Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - Who Needs To Stand Out In Miami, FSU, and Louisville's Spring Football Games? Key Storylines

Starting point is 00:00:00 Within the next two weeks, there are 12 more spring football games in the ACC. What are the contenders need to do to step up? You are Locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome EveryDayers into another episode of Locked on ACC. I am Alex Dono from Locked on Caines. He's Kent and Gibbs from Locked on Wolfpack. Thank you so much for making Locked on ACC your friend.

Starting point is 00:00:46 listen and first watch each and every day. We're available free. Wherever you get your podcast, we're available free on YouTube. We are part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. I do want to cover Kenton on this episode. Some more of the teams with the highest Vegas win totals in the ACC, Florida State, favored to repeat slightly, favor to repeat as conference champions. They have their spring game coming up a week from this Saturday on the 20th.

Starting point is 00:01:13 Louisville, a team that played in the ACC championship game last year. They've got their spring game on April 19th, the Miami Hurricanes. I know very high ceiling, very low floor. That's just the way it is with Miami. They've got their spring game and I will be there coming up this Saturday. But Kenton, a team that's not necessarily a contender or maybe they can sneak up on some people this year. The spring game, you're really looking forward to watching in the coming weeks is one that maybe not a lot of people outside of black. Berger, Virginia have circled.

Starting point is 00:01:45 Yes, I'm looking for Virginia Tech. They were a team that their run defense was kind of their undoing at times last year. So what are they going to go do? They go get a bunch of very talented transfers on the interior of the defensive line. Here's the problem. They last year were a little light in the behind on the defensive line. They only have one lineman that was listed at 300 pounds plus. Of the three interior guys they got, not a single one of them is listed at 300 pounds.

Starting point is 00:02:11 Ania's people, 61285, Gileum from Oklahoma. I believe he's 285. So you're looking at a situation where I get it. Low man wins and all of that good stuff. But mass moves mass. And if those guys can do enough, if they can get big enough and bulk up enough in the time before the season to be true anchors, I don't mean do it well. I don't mean, no, I mean if they can bulk up to be two defensive tackles that, yes,

Starting point is 00:02:40 they get disruption and they get upfield, but they can also keep their linebackers with the ability to move laterally and kind of get around the field. Virginia Tech is very much so a team to watch out for it because I'm talking about the defensive line, but we all know the star of the show is Kyron drones, right? Kyron drones by Shaw Tutton, those two are they're the ones, okay? A read option with them coming at you, it's a scary, scary sight because there's no right answer. There really and truly is no right answer between those two. And drones look so effective in so many games last year by Shaw Tutin, another guy that just, you know, he took the world over by storm in the ACC a little bit last year in terms of his ability to run the ball. So if that

Starting point is 00:03:22 defense can get it together, if they can get that run defense together, if they can stop teams and be able to control the line of scrimmage defensively, I think they'll be just fine. Virginia Tech Spring game is going to be 3 p.m. this Saturday, April 13th. And They're getting some respect out of the sports book, Kenton. I'm looking at the official sports book of the Lockdown Network fan duel. The over under on wins for Virginia Tech is seven and a half this year. So they're expected to be upper half of the conference and they are expected to be bowl eligible this season. So you might be on to something there.

Starting point is 00:03:54 The over under the win total for Miami coming off a seven and six season last year, including the bowl game is nine and a half this year. Now, I've often said even as a guy who covers Miami, me that that that number seems a little high, but you do take into account the addition of Cam Ward, who was a standout quarterback the last couple of years at Washington State, through for over 3,700 yards, 25 touchdown, 7 interceptions last season. I've had a chance to watch Ward a lot in spring practices, Kenton, and he's just, he conducts himself like a future NFL quarterback, and you can see that difference out there.

Starting point is 00:04:33 It's been very accurate with the football, and I appreciate the hard work that he's putting in practice and outside of practice to build chemistry with receivers. So, you know, Ward, I've been able to watch a lot of seven-on-sevons. We don't get to watch a lot of 11-on-11s until the spring game comes up. So I'm looking forward to seeing Ward. My understanding is so far with Miami this spring, he's only actually thrown one interception in 11-on-11s going into the fifth week of spring football. So he's taken care of the football.

Starting point is 00:05:02 Really, Ward's problem when it comes to turnover's last couple years, has been fumbling, not interceptions and they're, you know, without a lot of live contact in spring. The fumbling is not something you see as much of. So that's definitely something I'm going to be watching for in the spring game. You know, one guy, Kenton, I hope you hear his name a lot next season when it comes to Miami is early enroly, true freshman Elijah Lofton. He's been that guy on Miami so far where you can plug and play this guy anywhere and he looks like he's right at home.

Starting point is 00:05:34 You know, came in as a tight end. I've seen him make several one-handed grabs in practices at tight end, but he's also been lining up wide and in something that has surprised a lot of people, Elijah Loft, a true freshman out of Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, has been lining up a ton in the backfield. And he's actually looked at times like Miami's best running back in spring. Keep in mind, Mark Fletcher, who was arguably Miami's best running back last year, is missing spring due to injury.

Starting point is 00:05:59 AJ Allen is also one of Miami's top running backs last season. He's been out. So the guy who wears number nine, Elijah Lofton, is someone you're going to see a whole lot of. Defensively, Kenton, I've been pretty happy with the way Miami's linebackers have played. The defensive line has had some injured guys. C.J. Clark, who's a former NC State defensive tackle transferred to Miami this year. I have high expectations for him. Ruben Bain, the reigning ACC freshman defensive rookie of the year from last year.

Starting point is 00:06:29 He's back for his second year. An area that I do have some concerns about, though, Kenton when it comes to Miami, and I'll be watching them in the spring game, is the defensive secondary. Outside of a couple of very experienced guys in Daryl Porter Jr. at cornerback, who's heading into his, I believe, fifth year senior season, and Mish Powell, who's a senior transfer safety from Washington, there's a lot of question marks surrounding those guys, some young guys like Damari Brown and Robert Stafford at Corner, like Sabion Riley at Safety, and Jadis shirt at corner who really need to step up this year.

Starting point is 00:07:03 But that's an area where, for example, Florida State, who we're going to talk about a little bit later on, is always like three deep at defensive back. Miami, Miami doesn't have as much depth at DB as I would hope they would at this point. You know, the question of Miami is always the chemistry. It's never the talent. It's always the chemistry. That's why nine and a half is a little rich for my blood, because you know that they can do it. You know that they can.

Starting point is 00:07:26 In a perfect world, we will be perfect world, as Kendrick would say. but we're not there, right? And it's still that question of, okay, do you have the talent, but can you do the coaching things, right? Can you do the little things, right? Can this team, you talk about Cam Ward being a true professional. It takes more than him being a true professional to get where you need to go. And so, you know, you're left with that question of, is Miami finally going to put it all together? Because there have been times before where there was an upstart transfer quarterback.

Starting point is 00:07:54 He's the guy. He's the one. We're returning all this talent. We got all these guys. We had all these horses in the stable, and now we got a good quarterback to lead us. We'll be just fine. Something went wrong.

Starting point is 00:08:05 You've had times in the past. Oh, we got a top recruit class. I'm top recruit class. And now it's time and something's wrong. So I think that the, nobody will ever question Miami's talent. Anybody who question Miami's talent, you're a fool and a half, okay?

Starting point is 00:08:19 I'm telling you that right now. Through every error, even when they didn't have top recruited classes, they would always get a couple top recruits. Even through the Randy Shannon era, there were players who went on to have long careers in the lead out of those groups. So it's never solely about the talent with Miami. It's about how do you jail and mesh as a team to do what needs to be done because football

Starting point is 00:08:40 is known as the ultimate team sport. So do you have it in you to be the ultimate team? Because you cannot go out there. I have not seen a team yet that is talented enough through their top 40 players or so that they can go out there and play like a bunch of badness and still get. get the job done. That's well said. Well, I want to talk about the defending ACC champs when we come back. Obviously, there's a lot to respect on Florida State's roster. There's a reason why their win total is it nine and a half. But have they figured out the chemistry with their transfer quarterback and young wide receivers?

Starting point is 00:09:18 Because they did lose a couple of very important receivers to the NFL. You want to keep it locked right here. We will also talk some Louisville. We will even talk some SMU. They had their spring game already. not technically a member of the ACC until July 1st. It's a technicality. Could the Mustangs be a team that sneaks up on people this year? Keep it locked right here. Alex Dono from Locked on Cainz, Kenton Gibbs from Locked on Wolfpack right here on Locked on ACC. And folks, I know you're keeping it locked to Fanduel because, guys, when we're talking about these spring.

Starting point is 00:09:51 Now, you'd be a fool to bet on a spring game. I doubt there are odds available. However, we've been talking about these win totals. And that's something you want to get into on Fanduil in the ACC and otherwise. And guys, it's also it's playoff time in the NBA and NHL. Baseball's in full swing. And Fandual is your place to bet on every game. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets guaranteed.

Starting point is 00:10:16 That's $150 win or lose. You can bet on everything from slap shots to home runs to slam dunks, all on an app that's safe, secure, and easy to use. What are you waiting for? Visit fanduel.com slash locked on. and make your first bet an automatic win. And guys, there's some juicy win totals in the ACC. We talked about, you know, Virginia Tech.

Starting point is 00:10:36 Is that a team people are sleeping on over under seven and a half? Can they go over that this year? I definitely see some value in Louisville over eight and a half, NC State over eight and a half. Florida State and Clemson, Miami are all over under nine and a half. You can take a look at all of this and more at Van Duel. Trust me, you're going to love this. Van Duel, America's number one sports book.

Starting point is 00:10:58 Thank you so much for making this episode of Locked on ACC, your first listen and your first watch today. We're available free wherever you get your podcast, available free on YouTube. Hey, are you watching Fox Sports or ESPN on your TV all day? You have to turn down that volume with all that shouting. Make the switch to Locked on Sports today. A free 24-7 streaming channel program for you every day to bring you the biggest stories without all the screaming. Locked on sports today brings you can't miss analysis, opinions, and news. Streaming 24-7 on YouTube or the free.

Starting point is 00:11:28 Amazon Fire TV channels app, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. So Kenton, I'm looking at the Florida State Semtals. We got a little more time to marinate before their spring game. That's going to be on Saturday, April 20th. There's going to be a big batch of spring games on that final Saturday. And also, like, well, one thing that's kind of interesting, like I like the timing of, you know, teams that have already played their spring games like Clemson, NC State SMU, and the teams that are playing there's this Saturday.

Starting point is 00:11:57 because something people need to realize is the transfer portal is opening next Monday, April 15th. And I think it's kind of awkward for anyone who's not played their spring game by next Monday, because you may be losing players before you need to take the field with a seemingly full roster for your spring game, whether it's on the 19th or the 20th coming up. Yeah, no, I totally agree. And I think that it's one of those things that the NCAA or that college football, talking heads have gotten completely wrong. With all due respect, I think that you need to leave it either after all of the

Starting point is 00:12:33 spring games or making rules saying, hey, your spring game has to be finished up by this time because it does create an extremely, it does create an extremely compromising situation for some of these schools. You know, you're looking at some of these schools that don't bring in a ton of transferers, but guys leave in your holes, you could be looking at something like that coming out of spring. And then what do you do? What do you say?

Starting point is 00:12:53 And obviously the spring transfer window is less active. than the winter one, but still, you don't want to bank it on and bet on, hey, nobody's going to leave my school. That's just a really tough act there. So I'd love to see something kind of happen to clean this up so that we're not seeing, oh, by the way, y'all be real. Y'all be safe, but I'm going before spring. Well, Florida State is a team that's already brought in a lot of transfers. They were very active in the winter window. In fact, 24-7 sports currently lists them as the fourth-ranked transfer class in the entire country,

Starting point is 00:13:25 which is basically following up on the great portal that they had the year prior. Florida State, I thought, did a really good job taking a ton of guys from Alabama after Sabin's retirement, including defensive back Earl Little Jr. They continue their tradition of taking transfers from Georgia as well. They added legacy defensive lineman Marvin Jones Jr. His father was a seminal back in the day. And of course, the quarterback is new. A lot of teams with transfer portal quarterbacks, including in the ACC.

Starting point is 00:13:55 DJ Weungalole, it seems like he's been working hard to learn Florida State's offensive system. There has been, from what I understand, a bit of a learning curve there for him. And he doesn't have the benefit of throwing the football to guys like Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson, who are going on to the National Football League. So, you know, basically what I can gather, Kenton is that, and they've got some dudes at Florida State. They just have some unproven dudes at receiver.

Starting point is 00:14:21 So they're looking for guys to step up this coming season. They've got young receivers like Luane McCoy, Camden Friar, who they're looking to take the next step. So I think it's just a matter of building that chemistry. And it wouldn't surprise me that once we watch Florida State Spring game on the 20th, if it's another one of those situations where they're very talented defense is probably ahead of the offense right now. Oh, most likely so. You're replacing your top two receivers, your top tight end, your top two running backs, your quarterback. You're replacing so, so much offensively.

Starting point is 00:14:51 This is not a patch job where it's like, oh, one receiver left. We're all right. We were returning to get back. No, no. Everybody named Amma, who wore garnered and gold and played significant time last year, is leaving townhouse. Right. So, you know, this is the team that they need to show that they're ready and that they have kind of jailed a little bit because Florida State is going to run into the same problem as Miami a little bit. Because when you look at Florida State last year, how many years was Jordan Travis there before last year?

Starting point is 00:15:18 Three, four. How many years was Johnny Wilson there before last year? At least three years. I mean, he initially transferred in, but he was there for a while. How many years were both of those backs there for Florida State last year? You see what I'm saying? Like, these are not guys who they came together, and there was a, you know, a complete and utter reversal of fortune.

Starting point is 00:15:39 The only guy who it was same year is Kei. Coleman, who is such a freak. He is such a freak. He is everything that you would want in the receiver. If you were like creating a guy on Madden or something like that, well, yeah, six four guy who can return. Puts. What?

Starting point is 00:15:55 Yeah, 6-4 guy who will return punts. Everybody has one of those, right? No, they don't exist. He's a unicorn. He's a freak. He's a big play. He's a walking big play waiting to happen. So, you know, this is going to be a situation where this team has to jail together in a very

Starting point is 00:16:12 short amount of time. And for Norville, I believe that last year bought him a lot more grace than people understand. And I think this year may be a year where they're ex-exempt. some of that grace despite the nine and a half, despite the nine and a half game pick from Fandul. I go under on that one as well, because while I think that's a good team, I think that there are just going to be moments where you just see

Starting point is 00:16:35 DJ and those receivers, while they're very talented, a little bit off. And you can win games. You can win a lot of games playing mainly defensive ball. I don't think you can win 11 or 12 that way. I don't think you win 10 that way. So we'll see. That's a good shout.

Starting point is 00:16:51 You know, one, another school that has their spring game kind of late in the game. It's actually going to be a night before Florida State. A team that I think is probably maybe a little underrated with an eight and a half win total, and that's the Louisville Cardinals. They're going to be playing their spring game on, I think, an evening game on April 19th. That's a Friday. And, you know, we talk about Florida State having the fourth ranked transfer portal class in the country. Louisville's got the fifth ranked transfer portal class in America. And that includes a new quarterback. and Tyler Shuck, who when he's on the field, the former Texas Tech star, on the field, he's been

Starting point is 00:17:28 electric. His challenge has been staying on the field because he's had several bad injuries. I don't think he's played more than seven games in a season, at least not over the last couple of years. So him staying healthy is going to be the key there. But I just look at, and, you know, I don't know if, you know, there could be like a sophomore slump or if the honeymoon might end this year. but I think Jeff Brom did just an admirable job in his first season at his alma mater last year. Like sometimes it takes a new coach, you know, a year or two to kind of get their feet under them. That's what I'm hoping is happening with Mario Cristobal at Miami.

Starting point is 00:18:02 Sometimes it takes a year or two, but he went zero to 60 very quickly. And Brom's strength is his offensive schematics and the work that he does with quarterbacks. And so I feel pretty good about the cards heading into next year. So here's the thing. They got one question and one question only. Who is Tiger Show? We can all like to, we can all say he is this guy, he is that guy. I hate the caveat when healthy.

Starting point is 00:18:27 Because when healthy is a huge caveat, especially for a guy that has he ever finished the season? No, but it's one thing like I have mixed feelings about him because when I'm studying his injury history, it's usually been really serious stuff like a broken leg last year. So it's like, is that just bad luck? Because like sometimes you hear about all this guy. has always got hamstring and muscular problems. But like in his case, he's had like serious stuff. So like, can you be prone to breaking your leg or is that just, you know, bad luck? I don't,

Starting point is 00:18:58 I don't know what to do with that. I'll tell you what. I don't believe in Tyler Shoeb to say the least. However, Louisville has done such a fantastic job of getting it done in the portal. And I'm a huge believer at Ashton Jolati. I believe he's one of the most underrated pass rushers in all the conference, or not in all the conference, in all the land, in all of America. I think Louisville can get to their eight and a half. I think they can. Honestly and truly, I believe they can, because I'm that high on this defense, I'm that high on the pieces that they're bringing back as well as the pieces that they're bringing in. I'm just not sold on Tyler Shack at all. I think they're going to have

Starting point is 00:19:33 a lot of knockdown, drag out, scrapout games that are going to be by a hair on their chin-y-chin-chin. The problem is that those can go either way. Those can go. Those games are one play, you know, one bonehead moment away from, man, we should have won that game, but we just gave up to Bigap that one time. It was Katie Dead's at the doorstep. So I believe that Louisville can get there, but if their season is dependent about Tyler Shuck being great or good, you can try to change, but that's just the top player.

Starting point is 00:20:03 Homi, you was who you was when you got here, as the great poet and philosopher Sean Carter was said. And so I'm believing that he is who he is with the bad love, and Louisville is going to need to have all. all hands on deck as far as the other guys to get them to that nine games, nine wins. Well, they definitely, Louisville studied his injury history because I noticed, I don't know how many of these guys are like plug and play, you know, first or second triggers, but they added six offensive linemen already in the portal.

Starting point is 00:20:30 That seems like a lot in one position group to add six guys. That seems like a lot. So they're putting the emphasis on protecting him. When we come back, you a team, I noticed that the narratives have been very, very favorite. on the SMU Mustangs as they make the jump from the AAC to the ACC, could they be a team that can quietly surprise some people this coming season? Alex Dono from Lockdown Cains, Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack with you. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of Lockdown ACC.

Starting point is 00:21:02 Thank you so much for making Lockdown ACC your first listen and your first watch today. So SMU, they actually already played their spring game, Kenton. They played it on April 5th. And this is another one of those. I was a little bit surprised, especially given their head coach, Rhett Lashley, is an offensive guru, a great quarterbacks coach, in addition to being a very successful former OC at SMU and Miami. Last few years, he's been back with the Mustangs as their head coach.

Starting point is 00:21:29 This is another one where the defense seemed to have the advantage over the offense, despite a couple of big plays. Running back, Camar Wheaton, had a long touchdown run. Mucci Dixon, one of their receivers, had a big catch in the game. They both scored touchdowns. touchdowns were hard to come by. The blue team beat the black team, 20 to 3, whatever that means. And another, an interesting thing about the SMU spring game, Kenton.

Starting point is 00:21:53 And I guess this just kind of goes to show you that coaches have all different approaches to spring games. And the practices probably mean more than the spring game because a lot of teams will, kind of divide up the teams where, like, you're keeping units together, like you're keeping position groups and starting units together. SMU actually did something where it sounded kind of gimmicky where they picked teams. And so, you know, your left tackles not playing next to his usual left guard. You're you're starting running back, maybe playing with a completely different group of non-starters. So I don't know if that's like really the best way to show your fans what you got when you're kind of pulling guys, you know,

Starting point is 00:22:34 together from different units. But that was the approach that Rhett Lashley went with. But, you know, you can comment on that, Kenton. But the greater point I want you to comment on here is this is, this is, a team that they were one of those darling group of five teams last year. They went undefeated in their conference. They won an AAC championship. And a lot of people think that SMU in the ACC can make some noise. Do you think there's going to be an adjustment period for them going from group of five to power four or can they hit the ground running? There's going to be an

Starting point is 00:23:04 adjustment period. But with that being said, that adjustment period doesn't have to be very long at all. that adjustment period doesn't have to be a three, four, five year adjustment period. Because I'm a firm believer in when you go up and all that, you're a huge soccer guy. You know the teams who get promoted are often the most likely to be subject to relegation for the next year. That's just the fact of the matter. And so, you know, although this isn't exactly equivalent to that, I'm expecting to see a little bit of struggle because naturally it's a little bit different. Things are going to be a little bit different. You're traveling to some teams that, you know, they're going to have some size.

Starting point is 00:23:44 They're going to have some things that you're not used to seeing weekend and week out. You had weeks in the past where you were going to see teams that are like, I mean, sure, they're in office. It's pretty gimmicky, but, you know, they're not just putting their heads on you and saying, hey, we're bigger than you, we're storing you. Come with me some. We're taking you out to club, you know, the same way that you are with some of these teams that are coming up this year. So I think that there will be an adjustment period, but I'll tell you what, Rhett Lashley is a highly-vaunted guy for a reason. And if they're offense, you know Red Lashley is drawing up some nonsense, some craziness.

Starting point is 00:24:20 He's a little bit of a mad scientist. And by nonsense and craziness, I mean things that confuse defenses, not, you know, he doesn't know what he's doing offensively. So would I be surprised to see them win some games they shouldn't or that on paper their underdogs? No, would not be surprised at all by that. Yeah, and their win total at Fanduil is seven and a half. It's a little higher than I expected. So, you know, you've got some ACC mainstays like Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech at five and a half. I think I don't have Boston colleges in front of me, but I think they're probably in that four and a half to five and a half range as well.

Starting point is 00:24:53 But the new kids on the block, SMU, are getting some respect there at seven and a half. And they do return their starting quarterback from last year who had a good year Preston Stone. He threw for over 3,200 yards, 28 touchdowns, six interceptions last year. So having him back under Lashley is going to add some stability. Is that a team you think could be the ones that surprised some people in the ACC? Or do you think of it? I also think at five and a half, I don't think Georgia, I'm not saying Georgia Tech's going to win the conference.

Starting point is 00:25:24 I don't think Georgia Tech is getting quite enough respect, though, Kenton, at five and a half, especially with Haynes King returning this year, who had a better year than people realized last year. So I think there's some value in the betting lines for some of these teams that are kind of in the cellar. Key and company are going to be cooking up on a Habachi grill in this season. Because people are, why are we playing this game as if Georgia Tech is a horrible team? I believe in Key a lot. I have seen that man, I have seen that man coach. I have heard him talking.

Starting point is 00:25:58 That's the type of coach that I've run through with Rick Walker. That's type of coach that I'm like, hey. Whatever he needs me to do, I'll do it. I'll do it twice over if he asks me to do a watch just because he's that special. So with a quarterback like Hayneski coming back, with some weapons on the outside of returning, I don't see how you believe only five is what you're getting there. But there's money to be made. There's money to be made, folks.

Starting point is 00:26:21 I'm telling you, if you believe Georgia Tech at five and a half, I've got oceanfront property to sell you in Detroit, Michigan. Don't ask me which ocean is off of. Just give me the money. I'll show you the property after. Oh, man. Well, we'll preview some more upcoming spring games on our next episode because, again, there are 12 more of these happening. We've already had a few.

Starting point is 00:26:43 There are 12 more of these happening within the next two weeks. He is Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack. Make sure you follow him on X at TGIF underscore Kenton. I am Alex Dono. Make sure you follow me on X at Alex Dono. And we will talk to you again tomorrow on another episode of Lockdown ACC, part of the awesome Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day.

Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - Who Needs To Stand Out In Miami, FSU, and Louisville's Spring Football Games? Key Storylines

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