Hello, Welcome to this Week in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the podcast for
All Sports Discussion dot Com. This is Jeff, one of your podcast co
hosts, and you can follow me on Twitter at Talkin' ACC Sports. That's
at e A L K I N A c C Sports. Your podcast moderator
is Matthew and you can follow Matthew on Twitter at as D Underscore Hoky Smash.
I'm gonna turn it over to Matthew as he introduces our guest. Well
tonight, Jeff. We have a great return guest and a great friend of
All Sportsdiscussion dot Com. We've had James Curl on this show so many times.
He's been on this podcast so many times, whether it's been for previewing
ncc NC State football, whether it's been for just previewing the week that was,
or i should say, reviewing the week that was in ACC football and
previewing the next week. And he's also been on here during college basketball season,
and he's been on panels for our site. He's kind of a utility
player for US for NC State Athletics. And right now, James curls over
at pac Pride. He runs just a great podcast over there with the two
four to seven sites to excuse me two four seven sports North Carolina State fan
site. It's not affiliated with the university. Let me make sure I say
that. And you can follow James on Twitter at at James curl. That's
at jamesc rl. E James, welcome back. Just I gave it.
How are you running down? But you have much more history really really in
the ACC BIL Augustphere, ACC Twitter sphere, NC State, at the Triangle.
Tell us about yourself, James, because you have a much deeper history
among those among those various areas that I just talked about. The floor is
here's friend. Well, I appreciate you. Let me hop back on with
you guys. Yeah, I mean I I've been around for a bit and
I don't know how many years I've been joining you guys doing this show.
It's we certainly have been doing this well before COVID, so that's at least
four or five years now. So it's been it's been a minute hanging out
with you guys. But you know I, I you know State grad and
O one and have worked at the student newspaper when I was there, started
a blog in O nine and then the podcast first podcast in twenty eleven the
Old Ridick and Reynolds podcast, and you know joined or I should mention,
Corey Smith is actually the uh the uh. I don't know if he's the
owner, but he's the person who manages, let me just say, manages
and runs pack Pride. So I'm just the guy that hops on with him
every week at a Medio's and we talk about inc State sports. So I
don't I don't want to take any credit for the hard and difficult job that
is running Pack Pride because those running any of those team sites is something that's
well beyond my scope and ability. I don't know how Corey does it,
but you know, I just I wanted to make sure that I didn't take
any credit that wasn't due. But yeah, just have enjoyed hanging hanging out
with you guys over the years and looking forward to well, not looking forward
to I guess I'm here to discuss NC State football. Not a lot to
look forward to you right at the moment, but we'll get into it,
and I'm glad. I'm glad you mentioned your your partner. There are two
four seven sites for seven sports. They didn't mean to play implay otherwise I
kind of assumed that you were the podcast guru, and that's that that's that's
kind of what I gathered from what you said. You know, so we
are, as I said, we're happy to have you back, and we
want to have you review week seven for ACC football with us. Which ACC
football team was the most disappointing team in Week seven and which ACC team was
the most impressive team in Week seven. You don't necessarily have to talk about
NC State after will come up. I'm sure I'll come up, but you
know, you may have you know, you may have some other candidates that
you want to talk about as well. Yeah, I mean, you know,
certainly with a focus on NC State. It was certainly very disappointing to
see how our game against Duke played out, So I'm tempted to go there
right away. But you know, I felt like Syracuse might give Florida State
a little bit more more of a fight in their game. You know,
Wake Forest has just been kind of a real disappointment this year, but I
mean I know that obviously they're they're in kind of a rebuild at the moment.
Louisville, I mean, gosh, who saw that coming. You know,
State had given Louisville all it could handle in its game, and I
felt like there was going to be an opportunity for them to slip up at
some point on their schedule, But I didn't really anticipate that it would be
pit But you know, there's some strong candidates among that group, you know.
I obviously I'd wish that Miami had beaten Carolina, but you know,
Carolina is just they're playing really really well right now, and so it's hard
to fault Miami losing to Carolina in Chapel Hill. So if you pin me
down and have me pick one team, I'd say probably Louisville, But you
know, my heart was crushed more in that State Duke game. So I
mean I gather that you think probably North Carolina was your most impressive team this
week, but Florida State looked really solid as well. Yeah, I keep
expecting both of those teams to have a slip up moment, you know.
I you know, I'm so used to Carolina's defense struggling, and they seem
to have really kind of settled in nicely with Geene Chiswick running things there,
and so I really had pegged Miami to go in and beat Carolina, but
they looked firmly in control of that game, you know, you know there
it was well, it was back and forth. Obviously, Miami was leading
by the three, I think it at half, but Carolina just came out
and scored what was it, twenty one twenty four straight points unanswered. They
just when they get things going on offense, they are really really hard to
beat. And uh, you know, obviously des Walker coming back from the
kind of the baffling n C double a suspension. Uh I say Dez,
I didn't say Tess Walker. You know, it's just, uh, they
look really really strong right now. It's hard to see them with their schedule
that lies ahead, you know, being you know, beaten by too many
more teams. They've they've still got to play Duke and then they've still got
to play Us in Raleigh. So those might be their two last best opportunities
to drop one here. Obviously, the ACC schedule being what it is,
you know, Florida State and Carolina won't face each other, so there's a
very good chance that both of those teams will finish the season undefeated. You
know, Duke I honestly thought that State was going to give Duke a better
game. You know, Riley Leonard did did not play in that game because
of his ankle injury. I felt like that gave us a really good opportunity
to go into Durham. And you know, again I Duke has played well
in spots against good teams. You know, they had a chance against Notre
Dame. I keep thinking that next week will be the week where the offense
finally starts clicking and their defense just really really shut us down. You know,
had a huge interception that set up a quick touchdown for them. You
know, they're a quarterback, their backup quarterback, Belan came in, completed
only four passes, but two of them were touchdowns, and only threw twelve
I think he only threw the ball one time in the second half. I
mean, that's how comprehensively you know, in control of that game Duke was
there. In the second half, we just could not get anything going on
offense and Duke, all they had to do was basically just run out the
clock, run the ball at us, smother us with their defense. So
in terms of games that I actually watched wire to wire, that State Duke
game was what it was, and Duke really really did look impressive in that,
so you know, that might lead us into you know, the Week
eight slate here coming up. But I'm interested to see if if Duke can
keep it up heading down the rest of the calendar. I think a lot
of us You're not You're not alone there, Jeff, You're a friend,
all right, Thanks Matthew James. What acc football games are you looking forward
to the most in Week eight? It's got to be that Duke Florida State
game. I mean between you know, obviously, Caroline is now ranked in
the top ten and they'll be facing off against Virginia at home. But I
really want to see how well Duke fair in Tallahassee against Florida State. You
know, the old mantras that defense travels. I think there's a really good
chance that this Duke team is going to give Florida State all that can handle.
You know, obviously, Jordan Travis, great quarterback for Florida State.
I think he got nicked up in that game though this week, so you
know, who knows if he will be one hundred percent healthy for that game
or not. But you know, obviously there's a chance that Riley Leonard might
come back or be healed up in time for this, but the way that
Duke played against US, they may not even need him. I don't know
that I would pick Duke to win right out, but I think there's a
really really good chance that Duke pulls it off. And I mean it's just
gonna, you know, make all the certainly all the fans here and Raleigh
kind of envious that Mike Elko has come in, was able to come in
and improve them so rapidly in just such a short period of time with a
roster that, by all accounts, is as talented then just about any other
ACC team. They're just doing it through great coaching at this point. Don't
beat themselves. That was the big thing coming out of the State Duke game
was that Dave Doran iterated just how much or how great a job Duke did
in not beating themselves. State committed so many penalties in that game against Duke,
and Duke didn't. They just played a clean game. And so I
think if Duke can go on the road to Florida State and play the kind
of game they played against US, they've got a real good shot of beating
Florida State. All right, James, which ACC team could be on upset
alert in weegate if they're looking ahead to a game on their schedule or otherwise
just sleepwalking on the field. I mean, I'll stick with I'll stick with,
you know, the game I wanted to take a look at. I
mean, I think Florida State has a chance of being upset. You know,
they're they're currently ranked fourth, probably have aspirations of making the College Football
Playoff and I think there's a decent chance of it if they can run the
table and win the ACC. But you know, Duke's only lost right now
is that game against Notre Dame. And if they end up beating Florida State,
that's gonna you know, it's gonna make it real hard to see Duke
not get into the ACC title picture with that game in handover Florida State.
And again we've talked about North Carolina. You know, if they can run
the table or finish the season with only one loss, then you're looking at
you know, Duke, Carolina and Florida State being three teams with you know,
competing for two spots essentially, So Florida State's gonna definitely want to if
they want to ensure that they make it to that title game. They got
to beat Duke because I think there's a real good chance that, you know,
I think it's just hard. You know, we're so used to the
down years of Duke and thinking about Duke is the team that was, you
know, kind of the laughing stock of the nineties in the early two thousands.
But again, you just have to be really really impressed with the job
that Mike Elko has done there in such a short period of time. That
defense is really something special. And they don't again, they don't beat themselves
and they they don't They just really don't allow you or your team to get
into a good offensive flow. You know. Now, Florida State's got a
tremendous amount of talent, certainly more talented than NC State. So there's a
chance that you know, Florida State's skill position players might just be too much
for due to handle. But you know, I think it's gonna be a
close one, and I think there's a real good chance that if Flora States
not on this a game, dude will go down there and beat them.
All Right, let's step out of the a CC for a bit here,
James, which National FBS game games are you looking forward to in week eight,
and we're wide open this with this question. This can be a Power
five non Power five game. You can even have an FCS matchup and then
give us your winner of that game or if another one catches your eye.
Well, as much as I despise the SEC and how highly it thinks of
itself, I mean that Tennessee Alabama game is going to be probably a fun
one. Alabama obviously is not kind of the world beaters that were used to
them being, and Tennessee is not, you know, the team that they
were minus Hindon Hooker. So I think there's a chance that that game will
be certainly not the you know, heavyweight title about that. A lot of
those Alabama games are against the top teams in the SEC. But it will
still be pretty interesting. I imagine, you know, it's in Tuscaloosis,
so I would say Alabama's probably gonna come out ahead, but you know,
I don't know. I think that this is a different Alabama team than we're
used to seeing, and it would be a decent chance that there's an upset
there for Tennessee to go on the road and then you know, Penn State,
Ohio State, how good is Ohio State can and how good is Penn
State? I mean, I feel like Penn State's one of those teams that
we've been waiting to kind of get over the hump into the caliber of getting
into the college football Playoff. They're probably the team that's been the closest but
not quite their team for the an expended period of time. James Franklin has
done, you know, good job building them up, but he hasn't been
able to build him up to at Ohio State Michigan level. So if they
want to enter that conversation, they got to go on the road and beat
Ohio State and Columbus. But probably those two games will be the ones that
that I am going to be keeping an eye on. State's going to be
off this week, so you know, I'll finally have an opportunity to,
you know, not be stressed about my team losing on a Saturday, so
it'll be wide open to watch pretty much anything, or who knows, I
might just decide to move the art instead take a week off here. You
all right, James, you know we've reached about the midpoint of the season.
Here, which acc team do you think has underperformed thus far? On
the season and who has overperformed and you know which ACC coach should be feeling
some heat here at the midpoint of the twenty twenty three seas Before we go
on to that jam. Before we go into that, James, I just
want to add one thing that prior on that prior question. Am looking forward
to USC in Utah. I've been watching more Pac twelve football this year than
I think I have in several years, and it will be interesting for me
to see whether whether you you know, whether USC can rebound from just getting
I mean, they got demolished against Notre Dame. They just in a game
that I would argue that nobody saw, right. I think it was on
Peacock or something like that. I made a little a little facetious, right,
but I think that. But I will be interested to see whether whether
USC can rebound from that because there are some you know, huge games in
the Pac twelve that are going to I think, going to really impact the
playoff the playoff spot, the playoff playoff spot. I mean, I've I
think of a one lost Washington team for example, may have an opportunity.
You know, Jeff knows more about this than me, and you probably know
even more about this in me as well. But I think a one loss
Pac twelve team, could you could find itself into the College Football Playoff this
year because of the strength of the conference. I'll be interested to see whether
whether whether whether whether USC can rebound from that. Yeah, I mean,
you know, USC has struggled so much this year on defense, and it
really seemed to catch up with them in that Notre Dame game. I think,
you know, it'll be interesting to see to your question about, you
know, could a one loss Pac twelve team get into the College Football Playoff?
I think there's gonna be a lot of interesting discussions among you know,
the leagues outside of the Big Ten in the SEC. I mean, honestly,
the SEC hasn't had a banner year. The Big Ten has looked really
good with Michigan and Ohio State at the top, and we were just talking
about Penn State as well. You know, there might be a potential that
we see two Big Ten teams, you know, and then the SEC champion
and then you know, would the Pac twelve or ACC get a team in
with one loss? So I mean, certainly the Pac twelve's had its best
season in a while, But is that good enough to get a one loss
team in there. I don't know. I guess it will depend on how
the rest of the landscape shakes out. But yeah, it'll be interesting to
see if USC can rebound from that. You know, Notre Dame had to
find a way to rebound and did so against USC. I wonder if USC
can do the same against a pretty good Utah team. Definitely, definitely go
ahead, Jeff, all right, thanks Matthew and James. You brought up
a point that I'm gonna get into in the open mic and and and that's
about the you know, the one loss possibility there in the big ten and
and the SEC. I'm definitely what have you done for me during the current
course of the season, you know, kind of put blinders on just because
someone is a name brand. And I'm going to get into that during during
my my open mic. But let's let's get into the next question here before
we get into that. And I want to ask you what what ACC team
has underperformed thus far, and who do you think is overperformed, and which
ACC coach should be feeling some heat, you know, getting on the hot
seat now at the midpoint of the season. Well, you know, Uh,
it's so funny that there are the usual suspects in kind of the the
underperforming overperforming categories. I guess, you know overperforming. I mean I I
did not expect Carolina would look this good. You know, I knew that
well. I think we all knew that Drake May was just a really great
quarterback. As much as it pains me to say it, but I really
expected their defense to look about like what it looked last year. And while
it's not, you know, the most spectacular defense in the world, you
know it's certainly done. It's you know, more than enough this year to
take it from a team that you know would looks capable of dropping just about
any game too, almost assured favorite in just about every game. Now,
I mean that, you know, they haven't had the most difficult schedule,
but at the same time, I mean they've they've played a good number of
Power five teams, more so than some of the other non conference schedules.
Let me pull up Carolina schedule here real quick, but I mean, you
know, they've They opened the season with a solid win against South Carolina.
It looked not quite as great as it did at the time, but you
know, South Carolina app State Minnesota. I mean, you know, they've
got a game against Campbell coming up, so there's there's a creampuff still left
on their schedule. But you know, I mean, you know, you
look at their six wins so far, are there are against teams that honestly,
you know, should have given them more of a fight than they did.
I really, like I said, I really expected more out of Miami.
You know, they only beat Miami by ten points, gave up thirty
one against Miami. But I really felt like in terms of, you know,
expecting that letdown game from Carolina, we haven't seen it this year.
So I think that they are again, as much as it pains me to
say, I really feel like they are kind of meeting expectations, perhaps meeting
the expectations that they that folks expected for them last year. And of course,
you know, Duke is just really I think it's so funny. I
when the preseason polls and discussion came around, you know, the teams that
people were really talking about were Florida State and Duke, and I was like,
I just don't see it for Duke two years in a row. I
mean, yeah, they were a nice story last year, but I really
expected a coming back down to earth moment for them, and all they've done
is taking it up another level. To me, that's really really impressive.
You know, they may not be as capable of scoring as many points and
winning with offense as Carolina or Florida State, but the way that they're winning
through defense, the way that they just don't beat themselves, and the way
that they're able to do so well in one score games is really really impressive
in something a lot of teams would I think, uh, are are envious
of, no doubt. Uh. And then you look at kind of who
are the disappointing teams? You know, Uh, Syracuse seems to have this
act down to a pat where they start off the year really strong and then
go on a losing streak. You know, they get out to four and
oh and then now they've lost you know three three conference games or maybe I've
got that wrong. Yep. No, they started the season not a murderer's
row exactly, Colgate, Western, Michigan, Purdue, and Army. But
you know the way that they looked in that Purdue game, I thought this
this, uh, you know, Syracuse team has some potential and then they
you know, they get beat handily against Clemson. Carolina waxed them just in
a really vicious beat down, and Floria State murdered them too. I mean,
the last two games looks like they've been outscored eighty one to ten.
I mean, that's that is not putting up much resistance. So, you
know, Syracuse and Wake, I mean, you know, again, Wake
is kind of rebuilding here, you know, really missing Sam Hartman obviously,
I don't know. It's I feel like we all fall into the trap of
underestimating Wake Forest, and then when they have a year that kind of meets
that traditional expectation for them, it feels like they're you know, underperforming.
I guess we had just gotten used to the idea that we would not think
much of them, they would exceed expectations, and then we would have to
adjust our expectations in mid season. And now we're actually getting that Wake for
a season that we all kind of expected, you know, kind of easy.
I guess to pick the bottom two teams in the league, I don't
know. I and you know, maybe Pitt is also a good candidate here
too, because you know, two and four overall, I think we expected
more out of Pitt Phil Djerkovic obviously did not pan out at all, and
they obviously have more life now with their replacement quarterback Beaten Louisville, But who
knows if they can keep the ball rolling or sty'll kind of struggle to make
a bowl game. There's several teams on here, including my NC State wolf
Pack, that are going to be really scrapping and fighting just to get the
six wins to make a bowl game this year. All right, thanks James
Matthew. I'm gonna turn it over to you as we close out the podcast.
James, Now it's my turn to ask you about n C State.
Man. Okay, is C State going to make a ball And let me
ask you a question, what is going on with the offense? Because it
hasn't it hasn't looked like an offense honestly all year. Well, let me
ask answer your first question. So, our remaining schedule is Clemson at home,
Miami at home, and then we traveled to wait for US and to
Virginia Tech and then a home game against Carolina. If we had a competent
offense, I would say that there's a chance that we could win all five
of those games. The way offense has looked right now, there's a chance
that we could lose all of those games, especially since we have such a
historical track record of failure in Winston Salem. Yeah, I don't know.
We got to somehow find two more wins in that collection, and apart from
you know, I mean, it's got to come almost I have to say
it's got to come from Wake Forest in Virginia Tech. And since you've got
to get those two on the road, I'd would say the odds of winning
both of those games is probably less than fifty percent, not unless something starts
to click pretty quick. Now we get to buy, you know, it's
kind of a later buy in the year for us. You know, we've
we've played seven games, and I think a lot of the other teams in
the league have only played six. So we're getting to buy to rest up
and try to figure out some way to you know, put something together against
Clemson. I'm not going to call for us to win that game. You
know, Miami is a potential just because who knows they that team has a
propensity and Mario Cristobal has a propensity to do crazy things in dumb situations.
But to your question about what's wrong, with the offense. Obviously, that's
the million question here in Raleigh right now, is you know, why did
Brendan Armstrong not work? You know it it felt like a natural pairing where
you're bringing in, you know, a quarterback who had such a tremendous twenty
twenty one season with the offensive coordinator that you know put him in those positions.
I don't know if his last season at Virginia and the struggles that he
had killed his confidence, but he didn't seem like he had the same level
of confidence that he did two years ago. You know, we knew n
C State's wide receivers were going to be question marks. But you know,
Casey conception has been a great revelation and you know he but he can't do
it all by himself. You know, the guys have dropped open passes.
You know that that was one of of my frustrations, as you know the
fans soured on Brendan Armstrong early, was you know, if our wide receivers
were executing and catching the balls that were hitting them in both of their hands.
You know, my thought was always if you can put two hands on
the football, there's no excuse for you to not bring that in. But
we had so many you know, balls either just flat drops or ones that
you know we're probably you know, thrown a little behind, a little ahead,
a little too high, but most I think, you know, a
replacement level wide receiver in this league makes that catch. Guys just weren't executing,
and the offense really struggled. And you know that moment when Dorin had
to make the switch from Brendan Armstrong to MJ. Morris, it was because
you could tell that the spirits of this team were just really really deflated.
The defense was playing tremendously well. I mean that Louisville game and we lost
thirteen to ten. I mean old Louisville, who had been scoring, you
know, scoring you know, forty to fifty points a game, to just
thirteen points. You know, you shouldn't lose many football games when you hold
a team to thirteen points. And that you could tell, you could sense
that if a change didn't take place, then we were going to lose both
sides of the ball. The defense was going to just you know, ask
themselves, what am I killing myself for? If this is what I've got
to go, you know, if I got to save the bacon of this
team, and the offense has not given me anything you could you could send
some frustration there. So MJ. You know, he's had his struggles,
and you know that was kind of the risk of making the change, was
if you switch quarterbacks and that didn't solve the problem. Now what and we're
kind of finding ourselves in that now what moment. So, you know,
the offensive line has struggled, like just about everything that can break or go
wrong with an offense has gone wrong. I mean in that Duke game,
we had four false start penalties, just stupid mistakes, you know, lack
of mental focus and the things that when you know you're struggling offense to begin
with, it's just really hard to play behind the chains and go from first
and ten to first and fifteen, or you know, get a holding penalty,
you know, go from you know second and five to you know,
first and twenty. Those sorts of things just make it really really difficult on
an offense that's already struggling to begin with, and you know, it gets
a team like Duke this week. You know, they didn't need to put
up a ton of points to beat us, obviously, we only scored three
on a you know, a fifty seven yard field goal, longest in program
history. That should have been a fun talking point, but instead it was
the only points that we scored the entire game. And uh so, a
lot of a lot of questions yet to be answered for this offense. And
if anyone has a remedy or magic bullet to figure out and fix things here
in Raleigh, I'm sure Dave Doran would greatly appreciate it. Outstanding answer.
Outstanding answer. And I and to be fair, I thought you brought up
a good point about Mario christ Ball and his decision making. You can't take
that out of the equation when you're playing the Miami Hurricane. So I think
that was a very good I think that was an I think that was an
outstanding point. Jef Friend, you're up, Yeah, I want I want
to go back to some that we were talking about earlier in the podcast,
and and you know, that was the fact that we're even having to discuss
I mean, we have to discuss it, but the fact that this is
even coming up, that a one loss PAC twelve team, you know,
has to worry about being taken over by multiple Big ten teams or or an
se see a second maybe in the second SEC. Team is just it's just
mind boggling to me. And you know, just you look at Michigan's schedule,
and you know, you play the schedule that's in front of you.
But but I mean, my goodness is I think I said this on another
podcast earlier. You know, you go two and a half months without even
having to barely break a sweat. This is our schedule. East Carolina,
U n LB Bowling, Green, Rutgers, Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana,
Michigan State, Purdue before now remember eleven, you go to Penn State.
I mean, Michigan may very well be a top three team, they might
win the national championship, but you can't judge a team based on that schedule.
How good, how good they are, and and even Georgia and all
credit to them, they've been the best program in college football over the last
couple of years. U T. Martin Ball, State, South Carolina,
UA B, Auburn, Kentucky who they've got exposed. We saw it in
Missouri. That's their best win that they were getting all kind of credit for.
And we know they're they're they're terrible to be honest. At Vanderbilt,
maybe Florida I mean, we know what Utah did to them, but maybe
maybe Florida might be again. I mean again, You've got teams going basically
two months without having to play anyone and getting way too much credit. You
know, once you get passed in the Big Ten, past Michigan, Penn
State, and Ohio State, it's a just falls off, if in quality.
At least Ohio State won it Notre Dame in a game that they really
should have lost. If Notre Dame you know, doesn't drop two of the
interceptions that they had in their hands on that final drive, you know,
or stopped either the third and long or the fourth down play, you know,
Ohio State is taken to Allen. We're still talking about Notre Dame in
playoff contention, even with the loss at Louisville. I just I think it's
crazy that we're having to, you know, talk about teams from the Pac
twelve or the ACC and we hadn't even talked about Texas and Oklahoma from the
from the Big twelve having to try to navigate, you know, teams that
haven't done anything, you know, all season long. I mean, if
I was putting together a top five, I don't know how you put Georgia
and Michigan in the top two. They just haven't proven anything. They might
be the best teams country at the end of the year, but against the
schedule they've had, and then especially Clemson was you know, just getting blasted
about this for previous years of not playing anyone. You know, we're seeing
it right here with Georgia, Michigan. Let me look at Penn State scheduled.
I don't let me add something here too, Jeff, just real quickly,
and you know, and I'll say this, say this, just really
quickly. This is what Washington's November looks like at USC November fourth, number
ten, number sixteen, Utah at home, at number fifteen, Oregon State
number nineteen, Washington State at home. These teams are all in the top
twenty. I don't think it can be disputed. I mean, James and
Jeff, you can tell me if I'm wrong here. But back twelve has
had I believe it's had the best football season of all conferences. And right
now, I think they're the deepest football conference in the country free and that's
that's what Washington has to get through. And if they and and I'm with
Jeff one, if if Washington was one law what got through that schedule with
one loss? And they were and and and you see somebody likes you know,
see a one loss Michigan team getting in before Washington. I would be
extremely upset. Yeah, I mean, you know, if you have a
one loss Big ten team, who's the champion? You know, I could
live with that, or a one loss SEC champion, But if we're talking
about a second team getting over a one loss Pac twelve champion or one loss
Big twelve or one loss ACC champion, and you just have to be kidding
me. I look at Penn State, West Virginia, Delaware, Illinois.
I guess I'll give him a little bit of credit for beating Iowa at home,
but I mean, well, who has we know how offensive yeah,
we know how offensively challenged that they are, But all right, they have
a pulse at least I guess Northwestern UMass. And then they play Ohio State
this this weekend, which it's really gonna put the loser of that game,
you know, behind behind the eight ball. But I mean, you get
past those three, they it's just you gotta be honest, it's complete trash.
In the Big twelve. Maryland many thought was the fourth best team losing
to Illinois this weekend. I mean, there is that's a three team league,
and then there is nothing behind that. Maybe Iowa was decent. I
might say they're not. They have they're not, they can't they they score
like five points a half. I mean, it's just a joke. It's
there's a I think I see jokes. I see jokes on on the late
night TV on even some of the major Jimmy Fallon talking about Iowa. I'm
just kidding. James, You're a friend. I want. I know,
I use my open mic to ask you a question, but I want to
give you an opportunity for your own open mic too. Well. I will
say, you know, I agree a lot with what Jeff was saying.
I think that you know, I was able to watch the end of that
Washington game and the way that they came back and won it there at the
end. I mean that that looks like a college football playoff type team,
and I I agree with Jeff's point. I mean, you know, if
we're talking about a one loss team, but a team that wins their conference
championship, I have less of a qualm with that team advancing into the playoff
than you know, a team that loses their conference title game and then gets
you know, in regardless or didn't even make you know, has one loss,
but somehow, due to tie breakers, doesn't even make it into their
conference title game. Hard to imagine, but you know, I think if
there's one thing that we'll be working in the favor of perhaps the you know,
the PAC twelve, is that there are going to be so many good
games coming down the stretch, and if Washington can run the table and win
those games against those ranked opponents, and you know, the teams of the
Big Ten that have had cupcake schedules so far but then start to kind of
cannibalize each other. I mean, obviously, somebody's got to lose between Ohio
State and Michigan. Somebody's got to lose between Ohio State and Penn State.
Somebody's got to lose between Penn State and Michigan. So you know, those
those three teams are going to beat up on each other and make it difficult
for there to be, you know, an opportunity for there to be multiple
Big Ten teams. You know, I think that there's a pathway for you
know, certainly the PAC twelve to have a playoff representative, and you know,
you hope that there's no question about it. You know, you certainly
don't want it to be where the Pac twelve, the Big Ten, the
SEC, and the ACC all have conference champions that all have one loss,
and then you know, it's suddenly becomes a question of, well, everybody's
got one loss, now who are you know, you start looking at the
you know, second prettiest candidate from each of those conferences, and I didn't
even think about the Big twelve, but you're right, I mean Texas and
Oklahoma are there as well. You know it's going to be. I kind
of like the four team playoff format. I understand the desire for expansion,
and expansion will make it more likely that other teams who are you know,
deserving but have a single game slip up that they'll get in. And you
know it's obviously you know, it drives viewership and ratings and all that.
It's all about money now anyway, that's why we're bringing in you know,
the historically great ACC teams Cal and Stanford and s MU. But you know,
I think that, you know, I kind of like the four team
playoff. It limits you know, it makes you feel better about the cop
the national champion being you know, a true champion. And I'm gonna be
interesting to see in the years where the expanded playoff format is there gonna be
a Cinderella team of sorts, you know, a team that just squeaks into
the field. Can they get hot and make a run to the title game.
You know, it's a little bit more difficult in football when you when
you've got a roster of eighty five scholarships and you know, twenty two players
on the too deep that all have to stay healthy, and you've got to
have quality depth and all those things. It's a little bit harder for a
cinderella team to advance than in basketball, where you know, you get a
couple of hot shooters that you know, go on a run and can propel
a team deep into the playoff or into the NCAA tournament. It'll be interesting
to see if any of those first weekend participants in the expanded College Football Playoff
have a legitimate chance at winning a national title. But anyway, I think
it's gonna be an interesting, you know discussion. I think we'll see a
pack twelve team in the CFP this year. But you just hope that it's
not that they're not having to come down to the wire and sweat it against
you know, probably a lesser deserving team from a sex year conference like the
Big Ten or the SEC. If Washington is undefeated and they make it through,
they should be the number one seed over Georgia, Michigan, oral Ohio
State. And I will stand on that hill and die. I think that
would be a very you know, I think that would there would be a
very excellent case for that. The in terms of schedule strength, who they've
played. You know, I don't know that I would I think they will
have earned the number one seed. I don't know that I would still put
my money on them to win it all. You know, Michigan has been
murdering teams, and we assume it's because they've played nobody, but it could
very well be that Michigan's just that damn good. But I have not been
impressed all that much by Georgia, And you know, I think that Ohio
State, obviously, with its potential to get upset by Notre Dame, you
know, they've shown flaws. You know, I think a Washington Michigan national
championship would be pretty pretty interesting and a lot of fun, I guess because
I'm gonna be like Jeff. I'm gonna be like Jeff here, Jeff that
that the SEC or the Big ten should take the three and four slots,
and you'd see the PAC twelve and the ACC taking taking the one two slot,
and all these people will be pissed off and be for saying that.
But that's where that's where I'm that's where I'm headed. Because if you haven't
played anybody, you don't deserve to be seated. That's what they always tell
the AC. That's where they said that for the ACC Championship, you know,
going back ten years. Oh, they haven't played anyone where they so
hey, I mean you gotta make that. I mean, if you're gonna
make that argument for one conference, you got to make it for the other.
And then the results speak for themselves. The the SEC is down this
year. It's it's a it's a it's not very good. I mean,
they got they got it handed to them out a conference. We saw it.
We I know, Texas went into Tuscaloosa and you know they thumped Alabama,
who many thought was the you know, I think as the second best
team in the SEC. Now, you know, we know what Florida State
did to LSU in the fourth quarter in that game. They ran them off
the field. We know what Utah did to Florida with a backup quarterback.
That game was never in doubt. We know what Washington get the Michigan State
and it wasn't pretty. Yeah, I mean, you give me, you
give you. Put Washington playing Michigan schedule and the results would be the same,
if not worse. Washington would absolutely annihilate the schedule that Michigan's played so
far. Too well, I'll tell you it's going to be. I don't
envy NC State Athletic Director bu Corgan being the CFP chairman again, because he's
going to be that guy that has to go out on the show at the
end of the selection show and explain all the rationale for why they chose the
teams that they did and seeded the teams the way that they did. Because
every year there's always you know, the whoever the committee chair as they come
out and they make arguments for one team that make no logical sense when applied
to the other teams in the field, or vice versa. You know,
they'll say one team you know, had a stronger strength to schedule and you
know struggle but felt like they you know, deserved a spot. And then
they'll say this other team, you know, really passed the eye test.
So there's gonna be again. I I'm sure it's prestigious, and I guess
we're excited for Boo that he's undertaking that. But all I can think about
is the fact that no matter what you say on that selection show, you
know, two thirds of the college football world is gonna be pissed off at
you and calling you an idiot for trying to make the arguments that you do.
Just just be consistent, That's all that I ask. Yeah, I
mean the problem with that, Jeff, is that there's no one consistent argument
that seems to satisfy everyone. And you know, it's hard to apply one
measuring stick to you know, all the teams and come up with a field
that feels right. I think I think a lot of times, you know,
I don't have a huge qualm with the field that they come up with.
At the end, they usually end up picking, you know, a
collection of teams that seems to make the most sense. But it's when they
try to rationalize it if ye. I mean, you can't just go out
and say, well, it feels like this, these are the four best
teams to have in the field. When you get asked the question why and
then start trying to put some rationale behind it, that's where the consistency fades
away and evaporates. So yeah, I mean, I totally agree with you
on that. There's not going to be any way that's going to satisfy everyone.
But I just want them to say, hey, we've ranked Michigan number
seven here because they haven't played anyone they don't play haven't played a ranked team,
like when the first rankings come out and use the argument that they've used
against other teams in the past. It's when to me, I get frustrated
when they start, you know, flip flopping the rationale. No one's going
to ever like the rationale whatever it is, but just use the same thing
as what I would like to see. Well, and we all know that
the initial weeks of the college football playoff rankings or just to drive television,
I mean, you know, they'll they'll shift teams around and it's like,
well, why did this team rise and why did this team fall? I
was like, well, it doesn't matter. We're just shifting teams around to
create talking points and discussions and you know, give podcasters something to talk about.
That is true. There's only one ranking show that matters, and so
my hope is that will we'll all roughly agree with teams that get selected,
regardless of whatever rationale they come up with. Yep, great point, James.
Thank you so much for coming on the All Sports Discussion ACC podcast.
You are always a great guest and we loved having you come on the show
and we would love to have you come back again sometime. Thanks so much
for spending your Sunday evening with us, friend, sure thing, I appreciate
it as always enjoy hanging out with y'all. Alright, have a great week,
guys, Take care, See you guys.