Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - STUNNER: Miami UPSETS Ohio State | Are the Canes the TITLE FAVORITES?

Episode Date: January 1, 2026

Miami Hurricanes shock Ohio State Buckeyes in the Cotton Bowl, sparking questions about their new role as College Football Playoff favorites. With Rueben Bain and Akheem Mesidor dominating on defense and Carson Beck steering a low-ego offense, Miami bullied the defending champions and showcased physicality that few teams can match. Can the Hurricanes ride this momentum all the way to a national championship?Jackson Holzer and Kenton Gibbs break down Miami’s game-winning moments, including Keonte Scott’s pivotal pick-six and Carter Davis’ clutch field goal. Their analysis hits on the Hurricanes’ defensive strategy, the stakes of their next playoff matchup against Georgia or Ole Miss, and how Miami’s postseason run boosts the ACC’s national reputation. Is Miami’s success house money, or is this a defining opportunity? Don’t miss the debate and expert insights on Miami’s playoff path. Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub  Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.RugietIf you’ve been thinking about taking the next step, now’s the time.Head to https://Rugiet.com/LOCKEDONCOLLEGEto get 15% off your order for a limited time.Rugiet Ready. Feel present. Feel confident. Feel ready.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Miami does it again. They upset Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl are the hurricanes the new title favorites. Let's talk about it. You are Locked-on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, everyone, and welcome in a locked-on ACC. I'm Jackson-Holesor, host of Locked-on Syracuse. That's Tenting Gibbs, host of Locked-on NC State Wolfpack.

and thank you so much for making us, your first listen of every single day here on the Locked On, a podcast network, your team every day. And of course, we're always free and available wherever you get your podcast. And folks, there are three football games going on today in the college football playoff. But the first quarterfinal game took place on New Year's Eve, 7.30 p.m. Eastern, the Cotton Bowl, and the Miami Hurricanes representing the ACC, they took down the defense. national champion Ohio State Buck guys 2414. And later on in this show, we will get to this. Is Miami the new favorite to win it all this season? And feel free to chime in in the comment

section below right now. But first and foremost, Tenton, we got to break down this game. And I'm just going to keep it open-ended right here. What are your thoughts on it? My thoughts are this game played out exactly as I said it had to for Miami to win the football game. I said that in order for them to win, they would have to keep it ugly. They'd have to keep it low scoring. And it would have to be a situation where Bain and Mazzor didn't look good. They had to look dominant, which they did. They did those two things.

And Jackson, to your credit, you called a pick six mattering in this game a lot. You just got the team wrong. I know. This is a moment for Miami where they are bludgeoning people. They are just going out there and being physical as all get out on both sides of the ball. And it's looking like they're punking teams pretty much. And on top of that, I knew that this game would be more difficult than people anticipated for Ohio State for one simple reason that has nothing to do with Miami.

And that's the rest factor. I knew that they would be a little bit rusty after that long of a layoff. and now back to the things that do have to do with Miami, when Ohio State played teams with a post defensively this year and they were coming off of a layoff or a byweek, they have been horrendous all year. This is not the exception. This is the rule.

I give Miami their love, credit, honor, and a revere for being the winners in this one. But I'm pointing out a trend here. Week one, how many points did they score against Texas to win that game? 14. Okay, what about the Big Ten championship against Indiana? Again, they had a week off after Michigan and another time where all of a sudden they're playing a defense to has a post.

How many they score in that one? Ten. And now we've got them with another week off and then they, well, more than a week off actually here and then they go play Miami. How many points they put up in this one? 14. Okay, so we're talking about three top defenses, three times they have a week off,

and they're putting up. 14, 14, and team. I mean, this is who they are. This is who they are. And the biggest place that I'll place some credit in this one is to Carson Beck for being able to not be the star to show and still be happy. Most quarterbacks, when you think about, oh, this is a $4 million man and all that good stuff, he wants to chuck the ball around the yard 40, 50 times a game. He's not happy saying, here you go, Fletcher.

Here you go, Brown. Here you go. We'll do a little push pass here and there. Most of those guys are like, no, dude, I'm your multimillion dollar guy. The show has to run through me. Carson Beck is low ego enough to say, whatever needs to happen to win in this football game. And I give him a lot of respect and credence for that one because that's not an easy task to do. When people watch this game or if they didn't watch the game and they're just box score watching, they'll say, wait a minute, 19 of 26,

138 yards and 1 TD, and the 1TD came on a wheel route that was in the red zone. So that pass went what, 12 yards in the air tops? You know, you didn't really do much. But in reality, keeping your team on schedule, keeping them where they have to be, making good reads and decisions on the easy stuff turned out to be the difference. Because Julian Sand and the pick six that went the other way, that was a bad read on a very, very simple place. play. You have got to see, oh, wait a minute, they're going man across the board in this one.

They've got somebody coming down right away on this swing route, did not see it. All of a sudden, Keante Scott is going back to, you know, going back to the house, getting jiggy in the end zone. So ultimately, Miami's defense is who we have saw them be. Miami's offense continues to be who we saw them be, pound the ball, take their out the game, suffocate the game and, you know, make every possession valuable. And yeah, Ohio State hit their big. place here and there. Jeremiah Smith is Jeremiah Smith. You're not, you're never going to fully stop the young man. You're never going to fully stop that passing game, but you can hope to contain it, which I believe they did overly well with Julian Sand walking away with mostly empty calorie,

287 yards, two interceptions, one of which was a massive pick six, the other, the dagger that put this one away, you know, this, Miami, hats off to you, the championship no longer runs to for them. Well said. And on that pick six, I think for Julian saying it was one of those throws where as soon as he made it, you're just shaking your head because you just know right away where Keante stopped makes a great break on the ball. And next thing you know, Ohio State at that point was driving to tie the game. And it looked like they were going to tie the game. Because you knew that even though Miami got out to a nice seven nothing lead that it wasn't going to be enough. Like you knew that Ohio State was going to get their yards. And then at some point, they were going to break through on offense and get a touchdown or two. so it looked like that was going to be the moment.

And instead, Miami makes that critical play. Keontes Scott with the 72 yard pick six to put Miami up 14. Nothing. But I don't think that that was the most important play of the game or the most important sequence of the game. I do think it set the tone for Miami. But Miami is up 14-7 late in the third quarter. And I think we all knew that after, or here was my thought,

if Ohio State scores, which they did, they got a touchdown and make it 14-7, if Miami punts the ball on their next possession, they might just give up this lead entirely. Ohio State might just go right down the field and get up another three, maybe even get a touchdown up there and tie the game entirely. There are third and nine in Ohio State territory, third and nine. And Carson Beck, he makes a nice throw to Malachi, Tony, it's a short pass. And Caleb Bounds pops. it right out of Malachi Tony's hands. He popped that ball right out. It's fumble. It's laying on the

turf. And the way Malachi Tony recovered that ball, he recovered it with his left arm and he was still in a running motion. And he did manage to keep his momentum forward and get seven yards on that third and nine, which sets up a fourth and two. And this is where you know I'm not necessarily judging in hindsight. I would have gone forward on that fourth and two instead of kicking a 49-yard field goal with Carter Davis. Do you agree with that or disagree with that? You know, in that moment in particular, I think that you're risking giving them too much momentum and you're talking about a play where a lot of things had to go right.

You know what I mean? Where a lot of luck had to break your way. And in the words of my basketball coach, Will Wade, you're banking on hope. And hope is a bad strategy, brother. So I think that in that situation in particular, I'm okay with the decision to go for a field goal. Got it. I understand. I get the logic behind it, but it was either a 49-yard field goal with Carter Davis or go forward on fourth and two. In that moment, I think I would have gone forward on fourth and two. Miami could run the football. You can get it to Malachi, Tony, something, anything. You just got a nice bounce in your favor. And if you don't make the field goal, you're putting Ohio State in excellent position to go right down the field. So it's not necessarily a super high probability kick. But credit to Carter Davis because he just knocked it right down the middle. And that was the moment I said, Miami's going to win this game.

They just got a massive bounce in their favor on a fumble. They've already gotten a pick six, which they needed. And now you have Carter Davis just drilling a 49-yard field goal. They're up by 10 points late in the third quarter. Miami's going to hold on and win this game. Now, coming up, we'll continue to talk about Miami's upset over high, over Ohio State and also whether or not Miami is the new favorite in the college football playoff. Friday's always feel different during basketball season and Fandall was making them

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Miami does take on the winner of Georgia Ole Miss, which is the Sugar Bowl taking place tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern. So at the time of this recording, we have no idea the outcome of that game. So I can't sit here and try to preview what Miami's going to do against Georgia or Ole Miss because they have to settle that game out. But just based on the field right now, Kenton, which at the time of this recording, there are seven teams currently alive because Miami, or not Miami, Oregon and Texas Tech are playing right now in Miami.

Would you consider Miami after this win over Ohio State a favorite? They should be considered a favorite. Unfortunately, we know. how Vegas and them like to act, they won't be the favorite. They won't be the favorite because the path that they have isn't exactly an easy path. But my rebuttal to that would be is going into college station and winning a football game easy? Is beating Ohio State, the defending national champions, easy? I mean, the only team to do it in the calendar year of 2025, the only two teams to do so were the Indiana Hoosiers,

who are the number one team in the nation, undefeated, all like this stuff, and the Miami Hurricanes. They're only two teams in the calendar year of 2025 that have gotten a win off of Ohio State. So why they're not the favorites is beyond me. But I think that they should be the favorites because when you look at what they're doing on both sides of line of scrimmage, I've talked about this all along. If you have big men that are leading, if you have big men that are setting the tone and setting the pace on both sides of the ball, you can play with anybody, with anybody. There is no if-ins or bust about it.

And they have two absolute freakazzois on the edges in Ruben Bain and Medzador. And I agree with Ryan Roberts and all of the other draft analysts that Ruben Bain's arms are too short. Everybody outside of Detroit should avoid him at all costs. Oh, no, you do not want a guy with arms that long. not a single edge rusher has gotten 10 sacks with arms like his little T-Rex baby arms. Don't watch the film on Ruben Bain. Just trust the measurables, and they've never failed you. So, yeah, ultimately, they've got Freakazzoids on both sides of the ball.

You know, you talk about CC and company on the offensive line, just complete and total role graders. And more than anything else, I think they have an amount of team belief in buy-in. You're not going to see anywhere else. I mean, Malachi Tony is listed as a generous 5-11, about $1.95, and he's mixing it in there on duo and getting safeties up out the way and whatnot. This is a team that believes. This is a team that is sitting here saying to themselves,

why not us? We're playing with house money. Nobody wants us to be here. Nobody believes in us, so we're just going to let it hang out. We're just going to let whatever we got, we're going to empty the chamber. and however it works out, it works out. So I think that they have a much better shot at winning it all than Vegas game a chance at a lot like I said about this game against Ohio State.

They have a much better chance than many people I see. The only thing that I would push back on is the house money. This isn't house money for Miami anymore. That's a credit to them for earning that. You never know in sports if you're ever going to get back in this position. So the fact that Miami is now one of the, is going to be one of the four teams that are remaining to win a national championship, it's not to say that the Miami hurricanes are going to disintegrate as a program

and they're only going to go downhill from there and they can't have other great seasons and they can't return. But you never know. And so when the moment actually arrives and you are one of the four teams standing, you have to take advantage of it. So I don't sit here and say, oh, yeah, and Miami's playing with house money just because, you know, a lot of us didn't expect that they were going to be in this spot.

They're in this spot. They just beat Ohio State, who myself and many others consider to be the favorite to once again win the national title. Why can't Miami win the national championship this year? They just beat the best team, in my opinion, in America. And I know that that team also lost to Indiana, who is in the field right now and they have to worry about Alabama this weekend. But why not Miami? Why not Miami? They're great along the defensive line. Their offensive line, by the way, is elite. They kept Carson Beck upright.

They were creating holes for all their running backs to run through Ohio State to really seal it, put the nail in the coffin. That last touchdown, I mean, I know Ohio State was letting them store and everything like that. But even then, like the sequence of plays leading up to Ohio State letting them store. How many times did you see it's an obvious run situation? And here comes Miami. And they're still getting a lot of yardage in obvious run situations. So you got a great defensive line.

You got a great offensive line. If your quarterback isn't turning the ball over, they can be anyone in the nation. Their upside is through the roof. So I don't consider this house money. I think that Miami should absolutely be the favorite to win the college football playoff. after going into college station and winning and beating Ohio State on a neutral site,

Georgia Ole Miss, I mean, that's going to be a good one, but I would still probably take Miami over both those teams right now. Believing that a team can win it all does not mean that they're not playing with House Money anymore. The idea of House Money is you were not expected to be here. This is the team that many people argued snuck into the playoff. this is still that team. Yes, they're playing phenomenal football. Yes, they're bludgeoning people. This is still the team.

Right now, if we go to Fandu, do you think they have the first best odds? No, I don't think that the books are going to be. Who do you think has the second best odds? Probably Georgia. And so a team that they still have to go through very likely have the third best odds. And you're telling me, or I'm sorry, the second best odds, I was right ahead of them and you're telling me this ain't house money. This is absolutely house money.

Because there's no house money. I just don't believe in house money in sports. I mean, think about it from the Ohio State perspective. They just won the national championship. Right. And they were the favorites to win it this year. I believe they were the favorites to win it this year, even despite the loss to Indiana and being the number two seat overall.

Right. Would you say that they were playing with house money last night? No. No, because the point is that you never, you never know. So Miami, yeah, maybe next year they could be the definitive favorite to win it all. It doesn't mean that they're going to get to the final four because we just saw with Ohio State they couldn't get there even as being the favorite.

I'm going to point out to you my Detroit Lions as an example of what House Money is or is not. Two years ago, when they make the playoffs for the first time in like forever and they win a couple ball games and find themselves in the NFC championship yet, that was a House Money team. because people are thinking, oh, these are the same old lives. So them winning football games and putting themselves in the NFC championship was that's house money. You're playing with House Money. That's because nobody's expecting you to be there.

The next year, they go 15 and 2. First round, they get knocked out. They were not playing with House Money the 15 and 2 year because that's the expectation at that point. Miami is playing with House Money from the standpoint of before this playoff run and knock on crystal ball. He cannot win big games. The knock on this Miami program, they're unsurious in terms of winning games of actual substance.

The knocks on this program did not dissipate over two games to the point where all of a sudden it's like, all right, now you're expected to go with it. Expect to go with it. They're having fun. They're playing free. They're playing loose. And at the end of the day, when I think about what is or is not, hey, you're playing with house money or not, the word favorite is what dictates that for me.

The word expectation, those are the two words. Favorite and expectation are what dictate that. And even with Miami winning this game, they're very likely see Georgia. And do you want to tell me people are going to pick Christop ball over Kirby Smart? No way. You want to tell me people. No, they're not.

But I think that Miami after beating Ohio State should be favored over that team. But they won't be. And that's why I'm saying they're still playing with house money. Till they hit a moment, let's say, for kicks and giggles, we get Indiana out of the other side, or we get Alabama out of the other side. Then I would say, House Money Over. Okay, now people are expecting you to do something

because Caleb DeBoer has wet to bed historically in those big games. Sure. But at this moment, with what the field is looking like, maybe if Pete Golden and company advance from the boys from Oxford are seeing them, maybe the House Money runs out. But for now, this is a team that, continues to surprise. This is a team that continues to excite. This is a team that people thought after they had lost to, I believe SMU was their last loss of the year, or was that Louisville?

It was SMU. Okay. After the Hens was Louisville and then SMU, they weren't in back-to-back weeks, but it was those two losses. They happened in a relatively short order, too. After the SMU loss, nobody had this team anywhere on the radar because, you know, the ACC doesn't play serious football. We don't have any teams that are good except Clemson. And when Clemson is not good, none of us are good. So we all stink. And once you lose to a team from the We All Stink Conference,

or you lose to two teams from the We All Stink Conference, nobody's expecting anything of you. And now all of a sudden, people are awakening to find, oh, damn, they do play good football up there. Oh, wait a minute. Maybe SMU and Louisville are pretty good team. Who could have thought it? Who could have imagined that an SMU,

team that is played in back to back to back, conference championships might be decent. Who could have imagined? So ultimately, I do think that this Miami team has reset expectations for themselves because coming into this thing, there wouldn't have been a team that they would have been favored against in these playoffs,

except for the G5 schools in the first round. Sure. But now we're at a place where unless the draw works out in a very specific way, they could be on house money all the way through the end of this thing. They can win a championship on House Money. And just to put a bow on this entire conversation with the, I'm sorry about your Detroit Lions,

but I think you also maybe prove my point of why House Money doesn't exist. Because that might have been the Detroit Lions best shot at actually winning a Super Bowl. 15 and 2 was their best shot. 15 and 2 was their best shot. The whole point of the House Money is like, is this idea that you can always get back. but in sports, you never can guarantee that a team is going to get back and have another crack. So that's why I'm saying, yeah, it's a great run for Miami.

And don't get me wrong, the season is successful for Miami. I think that's where we're both like the sticking point here is this. This season is already a success for Miami. That we cannot argue that we cannot dispute. If you had said going into the season that Miami was going to be one of the four, teams remaining to win a national championship. I think every Miami fan, I think every team in the ACC or every panelist on the ACC, whatever, they would have signed up for that, not knowing what the results would have been. But now that you're actually here and there is an idea that you never know

if and when you are going to return to this moment, you never know. It is not house money, in my opinion. You're in this position now. Go out and actually win the thing because you just beat Ohio State. And if you can beat Ohio State, why can't you beat Georgia? Why can't you beat Ole Miss in the winner of that game? Why not win the national title and play in Indiana or Obama or an Oregon or a Texas tech? Why not the Miami Hurricanes? They can do it. Clearly they are good enough. So I'm not going to sit here and be like, well, just because it's already a successful season for the program, it does not mean that it is house money because house money in sports, my opinion, it doesn't really exist.

But coming up, you also did hit on a point about the ACC and how this could help the ACC's perception. So we'll talk about that next, unlocked on ACC. There's nothing like college football season, tailgates, packed stadiums, and being right there in the middle of it all. meaning you got the energy, the bands, the moments you remember forever. But actually getting tickets, that part is pretty annoying, usually, right? It's frustrating with long queues, logins and prices jumping at checkout.

But that's where game time comes in, giving the advantage back to fans. It's the easiest way to unlock amazing college football tickets and experiences in just a few taps. Knowing the prices include all the fees up front makes the whole process stress-free. Take the guesswork out of buying college football tickets with GameTime, download the GameTime app, Create an account and used to lock, on college for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. Again, that's toward Locked on College, L-O-C-K-E-D, O-N-C-O-L-E-G-E for $20 off. Download the GameTime app today. Well, Miami is doing its part in shaping the new perception of the ACCC.

Kenton, you hit on it in the last segment, but how do you think Miami getting to one of the last four teams remaining? and the fact that they actually lost to two ACC teams this season, how do you think it's helping the conference's reputation? Well, I got to be honest with you, Jackson. As much as this sucks to say and as much as people are going to think that I'm making self-important here, it's on guys like you and me to do it. It's on guys like you and me more than the guys on the field. I know that that sounds crazy to say.

But right now, we are looking at a situation where folks are allowing narratives to permeate about our sister conference down here in the southeast, the southeastern conference, to sit here and say, well, we're losing bowl games because we just don't care. Really? So Texas and them didn't care in the playoffs against Miami.

They did not. Actually, I mean, did you watch them? I mean, they did not care? The fans also didn't care. I mean,

did you? I mean, they were so silent during the game. It was like, every third town, you could hear a pin drop in the building. Every third. more like every third seat because that place was empty.

They said it could hold 100,000. It looked like it was about 10,000 in there. It was great. But we're sitting here in a moment and in an environment where we're getting all of these narratives being spun and whatnot. And the ACC needs our propagandists. We need our people who are going to tell the tale and spend the story of what's happening because the on-the-field results are telling everybody.

The on-the-field results are saying the ACCC is much better than people believe. The on-the-field results are saying, yes, the ACC. C C may have been four and four overall in bowl games before this last game with Miami beating Ohio State. But if you look at those four losses, how many of those losses came from teams that still had a head coach going into that bowl game? How many of those losses came for teams that still had a quarterback going into that bowl game? When you look at the teams that retain, I'm not even talking about massive opt-out, no opt-outs at all. I'm just talking about guys that teams that held their core guys in place, teams that had their head coach in place. For the most part, the ACC has done just fine in terms of bowl games.

So to see that kind of be a thing of like, oh, you know, it doesn't really matter now because the ACC is performing well. When a couple years ago, when the ACC was terrible in bowl games, all of a sudden, everybody was pointing and laughing. But now once we're up, the narrative starts to shift. Oh, no, baby. You can't have it both ways. It got to be Ujiwali or one night. We have to say, hey, this is a bowl season and it matters or it doesn't matter. But it cannot only matter when the SEC is good and the ACC is performing poorly.

That can't be the only time it matters and is a true representative of what's going on around here, especially because we're talking about playoff games. We're talking about the bigger bowl games. We're talking about massive competition. And all of a sudden, you know, we're saying that the ACC and what they're doing doesn't matter. So Miami is doing their part on the field. I think that they do a large part of it. But I think it's more of a 60-40 split with the 60 being on the field, 40 being folks like us, that we need to be beating the drum.

We need to be, we need our Paul Feinbombing company that's going to spin you every sweet tale of ACC supremacy that there ever was. We need to talk about the ACC like they talk about the fire nation inside of the. the Fire Nation for those of you who watch Avatar the Last Air Bend. Well, I'm not necessarily a big believer in trying to spin the narrative and twist the narrative like a guy like Paul Feinbaum or what anyone tries to do. I just try to look at the reality of what is happening. I try to look through an objective lens. So here's what I will objectively say.

Miami is significantly boosting the reputation of the ACC and they are just putting the ACC on their back right now. That's what they're doing because before this college football playoff, It was a couple of months ago. We were on a squad episode, or I might have just said it on locked on ACC to begin with, where the conference in general needs a team. They need a team that we can just prop up at the top and say, see, this team is going to represent us.

And for a very long time, that was Clemson. It doesn't matter how bad the conference is. We have Clemson. Clemson is the team in the conference that can compete with anyone for a national championship. this season, and for a long time, it felt like the ACC did not have that team. Whereas you can look in any other conference, especially the power ones, and say, well, they do have a team or two that you think could win a national championship. You go to the SEC, you know, you got Georgia that can win the national championship.

People think Bama can win it. People think Ole Miss when they had Lane Kiffin at the time could win it. So you've got teams in the SEC people think could win it. In the big tent, Indiana was tearing it up. Ohio State was consistent all year. You had Oregon as well as people are looking at as a team that maybe could win a national championship with a top 10 quarterback, top 10 overall player maybe in the draft coming up. Where was it for the ACC?

If you don't have that team, it's very hard to have a good perception of your conference. It turns out that it is Miami. Miami gets the chance to go to the college football playoff. They beat Texas A&M from the SEC on the road, and then they beat the team that many, including myself, thought was the favorite to win the national championship, Ohio State. So now you look at Miami and you say you went 10 and 2 in the regular season, you've beaten all these great teams,

but now you've also lost to Louisville and you've lost to SMU. You live in a very naive world where what is objectively happening in front of us is all that matters. I do agree with you a thousand percent. Miami is putting the ACC on their backs. I do a thousand percent agree with you that Miami's success is our success and therefore we ought to be celebrating it. I do agree with you that every conference needs a team at the top. However, narratives do things like Texas A&M is one of the best teams of the nation, despite the fact that they did not beat a single, I mean a single, not one.

This is a true fact. Texas A&M did not beat one team in the S&M. SEC that had a winning conference record. Not one. So there's, there's, we can, we can sit here and say, all that matters is what happens on the field, but sometimes we need to be honest about the fact that it is a very misinformed and misguided attempt to simply say what we see in front of us, everybody's just calling balls or strikes when the biggest names and the, the, the place is drawing the

most eyeballs in sports are objectively doing so at such a terrible level, we wish we had robo-ups. But we can't do that for sports analysis, can we? We can't get robo-up. I'm not naive to it, by the way. I know how it works. I just don't like playing the game. Well, listen, when it comes to the ACC, I'm sorry.

I'm going to look at it like these are my babies. I'm not going to let me. I'm allowing you to play the game. I don't like playing the game. But, well, and that's my point, Jackson. That's why I'm always going to show up for the ACC because we just, that as a conference. We deserve to have these narratives combated with the truth of what's happening. And honestly, I'm not saying to spend a narrative of deception or anything like that.

I'm saying to tell the story of what has happened throughout this season. To tell the story of there were so many teams that were given the grace of, oh, they were just rough early in the season, but they got better as it went on. Nobody gave that grace to SMU. SMU was god awful early in the season. We were wondering if they were going to make a lot of. bowl game early in the season. They got better and better and better. As the season went on, nobody gave credit for that. It was just, oh, you mean that team that lost to Baylor beat you? Ew, Miami, as if that team did not get better and play very quality football down the stretch. We sat here and said, oh, you mean Duke won your conference championship?

Ew, what a terrible conference. That's bad. Here's the thing. I do agree that the tie-breaking all that, Duke should not have been there via a logical, rational, consistent tie break. However, you and I both know as well as anybody, any given Saturday. As much as we love to say, oh, yeah, the top teams are just too good to lose to anybody else. Last time I checked that Alabama team that everybody's really high on, lost to a Florida state team. That's been scratching, begging, hoping, wish, and praying for a ACC win over the past two years.

So, again, I'm not saying that we got to tell fantastic tales of no ACC football team has ever lost the game outside of ACC football, but we do need to be honest about the fact that all of these conferences that we're being told Lord over us, when we line it up, it consistently is not the case. When we line it up and we put our best against everybody else's best, we consistently show that the ACC is on par,

if not better than our competition. And Miami is a fantastic conduit for it right now. And I believe that much you and I can agree on. Fair enough. Any last thoughts on Miami and advancing? I've said my piece. I'm excited for the canes. Keep rolling.

I'm excited to see Michael Irvin. The only thing I would ask is stop getting in the four-point stands like that, Michael. You're a grown man. You got babies that are adults. He's just excited. He and Ray Lewis were getting fired up on the sideline. They were both very pumped up during the game. Stop getting in that four-point stance, Michael.

You stand up. You stand up on that sideline. But I like the belt routine, Michael. I love it. Keep the end. It was pretty funny watching those two on the sideline. They looked like they were like back in school and they were just having a field day out there. Good for them. Good for them being on the sideline watching their alma mater, kick some butt on New Year's Eve. Folks, we will be back tomorrow. We are once again going to talk about the Miami Hurricanes, but it's going to be about their next matchup, which will either be Georgia or Ole Miss.

That is taking place tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern. Folks, thank you all so much for watching. Thank you all so much for listening. If you like this podcast, be sure to hit that like button. If you really enjoy the podcast, be sure to hit subscribe. Tell all your friends about Locked-on ACCC. And we'll see you all again soon.