Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - REVOLT: ESPN's FPI Rankings MYSTERIOUSLY Change | ACC Teams PLUMMET Without Explanation?

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

Is ESPN's FPI rigged against the ACC? The latest rankings spark controversy as Miami HURRICANES and Clemson plummet while SEC teams soar.Former NC State defensive lineman Kenton Gibbs joins host Alex ...Donno to dissect the perceived SEC bias in ESPN's rankings. They explore the Big Ten's leaked proposal for a 24-28 team College Football Playoff and its potential impact on the ACC. The duo also breaks down quarterback announcements for Syracuse and Cal, including Notre Dame transfer Steve Angeli's starting nod.Tune in for a fiery debate on ACC advocacy and the far-reaching consequences of media narratives in college football.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Rugiet150,000 men have made the switch →https://Rugiet.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGEUse code LOCKEDONNFL to get 15% off your order!DripDropRight now, DripDropis offering Locked On listeners 20% off your first order. Just head to https://dripdrop.com and use promocode LOCKEDONCOLLEGE. Stock up now before the heat hits hard.PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONMLB to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.PrizePicks — Run Your Game.Click Link Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONCOLLEGEOpenPhoneStreamline and scale your customer communications with OpenPhone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at www.openphone.com/lockedonmlbGametimeToday'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.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE at www.monarchmoney.com/lockedoncollege for 50% off your first year.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.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 SMU head coach, Rhett Lashley, just called out ESPN for their SEC favoritism. You are Locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I mean, who needs a conference commissioner with the way Lashley is speaking out? Thank you so much to the everydayers for making Locked on ACC your first listen. We're available free wherever you get your podcast. We're free on YouTube. We're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.
Starting point is 00:00:39 He is Kenton Gibbs, former NC State defensive linement and co-host of Lockdown Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono, host of Lockdown Cains. And on this loaded episode, we've got starting quarterbacks named at Syracuse and at Cal. And I guess you could say one of those was a little bit more surprising than the other, but both were pretty good competitions all the way through. The Big Ten has proposed an idea of 24 to 28 teams in the college football playoff, and there's backlash coming from that. But Kenton, I wanted to start with this, not only the actual story itself,
Starting point is 00:01:19 but the reaction from a prominent ACC head coach. So can you explain to me, KG, how this happens? So the ESPN-FPI rankings were first released in June. they were updated earlier this week. And with the update, Miami drops from number nine to number 17, Clemson dropped from number 11 to number 16. And teams that move up include Tennessee moves ahead of them two spots, Ole Miss moves up three spots, South Carolina,
Starting point is 00:01:50 moves up four spots, LSU, Florida moves up five spots, USC in Michigan. But first of all, Kent, I don't understand how does the FPS, ranking data changed so much between June and August with zero new games played. Dono, I'll take it a step further. How does it change at all? I'm not joking. I literally want to know what data points came into play for these teams that were not there previously, that they said, oh, man, these teams are going to be much better than we thought.
Starting point is 00:02:26 Was Tennessee's quarterback? What is it? Aguilar? Was he that good in what? they saw in terms of his play last year to where they were like, oh, we know this is a surefire thing. Tennessee is going to be exponentially better. I highly doubt that. I highly doubt that.
Starting point is 00:02:42 So I'm sitting here saying to myself, how did this happen? And how is it just so ironic that, or how is it so, so what's the word I'm looking for? How is it such a big coincidence that every single ACC school moves back? every single ACC school in this group moves back. That's very interesting. I find that very interesting. I go back to the quote by, I believe it was Dr. Hu and it was Benedict Cumberbatch.
Starting point is 00:03:14 What do we say of coincidence? The universe is rarely so lazy. It is rarely so lazy to have all of the schools from one particular conference, all of them get moved back from where they currently stood without any new data points introduced as well. Well, and here is what happens. I guess let's define just so people know what ESPN FPI is. You know, the ranking number from FPI is not the one you see next to your team's name on Saturdays. In the early part of the season, that would be the AP rankings voted on by the media.
Starting point is 00:03:49 In the later part of the season, that's the college football playoff ranking voted on by that committee. What the FBI is defined as is a predictive rating system developed by ESP. PN that measures the strength of teams and projects game and season outcomes in American football. It's used in both college football and the NFL, though the models have slight differences. So it's a statistical-based computer-generated model. But here's why it's important, okay? Why this is important is ESPN, of course, is so influential in shaping opinions on college football. So, yeah, once you get to the polls that really count, the AP, the college football playoff
Starting point is 00:04:29 committee. ESPN is part of the metric that influences these people because, yeah, as human beings, we can't physically watch every single game played by every single team, every single weekend in college football. So metrics like this contribute to the conversations. Now, ESPN, of course, is the primary rights holder for both the SEC and the ACC, yet they treat the ACC like garbage by and large. The SEC is their real cash cow. So what ends up happening, Kenton, when we're this echo chamber where the SEC bubble gets inflated so much, how this influences the final rankings and ultimately the college football playoff field is that when every SEC team is ranked higher. The old, it just means more slogan. When every SEC team is ranked higher, every game and
Starting point is 00:05:19 SEC team wins against a conference opponent is inflated when you win. Oh, look at that great team. They just beat. And on the flip side, every game they lose, like when. And, you know, Alabama loses to Oklahoma or loses to Vanderbilt, hey, that's a quality loss because it's the SEC. It just means more. That's what happens when every team in your conference gets inflated this much. And then, of course, for the ACC, when all of the teams get deflated by metrics like this, every loss you have is a terrible, tragic loss. That's how this shapes the opinions of the college football world. Not only that, let's get into the soft impacts of it.
Starting point is 00:05:58 we're looking at a situation where we're talking about conference realignment and who's going to wear and all that. Where do you think people would get the gall and the audacity to say that Miami would beg to be in the Big Ten? Where do you think people would get that idea from? The idea that your conference is so weak, so incompetent, so inept, so devoid of talent and winners, that when you look at the final product and result, before the season starts, you have, have no teams ranked in the top five, you have one team ranked in the top 15, you have two teams ranked in the top 25 in terms of FPI. And the biggest thing that I want to stress one last time, because I don't think people understand how big this is. Imagine Donnell, if I said we're going to
Starting point is 00:06:48 look at the Dono family futures, and we're going to do that based on a statistical analysis that we run a thousand simulations of the Dono family life. And then, you know, things look pretty good for you. Things look all right. But all of a sudden, out of nowhere, with no new data points, I run a new thousand. And all of a sudden, everybody's life expectancy goes down. Everybody's earning potential goes down.
Starting point is 00:07:14 Everything takes a nosedive with no new data points put in. You too would sit there and say, wait a minute. All of us were supposed to live to 80 and make $300,000 a year. Why are we all passing away at 45 of heart attacks now? What's going on? You know, it's so, it's so frustrating because then people are going to call you a black helicopter person. If you're pointing out what is obviously somebody putting their thumb on the scale, what is obviously no new data points introduced. I wouldn't even be mad if this was after week zero or week one.
Starting point is 00:07:49 And they said, you know what? ACC teams look so bad. We're going to put them down, even if we went undefeat. don't care. What I do care about is the fact that no new data points were introduced and all of a sudden everybody takes a nose dog, that's illogical. It's nonsensical. And it is very clear that there's some muck in the game. Yeah. So here's how things stand right now. Texas at number one, UGA, Alabama, Ohio State, Penn State, round out the top five, Notre Dame, Oregon, Tennessee. These are the big movers here from the SEC, Texas A&M, Ole Miss. South Carolina, LSU, Florida, USC, Michigan. Then you've got Clemson and Miami. But a funny thing about this, look at this reply. This is the actual X account of SMU head coach, Rhett Lashley, who says,
Starting point is 00:08:39 because the whole thing is rigged. And I got to give Brett credit, right? He stood up for the ACC and pointed out during ACC media days, hey, you guys call our conference top heavy? Look at the SEC in the past. How many decades, only six teams have won an SEC championship going back to what, the 1940s? And yet you've got these SEC narratives. And now he's standing up for the ACC again.
Starting point is 00:09:04 The whole thing is rigged. So I appreciate Ret for standing up. And I hope people are listening, Kenton. And I hope the ACC commissioner, Jim Phillips, is listening because you're letting Ret Ashley go out there and do your job for you. Absolutely. Absolutely. And this is what I mean by Jim Phillips is a very cerebral calculated guy.
Starting point is 00:09:21 But sometimes you need fiery. You need passion. You need that, quote, unquote, demon that's going to go after people. It is in almost every sphere of life right now where we're seeing it's no longer, it's 2025. We can no longer exist in the world where it's like when they go low, we go high. We don't exist in that world anymore. We don't exist in that world anymore.
Starting point is 00:09:42 You know what world we exist in? I'm going to quote a young man by the name with Kendrick Dougworth. If you take it there, I'm taking it further. That's something you don't want to do. That's the world we live in now. That is the world that we live in, and that's where Commissioner Phillips needs to be. When people are disrespect to the ACC, your job is not what's in the best interest of all of college football. It's what's in the best interest of the ACC.
Starting point is 00:10:04 Ret. Ashley doesn't look around and say, what's in the best interest of all the Texas schools? No, he says, what's best for SMU? That's what I'm going to push. That's what I'm going to do, and we need that from Jim Phillips. Coming up next, the Big Ten has such a crazy idea. for the college football playoff that they've actually pissed off some of the execs out there. You want to keep it locked.
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Starting point is 00:12:44 Just head to dripdrop.com and use promo code Lockedon College. That's dripdrop.com promo code locked on college for 20% off. Stock up now before the heat, it's hard. Thank you for making Locked on ACC your first listen for your next listen. Make sure you check out our other shows. Kent and Gibbs and Grayson Boone cover everything NC State on Locked on Wolfpack. I cover all things Miami on Locked on Cains. So we started to hear Kenton earlier this week about this Big Ten proposal.
Starting point is 00:13:16 And I remember a couple months ago, Greg Sane. of the SEC was like, hey, I would love it if some other commissioners had some ideas for the college football playoff. Well, Tony Petiti of the Big Ten has an idea that leaked this week of, you know, we're at 12 right now in the CFP. We've talked about going up to 16 teams. Petiti wants to go up between 24 to 28 teams for a college football playoff, which is huge. You're talking about five rounds of playoff. You're also talking about eliminating conference championship games because it'd just be too much and they would no longer serve a purpose. And if you think this is a terrible idea, you're not alone.
Starting point is 00:13:55 But there's also some upset conference executives and CFP executives, because apparently, according to CBS Sports, news of the Big Ten's internal socialization of an early blueprint to expand the CFP came to light on Saturday before many of the commissioners in the other nine FBS conferences were informed personally by Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petiti. Leaks around CFP formats over the last year are nothing new, but the timing with a December 1st deadline looming for a new agreement, intensified frustration.
Starting point is 00:14:31 One upset executive told CBS Sports, quote, we sound like immature children throwing garbage against the wall. It's frustrating that these topics can't be discussed behind the scenes and brought out to the public once they've been vetted, an SEC administrator said. So Kenton, not only is it a terrible idea, but they're like, they're really upset that, hey, sometimes we have terrible ideas. They don't always need to leak like this one did.
Starting point is 00:14:56 Good. I'm glad the Big Ten is finally putting their thumb on a scale with some ideas as well. Don't get me wrong. This is a terrible idea. I hold no bones about that. This is absolutely awful. But I don't know why a lot of these administrators are complaining. Have you heard your head coaches?
Starting point is 00:15:11 A head coach of an eight and four school in Eli Drinkwitz, who won eight games last year, year said, you know, when asked what he needs to do to get to the playoffs, said, we need to expand it. Well, here's your expansion. You know, we had to double it. It's going to be two size, the size of what it used to be. I don't see what the problem is. Now we won't be debating and litigating and arguing, well, does this four-lost team deserve to get in or does this four-lost team deserve to get in? Because now they're all going to get in. If you're from that type of way, you're all going to get in, which I think is a little embarrassing. I think that these teams should
Starting point is 00:15:50 say, hey, yeah, hey, enough. The playoffs should be reserved for teams with number one, an actual shot of winning a national championship. And number two, even beyond that, at a certain point, just win your damn games. Like, that's the biggest thing for me. I'm sorry.
Starting point is 00:16:06 I haven't seen, and maybe I'm incorrect here, Donald, but have you seen any one-lost teams, any one-lossed FBS, or I'm sorry, one-loss power or four teams be denied the playoff since it expanded to 12? No. No, okay. I don't think it will happen.
Starting point is 00:16:21 Even with the current format, I don't think it would ever happen. So, you know, it's very interesting to see this. I think it's a horrible idea as well, but I think it's very interesting how I was like, why weren't these things discussed behind closed doors? Why would they be discussed behind closed doors, friends? And what else is being disclosed behind closed doors only? I don't know, Donald. Maybe it's some collusory activity going on being discussed behind closed doors,
Starting point is 00:16:49 because we've seen it from the NFL already. And I'm wondering if the colleges are and the conferences are conducting their own form of collusion against their athletes. But that's just speculation, that's completely speculative. You know, Josh Pate, who's now with On Three Sports, had an interesting theory on why this idea leaked. I love a good conspiracy. So I'm willing to hear him out on this one.
Starting point is 00:17:16 His theory was, you know, the idea that the Big Ten really likes is the 16 team playoff with the auto bids for, you know, four was it four auto bids for the Big Ten, four for the SEC and two each for the ACC and Big 12. And of course, we don't like that because we feel the ACC is being underserved with that amount of auto bids, right? where a lot of the other commissioners and coaches say, we don't need this many auto bids. Just let the top 12 ranked teams get in. You can do the five plus 11 formula is what most of the coaches are in favor of. But you do the five auto bids for the top five conference champions. And then you have like the 11 quote unquote at large bids.
Starting point is 00:17:58 That's what most are in. But the big 10 really wants to protect their conference with the four auto bids, right? This new idea would include, I think, six auto bids each for the big 10 and for the SEC. So the theory from Josh Pate was the Big Ten really wants to have 16 teams with the four auto bids for their conference. There's not enough
Starting point is 00:18:19 support for that idea. So they proposed a crazy idea to make their other unpopular idea seem less crazy. That hey, we have a better chance of getting our way with the 16 team playoff with the four auto bids. We have
Starting point is 00:18:35 a better chance of getting that if we propose another idea that people really hate that makes our original idea more palatable. I thought that was, I don't know if that's actually what's going on, but when you talk about things happening behind the scenes, Kenton, isn't that kind of how negotiations work, that if you want to pass through a somewhat unpopular idea, you give a less popular alternative that makes the original idea seem more tolerable?
Starting point is 00:19:00 Yeah, as a recruiter, I've seen this a million times. Whenever I'm going in to offer somebody, we tell them to pay range, we ask them if they're comfortable with the pay range, before we even start the interview process. And then all of a sudden, at the end, when they get the offer, they say, well, I need a little bit above the top of bed. Isn't it at all possible for us to kind of work something out where we give something, you give something to kind of make this thing work out?
Starting point is 00:19:25 It's a tale as old as time. It's a tale as old as time. You know, when you were a teenager and you thought you were being smart the first time you did this, talking to your parents, well, hey, you know, a lot of other things. kids are staying out till three or their parents don't even give them curfews. So you propose this ridiculous thing, right? Like a 17 year old just not coming home is normal.
Starting point is 00:19:47 And we're like, well, why can I stay out till two when your curfew is midnight and you're aiming for one. You're angling for one. That's your sweet spot. But you come in with the other kids don't have one. Why can I get two? And you expect them to talk you down to one. But your ultimate goal is to get beyond that 1130 or 11 curfew.
Starting point is 00:20:07 So just so people know, by the way, with this 24 to 2018 proposal, you know, multiple spots, CBS, Yahoo have emphasized that this is in the infancy, like this proposal, this is not what we can necessarily expect to happen, but it's just one of the ideas that's been floated out there. So like at the end of the day, Kenton, and they have what until before 2026 to decide what the next format is going to be? because this is like the last year of the guaranteed 12 team and then we're probably going to add more to it. I think we're probably going to end up with 16 for the next version of it. Do you feel that way and do you think we're going to get all the auto bids or will we get the 5 plus 11 formula? The next version will be 16 plus the auto bids because the Big 12 and the ACC,
Starting point is 00:20:58 I don't believe have the Spines, have the Fortitude, have the Rett Lashley's fourth. Yeah, we need more Lashleys. They just don't. Without lash leaves, you would not give the SEC and the Big Ten their lashings, because that is a guy that is going to come out of the gate swinging regardless. And I don't think that we have that type of commissioner in Jim Phillips. Again, to me, it is very simply, we need to be calling out the bias, the foolishness, the nonsense at every single turn.
Starting point is 00:21:27 To me, every coach that's not screaming their head up, I understand that y'all are in camp. But right now, you're doing something that is just as important as getting your players crisp and sharp for the season. Because guess what? If you coach your team up to be the best team that they could possibly be to squeeze every single drop in every single win out of their team. Let's say, for example, a Boston college, okay? What do you think their absolute ceiling is? Nine wins, eight wins this season? I'd say eight.
Starting point is 00:21:59 Okay, eight wins. Let's say Bill O'Brien squeezes every win out of those eight possible. Does he end up in a really high-quality bowl game if the ACC is not seen as a high-quality conference? No, they end up at the Fenway Bowl or something like that. Now you're eating hot dogs as a part of your bowl experience. Like that's part of your bowl excursions and whatnot, as opposed to ending up in one of the really nice ones, because you made it clear, hey, there's something wrong with the FPI.
Starting point is 00:22:32 Hey, why does the FPI all of a sudden move all these different metrics and all these different where people are based on nothing new, based on no information that changed? You knew that those guys were on the roster when you first made this here, you know, calculation that comes up with these rankings. Who did Clemson lose that made them make? get, what, 11 teams worse? Who walked away from the program that they said, oh, my God.
Starting point is 00:23:04 I can understand if one of these three players was going for Clinton, T.J. Parker, Peter Woods, K. Clubbing. I get it. I'd be like, hey, you know, that he had a little tweak in his knee. He's not going to be back this season. I get it. I understand it. Nobody's left.
Starting point is 00:23:21 Nobody's going. So how all of these teams magically leapfrogged over them right before the season starts, too. What a weird coincidence right before the season start. You know, you've got to look at this and say somebody is very clearly putting their thumb on the scale and they're not even doing a good job at hiding it. And if you are an ACC media member, if you're an ACC coach and you're not called this out, players, I get it. Y'all are young, you're 18 to 24. You're out there doing your thing on the field. Coaches, guys that got to do speaking before the press and all that stuff, SID is not telling your coaches about this and saying, hey, we need to get out in front of this.
Starting point is 00:23:56 and make our conference look good. Commissioners, Commissioner's office, not saying anything about this, it's embarrassing. Well, okay, here's some new data, although if the FBI hears about this, you're just going to move these teams down. Cal and Syracuse have announced their starting quarterbacks for the upcoming season.
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Starting point is 00:25:22 Thank you for making Lockdown ACCC your first listen and your first watch. So Kenton, two quarterback competitions have been officially declared over this week in the ACC, one of which the job goes to the more experienced competitor and the other of which the job goes to a really talented true freshman. Let's start with the experienced one. So Syracuse have named, I guess we shouldn't be too surprised by this, although they had a legit competition for the first couple of weeks of camp. but Notre Dame transfer, Steve Angelly, was named the starter over LSU transfer Ricky Collins at Syracuse. Now, neither of which has ever been a full-time starter, but Angelly has a lot more experience. I think he's appeared in like 13 games for Notre Dame, and he has started a game for the fighting Irish. Ricky Collins has very little experience.
Starting point is 00:26:14 So, and Kenton, you also figure who does Syracuse open against Tennessee Volunteer? tears. So you would figure Steve Angelli probably gives them a chance to win that game at the very least, if not perform better for the entire season. You know, I'm not really surprised by this. We talked about the fact that Angelie was coming over to, what was it, his old O.C.'s brother or something along those lines or, you know, some very familiar connection. It was expected to be kind of a situation where he won that battle, but I do want to applaud Frank Brown for making this truly a battle. all reports out of Syracuse Kev have been that this was both getting reps with the ones,
Starting point is 00:26:54 both getting an opportunity to see what they could do as opposed to a, hey, Angelie, Steve's here now, get to the back of the bus, Ricky. It was a situation where they both had the opportunity to win the job on their medal. Apparently Angelie came away with it. You've got to applaud both of these gentlemen. And also, if I had to give any advice to Ricky Collins
Starting point is 00:27:12 and every other quarterback who lost their quarterback battle, remember what happened with old Texas Christian University a couple years ago. The guy who won the quarterback battle got hurt in the first game, and the backup ends up taking them to a national championship. Okay. So just because you lost it in the beginning does not mean that it is irredeemably lost. Does not mean it is a good. Look at Kevin Jennings last year.
Starting point is 00:27:39 Lost the job to Preston Stone. He got the job, and then they went to the college football playoff. Well, that's the thing. Kevin Jenick should really give you hope because that wasn't even the battle. Preston Stone was an all-conference performer the year before. There was no like, hey, Kevin Jen is going to be a guy. There was Kevin, Kevin, you're going to be a backup, hold this clipboard, call he plays, do these little wonky signals on the sideline, and that's all there is to it.
Starting point is 00:28:01 And he got his opportunity to play. So the guys who lose this thing, Ricky College Company, be ready. Steve E. Jelly, what's you going to do, brother? You're walking into some, whether you run a realtor or not, Kyle McCord left big shoes to fill there. one of the best seasons in not only recent Syracuse history, but in Syracuse football history. You cannot name me 10 better seasons in Syracuse football history. So, you know, you're following up that. That's got to be a tough axe, but you got to do it nonetheless.
Starting point is 00:28:32 And Jelly, by the way, appeared in 21 games at Notre Dame, one start, but appeared in 21 games. So he's by far the more experience. Now at Cal, and there's a lot of excitement about the young man that, they named their starter. He beat out Ohio State Transfer, Devin Brown. The job goes to true freshman Jaron Kiave Sangopuletele, who becomes the new starting quarterback at Cal. This was a blue chipper four-star plus recruit out of high school. And this is a fun fact, Kenton, is he set to start that opening game, presumably be their starter all season long. He'll become the first true freshman quarterback at Cal to start the opening season game since Jared Gough, back in.
Starting point is 00:29:14 in 2013. So that's pretty good company for him. We'll see if he can have that sort of success even more so at Cal. Oh, absolutely. You know, this is a very, very big deal here. And it's so interesting. This is why I tell people all the time, no matter of what you do in the game of football,
Starting point is 00:29:31 you are only a couple wins away. You're only a couple doing something rights away from people forgetting because people forget, Jaron, while he is a true freshman, did not start his college career at at Cal. He started off at Oregon. Did bowl prep with Oregon. And it was like, actually, I'm going. And everybody in their mom had everything terrible to say about this young man.
Starting point is 00:29:52 They called him everything but a child of God. Oh, look at these players. They just take the money and run. He took their money without ever planned to die without knowing any of the details about compensation or lack thereof. Oh, this guy, he just wants to double dip and, you know, all this good stuff. He wants to take his money and play right away. And now, look, is there any, are there any critiques now? Are there any loud mouths now spotting off about what a terrible and selfish young man he is?
Starting point is 00:30:18 No, because he won a quarterback battle. And again, I simply say, older guys, or not the older guys, guy who lost the battle, be ready. Be ready. This is a true freshman. We hope he stays healthy. We hope he has a great season. We hope that he surprises everybody and saves Wilcox's job. We hope.
Starting point is 00:30:35 But be ready. Be ready just in case. Because, again, the quarterback battle is won right now. It is not a permanent state. Yeah, and then Saga Politele is he's, you know, not only is an exciting prospect, but I know that they're, like, he's got the entire state of Hawaii behind him. So he's, he's a left-handed Hawaiian quarterback. So he's trying to follow in the footsteps of Tuatanga Bailoa, what he did at Alabama, you know, Dylan Gabriel out of Hawaii, Marcus Mariotta. Like, Sangapolitelli is, they're hoping that he becomes like the next member in line of like great college quarterbacks to come out of Hawaii.
Starting point is 00:31:11 So the whole Iowa, all the aisos, because there's a bunch of islands out there. All the islands are behind Sangapula Tele who's going to get his opportunity for a Cal team, Kenton that's going to be very interesting because so much new talent that they brought in through the portal, they lost so many guys out the portal. It really does feel like a completely different team from what we saw last year. I don't know if that's going to work out better or worse in 2025, but there certainly is an infusion of young talent that's going to affect them beyond this upcoming season. Oh, there definitely is. And the reality is, I think that this is more of a
Starting point is 00:31:46 foundational season than enjoy the fruits of your labor season. This is going to be a team that is doing a lot more sowing than reaping, in my opinion, because they're very young. They're very young. They're extremely inexperienced. And not only are they young and inexperienced, everybody here feels new. You're looking at all of this newness all around. This is going to be a team that if they just keep things competitive and spicy. It's like, oh, okay, all right. You talk about true freshman quarterback. They're starting running back is very likely going to be Kendra Rafael,
Starting point is 00:32:20 who's an NC state transfer. He's never been a full-time starter either at the running back position. So you're looking at a lot, a lot. We talk about all their past catches from last year being going as well for the most part. You are seeing a situation, and especially defensively, where Will Cox is the expert, all of those leading, tackling linebacks and all that, All of those guys. That entire defensive backfield, that was like a no-fly zone.
Starting point is 00:32:44 Basically, all of those guys are going. They might just ask Lawrence if he's got any eligibility left at this point. So, you know, this is, I'm talking about Lawrence Ross, by the way. We still call it out to be on the show, Lawrence. We look at play, your Lord. But, you know, it is a situation where that team could be exciting. They could be a team that we look up and say, did they get seven, eight wins this year? Which to me, again, that's a very great foundational year.
Starting point is 00:33:08 anything that gets them in a bowl game is a great foundation of year. I'm not sure it happens, but I think that that to me is like a, hey, they did their big one this year type of season. No doubt. Well, we appreciate everyone for making Lockdown ACC your first listen. For your next listen, make sure you check out the portal. Our good friend Brian Smith does an excellent job talking all things, NIL, transfer portal and recruiting on the portal, one of the newest podcasts on the Lockdown family. Make sure you check Kenton out at Lockdown Wolfpack. Check me out at Lockdown Cains.
Starting point is 00:33:39 We'll talk to everyone next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC. We are part of the awesome Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day.

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