Speaker 1: Hello, Welcome to this week in the Atlantic Coast Conference,
the podcast for All Sportsdiscussion dot com. This is Jeff,
one of your podcast co hosts, and you can follow
me on X at talking a c C Sports. That's
at T A l K I N A c C
S p O R T S. The podcast moderator is
Matthew and you can follow him 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 gets started
with our guest, and Matthew, we're still waiting for our
guests to arrive.
Speaker 2: I'm thinking that our guests, I'm thinking that you might
have thought that it was Matt Zemick that was typing
in to not me when I said, Matthew here is ready.
That's what I'm thinking.
Speaker 3: We're what the.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm thinking, Jeff, right, that's probably these perhaps
the case. I don't know, but you know, because we
got to Matthews here, so perhaps you can follow up
with him, follow up with him on a D M here.
But that's uh, that's probably probably probably probably you got
too mad. He's here, as they say, right, Hey, this
is Matthew. As Jeff said, you can follow me on
Twitter at at all Sports DACS. Again, that's at All
Sports d a c C. And that is the Twitter
account for Allsportsdiscussion dot Com. And honestly, I spend all
of my time on that Twitter account.
Speaker 3: Now I don't spend any time. I can't even get into.
Speaker 2: My personal Twitter account, any x account anymore. I guess
I'll say that because basically it's locked out and I'm
not sure that I'll ever get it back, and it's
seems it seems extremely hard for it to come back,
for it to come back, for it to come back.
But again, this is the longest running independent ACC podcast
in the United States. This is the All Sports Discussion
ACC podcast. And for several weeks now we've had previews
of every single ACC football team. It's been fun. It's
just been extremely fun to have have those on there.
We've even got we've even got previews in with SMU,
with Cal with Stanford. We've just been fortunate to have
and we've been fortunate to have good, good people volunteer
with us throughout the throughout the just throughout the off season.
It's been I'm sure Jeff would agree agree with that.
It's been it's been a one wonderful we've this week
on the site, we have an we have a we
have an all we have an Atlantic Coast Conference kind
of panel sort of thing where we're going through the
we're going through we go through the division standings, so
we pick out the records for each of the individual
teams and there's a perhaps probably a record number of eight,
nine and ten we win teams that we think are
going to come out of the conference that we've had
panelists with. We've had We've just had a great panel
and we've had it's been Jeff and I making the
picks and then we have six guest user guest pickers
on the show, and so we got through to pick
the standings.
Speaker 3: That's one post.
Speaker 2: Then we have an ACC Football Open Microphone that'll be
that'll be posted tomorrow, then the next then then the
excuse me, that's the Wednesday post. My apologies. The post
for tomorrow is the ACC Football Award winners and the
the ACC Football Title Game participants and the ACC Title winners.
So that's tomorrow's post, sorry, And then Tuesday then is
the ACC Football Open Microphone Wednesday. Then is our bonus
pick time. It's the uh that is the ACC there,
excuse me, the Football Championship Series subdivision picks for the
national title game. And you know, we tend to think
the group tends to think it's gonna go through the Dakotas.
And then it looks like Matthews joining us. Matthew, welcome here.
Just one moment, and then then Thursday, Then is Thursday.
Then is our is our comprehensive ACC football preview. And
that's when we include the That's when we include the
uh uh, Jeff's player position previews, his best winter loss records,
and then all the content from our panel, and that
becomes your comprehensive ACC Football Preview along with all of
the ACC football.
Speaker 3: Podcasts that we've done here. Sorry, that was a mouthful.
Speaker 2: Jeff and Matt I've been talking for a few minutes
now about advertising some content on the site, and you know,
and we're ready for our final podcast guest before College
Football Week one starts, and we have just have a
great guest here on the show tonight. Joining us this
week is national college football blogger Matt Zemik. You can
follow him on Twitter at at Matt Zemeck. Again, that's
at m A t t zm e e K. Again
that's at m A T t z e m e K.
He's also a member of our team at All Sports
Discussion dot common times you'll see him wogging about some
acc topics at times. And he's the editor of Trojan's Wire,
which is the Ganet Corporation affiliated University of Southern California
Trojan's athletic website. It is, of course not affiliated with
the institutions, so they have some They has some freedom
in terms of the content that they put on the site,
and it must align, of course with what whatever Ganet
Corporation looks like but wants. But again, Matt, Matt Semic
and his career have a lot of freedom. Matt Temicks
wrote about college football since two thousand and one, and
he's just been a terrific participant, I would say terrific.
I mean really a terrific, terrific person to give us
this time at All Sports Discussion dot Com on college football.
So Matt, welcome backfriend. Is there anything that you would
like to plug a Trojan's Wire and anything about your
background that you'd like to tell us tell our listeners
before we before we start the ACC football, College football
and National College Football.
Speaker 3: Thank you for joining. It's a tradition unlike any other,
and uh great to be back with you on the
the you know, the final Sunday of August, the final
Sunday before another regular season of college football. Obviously it
did start and you guys at doll Sports discussion at
a couple of ACC games to follow, but obviously you know,
the first full week of college football is upon us.
We made it through another eight years of off season torment,
and you know, as I continue to uh blog at
Trojans Wire, just you know, the nature of the beast is,
you know, you're you're I have to edit the site
for twelve months a year, not not just during football season.
And you know, so for eight months we're basically just speculating.
We're basically just throwing things against the wall. Now we
get actually get to find things out, and obviously you
guys got to find out a lot about Florida State,
Georgia Tech and SMU. It feels really really weird to
say that you're following SMU now and much as you'll
be following Stanford and Cal as well. But like now
we get to see, you know, how is this all
going to look like, not just the new conference alignment,
but the twelve team playoff and all the new configurations
and the travel and and all the different forces that
are spinning around us in college football. So like it's
the same college football experience. It's that same excitement for
Week one, but so many things are different. And in
terms of following Trojans wire or reading Trojans wire, hey,
I mean in the offseason, frankly, I don't blame you
if you haven't read Trojans wire because again we're speculating.
But now you want to be along for the ride.
You want to be along for USC LSU coverage. You
want to be along for covering USC Michigan and ann Arbor,
USC Penn State on October twelve, USC Notre Dame. At
the end of the season. You know, now's the time
you definitely want to be following USC because the Trojans
are certainly a very interesting team. Whether it's going to
be for better reasons or worse reasons, we don't know.
And obviously we're going to be talking about all the
teams in the ACC. Every team really is interesting. Just
is it going to be in a good way or
in a bad way. That's the real drama. And we
already got a taste of that in Week zero in Dublin,
and I did.
Speaker 2: For what it's worth, all the Trojans wire in the
offseason because I was really intrigued, and I'd like you
chose to talk a little bit about this before we
get into acc football. I was really happy that the
Trojans hired Matt Ants.
Speaker 3: I'm sure you were. What did you think about that? Well?
Speaker 2: I think that that was a terrific hire. I think
it's going to improve the defense right away. He's he
has some clout walking in that room because he's won
national titles. He knows how to get everybody on the single,
you know, on the same page.
Speaker 3: He knows.
Speaker 2: I think that folks at the FCS level spend a
little more time coaching Matt you know what I mean
if that makes sense, because they're trying to develop talent,
and I think his players are going to love that.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you've heard this, do you think
that Matt enz replaces PJ. Fleck at Minnesota in two
three years?
Speaker 2: No? How does that sound. I don't think that that
will happen. Here's why I say that. For some reason,
I feel like these Big ten schools still feel like
they have a hangover from hiring Morton from the NBSU days.
If you're old enough to remember that, remember when Wisconsin
hired Morton. I feel like some of these Big ten
teams still have a hangover from hiring somebody from the
Bison from the triple option days, and whether that's better
or whether that's fair or not. So there are some
big pott pocket donors that still remember that, And I
know that's terrible of me to say.
Speaker 3: Well, it's not terrible of you to say, if that's
what you think is the reality, and it certainly could be.
But definitely wanted to get your thoughts on that. But yeah,
it's it's gonna be wild and it's going to be
interesting to see, you know, if Lincoln Riley can accountability
on defense, that's certainly it's a separal theme. And I
do think matt EN's is going to be really good.
I think all of these new defensive staffords are going
to be good. But anyway, it's all sports discussion and
ready to talk some acc football if you guys, we're ready.
Speaker 2: To talk some ACC football. How important is this year
for Tony Elliott. Tony Elliott Virginia and Mario Christ the
ball at Miami because we think these two guys they're
probably up there, maybe sitting up there.
Speaker 3: On some hot seats, right. Yeah. I think that Tony
Elliott gets a longer lease just because of the culture
and the expectations at Virginia that's different from Miami. I
think if you're Virginia, you know, you know how hard
Tony Elliott's players played for him, so like he hasn't
you know, he has the locker room, he has his
players believing in him and his plan and his vision.
Now it might not all come together. And obviously this
is now a seventeen team ACC, so it's a you know,
it's a super conference in terms of size, as is
the Big Ten at eighteen, So you know, the schedule
might be difficult to the point that you might not
see the results reflected in the win loss record. I
think the main thing is just everyone in and around
the Virginia program needs to know that, hey, this ship
is going in the right direction. As long as that's
in place, I think it's fine. But you know, Elliott
looks so out of his element at the very start.
If we have that kind of identity, that kind of reality,
then he's in real trouble. But I think that as
long as there's a sense of, hey, we can build
on this in twenty twenty five, I think he'll be fine.
But the hottest seat is Mario crystal Ball. I don't
think there's much question about it. You know, the these
super donors can't keep get forking over all this nil
money to recruit at such a high level, and yet
the product be so bad on the field. And it's
really interesting, you know from my perch here in the West.
You know, because Marrio crystal Ball went up against USC
when he was at Oregon and he, you know, he
had Clay Helton to go against. Just imagine if he
had Lincoln Riley to go against, and and USC wasn't
going against Dan Lanning, but it was going against Mario Cristobal.
I think you it would be in great shape, and
you wouldn't have Oregon as a favorite to play in
the College Football Playoff semi finals and be a top
possibility for the championship game. I think, you know, USC
would be on top in terms of the West Coast
in terms of the West Coast schools that are going
to the Big Ten. I mean, crystal Ball did a
decent job at Oregon, but you know, when you realize
how Justin Herbert was able to unleash the full measure
of his skills and was actually able to throw downfield
with the Chargers, it became apparent just how much crystal
Ball limited Justin Herbert at Oregon and needed a lot
of turnovers from a sloppy Wisconsin team to win a
very close and frankly ugly Rose Bowl. I mean, it
was a really good achievement for Oregon, but you know,
Utah blew the doors off Oregon at the PAC twelve
Championship game in twenty twenty one, and you know, crystal Ball,
with all the resources that he had again didn't do terribly,
but it's not as though he hit the ball out
of the park. And so at Miami the thought was, well,
you know, you know, Mama called and crystal Ball came home.
It was one of the two jobs that always made
sense for him to leave Eugene for, you know, Alabama
being the other. And it's obviously very interesting that Alabama.
The Alabama job did open up just a little bit later,
wonder if Crystal Ball has any second thoughts about all
of this. You know, he could have gone, could have
waited a few more years, and and Saban could have
opened the door for him to go to Alabama. But
instead he went to Miami, and obviously that made plenty
of sense for him. It's, you know, that's Miami's home,
South Florida's home for him, and certainly with all the
resources at his back and all the nil uh, you know,
the NL architecture that Miami has. I mean, Miami was
not very good last season, and yet the Hurricanes pull
in elite recruits like they're they're recruiting at a higher
level than USC is. And that's despite you know, not
doing anything in the first two seasons under Crystal Ball. Well,
Lincoln Riley is just a point of contrast, when eleven
and one in his first regular season, came one win
from the College Football Playoff, and yet he's struggling to
get the same kinds of recruits that the Chrystal Ball gets. Like,
Miami has a higher recruiting rating for the twenty twenty
four cycle than USC So you know, the guys at Miami,
the billion dollar boosters and the well pocketed individuals. You know,
they are giving Merrio Chrystobal Whole Foods level groceries. But
he's been cooking a seven to eleven type meal and
he he better start cooking a gourmet meal, right. Bill
Parcells always talked about the groceries and the meal, and
you know, the general manager got the groceries and it
was up to the coach to cook, to cook the meal.
And you know, Crystal Ball has been cooking you know,
stale day old hot dogs. You know that there's just
roll around on that seven to eleven conveyor belt. But
he's he's being given you know, these elite recruits and resources,
and you know, you look at Miami's roster and wow,
you know that's a talented backfield with cam Ward and wow,
those are talented receivers and wow, you know that that
that that the offensive line could be really good. I
mean just in terms of NFL draft potential and and
you know what the scouts and the evaluators see, as
you know, quality prospects. Miami has a lot of them.
Miami has a lot of guys who are supposed to
be dudes, you know, are supposed to be really good.
And so if Miami just continues to muddle through and
not get you know, anywhere particularly close to a conference
championship to a big Bowl game, I mean, forget about
the playoff for the moment. Miami just has to at
least get into the neighborhood of nine or ten wins first.
If Miami can't do that, if we're seeing six and six,
seven and five, I mean, I don't see how anyone's
gonna want to continue to go through the with crystal ball.
And you know, I know you guys are are very
much aware, and you know, like this is the guy
who just you know, keeps tripping over his shoelaces and
doing the dumb things that he did against Georgia Tech. Right,
you know, he didn't take a knee, and then he
had that stumble at Oregon. Remember against Stanford several years ago,
didn't take a knee, Oregon fumbles, Stanford gets a late win,
and then so you know, this similar thing happened in
the Georgia Tech Miami game in his tenure. So Christaball
just has to stop stepping on rakes. He has to
start delivering results. And if we don't see at least
something close to the vision that Miami has with all
the money that's being poured into football from the nil
side and elsewhere. He gone, he's gotta go. You have
to at least see something close to the expected Miami standard,
something that's going to reward the investment of a lot
of wealthy people for crystal Ball to stay. I mean,
he can't have another bomb out season, right, that's for sure.
And I would say, like he, Miami football has to
be better than mediocre. Like everyone has to walk away
from this season feeling that, Okay, maybe they didn't absolutely
max out, but they were a good team. People. Everyone
has to walk away from twenty twenty four seeing and
knowing that Miami is a good team in a good position.
If Crystal Ball falls short of that, he gone, he's
got to go.
Speaker 2: Well done. I could not have said that better. So
flip side here. There's a big year ahead, right, a lot.
You know, times have changed. You've got the really the
progress of the engineering schools I call it right, Virginia
Tech and Georgia Tech. And you've got this, You've got
this Louisville with the hometown son at home that seems
to really be changing that program in real time. I
want to get your thoughts on those three schools.
Speaker 3: Matt Well. I mean, I know that Jeff is just
doing cartwheels after Georgia Tech's went over Florida State, and
you know, let's let's talk about that briefly. That after
Florida State punches Georgia Tech in the mouth early, you're thinking, oh, okay,
this game is not going to be close. You know,
we can see this is men versus boys, and Georgia
Tech just went, oh, okay, that's the standard we need
to play at. That's the level of physicality and toughness
we need to bring to the field. Yeah, we can
do that. To use the Georgia Tech slogan from that
commercial a few years ago, you can do that. Well,
Georgia Tech did that and they did it very well,
and like they just stood up to Florida State. And
you know, in terms of Florida State, I didn't pick
Florida State to win the ACC And I know we'll
talk about this later in the show, but just briefly,
you know, I can't trust dj uyang La Lay enough
to pick Florida State to win the ACC. But that
point aside Florida State has a ton of really really
good players other than at quarterback. And it really was
a game in which Georgia Tech did have to stand
tall in the trenches. That was the Yellowjacket's path to victory,
and boy did they answer the call. So what a
statement right out of the gate about this team's toughness
and games that would have slipped through the cracks in
previous years. They're not slipping through the cracks now. And
Brent Key, you know, like, my god, he continues to
beat ranked acc opponents like this. This is what he does,
like he keeps doing it. So you can't call it
a fluke, you can't call it an aberration. This is
what he does. It's now a track record, it's a
consistent pattern that's carried into another year or so. Georgia
Tech fans, you know, should be absolutely elated about where
their program is going. And as for Virginia Tech, well,
you know, it just seems as though Brent Pry has
been making the right steps that he gets it that
he's going to develop the passing game and he's going
to figure out the quarterback position, which you know, quarterback
guru Justin Fwente weirdly could not solve you know, he
could not figure that out. It seems as though Pride,
though he has a defensive background, he's getting it together
at quarterback. And if the twenty twenty four season manifests that,
you know, if Virginia Tech really does have a strong
passing game, you know, then all the pieces are there
for a successful run. So I see everything in alignment
in Blacksburg and the Hokies definitely being in the top
third of the ACC. And of course top third now
means you know, top five, top six. It's in a
smaller conference. Top third would have been you know, like
top four, top five, but now the ACC is larger,
so you know, Hokies should be definitely be there in
the top five, top six for for sure. I feel
very confident about that. And then Louisville the thing to remember,
you know, Jeff brom didn't just win ten games last year.
He did it with Jack freaking Plumber as his quarterback.
And I covered Jack Plumber when he was in Berkeley
with the col Golden Bears. He was not very good. Now,
he did light up USC, but of course that was
an Alex Grinch USC defense. So like you don't get
full credit for lighting up Alex Grinch. You know, if
you beat a terrible defense, well good for you, Like
everyone else does that. But against most against competent defenses.
In the Pac twelve when he was at Cal, Jack
Plummer was not very good at all. Jeff Brom takes
him on as kind of a reclamation project, and he
wins ten games with, you know, a decidedly average quarterback,
like we saw Jack Plumber's limitations come to the forefront
in that Kentucky game. To win ten games with that
quarterback pretty amazing. So if Jeff Brom ever gets his
hands on a really, really good quarterback, we'll see what
Tyler Shuck can do. But when Brom eventually gets a
Cadillac quarterback, that's when we're really going to consider the
possibility that Louisville can reclaim where it was twenty years
ago under Bobby Patrino. You know, when you had the big,
the great twenty and four team under Stefan Lafor's and
then the two thousand and six team that that you know,
achieved at an extremely high level. When Brom gets an
elite quarterback, that's when Louisville is in a position to
really max out to be a playoff caliber program, compete
for the biggest prizes in college football. So Georgia Tech,
Virginia Tech, Louisville lots of reasons for optimism in all
three places, but of course at Georgia Tech you have
the fact that, well they've already made a huge statement
in twenty twenty four. We now need to wait to
see what the Hokies and the Cardinals can do. Very good,
Matt Jeff you're upred.
Speaker 1: All right, Thank you, Matthew, And you're right, Matt. As
a Georgia Tech fan, I'm pretty pumped after what happened yesterday,
and I'm sure we'll have more comments on that. Talk
about some of the new coaches in the ACCU. You
got Fran Brown there at Syracuse, Bill O'Brien with all
that experience at BC, and you know, many Diaz coming
back to the A C C from Duke. And then
I want to ask you about the changing geographic nature
of the ACC with Cal, Stanford and s m U,
and it's you know, it's just kind of the way
of college athletics now. I mean every conference, uh, all
of the other P four conferences are spread across the country,
you know, save the SEC who's who's managed to stay
pretty continutiguous with their states. But uh, you know they're
they're they're pretty spread out too. You know, you're going
from Oklahoma all the way to Gainesville, Florida. So there's
there's no more getting to each school and your your
conference with a with a bus ride.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so let me tackle that first and then I'll
get circle back to the new coaches. I think that,
you know, one of the really big points of intrigue
of the season, of course out here at Trojans Wire.
You know, this is going to be a talking point
for me too. How is the long distance travel going
to affect teams? How fresh they are, the results? Uh,
you know, how how well they play over the course
of a season. Like when you play a game on
one coast and then you play on the other coast
the next week, whether it's home or away, you know,
it does. I'm not sure how much that's going to matter,
you know, whether your play suffers in your road game
or your home game, but just if you're zig zagging
between h two coasts, you know, and I think that
the more precise point to make is, Okay, you play
on one coast. Then the next week you're on the
other coast. So in that second week, after you've gone,
you know, made those two cross country flights that second week,
is there gonna be a negative effect, a negative drag
on a team's performance. I think that's something that you know,
we're dealing with at USC and the Big Ten. That's
gonna be a plot point for us. It's also going
to be a plot point for you know, any team
from from the Atlantic coast, you know, the Atlanta the
mid Atlantic region that goes to Berkeley or Palo Alto
or even SMU even to you know, Texas, and then
you fly back and you make another long commute the
next week. You know, are we going to see consistency
of performance? That's that's gonna be a topic throughout college
football with more long distance playing flights than ever before.
And just to kind of add to the to this subject,
h that a lot of people that I talked to,
you know, in off season shows, podcasts, whatever, a lot
of people say, you know, plane flights like this is
just a reality of modern u at athletics. Kids are
used to it, like they're used to flying all around
the country, you know, for you know, like basketball tournaments
and you know, various off season engagements. Whatever. I'm like,
I'm not convinced, Like I'm not I'm not of the
camp that says, oh, these kids are used to it,
you know. No, Like, these are not NFL athletes, these
are not NBA athletes. These are not guys used to
you know, catching a plane, uh, you know for you know,
thousands of miles and then being able to get a
good night's sleep and being able to regulate their bodies
and being able to play at the expected standard like
they they have not been through this rodeo. And certainly
ACC teams are not used to flying to you know,
the San Francisco Bay area and then back and handling
all of that. So I think there's a real question
about all of this. And I think one of the
really important things that the AC seed and really also
the Big Ten, any conference that's dealing with these long commutes.
I think one thing we need to see in scheduling
for the future is stacking road games and then stacking
home games back to back. So what I mean is,
if you're playing Stanford and cal uh in the same
season on the road, you should play those two games
back to back and then you get to play two
or three home games consecutively instead of instead of you
you fly to one coast, then you fly back for
a home game, and then you fly you're flying back
to you know, to SMU a week later, and then
you're then you're flying back home, you know, to Syracuse
or Chestnut Hill or or you know, South Florida, Clemson, whatever.
We need to be seeing you stay on the road
for two weeks, you know, and playing it like you're
the too far flung road locations consecutively and then you
get to spend two or three weeks at home because
that cuts down on plane flights. It cuts down on
the sense that you're being yanked across the country. Go
have a base camp on the road, and you know,
for the like the you know, those huge equipment trucks,
the guys that you know, we we've seen stories in
the past. Uh, these equipment trucks drive across the country,
you know, for their teams games. Well, we don't want
these equipment trucks driving all the way to one coast
and then all the way back to the other. Like,
those guys have a life, those guys have a family.
They need to be managed in terms of their transportation costs,
their transportation sustainability. So I really hope that we see this.
Just to kind of flesh this out one little bit
more is that you know, USC is now in the
Big Ten, and USC plays at Order Dame every other year,
every odd year. So when USC is playing at Ordre Dame,
USC should have a road game at Indiana or Purdue
in an in an adjacent week, so that USC can
just stay in Indiana right there for two or three
weeks and then USC gets to come home and play
consecutive home games for two or three weeks because they're
like it just it would just be really dumb for us.
He'd have to fly to Notre Dame in mid October,
then go home, and then fly to Bloomington or West
Lafayette two or three weeks later. Like that is really dumb.
But so we need to see that happen in college
football scheduling, and that's part of this larger discussion in
the ACC and it's part of the other power for conferences.
All right now, so the new coaches, let me keep
it simple about Syracuse. Syracuse is a mystery Syracuse. I
don't think a lot of people have a really clear
cut sense of what will happen. I think the other
thing that we have obviously have to mention about Syracuse
is Kyle McCord and you go from Ohio State, you're
playing against Michigan all the for all the marbles, everything
on the line, and now you go to Syracuse where
you just try to get playing time, try to improve yourself.
So that is a fascinating situation, but it's a very
mysterious situation. I think we know a lot more about
the new coaches at Boston College and Duke with Bill O'Brien,
you know, formerly at Penn State, had his NFL tour
of duty. You know, coach Deshaun Watson got to the
NFL playoffs. I think after the Jeff Haffley experience, seeing
Bill O'Brien go to BC, it's probably a decent fit
because BC struggled on offense, didn't have an offensive tactician
in there, and so Bill O'Brien provides that. So if
nothing else like BC is going in that different direction, rights,
it's somebody with a different philosophy orientation, So that could
be that could be good, That could work out well
for the Eagles because offense is what had generally killed
them in recent years under Halfley. And as for Duke,
here's the thing, you know, we all saw Mario Diaz
falter at Miami. It's why crystal Ball is there now.
And one of the things we always talk about at
some point during a football season is that there are
some men who are gifted as head coaches, like they
know how to do all the parts of a head
coach's job description. And there are some people who are
born to be coordinators. And like, it's not a criticism
and it's not a point of shame or embarrassment that
you know, if you are a great coordinator but not
a good head coach. Like, if you're a great coordinator, hey,
that is a high paying job, especially at the elite schools.
I mean, if you are an elite coordinator, like, that
is a significant career achievement. It leads to a lot
of success, it opens a lot of doors, and the
pay is really good. Like, I'd love to be a
successful coordinator. Instead, I'm just a you know, a blogger
at Trojans Wire. I could you know if I was
a sucessful coordinator, man, I I would be living pretty
large and I would have a I would have a
much fatter bank account than I do right now. So
being a great coordinator, there's no shame in that. But
some people handled head coaching well. Others are just made
to be coordinators. And so this tour, this stop for
my for Manny d As at Duke, it's gonna reveal
once and for all, can this guy be a good
head coach? Uh? And and it's worth remembering that before
he took over for Mark Rick at Miami, he had
very briefly taken the Temple job. And you know that
brings up the old point about wow, my Manny Diaz
his tenure at Temple. We're gonna write stories about this one.
It's like George O'Leary at Notre Dame, and and and
and Bobby Kremen's at UH at South Carolina. You know
coaches who uh, whether in football or other sports, you know,
they they committed to go to a school and then
everything fell apart, and so like they were coach of
a school for like forty eight hours. So many Diaz
at Temple like that was one of those forty eight
hour coaching tenures at a school. So you know, in retrospect,
it might have been really good for many Diaz to
spend a couple of years at Temple learned how to
be a head coach. It's kind of like how Lane
Kiffen learned how to be a head coach at Florida Atlantic.
Like he was not ready at Tennessee, he was not
ready at USC. Then he spent some time at at
the Sabin Academy, Alabama, and he goes to Florida Atlantic
and he went into the salt mines. He learned how
to do all the aspects of his job. So Many
Diaz never had that, and you know, two or three
years at Temple probably would have done him a world
of good. But no, he wanted the Miami job right away,
which was understandable. I mean, he's a Cuban, He's a
son of Miami. Why wouldn't you go after that job?
So I don't blame him for that, but it would
have been good for his career development as a head
coach to spend a couple of years in Philadelphia at Temple,
lower rung program, lower expectations. You know, could have spent
like three years learning how to do his job. Because
he didn't have that. He was definitely under equipped for Miami.
We saw that blow up in his face. So now
he is several years later, he circles back, gets another chance,
and we've seen what Mike Elko did at Duke. So
I'm not saying that Diaz has to match the Elko standard,
but he has to come somewhat close, right. He certainly
has to be getting Duke to bowl games, you know,
which is also what Cutcliffe did before his career, you know,
finally petered out at the end, probably lost some energy
on the recruiting trail. Health problems were part of that
picture in Durham. So now we get to find out
once and for all Dias capable of being a good
head coach. If he can't hack it at Duke, that's it.
He's going to be a coordinator in three four years,
and he's going to be a coordinator for the rest
of his career. Again, not a point of shame, not
a point of embarrassment, but just a revealer in terms
of separating the guys who are able to be head
coaches from the guys who are really good coordinators.
Speaker 1: All right, great stuff there, Matt as you keep moving
along here with our with our acc preview, and you know,
now we've got a little bit of context from weeks
zero that that might have changed the answer you could
have given to these questions a week ago. We'll we'll see,
you know now with the Georgia Tech victory over Florida State,
s m U going on the road and struggling as
a huge favorite. But you know, getting out of Nevada
and winning, which ACC team do you think takes a
dive this year that we might not be expecting or
maybe we are now after what we saw yesterday.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say that Florida State and SMU are
definitely candidates for that. And you know with Florida State,
like the answer is so obvious, right, Like it can't
be any there can't be any other explanation for selling
Florida State stock. It's dj Ugalawa, Like that is the
whole reason, And like so many of us were puzzled,
like this was the this was who Mike Norvel wanted,
like this, this was the guy that he was eager
to get, like you know, and again and this is
where my place at Trojans where it comes in handy, Right.
I saw Djongoloway at Oregon State covering the PAC twelve
last year, like this guy was not ready for prime time.
And so it was no different. You know, we remember,
you know that that first pass in the ACC Championship
game a couple of years ago, Clemson North Carolina, that
first pass he threw nosedive general, you know, right into
the ground and Kage club Nick came in not that
much later and did a fine job as Clemson won
that game. But like we've seen the throwing yips, we've
seen the lack of accuracy. We've seen the inability to
make important plays and big moments over and over and
over again. And there was the thought that, Okay, you
go to Corvallis, out of the media, spotlight, west coast,
different vibe, different situation. And you know, Jonathan Smith is
a good coach. Jonathan Smith was you know, on Chris
Peterson's staff when Washington made the College Football Playoff in
twenty sixteen. John and Smith's you know, made Oregon State
a consistently good program. You know, not everybody's able to
do that. So John and Smith's really good at what
he does. And Jonathan Smith, you know, kind of had
that little ego boost, right, and maybe this is what
the problem was with Norvelle selecting U Jungle as well.
These guys are you know, this is an ego driven business.
That's not a criticism, Like, you have to have a
healthy male ego to coach elite, big time football. You
have to believe in yourself. You have to know that
you're a bad dude, that that that you are the
alpha male in the room, that you're the big dog.
So like when I say these guys are ego driven,
and it's it's not a criticism, but right, you do
have to rein in the ego and you do have
to have an awareness of what your limitations are and
what the best thing for your program is. Jonathan Smith felt,
I can be the guy to fix dj Ulangola, and
I think Mike Norvell succumbed to the same temptation, Well
I can fix dj uyogala la, and well we're learning
that actually, no, you can't fix djalaa. And so you
know that. So that was Oregon State's limitation when it
went up against the big dogs in the Pac twelve
last year. You know, couldn't score against Washington when it
really counted, couldn't score against Oregon when it really counted.
So Norvelle takes a chance on dj instead of going
after other quarterbacks in the market who were almost certainly
better and uh, well in week one or week zero
as it were, Uh Nope, didn't didn't rise to the occasion.
And so you know, I found it hard to pick
Florida State to win the league, but I did think
that Florida State would still finish in the top two.
It's gonna be hard for Florida State to finish in
the top two at least right now, you know, unless
we see that growth, unless we see that development in
dj Ouyanga La that you know, these coaches want think
that they can deliver, but we're not seeing it and
we don't see it for a reason. And then with SMU,
let's pick apart that game against Nevada. I mean, SMU
had a returning veteran quarterback. So you think that in
Week zero and against a Mountain West opponent that the
offense is going to function, you know, relatively Smoothie a
shaky first half in your first game of the season. Okay,
you know that's totally understandable, but it really didn't get
much better in the second half. I mean SMU was
able to you know, put it together late in the
final eight minutes. But even then, like that that took
a long time to get going against the defense, that
SMU should have been able to really tear to pieces.
Not not being able to score thirty points against Nevada, Yeah,
that that's a worrisome sign. I had SMU finishing kind
of in the middle of the acc around seven eight.
If if this is any indication of the offense that
we're gonna see, I think SMU probably finishes more like
eleventh to twelveth So, like, those are two natural teams
that you know are are likely to finish lower than
a lot of people expected. And you know you did
ask you know which team takes a dive that's unexpect
those would be candidates now in terms of expected underperformance.
Well you got to go to Miami for that. But
again that's kind of a separate question from the one
that you asked. But like Miami has all this talent
on paper, will it be realized? You know, we know
that this is a conference full of skeptics about Miami.
I'm certainly in that category. I think you guys are too.
You know, so if my Miami underperforming is expected, but
I don't think Florida State underperforming to this extent. I
don't think that was expected. I don't think a lot
of people were expecting Florida State to fall short against
Georgia Tech. As well as Georgia Tech did perform, that
that still did come across as a shock.
Speaker 1: All right, man, let's go to the other side, which
acc team will do better than everyone expects this season?
And Georgia Tech, you know, throw there's name into it
had right away after what happen, Well.
Speaker 3: Didn't Georgia Tech really raise the bar for for expectations? Right?
And you know, I believe correct me if I'm wrong, guys,
But Georgia Tech was a ten and a half point
underdog more or less, maybe maybe ten maybe nine and
a half. So it was.
Speaker 1: They were ten or eleven point dogs in that one.
Speaker 3: Yep, and they were able to win out right. And
you know, again after that first Florida State touchdown drive,
I mean, Georgia Tech was just the better team. Like
nothing about that came across as a fluke. Like Georgia
Tech manned up, pulled up its bootstraps and and really
just you know, stood up to Florida State physically. And
that's really the impressive thing. And when we identify good coaches, right,
we see them play with the level of physicality that's needed.
We see them play with the speed and what Eric Spolstra,
the coach of the NAMI Heat, calls force. We play
with force. The other team feels the the the weight
of your athleticism, of your confidence, of your clarity. Playing
with force like everything's brought together physicality, speed, football i
Q or sports i Q. You know, for any sport, UH,
like the the opponent feels the weight of your presence
on the other side. UH. Georgia Tech plays with that
and that that is really I think the central way
of explaining why Brent Key is a good coach, Why
he's becoming uh so good at what he's done, why
he's finding his footing on the flats uh down there
in Atlanta, like he gets his guys to play at
the at the right standard. Now there is there is, still,
of course, a big unanswered question UH with Key and
with UH Georgia Tech. You know, we know that they
can beat the big dogs, we know that they can
take down the ranked teams. Are they going to be
able to do this? Do this consistently against the middle
tier and lower tier teams because they've stepped on a
rake plenty of times against opponents they should beat, you know,
the big games. They know how to answer the bell.
It's can they take care of the games they're expected to.
So that's that's what we still need to see. But
if that does happen, Georgia Tech's going to be definitely
in the hunt, I would say for the a SEC
Championship game, and it at least will be in the mix.
I don't know if you say, well they're now the favorite,
that might be that's a little premature, but definitely in
the mix after beat taking down Florida State, and not
just taking down Florida State, but but doing it in
a way which suggested, you know, this wasn't really a fluke.
Georgia Tech was physically right there on Florida State's level.
If you can make that kind of physical statement, you're
for real. And I'm so I am comfortable saying Georgia
Tech's for real. But how how high is the ceiling?
That's still left to be determined.
Speaker 1: All right, Matt, we're gonna have this next section. We're
gonna call this our lightning round. We've got a series
of questions. We want to get your quick answer to
each one of these. I'm on the start with any
Do you have any coach in the ACC on the
hot seat?
Speaker 3: It's gotta be Mario crystal Ball number one, Like he
is certainly the coach under the most pressure to win.
I think that I think he needs to go eight
and four at least. And you know, let's keep in mind,
Miami has a pretty favorable schedule. You know, this is
not a schedule that, you know, over twelve games, is
just loaded with difficult games. This is like a three
or four game schedule. So like, if you're not at
least going eight and four against this schedule, you know
the schedule is going to be tougher in the future.
Crystal Ball, I think is gone. If he's seven and five,
he's gone. He has to at least go eight and four.
So he's definitely coached Numero uno on the hot seat
in the ACC.
Speaker 1: All right, what are you gonna who are your two
ACC teams in the title game?
Speaker 3: All right? Now, here's where I have to do what
I call a first game revision. And it's something that
when I was writing at College Football News twenty years ago,
I came up with this concept, the week one revision,
that you know, we can speculate for eight months in
the offseason, but like we all get a mulligan after
one game, you know, is one game enough to move
us off our predict our preseason predictions. Is one game
enough for us to think, oh, it's gonna be different
or or you know, and this is true too, the
first game of the year could be the worst game
that you're gonna see from a given team. So maybe
this is the worst Florida State's gonna gonna play. And
from here on out, you know, they're gonna learn, they're
gonna grow, they're going to evolve, Mike Norvell is gonna
figure everything out. So the week one revision, I think,
is a fascinating concept in college football. Do we have
enough faith in our predictions after one game, one shaky game,
one bad game, to stick with it, or do we think, hey,
this one game it really does convince me to think differently.
So I'm gonna think differently. Before the season, I had
Florida State going against Clemson in the title game, but
I am going to move off of that because you know,
dj Uyang Lay is just not the ticket, He's gonna
cost Florida State at least a few other games this season.
So I'm gonna put Louisville in place of Florida State.
Florida State my preseason pick, but now I'm inserting Louisville
because again, if you can win ten games with Jack Plumber,
you can win at least that many with with quarterbacks
who are at least a little bit better. So I'm
gonna go of Louisville. Like I don't trust Miami. I
don't know how how anyone can trust Crystal Ball at
this point. It has to be a you know, I
got to see it before I believe it. And North
Carolina State, I think is very much in the mix
for the title game. But you know the story of
NC State is, you know, we do really well, but
are we gonna do well enough to cross the altar
get that brass ring? Uh? You know that that's something
where with n C State got to show me, you
got to show me that you can go all the way.
I think n C State has the makings of a
really good team. I like Grayson McCall. I think that
was a great pick up. And I actually just while
we're on the subject of Grays and McCall, Like, if
he went to Florida State instead of Uyangalile, I don't
think the seminoles would be zero to one right now.
And so it's still a head scratcher that Norvelle went
in the direction he did in the portal. But you know,
we all live with our choices, so you know, I
would not be shocked defenc State made the ACC Championship game.
But I trust Jeff brom more and I think Jeff
brom has certainly earned trust in terms of what he's
able to do in terms of his scheme, his play calling,
how he put the nins together. I would give Louisville
the nodge over NC State, but I think it's a
legitimately close call. Also, Virginia Tech, Virginia Tech is in
the mix. You know how close Virginia Tech comes, I
don't know, but Virginia Tech's going to be a factor.
Like Virginia Tech is a team that you know, other
a SEC opponents, they're going to have to deal with
the Hokies go through them if they want to get
to the a SEC Changship Game. So definitely selling my
Florida State stock in terms of making the ACC change game.
I think that Week one was enough to move me
off of that position. And so I'm going to put
Louisville over NC State in Virginia Tech and what should
be a very compelling, interesting race.
Speaker 1: All right, Matt, So you have Louisville are they Are
they playing in C State or Virginia Tech?
Speaker 3: Do you think? I? Oh, well, I mean Clemson's gonna
be in the ACC title game. I'm just talking about
the race for that that spot opposite Clemson. Uh yeah,
So yeah, Clemson over Louisville, I think, you know, and
and you know, it's really weird, like I don't think
this is the best Clemson team under Dabbo, and I
think that you know, Dabo's h refusal to hit the
portal uh is certainly in recent years. But because Mike
Norvelle chose the quarterback that he chose, you know that
that's already hurt Florida State and I and I and
you know, if Louisville had a quarterback better than Tyler Shuck,
I probably would be picking the Cardinals to win the league.
But I'm not that convinced about Tyler Shuck. You know,
he remember he was at Oregon before he was at
Texas Tech. You know, I wasn't all that impressed. And
I know that at Texas Tech he showed glimpses of
real quality and he had a problem with injuries. Maybe
bron can max max out with him. But I'm not
entirely convinced that Shuck. I think he can do reasonably well.
But then again, Jack Plumber did reasonably well. I'm not
convinced that Tyler Shuck can go all the way and
win the ACC. So for all the limitations of Clemson
today under Dabo, because of the stubborn refusal to use
the portal, you know, Clemson still has a lot of
really good players at a lot of important positions. Like
Clemson has the best linebackers in the ACC. That's something
that's often been the case under Dabo. You know, over time,
so Clemson's still going to have a really good defense.
It's gonna be it's still gonna be hard for other
a CEC teams to to score on the Tigers when
it really counts. And of course when dj U is
playing against this Clemson defense, well I know who whom
I'm giving the edge to h in that game. So
you know, like I don't think Clemson's going to dominate
the ACC. But I think Clemson is the best team
of what we have this year. You know. It's so
it's kind of a it's kind of a contradiction that
I don't it's not as though I think Clemson's raised
the bar. That might be the best way to say it.
I don't think Clemson has raised the bar so much
as the bar is going to be lowered for Florida State,
and the bar is gonna pretty much stay where it
has stayed with the other teams in the ACC. Like
who's going to be the a SEC team that can
make a meteoric leap? I don't see that team. Maybe
you could say that Virginia Tech will make a big leap,
But if Virginia Tech makes a big leap, you know
it's it's making the big leap from a middle ground
type position of teams that were good or really good
in the ACC. I don't see them being that much better,
you know, to reach elite status, the status that Florida
State attained a year ago. So I think it's going
to be a very balanced parody defined ACC. And I
do think that Clemson is going to be the best
of the lot. When it's all said and.
Speaker 1: Done, all right, who do you have as your ACC
coach of the Year?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, we we have the benefit of already
seeing one game. It's really hard to go against Brent
Key right now, right. I think that when you win
a game against, you know, the team that has been
the big dog in your conference, at least certainly last year.
When you win a game like that, and it's not
just that Georgia Tech won, but it's the way Georgia
Tech won. Punched in the mouth early, not getting rattled, regrouping,
and then just showing that it could play in the
trenches with a team which should be very good in
the trenches over the course of the season. Like Florida
State is not going to get physically outworked by a
lot of teams this year, but Georgia Tech was physically
standing up to Florida State and was better when it
really counted. If you can coach up Georgia Tech to
be that good that quickly against a quality opponent, chances
are that's gonna be what's gonna be most of the year.
That's gonna be reflective and representative of what we're gonna
see from Georgia Tech. So I think Brent Key has
really taken a very very big step forward toward ACC
Coach of the Year, and so like it might be
cheating on my part, but like I got to see that.
Should I ignore that? I don't really think I should.
I think I should just go with what I've already
seen Brent Key with his nose and of the rest
of the field.
Speaker 1: All right, And last couple questions here to round out
this segment, Matt, who were your twelve college football playoff teams?
And then give us your national champion?
Speaker 3: All right? Well, you know I wrestled with this, like
did I want to name all twelve playoff teams? As
though like I believe each of these twelve teams or
playoff teams. I know I could give you twelve teams,
but I think that would be a little bit disingenuous
because I see so many question marks across the country
that I don't want to be naming a playoff team
when frankly, I don't think that team might be playoff quality.
I will say this, I will say this, I think
that you're not going to see multiple bids from the
ACC or the Big twelve I think those are going
to be one big conferences, so I don't think you're
going to get multiple at large teams there. It's really
going to come down to the SEC and the Big
Ten and how many at large teams fill the field.
And then we also have Notre Dame. I'm not sold
on Notre Dame as a playoff team. I think that
Marcus Freeman does he really get it on offense? I'm
not sure. I know that he brought in Mike Denbrock
from former Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly at LSU, but
you know, I need to see Marcus Freeman put it
all together on the offensive side of the ball before
I fully buy into Notre Dame as being a playoff team.
So like I'm not sold on the Irish as a
playoff team, I will say that, you know, in the
in the SEC and the Big Ten, you should get
at least three teams in from each of those two conferences,
so meaning that they're going to be at least two
at larges. And I think one of the interesting plot
points this season is you know, which is one of
those two conference is going to be able to get
four teams in. So that's gonna be really interesting, and
so in many ways, you're gonna have a scramble. So
in terms of filling out the twelve team playoff, I
think you're gonna have some kind of wild scramble among
the collection of Penn State, Michigan, Ole Miss, Missouri.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: I'm you know, I can't really say USC. I think
USC is gonna go nine and three, and I don't
think nine and three gets you in the playoff this year.
I mean US he has an outside chance, but but
I wouldn't say like USC's at the front of the line.
So uh, Ole Miss, Missouri, Penn State, Michigan. Uh. You know,
Iowa has a really soft schedule. Now I don't think
Iowa is a better team than say, Ole Miss, but
Iowa has a more favorable schedule than Ole Miss. So
that's certainly something to pay attention to. Maybe Tennessee U
is also part of this. Maybe LSU. You know, if
LSU beats us c LS, you would certainly be in
the playoff mix. So, you know, I think the usual suspects,
or rather the expected teams Ohio State or Ohio State
and Oregon in the Big ten, Georgia and Alabama. Uh
in the SEC. I think those teams are getting in.
So I've picked Clemson to win the ACC, so Clemson
gets in. In the Big twelve, I think that's Utah's
to lose. So I think Utah gets in. H. So
like those are the those are you know, the six
that you start with. I think, uh, you know, Boise
State it will be right there in the mix for
the group of five. But but exactly how that shakes out,
I'm not really sure. But I do think Boise State
is going to be in the mix, uh for for
the group of five spot and then after that it's
going to really be a scramble among several teams in
the Big ten uh and the SEC. And I think,
you know, the plot points are are going to be interesting.
One of them is going to be let's say Michigan
finishes nine and three and Penn State finishes ten and two.
Now you could say that, well, if you're Penn State
and you're ten and two, you're getting in. That's probably right.
But but Michigan plays Texas out of conference and plays
USC and Ohio State. Let's say Michigan has wins over
at least two of Texas, USC, Ohio State, and finishes
nine and three, So where do the Wolverines fall in there?
You know? And so the larger point I'm getting at,
guys is, you know, if you're nine and three, but
you have some great, awesome wins and there's a ten
and two team that basically lost, it's it's only two
important games of the season. Are we going to see
that nine and three team with the with lots of
great wins getting into a twelve team playoff over a
ten and two team? And we see at least one
of these teams every year, right, ten and two, but
the two biggest games were losses. You don't have a
lot of meat on the bone with your resume, So
how is that going to shake out? And like, consider
consider Missouri. You know in the SEC you know, if
Missouri goes ten and two, is Missouri going to get
the same level of benefit of the doubt that ten
and two Penn State does or nine and three Michigan does,
or you know, let's say Tennessee or LSU go nine
and three. Is it is it a given that ten
and two Missouri gets in over let's say like a
nine and three Michigan or a nine and three Tennessee
I'm not fully convinced Ury goes ten and two. Missouri's
probably getting in, but that there have to be some
good wins there and it can't be a situation where
Missouri's ten wins were against mediocre to bad teams. With
that and there's no high end poker chip and you
have some nine and three teams that do have some
high end wins. So how that's going to be sorted out,
it's gonna be fascinating. And I don't think we should
feel overly confident about how this is going to go,
especially since we saw how Florida State was screwed and
wronged last year. You know that that that having the
better record if there's a plot point that ESPN doesn't like,
you know, we saw how unfairly ESPN treated Florida State.
So like, if you're a name brand school, you know,
if you're if you're one of the Cadillac schools and
you're tending too, yeah, you don't have to worry about
getting in. You're gonna you're gonna, you're gonna be there
for the TV ratings. But if you're not, you know,
one of those Cadillac schools, uh, and you go ten
and two, and your resume is kind of thin. I
can certainly see a nine and three Michigan or a
nine and three Tennessee or a nine and three LSU
getting in over that school. So it's gonna be really
interesting to see how the how the playoff process works
in the twelve team format. Uh and okay, national champion.
This is going to be really boring and it's not
gonna go over well in the ACC. But it's hard
for me to not pick Georgia. I think that, you know,
Georgia after missing the playoff last year, those guys are
going to be breathing fire. I think there's gonna be
a fresh hunger there for Kirby Smart. And the other
thing is is that you know, I don't trust Ryan
Day at Ohio State. I think Ohio State obviously makes
the playoff, but you know, if it's Ohio State against
Georgia for all the marbles, I'm definitely picking Georgia. I'm
definitely going with Kirby. I'm definitely going against Ryan Day.
I'm also not fully trusting Dan Lanning at Oregon. Now
I trust him to make the playoff because you know,
with twelve teams, come on, Oregon's definitely going to be
one of the twelve best teams in the country. I mean,
it's gonna be next to impossible for Oregon to lose
anything more than two games against this schedule. So Oregon's
going to get in. But once we get to the playoff,
I don't trust and Landing in big games. You know,
Kaylin de boor ate his lunch with Washington, uh So
I would much rather trust uh de Boer and Kirby
Smart than Lanning and Ryan Day and some others. So
you know, I know that people in the a SEC
don't like to hear this, but I think the SEC
has the coaches with the established pedigree, the proven track record.
So give me, like, give me Georgia before Ohio State,
give me Alabama before Oregon. Those are some of my
choices in terms of, you know, who's more likely to
go deeper into the playoff, And ultimately I think it's
going to be Georgia just because those guys are now
going to be really motivated in a way that didn't
apply last year. You know, last year, two time defending champion,
target on their back, everyone gunning for them. It was
hard for them to have the same hunger. They were
also turning over so many players to the NFL, as
they do every year. I think this year they're going
there's gonna be an extra hunger in Athens and it's
going to make a different and for the dogs.
Speaker 1: All right, great stuff, Thank you, Matt Matthew, I'm gonna
turn it over to you for our last question in
the podcast.
Speaker 2: Open microphone, mad SEMC, what do you got for us?
Speaker 3: The floor is here. Well, you know, just in terms
of some general things for all of you listeners and
for you guys at the All Sports Discussion podcast to
keep in mind during the twenty twenty four season, Let's
remember that the helmet communication. You know, the quarterback is
able to communicate with his coach via helmet communication until
the snap or until fifteen seconds are left on the
play clock. So you're gonna want to remember that quarterbacks
are not going to be all on their own this year,
that they're going to have direct helmet communication. I think
you're going to see quarterback play be really good across
the country. For that reason. It also makes SMU, you know,
SMU kind of not being good against Nevada. It makes
SMU's performance a little bit more alarming, you know, because
this Preston Stone, veteran quarterback, has helmet communication and yet
he really couldn't figure things out until very very late.
I think that, you know, we should see quarterbacks establish
a higher standard more quickly, precisely because they have that
voice in their ear before the snap helping them, you know,
survey the field and one of the other things. You know.
Having mentioned that, you know, you get until fifteen seconds
on the play clock to have that communication. I think
that means we're going to see fewer huddles, right that
if you're a head coach, and especially if you're a
good offensive play caller, as a head coach, you will
want your quarterback to get right up to the line
of scrimmage and then you're going to talk to him
for those ten seconds right from twenty five seconds down
to fifteen You don't want your quarterback in a huddle.
You want to right up at the line of scrimmage.
So I think we're going to see a lot fewer
huddles in college football for that very reason, because the
coaches will want their quarterbacks to be at the line
surveying the defense, looking at the defensive alignment. So just
that one change in college football that helmet to helmet
communication that's going to really impact the sports. So we
need to be ready to realize how the sport is
going to change. Obviously, we also had the two minute warning,
and like that is going to be something that should
help coaches a lot in terms of game management, you know,
handling your three timeouts, handling your end of game situations. Basically,
that two minute warning is going to be a chance
for coaches to plot out their endgame management strategies. So
like coaches are getting a lot of help. That's really
the bottom line. Coaches are getting a lot of help
with these rule chains this year in college football, and
so you know we run into game management disasters every year.
Marrio Crystabaal is, you know, one of the worst offenders
of this. If you can't get your game management right
in twenty twenty four in college football, with you know,
being able to talk to your quarterback, being being able
to get that extra time out at the two minute warning,
if you can't get these ducks in a row, if
you can't get organized, you know, something is even more disordered,
even more amiss than it was previous seasons. Not that
coaches had any excuses to mangle endgame management questions before.
But this year, this year, if you're still getting these
endgame management situations wrong, then that that will merit even
more criticism, and it will raise even more questions about
your fitness to be a head coach. You know now
that you have more resources at your disposal. So the
big your theme though, is for all, for all the
listeners of the All Sports Discussion podcast. There's a lot
of things that are that are going to be really
different about the product that we see on the field
this year. Just keep your eyes open and be aware
of how much this sport could be changing on the field.
I know we talk a lot about off the field.
I wanted to make this open microphone segment more about
you know, having football back, enjoying football, appreciating football. Let's
let's focus on how the product on the field is
going to be different, because you know, we have January
through August to talk about off field stuff nil the portal,
you know, litigation, which which the ACC knows really well
at this point, Let's just talk about on the football field.
And there's a lot that's already new and already very
different about the sport this season. One final note, and
you guys might have picked up on this. I saw
this on the internet on Sunday, Florida State Georgia Tech
had just fourteen possession like that, that's just a really
small amount of possessions. Uh So, like it's a it's
the game is going to be different in so many
different ways with the clock running on first down, and
then you also have the two minute warning, and you
also have the helmet communication. So many ways in this
which this sport is going to be different on the field,
and it's it's just going to be fun to to
observe the the the different nuances that are going to
emerge from this over the course of the twenty twenty
four season.
Speaker 2: Well Well said Matt Well said, Matt, Jeff, you're upred, of.
Speaker 1: Course, I got I gotta go back to the game
yesterday with with Georgia Tech and Florida State. You know,
you look at what Brent Key has done taking over
from from the train wreck that Jeff Collins uh left there,
and you know how he's turned Georgia Tech, especially at
the line of scrimmage, around in such a short period
of time. And I go back to last year and
why I felt that this was definitely a game that
was extremely dangerous for Florida State. Is if there was
any doubt about the direction that he was working towards,
I mean, just pull out that tape against Georgia. I mean,
Matt's already talked about, you know, they could be your
national champions this year and they're probably on that extremely
short list and if you did a poll across the country,
they're probably number one. Kirby smartest, you know he has
and I hate to say it, but he's got the
premier college football program in the country right now. I
mean they've they've surpassed Ohio State now with Nick Saban
no longer at Alabama, even though they beat even though
the Tide did beat Georgia last year, I mean, I
think you have to move you know, Georgia ahead of Alabama.
And in that game, you saw Georgia Tech, especially with
their offensive line, do things to a Georgia defense that
you almost never see happen. I think Georgia Tech was
the first team in maybe four or five years that
ran for over two hundred yards against Georgia and they
were not going to be overwhelmed by the talent at
Florida State in that game. So now I think Matt
hit on a great point earlier. You know, Georgia Tech's
shown the ability to you know, beat ranked opponents, to
elevate when they play better teams. Beating all those ranked
teams being competitive with Georgia what are they going to
do now? You know, can Brent Key kind of overcome
you know, a little bit of the tendency, especially early
last season with those losses at home to Bowling Green
and Boston College. He gets Georgia State at home this
Saturday in prime time? You know, is that going to
be closer than it should be game?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: Or is it gonna be one where Georgia Tech is
going to roll? And if they can kind of roll there,
you go on the road the week after, h tricky
place to always play at Syracuse and then you have
a game you're probably too talented, uh for for vm I,
but you really could be looking at a Georgia Tech
team that could be four and oh going to Louisville.
And I think these next two weeks are really going
to tell the tell, you know, does does Brent Key
have this team you know set up to really have
a special season? Can they win the games that they're
supposed to win because he's got the part of elevating
him up. He's got that down pat and he's got
them just you know, as good as and Matt and
the other Matthew and I were talking about that. I mean,
we're not not sure that Georgia Tech has maybe been
better at the line of scrimmage on both sides of
the ball that we've seen in at least thirty going
back to maybe Georgia O'Leary days with Ralph Fridgen. I
mean when you went a little bit, you know, since
that time. You know, Chan Gaily had the great john
toon Nuda defenses, but he had no offense. And then
Paul Johnson was tremendous on offense, but his defense was
always struggling. Of course, Jeff Collins was just a mess
on both sides of the ball. So I mean, you
could be looking at the Georgia Tech team that's as
good at the line of scrimmage as they've been, you
know since the late nineties, early two thousands, when they
won three in a row against Georgia. And I'm not
predicting that by any stretch, but you went three in
a row against Georgia at any time in the last
you know, thirty forty years. You're really good at the
line of scrimmage, and you know, Georgia Tech is just
going to be a really interesting team. And speaking as
a fan, it's so exciting for them to be relevant again.
I mean, I was watching in the game yesterday and thinking, you're, like, man,
this is so much better than like three or four
years ago. It's just so great to go into a
game I feel like you have a chance against you know,
almost anyone you play not not gonna win them all,
but you know, you feel like you have a chance.
You're looking at a well coached team that doesn't make
the mistakes. That was another thing from yesterday. I'm gonna
point out real quick before turn it over to Matt you.
Yesterday was an extremely well coached game between the Florida
State and Georgia Tech staffs. That was a no opening
game of the season, playing in the rain in Dublin, Ireland.
There were no turnovers and they were very few penalties
in that game. I mean, that could have easily been
something you see in mid October. So you know, the
preparation for both teams to come in ready to play.
You know, maybe not the game plans if you're a
Florida State fan, but the but you know, the lack
of turnovers, lack of penalties show that both teams and
were ready to play. Those staffs had them ready to go.
Speaker 2: That's definitely the case. That's definitely the case. And Matt
I wanted to the other coach. That was the other
coach I was thinking of when you asked me that
question about Mad answer earlier was Jim Whacker.
Speaker 3: I had to think about it.
Speaker 2: In my memory, he was the last one that went
to Minnesota and he came from INDISU during the days
when they had the triple option and were winning the
titles at the Division two level. And I still think
that there's some Minnesota donors that have this bad taste
in their mind about a guy who won twenty five
to thirty percent of his victories. And I know that
goes years and years ago, but people don't forget about that,
and I know it sounds weird.
Speaker 3: Just while we're talking about Jim Whacker, was did he
go to Minnesota before or after TCU? He went there
before TCU. Okay, yeah, was kind of his fall fallback,
you know, demotion spot. Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so they're kind of I kind of feel like,
you know, it's like it's like, I feel like my
friend Ben Jacobsen, for example, should have been hired at
Minnesota as their men's basketball coach. But I feel like
he's paying for the sins of.
Speaker 3: Chin Wacker, do you know what I mean? Yes, which
is terrible.
Speaker 2: It's not fair because he's a good coach and arguably
recruited better in the Twin Cities than Rick Beatino's son.
Speaker 3: Yep, Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2: That's what I would That's what I would argue there though.
So Matt, thank you so much for joining us on
the Allspoorts Discussion, a SECS podcast and spending your Sunday
evening with us. And we love to revisit with you
in December.
Speaker 3: Friend. You know, this is our late August tradition camp. Uh.
You know, it'll it'll be fascinating to see where we
are when we have our pre Christmas show, and where
the college football Playoffs is going to be, and and
and how this first season will have gone, how the
selection process will have gone so like in the next uh,
in the next three months, man, so much is going
to change and so much is going to happen, and
it's going to be great to be along with you
guys on the journey at All Sports Discussion. Have a
great week, guys. Take care,