Speaker 1: This is Jeff and you can follow me on Twitter
at Talking ACC Sports. That's at t A l k
I N A c C S p O r t S.
Your podcast moderator is Matthew and you can follow him
on Twitter at All Sports d A c C. That's
at A L L S p O r T S
d A c C. I'm gonna turn it over to
Matthew now as he introduces our guest, and we're all
good to speak.
Speaker 2: Matth It's like we're all ready to go. We're all
ready to go. Welcome to the longest running independent on
the ACC podcast in the country. This is Matthew. You
can follow me on Twitter, as Jeff said, at All
Sports dACC and we have a great return guest on
the show tonight, and John Carey. John attended Florida State
University for undergraduate education, transferred later to the University of
acronis a sophomore before returning for law school to Florida State.
He currently works as an attorney. I want to make
sure I have the city right, John, sometimes it changes.
Last we spoke, it was in Melbourne, Florida. You can
follow John on Twitter at CFB WAT What Not NT
two The number two where w E A R w
E A.
Speaker 3: R.
Speaker 2: I'll repeat that again at CFB WHA t NT the
number two w E A R cf B what not
to where perhaps fashions himself as a college football uniform
fashions specialist when he's not an attorney. John, Welcome back
to the All Sports Discussion ACC podcast. Is there anything
out there you want to plug? Welcome back to you guys.
Speaker 4: Since you guys brought up the uniform thing, let me
tell you what. The California Golden Bears, the ACC program, somehow,
some way that is now part of the Atlantic Coast Conference,
despite being overlooking the Pacific Ocean from the stadium at Berkeley,
has the now one of the absolute best uniforms in football.
I don't know if you guys got a chance to see.
Speaker 3: The game the other night or the other day, and.
Speaker 4: Man, those things just look super And it was not
more than probably ten or fifteen years ago that cal
probably had the worst uniforms in football.
Speaker 3: They did the thing.
Speaker 4: With the like the bear clause on, you know, like
as if the Bears had clot out part of the
uniform and they had this weird like pointy stripe thing
on the helmet, they just looked ridiculous and now they've
gone all in on a classic look and they just
look fantastic. And so shout out to cal ACC stalwart
for having some great uniforms on the field.
Speaker 2: Well said, well said. So let's get right to it, John,
Let's look at week nine for ACC football. Which team
was the most disappointing team on the field for week nine?
And go to the flip side of the coin for
US which ACC team was the most.
Speaker 3: So the most disappointing.
Speaker 4: I'm going to point to a team that won, because
Virginia can't feel good about where they are right now
despite being seven to one, four and zero undefeated in
the ACC. After just barely beating North Carolina needing to
stop a two point conversion to beat them in overtime.
Nor Airline is terrible, guys. I've seen them play several
times this year. You know, the Clemson game was obviously
a disaster, but I saw them also against UCF an
out a conference game. Ucf' is not a great team
and UCF just made UNC look ridiculous on the field.
And okay, so maybe we can talk this up to
UNC's getting better. I don't really believe that though, So
I think despite winning the game, Virginia Tech's got to
be the or excuse me, Virginia has got to be
the team that's most disappointed this week after that performance,
because they just looked completely listless in.
Speaker 3: The second half.
Speaker 4: They didn't even score until overtime in the second half.
They were tied at ten at halftime, and then neither
team put up any points in the second half.
Speaker 3: It's just a brutal game.
Speaker 4: And you know, Virginia for being undefeated, and you know,
if they keep winning, they'll have a date with Georgia
Tech and the ACC Champampionship game in Charlotte. But I
don't see him go running the table the way they
looked on Saturday.
Speaker 2: Okay, how about your most impressive ACC team?
Speaker 4: So where we are with most impressive is? I mean,
I know Syracuse isn't very good, but man, Georgia Tech
just looks like they get better and better every week.
Speaker 3: Don't they.
Speaker 4: You know, for Syracuse to or for them to beat
Syracuse forty one sixteen and the game wasn't really even
that close, you know, they just look like a team
that you.
Speaker 3: Know, for all of us.
Speaker 4: I think watching Miami a few weeks ago, looking like
Miami was the surefire, you know, ACC winner, probably the
best team in the conference, going to go to the playoff.
Now that team looks like Georgia Tech.
Speaker 3: And so.
Speaker 4: It'll be really fun to watch them down the stretch
because they're now eight and oh and have really started
looking good. And last year, as you recall, they were
not nearly this good, but they did take Georgia into
several overtimes and Georgia ended up, of course making the playoffs.
And and so maybe a sign of things to come.
Hanes King, you know what a fun player to watch.
I mean, it's just fun to watch them right now.
Speaker 2: No fair for me to ask this question, John, should
we have expected more out of sm you this past week?
Because I was I was a little floored that they
got they that they lost away for it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I saw the end of that game.
Speaker 4: I didn't see the whole thing, but that was their
first conference loss other than the conference championship game. They've
gone a full year and a half in the ACC
without losing a game, which is rather stunning when you
think about the way they joined the conference. They are
basically playing for free for several years and just in
an effort to get in a major conference and then
they come in run the table. Last year they did
lose to Clemson, of course in the ACC Championship game,
but it was close. They still made the playoff, and
I didn't expect them to lose this game to Wake Forest.
Yeah it was on the road. Yeah, it was an
early game. And obviously, if I hadn't picked Virginia, this
is the obvious most disappointing team, right, And I really
debated between the two, and maybe I shouldn't take a
team that won over SMU who did lose. But yeah,
they didn't look very good either. Really disappointing result for them.
With that result, I don't really see how they're going
to be in the talk for the either the ACC
or the playoff at this time. You know, still a
good season, they're still doing well. But yeah, that was
obviously another really disappointing performance.
Speaker 2: Fair enough, fair enough, Jeff, you're upright, all right, John?
Speaker 1: As we moved towards Week ten, which ACC football game
are you looking forward to the most in the upcoming week?
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's several good ones. You look down the whole
roster of ACC games, and the only one that really
looks like a stinker. Ironically, is the Friday night National
TV game between North Carolina and Syracuse That one, you know,
doesn't have a whole lot of intrigue. Neither of those
teams are probably bowl teams. It's not going to factor
into the ACC race. But then you look at the
rest of the lineup the next day in November first,
and you've got, you know, Miami at SMU at noon,
really fascinating game. And after the loss there with SMU,
can they rebound and beat Miami and Miami team that
suddenly looks like they're kind of reeling. They came on
in the second half and really put away Stanford, but
on Saturday night, but you guys probably saw they were
tied at seven at halftime, you know, and so they
look like they're reeling a little bit, But so does SMU.
But those are obviously two teams that are still in
the conversation for winning the conference. Duke Clemson's really interesting
because you know that game could go either way and
Clemson's still fighting for a bowl game, and you know,
can can Dabbo turn things around there? Louisville and a
suddenly research Virginia Tech team that fired their coach and
now looks a lot better after having done so. And
Louisville's obviously been playing really well lately. Uh Pittsburgh, they're
a fun team to watch. They're doing really well. If
it hadn't been for that game they completely choked against
West Virginia, you'd be looking at Pittsburgh as potentially a
team that could could you know, make some noise. And
they're playing at Stanford, So going across the country Virginia
and cal again. Can Virginia rebound after that game where
they won yesterday or Saturday but in not very convincing fashion,
and then Georgia Tech playing at NC State, And that's
going to be my pick for the game of the week,
the one to really keep an eye on, because that's
what that game's got trapped written all over it. You know,
NC State is a tough place to play, and they
haven't been playing real well this year. But that's one
of those games where Virginia Tech is going to go
on the road, it's at night, their fans are going
to be amped up. Or if I said Virginia Tech,
I met Georgia Tech, and you know, that'll tell us
a lot about this Georgia Tech team. Are they for real?
Are they a team that can threaten to run the
table and win out in the ACC And this may
be the game that they slip up. So I'll definitely
have my eye on that one. And then I've got
to give a little shout out to the other game
at the same time, Wake Forest at FSU.
Speaker 3: Much like the first one I talked about.
Speaker 4: This isn't really a factor in the A C C rankings,
but as an FSU fan, this is where I'm going
to have my main TV on and you know, to
see if we can quell the bleeding a little bit here.
After going out to the West Coast to see Stanford
beat Florida State in a game that Florida State frankly
outplayed them and really really weird game.
Speaker 3: I was there in.
Speaker 4: The stadium, I flew out there, came back on Sunday
night on the Red Eye, and you know, still kind
of processing what happened out there. Really bizarre game. So
you know, is this Florida State team just doomed. One
of the things we've seen in the Norbel teams, I
think is that when they hit some adversity, they don't
respond well and obviously losing on the Friday night game
at Virginia in overtime, you know, electing to tie it
instead of go for the win at the first overtime,
and then losing on the second one. You know, that
was a tough game. You could write it off as
you know, one of those weaknight games where or you're
going on the road, it's a tough atmosphere, except that
they didn't respond well.
Speaker 3: They went and.
Speaker 4: Lost to Miami the next week at home in a
game that wasn't really as close as the six point
loss would suggest, and then going out there to Stanford
and losing a game they should have never lost. So
you wonder at this point if FSU is just reeling
and if they're going to be able to turn it
around and look good against wake Forest at home and
maybe turn things around, or if they're just going to
continue to crumble. So obviously have my eye on that one.
But the main game for the ACC this week I
think is Georgia Tech at NC State.
Speaker 1: All right, John, you know, and that brings us to
the next question about which ACC team could be on
upset alert in week ten if they're looking to ahead
to a game on your schedule or just sleep walking
on the field. And you know, I think you've already mentioned,
you know, Georgia Tech better be ready for that game
at NC State.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's certainly one.
Speaker 4: And you know two others that I'm going to look
at are Miami at SMU again, a noon road game.
Those games can kind of be a trap if you're
not ready to go. They may look at SMU and say,
you know, they're bums. They lost a wake Forest last week.
They didn't look great, and if Miami kind of sleepwalks
through that game, they could definitely come out of there
with a loss. And the other one, Matthew, is Louisville's
playing at Virginia Tech, and that game's gotten really interesting
all of a sudden. I don't know how good Virginia
Tech actually is. I do know the last couple of
times I've turned them on, they've looked a lot better
than they did at the beginning of the season. And
so Louisville going on the road, is that a game
where they could trip up if they don't bring their
a game.
Speaker 3: I think it might be.
Speaker 1: All right, Matthew, you've got you got something to add here?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I thought John brought up a good, really
point earlier about how Virginia didn't really look that great
at North Carolina, and he's absolutely right about that. And
they're going on the road. If I'm not mistaken, to California.
This is an East Coast team going out to the
West coast and these all these California folks get to
sleep in their own bed and we're gonna see all
kinds of wild, crazy defensive blitzes from California out there.
You should watch that game. I think you should have
your eye on that game because I think John nailed
something earlier that this isn't the time when you want
to see your level of play go south. And if
you're playing on the West coast like Virginia is, you
need to be you need to be worried. If you're
worried if you're with Virginia. Yeah, I mean the odds
I think are what Virginia's favored by four or something
right now? That seems like that's that seems like that
that could be a problem I thing I think. But
what are your thoughts?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think you're absolutely right that West Coast road
trip can be tough, and hal is a team they've
got a talented young quarterback. You know, he doesn't have
the greatest talent around him, but he can definitely make
things happen. And if Virginia comes in and plays like
last week, if they don't play better than they did
against North Carolina, I think they will come out of
Berkeley with a loss. And let me also say that's
going to be a fantastic looking game on the field,
since I'm since we're talking to uniforms earlier, Cal's home
uniforms look absolutely fantastic and Virginia does too.
Speaker 3: And you know, those are two of the.
Speaker 4: Nicest looking uniforms in the country, and they're going to
be on the same field at a beautiful stadium, in
a beautiful place, and it should be on.
Speaker 3: Amen.
Speaker 2: Amen, go ahead, Jeff, all.
Speaker 1: Right, John, let's step out of the ACC for a
bid here. Which national, FBS or FCS game are you
looking forward to the most in Week ten? And we're
wide open with this question. This can be a powerfoward game,
a G five game. You can even have an FCS
matches and then give us who you think will win
that game or two.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So a couple of games really jump out at me.
And the first one is Penn State at Ohio State. Now,
this could be a tricky game, and I don't know
where Penn State is right now. They obviously went into
the white out game against Oregon, didn't play great, but
they played well enough. They came back at the end,
went to overtime Oregon one. Obviously, that's you know, no
shame in losing to Oregon. Then the next couple weeks
they just absolutely fell apart. Lost to a UCLA team
that had been previously winless and looked like the worst
power for team in the country, then lost to Northwestern,
who's not any good at all, and it kind of
makes you think, oh Penn State stinks this is going
to be a blowout, and maybe it will be. You know,
Ohio State's favored by over twenty points. I also think
this might be one of those classic kind of games
where a team play starts playing awful, their coach gets fired,
but they have enough talent that they could make it
a game if they're gonna get back up and you know,
play for each other coming off a bye week. So
I'm actually really interested. I know you guys aren't necessarily
huge Big ten fans, especially you Jeff, but to me,
that's a really interesting game for that reason because Ohio State,
for as good as they are, and I do think
they're the most talented team in the country, they do
tend to, I think, sometimes sleepwalk through some of these
noon games, even at home, as we saw last year
when they lost to a mediocre Michigan team despite being
the best team in the country and the most talented.
And that was born out in the playoffs where they
stopped everybody that they lined up across from. And you know,
this may be one of those games where you know
he's gonna Ryan Day's going to take a pretty vanilla
approach and stick with his game plan even if it's
not working. And so maybe it's going to be the
twenty point marginal hold up and Ohio State wins forty
to twenty, and then people are going to say, well,
that didn't live up to, you know, the hype that
John was presenting. But I think it could also be
one of those games that we look at and say, wow,
I didn't see that coming. So I'm not necessarily making
the bold prediction that Ohio State's going to lose to
Penn State, but it certainly is something to keep an
eye on and you know, calling out the number one
team in the country in a quest like this, you know,
maybe a little bit cliched, but because they're playing a
team that's a twenty point underdog, and.
Speaker 3: Because that team has the talent to make this a game.
Speaker 4: If they can get their heads right and get their
you know, play for their new coach or their interim
coach and each other and really turn things around, I
think it could be interesting. So I'm sure Matthew, though,
has a great FCS game that he wants to highlight,
and I'd love to hear it because I'm I'm pretty
sure I know what it's going to be, probably to
North Dakota versus South Dakota, Right, Matthew, I don't quite.
Speaker 2: I haven't really had a chance to take a look
at honestly, to take a look at the FCS schedule yet, John,
because I was I mean, it was the big one
was just past Saturday, right at eight o'clock, and you
that was a monster game. That was a monstered game.
You know what's crazy to me is that the top
four teams in the Missouri Valley are all from the Dakota's.
Isn't that crazy? And I thought North Dakota would. Honestly,
and we're talking about the Hawks here will always always
be known with the sue for me, right, But the
north University of North Dakota football team I thought would
take a drop off this year with a new coat
with it, basically, with a new coaching staff, and they
may actually be only you know, single point underdogs when
NBSU comes up to visit Grand Forks this year, which
is kind of crazy to me. I'm wondering halfway if
they're going to give North Dakota a chance to host
college game day when North Dakota visits. Wouldn't that be crazy?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that'd be really neat. And you know, shout out
to the great White North. I not last year, but
the year before. I think you may remember that the
final four of the FCA was I believe like Idaho,
Montana State, North Dakota State, and South Dakota State, where
you know, South Dakota State was the farthest South team
to make that field. And I think that same year
we had Michigan and Washington playing in the National Championship
at the FBS level, and you know, both of them
had beat Texas in Alabama that year to get there,
and so they you know, not just the North per se,
but the very far North has really been dominating at
the FCS level especially, but also you know, with the
resurgence of the Big Ten with Oregon and Indiana and
Ohio State. You know, we had a little conversation on
Twitter or on x I guess a couple of days
ago where I asked, you, guys, you know, who do
you have the Big Ten or the field and the
playoff this year? And I think I'd take the Big
Ten between Ohio State and Indiana. Man, Indiana is legit
good like. I've seen him play a few times this year,
and they are good like not oh, that's a cute
story like it was last year, you know, where they
kind of backed into the playoff with a pretty weak
schedule and when they played the one really tough team
they played, Ohio State, they looked like they didn't belong
This year, Indiana's good guys, and I think they could
now I'm not saying they will, but they're a team
that's good enough to win at all. And so you know,
between Ohio State and Indiana, you know, to me, those
are the top not just the top two teams in
the rankings. I think those are the two best teams
in the country. And I can't believe I'm saying that.
Speaker 2: JM. You coach at University of the Indiana. Did you
ever think that Indiana would be on national TV against
Maryland on CBS, John.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and if like it did last week? For sure,
they were.
Speaker 4: On national TV against u c l A. And what
did they beat them? Fifty six to six or something?
You know, not that UCLA is necessarily great shakes, but
you know, it was an impressive victory.
Speaker 3: And I did watch quite a bit of that one.
Speaker 2: They're crazy for me to see Maryland on there and
in the same time slot, though, I mean, it's sort
of fine. I chuckle a little bit, right, I mean,
good for Indiana forgetting that time slot. But they're all there.
If I'm not mistaken, uh there, I have to make sure.
I have to have this right, have the have this right.
But I think, yeah, Indiana is coming to Maryland. They're
going to be in College Park. That's crazy that they're
going to be on CBS. I'm sorry, it's crazy to me.
Speaker 3: But it's good.
Speaker 2: It might be worth going out too, all right, Jeff,
you're our friend.
Speaker 1: All right, John, and we got two more segments left
in this podcast. In the next one, we have our
first open mic segment, and this one's only for our guest.
So take this anywhere you wanted to go, if you
wanted to be about Florida State, the playoffs, the coaching carousel.
Brian Kelly got fired today at another one. I think
I read that the amount the amount of buyouts being
paid out this season is like one hundred and forty dollars.
Just whatever, whatever you got on your mind here in
this first open mic.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, since you cheeed that one up. You know,
there's a lot of FSU fans at this point that
obviously want to see Mike Norvel fired. And I certainly
understand why the you know, it just doesn't seem to
be working. But if I'm going to look at the
administration and give them the benefit of the doubt here,
I might also say, right now, there are some monster
jobs open. You know, You've got Florida open, You've got
Penn State open, You've got now LSU open. As you noticed,
the competition in the job market were to find a
good elite coach is going to be nearly impossible. This offseason,
and you know, who knows what will happen when the
dominoes start falling. But I don't know if you won't
necessarily want to get in a bidding war with all
of those programs to try to find the best coach
that's out there. Uh, you know, coach sig at Indiana
obviously signed a massive extension, so he's off the table
at this point, which is really amazing if you think
about it. Like you know, one of the things I
posted a few weeks ago was that if fac were
to fire Mike Norvel, you know, the best coach on
the market right now is probably sig at Indiana, and
it would be a total long shot to get him
to be able to hire him away from Indiana. And
you know, that's just tells you I think where we
are in college football now that.
Speaker 3: It's it's always.
Speaker 4: Been money driven, but now if you can stroke the
checks to hire the big coach to fill your roster
with big time players, and then if you can also
get the right chemistry, because obviously you can't just buy
the best players. You know, a lot of teams, Texas
being one, you know, have spent a fortune on their roster,
have five stars all over the place and they're just
not performing that well.
Speaker 3: So there's more to.
Speaker 4: It than that, but just the point that in the
old days, Indiana wouldn't have been a job that you
could really make nationally relevant and now it is. And
you know, we've got the same thing at Texas Tech.
I know, they lost to Arizona State a week a
little over a week ago, and that was a game
where Texas Tech it came back scored with I think
under a minute left, and Arizona went back. Arizona State
went right back down and scored and you know, really
fun game at least at the end. But Texas Tech
is another one of those teams that that has managed
to put a lot of money into nil. They've got
some very wealthy boosters and you know, has a pretty
good team. It's a team that I wouldn't necessarily want
to line up against in the playoff if I was,
you know, a contender, And you know that's kind of
where we are.
Speaker 3: Man. It's it's really weird. It's a weird place to.
Speaker 4: Be as an FSU fan because for so many years
with Bobby Bowden, you know, you had your coach who
was a legend you had the players because you know
you could mine all the best players in Florida. You're
competing against FS or Miami, en F and UF, but
you know there was plenty to go around. The whole
sport has been completely flipped on its end by the
US Supreme Court with the nil decision as well as
the COVID Area transfer rules, which I really hate those guys.
I know, everybody's a free agent every year, and you
can't rely on having a roster from year to year
that doesn't have a lot of turnover because guys don't
do what they used to do. You know, go there
as a freshman, put in the works, put in the rep,
maybe play a little special teams. Maybe by your sophomore
year you're getting a few reps on the offense or defense.
By your junior year, maybe you're starting. You know, that
was the old days you develop players. Now it's just everybody,
if they don't start as a freshman, they transfer someone
else somewhere else. And you know, if somebody's going to
offer more money, they'll transfer somewhere else, even if they
are playing. And you know some schools have navigated that
landscape well. FSU obviously hasn't, and you know, some other
ACC teams have either. Clemson most notably built a monster
program there and for a time was probably the best
coach in college football. I would have taken him over
Nick Saban during that you know, twenty fifteen to twenty
twenty year era personally, and ever since, you know, between
nil but the transfer rules, he hasn't been able to compete.
He's stubbornly held on to the way he used to
do it before. And you can't win like that anymore.
And so, you know, we've if your program has figured
it out and you're still able to win, God love
you and you're having a great time. But it's a
tough transition for some of us who have followed programs
that have been very good in the past who haven't
been able to figure it out. And you know, Matthew,
Virginia Tech obviously is in a similar boat to FSU.
Speaker 3: You know, you had the legendary coach who was able
to build a program.
Speaker 4: Get some good recruits out of the you know, the
Virginia Beach area, put together some mighty talented teams, had
a lot of success, and then ever since he's retired,
they haven't been able to navigate the new landscape, and
Florida State's in the same boat. And you know, with
this offseason, just to put a bow on this from
where it started, I don't know that if you're one
of those teams and Virginia Tech's going to be in
that market looking for a coach, and it's going to
be tough because you're competing with with LSU, with Penn State,
and not only that, you're also competing with the when
the dominoes start falling and they fill their jobs, and
so it is going to be a tough market. Good
luck to you. I can understand why Florida State may
decide to hang on to Norvel for another year, reduce
the buyout. Maybe there'll be a better landscape where they
can find the right guy next year, and you know,
we'll see how it goes. But that's my soapbox, and
thanks for letting me stand on it and talk at
you for a little bit.
Speaker 1: All right, Matthew, I'm gonna turn it over to you
for our last segment.
Speaker 2: Open make the phone, microphone. I can't even say an
open microphone? Number two, John, What do you got for us?
Speaker 3: You want another topic?
Speaker 2: Definitely, definitely and it could be just it can be
anything that you any anything that you want to talk about.
How about I find I can also ask you a question.
This is this is actually probably a good time for
me to ask you a question. What do you think
about let's transition to hoops? John, Tell me about tell
me about Tell me about where you think Florida State
men's basketball is headed under the new coach recruiting, how's
he working relationships with fans? Tell me about a.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean we talked about it at the preseason
FSU football on the basketball topic came up, and I
told you a little bit about Luke Lux, former player
during their probably most successful era under coach Ham. Not
necessarily the most successful team, because that was the COVID
team that was probably going to be a one seed
and was probably had a good shot at winning the
national championship or at least making a Final four. But
the best era was the Luke Lux era. You know,
Michael Snare. They won the ACC beating like you know,
Duke in North Carolina to get there when North Carolina
was still a special program anyhow, and Luke Lox was
the point guard on that team, not talented enough to
make it to the NBA, but he did play overseas professionally,
and then came back and got an assistant job in
the NBA for the Sacramento Kings, and then FSU hired
him to replace coach Ham And so far, so good,
I think, you know, it's always tough to tell. Well,
you're working on a pretty short period to try to
put a roster together, and college basketball obviously has the
same issues that college football does with nil and with
the transfer rules, and so there's not a whole lot
of consistency from one year to the next.
Speaker 3: They have played a couple exhibition games.
Speaker 4: They whipped Florida A and M today, which is probably
what you would expect them to do, the crosstown team.
And the last week they played Alabama, who's obviously been
a nationally relevant program, Final four team a couple of
years ago, you know, really good offensive team. And I
think the score was Alabama one hundred and nine, Florida
State one hundred and five or something like that. Now,
you know, it's an exhibition game, so who knows how
much defense was being played.
Speaker 3: I didn't get to see it.
Speaker 4: You know, it may be in one of those things
where they were running up and down the court and
nobody was really defending real high It wouldn't surprise me
if that was the case with that score. But at least,
you know, it's encouraging that they've got a team that
can put the ball in the net. And we'll see
how it goes when they start playing against real competition
and games that count.
Speaker 3: But so far, pretty encouraging.
Speaker 4: You know, you never know, especially with a guy who's
a first time head coach, how it'll pan out. And
you know, maybe that we look back on this a
is you know what an amazing hire. Glad we got
him before someone else did. Maybe that we look back
at it and say, well, I guess that's why you
need to hire somebody with head coaching experience, you know.
So who knows how it'll play out over the next
couple of years. But it was pretty clear that coach
Hamilton's teams were very stagn at the last couple of years.
There was no momentum in the program. The recruits kind
of stopped coming. And you know, again a coach that
had a legendary status but wasn't really able to navigate
the new era of college basketball, and so he you
retired and I with that they could have got him
his final four in the year two thousand, but you know,
it wasn't meant to be, I guess, But so got
a young new coach who's only in his thirties, and
you know, we'll see how it goes. I'm I'm excited
to see the season tip off so that we can
see them play in some games that count though, and
hopefully they'll be able to, you know, win most of
their out of conference games because they don't have a
super tough out of conference.
Speaker 3: Schedule this year.
Speaker 4: They have haven't scheduled very aggressively, which means they really
need to win most of the games they're playing in.
And so if they go into ACC play with only
a couple losses, you know, it could be fun. It
could be an interesting season.
Speaker 2: Well one follow up for me, and I'm going to
use this as my I'm going to use this as
my my open microphone. John. Apparently tom Izzo was not
happy at all that you know, perhaps Louisville has a
you know, has a G League player on its team,
right and that sort of thing. Apparently he was unaware
that they were that these players were eligible and stuff
like that, and it's my assertion. John, correct me if
I'm wrong. Maybe I'm making it too I don't want
to make this too simplistic of a reference here, but
college hockey for years, years and years and years has
either taken the Canadian or US juniors into its into
its into its ranks. This is a well known fact.
How is should we be upset about this? Should we
be as upset about this as Tom Izzo is, or
should we realize that there really wasn't a hell of
a lot of difference between those two sports and the
NCAA is just catching up well.
Speaker 4: And it's an interesting point because you know, the whole
thing when the J League started, what was it about
ten years ago? Was are they going to be able
to get top end prospects now to go play college
football or college basketball?
Speaker 3: Excuse me?
Speaker 4: When they can go get paid to play G League level?
And now with the nil rules, I can't imagine the
G League is paying what Louisville's paying, right, so is
if he was going to play at the G League
instead of a top tier conference. Is the G League
now almost like a feeder conference to the big time
college programs where you know.
Speaker 3: You can go into the G League.
Speaker 4: If you're not being recruited by big time schools, you know,
maybe make a bit of a name for yourself against
that competition and then you know, get a couple million
dollar NIL deal with a Louisville or some other school
like that. Because I'm just not seeing the whole controversy there.
And look, I love Tom Azoh. He's been great for
Michigan State and for college basketball for thirty something years now.
Is also a distant relative of mine. Believe it or not.
My dad's side of the family is from the Iron Mountain,
Michigan area, where the Izzo's are from, and he I've
heard through family law anyhow is married to or has
somehow married or my one of my maybe aunts, cousins
or something is married into the Izzo family. So you know,
so I've got only love for him. But this seems
like a silly thing to get hung up on because
in the NIL era, if you're if you can go
play for the G League or you can go play
for Louisville, why would you play for the G League?
The only poll before this, and even before NIL era,
most guys would go to the top tier colleges Anyways,
over the G League, and now with them being able
to play, is that even is a G League player
even at the same level as a top tier college player.
I can't imagine it would be. So yeah, it seems
like a silly thing to get worked up over.
Speaker 2: Amen. Amen, Jeff, you're upright.
Speaker 1: H Yeah, We're We got college basketball right around the corner.
And I don't know if you all caught the Duke
tennis Duke playing at Tennessee tonight in an exhibition game.
I caught some of that game, and you know, like
you like, like John said earlier, it's an exhibition game.
You don't know, you know quite how much the players
are into, you know, defense or whatever. But I think
that the Tennessee Duke game, those guys were into it.
They were trying to win. There was a good crowd
in Knoxville, and Duke looks. Duke, look legit. They're gonna
win a lot of games. So if anyone thought they
were going to back up from last year's Final four team,
I don't. I don't see it. The uh, the the
Boozer kids, they're gonna be They're gonna be a huge
problem with Dukes. I think they're gonna I think they're
gonna be as good as advertised. And then also as
we get into November, it's really refreshing to see, you know,
the A C C be right in the thick of
the playoff discussion and not just with one team, with
multiple teams. And you know, we've we've kind of alluded
to it all during the podcast. You know, Miami is there,
you know, on the top ten to college football playoff rings.
I think it come out this week. You know, Georgia
Tech eight, No, can they keep it going? Louisville and
Virginia with just one loss, you know, all four teams
control their destiny to get into the playoffs, at least
Virginia Georgia Tech. I think Miami, if they went out,
they're going to be in Louisville. I think at eleven
and one, even if they don't make the ACC Championship
is going to find is going to find their way in.
But just having like multiple teams and the ACC playing
meaning foot, meaningful football in November is going to be excited.
And I also think, you know, this kind of tells
you that the playoff doesn't need to be expanded across
the country. You know, the Big ten the SEC, Big twelve, ACC.
I mean, it looks like there's not going to be
a three loss team that's going to have any chance
at the playoffs. And I really believe that that a
three loss team, I don't care what conference they're playing in,
is not going to have any chance to make the playoffs.
And that's what you would definitely lose if you expand it,
you know, even further, or if you have these multiple
AQ bids. You know that the Big Ten was trying
so hard for to try to get four in when
and you know, here's the season. Clearly, you know they
only have two teams that I would say are bona fide,
you know, playoff caliber teams, and that's Indiana, Ohio State,
you know, Oregon if they went out, yeah they're they're
playoff team. But if you give them a second loss,
you know, I'm not I'm not. I'm not convinced when
their signature win is over a bad Penn State team
that that's that's a playoff team. And so you're only
looking at two teams truly possibly from.
Speaker 3: The Big Ten.
Speaker 1: And here at one point we were trying to fight
for four a Q bids. I think that the current
setup is the right setup. You know, we're not going
to ever be able to go back to the ball
bids or the BCS. I mean, I'm if it were me,
I would still my my my proposal would always have
been have the bowl systems the way you had it
and have a plus one. But we're never going to
get that. And you know, I hope these conference commissioners
and the folks in charge of the playoffs, you know,
kind of realize that. I think twelve is where we
need to stay at. We don't need further expansion, we
don't need eight extra AQ bids, And the current format
leaves a lot of teams with a chance entering November
to play. I mean, if you looked at in one
of those in the AP or coaches pull, I mean
one through twenty can still play their way very much
into the to the playoffs. So I think November is
it's just going to be wild. It's going to be
a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: Amen. Amen, everybody's still there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what do you got, Matthew? You gotta have something
on your mind.
Speaker 2: Hey, you know, I'm just telling you I'm excited here
or the NHL season to begin to start, just and
college hockey. I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled both have both have
started up. I think that Minnesota and North Dakota should
never end that that hockey series. They've they've they've agreed
to a deal for the next, over, the next, over
the next, Like I think it's over the next four years.
I'd like it never to end. North Dakota split a
series with with Minnesota at home and then one on
the road to clarks coult the car and split a
series to Clarkson College. I think college hockey doesn't shy
away from those matchups, probably because there there are fewer
teams a but it's much easier to now that you
now that the Big Ten has its own conference, it's
much easier to shy away from those matchups. But you know,
this past weekend again Minnesota and Minnesota Duluth played, and
Minnesota Duluth took two from Minnesota, And which tells me
what John I missed the w c h A. Bring
it back, bro, bring it back, bring back.
Speaker 3: That that era.
Speaker 4: Ccha, w c cha. It was a fun time in
college hockey. And you know, before before Arizona State was
a national power, and before Western Michigan was gonna was
a national champion, you know. I mean, it's wild how
it's changed, but it's still a ton of fun. I
watched the Michigan State Boston College game because I'm a
you know, as I kind of alluded to earlier, I
am a Michigan State fan as well. My dad went
there as an undergrad. I actually went there for a
short time in grad school. Didn't get a degree from there,
but uh, you know, I do like the Spartans and
there they might be one of the best teams in
the country.
Speaker 3: This year.
Speaker 4: They went into Boston U and just pushed them around,
and you know, so, uh, it should be a fun
season and and I'm looking forward to trying to get
to watch a little college hockey here and there when
I can.
Speaker 3: CBS Sports as a great resource for.
Speaker 4: That, you know, because they do have games on there
from time to time, and you know, check it out
and it's fun. It's a fun game to watch. It's
very wide open.
Speaker 2: Definitely, definitely, John, thank you so much for spending your
Sunday evening with us on the All Sports Discussion ACC podcast.
We loved having you come on the show, and we'd
love to have you come on the show again sometime.
Speaker 4: Hey, I appreciate you whenever you invite me. Thanks for
having me on again.
Speaker 2: All right, have a great week guys, take care.
Speaker 3: Thanks