Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - SURVIVED: Georgia Tech Escapes Disaster against Boston College + Miami & Virginia DOMINATE

Episode Date: November 17, 2025

Georgia Tech escape Boston College with a narrow win—are they really the ACC favorites? Jackson Holzer and Kenton Gibbs debate whether Georgia Tech’s inconsistency is a championship formula or a recipe for disaster. Miami’s blowout victory over NC State reignites playoff hopes, while Virginia’s dominant performance at Duke sparks questions about their potential to clinch the ACC Championship. Are style points more important than ever for playoff selection, and what does it mean for teams fighting for respect in a wide-open conference?Hot takes fly as Jackson Holzer calls out Pitt Panthers coach Pat Narduzzi after an embarrassing loss to Notre Dame, arguing that coaching mentality could undermine playoff dreams. The episode highlights key ACC matchups, playoff implications, and the shifting landscape of college football parity. Who will earn a ticket to Charlotte? 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.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.

Georgia Tech survived and Pat Narduzi got exactly what he deserved. 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. This is Locked on ACC. I'm Jackson Holes of the host of Locked on Syracuse filling in for Alex Dono. That is Kenton Gibbs, the host of Locked on Wolfpack. Sorry, Kenton, your NC State Wolfpack.

did not have a very good Saturday losing down in Coral Gables. What was it? 41 to 7. Ouch. But we got a lot of talk about here on today's show, week 12 of ACC football. And what I would describe as a relatively predictable weekend of ACC football. Pat Narduzzi predictably got spanked by Notre Dame.

Exactly what he deserved, by the way. Miami, hats off to the unblown victory. Virginia. Hats off to them. Blowout victory over Duke. But we got to start off with Georgia Tech. They survived the Boston College Eagles. Should Georgia Tech be the favorite in the ACC? All that and more coming up here on today's edition of Locked on ACC. And before we get to everything, this episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the GameTime app, create an account news per Locked on College for 20 hours off your first purchase. Kenton, Are you sold on Georgia Tech after what you saw on Saturday?

Well, here's the thing. I think the Georgia Tech and whether or not you're sold on them case has to be an amalgamation of games, not just Saturday. Because Boston College is awful this year, right? I've said this all year. The Patriot Way does not work anywhere except in Foxborough and normally when you have Tom Brady as a quarterback. But, yeah, I've said all year that both of the bills were going to struggle mightily and both of them have. Bill O'Brien being the worst of the two because boy, that team is taking a nosedive.

I'm not saying that, oh, you know, Boston College played Georgia Tech close, therefore Georgia Tech is fraudulent or they're not good or anything like that. What I will say is this Georgia Tech team is a lack of consistency merchant. What do I mean by that? They play up to the best, down to the worst,

in a way that I just have not seen in quite some time. Like, I highly doubt that Georgia blows them out. It is possible. Don't get me wrong. Don't get me wrong. I think that they play a really good game against Georgia, maybe even win that football game potentially.

But with that being said, that doesn't mesh with beating Boston College by one point. Those two things just do not mesh. However, it's the weirdness of college football and the weirdness specifically of Georgia Tech. So if you're asking me, am I sold on Georgia Tech? I am sold on the fact that Georgia Tech is either a team that always knows how to prepare to win by one possession, or they have a secret horseshoe shoved somewhere that we cannot talk about in a very secret of special place. One of the two must be true.

And I'd much rather believe that he is the type of guy. He prepares his guys to just win by enough. But he does need to figure out, hey, we need some consistency in our level of play. The same team that goes out with their hair on fire against some of the best of the conference needs to also go out with their hair on fire and put these bad teams away early. Because a bad team, when you get them down, they're ready. They're ready to tap. They're ready to succumb. They're ready to fade into the light.

But when they are close, when they're in striking distance, they just hang around, they linger around. They start thinking, wait a minute, is this our moment? Is this our moment to win again? and this was Boston College's senior night as well. So this was the last time that a lot of those guys are ever going to play football in that stadium. Last time they're ever going to wear that Boston College Burgundy. Last time. So, yeah, I'm not willing to say Georgia Tech is complete and total frauds based on, you know,

them struggling to put away a god-awful Boston College team. even though Georgia Tech got the win here, they avoided disaster. This was still not a good outcome for Georgia Tech at all. This was not good at all. I'm sorry Georgia Tech fans, you know I'm right. This was not a good outcome at all. Because Georgia Tech at this point, think about what they would need to do to make the college football playoff. The easy answer is simply just win your conference.

Win out, right? Do you know who they're playing next? Who are they playing next? Pitt. Okay. That's an elimination game right there. It is. If Georgia Tech loses to Pitt,

they're not going to make the college football playoff at that point. Because you're not going to play in the conference title game. Most likely not going to beat Georgia, although it is possible, given Georgia Tech's nature to play up and down a competition. They won't really have a case to be in that large team. In essence, this win basically made it so that the committee's not, going to give them a lot of respect in all likelihood.

They win the conference now in order to have a chance of making the college football playoff unless you beat Georgia. And then we can have a conversation. So at least they won. Hats off to Georgia Tech for finding a way to come back in the game. It was on the road. It was an emotional night. Obviously, you could talk to college.

But at the end of the day, if you want to be a really good team, you got to do what really good teams do. Yeah. Up on bad competition. Let's not act like Boston College is any good. They're one in ten. One in ten this year. Of course.

And listen, I've said Boston College is the worst of the two bills right now. They're a bad thing. They're a bad team. But this is, I don't, it's not fair to me. It's not fair to me to talk about Georgia Tech and say, oh, this is a terrible Boston college team that you let hang around and then say, well, you know, Texas A&M, how resilient, how gutsy. Oh, no, I'm not, oh, I trust me, trust me.

Kenton, I'm with you on that. I think Texas A&M is fraudulent. But that's what I'm, but that's what I'm saying. In the eyes of the committee, to me, it's not fair to say what two teams play teams that are very bad, very bad. Let's be very real about this, right? You can say, oh, well, South Carolina's got all these stars. They've got a star, lots of recruiting stars.

Hmm. And what's it done for them this year? Nothing. So with that being said, I understand that there's a chasm and talent between Boston College and South Carolina. However, one of those teams was up 27 points. 27. Like that this is, so I'm not saying that, you know, this was a great showing for Georgia Tech. I think it's unfair for the committee to punish them for winning without enough style when, oh, a massive comeback being down at home to one of the worst teams in your league. that style points. That's, oh, look at Elko. It just finds away. It just finds away that alcohol. Oh, they allow them.

Stop. No, I'm totally with you on Texas A&M. I do think they're fraudulent. The difference is that Texas A&M right now is 10 and up. Right. And they do have a victory over Notre Dame on their resume. And they got a buy week coming up this week. And by bye week, I mean, I think they're playing an FCS team this week in Sanford.

Is Sanford FCS? I'm not even entirely sure about that. Yeah, I believe there. But bottom line is that Texas A&M is going to have 11 wins after this weekend. So they're a lock for the college football playoff no matter what. Regardless of what conference you're in, you win 11 regular season games. You're in.

So we can complain about Texas A&M in the committee. But at the end of the day, they do have that benefit of they are allowed to lose the final game of the regular season to Texas. And they are still a lock for the college football playoff. Whereas with Georgia Tech, if they lose one more game, you're not an at-large team anymore. It's as simple as that. They're still in the hunt. They can still win out the regular season, but you're not getting any style points

by beating Boston College by two points on essentially a walkoff field. That's just where I'm at with them. I don't think that they're a bad team by any stretch of the imagination with Georgia Tech, but I don't believe in them either. Are they the favorite in the ACC? I don't know.

I mean, the ACC is kind of wide open right now. I mean, do you believe Miami can maybe make a comeback? I don't know. Do you think Pitts are to knock them off this? weekend. Here's the thing. I think Miami, I'm sorry, I think Georgia Tech beats Pitt, but here's the thing. I do not like the fact that we are asking ourselves the tough questions about Georgia Tech, who has only gone out and consistently won football games. We had this conversation last year, but I was on the side of Pitt because they just kept winning football

games. And with them, it was a much smaller sample. So I believe it was six or so, six or seven and or something like that before they the wheels fell off this team is nine and one your their one loss was to nc state and and you cover nc state you think nc state's good do am i supposed to think that west virginia is something am i supposed to sit here and no i'm not i'm just i'm just saying i i don't buy i don't buy them but i also don't buy anyone in the acc right now okay so so now that's a different conversation. Yeah. That's what I'm trying to say.

If I'm calling out Georgia Tech, here's what I'll admit. I don't know who else. Is that been saying? And that's where I would like to land this thing more than anything else. Because I don't think it's fair to say, oh, Georgia Tech is not it. Who somebody has to be it. Because one thing, Jackson, one thing that I've started to realize, the more I analyzed this year of college football, we don't have traditional powers like we

useful. The portal has done a fantastic job of creating parity. Granted, it has its problems. There are people that are not getting degrees and degree progress is basically going out of the window at a high clip and folks are playing that, you know, four schools and five years and all that. It's not good in that way. But with that being said, in terms of the on-field product, who's better, who's worse, all that. It has like lowered the on-field product from everybody because we have less consistency. We have less year-to-year guys building rapport with one another because anything goes wrong.

If you don't get enough targets, if you don't get enough money, if you're playing in a wrong scheme, if your coach takes a new job, if anything happens, all of a sudden, there's player movement out. So if we're looking for a dominant power, how many of those are in college football at all right now? I would not say there's enough to fill the playoff if the bar is, are you a dominant power?

If that's the case, go back to football. four. Go back to four. And I don't even think we got four dominant powers I can think of off the top of my head to say, that's a fantastic football team. That's a team you got to work to find a hole in four teams in America, let alone 12, let alone 12. So if we're bringing it from the scale of amongst their peers, is Georgia Tech good enough to be seen as one of the best 12 in America? Yes. When they're playing their best football, yes. When they're playing their best football, absolutely not. Yeah, and that's what I'm saying. This was some of their worst football and they still came out with a win. To me, that is the sign of a champion and a winner. When you play your worst football and you still come out with a win, I've got to respect it because I believe 12 games in season, you get one game where you play your best, one game where you play your worst,

everything in between is generally who you actually are. And this is what I'm seeing from this team. They found ways to consistently win even when they are at their worst or one of the games that's closer to it. I just think that if they continue to play this way, which they have for the past two games, whether it's losing to NC State, barely beating Boston College, it's going to come back and bite them eventually. I mean, you can't do that against Georgia.

You're going to get the doors blown off. You can't even do that, I think, this weekend coming up against Pitt. I think Pitt will beat them if Georgia Tech plays like they have the previous two games. Just for the record, I have not yet made an official prediction for that game. You could stay tuned for Friday here on Locked on ACC for that one. But that'll certainly be a very interesting game because it's a very interesting game because It's an elimination game between Pitt and Georgia Tech this Saturday. Now, we'll talk about Pitt later on in this show and Pat and Arduzzi.

But coming up, Miami and Virginia blowout victories are the Miami Hurricanes back. And maybe Virginia should be the favorite in the ACC. Stick with us here on locked on ACC. The NBA is back and there's no better place to get in on the action than Fandu, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of the game and want to ride the hot hand, Fandua's live bets on everything. from who will store next to fourth quarter comebacks,

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Host of Locked on Wolfpack and former NC State defensive tackle. And Kenton, you can speak more about this than I can. Miami blowout victory in Coral Gables. Miami maybe a little bit leaky, especially in the first half against Syracuse. But I'll tell you what, they absolutely spanked NC State. So what happened? And are you now a believer in Miami again? I will say this.

I never stopped believing in Miami. I just know who they are. I just know who Mario Cristobal is. I just know he's not the guy that's going to own, oh, my God, we've been terrible in November. It's on me. I'm not only am I acknowledging this problem, I'm going to fix this problem. He's never done it. He's still not done it this year.

That's just kind of who he is. Now, with that being said, have I ever doubted their talent for a moment? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I watched that game and their defensive line took it over from the jump, from the jump. from the jump. They said, hey, guys, I get it. You all, oh, you got a couple guys you think are good over here. Let me show you what a real defensive line looks like.

Oh, you got a couple guys or your defensive line you think are good. Let's show you what some first rounders on an offensive line looks like. And they pretty much dominated on both sides of the ball for a majority of the game. Now, we'll give credit to the defense to NC State's defense because they did hold up fairly well for quite a lot. but at the end of the day, you know, Miami, their defensive backs jumped one, took it back early, and all of a sudden the game felt like it was over at 10-0 in the first quarter. It felt like it was over. And for all intents and purposes, it was.

CJ did not regain his composure. Carson Beck looked cool, calm, and collected even when things weren't going right. The running game, I believe it was like 20 rushes for 23 yards. Miami, the later it got into the. game, the bigger those runs got. They just kept pounding, kept pounding, kept pounding. And the defense that already is not, I mean, they're not official tissue, great, you know, that's not the 85 bears wore down over time. Miami dominated. They stumped a mud hole as they should. Everybody on this show predicted a loss for NC State, just not this big of a loss because

for reference, Miami has only scored 40 points against one other FBS or one, other power for school and Notre Dame, one other team. And that was Stanford, who's working with an interim coach, who's working with their cabins so, the cupboards were so barren when they fired that last coach, everybody that could get out, said, all right, bet, we're taking that last life raft out. We're going. So, you know, at the end of the day, Miami dominated. They dominated this game.

They played a fantastic game. They coach a fantastic game. This score was at 1.41 to 0 before C.J. Bailey scores a touchdown in garbage time. So, you know, credit to them, absolute, complete and other domination. No words outside of that. I think Miami once again reminded us about how good they can be when they're firing on all cylinders. And that's been the problem with Miami over the last few games is that they have not been firing on all cylinders. they might have the highest upside in the ACC.

And there's a reason why, I think going into this weekend, they were the highest ranked team in the ACC, despite having two losses. I mean, these are the stats from this game. It's absolutely ridiculous. First downs, 28 to 9, rushing yards, 214 to 23. Passing yards, 367 to 120.

You ready for the total yard? I'm sure you already know it may be a little bit. 581 to 143. This was a demolition of demolitions. You know, sometimes a score doesn't accurately reflect how a game goes. It's just the nature of football sometimes. No, this was exactly that. Like you read 41-7 and then you look at the stats and you match it with the eye test.

Yep. That was a, you know what, kicking. That's what it was. that's what it was. And I got to give a lot of credit to Miami. They're still fighting. They're still battling. They certainly pass the style points test, which it matters.

Style points matter in college sports, whether we wanted to matter or whether we don't want it to matter. It's not a perfect system. That's the system. So don't complain at me, complain at the people who actually make these decisions. Style points matter. They certainly get the style points. The only question with Miami is, can you do it again? and then can you do it again to close the regular season when you travel to pick?

That's about it with Miami, but with this win, maybe just maybe if they can win out the regular season, have a few breaks, maybe go their way, maybe you get to an ACC title game. But if not, you might be able to make a case for them to be at large, especially because they have that win against Notre Dame. Let's move on now, though, to this was surprising. Virginia, not beating Duke. That's one thing. I don't think we were surprised by that.

We went into this game thinking that it could be a coin flip type game. Who knows? Duke is at home. Virginia, they're not the greatest team in the world, if we're being honest. Duke, they're inconsistent as well. But it was spanking. Yeah. Absolute spanking. This game wasn't even close.

3417 is being generous because Duke got a couple of late touchdowns there in the fourth quarter. Are you buying Virginia, perhaps? Yes. And I bought Virginia for quite some time. I don't think it's fair. Again, teams that win games, I'm going to buy. I'm going to buy. I'm going to hurry up and buy.

That's me. I'm that guy. You're a buyer. I'm the seller. If I see you winning football games, I'm going to buy. You know why? Winning is hard. It's really hard.

I know everybody sees one or two teams to get an instant turnaround and, oh, it's easy. Oh, look at what Dickert's doing. at Wake Forest, it's so easy to win football game. You're talking about the same coast that just got blew out by Florida State, by 30 something? Winning is hard.

Winning week in and week out is hard. That is why people are looking at Digger for ACCC coach of the year for doing it at an inconsistent clip. Not saying that Wake Forest is a bad team, they're a very good team. I'm giving them their respect and their flowers here, but I'm saying

that they're being considered for that because the coverage are barren and he's doing it every now and in. Right? Most of the teams in the ACC, we're not looking and say, oh, their coverage are loaded everywhere. They might have one or two things. They might have the best produce out there. This team may have some really good meat or this team may have some really good pasta.

There is not many teams in the ACC that have everything. So if you can combine that to make enough winning meals, I'm going to say you're a good team. And Virginia is that. We know about their deficiencies defensively. Nobody's making any bones about that. Their defense, by the way, was terrific. They were phenomenal. Phenomenal against Minson and Company, which we had all thought,

oh, yeah, Mints and Company have figured it out now. They're good. They understand it now. It's going to be a lot tougher. They made Mintsa look the worst that he's looked since very early in this season. So I sit here before you today saying, am I buying Virginia, bought it? bought it. I got that stock. I'm living with it. If it goes up, if it goes down,

I'm going to live on the who stock because they deserve it. As much as I love Isaac Brown and Duke Watson, Louisville ain't deserving. I'm done with Louisville. I'm done. I actually despise Louisville now. You don't. You don't. You're a good team. You're consistent. You're consistently pretty good. That's what you are. You're consistently pretty good. That's okay, but that's all you are. As much as I like the way that many Diaz disguises defense, I'm not buying that stuff. I'm not buying it. They don't want to know.

I'm not. As much as I love Fran Brown and everything he represents, he ain't got no quarterback. They had a game where the biggest story about the quarterback was the fact that it was, no, no, no. But I'm saying all this to say, if you win football games, I'm going to buy into what you're doing because it's hard. It's really hard, man.

It's really hard. Oh, you don't get the style points. No team this year has style points like that. No team. What team has run through everybody? Style point after style point. No bad losses. Every game.

Game control. Every game. We're doing it. Ohio State. Is that it? That's true. Ohio State. And guess what?

If Ohio State is the bar, congratulations. There is no playoff. We're going back to the 70s with it. We just going to crown the national champion. We just going to say, you're the number one team of the nation. You got the national championship because Georgia hasn't done it. Alabama hasn't done it. You name, Oregon hasn't done it.

Nobody has done it. Maybe Indiana, maybe, but even Indiana is. No, Indiana had that game against Penn State. That's what I'm saying. Even Indiana's has some games where it's like, they don't even got a coach and you're struggling. So if that is the case, Ohio State is the only team that needs to be bought. Every other team, we're selling stocks.

And that's not how the market works. It's not how to market. We got to buy somebody besides one team. Well, actually, if the more. is whatever you want the market to be. So, here we go. I'm buying, I would buy Ohio State and that's about it. That's how I view college football right now.

I look at Ohio State and I say, I think they're flawless. Like, I don't see. There's just, they honestly look like one of those teams that's probably going to steam roll their way to a national championship. I agree. That's how I'm viewing them right now. But with Virginia, back to the topic at hand with Virginia, I just got to give them a lot of props because they showed me.

something that they haven't really showed all season, which is not only beat a team, but actually spank them. Because that's not been Virginia's MO this year. You look at their, okay, you blew out coastal Carolina. Nobody cares. You blew out William and Mary. Nobody cares. Nobody.

You blew out Stanford. How much? Okay, you got your style points on that one, but it's Stanford. Florida State was a close game. Louisville, close win. Washington State close win. North Carolina close win. Act Powell was a somewhat close win, lost to wake force.

This was the first time that Virginia legitimately had one of these days where they were no doubt slam dunk by far and away the better team. And so I got to give them a lot of credit because Duke, despite them not playing well this Saturday, now they're on a two-game losing stead. They're not a terrible team. They do have a really good quarterback in theory in Darien Mensa. And they just completely shut them down.

And they completely shut down this Duke offense, Virginia had their way. So hats off to them. They have one more game this season already at 9 and 2. They beat Virginia Tech. I got to look at all the combinations of games, but I'm going to assume right now if they just beat Virginia Tech, they're 7-1 in the conference.

Yeah, they're in. They're in. They're guaranteed. With a win against Virginia Tech, Virginia guarantees themselves a spot in the ACC championship game. Book your tickets to Charlotte. From Charlottesville to Charlotte, who could have imagined? Who could have imagined?

You can't do it, but you can't do it yet. You can't, you got one more, you got to earn it. No, no, no. I'm still not going to sit here in Crown Virginia. You got to earn it. You got to go out there and beat Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech is big brother. Virginia Tech is a robbery.

No offense or what's about it. In football, Virginia Tech is big brother. It somehow, regardless of how bad Virginia Tech is year in and year out, whether they're good, bad, up, down, whatever, they find a way to beat Virginia. This Virginia team feels different. And you are right. You are right. This is not a good enough Virginia.

team where I can say, I have no doubt about it because Kyron drones are still Kyron Jones. And he's going to put on a game or two every year where you're like, you never know what you're getting from him. He's going to put on that game or two every year where you're like, that's the 2023 youth. We knew it was there and it comes out once again. I'm not saying that he doesn't have that game.

And Virginia Tech's defense doesn't show up at a high level and all of a sudden they get themselves a win there. I'm not saying that's impossible. What I am saying is when I look at this team and I say, would I bet on them being in if I were a betting man? Yes. Yeah, I would. I would.

And even if they were to lose that game against Virginia Tech, then we'd have to get into all these wonky tiebreaker situations who has what over who and all that. And I believe Virginia's only ACC losses would be to Virginia Tech and Wake Forest, which I'm pretty sure that we'd have to get in a. all those wonky scenarios because there's no head to him. I think we can do that in a couple of weeks from now. That's what I think.

It's still very much up in the air, whether a two-loss team is going to make it or not or whether it's going to be two one-lost teams. For now, we still got another week of ACC football before we get into those big crazy tiebreaker scenarios that could happen before the final game of the regular season. But for now, just congratulations to Virginia. Handle your business and you're in Charlotte for the conference title game. So congratulations to them. go and beat Virginia Tech on the 29th. Now, speaking of which, there's one team that I'm now

actively rooting against because their head coach is a loser. So stick with us here on Locked-on ACC. College football is in the final month of the regular season. And aren't you pumped about it? Tailgates, rivalries, energy in the stands. There's nothing like it. Teams pushing for the college football playoff or in for their conference title games. But let's be real. Actually getting tickets for these big-time matchups can feel like more of a battle. than the game itself, which is kind of hard to believe. I mean, you got endless cues, you got hidden fees. My personal favorite, wink, wink, prices all of a sudden just jumping at checkout for some

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with GameTime, download the GameTime app. Create an account and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, that's promo code Locked on College, L-O-C-E-D, O-N-C-O-L-L-E-G-E for $20 off. Swipe, tap, Ticket, Go, download Game Time today. You want to know what I like about this show. What do you like about it, Jackson? We can give our opinions. We don't have to remain independent journalists and pretend that we don't have a rooting interest in some of these teams. There's a reason why I'm bringing that up. And that is the Pitt Panthers. Here's the thing with Pitt. I take nothing away from their players. I really don't. In fact, I kind of feel bad for their players. I'm rooting for their players.

But their head coach, I said it going into the break, loser. Pat and Orduzzi got exactly what he deserved. He's a loser. Quite frankly, I hope that Pitt does not beat Georgia Tech this Saturday. I hope they lose out. And I hope that he gets fired. I genuinely get. I don't think he deserves to keep his job. I really don't. I'm allowed to give him, you know what?

Oh, that's Narduzzi. You got a problem with that. Maybe you shouldn't go to the media and say that your game against Notre Dame doesn't matter. Doesn't matter? You're not wrong, brother. You're not wrong. 3715, and that's generous. Yeah.

Generous. But was it because Notre Dame was that much more? talented than Pitt. Maybe you can argue they are ultra talented. We know that. But I also saw Notre Dame losing the first game of the season to Miami. And I saw Notre Dame lose against Texas A&M, a team in Texas A&M that we called in the first segment kind of fraudulent, especially with what they did in South Carolina. It's not like they're an impossible team to be, except if you're Syracuse this weekend. You have no chance against Notre Dame. You might as well not even play the game. Sorry. But

Pitt, your head coach is the reason why they lost. Because when your head coach goes into a game saying that it doesn't matter, what did you think was going to happen? Did you expect that Notre Dame was going to take their foot off the gas when they're playing for their playoff lives right now? When if they don't make the college football playoff, for them, it is seen as a massive failure. They do not care about winning nine or 10 games and playing in a bowl.

They need to go out and make the college football playoff. I'm sorry. I'm rooting against Pitt for the rest of the year. And Notre Dame has no other path in besides style points. Like that's literally, they have no guaranteed auto bid. Like, oh, we won. We did the thing. So it's very, it was very disappointing to hear that from Narduzi. And the worst part about it is this final score, a lot more friendly than it actually was, because there was a point in this game where it was 28 to 3.

And it was very clear at that point, Notre Dame was like, all right, let's let off the gas, guys. You know, I've said this before, and I'll say it again. The football gods don't like the idea of, oh, I'm going to let my foot off the gas here because I want to win these last two. And this one doesn't matter. That does not winning habits that does not make. Okay. You are not building a winning team with that mentality and with that behavior. So with that in mind, Narduzi's got some serious.

There is some serious karma that is very likely headed his way, which is unfortunate. Unfortunately for those players in that locker room, but why you would even say they could beat us by 100. They want to. They want to. That's the whole. That's the goal. Jackson and I just had a whole back and forth about both UVA and Georgia Tech. Why?

Because those teams haven't won impressively enough. Forget that between those two teams, we're looking at what? 20 wins now? Forget it. It's not enough. or 10 19 wins now not enough it's not the NFL it's college style points matter exactly you've got to win in a very decisive manner and and so to sit there and say oh yeah we're focused on the next one what when you're not even doing this against an fcs opponent or something like that you're doing this

before you're playing Notre Dame like what are you I don't and you're at home too I and here's the worst part about this, Kenton. The worst part about it is that this game actually did matter for Pitt. It did. Like Pat Norduzzi can say whatever he wants that it wasn't a conference team, whatever. It totally mattered. Because you look at Pitt's final three games heading into this last loss,

but it was Notre Dame at Georgia Tech, Miami. You can make an argument that had Pitt one out. They're an at-large college football playoff team. Or at minimum, they're in the conversation. on Selection Sunday to where they might not have to win the conference to make the college football playoff. People might see them as good enough to be a playoff team. And to sit here and act like the game just didn't matter. Who cares if they go on beat us by 100? We're only going to care about Georgia Tech in Miami. The only way you can forgive Pat and Arduzzi for this is if they

actually go out there, beat Georgia Tech, beat Miami, go to Charlotte and win the conference title game. That's how you get forgiveness. That's the forgiveness there. And you know what? If they do that, hats off to one. But when your coach has that loser mentality, that loser mindset, that mindset of going into a game that doesn't matter, Nick Sabin would grill his team for beating an FCS opponent by 70 points. He would say, we're not good enough in this area. We're not good enough in that area. You know, there's that famous quote, you know, we may have won on the field, but we didn't beat the snot out of them.

what I'm saying? Like there's just coaches that are built differently. And it's not just exes and those. It's mentally. And that's what I have a problem with, with Pat and Arduzzi. I understand he may not have the brains of Nick Sabin. He may not have, you know, the talent that those Alabama teams did. He might not have the talent like Notre Dame does. You can't have that mindset of the game doesn't matter because you got what you deserve. Kenton, any last thoughts on ACC football this week? I will say this. ACC football may not be may not have the big brands at the top, this is still some damn good football.

This is still some damn good football. There are still some teams playing good football. And again, if you disagree with me, tell me who the teams without fault, without hold, without weakness, tell me who they are in all the other conferences. Jackson and I have already given you Ohio State. So that's your free space.

But please, fill up a bingo roll. Give us five teams. Give us eight teams, rather. Give us this eight. Give us eight. Give us eight teams that you would say, these teams are without fault. There's nothing wrong with them. Every game they play, game control and dominance all the way through. And you will struggle mightily because that's not the reality of today's college football.

We are no longer looking at a situation where team stockpile talent. And you've got first string guys that are sitting on the bench for three to four years. And that guy is going to be a first rounder one day, but he's just got to wait his turn. Ha, ha, ha, ha, wait my turn here when I can go. play and make 500,000 more down the street? Yeah, I bet. I bet. Good, good luck with that. Yeah. Yeah. So at the end of the day, the ACC is playing good football. Don't let the national media trick you. Don't let the fire bombs of the world fool you. Don't you let them do it. Don't let me feel you. Exactly. Exactly. I'm not a big believer. But you know what?

We'll see. We'll see. The ACC still has plenty of time to prove myself wrong, to prove Kenton right. We'll see who comes out in the end. And he'll, hey, feel free. comment your thoughts in the comment section below. What teams do you believe in in the ACC and what teams do you believe in in college football? That's Tentigibis, the host of Lockedon Wolfpack and former NC State defensive tackle. I'm Jackson Holzer, the host of Locked on Syracuse coming up on Locked on ACC. Alex Dono, you should be back. Normal host. He's the locked on, he's the host of Locked on Keynes. Thank you all so much for watching. Thank you all so much for listening. And we'll see you all again soon.