Hello, welcome to this Week in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the podcast for
All Sports Discussion dot Com. This is one of your podcasts. Co host
my name is Jeff and you can follow me on Twitter at Talking ACC Sports.
Your moderator is Matthew and you can follow him on Twitter at asd Underscore,
Hokey Smash. I'm going to turn it over to Matthew now as he
introduces our guest. Good evening and welcome to the longest running independent ACC podcast
in the country. This is this Week in the ACC. This is the
podcast for All Sports Discussion dot Com. I'm Matthew. As Jeff said,
you can follow me on Twitter at at ast Hockey Underscore Hockey Spanish. You
can follow Jeff on Twitter at at Talking ACC Sports, and you can follow
our site account at at All Sports d acc. Our blog is All Sports
Discussion dot Com. This week we have an awesome return guest. We're happy
to have Brian Siegli back from the Boundary Corner. You can follow him on
Twitter at at SEI G five zero five two. Again, that's at se
I G five zero five two. I believe and Brian, you can crypt
you have I'm wrong, You're one third of the Virginia Tech Football podcast Boundary
Boundary Corner, which you can follow on Twitter at at I keep saying Twitter,
I'm sorry, I'm always going to call it Twitter. It's X now,
my apologies, guys at Boundary Corner again, that's at b O n
d r A r y c O r n r at b O n d
A r y c O r n r So, Brian, welcome back and
tell me if I'm correct, because last year it was one half and now
I believe it's one third of the podcast. Hey, the floor is your
yeah, and occasionally probably one fourth. We've got our buddy Sheldon Moss that
joins us on a semi regular basis doing a lot of the sports analytics,
bringing in a lot of great metrics that we can kind of talk about,
so he's on their occasion. But we brought Jonathan Tally on as well as
a full time member back in February, so officially, if you're looking week
to week, it's one third, but we were a four man team as
far as the entirety of the show now. But it's great to be back.
Thanks for having me. It's always a pleasure getting on here and talk
to a little ACC football with you. Guys. We are happy to have
you back. Friend, We're happy to have you back. So let's get
right into it. Man, which ACS see football team do you think was
the most disappointing in Week two? And which ACC football team was the most
impressive? And oh man, that's that's a great question. You know,
personally obviously disappointed the Virginia Tech dropped that when last night, after all of
that, we were actually all the old crew was at that game. Six
hour rain delay, soaking went to the bone, so it was it was
an interesting u outing out there, and definitely disappointed to drop that one.
But as far as the ACC as a whole, I feel like UVA dropping
that home game against UVA was rough against JMU. Excuse me, I thought,
you know, looking at you know, as a Virginia Tech fan,
I'm kind of programmed to want UVA to lose, but I thought they might
be able to squeak one out against JMU. I know, the JMU fans
kind of talking big game of kind of being the the ACC football killer out
there, so I kind of wanted to see that if they were able to
take them down. There definitely a disappointing outing for EVA losing to a G
five in state rival, and obviously as a Virginia Tech fan, that's something
that we've experienced in the past, so it's definitely a tough one to swallow
for sure for that fan base. Looking at most impressive, I'm I'm gonna
go with Miami taking it to Texas. A and m Tyler van Dyke went
out there and had three hundred twenty four yards through the air, and that
one they really handled some adversity early. You know, Texas adim kind of
got on them pretty quick, and you know, they fall back, got
the lead up to double digits and kind of just kept going from there.
So that was probably the most impressive win because I actually had A and M
winning that one when when I did my picks. So goodwin by Miami.
So, Brian, I am going to keep you. I am going to
keep you somewhat honest here now, and I know you're always being honest with
that. So and being a little a little facetious, I was, I
gotta vote for Virginia Tech here, and I am I'm a Virginia Tech alum,
and I gotta vote for Virginia Tech here. Because I I guess I
thought I'd see better signs than eleven yards rushing in that game. And my
my, I'm thinking in my mind the GMU was favored going into Scott's Stadium,
and I'm all, I have to tell you, I thought i'd see
more out of the running game than I did, And I think at times
I got more yards like walking in back, back and forth to the bathroom
than I think we got on the got on the ground a little bit,
Am I being too harsh? No, You're not being harsh at all.
I mean, I think we definitely there were points in that game where I
like what we were doing from a play calling standpoint, but the fact that
we cannot run the football at all, especially with Grant Wells in the game.
We'll see if that shifts, if there's a quarterback change, whatever,
we'll see in the future, but it seems like with Grant Wells in the
game, we are going to struggle to generate yards on the ground, even
with talent running backs in the backfield that can break tackles and run through arm
tackles and kind of drag guys for some extra yards, you know, to
we saw two and get involved in the passing game some this week as well.
But you're gonna eventually have to be able to run the ball somehow,
now, whether that means getting drones in the game full time or part time.
A little bit more so, you have you know, an extra key
as a as a linebacker and somebody that's big like that that can kind of
plow forward for some extra yards and uh, you know, create some yardage
in the run game that isn't just done strictly by you know, blocking the
man across from you. I'll be interested to see what happens there. But
I was definitely disappointed in the outing overall. But I think just from a
perception standpoint, I don't think it looks as bad on paper dropping a one
touchdown game to Purdue, is you know, Eva dropping one there at home
to jail you fair enough? I'm gonna ask you one. I'm gonna ask
you one more question about another question about Virginia, about Virginia Tech, were
you surprised because I had this conversation with my my friend Drew, who I
tailgate with down there in Blacksburg when I get down there and Droid Merry and
I know you know him when I when I get down there when both of
us were we're thinking that we're highly disappointed with the runs to the tackles that
never really worked because our offensive line just quite frankly, isn't there yet.
And it's weird that both of both of us were actually thinking, Yeah,
maybe this quick out to the side, like a jet sweeper something that I
say. I hate that I'm saying that it's okay, but that's where but
that's where our line is. That's kind of where our line is at right
now. And having these quick short passes may help develop some may help develop
some sort of offense some or the offense. I'm just I'm just curious.
Yeah, I mean, a jet sweep would would get you to the to
the edge of the tackle box really quick without having to uh kind of you
know, worry about getting your running back up to full speed on something like
an outside zone or something like that, so, you know, stretching stretching
the defense a little more. Latterly, I think we'll help. We'll see
if Bowen gets a little more creative with with his run game as we kind
of move forward in the year. I think he could do a little bit
more with pre snap motion to kind of get those backers not just keying right
into their gap and making it kind of bogged down and not really a whole
lot of room to run in there. So that's that's what's giving us a
lot of problems right now, is that you know, they're they're not really
biting on the fakes. I mean, nothing Wells is doing is scaring them
so that they're keying right on the running back, they're getting in their gaps.
We're not doing a good job of getting to the second level fast enough
to stop that from happening. So it's it's gonna be a big struggle until
we get either change up something schematically or get significantly better across the board with
communication from the offensive one that outstanding analysis, Brian, that's why we have
you here. Jeff, you're up friend. All right, thanks Matthew.
All right, Brian, is we look ahead to next week? What acc
football games are you looking forward to the most? In Week three? You
know, I was looking at the schedule and there's not a ton of compelling
matchups out there from a current season storyline perspective. So I'm gonna go a
little historical here. I'll go with the one hundred and six iteration of the
backyard brawl. Interested to see if Pitt can bounce back from that Week two
loss against Cincinnati at home, and looking from the West Virginia perspective, I
mean, Neil Brown is still coaching for his life as as every game really
at this point, so he's probably playing for his job this year. So
it could be interesting to see who can come out of that, because you
know, if it drops another one, there's going to be questions of,
Okay, was your COVID the right fit is the did the defense lose too
much to kind of rebuild this year? And then obviously on the West Virginia
side, you know, is are they going to have this this same coach
at the end of the season. So I think it's gonna be a pretty
compelling matchup, all right, Yeah, it sounds sounds good. Yeah,
if when you look across the week, you know, there's nothing that really
just you know, grabs your attention that seems like much must watch. But
I mean I see some other games here as well that that kind of have
my attention. I'd like to see, you know, how North Carolina comes
back against uh, you know, hosting the two and oh Minnesota team in
that and you know, we saw North Carolina look fantastic defensively against South Carolina.
But then this past week, you know, Appalachian State kind of marches
up and down the field on them and the and the Heels were very fortunate
to escape that that game. So you know, I kind of see,
you know, where do the tar Heels, who who are they exactly?
You know, also looking at that with Syracuse. They're going on the road
to Purdue, who you know has the loss to Fresno State but then won
it Virginia Tech. And Syracuse has really looked impressive in its first two games
overmatched opponents. But you know, could they get at a little something together?
So uh yeah, like you said, nothing just jumps out on the
on the screen. But you know, a couple of those kind of under
radar the games that I think could be interesting. Yeah, I agree,
they're you know, looking at UNC. Yeah, I'd be interested to see
if if they bounce back or if they get kind of you know, punched
in the mouth again a little bit on the defensive side of the ball,
because you know, they looked like the team I think a lot of people
thought they would would be out of the Gate and then you know, app
State really gave them a big scare. So I'm definitely interested to see if
they can turn it around against Minnesota. All Right, you know, looking
at some of those games, which ACC team do you think could be upset
in Week three if they're looking ahead to a game on our schedule or otherwise
just sleepwalking on the field. Yeah, you know, we just talked about
a little bit. I was gonna say, you and see, but I
think app State definitely woke them up, so I don't think they'll be caught
sleeping again. But as far as this week, I think the one I'm
gonna go with is you've be Wake Forest heading up to Norfolk and and playing
ODU. As Virginia Tech fan, I've seen firsthand that that's not a place
that you know, Power five opponents to go in there and are just gonna
get a cake walks. They're definitely gonna get O to U's best effort in
that environment. And Wake isn't the team I think they've been in the last
you know, probably four or five years. They lost a lot, especially
on the offensive side of the ball. So if they aren't able to generate
a lot of points, then that could really be a tight game. All
right, Brian, Let's let's step out of the ACC for a bit here.
Which national FBS game are you looking forward to the most this week?
And we're wide open with this question. You know, this can be Power
five non Power five, or you can even have an FCS matchup and then
give us the winner of that game, or you know any others that catch
your eye. Let's go to the Sun Belt this week. I'm looking at
that that Troy hosting JMU JMU obviously coming off the big win against UVA in
Charlottesville. There these are probably two teams that could potentially see each other again
at the end of the season. So there's a lot of implications there about
how that's going to go to the first round and seeing if the other can
kind of take care of business the rest of the way down the schedule to
see them again. But I'm gonna go with James Madison winning a very close
one down at Troy. All right, Okay, Brian, you know that
summer it's been all about realignment and now we're focused on the season, but
still there's we want to get your thoughts on the ACC's most recent additions to
the conference from a couple of weeks ago, Stanford, Cal and SMU football
wise, it looks pretty obvious that that Stanford's definitely not a very good They
got absolutely throttled by USC this past week. But on the other hand,
Cal put up a very credible, you know, effort against Auburn this past
weekend. You know, led that game in the fourth quarter and lost fourteen
to ten. You know, maybe they're not as bad as we thought.
And of course SMU with all their financial resources at their disposal. Yeah,
give us your thoughts on those editions. Yeah, I mean, just from
a looking at a conference realignment perspective, you know, I think it's kind
of a band aid for the current financial shortcomings of the conference in a way
to kind of further insulate the acc from fully disbanding should one or one to
three of the bigger teams were right of the way, you're not gonna necessarily
have a mass accidents. I feel like that kind of helps them avoid that
in the short term, you know, depending on if you know someone's able
to break that grant of rights deal. I don't think there's a ton of
long term benefit. I think these additions will bring the ACC back neck and
neck with the Big Twelve in terms of the financial numbers from the media deals
for current members, though, I think it's a no lose situation getting them
to come and join the conference, other than when looking at it maybe from
a travel perspective, because these three aren't really taking any money from the conference
until near the end of the current deal, so there's not a lot of
short term loss from the conference of adding those teams, and you know,
potentially a boost long term there as well to keep it keep them neck and
neck with a Big Twelve. But looking at it from a competition standpoint,
I mean this does raise the bar across the board for all the Olympic sports
in the ACC. You know, Callan Stanford are probably two of the teams
that are, especially Stanford the torch bearer of the sports in the country.
So you look at it from that perspective, you get a little bit of
boost competition wise there, and then when you look at SMU, specifically football,
I mean that could be scary once they actually do get some of that
conference money coming in to go along with what their boosters are are already able
to provide, because you know, they've been competitive against some of the better
competition, you know, not really getting any media money outside of what their
boosters are able to generate from you know, local deals there. So if
they're able to get a piece of that acc media pie. You know,
we're complaining about it, but if they get some of that, that's going
to be a big boost for them long term. All Right, Brian,
thank you for your comments there. Matthew, I'm gonna turn it over to
you for our last segment in the podcast. Definitely definitely Brian open microphone time.
Anything you want to talk about, all right, so let's go this
way. I want to talk a little bit about the Clemson Tigers football program.
Obviously, you know we saw with the with the with the game,
you know, Clemson really got exposed, not really able to generate a lot
in their passing game. And I think we're starting to see the fact that
they were not taking advantage of the transfer portal or nil to the way they
think could start to create some holes in their roster, particularly talented wide receiver.
It is probably as low as it's been in the last decade. I
could see them losing you know, three or four games this year if they
don't figure out how to get things right on the offensive side of the ball,
because if they continue kind of what we saw especially week one, and
it also carried over a little bit into Week two, they're going to have
a long season when they play some of the higher level competition on their schedules.
So you know, this could I'm not saying this is the beginning of
the end of Clemson being a good team, but I think they could definitely
take a step back from being that elite program to being that kind of top
of that second tier again that they were kind of historically before their run the
last decade. Farrest statement, fairest statement. I'm going to use my open
microphone to ask you both the question, Jeff and Brian, do you have
a computer or a phone in front of you or one or both, and
tell me what you think about October fourteenth. I am from far I am
from Fargo, North Dakota. I actually think that week again, that's October
fourteenth, that's Saturday. I actually think the college Game Day is going to
go to Grand Force North Dakota to do the matchup between North Dakota and North
Dakota State. I think there's a good chance that North Dakota North Dakota may
have two losses, but one of them will probably be too Boise State,
and if they were to lose to South Dakota State, that wouldn't put too
much shame on that with an undefeated nd SUE coming up to Grand to Grand
Forks. And I think there's a very good chance that college game Day could
be in Grand Forest, North Dakota that weekend. And I say that only
because of what you know, you kind of talked about Miami earlier, Brian.
They beat Texas A and m SO Texas A and m that week It
was was scheduled to go on the road to the Valls, but they but
they have lost now and ESPN commonly like goes to the Central Time Zone,
you know, like like during a you know, during some sort of FCS
on campus thing, and if they have to go to West Coast games at
night, and I think there's a good possibility that the Dakotas get it that
weekend. What do you think about the possibility of my prediction, Brian,
I would think that the only thing that would come in the way of that
would be that Miami UNC matchup. That might be one that's a little too
compelling. To avoid. You know, you also have UCLA in Oregon state
that weekend. I don't think they go out west. So even if those
teams continue down their their current trajectory, I don't think you end up seeing
that matchup. But I think the Miami and U n C game could could
be the one that would get in the way of a trip up there to
North Dakota. How about you, Jeff, Because they've taken they've taken it.
That past they've taken, they've done pretty well, given India issue some
love the last couple of years. Yeah, I think there's there's also another
couple of games that could be on the radar that that weekend, in addition
to the ones Brian mentioned. You got Oregon, you know, going to
Washington? Do they do? But I think they've gone there before, like
they were, they going one time zone and then they fly out there for
the game. Yeah, I mean. And then also there was another one
I was just scanning here that I could see, Oh yeah, USC and
Notre Dame. Even though that's a game on NBC, you know that one
might be just too big of a game too to pass up. So I'm
I'm I'm not saying that it won't happen, and ESPN usually will you know,
choose a non traditional, you know, power five location to go.
I don't know. This one might be kind of tough though. This week,
there there are there are a number of number of games at the moment
that looked like they could be possibilities. So I'm not saying no, but
I do see some places I could that they could end up. That's my
prediction. I'm giving you my prediction. That's that's where I think they'll go
that week, because it can happen. I'm going, I'm going, I'm
going for that. That'll be my open mic. I picked it to pick.
I picked to the eight October fourteenth Over fourteenth College game day. Say,
Jeff, you're up, man, you're open mic. I'm telling you,
as a Spectrum customer soon to be maybe a former customer, I'm just
ready. I'm you know, go ahead, just get the deal done.
I mean now, at this point I would have I actually would say that
I felt like Disney was kind of the villain here and in this. But
after a couple of weeks, you know, we know the deal is not
is The dispute is still going on between Charter and Disney and I'm holding them
now both equally responsible for aggravating a significant portion of the viewing audience having to
scramble to find other methods. I mean, I have not missed any of
the any any football at all. Thankfully YouTube TV came to the rescue with
a very lengthy trial period that I'm currently in enjoying. But still there there's
a certain level of aggravation to the whole thing. And you know, I
was back in the Spectrum office today returning you know, more equipment and cutting
more services, you know, as I kind of still hope they I'm still
holding out that they get it resolved and then I at least have the option.
But there was like an entire cart fool of hardware that people had been
returning. I suppose that that whole morning. And you know, I'm no
media expert, so I don't understand how this is beneficial to either one of
them to to just lose customers. And now tomorrow you're gonna you know,
it's one thing to really get on it with with college football fans, who
are you know, a pretty rabid bunch. But you know, now tomorrow
you've got Monday night football to be affected in a game between the Buffalo Bills
and new in the New York Jets and Charter. Spectrum is the provider in
the New York City area, and that could be the tipping point because I'm
not sure Spectrum and Disney are quite ready to deal with New York Jet fans
who have to go through a lot to try to catch the Jets and Aaron
Rodgers. They may want to get this resolved before then, or you know,
it could be a pretty enough right rough night for Charter with the phone
calls coming in. And then you know, the college football, you know,
is definitely popular, but it doesn't touch the NFL. And now you're
starting to get into having NFL fans miss miss football game. So I mean,
come on, you guys, just just get this, get this straight.
You know, you guys are you know, splitting hairs over probably bazillions
of dollars and the only people suffering at the end, you know, are
people that just want to watch you know, ESPN in their sports and you
know they're not They're not winning any fans anywhere. So you know, just
just get it resolved so that we can go back to watching the games in
the in the manner that we you know, if we want to stay with
it, we can stay with it or if we want to choose, but
we have the option and not having to like find all these other outside options.
But I will say, hats off to YouTube TV, and if this
doesn't get resolved, They're gonna be my number one choice. So I'm giving
a big shout out to YouTube TV because I haven't missed anything the last couple
of weeks while these two you know, argue over their stock prices and bazillions
of dollars with their board of directors. Says that's my rant, Jeff,
are they your Are they your internet provider? To Jeff, they are my
internet provider, and the Internet is I have really no complaints about the Internet.
Bryan, did you want to chime in there? It sounded like you
were going to say something. Yeah, It's just it's gonna be interesting when
all those New York fans are calling in and uh and getting on the horn
there to chartercause I feel like that's gonna be the the deal breaker there.
Like, at some point it's going to get to a point where we just
got to get this done or we're gonna have an all out mutiny, and
there will be, like Jeff, you know, people that are gonna fully
just decide to do something different. And the longer you push sports fans,
the more they will find an avenue, whether it's legal, illegal, or
otherwise. It's pretty interesting. It's pretty interesting hearing what, I mean,
what the Spectrum CEO was saying, because he's clearly thinking about really making a
clean break and going to an alternative, alternative option, and that's really going
to that would really impact Disney's, right, you know, Disney's for EVERYNUE
model, they probably try and hit the other hit the other cable carriers.
And it was interesting. I know you saw this too, Jeff. That
that I mean, it was interesting where he was saying that. And I
didn't know this that if he if they make a deal, that is to
say, if Spectrum makes a deal and it's better than what the other carriers
have, then the other carriers have the right to revert to that deal.
If I'm not mistaken. Is that correct? Repeat that last that last part
I didn't quite follow. I said, like, okay, so if Spectrum
makes a deal and it's better than like say, what Comcast has, right
the other carriers, Uh, then they have what I think what's called rights
of last last resorts where or last last resort. Whatever the best deal was,
the other carriers can revert to that. So, for example, Spectrum
has a better deal than Comcast, does those become the new terms. That's
what I remember reading that from from from from John Orran. Yeah, I'm
gonna, I'm gonna no, I don't, I don't know, so I'm
just I'm a you know, that sounds pretty reasonable to me. I definitely
do not know the answer. You could very well be correct on that,
And so that's what everybody's you know, that's what you know, they're dis's
being really careful break down with negotiations because they don't want to. They don't
want to that that will cause their resident revenue to drop drop substantially. If
they gave Spectrum a better deal than they gave Comcast through as much larger.
Yeah, and they I mean the other thing is, you know, ESPN
is already literally shelling out, you know, billions and media deals. You
know we've talked about you're always talking about the media deals with the the ACC.
But I mean, even that one is as bad as it is,
it's still hundreds of millions of dollars. You've got the SEC Media deal,
You've got their deals you know, for NBA, Major League Baseball, football,
and now they're gonna, you know, try to have you know,
the bidding for the college football playoffs. Uh. I mean it doesn't make
sense, like good luck with that when you when you just you know,
lost fifteen to twenty percent of the second you know, largest cable carrier in
the country. I mean, how do you keep paying for that? You've
got advertisers that have expectations. So I don't understand what how this benefits either
one of them to to prolong this, you know, just get a deal
that doesn't because they keep I mean, like all these cable companies are bleeding
subscribers right now, exactly, I mean. And so I mean obviously Disney
is aware of that as well, and I've got to think that they're going
to you know, that that deal is going to be done sooner rather than
later. I mean, it took a long time for that for the ACC
network to get you know, to get connected to comcasts. But you know,
it seems like it seems like, yes, I mean, it seems
like you know, something's going to have to come to a head here as
they say on that, and so I hope it it's done, you know,
because people like like, you know, like watching their college football and
all that stuff. So I'm hoping it at least gosh, I'm hoping it
gets done before ACC basketball season. Yeah yeah, yeah, absolutely, I
mean a gas Thankiel. Really, you'll really hear some some upset fans.
Brian, thank you so much for joining us on the All Sports Discussion ACC
podcast this week. We loved having you come on the show and we would
love to have you come back again sometime. Frian, thanks again for joining
us and spending your Sunday night with us. Brian, thank you always always
happy to jump on with you guys and talk to ACC football, so definitely
welcome. I will be back anytime you guys beat me. Thanks so much
for joining us. Take care every great guys. Thank you you too,