Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Pink slips more of them being handed out across college football.
That'll be part of the conversation right now with Eric McLain,
ACC Network college football analyst former Clemson Tiger offensive lineman
back with us for his Monday College Football conversation. eMac,
what's going on, brother? How are you this week?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Man? I'm just living the dream. Man. It's a crazy
point in the season. We got coaches flying off the shelves,
We've got rumors, we've got great football. It's just a
normal you know, college football Monday.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yeah, completely totally normal. But no, in all seriousness though,
you think about the jobs that are going to be
open at the end of this year, the ones that
are already open now, and the ones that may come
open at the end of the year. I mean, I'll
throw Mike Norvell being back on the hot seat. It
feels like down in Florida State right now, we might
have some massive, massive job openings. It's not that we
haven't seen this before, Eric, but we are in a
(00:48):
new era of college football where, you know, it seems
like the patience is even thinner than it's ever been.
What do you make of this? Are we in a
new era and what do you think this coaching carousel
is shaping up to be?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Well, I think these you know, athletic departments and board
of trustees and presidents seem to stop signing these huge
freaking buyouts, like let's learn from history, you know what
I'm saying. It's crazy to see these numbers on top
of when we're spending the most money we ever have
on things that have not been too predictable when it
(01:19):
comes to revshare getting dumped on athletic departments out of nowhere.
Here's here's a twenty and a half million dollars line item.
Here's all these different things that you know just pop up.
So it is fascinating, to say the least, when you
see how these you know, deals are shaping up. But
also it is a new era. It is one of
those you know, just new things of the transfer portal
(01:40):
is available, You're able to have an allotment of resources
to go and you know, pay and have a salary
cap for players, and there's less room for mistake. It
feels like because of all these things, it's not so
much of sit around and wait. And also the the
you know, margin for patients is so much center just
because of these things. It also doesn't help when you
have guys like Signetti coming in year one, going to
(02:02):
a freaking playoff and hammering Oregon because that's what everyone
looks at. Why can't you do that?
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Unbelievable? I mean it also goes to underscore how we
talk about talent evaluation in the sport, but like hiring
coaches is still, in its own way a talent evaluation game.
And the fact that Kurt Signetti didn't get his first
head coaching job at all, I think until he was
like fifty one, his first P four job he was
sixty three, Like, how did so many people miss on
Kurt Signetti?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, man, super weird when you see it. But you know,
everybody runs their race and he is renting right now.
And it's funny. I heard you say the Matt rule thing,
which I do think a lot of folks are mentioning that,
but it feels like he's a hotter name right with Signetti,
it's just can you fork up the dollars to go
and get him? I don't know. And then Manny Diaz,
(02:49):
another guy that I've seen a lot of former players
from Penn State hammering and saying, listen this is one
of the best leaders we were ever around. This guy
gets it. Look what he's done, Duke, Look what he
did at Miami. I'm fascinated to see where that Penn
stage job goes.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Oh me too. And I've also got a handful of
Carolina fans today, more than I expected, saying let's just
go on and get rid of Belichick and bring James
Franklin to Chapel Hill with it. Franklin streets already named
after him, so you know, he got branding opportunities and
things of that nature. We talked to you a week
ago prior to the explosion of all of the reporting
that you know, set off the conversations about, you know,
(03:26):
could he be done mid season? How bad are things?
You know, stories of dysfunction and preferential treatment inside the program. Well,
this morning, Bill Belichick says, all the rumors are categorically false.
You had the chancellor of the university, you know, sitting
out there, is like in Carolina dignitaries out there today
talking about all that. I rolled my eyes in the
sense that I absolutely believe those conversations were happening. It's ugly, Eric, Like,
(03:50):
what weigh in on this? For me? How bad do
you think it is? And what should Carolina do about it?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah, I'm right there with you. I rolled my eyes too,
because it's just it's such an interesting thing and it's
an interesting time. Like I get it. There's you know,
bad things happening, and maybe you don't want to make
them worse, and maybe there has been that you know,
reassurance said, hey, are you guys all in? I'm all in?
Are you all in? I'm all in? You know kind
of those things, and it's I think at the end
(04:16):
of the day, what we saw happen in lifetime was Lombardi, Belichick,
everybody involved one thousand percent underestimated how hard college football is.
I think these guys came in thinking we did this
in the NFL college no sweat off our brow, this
is going to be easy, this is going to be
totally something doable with without having to dig in without
(04:38):
We'll just show up and get guys. And we know
that's clearly not the case. And what made it even
worse and even more frustrating was when I heard I
believe it was Lombardi. I don't want to put his
name on something he didn't say, but someone said, we
got it's a total rebuild. Well, it's a total rebuild
because you brought in seventy of the wrong people. It's
not like you inherited. You inherited nothing because they all left.
(05:02):
And so that that, to me, was just another thing
that just irged my nerves. Man. Just let's have some
use humility. Let's say that that we messed up, and
let's go back to the drawing board instead of just
excuse after excuse, crazy thirty third team in the NFL,
I mean, all that stuff, It's just it's wild to me.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
I agree. I agree. Now back to the aforementioned coaching
carousel coming up. I don't know if Florida State will
be a part of it or not, but I do
know their fans are pretty displeased with Mike Norvello after
the past couple of weeks. You beat Bama. When you
do that, you're not expecting to be three and three
after six weeks and zero and three in the ACC.
But they lost thirty four to thirty one to Pittsburgh
on Saturday. What do you think of the the up
(05:40):
and down roller coaster nature of their season so far?
Who's the real Florida State?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah? Well really, I think what this shows a brother,
it maybe is that the ACC is the toughest conference
in America. I mean, we can manhandle Bama no problem,
but conference players very it's.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
A meat grinder. It's a gauntlet. Eric, it's a gauntlet.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Then you hit the gauntlet. Man, you know, we beat
each other up. We're tired in postseason. Whatever excuse you
want to throw out there is uh is always funny,
But no, I do think it's fascinating, to say the least.
And I'll say I've been very uh, you know, matter
of fact about Norvel and think that he is a
great coach. And I said all these things about it.
It's just a really, you know, kind of strange time
(06:22):
and the way they've lost, particularly coming off of these
you know this two and ten season, and you're kind
of saying he's the guy, and man, I had a
bunch of holes in my DM saying hey, brother, love
you love your opinion, but we're tired of this. And
when that adds up enough, man, you know, it gets
deafening and people start to listen. So I don't know,
I still do think he's a great coach. I think
(06:44):
it's just so unusual to beat a team like Alabama
the way that they did, I mean, physically dominated them
and then to you know, really look the way that
they had and that's just uninterested at times and waiting
too long to really get it going on all cylinders
and you know you're zero three, which is just crazy
in the acc after the start that they had.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Does Clemson hammering a bad Boston college team do anything
more but improve their record? Or was there something in
there that I mean, I'm seriously does it. Was there
anything in there that made you more confident that this
team is back on track.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I will not be confident about anything until SMU and
post SMU and post Duke. Then we can have a
better conversation on Clemson. Was it nice to see? Yes,
two weeks in a row, we saw Clemson play very
confident football. We saw their offense play at a very
high level, which is fun, and you hammered teams the
way you're supposed to. So it's crazy. If you just
(07:40):
kind of had a blind resume and we just saw
the results of those games, we'd be like, oh, yeah,
Clemson's doing what we thought they would. We wouldn't know
that they looked horrific leading up to that So was
that bye week, you know, three weeks ago perfect and
a great reset and everyone's playing at a high level.
Now We'll see and what just does that mean? You know,
is there any type of, you know, outstanding postseason opportunity
(08:03):
on the horizon. I think that would take utter chaos
for anything of that nature. Maybe a nice bowl game,
but you know, at the end of the day, you're
fighting for your legacy as a Clemson player and ultimately
trying to continue continue to get better and build this
program back to what it was.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
You mentioned Manny Diaz and Duke there a minute ago,
Manny in particular because of the Penn State opening. But
they've got a huge game coming up this weekend. Georgia
Tech is going to Wallace Wade Stadium. I'm a believer
in Georgia Tech and the brand of football that they play.
They took care of my Hokies on Saturday, and they're
going to Duke this week six and oh three and
oh in the ACC. I think they win the game,
(08:38):
but I also think Duke is going to make them
earn it. What's this one look like to you?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Yeah? Such a huge game. We're going, man, We're going
to be there the ACC huddle, cannot wait to be
in Durham. We'll have our show live, have some former players, coaches,
give everybody you know, kind of great analysis on that game.
And excited to be back in the Bull City there.
And man, really, the way I look at this game
that this is a this is a eight playoff game,
like this is potential eliminator from playing in Charlotte. When
(09:04):
when you look at kind of the three headed race,
the three monster race that I think is occurring for
that second spot, assuming that Miami's going to be in,
it's between Duke Virginia and Georgia Tech there. And so
the interesting thing is Duke plays both of those teams.
Duke controls their own destiny, also plays Clemson just for
(09:24):
style points there. So I'm expecting a war. I mean,
you've got two very different teams. You've got a team
in Georgia Tech that wants to control the ball, wants
to grind it out, you know, just make you hurt
every single play with the way they run it, the
way they throw it, the way they do different motions
and try to trick you that way with alignments. And
then you've got a dupe team that really is hitting
(09:45):
on a lot of cylinders right now. I mean, the
run game has been instrumental for Darien Mensa, and I
think that's opened up his passing attack even more. It's
been really fun to see that young freshman in the
backfield just exploding. I mean, he's like third in the
U in the conference, I think for rushing yards. So
it's been great to see that and excited to see
how they continue to build on top of their defense.
(10:08):
Man Duke's defense has been It's like they just woke
up one day and remembered who they were. You know,
they get turnovers, they get in the backfield, they forced,
you know, the opposition in a really tough spot. So
I think it's going to be an absolute battle and
will be interesting to see who dictates the tempo of
the game. Can Georgia Tech make it, you know, nasty
and slow and grind it out or do they have
to keep up with dukeshigh line offense.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Why did I wake up this morning and see that
YouTube screwed over you and Aaron Murray on your new
college football show? What's going on with that? What did
you two do?
Speaker 2 (10:36):
You woke up? Yeah, you woke up to the truth
I don't know what we did. We did nothing wrong.
But the good thing is we have a lot of
friends and I guess high places when it comes to YouTube,
because all is well. We are back, the channel is
back live. It seems like YouTube's going through some AI
type stuff and we got caught in the crossfire. But
all is well on our channel. I appreciate you checking it,
no doubt.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
All Right, last thing here, I don't want to leave
them out, but they did beat a really bad football team.
So I'll preface it by saying Oregon State sucks like
out loud on ice. Oregon States friggin terrible. But how
good do Wake Forest fans have to feel right now
about the Jake dickard hire given the opening struggle against
Kennesaw State, but now being four and two, two and
zero conference through the first six.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Weeks, let me just tell you something KB, This dude
is on track for winning Coach of the Year at
the end of the year. I mean we expected n
a from Wake Forest. I mean absolutely nothing with the
way that we thought there was going to be, with
some of the guys that they lost, some guys that
they brought in that there were just huge question marks
that we didn't think were you going to be able
(11:38):
to play at the level that was expected in the
ACC But we knew they kept demand Claiborne and we
knew that that was a huge deal and they have
been on fire. That team is so fun to watch
a lot of complimentary football. And you're right, it was
not a good team that they beat, but they have
been playing at a very high level. Should have beat
Georgia Tech had that one taken away from them, There's
(11:58):
no question about that. And they're just they're one of
those teams right now. You don't really want to see
him on the schedule, like you're thinking, like, ah, this
is gonna be tough. It's gonna be tougher than we
thought in regards to the preseason. So I've been thrilled
with the effort and the execution from Wake Forest.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
It's been awesome. Deshaun perty by the way, filling in
for Robbie Ashford had himself a big day the Charlotte
forty nine ers transfer. They got options at quarterback. It's
a good place to be if you're a Wake fan. Eric,
thank you as always, brother, have a great week. We'll
talk to you next Monday.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
No doubt my man appreciate you.