Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - Why Florida State & Clemson Might Get Free In 2027 | Cam Ward Honored | 1st Team All-Conference

Episode Date: August 2, 2024

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The ACC would like to keep every team locked into the conference until 2036. But Florida State and Clemson, here's why they might be able to get out by or before 2027. 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 for making locked on ACC, your first listen and your first watch today. we're available free wherever you get your podcast. We're free on YouTube. We're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

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I am Alex Dono from Lockdown Cains. He's Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack. So Kenton, I know that Florida State and Clemson fans, they certainly want to get out of the conference even sooner than this. But there may be possibly a smoking gun here. We'll talk about it. The 2027 might be the year. Yeah, for sure. You know, you're looking at this thing and you're saying to yourself, man, what twist and turns are we in for?

And now there's allegedly something in the fine print, something that's not redacted, because if you look at, at the actual documents that were put out to the public, I'll tell you what, it's, it's like a DMX song over the radio. There's just like one word, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, redacted, and then another word, and then more redaction. So, you know, you just don't have the beats and the barks to vibe off of like you do with the DMX song on the radio. So it's much tougher of a read to get through. But in all seriousness, I'm ready to get into what this could possibly mean for Clemson, FSU in 2027. So here is, I'm going to pull. up an ex post and we'll read it for those listening to the audio version. You'll see it on your

screen as well if you're watching the video version. This is from Doug Rohan. He's an attorney, Rohan Law. He's not directly involved in the Florida State and Clemson cases, but he's been monitoring them very closely and providing commentary throughout on social media. So we have these these heavily redacted versions of the ACC ESPN television agreement that are out there. And, you people are pulling some nuggets from the unredacted part. Now, I want to note, since we don't know what's in the redacted part, you see all those black marks there on the screen, the stuff we're not allowed to read. I don't know if any of that stuff may invalidate what we read in the text, but here's the breakdown from Rohan Law. The text of the readable agreements show and confirm that these

agreements were designed to run until 2027. And by the way, this is the TV agreement, not the grant of rights. The T.B. Agreement is part of that. He says, while there has been a lot of talk about an extension in the term of the agreement by letter, only one paragraph is amended. These contracts have multiple paragraphs that reference the various payout dates through a certain period. Any extension that was designed to extend the entire contract would have to restate all of these contract terms, not just the one paragraph. This lends credibility to the view that the current ESPN agreement with the ACC expires in 2027.

A completely new multimedia agreement approved by the members according to the bylaws would be required to extend the contract beyond 2027. Unless there's something else of consequence in the redacted portions, maybe there are. This tells me, Doug, writes, that

the current agreement and therefore the grant of rights expires in 27, according to 1.6.2 of the ACC Constitution, if two-thirds of the members vote to extend the material media rights agreement, that could bind Florida State and Clemson to the 2026, 2036 terms of the grant of rights. This is a reminder that for Florida State and Clemson to win,

they need to get a victory on just one of their arguments for the ACC to win. They need to beat FSU and Clemson at every single argument. So, all right, Kenton, I think my big takeaway here is people are wondering, if the current form of this TV agreement, as had been rumored, if that expires in 2027, to extend that to 20, 30, to 2036, would that require a new grant of rights, meaning every member has to agree to it and vote on it? I'm sure the ACC would say no.

It does not require that. Does it require a two-thirds vote? The ACC would probably have that two-thirds vote, even if Clemson and Florida State vote no on that. Or some people wonder if it's going to require a vote at all or if Jim Phillips is just going to say, boom, let's go. Or what about the ESPN side of it? Could ESPN come out of this before 2027 and say, you know what? We're going to wash our hands of the ACC.

We're not going to continue until 2036. So these are all the variables that may or may not play in Florida State and Clemson's favor. So let's look at those variables for just a second here, okay? the ESPN angle. ESPN is making out like bandits. Every report on the amount that ESPN is bringing in relative to the money they are paying out says they got a one up on the ACC. Where I come from, some would say they have the drop on the ACC. Okay. They're having their way more or less with what they want to do in terms of the payout versus what they're receiving in. So ESPN abandoned ACC, it doesn't. It doesn't. It doesn't. It doesn't. passed the smell test. And now let's look at that two-thirds vote thing for a second. Where do they think all of these votes to leave are coming from? Right now we're looking at how many teams, Donald 17? Is that the total member number with everybody? Actually, you know what? I think for the grants of rights, I think Notre Dame, even though they're not in football,

I think that they're part of that. So it's technically 18. 18, meaning you need six teams to vote against it. Even if I were to grant you, fully grant you, Clemson, Florida State, Clemson, Florida State, Miami, UNC, who else? You would need 12 teams to vote against it. You would need two thirds.

Oh, you would need two thirds to vote against it. I thought you needed two thirds to vote for it. If you need two thirds to vote against it, this is much worse than what I had originally thought. I thought it was two thirds had to vote. You might be right, by the way. I think If two-thirds of the member, yeah, I think you might be right.

If two-thirds of the members vote to extend the material media rights agreement, that could buy, yeah, so you're right. You were right, I was wrong. Oh, either way you cut or slice it. It doesn't matter who's right or who's wrong. The numbers are right there. There are so many different. And I guess the argument that Rohan law is making here is,

well, if they have to renew it, how do you charge somebody to get out of something that's not officially established that the charter isn't officially there for? yet except see it is like the the fact that we're discussing this contract which goes to 30 13 says that the charter is there but far be it for me to tell a lawyer hey i know the law better than me rohan law's been at this for 20 years i'm not saying that he has his garnered gold glasses on i'm not saying that the glasses that he's wearing have a little spear design on the side of me i think i think i think he did get his law degree from florida state i i think i know he went may might have been undergrad, but I think he did go there at some point. So a little bias doesn't mean he's wrong,

though. I was just about to say, but there are plenty of times where I picked Disney State to win a game, nobody else had him winning, and I wasn't wrong about it. You know what I mean? So I get what Rohan law is saying here, and I don't want to say I know the law better than a lawyer. So I'm not going to say that. But what I will say is I think that it's very interesting. And I'd love to see how it plays out in terms of the ACC has to win at every point. And Clems and the Florida State have to win just any argument. I struggle with the idea that that is fully, that's fully feasible or that's a realm of reality that we're living in.

I'm struggling to see that realm. But, you know, I'm, as y'all know, on this show, we're not afraid to invite anybody on. We're not afraid. So if Rohan Law wants to come on, you know, I saw CNN and all that in there, this is a formal invite, brother. If you all, Florida State fans, y'all want to tag on our show.

Yeah, well, we'll extend the invite. We want you on, just like we're having a guy from Calhoun who said that there was nothing but Arizona's of Arizona states here. We want to have these conversations because I'm very interested in breaking this down, not only to break down the legalese, but as what is his name, as Albert Einstein once said, if you truly understand a concept, you can explain it to a five-year-old. And so I would love to see the concepts here that go into, hey, this is something that, you know, ACC has to dominate. Florida State and Clemson just need to come up with one win and how that works out in terms of a full win for either of those schools or both. No matter how that plays out, I think this is giving us a preview of how future court arguments are going to play out. because to me that 2027 look in clause or the opportunity to redo or abolish that TV deal, that to me is going to be the focal point on both the Clemson fronts.

And I think Clemson were the ones to bring this to the forefront even before Florida State did. But I think that's going to be the focal point of both of these lawsuits now, that what happens on 27 and does that mean the grant of rights in its current form is no longer valid? And can these schools get out for free? And guess what, Kenton, if they rule that there's. is no longer a grant of rights after 2027. If that's what the court comes up with,

that becomes an existential crisis for the ACC. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. I don't think any argument can be made that if that is the ruling, and I've talked a lot about, hey, what happens if Florida State and Clemson get absolutely mopped in court? What happens if the ACCC gets mopped in court? And that is the case, like you said.

But here's the thing. I still don't think that we're in that area because the PAC 12 was the PAC 12 first. The PAC 12 didn't have a predecessor of a Power 5 conference that was completely disbanded, that basically had their teams go to other conferences based on what is your status and what is your rank. All of the top tier, the eyeball getters from the PACs well, they got to go to the conference they wanted to go to. And then even the second tier teams, quote unquote, second tier got to go to conferences that they wanted to. and the problem is because the ACC is falling in line behind that, where are these teams going to go? Who wants these teams?

And even beyond that, who would vote to opt out of the grant of rights without somewhere bare to go? Right. Yeah. It would not be smart. I mean, because I'm sure the Big 12 would be more than happy to take a bunch of these teams, but not all of them. They're not taking everybody. They're not taking everybody.

And also, what is the Big 12's cut? we are dealing a lot with perception. We're dealing a lot with perception. The fans can deal with perception. Media people can deal with perception because your check and my check don't change based on perception of reality. A fan's fandom, your belief in the canes, your belief in the nose, your belief in the tigers, your belief in the pack, your belief in the hills,

your belief in the orange. It does not change based on whether or not there is actually more money to be made in the ACC than the Big 12. That doesn't change. You know what does change? That AB's money. his or her, their money changes. You know what does change the money that goes into your stadium or not

because you've made a fiscally deleterious decision? So I'm very interested to see, even if things do play out that these teams have a get out of jail free car to go to another conference, who actually pulls the trigger to say, I know that there are greener pastures out there for me, as opposed to saying, you know what? Things may not be perfect,

but better the devil you know than to go out there. and end up an independent trying to fight and scrap for a local TV did. I got another scenario for you when we come back, which could be a big win for a bunch of teams that are currently in the ACC, but a big loss for a handful of them. Plus on this episode, it has been revealed, guys, first team preseason all ACC. Did we the media get it right?

Because Kenton and I both voted on this. First team all ACC, any omissions, anybody who doesn't belong, who did get in there. And I will, I'll take a preseason victory lap for my guy, Cam Ward. I know it's proven on the field. And so the whole, I kind of laugh at the whole preseason player of the year thing. But I mean, big, big honor from my dude. We'll keep it locked right here.

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Thank you so much for making this episode of Lockdowne ACC, your first listen and your first watch today. For your second listen, check out our other shows. Kenton does an awesome job. Locked on Wolfpack. I host Locked on Cains every single day, wherever you get your podcast free and available free on YouTube as well, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team. every day. So, you know, Kenton, another scenario that it's been thrown out there by some tin

foil hat wearing individuals that if, let's say. I know exactly where you're going with this. I don't know if you do. We'll see. You tell me, you tell me, you tell me if you know where I'm going with it. Let's see. Okay, we'll see. So if the court's plural, because there's multiple courts involved, basically say the grant of rights gets finished in 2027. Like there's no, you have to create a new grants of rights after 2027, then the scenario could be, because this has been talked about before, that let's say like the top eight, top 10 moneymakers in the ACC, say, let's just cut out the rest of these guys that bring it. Is that where you thought I was going?

I knew it. Yeah, that's what I knew. Yeah. Because we knew. We say, you know, we say, we say, we say, Sionara to Wake Forest, you know, Boston College. It's nice knowing you. And we, we, you know, whoever we have to. cut out to make this thing more profitable.

And then we go to ESPN. We renegotiate a deal where we all get more money and everybody, everybody except the schools that get kicked to the curb when? You know, that is something that I've heard floated around a lot. And it is something that I hate to say it. I really do. In this new landscape of college athletics, it is more likely than ever to be a possibility.

because before there was something, and don't get me wrong to, and don't get me the line and saying, oh, this thing was never based on money. It was always based on friendship and regionalism and I'm not going to tell you that a lot. But in this current environment that we are in in terms of college sports, specifically college football, there is such a move, there is such a press to squeeze out every dollar that I would not be surprised to see certain teams get squeezed out in that same vein of, hey, listen, we like you, we think you're cool, we think you're all right.

But with all due respect, we, business decisions had to be made. It was either cut you or take a billion from Red Heron Capital. Those were our options. I'm sorry, we love the Demon Deacons as much as anybody, you know. We love M&T Bank Stadium. I believe that's the name of their stadium. I'm sorry. I'm not going to fact check that one.

I'm sorry. We love going up to Chestnut Hill. And I know some people are going to say, oh, you keep taking shots at those two. But there are other schools included in this school. I know that those schools are going to say, oh, you know, we know it's tough. And they'll probably be a series of lawsuits about, well, the grant of rights didn't say that, you know, all that type of stuff. Back in court and all that. But this is more likely a possibility than ever. The tinfoil hatters may just get their wish here. Because again, folks are chasing that dollar like we've never seen. And as the honorable Riza, Woutang Klan once said, cash rules everything around me, cream, get the money, dollar-dollar bills, y'all. And that seems to be where we're headed. And if that is where we're headed, I wouldn't be shocked. I wouldn't be shocked to see some of these teams get purged out, unfortunately. Yeah.

So moving on, hundreds of media members last week had the opportunity to vote on several things, right? we talked about the ACC order 1 to 17, how the teams are going to finish. We have individual preseason honors being handed out. So hundreds of media members got to vote on this, and they collectively decided. Yeah. Cam Ward, Miami Hurricanes transfer starting quarterback is the preseason player of the year. Now, obviously, I cover Miami. I've had a chance to get to know Ward a little bit since January, since he arrived.

At the same time, like I kind of scoff at like a preseason. season player of the year. Like, why do we even give that out, right? And if I were to present that honor to Cam Ward, he would probably say, this doesn't really mean anything to me because I need to go out there on the field and prove it. At the same time, I guess it's nice to get that recognition, right? And, you know, was that, were you expecting Ward to take home this preseason ACC player of the year honor?

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. This is more so a quarterback award. You know, I believe the last running back we had when it was, Travis E.T.N. Even then, he might not have won it. It might have been Trevor Lawrence twice. It might have been. I can't remember. It might have been. You know, the way that I see this thing, I mean, a preseason player of the year is de facto in a antithetical situation, right? It goes against itself in a weird way, like jumbo shrimp or oxymoronic should be the word. And not antithetical, oxymoronic. Because it's preseason player of the year. The year has not happened yet. And yet we have a player of the year.

It's very much of one of those things where, and I know a lot of media members get on me about this. It's one of those 24-hour renew cycle things. It's one of those things that's like, we need something to fill this content void because, you know, that's just kind of what this is. But I will say this. And I know that you're the positive patty on this show.

And it's your canes. So you don't want me to rent on your parade, but I got to. The downside of this, it adds to the pressure cooker for Mario. It adds to it. Because now people are going to say, you couldn't get it done with a preseason player of the year if he doesn't make it happen. You did all these transfers. You got all these guys, and you still couldn't get it done.

Hits a little different than you had the preseason player the year. You had multiple guys who made all ACC teams. And yet we still saw seven wins, eight wins as the result. saw my brother in Christ, go coach somebody's offensive line. You can't do this no. Well, and to what you're saying, not only did Miami have multiple first team all ACC preseason, they had the most in the conference, five. They led the conference, which is interesting because, you know, the media,

the media is very high like on Miami individual players, but they still pick them third in the conference. So it's people want to see them actually prove it on the field. They want to see Mario Cristobal prove it this year. and we'll talk about the first team all conference shortly. But as far as Cam Ward, I know I kind of like, you know, downplayed the preseason player of the year thing for obvious reasons. But at the same time, I am happy for him and I'm happy for Miami,

despite the pressure cooker aspect of it, which is a good angle. It's also nice to have your players recognize because Ward, you know, he worked very hard for the last couple years at Washington State and the first two years of his career at Incarnate Word. I mean, this is a guy for reasons I don't quite understand, was barely recruited out of high school, had to work his way up from FCS to FBS and really, really put up gigantic numbers the last couple seasons. He seems like someone who's all about working hard. He's not a diva.

He's all about football. So I'm very happy for Ward. And yet, we'll talk about that first team all ACC when we come back. Anybody that wasn't on there that should have been, anybody who's on there that what's he doing there? You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC. Guys, we've been winning money all summer long on Fanduel, international soccer, Olympics going on now.

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Fan dual official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball. Thank you so much for making this episode of Lockdown ACC, your first listen and your first watch today. Alex Dono from Lockdown Cains alongside Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack. So, you know, Kenton, since, of course, Cam Ward was the ACC preseason player of the year, it would have been surprising if he wasn't the first team all-ACC quarterback. He was first-team all-ACC running backs. I have no issue with this. Jaden, Ott, and Amari and Hampton took those honors.

And I know, like I talked to a lot of Miami fans, obviously they were a little upset. Some of them that Damien Martinez didn't get on there. But it's like you're splitting hairs because Ott and Hampton both had awesome seasons last year. And they actually put up bigger yardage than Martinez did. So I think Martinez is going to be very good this year. Amarian Hanthin was a monster last year. And Jaden Ott was putting up video game numbers last year at Cal. Yeah.

And the biggest thing about this is it's all about two things, number one. Statistically, they exceeded them, like you said. Both of those guys exceeded what Martinez did. But stylistically, what is your preference? And in today's society, we all know that people prefer the track. track needle and grass situation to the three yards in the cloud of dust, to the we're going to get down, we're going to get physical, we're going to get nasty. That is how we're going to play this game and that's what we're going to do because that's what Martinez brings. He brings that

physicality. He brings that the way I finish runs, which I would say if there was a scale of like the most power to the most finesse of the three, it would definitely be Martinez being the most powerful, Hampton being the blend between the two, Ott being the least physical, which not to say he's not physical, just of these three. backs. He's by far the least physical. So, you know, it's all about stylistically what people like. And let's be honest, media people are people. They like to see the home run. They like to see the long ball. They like to see guys pulling away from defenses more than they like to see that guy that's going to get you five yards and lean forward and end the game by running off the clock as much

as anybody else. So the three starting wide receivers preseason all ACC. This is exactly the way I voted. I think we got this 1,000% right. We being the media. Casey Concepcion from NC State, Xavier Restrepo from Miami, and Ehrlich, I.O. Manor from Stanford. And like for anybody who, you know, didn't like do their due diligence on Stanford because they were out West last year, Io Manor is, I'd say he's the best player on that team. And that, that dude, he's, he's filthy. So I think that they got three receivers right. People joke all the time about, you know, Stanford got going on to be accountants, doctors, lawyers, engineers. I don't give a damn what Elyke Iamanoa goes on to do with his career, with his life.

He's going to be good at it. I kid you not. He is so impressive from a cerebral standpoint, from a physical standpoint, that's a big body that knows how to use that big body. You talk about the three receivers. Restrepo and KC, they're more so scat guys. They're more so I'm going to find a way to route you up and get open. Alec Aik I.M.Nor can separate from you both laterally,

vertically, it does not matter. You can be right under him. And he'll say, hey, I can jump higher than you. I can reach higher than you. And when I get this ball in my hands, there is no, right through the arms, you'll be okay. No, right through the arms, you'll end up on my highlight grip. So starting tight end, I think from a talent standpoint,

I think they got this right. It's just since he missed, I think, more than half of the season last year. I did not vote for him, but I don't have a problem with the Ronday Gadsden the second, getting the nod there from Syracuse. Like, I mean, I guess like depending on whether the criteria is going by what someone did last year or what they're going to do this year. Yeah, I could see OG having a huge year coming up now that he's fully healthy again. Let me tell you something about Arnda Gastin. The only knock that anybody could say about him being voted as the first team, well, it's two. The injury thing and is he actually a tight end. He is in that Jimmy Graham mode of you're going to move him everywhere because you want to find a mismatch with this. I talk. about separating vertically with Alec I. Aminau. Arande Gaston does that to a

Randy Moss-ish level. Not saying that he is Randy. I'm saying that at that jump ball point against college defenders, it looks like that. And trust me, I was a child when Randy was in his prime. So I know what that looks like. He terrorized my lions for years. And watching Arronday Gaston, he does the same thing.

The ACC defense. Hell, SEC, ACC, BIC, Big Ten, you put a defender in front of him. Not top of out 10. or rather it's going to be the longer and higher jumping man. All right. So let's go through the offensive line. Offensive tackles are Darius Washington from Florida State, Blake Miller from Clemson,

the guards, Willie Lampkin from North Carolina, Michael Gonzalez from Louisville, and Maurice Smith from Florida State, the center. I mean, I guess I was, and listen, I'm not going to complain too much because Miami had more preseason all-ACC than any other school. I was surprised it from what I think is going to be one of the best offensive lines in league Miami didn't have a single selection, but I guess for them,

maybe the collective is better than the individuals. But at the same time, it's like, I think all the five that were selected here are really good players and deserve to be there. Yeah, these five guys, what a collection of five. And I'll tell you this much, for the offensive line, it's always hardest to argue because the same way that I talk about stylistic with Martinez, it's even more intensified with the offensive line. Because what do you prefer? There are offensive linemen in this league that you do not want to see coming downhill on the reach block. But if you get them in a vertical set, you're all right with that. You're all right saying, hey, I can rest the pass against this guy.

But if you know, hey, I've got a combo block, him and the guard are going to try to move me out of this B guy. It's going to be a long day for you. So offensive line more than any other, it's really tough to determine. Even though we have PFF grades and all that, even they get it wrong sometimes. It's really tough to say, who are these guys, who are the best here? because they're not as on the outside, and it's harder to get a hold of their film. If you don't have all 22, not talking about 10, you're going to struggle to find film on these guys doing what they do at a high level.

Yeah, you're right about the PFF thing, because at the end of the day, it comes down to human beings watching players or watching plays. Because I've seen sometimes PFF will put out a tweet where they're like, such and such offensive linemen didn't give up a single sack last year. And then in the comments, someone will post a video of that offensive lineman seemingly giving up the sack. Exactly. How do we determine some of this stuff? Yeah, so, all right, moving on to the defense for the defensive line, the two defensive ends. This is the exact way that I voted. Ashton Jalati from Louisville, Ruben Bain Jr. from Miami, the defensive tackles, Joshua Farmer from Florida State, Ania's Peoples from Virginia Tech. Any argument there? I don't think I have any argument. I don't either. I mean, the incumbents for the defensive line positions are all going for the most part.

of your Jared versus your Dwayne Carter's, et cetera, this is the new generation of guys who are naturally going to slide in and fill in. I will say this. Everybody knows how high I am on Ashton Jalati, but there's a name in this group that could be an X factor that makes his team season what it needs to be. Ania's Peoples from Duke at Virginia Tech now. I am telling you right now, if Virginia Tech finds a way to stop the run, it's because Peoples was dominant. Not good, dominant. And it'd be very interesting to see if he can be that guy. Three linebackers. Kiko Maui Noah from Miami, Marlo Wax from Syracuse, Dorian Strong from Virginia Tech. What do you think about, or sorry, that was, I missed one.

Barrett Carter from Clem, I went down and picked up a cornerback. You're good. You're good. Francisco Maui Noah from Miami, Marlo Wax from Syracuse. You like those three? I love them. I love all three of these guys. It's hard to contain my excitement when talking about Marlow Wax. He feels like he's been in college for like 12 years. You know why?

Because he's been making plays from day one. As soon as Marlowe stepped on the field, he asserted himself as a leader, not by word, but by deed. He's shown up. He has been the leader of the mob, as they call it, that defense up in Syracuse. He has been an excellent leader. I love listening to the man's podcast.

I'm not going to be ashamed to admit that, okay? I don't know he had a podcast. I'll check that out. They have the mob podcast. It's a podcast done by their defense and by guys on the team. I'm going to tell you, Marlowe is such a phenomenal guy. The same thing I said about Elykei and Menor, and whatever he does in life, he'll have success.

Marlowe is very much in that same way. He is more than a thumper. He is a vocal leader. He is a guy who thinks his way through the game. I love him. I love these other two linebacks as well. But Marlowe, you deserve your flowers, brother. Defense are back.

So now you're going to like this because they got your guy in there. So you have Dorian Strong from Virginia Tech at Corner. Aiden White, NC State at Corner. He's getting recognized rightfully so. Jonas Sanker from Virginia and R.J. Mickens from Clemson are the two safeties. You know, Jonas does not get his love because Sanker is a Virginia guy and people look at him and say, oh, he plays a UVA. How good can he be?

That defense didn't have any bright spots last year. I kid you not. In terms of how rough things went for that defense, one of their starters tore both of his Patel attendance celebrating a fumble. That is a thing that actually happened last year. That is how Snake Bitten this team has been. Sanker is as close as you could get to the remedy for this team. He was fantastic last year. He is a guy that can do a little bit of everything from a safety position.

He can come down and thump. He can cover a deep half. He can cover the deep middle and be that kind of that sense. interfielder that you don't want to throw over his zone at all. He's a special, special talent. And it's, I don't want to say it's unfortunate that he's buried on that roster, but that's kind of what it is. It's unfortunate because many people won't get to see him play and shine in big moments

because games have not been close enough for them to have big moments. But I'd love to see Tony Elliott and this team change that. Well, that is, I'll give you the specialist real quick. I don't want to discount the specialist. Absolutely. Kicker, Kikar, Andres Borigalas from Miami, punter. Alex Mastromano from Florida State. Those guys are both superb at what they do.

Yeah. And Richard Smith for kick returner from SMU, former Miami Hurricane, returned a kick to the house last year. He's now a Mustang. And that's a good group of specialists, Kenton. I don't think I would change anything on that list. I would argue that Boomkester belongs on that. I'm joking.

Noon Kester is a great punner. but the guys that we do have in this group, they're all special. I expect all three of these guys will be playing on Sundays. I mean that very genuinely. And it's super hard. People don't realize how hard it is for specialists to get into the NFL. Guys who go on and win the gross and the guy award sometimes end up as accountants and sales execs the next year because that's, if you're great at punching,

you can do it for 20 years. If you're great at thinking, you can do it for 20 years. But these guys are that special. Beauregalis and company here, they're that special. to where I truly do believe that all of these guys have a role on Sundays. Well, folks, that'll do it for this awesome week on Locked on ACC. But guess what next week? We're a week closer to college football being back.

So we'll have a lot of good stuff coming up on Monday. He is Kenton Gibbs from Locked on Wolfpack. I'm Alex Dono from Locked on Cains. Thank you for making us your first listen. Make sure to make Locked on Wolfpack and Lockedon Cains your second and third listens. And we'll talk to you Monday on another episode of Lockdown ACC, part of the awesome Lockdown Podcast Network. your team every day.