Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - OUTRAGE: NCAA Tournament EXPANDS To 76 Teams & Top Coaches Speak Up | Football Offseasons RANKED

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

The NCAA has officially announced the expansion of the Men’s and Women’s Basketball tournaments from 68 teams to 76. The expansion is wildly unpopular among college basketball fans. Top coaches ar...e speaking out, too. UConn’s Dan Hurley and Arkansas’ John Calipari spoke out against the move. Virginia head coach Ryan Odom is okay with expansion but NOT with the way the NCAA has chosen to do it.  Meanwhile, ESPN has ranked the offseasons for every football team in the ACC. Hosts Kenton Gibbs and Alex Donno explain why Virginia Tech is ranked TOO low after a sensational and ambitious offseason. Everydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub   Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast RugietGet 15% off your treatment → https://rugiet.com/lockedonnhlRugiet. Performance medicine for men. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get one-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Visit https://FANDUEL.COM to get started — Play Your Game.   FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 The NCAA tournament is officially expanding to 76 teams, and some of the top men's basketball coaches are not happy. You are Locked-on ACCC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. He's Kenton Gibbs from Locked-on Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono from Locked-on-Cains, and on this episode of Locked-on-ACC, ESPN ranked the off-season. of every ACC football team.
Starting point is 00:00:39 And I don't know what James Franklin is doing up there in Blacksburg, but four ACC programs apparently had a better offseason than him. And all right, let's talk some basketball, Kenton. Now, it's official today. The NCAA has announced it. They're explaining how all of this is going to work. You and I both hate the expansion from 68 to 76 teams for the men's and women's basketball tournaments.
Starting point is 00:01:05 What are your primary complaints about this move? Number one, you're sending more people to Dayton, Ohio. That is cruel and unusual punishment. That is against the Geneva Convention. All that is right in the world says you want to take people out of such a hellhole. You don't send more people there. But beyond that, those big old women in Ohio, I'm sorry, let me stop ragging out of Ohio. But beyond that, the next thing that we look at here is, you know,
Starting point is 00:01:35 know, I'm one of those people, and I know some of you are going to feel bad for me here, I know some of you are going to want to call Child Protective Services. My family threw out every single participation trophy I've ever got. If I didn't win Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year, Lomily, something, they were like, oh, you might as well have not been there, okay? Who are we getting into the tournament that otherwise, like, it would have been a lot of a travesty if they would have been left out when we're talking
Starting point is 00:02:09 not 68 I'm sorry not 64 we were already talking 68 teams I had anybody who watches locked on Wolfpack can vouch for this if you're in the comment
Starting point is 00:02:23 said oh you wouldn't say that if NC State was on the outside of the bubble I've said plenty of times when you're at 68 it's kind of your job. Just tell 76, I don't want to hear not nary a complaint from nobody.
Starting point is 00:02:40 That's on, you know, the bubble or not getting in. Stop it. Stop it. You had taken out the conference champions, you have what? Still 60-some-odd opportunities to get in as an at large? I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it from you.
Starting point is 00:02:56 So, you know, it's just, it gets to a point where we're asking ourselves, does the top 20% really deserve the opportunity to win a national championship? And even beyond that, are we even putting them in a fair position? Because some of these teams that are going to be in the play-in are at eight. They're short-handed. Texas may have defied logic this year and went on a really great run and been one of the higher seeds to advance to the Sweet 16.
Starting point is 00:03:26 That's not normal for teams that have to do the play-in. You know why? Any sport is tired? It's tiring. It's tiring to play more games in virtually the same amount of days, if not one or two more. It's very tiring. So, you know, I just, I don't like it. I think too many teams are getting in already. And especially with NIL creating a greater chasm between the haves and the have-nots, the first thing Jerry McNamara did when he went to Sienna took his all conference card with him. He said, what are you doing down there at Sienna? Come on, man. A rady old place like that. What are you doing? Come on with me, man. Come on with me, man. We got Newhouse over there. Come on. That's the type of stuff that is like, well, why would you need Sienna back? No offense to Sienna at all.
Starting point is 00:04:11 We know that they took Duke to the wire with just five guys playing the entire game. But you get my point. It's just the reality now. If you have a good year at a mid-major at a lower-level school, the next thing you know, Justin Ganey's going to be at your door, Jay Lucas going to be at your door, John Shire going to be at your door, Dusty May going to be at your door. Mike Malone, the LeBron developer,
Starting point is 00:04:34 is going to be at your door saying, hey, man, what's you down there playing that old FAU for? What's you over there? Grand Canyon University? They got a school in that thing? Come on, man. Come on and play football over here. Yeah, I mean, my major complaint is you're diluting the talent pool
Starting point is 00:04:54 in this tournament that's number one. I mean, and like we've said on this show, if you watch the tournament this past, year, which was a Cinderella-less tournament, and it's trending that way with NIL and the way that the rich are getting richer. Did anybody watch that 68 team tournament and say, you know what we need? We need eight more teams. Like, nobody was saying that, right?
Starting point is 00:05:17 That's number one. And then number two is, I'm a firm believer of, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I mean, the NCAA tournament, you know, we talk about the college football regular. season is the best regular season in sports. The NCAA basketball tournament is the best playoff in sports. And so I wouldn't tinker too much with that thing when it's already working. And all right, so here's how it's going to work, Kent, just so people know, like, what happens with the eight extra teams. This is from the NCAA's press release today. This is both for the men's and women's tournament, by the way, and you've brought up that there's a, in the women's side,
Starting point is 00:05:57 there's an even bigger drop-off from the top teams to the not-top teams. So 76. It's obviously you want to do things equally on both sides. I get that, but it's like it's even worse for the women's tournament than it is for the men's. So there will be now 12 games before the 64-team bracket starts. Previously in the first four, there were eight teams playing four games. Now there's 12 games being played among 24 teams. So they write for the men's side, the games will be Tuesday, March 16th, and Wednesday, March 17th before the 64 team part starts on that Thursday.
Starting point is 00:06:36 So the 24 extra teams or the 24 teams to play in the extra round will be broken down as following. It'll be the 12 lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the 12 lowest-seeded at-large selection. So Kent and you and I are both very opposed to. this despite the fact that theoretically you could have an extra couple of ACC teams get into the tournament, which we're in favor for, but we're in favor of them earning their way into a 68 team tournament not getting in because you're allowing more teams in. Absolutely, Donnell. And let me ask you a question, okay, when you think about the tournament and why it's the best,
Starting point is 00:07:17 what reason would you say it's the best? I think that you alluded to it earlier when you said there was none of these in the tournament this year. Cinderella's, you know, unpredictability. Unpredictability. I like it. Unpredictability. Let's go with that word.
Starting point is 00:07:32 Let's go with that work. You talk about how bad it is on the women's side, Donno. I want you to guess. I want you to just give me your best, most educated guess, okay? When do you think the last time, if we're talking about the women's side of the NCAA tournament? Dono, do you know when the last time a. a team outside of the top three to four seeds made the final four in the women's side of the NCAA tournament. Oh, man, I have no idea. I'll say 2020. Dono, it was 10 years ago. I was still in college. It was 2016, the Washington Huskies. And do you want to know what ridiculously high seed this Cinderella was?
Starting point is 00:08:20 Well, Cinderella, so they got to be like a 11 seat. Seven. Oh. Now, mind you, that tournament is so predictable. Every year, if you just go chalk, you're going to be up major units, major units, just by saying, hey, the higher, the lower seat, lower seat, lower seat, lower seat, lower seat, lower seat, lower seat, lower seat. every time. And so, you know, it's just so disheartening to see that we're expanding this tournament.
Starting point is 00:08:53 Because, again, for me, the men's side of it is going to turn into what the women's side is. Because the women's side, the investment was not there. And any time there's a lack of investment and infrastructure in a sport, you will see a greater, like, hey, it's no longer about the training levels off the playing field between the best and the worst. so you get a wider chasm. That's just what happened with women's basketball. But now in men, you're going to see the same thing. You're going to see.
Starting point is 00:09:22 And this is not to talk bad about these teams. It's just the reality of more funds and more money. It's the system we live in, babes. It begets more funds and more money. More money means I could buy better players. Better players, you know, players whose belt loops are a little further apart as your coach and Nick Sable will say, Mas kicks ass.
Starting point is 00:09:48 So, you know, you're looking to have the most money to get a bunch of ass kickers, and that's what the tournament is going to be year after year after year, because we're no longer going to see a Colgate team that had their guys play together forever. We're not going to see a St. Francis team that they had their guys play together forever. We're not going to see a St. John, or not St. John, but St. Peter's team, where they got all these small little guards, but they can shoot the blood out the ball, and boy, do they love each other. The power of friendship is going to get them to the elite eight.
Starting point is 00:10:15 We're not going to see that anymore. It's just not going to happen. Because again, when that first guy goes off for 20 a season, somebody's going to say, wait a minute, what you're doing down there at the 8-10 with all that motion? What's you doing? What's all that rebound you're doing over there in the Patriot League? Come on, man.
Starting point is 00:10:33 Stop play some real basketball. And we'll give you a million dollars to do it, you know? So ultimately, this is foolishness. this should not be happening. And again, it's just like we've already talked about, another chip, another strike at that rock eroding what we know to be college sports. Yeah. Well, I think we've set our piece.
Starting point is 00:10:55 We'll hear from some of the biggest named coaches in college basketball. John Calipari, Dan Hurley are among the biggest critics for this. Ryan Odom of Virginia also had something to say about this expansion. You want to keep it locked right here. We're only getting started on this brand new episode. episode of LockdowneACC. Folks, the NHL playoffs are in full swing where every shift matters, every moment is intense and the pressure is at its highest.
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Starting point is 00:12:39 go to lockdownpodcast.com slash everydayer to join the everydayer club today. Thank you for making lock.com your first listen. So listen, I'm sure there are some coaches who either support this or indifferent about it. I haven't seen any quotes, at least not that have come across my computer screen from like John Shire, for example, who's obviously at a big time program at Duke, but Connecticut's Dan Hurley, had this to say, and he's been publicly opposed to NCAA tournament expansion, that is, for a while. He said, what I think makes the tournament special is the qualification for it,
Starting point is 00:13:23 he told CBS Sports. We don't want the regular season to be rendered meaningless and a takeaway from November, December, January, February. Qualification process makes the regular season intense and pressure-packed. It should be a privilege to play in the tournament, not a right, and obviously if it expands too much and you don't have a real good season to make it, then it would take away from the tournament. Does it get too big, he said?
Starting point is 00:13:49 Let me give you one more, Kenton, before I give you a couple of others. John Caliperi, he said what I said essentially. He said, I'm a big believer in the idea that if it's not broke, don't fix it, said the Arkansas head coach. And I think that applies to the NCAA tournament.
Starting point is 00:14:07 Having said that, if we are to expand, My hope is that at least half the spots are held for non-powerful teams. If they do that, we're making the decision for the right reasons, he said. But, you know, he's not really exactly for what's happening right now, KG. Right. And let me tell you something. You know why these basketball coaches aren't for it, and the same way football coaches were for expansion?
Starting point is 00:14:30 Basketball, especially at the Blue Bloods, they don't give a damn if you make the playoffs. They don't give a damn if you make the tournament. No. It's not really much of a big deal. No. I'll give you a prime example. We're all saying Davoswini is falling off.
Starting point is 00:14:45 He's lost his touch. He's lost his luster. If he makes the playoff this year, even if he's by the hairs of his cheney, chin chin, is Clemson back? Do people feel good about Clemson at that point, Donald? Not necessarily.
Starting point is 00:14:57 I guess. I wouldn't say that they're fully back to where they were at their highest cliffs, but I think people would feel good. You're right. You're right. Most people feel good, right? They would.
Starting point is 00:15:07 Let's think about Coach Cow and his life. Last stop. Right now he was the head coached to Arkansas, coaching cast technician Darius A Cuff, number one second and other, baby. But back to his last stop at Kentucky. Dono, do you remember what his last three years were like at Kentucky? Great, right? All three years, he went to the tournament. Really?
Starting point is 00:15:32 And in the middle of that, you can want a turn a game. But that's not a measure of success there, yeah? It's not a measure of success. Yes. So those coaches are not incentivized to say, hey, man, we need to expand this thing because if I'm struggling, but I barely make it by the hairs on my chin-chin-chin, all the fan base is going to be happy. They're going to be delighted with me. They're going to say, oh, that cow, you know, we're Kentucky basketball. But you know what? He gets into the tournament. They're going to start sounding like Moneyball. He gets on base. He gets into the tournament. That's how the coaches will, that's how fan bases will sound for their team in terms of. of the football playoff, basketball has no such thing. So these coaches are free to tell the honest-to-god truth because that truth does not affect their bottom line, does not affect their pockets.
Starting point is 00:16:18 And the reality is, expanding this thing out longer, I hate to say it, but the old heads have something right when they said, this is incentivizing mediocrity because it is. It is. We shouldn't be, you know, you think about how many teams there are in Division I basketball, If you're letting in 76, you are de facto saying, hey, if you're around the top one in five, you belong in.
Starting point is 00:16:47 So basically, if you aren't dog water, you're going to make it. You're going to make it. You know, and I just, I don't think that should be the case. 100%. Now, in the case of Virginia head coach Ryan Odom, CBS writes, he favors expansion, but would still make some tweaks. The man responsible for coaching the first 16 seed to upset a number one seed that was UMBC over Virginia, ironically enough, in 2018, doesn't like the proposed format for mid and low majors. The new design for the opening round will feature every number 16 seed and four number 15 seeds advancing to play in games. That will manufacture half of the opening round with the other half constituting at-large teams dropping into the range of number 11, number 12, and number 3.
Starting point is 00:17:36 13 seats. Here's what Odom said. I don't like those teams. I don't think those teams should have to play into the bracket, he told CBS Sports. I don't like the 16s playing one another to then go play the number one seat. I've never liked that. I think they should be able to go right directly to playing the number one seed, whoever that is. I think we should make the bubble teams play those play in games. I mean, I guess I respect what he's saying, but I still think expanding it beyond 68 is wrong. They never should have expanded it beyond 64, in my humble opinion. Like that, I hate the play in, period.
Starting point is 00:18:11 I agree. I agree. And NC State was in the play in this last year. Still don't like it. Yeah. Still don't like it. I didn't like it. At the end of the day, this is a situation where, as I've said before,
Starting point is 00:18:27 take the number of teams in the tournament divided by the number of total teams. if that number is higher than 10.1, which would equal 10%, it's too high in my opinion. The top 10% of teams should get a shot. Top 10%, hey, let's show me what you got, big dog. Show me something. Everybody else, hey, I'm sorry to tell you, you know, it just didn't work out for you. And some people will say, well, Ken, that's culling the field even worse.
Starting point is 00:18:59 How would you even do that? Who gets their joint stripped away that long? large bitch that large bitch i don't i don't care that you oh but but we're a better team we just have to play in a better league oh well so sad too bad nobody's forcing you to stay in that league go ahead take that buy out yeah or buy by your way out go to a lower league for some of y'all go for it go for it if you're that hard up to make it but you won't because you like the money where you are exactly you like the fact so go win it so now because you know you've got similar resources to the schools you're competing against,
Starting point is 00:19:37 go win you something. But at the end of the day, that's never going to happen because shrink in the field would shrink. What else, Donald? The ad revenue. Oh, the ad revenue. You shrink that ad revenue? You think people going to start tightening their wallet? You think people going to start tightening their belt and saying, hold on,
Starting point is 00:19:54 oh, ho, ho. I only got two yachts, brother. I need my third. Don't you dare think about, you know. So it's ultimately what we look. at here and the expansion is always going to be driven by the fact that you'll have more games. You'll have the Bracketology expanded. You'll have a bigger selection Sunday with a longer episode now because now you need time for,
Starting point is 00:20:18 what is it, 68 to 7. 8 more teams to get in. And now you're going to be having an even larger bubble of in and out and first day to in, last eight out. We got to go to all the last eight out and watch those young men look like sad puppies. Is there not on the right side of history there? It's just a travesty. But it's a travesty fueled by money,
Starting point is 00:20:39 which is the thing fueling most tragedies or travesties going on in the world today. Well, coming up next, we'll shift the football where Virginia Tech had one of the most ambitious off-season in the history of their football program and yet somehow four schools in the ACC allegedly had better off-season. than they did. You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on Locked on ACC.
Starting point is 00:21:09 Thank you for making us your first listen. And after Locked on ACC, make sure you check out Locked on Wolfpack, where Kent and Gibbs and Grayson Boone talk all things NC State. I host Lockdown Canes talking all things, Miami. Now, ESPN did rank Miami as the number one offseason in the ACC, but I don't want to talk about them just yet. We'll get to Miami and the others that are in the top four. But according to you, ESPN, Kenton. Virginia Tech is at number five behind Louisville at number four, Cal at number three. We got to talk about them because quietly out there on the West Coast, they've had a really good offseason, undoubtedly SMU at number two, Miami number one. But in the case of Virginia Tech, Kenton, you know, they have made probably the most ambitious head coaching hire in the history of their football
Starting point is 00:22:01 program because like Frank Beamer wasn't Frank Beamer for a really long time. you know, eventually he started really winning there. That wasn't like a big move when they hired him, however many decades ago. But like they made a statement with James Franklin. And Franklin had a very active transfer portal. A lot of those were former Penn State guys that he coached. And he really stuck the landing with Virginia Tech's recruiting class. Like, do you believe Kenton that four schools that I mentioned really had better off seasons than Virginia Tech?
Starting point is 00:22:32 Because I think they should be a little higher. I think I struggle to find what the metric is that says that these teams have better off-season. And don't get me wrong, I do think that Cal had a really good off-season in a lot of ways. I really do. I struggle to see how it was better than Virginia attacks. Don't get me wrong. Cow had a really good off-season. And even if we're being aggressive and saying, well, we don't know what Poy is as a coach,
Starting point is 00:23:01 but we do know who Franklin is as a coach. and it's a little bit of a risky gambit there. I would simply say even beyond the football aspect of it, just from the investment standpoint, from what the state had given to Virginia Tech, you've got to say that puts them somewhere in the top three already. Dono, how big was the investment given into Virginia Tech this offseason? Oh, I mean, well, I can't remember the exact number,
Starting point is 00:23:35 was the biggest in their history. Biggest in their history. It was at least eight figures. At least. I want to say nine, but I know it was at least eight. So I look at that and I say, how can you say that they're outside of the top three?
Starting point is 00:23:50 With, again, not even talking about anything that happened on the field. You're just talking about a situation where the state of Virginia- By the way, I got the number. I got the number, 229 million. Nine figures, ladies. and gentlemen. Nine figures. That's what was invested
Starting point is 00:24:08 into their program. So even taking James Franklin aside, who really can say we had a better offseason? Who else got a quarter of a billion dollars put into their program
Starting point is 00:24:22 this offseason, Dono? Who? Miami got Darian Mentsa. Is he worth a quarter of a billion dollars? I would hope not, because if you're spending that much on a quarterback, we have problems.
Starting point is 00:24:36 So I'm going to say no. Here's the thing, right, even in your best of dreams, even if he takes Miami 16 and 0, and they're the first 16 and 0 to win the national championship, do you think that that would result in a quarter of a billion worth in positive effects for Miami? No. Odds are no.
Starting point is 00:24:55 So this ain't even about what his actual value is. Even if we go downriver cascading effect, that just Virginia Tech had the best offsees. to say otherwise is a little bit of delusion. And this ain't about Cal. This is about everybody. Nobody had a better offseason than them. Miami didn't.
Starting point is 00:25:12 Cow didn't. Nobody did. I'm sorry. So here you were asking about their criteria. So like a lot of things on ESPN these days, they got their algorithms, you know. So the criteria is, the first one is roster additions through the portal and the high school ranks.
Starting point is 00:25:30 So, yeah, I guess by that metric, Obviously, you know, Miami had a much more high profile recruiting class in SMU did than Virginia Tech. So that's one of them. Retention of top players who could leave for the NFL draft or the portal. And then the third and final one, which I think you and I agree, you should probably have more weight even than the first two, coaching staff continuity or key additions and upgrades. Because the reason why, like, I think in the case of Virginia Tech, that could be weighted a little higher is,
Starting point is 00:26:00 they made a massive upgrade is what I'm saying. It's like, you know, other programs like Miami and SMU didn't need to upgrade because they're very happy with their current coaching, right? But in the case of Virginia Tech, they badly needed an upgrade and they got a major one. Donnell, this is so simple to me because even if we take out the investment and say, okay, that's not football related, that doesn't count. just from the stuff that's purely on the field this year, that counts. Again, in what world do we look at James Franklin and say,
Starting point is 00:26:37 hey, he's not going to be one of the top three guys in this conference, guaranteed. Like, that's not going to be who he is. Everybody believes that the Big Ten is superior to the ACC, right? Everybody believes that. Last few national champions, all from the same conference. It ain't to South Eastern Conference. Ain't to the Lander Coast. late to Big 12
Starting point is 00:26:57 RIP Pact 12 We hardly knew ye I know you coming back to life But you know We know The last champions Have all come from the Big Ten And yet
Starting point is 00:27:08 While he was there You could pencil 10 You pencil it every year Ten Penn State's going to win 10 Yeah sure They're going to lose to the big dogs They're going You know
Starting point is 00:27:19 Everybody loves to tell that joke About a Chrysler 300 Looks like a Phantom Until a Phantom pulls up But most of you are driving around in old beater cars. Most of you are driving around. Again, 90% of schools,
Starting point is 00:27:32 eight wins a year, you will get a statute. I know. I graduated from one. Dave Doran will never get fired. If he gets eight wins a year, he'll never get fired at an C-State. He never will. Just because that's the nature of a majority of college football. That's not to denigrate
Starting point is 00:27:48 by alma mater. But that's the reality for the majority. Donald's not part of that. He cannot relate. Eight games a year will get you fired at Miami. But most other places, even some power for schools in the state of Florida, UCF, eight wins a year, you'll keep that job forever. Scott Frost would be a lifer if he can start winning eight games a year there. Hello? Hello, they'll rename it Scott Frost Field.
Starting point is 00:28:14 So the reality of what we're looking at, James Franklin has proven that he gets you what gets most coaches a statue plus two, plus two on that? You can count on him for double-digit wins in the toughest conference in all of college football. And we're going to sit here and say that's not the biggest upgrade in coaching that maybe, and I'm not joking when I say this, maybe we've seen in recent history. Because with all due respect to pride, he was a defensive coordinator that saw his team routinely get bullied defensively. He was a former defensive coordinator who allowed the other school in Virginia. I'm talking about Old Dominion, y'all, to run a mud hole through them so bad. And don't get me wrong,
Starting point is 00:29:02 Old Dominion has one of the most innovative and creative running games in college football. They really do. They really do. If you know, you know. If you know, ball, you know how good Old Dominion's running game is. But they, like poop through a tin horn,
Starting point is 00:29:17 ran right through all game long. People in the stands were screaming, bye, pry, it's over now. This is it. And so that upgrade to me, we have not seen an upgrade like that in recent history. I don't care who you are, where you are. You might have had a bad coach go to a better coach, but you had not had a coach that was, you know, had Blacksburg, Virginia empty to a coach that was guaranteed U-10 in the biggest and toughest conference in the nation. I'll give a shout out to my alma mater.
Starting point is 00:29:50 I thought, I think Manny Diaz is a better coach now than he was then, but I thought the upgrade for. from Mani Diaz at that time to Mario Cristobal, I think it's pretty similar to what Virginia Tech just did, if I'm being honest. I disagree. I disagree. Let me tell you why. Let me tell you why. Mario Cristobal and his only job where he had really big success before he got to Miami was where.
Starting point is 00:30:17 Oregon. What coach has not been good at Oregon? When's the last time Oregon had an unsuccessful coach? like a truly like oh that coach ain't good. Willie Taggart probably, but he was still better there than he was anywhere else. I was just about to say, are we sure, you know?
Starting point is 00:30:37 Yeah. So again, this ain't, this ain't to denigrate Mario because I know I know you're somewhere out there listening and I know the rivalry will be. He already hates you, so I mean, might as well keep digging that hole. His offensive level, I'm a defensive level.
Starting point is 00:30:50 We're not, but it's enemies. It's real smoke here. There's real smoke. Exactly. But, you know, it's just one of those things where ultimately this is one of the greatest, you know, coaching upgrades that we've seen in quite some time. And I will also say this, even if it doesn't work out. Because I know some people will say, well, Ken, you said last time we saw Bill Belichick, it looked like the game passed him by. Why are you not treating James Franklin the same way? Bill Belichick had a sustained decline over time. It wasn't a one-year aberlach. and then he was going from the Patriots and had the coach again.
Starting point is 00:31:26 Because if it was one year, I would be terrified. I would have been terrified of him going to UNC if it was one down year to them. That's what happened with James Franklin. James Franklin didn't have a three-year slide of 10 wins, nine wins, six wins, and now he's at Virginia Tech. He had 10 wins, 10 wins, 10 wins, 11 wins to the Big Ten championship literally a year ago. Literally a year. It was literally your quarterback not pissing down his leg.
Starting point is 00:31:53 away from a national championship just two years ago. And so it's tough for me to say that that's the same thing as Belichick, who we watched draft Cole Strange in the first round. Like that's a thing that happened. And well, you're speaking facts, and I appreciate Kenton. I appreciate all the everydayers. Make sure you smash that thumbs up button. Hit the like, subscribe.
Starting point is 00:32:18 Make sure you check out the Everydayer Club. And we'll talk to you next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC. Right here on the. the number one sports podcasting network, the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

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