ACC TEAM PREVIEWS: Clemson, Miami, SMU, Louisville, Georgia Tech, Pitt, Wake Forest & Stanford | 2025 College Football - The Solid Verbal College Football

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the solid verbal call for me.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm a man, I'm for I've heard so many players say, well,
I want to be happy. You want to be happy
for day Edith state is that whoo whoom?

Speaker 1 (00:14):
And then and tie Danner Rob and see. Last episode
was ACC Part one, where we did the big picture thing,
looked at contender tiers, talked about storylines, had a little
bit of fun with experiments the ice cream. The ice
cream thing. I just I don't I don't know if
that's for me. But alas we're back today. It is

(00:38):
part one of our ACC team previews. So what we
did last episode higher level. Today we are diving in
on about half of the conference. Are going to do
the contender tier at the very top, the rebuilding tier
at the bottom. Next episode will be all the wild
cards that we talked about last episode that are sort

(00:58):
of bunched up in the middle. Sound good to you,
Sound like a plan, sir.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Our delicious Ham episode is part three. You're a Ham,
You're delicious, a little bit mysterious, but we're very excited
to learn more. Yeah, that's all sounds correct. I don't
want to give too many free plugs to any specific
ice cream brand, so greaters just start dropping new ones

(01:24):
and hope a crate arrives in the mail. Yes, I'm
very excited. I don't know what the premiere ACC centric
branded ice cream company is happy to find out if
you live in North Carolina or Florida, or Georgia or Massachusetts,
wherever you may be. But beyond that, this is gonna
be a great This is our bookend episode of the

(01:44):
ACC teams, perhaps bringing up the rear, but for interesting reasons. Yeah,
and perhaps competing to play in the championship game, also
for interesting reasons.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Also for interesting reasons. So we get a little bit
from column A, a little bit from column be Yes,
the episode that we do next will be all the
wild cards that are sort of in the middle. So
hit fall. Hit subscribes that you don't miss any of
the episodes again, dropping thrice weekly now Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday,
as we've done for years on this show.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Thank you, Mitch, Mitch, James Headfield. James Headfield, I say, Mitch,
I have no idea continue. I'm going to catch it
for that one.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
I'm sure anyway, I'll leave that in I promise anyway. Listen,
all right, I am excited to get started. We do
have the Lorenzo Lamas sounds here, who apparently now is
getting a divorce. We haven't heard from Lamas in years.
We start playing the drops on the show and we
find out that he's getting divorced.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
It it brought a light to the Lorenzo Lamas situation
that I don't think he was ready for and kind
of buckled under the pressure.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
I get it, did I see six marriages for Lamas
has decided to enter the Life Transfer portal.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Once again has filled. You know, you hope everybody is
happy and it's for the best. Divorce can be a
very challenging thing, so we hope it's for the best.
But yes, Lorenzo Lamis is officially back in the portal.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
This is not what we intended when we said the
drive for six all those years ago. This is a
different bowl eligible yes he is. This is a different
version all together. So where do we want to start here?
I mean, the obvious starting point with the ACC is
probably Clemson, since you and I were the highest on
the Clemson Tigers. But there are clearly other contenders that

(03:35):
we want to get into here. Should we start there
and kind of work our way back. Does that work
for you?

Speaker 2 (03:40):
I would love to.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
This is a Clemson team with an over under of
nine and a half wins in Las Vegas. What's the
first thing that comes to mind when you hear nine
and a half? Does that feel high or low?

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Or it seems low considering the hype the top five
hype going into the season. Are we sure it's nine
and a half. You're absolutely positive? I jotted it down
before all Clemson win total twenty twenty five. Yeah, I'm
seeing nine here, Vegas Insider. Okay, I guess it depends
where you look. But regardless you say that feels low
to you?

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Why?

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Just because we know more about this team, and I
suppose we could know more and then we could come
up with an opinion that is more informed. It's just
a little surprising to me given what they return, you know,
the combination of quarterback who I think some people view
Kate Klubnick as QB one in the twenty six NFL Draft,
and then superstar potential along the defensive line. I think,

(04:32):
if that's your starting point, no matter what you know,
the back end of your defense looks like no matter
what your pass catchers or offensive line looks like that
puts you just ahead of basically everybody in the sport.
So that nine to nine and a half number is surprising.
Clemson's a fascinating team because these past few years, while
they've won a bunch of games, they've won a conference

(04:54):
title here and there, they haven't inspired the same fear
in the sport as they did in the mid twenty teens.
And when you looked at those rosters twenty fourteen, fifteen, sixteen,
seventeen and there, it's just killers up and down right,
it's on all three levels of the defense. You know,
having Brent Venables there forever, you know Dabbos what he

(05:16):
did in evaluating developing receivers and having a hand and
finding all those guys, you're t Higgins's, you're Justin's Ross,
all those types, and then not to mention near thank
you Justin's Ross.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
You pluralized Justin's. Never heard the.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Multiple Justin's only one of whom was a Ross.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
And then you know, obviously star power your etns at
running back, et cetera, it doesn't seem like they're constructed
in that same obvious way top to bottom, and so
they haven't been seen as like that grave a threat.
This year, it feels different, mostly because there seems to
be so much upheaval on rosters across the sport, and
there dozen' at Clemson who they themselves obviously have been

(05:56):
criticized for not looking at where they could improve their
as a humongous program. So yeah, they're fascinating, and I
think more killers will emerge, like you know, for example,
Lives and Parker and Woods along the defensive line. But
I don't know, it feels a little bit surprising that
they seem to be looked at as the team to

(06:17):
fear for everybody on their schedule. It's funny you bring
up Justin's ross.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
Obviously Justin's ross. No, it's funny that when I throw
out that win total, you had the same reaction that
I did, which was to check other websites to make
sure it's right because it felt low to me. I'm
not going to be cute about this. I wasn't cute
about this the last episode. Clemson's my preseason number one.
I get where you're coming from. Your point. On the
last episode, I think was valid that they haven't necessarily

(06:45):
done anything excellent that in your view would warrant being
number one going into the season, you would like a
little bit more of a body of work in twenty
four before you're willing to commit to that in twenty five.
I would say this though, at a minimum, I think
they're better than pretty much every time team on their schedule,
maybe with the exception of South Carolina to close out
the year.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Oh, I think they're better than South Carolin. I think
they're better than everybody. With the information we have right now,
I think they're better than everybody.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, that's why I say maybe I qualified. I'm not sure,
but that would be the one that I would point
to because it's on the road and that game's been
closed the last three years. Sure. Look, this is a
Clemson team that brings back sixteen seventeen starters depending how
you count them. They've got the most returning production of
any team in the country. This is their best team
since Trevor Lawrence left full stop. Okay, so yeah, I agree,

(07:32):
it does feel a little bit different. As I said
again last episode, I am still taking sign ups for
those who wish to join me on the club level. Sure,
he was inconsistent his first full year as a starter,
but definitely towards the latter half of last season started
looking more like, Okay, this is somebody who maybe could
be picked in the first round right certainly in the playoff.

(07:56):
I think this year, having like a Joe Moore caliber
offensive line in front of him is pretty key. Having
three familiar targets out wide which you didn't mention Antonio Williams,
Bryant westc TJ. Moore, those guys that should mean more
production in the passing game this year. The only question
I have about the offense is who the featured back

(08:18):
is going to be. And if you go back to
our intro to the season episode, Gideon Davidson is the
name that I'm watching as a true freshman. That dude,
give me the vapors. Okay, I'm into Gideon Davidson. So
I think all of those things taken in tandem and
then you layer on it's going to be year three
for kid Klubnick with Garrett Riley, it stands to reason

(08:42):
that offensively we're going to see a pretty big step
forward the wet Blanket. Though, if we are keeping things
in terms of hotness here on the show, Yeah, Clem's
has been prone to random disappearing accent offense. Okay, so
the shrinkage portion, the cold water, Yeah, yeah, I think so.
I wish you to know. You're gonna say that I
could have had the Stanza sound somewhere. Maybe I'll pull

(09:04):
it up later, of course you do. But like case
in point the Louisville game last year. I remember we
were in our hotel room when we were up at
the Michigan Oregon game when that was going down, and
you and I looked at each other and just sort
of shrugged, like, what the hell, what is this? What's
going What's going on with this game? So they got
to get past that. I'm not sure that they fully

(09:25):
are yet, but I think offensively it's sort of a
no brainer that they should be taking a pretty big
step forward a great The other thing, then if I
switched to defense, that I would add Tom Allen new
defensive coordinator. Upgrade. Do we agree it's an upgrade over Westbo.
It was just something that Dabo needed to do at

(09:45):
this stage of the game because Clemson was was good
on defense but had gotten marginally worse for three straight campaigns.
I also know as a Penn Stater, if you passed
around the hat you could definitely collect enough donatetions to
buy Tom Allen a first class ticket out of state college. Okay,
I know plenty of people who were not satisfied. Frankly,

(10:07):
I was surprised by the number of Penn Staters who
in my circle anyway, were very ambivalent towards Tom Allen,
despite the fact that Penn State had like a top
ten caliber defense. But he's definitely an upgrade, I think,
compared to what they had. Agree he's more demonstrative than
his predecessor, which I think is going to fire people up.
Definitely wears his heart on his sleeve a lot more

(10:28):
love it. Everything that I read is that people at
Clemson view this is a pretty significant move and a
big deal. Like TJ. Park or Peter Woods who you mentioned,
will help who comes over one of the three transfers
comes over from Purdue along the defensive line. He's somebody
who I think stands to make a pretty big impact here. Honestly,
there's not a whole lot of weakness on this team.

(10:50):
I think it's marginal improvement. I think it's a very
obvious question of can they get past some of those
yips that we saw, like the one I mentioned against Louisville.
Can they avoid the dumb loss? Can they avoid the
tricky situation? Because there are a couple on the schedule,
you know, I mean, it's not just the bookends which
are going to get I think a lot of the
press ls you to start at South Carolina to finish,

(11:11):
but in between, you're at Georgia Tech, your SMU at
home Duke in Florida State at home at Louisville on
a Friday. That's one of those Friday games for Louisville,
and that's a week after Florida State. So there are
definite land mines on the schedule. But I think with
what they've got coming back, and I think with what
we saw down the stretch last season, I am with you,
I'd be inclined to go over nine and a half
if that is in fact what the number is.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Right, Yeah, I have them down as a ten and
two team this year. You know, I probably right there,
top five ish or just outside of the top five,
just because the schedule is a little bit tricky. They
open with LSU, but that's at Clemson, right, That's not
a neutral site game, that's a true home game, right
for the Tigers. Clemson gets a short week on the road,

(11:55):
and that's after Florida State at home, who knows, and
before Louisville. So that's a Friday night game. So that's
short week prep and travel week as well. So that's
certainly tricky, especially coming off of a loss to the
Cardinals last season at home. So I just there's a
couple of land minds. We'll see what South Carolina is
by the end of the year. I think what the
Cocks have won two of three against Clemson.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
Yeah, and all those games have been kind of murky
and close, you know.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
Yeah, Lenora Sellers dragged South Carolina to that win almost
literally as he was lunging for the end zone in
a low scoring game last season, and I think it
was what Spencer Rattler three years ago or yeah, the
last time they won. But Clemson is in a great place.
And I think they're in a great place because you
don't just have to evaluate Clemson in a vacuum year,
evaluating them with what they're up against and what teams

(12:46):
are trying to overcome. And Clemson just doesn't have the
variables that other teams have. They have a very experienced
offensive line that's a huge check mark for me in
terms of what I can count on with Clemson a
hugely experienced quarterback in Kate Klubnick, who, by the way,
way his numbers were very good last year, but I
think he was a little bit safe at times, and
you saw him sort of opening it up against Texas

(13:08):
in making that game competitive. I hope we see more
of that with these receivers, a new tight end sort
of with Jake Brinning still moving on. He's alive, Let's
be clear, he is, I think on the RAM still.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
With us, just still with us, different team, yeah, or
maybe the Chiefs.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
I don't know. He was an undrafted free agent. I
believe I would like to see that next step of
like confidence without any regard for what could maybe go
wrong from cade Clubnick. That's what because he's got to
trust these guys downfield, because I don't I don't know
the obvious secondary on this schedule that has the just

(13:42):
numbers to hang with these guys at their best out
wide for Clemson.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
Now, I think that's totally fair. And by the way,
you can find like a direct one to one correlation
between Clemson losing confidence in its guys out wide to
win those fifth the fifty balls and the team feeling
like it was lacking as compared to the championship version

(14:09):
of its former self. Yeah, so now that they've got
those guys, I think that's going to go a long way.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
Agree The other thing is and just sort of talking
about how they didn't do any specific thing excellently, Like
they may have the best duo of defensive linemen in
the country, but they weren't amazing rushing the passer as
a team last year, and they weren't really that incredible
stopping the run like they're tackling, wrapping up kind of stuff.
It just sort of came and went too often for Clemson.

(14:37):
So maybe that's a Tom Allen thing where he can
diagnose a couple of different issues here and work with
the assistants. Whatever it is. There's every reason to think,
especially this front seven, is going to continue to take
a pretty giant step forward, which is horrible news for
everybody on the Clemson's schedule. So I have them down
as ten and two and in the playoff.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah, I've got him down as a level and won
it in the playoff, winning the ACC my only loss
I have right now at South Carolina. Okay, I reserve
the right to undo that selection as we get a
little deeper into this, But if there is a loss,
I think that's the one. Everybody else I feel pretty
confident they're better than them. So I'm I'm on board

(15:20):
for eleven and one. You were on board from Miami
being your number two in the ACC I wasn't. We
can get to pit later in this episode. Miami also
has an over under of nine and a half. They
were ten and three a year ago, won their first
nine games, lost to Georgia Tech twenty eight to twenty three,
to Syracuse to close out the year forty two to

(15:41):
thirty eight, and then to Iowa State in the Pop
Tarts Bowl forty two to forty one. So the losses
were all close, but they had three of them definitely,
I think fell a bit short of expectations last year,
being so they had the number one overall pick on
their roster and camp board, but had a great offense.
It was truly a matutter of the defense letting them down.

(16:02):
You can go back a couple months ago, we did
an episode with Manny Navarro of The Athletic and he
talked through some of the challenges they've got on the
defensive side of the ball. So that is going to
be I think foremost as part of this conversation. But
I don't think it needs any introduction that Miami is
one of the teams in this contender tier. They're absolutely
an acc in a playoff contender. It's a good team

(16:24):
with a lot of experience, and they're going to be
a tough out. I was surprised at how mixed I
felt going through Miami this season and trying to form
some opinions, but that's neither here nor there. This is
a good team. There's a reason that over under his
nine and a half.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah, if we're going to talk about Clemson not having
the variables at important places being a reason to feel
comfortable saying yeah, Clemson's gonna be really good. Miami is inserting,
at his best, a very good quarterback, if not excellent
quarterback in Carson Beck, who has been talked about as
a number one overall quarterback, a draft pick. When healthy.

(17:03):
We'll see what his elbow looks like. You know, a
torn ucl is nothing to sort of sniff at. So
with all new receivers, new running back rotation, new quarterback
coming off of a bad injury, new defensive coordinator, new
secondary that's hopefully a healthier defensive line that's a lot

(17:23):
and still the best of Mario Cristobal is somebody who
can establish an identity, recruit really well, you know, make
this a really killer roster, which it is to me,
but still somebody who oversaw games that either got away
from them, like Georgia Tech and Syracuse, or sort of

(17:45):
surviving against teams that if you're gonna be my LATEX salesman,
if you're gonna be my ACC champion, we can't be
going toe to toe for four full quarters against last
year's Virginia Tech, all due respect last year's Cal the
teams that they lost to and sort of have everybody
say like, oh yeah, he's got it, Like we need

(18:05):
to see much more boring Miami for me to feel
in early to mid July good about the Canes as
like top five seven type team because last year they
inserted star power, they inserted the number one overall pick,
they helped to develop obviously into the number one overall pick,
and cam Ward Damian Martinez was ready to roll at

(18:25):
running back. And something that's sort of nagging at me too,
as I do feel very good about Miami is the
idea that you know, we had this conversation about Georgia,
like what do they look like without brock Bauers and
Lad McConkey, that they we just sort of took them
for granted. Yep, in the best possible way, was it?
Ronald Popele ron Popele the set it and forget it.

(18:48):
That was like the rotisserie thing.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
Right, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
Who better than Xavier or Estreppo? Yeah, like third and seven,
we've got something for this and he's just going He's
going to a key pass when he's lying flat on
his back on the ground, if that's what it takes.
He was so dependable and such an easy target last
year for cam Ward. That not having that known commodity

(19:12):
who absolutely could develop, but not having that going into
the season with all that's new on that offense, that's
a little concerning.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
Well, look, there are two elements to this team that
I think jump out to me. The first is Carson
back what you mentioned. Yeah. The second is defensively, which
I can get into. Yes, I need to talk, we
need to talk about Corey Heatherman and the Kanes defense,
but as a starting point, having I think inarguably a

(19:43):
top five line in college football sets them up pretty well.
I think we're looking at a lot of Mario crystal
Ball man Ball this season. They are less proven at
running back, but I think this offense sets up for honestly,
a little bit of what we saw out of Carson
Beck a couple of years ago at Georgia, where they

(20:04):
would line you up and though they could throw and
they had Brock Bowers out running down the field, sometimes
split out wide, they ultimately wanted to line you up
and punch you in the mouth. And we know that
that's a style of football crystal Ball enjoys playing. I
think we're going to try to see, or he's going
to try to see if that's something that works this season.

(20:25):
The offense will still be good. I think there will
also be moments this season where it ends up feeling
closer than it should, or almost like they're stuck in
the mud if they can't get the ground game going
against better teams than their schedule. I like Carson Beck.
Carson Becks obviously one of the top ten quarterbacks at
a minimum in college football, so I don't want to
sell him short. But we also don't know what the

(20:46):
elbow is going to look like we've heard he's healthy.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
Well, it's not even just that. It was also saw
a lot of ghosts when he was healthy last year.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
When they leaned on him a little bit more to
develop the passing game, and maybe part of that was
due to the fact that Brocks had left. Even still,
though it was, it was not quite as bulletproof as
I think we were used to seeing from Carson Beck agree,
So that's definitely something worth noting. I think the offense
probably is slower this year and not quite as dangerous.

(21:17):
Still good, but different because the personnel is different. On
the defensive side of the ball, I like Corey Heatherman.
Corey Heatherman runs four two five, he comes down from Minnesota,
you might be surprised to learn that it's more of
a flexible positionless let's call it an attacking defense. Sure,

(21:38):
And what's cool about what he does is he tends
to adjust the scheme based on the situation. So in
that sense, I think there's genuinely an opportunity here to
take a pretty big jump forward with what Miami has
back up front and in the secondary. Ruben Bain a
key mesidor David Blay who they picked up from Louisiana
tack and.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
They're deep there too. They're very long if I line, yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:01):
Heatherman's style of defense is going to require that Miami
get better at communication. Though.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
Man raising my hand right here, so can I so
all of us if you've ever been married or in
a relationship marriage adjacent, sure, hands.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
Right up right now. I can hold it up the
entire preview if you want.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
But we talked about this though when we did when
we did our Miami show, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
We did. That was a big flaw for this team
last season under Lance Gidry, who you also might be
surprised to learn likes running and attacking aggressive defense, but
of course he tended to put a lot of his
stress on the safeties to be in the right spot TLDR.
There were a lot of blown coverages last year. I
think that demonstrate that communication was definitely lacking. So that

(22:46):
I think is job one from Afar. As I report
to you a Miami preview, not having seen any of
the spring practices, I think they got to get the
communication issues sorted out. I do think the defense will
be fine. I actually think the defense gets better. So
my read on Miami defense, better offense a little bit
slower and slightly worse. I do not see them beating
Notre Dame in week one. I don't see them beating

(23:09):
Florida in Week four.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
That's a Sunday night the Notre Dame one.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
Sunday night game, correct, Yeah, Labor Day weekend.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
CONTINUE could see.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
Them losing to a team like a Louisville. I do
think they're losing to Pitt to close out the year
because I'm just like Pitt super fan number one here.
I've got Miami at like nine and three or eight
and four this year.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yeah, I get it, just with the the losable games
that they put on on film last year and the
games they actually did lose, with what they were advantaged
with on offense, and as you mentioned, disadvantage with on defense.
I think the defense is gonna be better. So the
question is if they have a good but not all
time Miami offense, which is what they were last year.

(23:50):
They were the number one offense in America, cam Ward
bringing back Shannon Dawson of course to run that offense,
and if the defense is noticeably better. I don't know
what that ceiling looks like, but you know, you'd think
they'd be healthier along the defensive line experience at linebacker.
They went into the portal, especially for the back end
of the secondary, made change at defensive coordinator, which a

(24:11):
lot of people are optimistic about. So if they're a
top forty defense, right say, and they're a top twenty offense,
which I think is reasonable depending on we haven't talked
about replacing their top four pass catchers. We talked about
Xavier Ostreppo, but it's also you know, Jacoby George guys
like that. They're going to count on youth, especially like

(24:32):
what cam Ward was able to count on with how
deep they were at tight end, and no longer are
in the same way as they were last season with
Elijah Royo. And I think cam McCormick has finally exhausted
his eligibility his ninth year. Yeah, there's just a lot
of questions there. So the offense is going to fall
a little bit, of course, and the defense should come up.

(24:53):
I think they're ten and twoish. Again, I think there
may be probably I think if you were going to
say you feel better about Notre Dame on the road
to open that season August in South Florida, Okay, that's fine.
Notre Dame was playing for a national championship last year.
Miami very much was not. But CJ. Carr's first game
starting South Florida, Notre Dame's gonna.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Win that game.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
Okay, they're going to win that game. They came out
very impressively in a hostile environment to start the season
last year against A and M. So give Marcus Freeman credit.
He had that team ready to start the season.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
Now, I think it could be lower scoring, sure, I
think it could be kind of ugly. I think if
it devolves into a game like that, it benefits Notre Dame.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
Sure.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
My money right now is on Notre Dame winning that game.
I think they're the better team.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
Okay, Miami started the season really nicely last year as well,
Like we should say they abuly literated. Well, it's not
just nine straight wins, it's early on going to Gainesville
in one of the probably three most electric environments in
the sport. I don't know why I said it like that,
but I stand by it. An obliterated the Gators. Yeah, okay,

(26:01):
and it wasn't a bad Florida team last year, so
I don't know. I'm somewhere in that nine and three,
ten and two range, but I think they'll get enough
of those key wins. The schedule sets up pretty nicely.
Mentioned that Louisville game. I think they have mutual buys
before that game. And so the quarterbacks face for this
Miami schedule are on the trickier side, but even still

(26:22):
because it's like DJ Lagway and Kevin Jennings and Kyrone
Drones and Miller Moss and obviously CJ Carr. We'll see
what Steve Vangeli and CJ. Bailey and Eli Holsteiner like.
But it seems like the floor is pretty high in
terms of quarterbacks faced in this moment. So I'm nine
and three, ten and two, what's the number? But the
Vegas nine nine and I would take the over.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
Okay, Yeah, I go, I'm under, but I think gets
right around the number. That's what they do.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
Yeah, So here we are.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
Okay, you wanted to talk about Miami, Yes, I want
to talk about Pitt. All right, let's if you listen
to the last episode. You know that I am all
in on Pitt. I've got Pitt making the ACC title game,
losing to Clemson. They're over. Under is six and a half.

(27:12):
This is a team that went seven and six last year.
Started seven and zero, finished zero and six. Yeah, they
ended up losing to SMU, Virginia, Clemson at Louisville at BC,
and Toledo in the game above Sports Bowl in a
game that went to six overtimes. I don't know if
you remember that. Yeah, they're right there with a MAC team. Yeah,
here's my case for Pitt. I will get through this

(27:34):
as quickly as I can.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
I'm ready.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
First off, something like fourteen returning starters did get off
to the great start last season, petered off down the
stretch for a variety of reasons, not the least of
which was injuries to Eli Holstein and Desried. Both are
back this season, as is Cade Bell, who enters now
his second season as Pitt's offensive coordinator. Bell was a

(27:57):
big talking point for US coming into last year because
you may recall, it was this circumstance where Paton Ardousey
needed to do something about the offense. The offense had
been really bad, and so he took a chance on
a young coordinator from like Western Carolina wanted to revamp
the offense went in a drastically different direction by hiring
Kate Bell. What we didn't know at the time is

(28:19):
what Pitt had with Eli Holstein, who was the quarterback
transferred off from Alabama. I think he's the real deal.
I really do. I understand your point from our last
episode that efficiency wise wasn't always there. But he can run,
he can throw. I think he's QB one through and through.

(28:39):
I think we can't overlook the fact that he hurt
his ankle had surgery for it this offseason. But before
he got hurt, it really felt like it was starting
to click for me. I think he's going to be
electric Dan if he can stay healthy. Okay, I think
he's going to be electric. I love the fact that
Pitt has a lot of experience along their offensive line.

(29:00):
They also need to stay healthy, which on a separate
point has been a real issue.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
Oh the line was decimated last year.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
Yeah, I mean offensive line health at Pitt is like
its own separate podcast series, not just an episode. So
they got to figure that out. Nar Dog's got to
come up with something on that front. But I like
the ingredients there with Holstein coming back with a line
that's got experience. Hopefully it can stay healthy. Hopefully Desrie
can stay healthy as well. That in and of itself,

(29:30):
I think paints a pretty interesting picture for what Pitt
can be on offense this season. So that's the first
reason I'm very high on the Panthers. Okay, the second
thing is I mentioned des Reed Desmond Reid. He's like
the ying to the Yang.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
All Right.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
If Pitt's gonna have a big year, it's gonna be
because Eli Holstein stays healthy and continues his development, and
also because a guy like Desrid runs for fifteen hundred
yards or something.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
Right a lot.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
It's not easy to get there. But I think it's
gonna be those two guys powering this offense. I'd feel
better about the offense if there were a clear go
to guy out wide, but I think I hope those
guys will develop because cade Bell's back again. With both
these guys, I think Pitt's gonna have one of the
better offenses in the conference. Maybe not the best, maybe

(30:23):
not even as good as I am projecting, right, I
think at a baseline level, they're going to be pretty good,
and they're going to be easily in the top five
in the ACC.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
How many seconds of gameplay from last year are they
away from comfortably missing a bowl game, so they need
every second to beat cal, Cincinnati and West Virginia, right, yeah, yeah,
I don't think there's anything you can be super proud about.
You should always be proud to beat your.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
Rival in the backyard brawl in West Virginia. They go
to West Virginia this year, and you take those wins
eevery get them.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
You take them how you can get them, of course,
and they gave away the Clemson game, right yep, they're
up late and k klub Nick dragged them to a
win Clemson. So my question is what is it about
this year's team? Maybe aside from you know, there's returning
experience in the offensive line, should be healthier, but the
best of Eli Holstein, which I thought was so fun,

(31:19):
and I thought the endings of these pit games were
so fun. I had a great time watching them. But
what is it about this team that was eventually with injuries.
When you have injuries and your team tanks, that means
your depth probably isn't where it needs to be. If
you are going to be Tis Latex salesman competing for
the ACC championship this season, sure, so the depth isn't there.

(31:42):
I don't see a clear Is there a clear number
one receiver that you're ready to be like, this is
the guy because they lose Kannata Mumpfield. No, no, there isn't.
Who was that guy last year?

Speaker 1 (31:51):
There isn't.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
So if we're saying offensive line needs to be better
and healthier, Eli Holstein needs to be better and healthier,
does read we know known commodity up front? They're in
a really good place. Did a great job stopping the
run last year, But still some questions on that back end,
especially against a pretty deep roster of quarterbacks on schedule.

Speaker 1 (32:08):
Yeah, I mean I pits in my view, Yeah, loaded
at linebacker. One of the stronger units in the country
at linebacker, which is a good starting Great. They look
good in the back.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
To me, I'm not worried about that.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
I think they look good in the back. I think
they're deeper upfront. I think the defense is going to
be fine. The wet blanket I have about this defense
is a pass rush, and this has been a talking
point the last couple of years now. The pass rush
pass rush we saw last season was not the pass
rush that we are used to seeing from Pitt. It
hasn't been that way for a couple of years running.
Now it feels like they need to find a way

(32:43):
to supercharge that aspect of their defense if they want
to get better. Now, this is where I tend to
give paton Ardouzy some credit. Okay, because he knows how
to feel the defense. I'd like a little bit more pressure,
a little bit more pressure on the pass or if
I'm being honest about this team, But I still tend
to give him a fair amount of a fair amount

(33:03):
of confidence when it comes to can he put a
defense out there that's going to be, you know, respectable.
I don't think that's going to detract from the overall project.
Here is what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
I like that they have a buye before Louisville. There
are a couple of stretches here. The Florida State on
the road back to back with Syracuse on the road.
That's a travel monster situation. And then they get NC State.
So that's you know, three straight games with very different
styled teams, two of which on the road, and then
finishing Notre Dame at Georgia Tech and Miami. I know
you have them over Miami. I just think the run

(33:34):
it's a very stretchy schedule to me for PITT. Look,
they had bad injury luck last season. You know, the
universe tends to even itself out, so hopefully this is
a healthy team for twelve consecutive games. The non conference
isn't terrible outside of West Virginia. I just I don't know.
I look at the lack of obvious star power on

(33:55):
this team, and when we've seen the better PIT offenses,
and it is Kenny Pickett whatever, He's surrounded by guys
and he makes you know, guys into capitol g guys.
However you want to phrase it. And I'm just not
there with Eli Holstein yet. If you're talking about one
of the best two teams in the conference. I want depth,
I want obvious killers. I want there to be something

(34:16):
there for me to take a big bite out of.
And right now I'm just nibbling on PIT.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
It's it's health and consistency, it's stay healthy, cut down
on the turnovers. I've got PIT at nine and three,
so I'm going way over that total.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
I have eight and four.

Speaker 1 (34:31):
Yeah, I think they're a contender in the conference. They
do miss both Clemson and SMU, that is nice, and
I think the two big games to keep in mind
September twenty seventh, which is a really big football weekend.
As it stands, this game is going to fly under
the radar a little bit. It's pit hosting Louisville, which
is I think pretty significant in the ACC And to

(34:53):
your point, like there are a bunch of other big
games on this schedule. I just like where they stand.
I like how they match. I do think they beat
Miami to close out the year. They've got that one
at home. Might be the second straight year if they.

Speaker 2 (35:05):
Have a buy before Notre Dame, I believe.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
Yeah, I don't want to talk about that Notre Dame
game yet.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
Where's by the way, By the way, I do just
for give me seven seconds Notre Dame. Who does Notre
Dame have before they travel to Pitt. They're gonna win
this game? Is that any they have situation? They have Navy,
so it's post option legs before playing against.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
The kind a body of Bruce Felman body blow theory
that's reably coming up. Yeah, all right, so we've done Clemson, Pitt, Miami. Yeah,
talk to me about SMU. They're gonna take a step
back this year, and that's okay.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
I agree, Just mathematically, they didn't lose a single game
on their ACC slate last year until they lost to
Clemson barely, and they were right there to actually win
the ACC. They're just they were very quietly led by
having a deeper quarterback room than most teams in the country,
making that switch early on out of you know, the
Preston Stones situation into Kevin Jennings. They had experience, quality

(36:04):
receivers in a running back room, and legitimately excellent front
seven players, all of whom are now gone. And so
I think Rhet Lashley is good. He wins games. He
is an unbelievable fit for the Mustangs. I just think
year to year in dealing with a power conference, in

(36:26):
trying to restock, and they're obviously always going to be
a pretty heavy portal team, which they should be given
their location, and I think they've got quality guys there.
I just think year over year, even with quality guys,
even with continuity and the coaching staff, I just think
they're going to be merely pretty good and not able
to navigate as shrewdly as they were last year. I've

(36:49):
got him finishing outside the top fifteen of the ACC
or the country well there's only seventeen teams in the
n I know, I just am clarifying here. We'll talk
about Wake, We'll talk about Stanford a little bit later.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
No, they're not gonna They're gonna finish sixth in the conference.

Speaker 2 (37:04):
They also have like a very quietly challenging non conference schedule,
playing Baylor and the Skillet game.

Speaker 1 (37:10):
They they do so like, I'm really mixed on SMU
because I was all in on SMU last year. I
think I said I had him nailed it, potentially going
twelve and zero. So I like this team that was
before they made the switch to Kevin Jennings, who was
a total revelation last year, clearly gives them a dynamic
that they did not have with Preston Stone. He's now
backed up, by the way, by Tyler Van Dyke. TVD
still playing. TVD might not see the field beyond mop

(37:33):
up duty. My issue my flawfinder if I it's bothering
me and I said this on the last episode, but
you lose Berschard Smith and that's a big deal. They
did add some pieces Chris Johnson from Miami, TJ. Harden
from UCLA. I'm not sure either guy is going to

(37:54):
be able to replace the production or the combination of
guys can replace the production. And berchard Smith, they just
used him so many different ways, including out of the
backfield in the passing game where he caught thirty nine balls.
Definitely something both Johnson and Harden can do, and I
think that was probably the appeal of bringing them into

(38:14):
this offense. I do trust rhet lashly. I like him.
I think he's going to put a good offense together.
It's just hard for me to believe that there's not
going to be a step back here. So I'm with
you on that front, and I'm also with you on
the defensive side. I think we've got to see a
step back there. Just given the losses in the front seven,
I'm not convinced their hall of transfers is going to
be able to backfill to the point where it meets

(38:35):
last year's production.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
Well, you just need to nail portal class after portal
class after port like It's just yeah, and.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
Bear in mind, this is a top twenty five defense
last year. It was one of the better tackling teams
in all of college football. Other than some of the
issues they had in the red zone, it wasn't a
unit that did a whole lot wrong. I just think
now the combination with what they lose up front with
a tougher schedule, for sure, SMU's got to take a
step back. They have to. I think what we will

(39:02):
see from this team is that they end up playing
in more shootouts this year. So they're going to be
a fun watch, right, some close games last year, not
a lot of shootouts. I think this year we're going
to see more shootouts. Eight and four eight and four
for me with SMU.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
I have what did I write down? I wrote down
eight and four for SMU as well, and it's you know,
they have like the the interesting travel wrinkle being basically
so far away from everybody. At least Stanford has cal
nearby and vice versa. SMU has a close road game
against TCU and the Skillet, and then it's across the
country to Clemson, across the country to Wake Forest. Maybe

(39:39):
they just stay out there. Those aren't back to back weeks,
so there's that weird interesting travel winkle wrinkle. Excuse me.
They come home to play Miami, then go to Boston
to play BC, come home for a bye week, and
then it's Louisville at home and they go to the
West Coast to play cal Man again. They navigated it
just fine last season, but I just think they were

(40:02):
older and wiser and better equipped, at least to me
in mid July. So I have them as merely good.
But just you know, a couple of tougher losses that
you know ended up being wins. Last year you had
the I think Louisville was pretty close. I know Duke
went to forty four overtimes, which, by the way, you know,
good for Duke, good for resume. Those are two quality

(40:23):
teams from last season, but I think those fifty to
fifty games might be a little bit different given the
lack of dependability here.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
And by the way, I'll offer a bit of a disclaimer,
place Kevin Jennings takes a big step forward if they're
able to lean on him a little bit more, if
he's able to give them, you know, even more production,
All bets could be off here because it's still a
good team. There's still a lot of talent. I'm just defensively,
I think is where it gets me the most. Brishard Smith.

(40:53):
What they lose upfront on defense, that's to me, I
think the sticking point.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
So I'm good. Last year they they basically played Clemson
too a draw. In year one, they could not have
been more impressive.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
Thirty four to thirty one. Yeah, and they came back
in that game. It was a really it came back.

Speaker 2 (41:08):
It looked like it was Yeah, it looked like it
was gonna get ugly early with the turnovers, and acquitted
themselves super impressively.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
And for as much as I think it's easy to
look at what they did in the playoff against Penn
State thirty eight to ten, they lose on the road
in State College.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
That game was a disaster for all involved. It was
so cold, it was negative seventy one day.

Speaker 1 (41:26):
It was ridiculous. So I Penn S was a better team,
Don't get me wrong. I'm just not willing to look
at that and say, ah, they're not even on the
same level as a team like a pin. I think
if circumstances were different, that game would have been closer.
They still would have lost, but that game would have
been closer. Okay, next game, Louisville, Louisville eight and a

(41:47):
half over under. I'm taking slight under amend eight and four. Yeah,
lost at Notre Dame last year to SMU, to Miami
to Stanford. They did win the Sun Bowl. They finished
nine and four, So those are all relatively close losses,
some of them final score maybe doesn't indicate what the
game flow was like.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
But and weird close wins like Virginia. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:10):
Yeah, it's another big transfer class for Louisville. This is
very quickly becoming a thing for Jeff brom thirty one
new guys coming in, the biggest of which is Miller Moss,
the former USC quarterback.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
Moss watched bench the benched USCA quarterback. I think porn context. Continue.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
We played most of the year, okay, and if you
were so good, he played most of the year.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
Yeah, nearly beat Maryland. Continue.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
Do you just want to take this time for yourself to.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
Just I'm just filling in the blanks here. I've got
my ice cream scoop out and I'm filling in your
cup of moss. Continue.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
We can't do a heat themed episode in an ice
cream themed episode at once.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
Well, that's the duality of manti. You know, you run
a little hot, you run a little cold. Continue.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
I think Louisville's at a good place. Louisville, is that
a good place? As a program. This is a third
straight year now where they've pulled in a ton of guys,
and each of the previous two Brom and his brother
Brian Brom have done a really good job integrating them
into the system. So I think you look there. There
is definitely an impulse to look at a team that
brings in a bunch of transfers and say, wow, that's

(43:18):
I don't know if they can do it. These guys
have done it. They've done it, So ignore Louisville at
your own peril. I think they'll be fine. What makes
Louisville interesting to me though, among teams that are at
or near that upper crust of the conference, they're the
ones to me with the widest range of results. Like

(43:38):
I could make a really compelling case for seven and five,
I could probably make a compelling case for ten to two, Okay,
And that to me is really what it comes down
to for Louisville. I need to know what it's going
to take for Louisville to make the big jump forward.
Who's going to be that guy? Is it Isaac Brown,
is it Miller Moss, is it somebody else? What is

(43:58):
the X factor that is suddenly going to transform this
team from a four loss team like we saw last
year to let's say ten and two in a playoff contender, right,
because I like them, I just don't like them that much.
And that's my issue here.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
Yeah, I think it's star power as well. I think
they're counting on it. It's not just transfer, it's small
school transfers. It was like this guy was a star
at Coastal Carolina, this guy was a star at Miami
of Ohio, whatever. And that sounds like I'm being dismissive.
I'm not. I just think they're like my salt and
Straw team of the ACC that when you're saying, okay,
the line of scrimmage is being completely rebuilt with transfers

(44:38):
on both the offensive and defensive lines, Okay, it could
go super well. Look I my team is doing this too,
My beautiful, beautiful Oregon Ducks. I think are starting three
transfers along the offensive line this season, and so it
can go really really well. But if a guy gets hurt,
if a couple guys get hurt and you're dealing with

(44:59):
a unit it's never played together and known each other
for three weeks or something like, it just worries me
a little bit in terms of me thinking you have
nine and three, ten and two type vibes. I'm not
in love with Miller Moss. I'm not in love with
where they are at receiver. I do really like that
is what's Duke Watson and Isaac Brown in the backfield
on offense.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
Yeah, I'll talk about that next. I don't hate the
receiver room though. It's not going to blow the doors
off you, but it's at least a veteran presence with
Colin Lacey and Chris Bell. It's not bad.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
It's just the Lacy missed like nine games last year. Okay,
I just I want to know what If you think
they're gonna run super well, then I guess that's the answer.
But what is it like to go nine and three
in a major conference? I think you need to point
to a signific like something specific that you're like, this
is who we are and we do it significantly well.

(45:52):
And to me, it's not obvious for Louisville right now.

Speaker 1 (45:55):
I do think the running game is the bigger story.
I adore or Isaac Brown. It's great, the first true
freshman in school history to break a thousand yards rushing
last season. Ended up being ACC Freshman of the Year.
Between him and Duke Watson, this is one of the
better running back rooms in the country. It is so.

(46:16):
I think Jeff brom going hard after offensive line and
the portal is significant. They did add six guys three
six guys excuse me, who were full time starters. I
think it's clear that he wants to steer into this
side of the offense. Miller Moss is love more hate
him a veteran of college football at this point, He's

(46:38):
been around a long time. I think that was a
good get for them to go out and get him.
And they do have that track record for taking in
transfer quarterbacks and making them better. They've done it each
of the last two years. So it wouldn't surprise me
if we see a jump from him. It wouldn't surprise
me if we see a really run heavy offense this year,
leaning on a guy like an Isaac Brown and obviously
Duke Watson as well. I think the offense will be

(47:00):
fine because Louisville is pretty good at offense. The Broms
know how to do this. Sure, They've got a great
set of linebackers too. DJ Quinn, stan Kwan Clark Antonio Watts.
I'm unclear about the line. I'm unclear about the back
and four, but the linebackers at least they're good. The
real wet blanket here, though, is the schedule, Dan, Buddy.
They can lose to a Sun Belt team Week two,

(47:23):
your duke James Madison. Yeah, yeah, this is a tough schedule.
They're at Miami, They're at Virginia Tech. They've got Clemson
at home, They're at SMU. They close out the year
the Governor's Cup against Kentucky. Also, yeah, the Week two
game against James Madison, which you should not sleep on.
That is one of three Friday night games, by the way,
for Louisville. I think they're good enough offensively to score

(47:46):
on pretty much everyone. The defense, though, is going to
be a limiting factor. And okay, you know it's again.
I have a fair amount of confidence when it comes
to the Broms figuring out a way to integrate new pieces.
But there are a lot of new pieces. Yeah, and
it's as we saw with the Florida State a year ago,
you can't always count on that just popping and working.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
So he's he's definitely a chopped coach. He's definitely. Like
you hand him some ingredients, you hand him jack plumber,
He'll be like, all right, I can figure something out here.
We'll get some garlic, soy, honey ginger on jack plumbers,
a lot of garlic.

Speaker 1 (48:22):
And honey ginger on jack plumber. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
But yeah, I mean it's what was the number, It
was like twenty eight out thirty in I've got it's
something early one in thirty one in the twenty eight
twenty nine out something like that.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
That. Yeah, Okay, if I had a bed, I'd say
a nine.

Speaker 2 (48:40):
And three four here. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:44):
I think they lose at Miami. I think they lose
against Clemson at home. I think there's at least one
other one somewhere in there, maybe at Pitt earlier in
the year. But that's I mean, we're we're glossing over
a number of these teams that are all going to
go six and six and seven and five and have
to populate their record with wins. So like Boston College

(49:04):
is going to beat one of these teams, Sure, Virginia
Tech is going to beat one of these teams. Virginia
is going to be one of these teams. And See
State's going to be three of these teams like somebody
is going to pop up, and so I just, yeah,
I'm not there. I look and if Miller Moss finds
his groove in a new offense, in a new setting

(49:25):
and is able to finish games in ways that you know,
the offenses he led at USC weren't able to do,
and you can spread the blame around to multiple pieces there.
But I don't know, he's the guy with the ball
in his hands on all those drives. Georgia Tech might
be one of these teams that knocks some contenders off.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
I'm just I'm in on Tech.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
The over under for Tech is currently seven and a half.
This was a seven win team yacht last season. They
went seven and six beat Florida State in Ireland. That
was a very big deal at the time. We didn't
know what we were in for with Florida State, but
it was a huge win for Thank you James.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
Of course, of course I had to get him in there.

Speaker 1 (50:05):
Lost at Syracuse, lost at Louisville, lost versus Notre Dame,
lost at Virginia Tech, lost at Georgia that crazy game
that close.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
Out this and that's also dealing second half of the season.
Haines King with a bumped shoulder at this time and
like playing, but you knew he kind of wasn't throwing
more than eight and a half yards. Yeah, I will.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
Let you vamp about Georgia Tech. All I will say
is this as a as a means of introduction. If
you are out there and don't care anything about ACC football,
maybe you do. If you're just a fan of college football.

Speaker 2 (50:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
If you can't find it within yourself to be marginally
fascinated with Georgia Tech this year, you are doing it wrong.
My friend, Sure you are doing it wrong. Maybe you're
a Georgia fan. If you're a Georgia fan, I guess
this goes out the window for me personally. Tech has
all the makings of a sleeper team and the kind

(51:03):
of team that I tend to get a little too
excited about.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
I don't even know if people are sleeping on them.
After taking Georgia to fourteen overtimes, everybody's watching that game. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
All the ingredients I think are in place for this
team to make a really nice run this season.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
Except for the twoc well, the two for Tyler Santucci.
Tyler moved on to the Baltimore Ravens the defensive coordinator
from last year who did a very good job pulling
this defense from catastrophically bad to frisky.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
Does it bother you that his replacement, Blake Gideon, who
comes over from Texas, allowed the Michael Crabtree catch, did
allow the Michael krab Crabtree catch. But if there's a
wet blanket here, it's the fact that he's never actually
called a defense before.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
Now. I think his reputation is good. You don't do
something until you do it. I don't know, so yes,
in an ideal world, he's called a defense somewhere smaller
and is higher to Georgia attack.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
Sure, his reputation Blake gideons does precede him coach in
the secondary. Outside of the pass rush, which stunk last
year for Georgia Tech, the big issue was past defense.
So if he applies what he's good at, he's going
to have an opportunity here to make a pretty big
immediate impact for this defense. As we saw last year

(52:14):
with how Tech improved against the run, that was a
point of emphasis. They've got enough talent, I think to
take a step forward. I think they can do it
again this season in the back as well.

Speaker 2 (52:25):
A couple things. Okay, I can't believe Haines King Still's eligibility.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
Haines your way backfield, right, Haines King.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
Jamal Haynes, Yes, losing Eric McAllister is not my favorite thing.
He transfers to Eric. What did I say, McAllister? Yeah,
it was a different receiver, Eric Singleton, Thank you quick
on the draw tie. That's why you get paid the
big bonds. But it's Eric Rivers who comes in from FIU,
A couple guys from FIU coming in and they're another school.
They're counting on smaller school guys to fill in some gaps,

(52:55):
which you put them in that salt and straw category.
But also it's along the offensive line. I tend to
trust Brent Key and Mario Christoval, guys with that background
a little bit more that they're going to get offensive
line figured out. That they were good in game coaches,
that this team played with fire, perhaps more so than
many other teams in the ACC. I like on a

(53:17):
certain level that they were crazy beat up on defense
and still improved to the point that they improved to
last season. Hopefully the universe evens their situation out and
they're a little bit healthier on defense. I just there
are enough returning pieces here on both sides of the
ball that they play a brand of football. And the
threat of Haines King on the ground with Jamal Haynes

(53:39):
right there, like they're just going to be so annoying.
They get a rebuilding Colorado team on the road at
altitude should be clear. Yeah, they get Clemson early on
in this season, so maybe if Clemson is, you know,
a full war machine by later on, good to get
them early. They get them at home. Otherwise, you know,
the road environment for Wake should be crazy, The road
environment for Duke shouldn't be crazy. The growth environment for

(54:00):
BC shouldn't be crazy. I just think the schedule is
it's not easy, but it's fine. It's workable, that's what
you like to say, right.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
I think Clemson's on the schedule, but it's at home.
Virginia Tech's at home SYRACUSEID they lost to last year
at home Pitt who I love. At home. They've got
the neutral cider against Georgia, but you know, we kind
of take that one for what it is as a
rivalry game. Here are there five road games, right? So
you mentioned Colorado, but at Colorado at Wake at Duke,
at NC State at BC right, just that in and

(54:33):
of itself, Tech should be considered a contender because of
the schedule.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
And no like like Louisville had last year, No weird
West Coast flights on this schedule, no no caller Stanford here.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
I think they might be better than ten of the
twelve teams in the schedule as it stands now. They
got to stay healthy.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
Got to stay healthy.

Speaker 1 (54:51):
Health was a big time issue last year. But to
the point like, okay, they lose Singleton, but they backfill
with Eric Rivers and Dean Patterson from fyu Wich. I
thought was a really nice move provided there is good
enough health on this team. This is a tough This
is a physical team that has very much embraced the
mentality of the coach, Brankey, who used to be an
offensive line coach. They can score thirty five to forty

(55:14):
points a game with this offense. YEP. If there is
an issue, it's probably the offensive line, which is down
a couple guys from last year. But again, head coach,
former offensive lineman, I tend to think that he can
feel the line out there. I still think they'll be
okay up front, So I'm very very optimistic. You factor
in what they've got coming back in the backfield, the
Haines your Way backfield. You factor in I think a

(55:36):
defense that will should be okay, and a schedule that
sets up pretty well.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
They went from embarrassing and catastrophically bad on defense to
merely below average and did so with basically no pass rush.
That's right, exactly only room for improvement. Yeah, that's the
sunny way of looking at things that if they could
continue to take that step forward, if they can put
a little bit of fear into Steve Angeli's eyes or whoever,

(56:04):
they become that much more dangerous. And so you still
have to buy low on this Georgia Tech defense if
you feel really good about the Yellowjackets. But otherwise, I
don't know. I just see a lot of ways for
them to win and the fire with which they play.

Speaker 1 (56:18):
I'm in on the way that my contender tier stacks
up now that we've done all six of these teams. Yeah,
and I know you're gonna have PIT pretty low. That's
fine for me. It goes Clemson one, Pit two, and
then just a smattering of teams I probably all have
the same record eight and four, nine and three, somewhere
in that range, Miami, Georgia Tech, Louisville SMU in that order, right,

(56:45):
I think you've got Clemson Miami, and then you know.

Speaker 2 (56:48):
I've got Clemson Miami a drop obviously because only two
teams can play in the championship game. Sure, and then
I'm gonna go Georgia Tech, SMU, Pitt Louisville. I'm just
gonna go. I just went in doubt, like, look at
the quarterback who you'd most want and least want to.

Speaker 1 (57:04):
You are bumping pit up. Then you bumped them up
a little bit.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
Yeah, I mean, I think they have a coaching advantage. Still,
the track record is still impressive for Pat Nardoozy, But
I don't know. I think they're all in that like
four point two lost range.

Speaker 1 (57:21):
Two teams left. Let's jump to the rebuilding tier. Please,
Let's start with wake Forest. Wake Forest is four and eight.
They hired a new coach, Dave class In tapped out,
said Nomas. He's officially retired. We do have somebody new
entering the conference. A new bomshell. Bombshell. I was stalling

(57:44):
because I couldn't find this sound on time. But Jake
Dicker formerly of Wazoo. The last time he coached east
of the Mississippi was in two thousand and seven as
a grad assistant for Wisconsin. Stevens Point is almost not
terribly east of Mississippi. Not to be clear, Stone's throwaway.

Speaker 2 (58:03):
By the way, Just on that note, Jake dickerd might
lead the nation in week one or week two when
there's a shot of him on the sidelines of like,
huh no more Clawson that like people are learning of that.
Oh yeah, via a lower third underneath him on an
ACC Network broadcast.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
Yeah, really good coach. I give kudos to Wake for
going out and getting a young guy a good experience
and a good track record. I read like six Wake
Forest previews. I watched a bunch of videos online. Everybody
has called out the energy that he's brought to the program.
You know, this is what.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
This is one of the tropes. Yeah, really good vibes.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
Good energy that doesn't win games, but it is I
think if you're a Wake fan, refreshing to at least
have good vibes. After going four and eight on back
to back seasons.

Speaker 2 (58:50):
Jake Dickart also had the quote last year again speaking
of the energy stuff, where they tried to. Somebody asked
him about Oregon State and then being in like a
similar and like banding together, and remember we had the
quote was like, they're not our friends. They would have
left us in a heartbeat if it were up to them.

Speaker 1 (59:07):
Oh yeah, I have this guy.

Speaker 2 (59:09):
I appreciate the candor. He's a good coach, he's a
good quote. Sign me up.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
Very clearly a rebuilding situation. Thirty three incoming transfers if
you add them to the mix, technically eleven starters back
for wake okay technically, but changing the offense. The defense
is going to give up like thirty one points a game.
They're going to be dogs and eight or nine of

(59:34):
their games this season. So it's a rebuilding thing. There
are no expectations. The schedule actually sets up pretty well.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
It's a good schedule.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
And so I guess my burning question here is how
much can you translate that energy into can you hit
the over four and a half? Can you get the
six wins? And somehow, you know, drawn inside straight your
way to a bowl game? I don't know, but at
least the energy here is something that a lot of
people have gravitated toward. It's in the early going. Now

(01:00:01):
there are issues obviously about the roster. I don't know
how deep you want to get into Wake Forest. They've
got plenty of other notes, but that's where I'm out
this steam.

Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
Yeah, Wake Forest if they are decent, and I still
have a lot of questions about using that word given
where the quarterback room is in this moment and how
many new faces are there, they have the advantage of
being perhaps rightfully so immediately overlooked, right sure that they
become like the ACC look ahead this season maybe for

(01:00:35):
good reason. Maybe they're a great value by because they're
keeping games close that they shouldn't because whoever NC State
or Virginia Tech or whoever's on their schedule is looking
past them because they have Clemson or Miami or SMU,
whoever that like Wake is going to have that immediate
advantage that perhaps shoulders are relaxed a little bit with
teams that they're playing early kickoffs, whatever. It doesn't seem

(01:00:58):
like a big game atmosphere playing against Wake, Like if
it's a home game, maybe people aren't as excited in
the crowd to be going to a Wake game. If
it's a road game for a team, maybe they just
don't think it's that big a deal to play at
Wake Forest. I like that a little bit. I don't
know if it means six wins, but I think, especially
early on in the season, I think, what do they

(01:01:19):
have NC State? Early on, I believe like a couple
of teams, like a couple of flawed teams, thinking they
can just waltz in and take down a first year
coach for a team that has been up and down.
I don't know, all of a sudden, you're down fourteen
three to wake and you're like, how did we get here?

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
Counterpoint?

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
Oh, I understand. The counterpoint is reality. Counterpoints reality. Also,
Robbie Ashford is still playing, and he's I want to
say his name out loud.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
I saw this on the sheet here that I put
together for Wake Forest. I let out an audible groan like,
oh no, yeah, not another Robbie Ashford season. But that said, Okay,
if you're gonna add another Robbie Ashford season, who yeah, exactly,
if you're going to trot him out there, he's going

(01:02:04):
to be your starter. It's not the worst scenario for
this because I like their running back, Demon Claiborne went
for over a thousand yards last year. Should have a
pretty good line in front of him. If you stay
ahead of the chains, if you focus on the ground game,
that you could make that work with Robbie Ashford. You
don't want to making high leverage throws, I can tell
you that. Yeah, but in theory wake lining you up,

(01:02:27):
trying to run it down your throat. That's an interesting zag.
That could be fun. I don't know how successful it's
going to be, but I think that's the template. If
you're going to try and go with.

Speaker 2 (01:02:34):
It, I would just start keep going with the slow mesh. No,
it's just going it's the most annoying one out against. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
The other thing that I'll add here real quick. Then
I want to get to our final team Stanford. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:47):
Scotty Hazelton new defensive coordinator. You actually might be surprised
by this. Scotty Hazelton wants to run an aggressive attacking defense.

Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
Does he have the great beard?

Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
I believe so. Yeah. Okay, aggressive attacking defense. Another one
can only do it if you've got a pass rush.
Not clear to me that they do. All we know
is that they're going to try and that there are
some more proven playmakers in the back seven, guys like
Devon Patterson, who are going to need to wear a
bunch of different hats. So curious, not willing to fully

(01:03:19):
write off Wake. They're not winning the conference. It's clearly
a rebuilding thing. I don't care if they go through
a nine.

Speaker 2 (01:03:23):
Well, let me write this down.

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
The Wake is not I know, going out and okay,
but I like Jake Dickert. I like his energy. Everybody
likes his energy.

Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
Yeah. What I really want from this team is I
want a very obvious offensive identity and vision, because I
think that's that's the blueprint at Wake, a place like
Wake whatever, Like, here's what we do, here's how we
recruit around it. They don't need to run the triple,
and they don't need to do something terribly crazy, but
they need to be well coached and they need to like, Okay,

(01:03:54):
this is the type of system we have in place.

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
That's it. Last team on today's episode Stanford Cardinal, Yeah
around here, three and a half. They went three to nine.
Last year they beat cal Poly. They had the weird
upset over Syracuse and then another weird upset at home
over Louisville.

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
Can you build the whole plane out a weird upset.
It's a good question.

Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
They're gonna try. They lost to everybody else and most
of them weren't close. Little did we know, Dan, the
story was just getting started for Stanford. So the roster
gets clobbered in the portal. Then after that, Troy Taylor
gets dismissed in the spring because of an investigation into
workplace complaints.

Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
Then the roster gets hit again a second wave in
the portal Andrew Luck, who's now apparently running the shop
correct he names Frank Reich as the interim coach for
twenty twenty five while he looks for a permanent replacement.
So this whole thing is an enormous reboot. One of
the interesting stories for Olds like us is that Andrew
Luck is apparently in charge of this whole thing, which

(01:04:55):
I don't hate. I don't know if he's any good
at it, No, but at least he's a name that
people in Stanford circles were clearly was very successful in
his time there. Am I losing my mind if I
look at the situation with Frank Reich and I say,
you could do a lot worse than that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:11):
No, don't. I don't think that you're losing your mind.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
I kind of don't hate that situation. He was a
highly respected NFL guy, kind of known as a quarterback whisper.
It sounds like he's going to steer into what they have,
which is a good group of running backs, align with
some experience, a good tight end in Sam Rouge. The
receivers are improving, the quarterback's improven. But you know, we'll
see more of the pro style stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
It's ben Goal Branson coming in from Orang State and
they've got that's a name that I Ben Goran.

Speaker 1 (01:05:39):
I can't believe he's still playing.

Speaker 2 (01:05:41):
He's still there. Yeah, I think the.

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
Quarterback is going to be Elijah Brown, who's the red
shirt freshman.

Speaker 2 (01:05:47):
Yeah, went to Modern Day. Yeah, I went to Modern.

Speaker 1 (01:05:49):
Day, the number eleven quarterback in the same class as
Lagway and Royola.

Speaker 2 (01:05:53):
He played a little bit last year, but wasn't ready.

Speaker 1 (01:05:56):
Wasn't ready. They do have Dylan Rizzick who played for
UC down the stretch last season, in addition to Bengal Bronson,
who he might be older than us at this point. Correct,
he's been around forever, so that's not an ideal situation.
I don't hate Elijah Brown. I'm curious to see more
of him. This is a team, a defense that has
a fair amount coming back from last season. For as

(01:06:17):
bad as it was.

Speaker 2 (01:06:18):
It was terrible.

Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
Yeah, for as bad as it was, it actually got
a little better versus.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
And they brought in transfers, which is not like a
normal thing for Stanford. I think it was seventeen or eighteen.
Transfers came in a lot of whom from Dartmouth. Let's
be a lot of them from Dartmouth.

Speaker 1 (01:06:31):
They lose David Bailey, their edge Texas Tech, which hurts.
But you know, if you look at the schedule, like
not a lot of proven quarterbacks on this thing. Dan,
So I don't think Stanford's gonna be good, But I
just I'm I'm gonna stop short of calling it a
total disaster, given the circumstances, given the coach, given the
fact that there's like, I don't know enough here to

(01:06:52):
be reasonably dangerous in.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
Spots yeah, four and eight, five and seven, you know,
best case scenario to me, just because it's not that
Frank Reich is a bad coach, but he has to
convince this team who is sort of in a gray
area and people have, you know, given their pledges to
see it through. At least for the short term. He's

(01:07:15):
going to be gone. Yeah, you don't know who's going
to be the coach. So you're in this sort of
state of disarray at Stanford and uncertainty, and so Frank
Reich has to go to this team and say play
your asses off, Like, yeah, it's a hard sell, that's all.

Speaker 1 (01:07:32):
I think he's good enough schematically to put guys in
the right position. Is he a good enough motivator to
use a very difficult situation and get this team to
punch above its weight. That's I think the obvious question.

Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
And you just need guys.

Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
You need to need dudes.

Speaker 2 (01:07:49):
ACC caliber players at every position, or high level ACC
caliber players at every position. It took Jim Harby years
sort of fill out that roster. The good news long
term is like Stanford is one of the handful of
schools that like very clearly sells itself that like Stanford
can get high quality commitments. I think they have been
based on solely the fact that you get to go

(01:08:11):
to Stanford. Now that's that's a big deal.

Speaker 1 (01:08:14):
I'm interested to see who he's able to reel in
as a coach. Same you know, if this is truly
a one year thing for frank ra I don't know.
Maybe it goes off without a hitch and they end
up keeping him, but I don't expect that's going to
be the case. I'm curious to see because Andrew looks
a name and if he's any good at this in theory, Stanford,
like Stanford's a cool place to be.

Speaker 2 (01:08:35):
How much money does Chris Peterson want? How much money
can you possibly want? Do they have that kind of
money Stanford? Well as a school, of course, yeah, But
for the football team, right, and I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
Schedule's tough, and I should clarify when I say, ah
won't be a disaster, could be good enough to be dangerous.
They're over unders four and a half three and a half.
I'm not sure which four games they're winning right, Maybe
at Hawaii, maybe Uva or San Jose State or cow

(01:09:12):
There's not a lot on good There's not a lot
on here that I feel good about.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
Santos. They say beat Stanford last year, did they not?

Speaker 1 (01:09:17):
They did?

Speaker 2 (01:09:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:09:19):
There are five teams in this slate that might be
top twenty five teams at the start of the year,
So it's not an easy road for Stanford by any stretch.
I think more what I am speaking to is, like
I said, last year, a lot of these losses weren't
particularly close. No, so can they at least be dangerous?
Can they be competitive in some of these games once
they figure out who's playing? That's That's more what I

(01:09:40):
am looking for this year, not so much in terms
of wins and losses.

Speaker 2 (01:09:43):
Yeah, have three and nine?

Speaker 1 (01:09:46):
All right? That does it? Look? We covered some ground today, dude?

Speaker 2 (01:09:49):
The book ends.

Speaker 1 (01:09:50):
We did the book ends, Clemson, Miami, Pitt Georgia Tech,
Louisville and SMU closed things out with Wake Forest and
Stanford in solidverble at gmail dot com. Let us know
what we got right, what we got wrong, Where we
should pay a little bit more attention.

Speaker 2 (01:10:06):
Well, I mean, I'm wondering why did we didn't pay
attention to Notre Dame on this episode myself, But that
was your decision.

Speaker 1 (01:10:11):
That was my decision. We'll get to Notre Dame. I saw.
Haven't figured out how I'm gonna piece them in full
three part preview Notre Dame people would unsubscribe. The Notre
Dame story starts Cincinnati, Ohio with Marcus Freeman. I can't
do it. I don't know what to do. We'll figure
it out. I don't know. Okay, well we'll get to that.
But I wanted to give the ACC it's due. This
is the ACC proper here again. Appreciate your feedback, let

(01:10:34):
us know your thoughts on all things ACC. We do
have another episode coming up where we're going to cover
the wild cards in the middle, the nine teams that
we did not have a chance to discuss today. That'll
be on our next episode.

Speaker 2 (01:10:45):
Honestly, if I don't get a crate of ice cream
sent to my house at this point, what is even
going on in this world of brand marketing? What is
even happening?

Speaker 1 (01:10:54):
We are currently a pro ice cream podcast without a
ice cream sponsor.

Speaker 2 (01:11:01):
And I have I have lactose issues, and I'll still
push through. Got to take that lack date. Man, oh man,
I have the lack date. It hit me when I
was like thirty seven out of nowhere. Unbelievable. Still very
pro ice cream and vodka sauce.

Speaker 1 (01:11:15):
Okay, verbalers dot com v E R B A L
L E r S dot com if you want the
episodes a little bit early without the ads, bonus content,
access to our discord and the game that we're eventually
going to spin up v e r B A L
L e r S dot com. You can sign up
for free if you just want the updates, but if
you want to further support what we do, we've got

(01:11:36):
a five dollars tier, ten dollars tier. Your support is
greatly appreciated. Why don't we leave it there, mister Rubinstein.
We will be back at you next episode talking about
the remainder of this conference, before we turn the page
entirely and start talking all things big twelve for that
guy Dan, for myself Tied, thanks for bearing with us,
for hanging in for previewing one half of the ACC

(01:11:56):
on this episode. We'll catch you all since.

Speaker 2 (01:11:58):
Stay solid, peace,

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ACC TEAM PREVIEWS: Clemson, Miami, SMU, Louisville, Georgia Tech, Pitt, Wake Forest & Stanford | 2025 College Football

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}ACC TEAM PREVIEWS: Clemson, Miami, SMU, Louisville, Georgia Tech, Pitt, Wake Forest & Stanford | 2025 College Football