that position very well. So you would hope by their development that they wouldn't need to utilize portal like they did the last couple of seasons by finding a center in particular. But the fact they didn't do that makes me feel really good about this team and go back two years ago. The secondary was a disaster.

Now you have Xavier Lucas, one of the best DBs in the country out there at that corner, O.J. Fetterich, Zachariah Poizzer, Price Fitzgerald, you mentioned earlier. and then you take Omar Thornton from BC to play that nickel spot. I just, I don't see anyone else, like you said, having anywhere close to the talent that Miami had. But I look at last season, how many teams were as talented as them back in 2025? But yet they still lost SMU.

They lost Louisville. And I would even argue still today, while Indiana was clearly the best team in college football last season, were they more talented than Miami in that game? I don't know. If you go by job picks, no. But that's my exact point. The game is played on the grass.

Mel Kuiper is not playing the games. McShay, not playing the games. Lugan Bill, not playing the games. All these guys that put together, who's a star, who's five star, who's four star, who's three star? All these guys that put together, who's the first rounder, who's the second rounder, who's undraftable?

All those guys that put that together, not a single one of them is lacing them up and going on that field with you. Nobody. Nobody. So, yes, Miami absolutely has the talent on paper. But again, when you lace them suckers up, when you put on those nice little cleats of yours

and you say, hey, it's time to move some furniture around, you need to do more moving than your opponents. You need to do it week in and week out with consistency with, hey, this is who we are every week. Because you can't tell me that the same team to play Notre Dame was the same team to play that's a minute. You can't tell me that. You can't tell me that.

Now, Louisville, that's a little bit different of a case because I believe in Brahms' ability to coach, especially for big games, it's part of the Brahm experience. He's going to find a way. And it was also part of the Carson Beck experience, too, that they went through. And that Georgia went through. To me, the national championship was the Carson Beck experience. Like, he plays you in the game and you're well enough, you're close enough.

But he's going to throw a back ball. He's going to throw one. He's going to give you one of those passes where he just said, hey, you know your team is in the all white, right? The guys were red. Those are the bad guys. He was going to do that. That to me was a Carson Beck thing, but you had a situation where you were the more time to team on paper.

Bain and Mesidor, freakish. I literally, literally had to hold it in on air, almost cried because during the drive, me and Gracie were on their live last year. And I said, my lines are about to get Ruben Bay. He's about to fall because all this short-armed propaganda. He's about to fall. And he fell and fell and fail and fell. And then the Tampa Bay Bucks took him, I believe a pick or two before my lines were up. When I tell you, I cry out like Lenny Williams and you help me, you know what I mean?

Because I love you rather. And that's all the way Lenny Williams was crying on that track, that's how I was that night. That's how I was. I couldn't believe it. But, again, I say all that to say on paper, Miami has always had the talent, despite what Mario Chris Ball would have you believe, because me and them got to a tip about that last year. They've always had the talent. It's just about can you put it together and string it into a championship instead of,

oh, there goes another case of Miami can't get right on this. Yeah, and you would think that this would be the year, considering just kind of where some of the bigger brands in the ACC are right now, Florida State, we can talk about them another day. I just don't have the appetite to talk about the Seminoles at this point in time. What's about Clemson later? And, you know, we're going to get into who's number two here in a moment. But yeah, you look at the schedule and just conference-wise,

I don't really see where the landmines are at Stanford and week one on that Friday night. I don't really see that one kind of tripping them up. at Wake. I know the Demon Deacons were certainly surprising to everybody and Jake Dickert's first year, and I still think they can be good defensively. Gio Lopez coming over from Carolina will be interesting to see him back in Robiselle's offense

after he was down there in South Al, but I don't think Wake should beat them. Clemson we'll see what Clemson is up being this year. Florida State is Mark Norville even coaching that game by the time they get to October 17th. There's just, I mean, Notre Dame is not conferencing. Like that's probably the only game you look

at is where like, okay, they might not be favored on the road in South Bend in early November. But they should be favored against basically everybody on this schedule. I just don't see where the landmines are. So it really comes down to them staying healthy and them being focused. Because you look at the games against Louisville. And yes, credit, Jeff Brab's game planability and SMU. But it just feels like they weren't focused the way that they were in the second half of the season

when they went on that run to make sure that they ended up making the college football playoffs. So yeah, it should be the year for Miami. But there's been plenty of years in their last 21 in the ACC. that should have been Miami years and didn't end up being Miami here. So it's not Miami. Then who is it? Who could be facing them?

Who could trip them up here in Charlotte later on in December? We'll talk about who the number two team in the ACC is here in just a moment on locked on ACC. Before the season even kicks off, everyone's making predictions. Who wins the conference? Who makes the playoffs? Who's lifting the trophy at season's end on Calci? America's number one prediction market platform. You can trade those predictions in a live market.

Will the Miami Hurricanes win the ACC this year? year right now. Miami is trading at 59% meaning a $100 trade would pay out $170.29 if they win the conference on Cali. You're trading against peers in a live market, meaning there's no house. And as a probability changes, you can buy in and out of your position. Trade the draft pick the game and more on Cali. Download the Cali app and use code locked on to get up to $500 in bonus credits when you've trade $25. KALSHA, Kalshi, Cali trade on anything. 18 over only. Restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors.

Cali products are not available in all jurisdictions, prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see calci.com slash regulatory. Back here on Locked-on ACC, and I both agree that this should be the year finally for Miami, but it is a matter of them actually going out there and doing it and not focusing on all the things on paper, on paper, the best team in the ACC by far. Who's the number two team in this league? going into the season looking at the ACC media poll coming from ACC kickoff. SMU and Lulvo are predicted to finish second and third this year SMU receiving six first

place votes while Louisville receives four. Clemson, by the way, receives seven. The second and most first place votes among the voters a couple weeks ago at ACC kickoff here in Charlotte. Kenton, who's the challenger? Who do you think should be facing Miami when it comes to ACC title game later on this fall in Charlotte, North Carolina? Let me answer your question with a question, Julian.

What is the most important position in all of sports? They tell me it's quarterback. They tell you it's quarterback. Okay. So who would you say has the best quarterback in this conference? It would be Cal with Dron Kiave-Sungapalatelle. Okay. Who would you say second?

I would say maybe Mason Hintchel from Pitt. Maybe Kevin Jennings. from SMU is what you want me to say? I believe that Minson was going to be somewhere in there. I'm messed with you because I know you want to speak Kevin Jennings. But that's the thing, right? When you talk about what's going on and who's second, I mean, ultimately you have to look at the quarterback position.

Who has a quarterback that you believe in? Because the only way to overcome quarterback deficiencies, Nick Seventh showed us the way many, many years ago, you have to surround that quarterback with the type of talent that if you remove him, from the huddling you throw a rock in that thing, you're more likely to hit a future all-pro, a future, you know, a future NFL pro bowler. I mean, Hall of Famer, or some case.

Maybe even Hall of Famer, then you would be to hit a future accountant. Then you would be to hit a future pediatrician, right? That's just the reality of what we saw with those teams. Is there anybody in the conference that fits that criteria that you feel like they don't have a super plus quarterback? I wouldn't think so. So if there's nobody who I look at and I'm like, okay, they've got so much talent around this quarterback, they can make up for all his deficiencies. Then the next thing I've got to ask is who's got the quarterbacks that get it done?

I agree with you. JKS is one of the best. Does Cal have the depth to get it done late in the season? They got a lot of traveling to do. Every year, they're racking up 2K plus of those frequent flyer miles. That's just the nature of being on the Pacific coast and playing in the Atlantic coast, conference. I mean, I'm not going to weep for them because they made that decision

to come to the ACC. I know they were left in the words, but that's a decision that they did make. They didn't have no other choice. They did. I mean, they had choices, but that's a decision they made. So hey. They were a good man, Savannah. They're good men Savannah. They were just in a bad situation. But no, in all seriousness,

this is a situation where Cal does not have the infrastructure, I believe, right now in terms of just the depth. Not the top, top, in terms of their top of the line, I think they could compete with just about anybody. I'm not sure when we get to October and November, they'll be able to hold up. So now you get into, well, who does have that?

Again, the quarterback, the depth, and if you really want to get into the nitty-gritty of it, the big men get it done. The furniture movers are the ones who get it done. Who's got two, not one, but two, all-ACC guys, one of whom are going to be an all-American on the offensive line? Big PJ Williams said, I protect my little sister back there. I'm joking. And he did say he protected like his little sister.

He did say that. But he said, I protect my guy back there. So ultimately, I'm looking at SMU as I think it's Miami. And SMU is much closer than people think. And then I think, honestly, there's a gap at number three. That's where the biggest gap is to me, as opposed to one to two. Yeah. And look, SMU has come into the league and they've gone 14 and 2.

And you juxtapose that with Florida State. They've gone 3 and 13 the last two years. So that just shows you how poor Floresaid is right now and how well SMU has adapted to this league, which is also an indictment on the rest of the ACC that an American conference school could come in here and pretty much push everybody around. I disagree. That's not an indictment on the ACCC. That's a credit to SMU. It's a credit to SMU, but it's also an indictment on this league to where this is a power conference.

SMU is not coming from a power conference. See, no, no. That ain't right. That ain't right. Oregon has gone into the Big Ten and kicked back in. And nobody was looking at them and say. But Oregon was coming from the PAC 12. They weren't coming from the Mountain West.

Like that's what I'm, that's my point. But okay, but here's what I'm saying. But we're in the sidetrack. There's no other team that took a team from a conference that was lesser than that that team. We haven't seen UCF. We haven't seen Cincinnati. We haven't seen any of those other American schools go to the Big 12 and do what's been happening right now with SMU and the ACC. So one had a quarterback.

add by the ACC. One had a quarterback that was a generic gambler and the other had a coach that his best days are behind him and Scott Frost. You've combined a quarterback that's damn good in Kevin Jennings with a coach that is on the upswing in Rhett Lashley, whose best days as a coach, I believe, are still in front of him. And you've got a very different situation than the degenerate gambler at one school and the coach who's still blaming the kids for why he failed in Nebraska. Well, Frost was even not UCF when UCF first got to the conference. but regardless of all that. Like SMU, yes. I hear you, Kevin Jennings.

You look at him, he's starting an American title game, won that. He started an ACC title game. Of course, wild comeback, lost that game, not really on him. And then started a playoff game. It was a disastrous game. And when he was banged up last year with the ankle, they didn't really run them a lot. I'd be interested to see if they want to try to do that this season.

Adding Kendrick Raphael back is big because they weren't really great running the football last year. And you're right about the big man. they're at front with Joshua Bates, Addison Nichols, and of course, PJ Williams, who could be a first round pick there at tackle, moving over to the left side. I do worry about their defense because they were awful in the secondary last season.

I know that they pulled it out. That's important. Everybody does that, but I don't know what you're getting from them defensively right now. So, yeah, they're going to score points. Kevin Jennings is a good quarterback, certainly one of the best quarterbacks in this conference. I still can't get the stink of what happened in Happy Valley out of my mind, much like a good to stink of all the dumb things.

things Kate Klobnik did back in 2023 out of my mind. And we saw how that played out. So I think obviously he's a better player, but we'll see how that goes. The team I'm really interested in is honestly Louisville. Yes, Lincoln Keenholds coming over from Ohio State, sorry, the Ohio State University does not have a career start. This is different than what Jeff Brom has done in recent years since he's been at Louisville when he brought in guys like Miller Moss last year, who wasn't all that great. like Tyler Shuck, who had been banged up at Oregon at Texas Tech, finally got an opportunity to be healthy,

and ended up being in traffic and see what he's doing now with the Saints. And then Jack Plummer, who, if he was better, they beat Florida State and winning the ACC. So I know they've not been, they've fallen off from 7 to 1 that first year to 5 and 3, 4 and 4 in the conference the last two years. I look at Isaac Brown, Kewan Brown is the best running back to tandem in this conference. I think he finally has a tight-in room that can actually do the things that he wants to have tied-ins,

with Gilo Skinner coming back and then adding Brody Foley and Justin Reed from Tulsa and Tulane in the portal. I love what they have at the edge rush. The only other edge rush, I think, in this league, that's certainly going to maybe be better on par with Louisville is Miami. When you look at Cleb Lubin, A.J. Green, and then adding Tyler Thompson from Carolina, and I love the fact that they brought in Conan Tranger from Iowa

to be that communicator on the back end. I like all around what they have. Like, I'm not concerned about Louisville defensively. I'm very concerned about SMU defense. defensively. Yes, I have my concerns about what they can do at quarterback, but I don't think Jeff Brom is handpicking Keenholds without thinking that he can do something with him, and his legs will be an important factor as well. The offensive line, anytime it's heavily portal like it has been year after year at Louisville, it does concern me. I just buy into them more just as an all-around

football team and even talent-wise more right now than SMU. Now SMU may have the easier schedule in this game what's going to happen, I think like week three of the season will be very very important as far as who ends up being that number two team. I hear you on SMU. And I agree totally about the offensive line. I hear you on Kevin Jennings. I just think that top to bottom, just the construction of this team that Louis has is better than what they have right now in Highland Park.

That's just me. I don't disagree with you on that. I don't disagree with you on paper top to bottom. That's it. But when you talk about football and when you talk about what makes team special, nine times out of ten, there comes a moment in a game, especially big games, where it's tight.

It's you're, you're starting to see, oh, man, this dude, this thing is, we're really up against it right now. And somebody just has to go legend, as I like to say. They put their stamp on the game. And they say, hey, hey, hey, this is why I'm different, right? If you, a prime example, we'll talk about somebody who did it against SMU last year. You look at what the Cal SMU game was all the way out there in Berkeley at Old Memorial. You were saying, oh, man, Kevin, David. Jen is just led a hell of a drive.

I don't know if that freshman can do it. I'm not sure JKS got it in them to put together one more drive with, what was it, like, 50-something seconds left, and he had to go the length of the field. And then he said, I got something for you. I'm going to show you while all those great quarterbacks out of Hawaii, guess who's the all-time states leading passer? Me, I am, J-KS, and he showed it in that drive. I don't believe that Lincoln King Holtz has it in him to show it in that drive. I love me some Isaac Brown.

But how can we not believe? We don't really know because we haven't really seen him play. That's the thing. I think he's still relative unknown. We know plenty about Kevin Jennings at this point in time. And I don't know what step he's going to take that we haven't already seen from him in the last couple years where he's story. Like, Keenels, we haven't seen him play. Like we'll find out a lot about him on that Sunday night on Labor Day weekend.

If he had it like that, he would not have been a relegated to basically permanent backup at Ohio State. he wouldn't have been. But we did just see Julian Sen, who was a Heism trophy finalist this past season, and they say it was a close competition. Now, my question is, is it a close competition in the same way where Devin Brown and Kyle McCord was a couple years ago?

Devin Brown's like at Northern Arizona at this point in time, where McCord had a great year once he left Ohio State at Syracuse. Is that the same situation or is this, and it's not fair to ever say this, but is this like Joe Burrow leaving actually having talent, and in getting an opportunity. So that's, you're looking at the guy who you lost to, who was a Heist trophy finalist last season,

I can't look at Keenholz to be like, okay, well, he clearly doesn't have it because he didn't beat out say it. And here's why I say this. Joe Burrow, year one at Louis, at LSU was what? He was. Wasn't great. He was good. He was a height.

He wasn't Joe Burrow. It took him another year to become the full guy that he was going to become, despite the fact that he was throwing to two guys who are now leading receivers in the NFL. Two guys that are superstars. They're not just stars. Jettas and Chase are superstars. And they got that.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that Lincoln King Holzer is going to be bad. I'm not saying that. I'm saying in year one, for the most part, with transfer quarterback, we do not see it very often. Even with the amount of transferring and portaling that we have going on right now, we don't see it that often where that quarterback of year one can just figure it out and just make you be that team right away.

Even with everything being a microwave society in college football now, where it's boom, boom, boom, year in, year out, you turn over 40% of your roster, you still don't see as a norm instantaneous, hey, I'm ready, I'm the guy right away. You go through those growing pains in year one sometimes, and then year two, you're like, oh, oh, okay, now I know what we've got. Now we know what's going on here.

So again, this isn't saying Lincoln Kingholz will never have the ability to go legend. I don't believe in his ability to do so right now. Yeah, and sure, that's fair because still don't really know. It's an unknown. It'll be interesting to see what Brom does there. One of the more intriguing quarterback situations, I feel like heading into the season, as that's been a departure from what he's done in years past, gone with a veteran guy with only one year of eligibility. Keenholds has probably like at least two, maybe even three, with the new five-for-five rule. We didn't talk about Clemson. Clemson Tigers have won this league three at the last six years, and everyone seems to be out

on them. Are we underestimating Davo and the Tigers? We'll talk about that here in just a moment on on Lodont-A-C. There are more live events than ever we're seeing right now. Games, concerts, comedy shows, festivals, the hard part usually isn't deciding what you want to attend. It's actually getting the tickets between long wait times, confusing checkout processes and surprise fees. Buying tickets can sometimes feel harder than it should. That's why so many fans are turning to game time. The app is built to make buying tickets simple with upfront pricing seat views before you buy an exclusive savings opportunities that help you get to the events you want without the usual hassle. There's just something different about being there live, whether it's the crowd reaction,

the energy in the building, or a moment that everyone experiences together. It's one of those things that doesn't fully translate through a screen. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets to every type of event with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account and use code locked on for $20 off your first purchase terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today. One final segment here on today's episode of Locked-on, ACC. We talked about Miami being the prohibitive favorite in the ACC this season.

SMU Louisville seemed to be the top challengers. Ken thinks SMU is not too far behind when it comes to Miami. And there's a gap there with those two teams and the rest of the conference. I'm a believer in Jeff Brom and Louisville rising up and being that number two team, potentially this season. But what about Clemson? Are we underestimating Davo and the Tigers? I think something that Davo actually is probably happy about that we aren't really buying into that.

And I'm saying the RearNiversal, we as everybody has seemed to be off of Clemson going into the season. They did receive seven first place votes and they were finishing fourth, not like they're finishing 11th at least predicted like FSU has. Are we wrong to be out on Clemson, Kenton? Or is this really where they're at now after what seemed to be a five-year slide into this point in time? Andre 3,000 said you only funky as your last cut. And Davo Swiny still feels the need to talk about cuts

from five to ten years ago. Here's the deal, right? When people say, you know, I saw somebody recently say, oh, whether or not you believe Clemson fell off is whether that tells me all I need to know about your ball knowledge. Here's the thing. Clemson was not just good for the ACC. They weren't just like, oh, we're at the top the ACC.

Clemson was a national powerhouse. Dabot took over this program. Full-time, he became a full-time coach in the mighty, mighty year of 2009. Now, 2009 and 2010 were his only single-digit win seasons of his tenure. After that, you had all double-digit win seasons until 2023, when you had nine. And then you get back with 10 in 2024 and an ACCC championship, and then you go with seven last year. Here's the thing.

That team is falling. Oh, he's went and got all of his old, all of his old coordinators and position coaches and all that good stuff. He's gotten, you know, the Davo All-Stars is basically what the coaching staff is. I just talked about how much your quarterback and your offensive line matter. They have had problems developing offensive line for quite some time. They do not portal for offensive linemen. And their quarterback is allegedly Chris Vazina. Allegedly, I say that, because dabble.

said the race isn't over, but he's in pole position. A guy has been on campus for three years now. Three. And we're talking about pole position coming in the fall camp. You can make whatever arguments you want. Oh, it's to play mind games with other teams and all that. Here's the thing. Not bringing your quarterback to Media Day as a harbinger of bad things.

It just is. If you look through the records of teams that do not bring their quarterback to Media Day, statistically, it is not good. It is not an indicator of good things. Even SMU bought Preston Stone. And guess what? They were placed it with Kevin Jennings and they turned out just damn. Well, in the ACC that year, two years ago,

was trying to be the conference of quarterbacks and told teams specifically to bring their quarterbacks to media days. So, I mean, I hear you like, sure. Even before that year. Yeah. Well, I mean, but in that year specifically that you're talking about, the conference really told people bring your quarterback. So, like, North Carolina was bringing like Connor Harrell and Max Johnson. So I wouldn't make anything out of that season in particular.

Well, even if we take that season completely out of it, let's just look at the past five says that one. I guarantee you if you look at teams that did not bring their starting quarterback to Media Day, not only do most of them have losing records in terms of conference, a lot of them have losing records overall. So, Clemson, have they fallen off, do they deserve consideration? Who's your quarterback? I love some Willel.

Love me some Sammy Brown. Their defensive back field, really good. Gideon, I think Gideon is going to be good. I think he's going to be a great tailback. I think he's going to be good. I think that wide receiver court is going to be healthier. There's no way that can be as unhealthy as they were last season. If so, you need to start looking around your training room.

Say, hey, what the hell y'all doing around here? What are you getting paid for? But I do not believe that this team has the quarterback or the offensive line at the moment to be in competition to say, hey, you are a legitimate contender still, even for the ACC, let alone the national championship, anything like that. Yeah, I mean, I think the offensive line is one to certainly look at. There's going to be plenty of talk about Visina and potentially the true freshman Tate Reynolds to, by the way, last year back in Arizona, didn't really play his high school season. I think only played like one or two games because of injury.

So he's impressed so far. And we have seen in the past that Davo has been willing to go at that freshman. And I think that was kind of the big sign about Kate Globick that DJU looked like DJU in 2021, then looked like that again starting up in 22, and it took a minute until Cade finally took over, and we saw how that played out the rest of the way there for Cade and Clemson. And it took Deshaun Watson some time, but had Dabot not had Deshaun live at practice in the spring,

and he had not hurt his shoulder. He probably starts week one instead of Colst out there in Athens, Georgia back in 2014. So we've seen him be willing to do that. And that may be a situation where I don't foresee Tate Reynolds starting in Baton Rouge, week one. But Dabo says he would do it. I don't believe he will do it, but we'll have to wait and see.

Like, Vizina, the one time we did see him last year against SMU, he was not the problem in that game. The second area that Clemson had, which they have now portaled out and brought new guys in, was a disaster for them all season long in particular in that game against SMU. It sounds like from all that I've read from Clemson reporting this offseason, the only person who believed that it should have been Vizena as a quarterback was

Davo Sweeney. All of his assistants, everybody else seemed to think that they need to go out there and to go get a new quarterback. And the AD itself even said on the record, they had the money for Dabble to go get their own quarterback. But Dabble allegedly is out here comparing the situation with Bazina to the situation of Stetson Bennett down in Georgia, where Stetson, he left, came back, weighed his turn, and then we saw him went to national championships with a ridiculously talented roster around him. And he was talented his own right. don't get me wrong.

That's kind of wild to me to hear that situation. But like the offensive line last year had a ton of injuries. Like Blake Miller was phenomenal for them. He's now in the NFL first round draft pick. But you look at guys like Colin Sadler, who's been around for years at Clemson. He's never really stayed healthy. Elijah Thurman heard his shoulder last year.

He's not really been healthy. And Braden Jacobs wasn't really around in the spring. You need that continuity. And from what I've read, the only two guys really went after offensive line-wise in the portal was Emmanuel Poku, who's at South Carolina. And then Stanton Rammell, who came from Michigan State and is now that on Auburn.

They weren't really all that interested in trying to even address that position. So, well, yes, Vizino will have to wait and see how that plays out. O-line is it concerned? I don't think I've ever had this many questions about a Clemson team since Dabo got that thing rolling back in 2015. I have questions at quarterback. I have questions about tight-in because Alton Pat Henry is coming off of a rupture Pat Ten, and he's supposed to be a big part of this Chad Morris offense. I have questions about the coordinator and Chad Morris now taking over defensively.

Do they have any defensive tackles? that's probably my biggest concern. Forget quarterback, forget the old line defensive tackle. They've had so many guys in the past. And Peter Woods is gone. Tomante K part's gone. So Filent Green's going to be facing a week when he's in Baton Rouge now. Who's going to be in the middle of that defense to really be able to stop the run,

which was a problem for them two years ago. And they got better last year. Like, where is that kind of talent on the defensive line? That's that concerns me for Clemson. So, yeah, we're not, I don't think, underestimating them. We certainly have a lot of real. concerns about what the Tigers heading into the season. And I think they're all valid.

We are exactly properly estimating them. They are exactly as estimated as they should be. Hell, some people are overestimating them with seven people giving them first place votes. But I will own that last year, everybody named Mama voted for Clemson. And Clemson had more, I want to say, of all of the first team, all-ACC positions, they had, what was it, like 20 years, some out of them. They had the vast majority.

So I get somebody had to get. votes besides Miami. I just don't think that Clems is going to be a team. I think their ceiling this year is 10. I think their ceiling is 10. I don't think they can do any better than that. I think that's absolute. You get everything to go perfect and the bowl game draw works out in your favor. You can get 10. So you saw 10 wins with a bowl game because I'm not counting bowl games. So you're saying nine. If you don't call bowl, no, nine is their ceiling. If you don't call bowl nine is their ceiling. Yeah, nine. And I don't know, I don't know how Clemson fans would feel about that. Obviously, No one thinks that.

And they've fallen off from being a national contender like you've talked about. Yeah. To still a team that can absolutely in this conference where it's at right now still compete. So it would not surprise me if they're there in Charlotte facing Miami. I would not be surprised by that. Not wins can get you to Charlotte. Depend on how it works out. Yeah.

And I mean, this goofy-ass conference is stupid nine games, eight games. That's going to be a factor in who ends up getting there as far as a conference record at the end of the day. I think, yes, we're probably rating them, but also, maybe we're being a tad bit disrespectful. Now it is earned for the way that Dabo's move recently and the way that they've really underachieved aside from maybe the playoff season back in 24 as far as what we thought preseason they would be

and what they ended up actually being at the end of the year. What the way and see where the Tigers can figure it out this year and get back to, I don't think they're going to do it this year, but get back maybe in the future to being what they have been under Dabo during his tenure there down in a little Clemson. But that's going to wrap up this edition. the locked on ACC podcast. Host by me Julian Council and Kenton Gibbs,

former letter in from NC State football program there in Raleigh. Check us out over on social media at Julian Council and at TGIF underscore Kenton. And of course, be sure to subscribe and rate the show wherever you listen to your podcast and over here on YouTube. We'll be back again on Wednesday, breaking down more about this conference, sticking the ball, trying to figure out what these teams are going to look like

heading into 2026. We'll talk to y'all about all of that here on Wednesday. on Locked-on, ACC.