Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - Top 3 ACC Teams: Who Deserves the Spotlight?

Starting point is 00:00:00 The ACC football schedule is loaded in week six, but which of these games is going to have the biggest impact on the ACC championship? You are Locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Shout out to the Everydayers. Thank you so much for making Lockdown ACC your first listen and your first watch today. We're available free wherever you get your podcast. We're free on YouTube.

Starting point is 00:00:34 We're part of the Lockdown Podcast. network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by Fanduil. Place your first $5 bet and you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed. Just visit Fandual.com to get started. On this loaded episode, we'll talk about how much Florida State has left in the tank because I feel like this game against Clemson is going to be a big fork in the road for them. How much pride will they play with?

Starting point is 00:00:59 How will Brock Glenn look at quarterback this week? we're going to talk about the impact of these week six games. And Kenton Gibbs, he's Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono from Lockdown-Kane's. There's some spicy games this week, conference versus conference matchups. To me, I think the most important one is going to be SMU riding high off of their blowout win against Florida State last week. They go on to take on Louisville, 22nd rank Louisville, trying to bounce back from,

Starting point is 00:01:29 I thought they played well, but they made too many mistakes on the road at Notre Dame coming off of that loss. But I feel like whoever emerges victorious between SMU and Louisville, I would probably say would be at worst the third best team in the ACC. I'm not sure I necessarily agree with that, only because there are three teams right now in the ACC so far with multiple wins over Power 5 teams. If you want to talk about undefeated with multiple wins over Power 5 teams, rather,

Starting point is 00:01:57 I'm sorry, there are three. There is Duke who beat Northwestern and the Dirty Foot. Club, also known as the Tar Heels. There is Miami, who I believe what their, their two power files are Florida and Virginia Tech. And then you have the Pitt Panthers with Cincinnati and West Virginia. So I think that it's difficult to say as much as we did not expect anything from Pitt, they are redefining expectations.

Starting point is 00:02:24 And so it's tough for me to say that in terms of, again, undefeated teams that have beaten multiple power five so far this season, that's tough. And of course, we're not even thinking about them in this realm because they're like this upstart surprise team. But to some extent, you have to, right? We said that SMU was going to be a team that was going to upset the Applecart for certain teams this year. You and I both saw the role of spoiler coming in. Louisville, don't get your ass spoiled. That's what you, that's the whole goal if you are the Cardinals in this game.

Starting point is 00:02:57 I don't think that that game gives us a defendant of third, but it does tell us what is Louisville's continents, are they prepared to have a sustained level of success where every year, expect them in Charlotte or expect them to be bumping right up against them? Yeah, I think with SMU, you know, two weeks ago, I was really down on them after they lost to BYU, but then that loss is aged really well because BYU is a lot better than people thought they were. And also it has been noticeable that SMU has, they've looked better since making the quarterback switch from Preston Stones to Stone, not singular, not plural, Preston Stone to Kevin Jennings. It really seems to have given that team a lift and he comes off a career performance against Florida State.

Starting point is 00:03:41 So I'm a little higher on SMU and I'm not just saying that because they blew out Florida State. I think that they're lost to BYU has aged very well. But talking about the Pitt Panthers, though, you know, they come off a by week. So we haven't, we haven't seen them play in two weeks. They are like you mentioned, undefeated 4 and 0 on the season. And you want to talk about forks in the road. Like I mentioned Florida State has one of those games against Clemson because this thing can get way uglier for Florida State or they could potentially, you know, rally to kind of salvage a season this week. I could say the same thing for North Carolina.

Starting point is 00:04:15 I mean, North Carolina, they're coming off of two ugly losses. I mean, the James Madison, that's one of the ugliest losses any power four team has suffered this year. And then they blow a 20 point fourth quarter lead against Duke to lose the game. Duke is still undefeated, by the way, we'll talk about them. But yeah, the last time, like we said, when Pittsburgh this year, they got the win over Cincinnati, which was an impressive comeback, an equally impressive comeback against West Virginia in the backyard brawl. Their redshirt freshman quarterback, Eli Holstein has, I think, been one of the better stories

Starting point is 00:04:48 in college football that not enough people are talking about at this point. So this is going to be a big opportunity for North Carolina to save face a little bit, but also for the Pitt Panthers to show us they're legitimate. Yeah, absolutely. And I'll tell you what, this game in terms of forking the road, who are you going to be is going to be vitally important because not only does this set up, well, is North Carolina a serious team or not or what do they look like? It's also going to tell us about Pitt. With all due respect, we can say, hey, Pitt has played better teams than UNC already, but it won't tell us about Pitt from a standpoint of, well, they're playing the best teams they play or whatever. It'll tell us about Pitt in terms of maturity. We talk about hosting being this freshman upstarting, week in, week out, kind of just showing up and being Captain Cool in the clutch. That overall is a fairly young team at some key positions. And so you end up asking yourself, how can this team withstand success? Because let's be very honest, at the college football level, you are counting on 18 and 22 year olds to become the big man on

Starting point is 00:05:54 campus and stay focused. You are counting on them to become local celebrities where people all of a sudden say, hey, man, you know, we love our Steeler football, but I'll tell you what, Panthers are coming. They're coming. You're expecting these young men to hear that to have some money in their pockets for probably the first time in their lives due to NIL now and keep a level ahead about this. Stay in the books. Stay focused on the field.

Starting point is 00:06:21 Stay focused on what you've got to be to win, week in and week out. So I think that this is going to be a test of their maturity and how do you handle success because again we're at that point now we're being undefeated means something especially over the next two to three weeks if they stay undefeated it's going to mean a lot and so can they maintain this level through these next couple games so let me ask you uh in your mind who were the top three teams in the acc right now who that's a that's a great question and i really hard right i really don't want to be non-committal with this answer because it's it's easy the easy route for this is to go of Miami, Clemson, Louisville.

Starting point is 00:07:00 That's the easy route for this. But the game's got to mean something. The game's got to mean something. And that loss, even though it was to Notre Dame, even though that was Notre Dame's last opportunity to save or salvage their season and potentially get a playoff bid, it's tough for me to put them in front of a pit team that, again, has shown up and beat pretty good competition.

Starting point is 00:07:24 You know, I'm not saying I'm expecting Cincinnati and West Virginia to set the world on fire. I'm saying it's tough for me to say, hey, I can ignore your loss because I believe that you're that good. It's tough for me. And I'll tell you what, it's tough to even keep Duke outside the top five at this point because, again, I don't know what it is, but Manny Diaz has become an extension of Mike Elko in essence. And that we're going to be physical, we're going to run the ball, we're going to control the clock, we're going to swarm. That's it. We're going to carry those four things with us everywhere we go, and Lord knows it's been traveling so far. So I would say the top three for me, I would go Miami, Clemson, and then Pitt.

Starting point is 00:08:10 I would probably say that. Yeah, I'm going to take the easy route until I'll prove another one. And the thing is, like, even as someone who I'm obviously very bullish on Miami, I went to school there, that's the team that I cover on Locked on Cains. Like, I'm not sleeping on Clemson because they've looked really good the past few weeks. Let's see how they look against Florida State. But Miami obviously is in my top two in the conference. You know, I'd probably in a biased way, I'd still say that they're number one despite, you know, having some issues against Virginia Tech last week.

Starting point is 00:08:41 But in whatever order, I would go Miami Clemson. And I would go Louisville until proven otherwise. I mean, that's a team that I'd probably say has exceeded my expectations a little bit despite coming off the loss to Notre Dame because I, I underestimated their transfer portal talent because we focused a lot on the guys that they lost through the portal, like the ones who arrived in January and then left in April. You know, Tyler Shuck has been excellent so far. And he's been awesome in play action. Like he's just really, really, he's been healthy, of course, which was the big issue for Tyler Shuck.

Starting point is 00:09:15 But I'm definitely open to other contenders. And that SMU Louisville game is going to teach us a lot. We'll talk more about that. I want to do some game picks on the other side. And we'll we'll also talk about what's still left to play for for the Florida State Seminoles. If nothing else, like you want to hold on to some of your recruits. They just lost a four-star receiver who decommitted this week. Like it hard times right now in Tallahassee.

Starting point is 00:09:39 We got Kenton Gibbs here from Lockdown Wolfpack. I'm Alex Dono from Locked on Cains. We're only getting started. You want to keep it locked right here on Locked on ACC. Folks, I'm so excited with the partnership that we have here on the Lockdown Network. work with Roy. Roy gives us the opportunity. It's a new platform that lets us make contributions directly to our favorite athletes. It's time to highlight our player of the week this week. You can download Roy for iOS or Android and enter our referral code locked on and you'll

Starting point is 00:10:14 automatically be entered into a sweepstakes to win $5,000 cash. No purchase necessary. Void were prohibited. This week, we have selected Kevin Jennings, quarterback from SMU, as our Roy player of the week because Jennings pulled off the blowout win against Florida State career high, 254 passing yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions. And most importantly, the Mustangs got their first ACC win in their first ACC game. So that was history made for SMU and quarterback Kevin Jennings was a big part of that. So we're giving Kevin Jennings $100 on Roy. If you were as impressed as we were with his performance on Saturday, you can show him some love too.

Starting point is 00:10:53 Just hop on Roy and throw in a few bucks. If everyone pitches in just $10, it's going to add up fast for Jennings. Now, you have the chance to show your appreciation for Kevin Jennings and his standout performance this week, as well as what he'll continue to bring to that program. Get off the sidelines and into the NIL game with Roy. Thank you so much for making this episode of Lockdown ACC, your first listen and your first watch today. For your next listen, make sure you check out Lockdown College Football.

Starting point is 00:11:23 Our guy Spencer McLaughlin does an awesome job talking about all the big stories and big games in college football. So check out locked on college football available free wherever you get your podcast and like this show. It's available free as well on YouTube. So Kenton, what are you thinking about the SMU at Louisville game this week? Now, I think I'm going to go back to something that we talked about before the season even started. Is SMU's offensive line going to hold up against low-key, one of the better defensive lines in the country. We all know about Ashton Jolati, but Louisville's defensive line has been playing really good. Now, Jennings has actually done really well throwing against pressure this year.

Starting point is 00:12:06 He's going to need a lot of that. It's going to be difficult to run the football against Louisville. But to me, I look at the Louisville defensive line versus the SMU offensive line as the matchup that's probably going to decide this game. That Louisville will prevent for, or that Louisville will present, rather, for SMU is like you said, the defensive line is elite, and we're not just talking Jolati.

Starting point is 00:12:33 We're not just talking Ashton when we're saying, hey, these guys can get after your quarterback like nobody's business. Hey, these guys are getting into the backfield. They're creating knockback. They're reestablishing a line of scrimmages like nobody's business. And just for reference,

Starting point is 00:12:47 just in case you don't believe us, the leading sackman on that team is not Ashton, the second leading sackman, the third leading sack man, is not Ashton Jalati. That is, Dono and I are not telling you that's just, we have watched the games. They have multiple guys, exterior, interior, that can get it done.

Starting point is 00:13:09 Jalati is the big name. He draws the double teams. He is the one that makes teams adjust to him. But guess what happens when you have to double a guy, okay? Let's do the math there, Dono. You have four versus five. Defensive line generally, you're looking at four. Offensive line protection, you have five.

Starting point is 00:13:26 happens when you double one guy? What happens with the other guys? It becomes three on three. You get three one-on-ones. Everybody not named Ashton is going to get a one-on-one. I'm telling you, them some bad boys in those one-on-one situations. So I look at this game in terms of, if I'm looking at it from both sides, Louisville, don't make the big mistakes.

Starting point is 00:13:49 That's literally their goal. If you don't make the big mistakes, I believe Louisville is the better team in this game. They showed it against Louisville. when they weren't making mistake, when they weren't shooting themselves in the foot, they were good. They were moving the ball. They were getting stops. But it just happened to be those one or two key moments where you make the big mistake that hurts you.

Starting point is 00:14:07 If I'm SMU, my question is, can I stay ahead of the sticks? If you get behind them, I am telling you, you talked about Jennings being good against pressure. The problem is Louisville will not need to bring extra guys down into that box in terms of past, situation to get freaky with the blitz packages to create pressure. I believe that they're that much better up front. They can say, hey, we're going to rest for a drop seven. Good luck. Block them.

Starting point is 00:14:36 Have fun with that. And so, if they are constantly behind the sticks, Louisville walks away with one real easy here. Yeah, I think Louisville is going to make SMU wish that you could play Florida State every week. It could only be that easy, right? Now, college game day is going to be in Berkeley, California for the first time ever. They're going to be covering number eight Miami, 5 and O, taking on the Cal Golden Bears, three and one. Now, Cal did, they're coming off a by week prior to that.

Starting point is 00:15:07 They suffered a setback against Florida State. Shockingly enough, that was FSU's one win. But they have upset Auburn on the road this year. They get to host Miami. Now, there's a couple of key matchups here for me in this one, Kenton. I think an area where Miami can have a big advantage is Miami's defensive line versus Cal's offensive line. Cal has given up 13 sacks in the last two games, 16 on the season. They have not protected Fernando Mendoza well. Miami's got one of the most disruptive defensive lines in the

Starting point is 00:15:41 country and Ruben Bain is expected back off of injury. He hasn't played since the first defensive possession of the first game. So Miami's defensive line versus Cal's offensive line, Cal needs to hold up. And then Miami's offense versus the turnover happy Cal defense. Now, a lot of those were gift wrapped by, by Peyton Thorne, Auburn's quarterback, but Cal's got 10 interceptions this year. They lead the nation in interceptions. That defensive backfield is no joke. And, you know, you could always expect Camp Ward to play well, but you'd never know which turnover version of him is going to show up in terms of, you know, how many, how many giveaways is he going to have to have to make some of the big gun slinging plays that he makes.

Starting point is 00:16:25 So can Cal win the turnover battle? And can they stop Miami's defensive line even a little bit? The reality is Cam Ward is not shy about saying I can fit it into that type window. He's not shy about saying I can avoid these three defensive linemen and this one linebacker and make a play. He's not shy about saying that. The problem with not being shy about both of those things is the ball finds its way to the other team a little bit when you do so. You have a very stingy, a very aggressive cow defense that loves when that ball is in the air because those defensive backs feel like, it's not your ball anymore. It's ours. You've given up

Starting point is 00:17:03 possession. Let's see who can go get it. Now, the thing about this game, like you talked about, can they protect Mendoza is absolutely a question, but an even bigger question. Can you protect Mendoza by running the ball well? The easiest pass where quarterbacks are least likely to be sack is a handoff, ladies and gentlemen. I get it. I know that's not a pass. It's a joke. So with that in mind, can they have that breakout game from Jay not? Can they have that moment where the Cal Backfield shows off his depth and talent in a way that's like, damn, did they just kind of take Miami out to the woodshed?

Starting point is 00:17:41 Because again, you and I have talked about this. And you and I would agree that Miami is still the best looking team in the ACC right now. but that display of tackling that we saw last game was troublesome to say the least. That was also the most talented group of skill players that they saw all year. Because while Florida may have it be a rivals or 24-7 or all that good stuff, Donald and I both know. If you ain't developing those players, if they leave in four years as the same guy they were coming in, congratulations.

Starting point is 00:18:14 It don't matter what type of caliber or what type of star you're getting. They're not going to be stars on Saturday and subsequent. subsequently Sundays. So I look at this game and I'm saying to myself, Miami, can you make tackles at a consistent level? And Cal, can you run the ball? Can you say, you know what? Hurricane Bain is really good on third and long? How good is he on third and one? Third and three inches. How good is he then? Let's find out that question. We're also, we're getting the double whammy this week. They're the first ACC matchups that feature teams from the East Coast going out west. It's not only Miami at Cal, which is a 1030 p.m. Eastern. Oh, I'm going to be wired for that one.

Starting point is 00:18:54 I'm going to drink a lot of five-hour energy that day. And then at 3.30 p.m. Eastern, you also have Virginia Tech on the road at Stanford. So we have double West Coast ACC games coming up this weekend. So we're going to kind of, and yeah, I feel like the whole the whole like traveling factor. It probably gets overplayed by the media, but this is the first time we're going to see that this year going east to west. You know what I think the biggest thing about the travel factor is the times. The times are more important than anything else. What time did Syracuse and Stamper play? What was it?

Starting point is 00:19:29 About 4 p.m. kickoff, 1 p.m. kickoff, something like that. Well, that one was in, yeah, well, it was in, I think it was a nighttime game in Syracuse. So it was like, for Stanford, it was probably like for them, like a 4-430 game, I guess. So you see what I'm saying here? Yeah. That's not wildly outside. of their normal time. A 7.30 kick, West Coast time.

Starting point is 00:19:52 Yeah. What time, let's say the game lasts about, you know, average game, we'll say about two and a half hours in total. Oh, more than that, like probably three and a half. Okay. So let's say three and a half hours. If it kicks off at 7.30 in West Coast time, that means 10.30 in East Coast time. That means three and a half hours from 1030 East Coast time.

Starting point is 00:20:14 What time are you at toward the end of that game? in East Coast time. That's a little bit concerning. That's a little bit, you know, worrisome for Miami. So if they don't put this one away early, if they don't put this to bed early, their bodies are going to be on, wait a minute, it's 2 a.m. now,

Starting point is 00:20:34 don't get me wrong. Miami got some very beautiful women. I'm sure they used to exert some kind of energy at 2 a.m., but not that level. Not at that level. You know what I'm saying? I just don't think that they're ready to do all that at 132 in the morning. Yeah, they're trying to do what they can.

Starting point is 00:20:50 You know, Mario Cristobal this week talked about how like throughout the week they're kind of pushing all their team functions like back later to sort of get like kind of pretend that they're already on West Coast time. They are flying out to Cal a day early. Normally they travel on Friday. They're going to be flying out on Thursday. So we'll see. You know, it's like for me as a 40 year old man, it's going to be probably harder on me than it will be on them because I'm going to do post game until 4 a.m. after. that one on radio. So it's going to be a long night for me. We'll see, we'll see if the players handle it better than I do. So, but what do you think happens? You think Miami comes out on top,

Starting point is 00:21:28 they're 10-point favorites. I mean, I don't even know. I'm not going to pick Miami to cover a double-digit spread after what I saw last week. I'm just going to sit back and enjoy. I'm going to kick my feet up and enjoy the game. I think Miami's, though, they have the talent to win it as long as they can make a few tackles. I think they have the same script as last week, just without all the craziness and officials. I think Miami wins. I don't think they cover it.

Starting point is 00:21:53 I think that they come out of the gates hot, come out of the gate strong, but Cal just kind of finds a way to play themselves back into the game with an opportunity late. But I think that Miami just makes a couple more plays in that game. Don't be shocked if Cal wins this one, but I think Miami has just enough to hold on in a closer. Well, I want to talk a little bit about

Starting point is 00:22:14 what's at stake between the Clemson Tigers and Florida State Seminoles. A lot of us are just kind of assuming Clemson goes into Tallahassee and just steamrolls them. But will there be some fight from the Seminoles? What do they have to play for at this point? You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC. And I already know you're keeping it locked to Fan Duel. Guys, all these big games coming up this weekend.

Starting point is 00:22:44 You got Miami, 10-point favorites at Cal. You've got the Clemson Tigers, 14 and a half point favorites at Florida State, Virginia Tech, favored by 7.5 at Stanford, NC State, favored by 5.5 at home against Wake Forest. You want to check out all of this action on America's number one sports book, and that's Fandual. I love the FanDuel app. And, hey, NFL fans, you can start the season with a big return on Fan Duel. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest. Stats, view live play-by-play and so much more on the same page where you. you place your bets. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first

Starting point is 00:23:21 $5 bet. That's Fandul.com, America's number one sportsbook. Thank you so much for making this episode of Lockdown ACC, your first listen and your first watch today. We're free. Wherever you get your podcast, we're free on YouTube. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. Kenton Gibbs, by the way, my co-host is a former NC State defensive linemen. So at any level, Kenton, high school, Were you ever in a situation like Florida State where it's just things get so ugly a month into the season and now they've reached this crossroads and like what do you think their locker room is like right now? And how can they how can they pull themselves out of this when a team that a lot of folks picked is maybe an undefeated one lost team have already lost, they had

Starting point is 00:24:12 already lost four games before the calendar turned to October. I, in all honesty, I have never been on a team with as high expectations and as low performance as this ever. I've never been a part of it. I'm not going to, and I'm not going to pretend like, hey, I was the secret glue that kept us from being that team. I think that I was a pretty good player back in my day, but I don't think that I've ever experienced something like the amount of apathy that I'm seeing from Florida State as a team and as a unit.

Starting point is 00:24:44 This is something that's weird. This is, I watched the video. of Coach Norvelle doing the pre-practice sprint that went viral. And there was one guy racing them, and everybody else was just kind of, you know. And then the next day, apparently, and I didn't watch the next day, but I was told the next day,

Starting point is 00:25:05 everybody shows up and goes really hard and all that. Right. Probably because they saw the video go viral of the day before. Are y'all not embarrassed? Are you not ashamed? It's just my personal belief that when I am doing something, I don't, when I played, I didn't do anything for the cameras. Trust me, even at NC State where, you know, Annabelle and Company doing a phenomenal job.

Starting point is 00:25:28 You know, they do a phenomenal job of media coverage. Jeff Gravely and all over there, they do a great job. I never did anything for the cameras. I competed. I showed up. Everything that I did in terms of pre-practice and post-practice, it was because I wanted to win championships. I wanted to be the best player I could be. I wanted my name to be S in the record books.

Starting point is 00:25:48 It had nothing to do with. man are the camera's watching? Man, is this going to take my stock there? My draft stock, my value on the NIL market for when I leave. Is this going to take? Didn't give a damn about nothing. My thought was, I want to be a great player here.

Starting point is 00:26:03 And I think that that's why FSU is done because there are too many people. It doesn't mean something to wear that spear. At Casc Tech, it meant something to wear that green helmet with that white CT on it. At NC State, that block S meant something. It asked to me, something to you.

Starting point is 00:26:22 And the fact that there is just a complete and utter lack of fight, lack of passion, lack of discipline, lack of motivation. If you got to be pumped in pride to play a game in front of 60,000 plus people, I don't know

Starting point is 00:26:39 what to tell you. You're in the wrong field. You're the wrong industry. Go do something else. Go be an accountant. Go learn some enterprise rental car. Go do something because clearly this ain't for you. Now, they're finally making a quarterback change. It happened because DJ O'Yungalouet got hurt.

Starting point is 00:26:57 He injured his hand. But there's a quarterback change a lot of people have been calling for for the past couple of weeks. Now, we may find out if there is a reason why Brock Glenn was still behind DJU despite how much DJ was struggling. But I've also, I've seen teams, Kenton, I don't know if that's going to be the case with Florida State. Maybe it will be. But rallying behind a young quarterback, like, you know, like last. Last season, like I cover Miami, they weren't very good last season, but, you know, their starting quarterback, Tyler Van Dyke was a turnover machine.

Starting point is 00:27:29 Like it was really, it was starting to get ugly at times last year. And I thought from a full team standpoint, the best two games Miami played last year, like talking about everything outside of the quarterback position, were the two games when Miami started a true freshman at quarterback in Emery Williams against Clemson and actually against Florida State. Like I thought that was the best, the rest of the game. of the team played when they had, you know, a young quarterback who, you know, they dialed the playbook way down for him. And I thought the rest of the team really stepped up.

Starting point is 00:28:01 Like, do you think making this quarterback change? Like, I'm not necessarily saying Brockland is better than DJU. It would be hard to be worse. But can that spark his teammates to play with a little something extra? It absolutely can. But the question is, are they willing to show up and play that extra? Don't get me wrong. DJ was a problem. He was not. only problem. He was not the problem. I don't look at this team and say, if you replace DJ with an average quarterback, this team is 4-1. I don't say that. I agree that he's been below average. I think if you replace him with an average quarterback, they get one, maybe two more wins, maybe. But that's about it. Because all in all, this team has shown too many moments where you are

Starting point is 00:28:45 left scratching your head wondering, what are we doing here? What type of operation is this? So all in all, I'm looking at this situation and I'm saying to myself, hey, DJ and his benching could spark the team. It could. But again, I'm just disappointed in this team for not having any pride in themselves because you play for one of the most story brands, not just in college football, not just in college sports, not just in American sports. And all of sports around the world, Florida State is one of the more story. one of the more story programs. And so to see this complete lack of fire and lack of despair means something,

Starting point is 00:29:28 it's just so utterly disappointing. It's just one of those things where, you know, if they can play a competitive game, even if they don't win, like if they can show us something, can that become a rallying moment for the rest of their season? And I don't even know if that's what, like, I think we both are in an agreement that it would not surprise us if this game gets very ugly in Clemson's favor. But if Florida State.

Starting point is 00:29:51 can play hard and keep it close, you know, they're supposed to lose this game by more than two touchdowns. Can that rally them for the rest of the year? No. No, I don't think losing to Clemson's, this rivalry used to be the determining game for the ACC championship. This was the de facto actual ACC championship. I want to say in the last nine or ten years, the winner of this game went on to win the ACC championship every year except one. I did Pitt, except Pitt. Pitt. Pitt was the one time, and I believe that was the COVID year, if I'm not incorrect there. So, or maybe it was the year after. It was either that or it might have been the year after.

Starting point is 00:30:27 It was one or two. But things were kind of weird then. But even if we do include the weird year, nine out of ten, that being the game, you know, I mean, you're, okay, you keep it close, right? What is close? It's close 14. It's close seven. It's close three.

Starting point is 00:30:45 At the end of the day, you still walk away from that game, but what record, Donald? one and five five one and five so you have to win out or lose no more than one more game in order to get yourself to a bowl this team is they're they're deeply unserious right now so i don't think anything short of a win sparks and and you know is a catalyst for this team going forward now do I think it's possible that they win, there is a world where that happens. Despite the fact that I've seen absolute livermush from this team so far, there is a world where they win this football game. In that world and that world only, do we see this Florida State team turn their season around?

Starting point is 00:31:32 I don't see losing clothes being enough for them to say, all right, I'm motivated now. We know we can play with the big book. You're still one in five. So we'll find out Saturday if we're living in that specific timeline of that specific multiverse where Florida State pulls off the upset against Clemson this weekend. He's Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono from Lockdown-Kaens. Make sure you check out our other shows and check out Lockdown College Football.

Starting point is 00:31:59 And we will talk to you again next time. We'll have the squad together tomorrow, by the way. It's going to be a lot of fun. We'll talk to you then on another episode of Lockdown ACCC, part of the awesome Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day.

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