Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - SLUGFEST: Will Miami Hurricanes OUTMATCH Indiana’s Trenches? Fernando Mendoza Holds the Key

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

Miami Hurricanes charge into the national championship as heavy underdogs against the Indiana Hoosiers, who have been steamrolling opponents by 36 points per game. Can Miami's dominant offensive line and disruptive pass rush, led by Rueben Bain and Akheem Mesidor, crack Indiana's relentless defense and pull off an upset for the ages?Alex Donno and Kenton Gibbs break down the stylistic matchups, injury updates, and keys to victory for Mario Cristobal's squad. The conversation heats up around Miami's O-line advantage, the targeting penalty affecting Xavier Lucas, and the confidence brewing among ACC contenders for next season, including Virginia Tech and NC State. From College Football Playoff scenarios to ACC football report card grades and spirited banter on the future of the conference, this episode delivers the insights and hype ACC fans crave ahead of the title showdown.Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub  Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.WayfairGet last-minute hosting essentials, gifts for all your loved ones, and decor to celebrate the holidays for WAY less.Head to https://Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. Wayfair. Every style. Every home.  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.

Miami has had an unbelievable postseason run, and they made it to the national championship game, but they're going up against a buzzsaw. Here's how the hurricanes can win. 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, the Hoosiers are beating everybody by 36 points in the playoffs. It's unreal. 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 number one locked on podcast network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandual. The college football playoff is here and Fandual is the best place to get into the action all playoff long. So visit Fandual.com before the final game to get your college football playoff profit boosts on every game day. He is Kenton Gibbs, former NC State defensive lineman and co-host of Lockdown Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono. Most of Locked on Cains. I had an eventful ACC basketball weekend, but it is still football season in the ACC.

Haven't had to say that this late in January in quite a while since the Clemson Tigers were still on top of their game. I want to talk about which ACC football teams will be good next year. But Kent and Gibbs, let's talk Miami versus Indiana because we're looking at Miami is seven and a half point underdogs on Fandul, eight and a half point underdogs. in some places. Indiana so far, you know, they had a couple of close games in the regular season and in the Big Ten championship game, but in the playoffs, they have not been tested to this point.

Can Miami be the team to test them? Miami can absolutely be the team to test them. And this is why they're playing with Church's money, everybody. They're playing with the house's money. Everybody keeps saying, especially one Jackson Holger keeps saying, oh, you know, there's no such thing as house money at this point in time. Complete and utter malarkey. This is a team that is statistically as dominant darn near as the 1995 Nebraska cornhuskers in terms of difference in ratio against top 10 and top 15 teams. No team has done this in quite some time, right? Even if we're talking about that 2019 LSU team,

that's another team that was blowing teams out by these proportions. Those are the only teams in recent history since the helmets were hard to blow teams out by this much, right? So you're coming into this game. And the books may say seven and a half and eight and a half. But the sentiment around America is Miami has no shot. The sentiment amount around America is Michael Urban, we're sweatpants to the game because you ain't going to have to take

belt off after this. The sentiment around the nation is that what Sig is doing is so statistically dominant, so statistically anomalous, it cannot be done through legal means. That is the narrative surrounding Indiana. I've been helping spread those rumors, by the way. Indiana fans are very angry at me. Knock it off, Donald, knock it all. Line it up and do what you do. Okay, I don't believe Indiana is doing anything. No, honestly, I don't believe it either. I just, yeah, I may have shared a tweet and said, oh, this is interesting, but I don't believe it. You know, hey, listen, everybody's trolling our days. I ain't mad at you for getting in on the dot-off.

But this is a game in which Miami has a shot simply because it's not just about how dominant they've been in the trenches. It's about the stylistic matchup. Very few teams in America slant and stunt and twist as much as Indiana. And they do it well. They do it extremely well. Let's make no bones about it. They do that very well.

Offensive line-wise, they have been undersized against almost every defensive. Regardless of what you think about Indiana looking like they know people's plays defensively, offensively, no such thing can exist. You cannot at the same clip and same level determine what a defense is going to do because defenses are reacting to you. And yet and still, that undersized offensive line with no NFL talent is whipping the wheels off people. So ultimately, when you look at what Miami's offensive line and defense line, do. If there's anybody, that's a twist stopper. If there's anybody that you say, oh, yeah,

we're going to just stun around this guy. Big O. C.C. and them dancers feet that he got, go for it. Go for it. He's going to throw somebody out the club like Michael Orr. Defensive line-wise, they, Indiana is not a super upbeat, uptempo team. They're based on precision and getting it done and executing in their RPO reads and whatnot. But you know what RPO reads create long meshes. You know what a long mesh creates? Time for Ruben and Mesidor to reestablish that line in scrimmits and rush the passer. So stylistically, this is actually a very good matchup for Miami.

This is a matchup where if you play your A-plus game and you catch Indiana because while people act like Indiana is an undefeated God king like Xerxes, we've seen Xerxes bleed everybody. We saw a Penn State team without a head coach, take them down to the wire. We've seen that happen. So I'm not saying that Miami is the favorite or should be favorite. I'm not saying wrong team favorite. I think that Indiana is rightfully favorite. But people acting like Miami might as well not show up.

I mean, come on now for crying out loud. This is a great, great Miami team that has proven it time and time again. When you give an opportunity to line it up, everybody that's not in ACC, they struggle with Miami. Yeah. And so Fernando Mendoza, and it's like, I can't criticize the guy. I mean, he's played great. He won the Heisman trophy. But I will say, because you talk about stylistically, right,

Fernando Mendoza this season has held the football for an average of 3.03 seconds, right? Miami, you know, just went up against Trinidad Chambliss, who only holds it for 2.48 seconds. And nobody has done a better job than Miami of creating pressure and sacks in under two and a half seconds. So statistically, and again, we'll see what kind of adjustments Indiana makes offensively, but holding the football for over three seconds is not a recipe against Miami's pass rush. Like that needs to be adjusted, right? So that's one line of scrimmage, Miami's defensive line.

Now, Miami's offensive line, Kenton, who has been one of the more effective units in the country. You want to know the average size of Miami's O line against Indiana's D line, as effective as Indiana's D line has been. Their average weight on the defensive front is 278 pounds. Miami's average weight on the offensive line is 331 pounds, right? Mass kicks, Mario Cristobal likes to say. So it's like, again, like Indiana has been incredibly effective and all their players are 23, 24 years old. They're like, there is experience to some NFL teams, like they're almost older than the Green Bay Packers.

But again, you talk about stylistically, there are certain areas where Miami matches up well, specifically on the lines of scrimmage. And that's why you play the games, right? Miami was nearly a double-digit underdog against Ohio State. You lined it up. Miami won. There's a reason why this game is going to be played. I wouldn't say like you. And obviously, I cover Miami so people can talk about my biases or whatever. But I absolutely think there are scenarios where Miami can win. But I agree with you. The right team is favored. Yeah. And I think that there is a way that America right now is disrespecting Miami. that, I mean, like I've talked about before,

every coach loves the underdog narrative. Every coach loves when they get to do it. Dan Lannick was playing a team that was one win the year before, literally one win the year before and said they're playing for clicks as if his Oregon team that had won double-digit games for about the last five years was like, oh God, who's going to win? Who's the better team here? So coaches love it.

Nolan, I believe it's Nolan Smith, former Georgia player, when they won the national championship, said, y'all said that we were a 75 team about Georgia who was repeating as national champion. So coaches and players alike love the underdog narrative. And how do you think that that mountain of men that Miami calls an offensive line is feeling about the fact that people keep talking about how effective Indiana is

and their EPA per play is through the roof. And all statistically, they run the ball better than Miami. Well, who's been better at running the ball than Mark Fletcher in these playoffs? Nobody in the playoffs. Oh, okay. All right. So ultimately, Mario Cristobar can walk in and say that nobody believes in. Nobody thinks that you all can do this.

Nobody outside of the confines of this locker room is going to be. And Indiana, which everybody is just finding out, shocker, it's a public school. It lets in a lot of people because it's public. 90,000 students, they're going to travel well. Even though this is an essence of home game for Miami, let's be very real about this. Indiana has a fan base that has never in their lifetime. Seeing Indiana be a 10-win team, let alone this type of success.

This is unheard of through the roof. We're going to act out and show out. So ultimately, again, Miami and Chris Ball have the perfect narrative for nobody believes in you. Nobody thinks you can do it. And the beauty in Miami's game is you win Miami football by making it ugly, nasty, slow slugfest. You win by making Mendoza sit down for eight to ten minutes at a time, minimum. You win by saying we don't need to out-athlete you one for one across the. board. We're just going to line up some big ugly dudes and tell our big ugly dudes to push your

slightly smaller and slightly less ugly dudes around. Now, when we come back, I want to share a couple of updates about Miami's injury situation because they, you know, they had a slug fest against Ole Miss. Indiana beat Oregon by like 150 points. So they came out of their semi-final game a little bit healthier. But Mario Cristobald did share some injury updates on Monday. You want to keep it locked right here. We'll also talk about who's going to be good in football next season. We're only getting started on this brand new episode of Lockdowne-ECC. Folks, the college football playoffs are here. In fact, they're almost coming to an end, one more huge game. And Fandual is giving all customers even more ways

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And then you apply the profit boost and go after even bigger winnings. And when you win, Fanduel pays out instantly, which is perfect for college football. Fanduel is the best place to get into the action all playoff long. So visit Fanduel.com to get your college football playoff profit boost for this final game day. Thank you so much for making Locked-on ACC your first listen. And for the everydayers, you want to join the Everydayer Club. You get exclusive ad-free versions of our episodes for this and all the great Lockdown shows if you sign up for their Everydayer Club and you get Discord access as well.

So check out Lockedonaccc. dot supercast.com. I am Alex Dono from Lockdown Canes. He is Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack. All right. So got mostly good news so far a week away from the game from Miami.

So Akeem Mesidor got banged up against Ole Miss. It's like, you need Bezador. You need Bezador to play alongside Rubin Bain. And Mario Cristobal says that Akeem Mezador is in great condition. He did return to the Ole Miss game. So he had a feeling he'd be

good to go. Miami has also had an injury issue for defensive tackle, Ahmad Moten, who was in and out of the game. He's been dealing with an ankle. Christobal said that he's full throttle. O.J. Frederique, one of Miami's starting corners who didn't play for the second half against Ole Miss. Cristobal said he's good to go. Another important corner who's missed the entire playoff so far, Damari Brown. Christobal says he's day to day. And Kenton, here's why it's so important to get these corners into the game because Xavier Lucas, who's one of Miami's starting cornerbacks, he picked up what I thought was a very questionable targeting penalty late in that Ole Miss. Like they don't let him play football anymore, KG. So Lucas is going to be suspended for the

first half against Indiana. So I mean, that's Mendoza, I'm sure is going to be targeting Ethan O'Connor and whoever else is in the game for Lucas because he's not going to be able to play for the first half. I'm going to tell you something, man. We got to change those, these targeting rules because this is you're a half against Indiana having a star championship game you have to miss a half exactly having a star on the outside the perimeter against them oh boy sarat and company i know they're licking their chops seeing that so ultimately i think that the injury situation for miami it is a little bit touchy especially because we know mario chrisball plays it like his fort knocks around there okay you never know who's in and who's out and what's actually going on in terms of injury that's true but with

that in mind this what what I'm looking at here as the biggest area of concern is obviously the defensive backfill and in terms of what they are are not going to be able to do I'm sure that an appeal can be filed for the targeting but I mean I don't know I like we've we've seen that those appeals generally don't work out well I've never heard of a successful appeal in terms of like getting like a targeting maybe there's been certain like if like a drug test or something if you get new evidence maybe that but like I've never never heard of a targeting appeal getting, being successful to get a suspension over. And you know what? At least the NCAA is hearing people out on those, which is a step in

the right direction, but you're right. I haven't seen one overturned. But if there was one, I think this would be the most meaningful moment because what do you want a defender to do in a situation where a receiver is changing his plane of where his body is in that split second of a moment? But O.J. Frederique has been dominant from day one on this campus. Like even when the secondary was God awful and the simple yo-yo motion would send them into the fritz. He was a guy that you could count on saying, hey, I got this guy in front of me or I got this zone. Don't worry about it, coach.

This zone's done for it's over with. So to potentially miss him and Xavier Lucas and some more guys in terms of Brown on that court, it's like, how much can you take? How much? Weatherman has been a magician. And granted, a magician that's been aided by some fantastic assistance in terms of Mesodore and Babe. and the linebacker, the name's escaping me right now.

Motorei and Wesley Besant. Basaint, yes. Basin is the one I was representing. They've been wizards in the playoff, but ultimately, you're going to need these guys healthy. And I'm going to tell you, Mezzador, as a guy that we saw him in the game, and we saw him be effective against Ole Miss when he came back.

So that's got to be very exciting for ACC fans, for Miami fans, because I'm going to tell you, The key and the only way I've said this, the entire playoff in Miami has proved me right, the entire playoff. The only way that Miami beats a lot of these teams is with Mesodore and Bain being not just guys that you win with. They have to be guys you win because of. They have to be forced multipliers on the edge that then frees up your guys on the inside as well, which they have been for a majority of these games. I mean, game one against Marcel Reed, I bet he still sees three and four whenever he wakes up in his nightmare.

You know, all the kids are doing six, seven. He's doing three, four. Like, oh, three, four. Don't tell me about Walter Payton. This is crazy. You know, so that happened. And then, of course, against Ohio State, very similar situation. And even last game, six pressures from Rubenbeck.

Even if you say, oh, he didn't get home, watch the damn take. And you will see shambler is scrambling for his life because of it. So those two, they've got to be. Those are the big horses on the defense. And they got to be rolling. They got to be rolling. because they'll take you as far as you can go behind it. So football season is over for all but one ACC team,

you know, Miami, Indiana for the national title. Do you agree, Kenton, with this report card from college football zone? So here's the way he framed this. He says, he says how I think ACC fans viewed their season based on results and preseason expectations, where he's got, you know, teams obviously that overachieved, Wake Forest, Duke, who won the ACC, Virginia, and Miami with A's. He's got Pitt, SMU, Louisville, and Georgia Tech with B's, Cal and NC State with C's,

Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina, and Stanford on D's, and Boston College, Syracuse, and Virginia Tech with Fs. I think first thing you and I would change there is, I know, like Virginia Tech didn't have a good season on the field, but I don't think their fans even are thinking about how many games they won last year. They're thinking about James Franklin and all the excitement that he's bringing to the table. So I don't know if they're still thinking F or if they just like throw that grade out because it's about the president future now, not the past for them. It absolutely is for Virginia Tech. And this is what makes it so interesting for me. If you say, okay, we weigh it only by what

happened during the season, therefore Virginia Tech gets enough. I'm fine with that. Yeah. But you're saying based on expectations preseason, Clemson, a team that everybody saw as, hey, this is going to be the first ever 16 and old, 12 team playoff, undefeated team. They lost in the bowl game to a team with no head coach. What was the record this year? Seven and six or something along those lines? Like, they were not, this was, Davo said, oh, if our down year is 10 wins, well, I'll take plenty of that.

It got worse, Davo. This isn't a situation where we sat here and said, oh, this is their worst season ever and it can't possibly get worse because guess what? Unfortunately for Dabo, it can't and it did. And the team that we thought was going to be potentially 16 and 0, 15 and 1, maybe 14 and 2 goals 7 and 6, and we're going to say that's not terrible. And Florida State. Florida, that one should be an F.

How do they escape? I get it. You beat Bama. Hey, I get it. Congratulations. You beat a playoff team. they should have never been in playoffs. Okay, they should never be.

So I think those two teams getting Ds instead of apps pretty interesting. But the rest of this, I would agree with. I would really agree with, I mean, you know, Dono, we talked about this pre-show. I was looking at SMU like, it seems a little Cish. I'm smelling a little C. But when you look at the overall, the overarching theme of how their season went, they were. The out of conference was rough.

No doubt about that. But in conference, they were one game away, final game of the season, from going to a conference championship. It just didn't, you know. And they beat Miami this year. So if Miami wins a national championship, they'll be able to say they beat the champs. Exactly.

Exactly. I mean, at minimum, you can say we beat the run it up. So I think there's definitely, definitely a B for them. And, you know, I think all of. Do you agree with NC State? See? I might move NC State up. I might move NC State up.

I might move to see. Again, maybe. based on expectations, right? This was a season that many NC State fans came into, like, hey, we're not going to be good this year. This is going to be a five to six win year. I actually predicted before the season that NC State will win five or less or eight or more.

I knew that this was not going to be a six or seven win team. Thank God for the bowl game. They came out and finally won a bowl game for the first time in like five or six years underdoring. And so I think NC State will move up to a B for me. But the rest of these teams, you know, I think Cal falls in the same position as Virginia Tech to where if you're only weighing the season

it makes sense for them to get a sea, but if you say they keep a team out of the ACC championship last week of the season, and they get a slam dunk higher as their next head coach who has done fantastic things in a portal already, and I believe he's kept JKS. He has, yeah. What more can you ask for if you're a Cal fan?

I mean, I know Lawrence has hit me up multiple times since the season. They're like, we got our guy. We got them. So, you know, I believe the algorithm is hyped up and geeked up about that. So. And Lawrence, I think Lawrence even said to me, he's cheering for Miami. He's got the conference pride. Not everybody can say that, right?

We're not like the SEC where we cape up for all the other teams. Like, you know. Listen, we need to be. I'm rooting for Miami. Okay. I'm pulling for my. Miami losing this game does absolutely nothing good for me. I need Miami to at least keep it competitive.

I mean, my, my, my, Ruben Bain to Detroit agenda has blown up. It's exploded during the playoffs. It's exploded. He's not making a pass pick number six or seven, which hurts my heart. But don't worry, I will still be making a bunch of anti-Rubin Bain propaganda to get him to fall to my lions, calling his arms too short. You're going to end up in that notebook of his. He's going to be coming for you. Hey, hey, long as he's seen me at a Lions game, and he's wearing the Honolulu Blue, I'm all right. But in all seriousness, I think that whoever plays a lot of you, that list together did a fantastic job.

I really do. I think for the most part, they were spot all with most of those things. Yeah, I think so too. So I want to get to when we come back, who's going to be good next year? And also, you know, I'm proud of Kenton's NC State Wolfpack Hoops team and Will Wade. They put a beat down, a historic beat down on Florida State. My hurricanes are 3 at 0 in ACC play. Duke gets a ranked win against SMU.

You want to keep it locked right here. not done yet on this brand new episode of Lockdown ACC. Folks, the new year is here and it's the perfect time to reset your routine and refresh your space. If you're spending more time at home, you might as well love how it looks and feels. That's why you should turn to Wayfair. It's a one-stop shop for getting your home back on track from bedding and mattresses to storage solutions for every room.

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And honestly made getting back into a routine this new year feel a lot more manageable. So get organized, refreshed, and back on track this new year for. way less. Head to wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R-com, Wayfair, every style, every home. Thank you for making LockdowneACC your first list. And for your next list and check out our other shows. Kenton Gibbs and Grayson Boone co-host Locked on Wolfpack talking all things NC State. I talk all things Miami, talking all things CFP on Locked on Cains. All right. So, you know, Kenton, you know, I think that there's There's a reasonable expectation Miami should be really good again next year, although I'd like to know who's going to be quarterbacking the team next year, whether it's someone in-house like Emery Williams or Luke Nickel or if Miami's able to pull Ty Simpson out of the NFL draft because Miami missed on Sam Levitt today. Sam Levitt is going to go into LSU.

But still, I think Miami's floor is really high even if they don't get like their top quarterback choice. I think the quarterback could decide the ceiling. How quickly do you think Virginia Tech can they potentially get themselves in the ACC championship picture year one under James Franklin? Because based on the vibes of who they're bringing in there, it kind of feels like they can get themselves into the mix pretty quickly. Well, it's the same thing we said about SMU, right? We said SMU, year one, they can upset the Apple Car, but they probably shouldn't be there. And in year one, where were they? Right there.

Right there. The ACC Championship. So ultimately, can Virginia Tech find themselves in an ACC championship game? Absolutely. Absolutely. Clemson has fallen off a cliff. We don't know what's going on with Clemson. This is the worst we have seen Clemson in quite some time.

And here's the part that's really crazy, Dono. Can you name me an injury to a player of significance from Clemson that made this make sense? I mean, did Clubnik miss a game, I think? Okay. One game. And that accounts for six losses, including a bow game loss to a team, including a bowl game loss to a team who their top two running back shot out, their quarterback was already done for the year, their head coach was fired eight weeks ago. Yeah, that's not good. And the other ironic thing about that game matching up against Penn State, a lot of people had that as their national championship game preseason.

So they did meet in postseason, just not the game you thought. Not quite. The pinstrap bowl was not. Exactly. Exactly. And so ultimately, who would you say is going to keep Virginia Tech out? Who would you say definitively, hey, this team has the chops to keep that team out? And I want you to think about this.

All the teams that you would say can keep them out. I think almost all of them have very big questions that quarterback except SMU. I think SMU is the only team. And Ments is back next year with Duke? And you think Duke is in the upper echelon of teams? They just won the conference. They're the conference champions. They're the conference champions.

I will not deny that. However, however, we all know they got there on a tie break that is fundamentally so flawed. And a tie break that will not exist next year because they're changing it. And again, this is no shade to Minta. I think he's fantastic. But even if we say, okay, Duke is in that conversation as well. That's two teams. When you think of a conference championship game picture, unless those two teams are juggernauts,

to where you're like, hey, we're going to see two 16 and 0 or 13 and no teams. Like Michigan and Ohio State were a couple years ago, where like these two are, this is it. There, nobody else in the big team really matters. These two are here. Okay. I don't think we have that in this conference. So can Virginia Tech creep themselves in? Can they tiptoe through the back door on the way into an ACC championship?

I absolutely believe they can. It's incumbent upon the rest of the teams in the ACC to stop that from happening. And I don't want to put it on NC State because every time you call them a dark horse, they're just dark. They just can't see nothing. They just keep bumping in this stuff every time. So I'm a label them as awful to they do something. And like I'm really happy, like I'm happy for you guys that C.J. Bailey is back. But it's like it seems like all of his offensive teammates have left, though.

It seems like a lot of guys have left in the portal. You know, I am shocked by some of the departures in the portal because I thought that Hollywood was going to be a NFL back come next year. I thought he would be playing for the Clemson Tide or Crimson Tide next year, which is, you know, less than ideal, but more part to the young man wherever he goes. Terrell Anderson, I think, was a really, really big loss, not only from the receiving standpoint, but he was also the punt returner one.

And anybody who watched NC State last year, their special teams, it was special, all right, and not in a good way. Yeah. Not in a good way. So the amount of buff punts and whatnot we had, we're going to need somebody. Granted, Victor Snow from Buffalo,

he seems like a perfect fit as he's been a return ace while at Buffalo and Nevada. So that works out well there. And then the other guy who left, of course, Noah Rogers and Justin Jolie going to the NFL as well. You're looking at a lot of production, a lot of targets leaving, a lot of touchdowns leaving. But at the end of the day, that's why I said, I don't want to label them as a dark horse. I don't want to put any expectations on this team because every time you put expectations on, every time you get to believe in an NC state, they said, oh, really now. You want to believe in us?

Watch this. So ultimately, we're just here for the vibes. We're just here to have fun. What do y'all love the teams? Go ahead and keep Virginia Tech out. But we're not going to be responsible for doing it. I want to remind CJ Bailey, the portal doesn't close until January 16th. Hey, hey, hey, he's tempering.

He's a tamperer. We've got a tamper everybody. I'm just saying, like the portal, the portal does not close until January 16th. And Miami's academic deadlines, just in case he's from the area. He may have like a friend or, no, I'm just saying like he may have a friend or a relative who's interested in enrolling. And the deadline to enroll for the spring semester is not until January 21st.

So just pass it along to your friends. We already have multiple Shamanamadana alumni on NC state's roster thanks to CJ. Yeah, that's true. Including one from Miami. Including from Miami. So while you're sitting here thinking you're poachie, us he's a double agent you thought he was on campus to see and scott out how things were he was still in your players from the inside don't worry yes he's the one tampering not me exactly i'm just

throwing i'm just throwing out informative dates like i just i want all locked on cc listers to know the portal does not close for entry until january 16 it doesn't it doesn't and and cc my I know, probably going to the NFL. And Mark Fletcher, if you want some Freshman All-American to run behind, you know, we've got some at NC State with Spike Soz's got. But, you know, we don't know, we don't know. We would do no such thing as poached from each other's teams. We've got an agreement here.

We've got a very anti-trust agreement going on here that we won't poach from each other's team. But, no, seriously, I think the next year should be very exciting in the ACC. I think the level of play is rising everywhere. And even Duke and all their shortcomings last year, like you said, they won the ACC Championship. So you know what that does for the recruiting pitch? You can say, hey, regardless of what you saw last year, regardless of losing the two lane, regardless of losing this team, that team, there's only one team that was an ACC champion last year. The team that's playing in the national championship couldn't accomplish what we did.

That's right. How about it? How about it? Come on over. Come on to Durham if you want to win you a championship and get you one of the finest degrees in the land. Come on over to Durham. That's right.

Well, all right. We'll talk basketball another day because it's like, it's just weird. Like mid-January, we're still talking ACC football. We haven't done this in a while. Huge shout out to Kenton Gibbs. Make sure you follow him on X at TGIF underscore Kenton and check him out on Lockdown Wolfpack. Follow me at Alex Dono.

Check me out on Lockdown Canes. And we'll talk to you again tomorrow on another episode of Lockdown, on ACC. We are part of the number one locked on podcast network. Your team every day.