2018 ACC Autopsy Rulings

Welcome to the solid verbal. I'll that for me. I'm a man, I'm forty. I've heard so many players say, well, I want to be happy. You want to be happy for dake Edo state is that woo woom.

And and tie Hey everybody, and welcome to the solid verbal.

Tie is alive, I swear, but only barely. I'm kidding.

He had a root canal and is tending to his no longer infected pulp chamber.

I obviously had to look this up.

He's having some let's call it mouth drama, a phrase I don't feel fully comfortable saying on a family show, but he wanted me to tell you. He does have a high pain threshold, and points out that he's dislocated multiple joints, which sounds like his version of I drive a Dodge Stratus, But his dentists he's not a fan. He may be Baraka from Mortal kom so Ty is tending to his instrument. So we I guess I press

After?

I mean, you are living in Championship ACC country? So is everything good?

They the college basketball writers at CBS Sports are my friends, my co workers. There's this really fun, awkward period where they say, like, hey man, you know before you come over to college basketball, like take a break, you know, take some time. But then as we get towards the end of January, I start getting the questions like, so when are you going to start pick stiffs like it, cause it's getting really busy over here and we can

It'll be a lot more fluid at that point. I like that.

So I have honestly no idea what's going on on a day to day level with college basketball. And I assume if people are listening to this they're college football fans.

Any like, Duke is good? Yes, it's good.

Yes, I would say that in terms of crossover with your audience, I have enjoyed over the last two seasons the SEC really getting some good basketball teams right now, Mississippi State has.

A good basketball team right now.

Ole Miss with Kermit Davis as the head coach, has been one of my favorite storylines of the season. Okay, Tennessee might be the best team in the country, like for real, Tennessee might win the national championship in basketball.

I'm running all of this down. This is all going in my field notes. So what we're doing today though, aside from this, yeah, that's yeah, she said SEC basketball. Ye, Duke and North Carolina are still awesome, and.

She State's been a pleasant surprise top twenty five team.

Yeah, it's good stuff. I like that NC State America's pleasant surprise.

That's do you want to start with them? Let's start with m C State.

Let's do it otherwise I'm going to have you pick a number, and I have associated questions with numbers, but let's start with m C State because that is you're you're still in Raleigh. I assume, yes, you're still in Wilbrinson Country. Sorry the we pack.

Can you call it whatever you want.

But one of us was actually born at Rex Hospital in ra Oh. The other one just sort of joined the Raleigh community during his time at MC State.

I enjoy that We're not, what three minutes into this and you're already pulling Raleigh rank. That's the most ac This is why if you're going to book an acc ish guest, consider Chip Patterson. That's my recommendation. Let's yeah, wolf Pack, wolf Pack. They had a very end State year. They were decent. Only one real head scratcher of a loss, which was losing to Wake in their backup quarterback, but sort of cemented that they're for sure competitive but definitely

Yes, absolutely, I think that right now the program itself is in a position where they've done a good enough job on the recruiting trail, They've done a good enough job with development and being able to sustain some of these losses. You know, like Matt Canada at one time

It just shows that he's he's got this.

Thing moving to the point where you can every like winning the winnable games Forrenzis State means that every single year they're winning between seven and eight, and I think the NC State can do that.

Is it mean spirited to call Dave Dorin eight foreign? Eight and four eight foreign? I just and I don't think it is, but I just realized it sounded very similar to his actual name.

Have you gotten that one started? Is that going to be on a T shirt?

I texted Tie that not an hour and a half ago, as I was reviewing everything I wanted to review ahead of this show, and I feel like eight foreign is not the worst thing ever the for all the.

Fun that we have, isn't it? Jeff Fisher was seven and nine.

Jeff Fisher was seven and nine, and then we had seven win Steve for Steve Washington, which, by the way, seven win Steve probably a compliment to a dassio a.

Probably probably eight furign is very That is a very very very very good nickname that should be a T shirts trademark and might become a thing. But it's true, like that is a compliment to say that we believe your program is healthy enough, then no matter what happens from a personnel standpoint, from a staff standpoint, we are expecting you to win all your non conference games and finish five hundred and ACC play And that's exactly what I expect.

Depenc State. I like it.

Okay, pick a number between one and fourteen. My teams are at random, and so you will just you will happen upon like in your head, you should be hearing at home.

Ratatatata ta ta ta ta ta, and then give me a number three. Three.

Okay, we're going to Hey, we're staying in state. We're going to North Carolina. I hate to belabor the they were more competitive than their record suggests points, but they kind of were. But that's a two to nine record, which was not that hard. Now Mac Brown is back, this is still a program three I believe, seasons removed

And six oh year one?

Yeah, there's I mean, there are some personnel deficiencies that are only going to be fixed on the recruiting trail, and I think that's where Mac Brown was probably a little bit of a seller.

But you're right, this team beat ACC.

Coastal Division champ in Pittsburgh, it went to overtime at Syracuse in the Carrier Dome, and it went to overtime against NC State. What I have diagnosed for North Carolina at least at this point now I'll continue to learn and probably change my opinion slightly, but I think that there was a sad acceptance that the team was not and would not be good, very very early in the season.

A team a little bit.

And it might take maybe Mack Brown as the you know, former coach, master motivator, slick talker, politician, maybe he's able to like talk all that negative energy out of there.

But I think that that is.

The reason why this team was better than its record, because there was just that intangible negative. And I think that that intangible negative is ultimately why North Carolina made the decision to move on from Larry Fedora, because you just you can't reverse that kind of bad energy. And I think that when it really gets into the community, and it had then it's the only way to get it out is to make changes.

They just they unplugged the router. They waited a minute and then aloud the unplugged the negative router and hoping for the best.

So I was I was in Chapel Hill when they went from John Bunting to Butcher Davis, and it was similar. Everyone's like, you know what, John, We're thankful for the work you did. And they said the same thing at the macground press conference. He goes, Larry Fedora did a fantastic job with this team, but we needed to unplug the rounter. Yeah, a little bit, and now we're going to start over. And so I guess for the I guess that change was in two thousand and six, two

Reasonable.

And one of the first things they do is they flip a blue chip, local, blue chip quarterback away from Florida State. Not the worst way to start, Not the worst way to start, give me a number seven.

Seven, we go to Virginia Tech. Okay, I like this.

We're going to like really interesting stories right off the bat, so pretty early on the talking point was, Hey, this is going to be sort of a different year for Virginia Tech and Virginia Tech's defense. And I think in twenty seventeen they finished seventh in points per drive allowed and this past year twenty eighteen, they finished ninetieth ninety. So that includes losing four out of their last five

Yes, okay, I hope that Virginia Tech doesn't have to reschedule, doesn't have to schedule a game against Yeah, oh my goodness.

Well the makeup was against ECU, right, that was the game that was stormed.

Out, game that was supposed to be played the Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech's having to get used to things being a little bit different, because I like I felt as though this team would lose games where it outgained its opponents, you know, they did. They were terrible with turnovers, and they just I made dumb, dumb mistakes, And I just I don't know if that is a growth on the coaching staff, but I do think that whatever Virginia Tech fans had sort of become comfortable with in terms of

Oh man.

Yeah, they were kicking a tiger cage a little bit this year, and you know, they lose their quarterback early on, so you get why things are sort of thrown off. But yeah, it felt too different Virginia Tech.

It feels if it feels that they are going through they are really going through a brand evolution right now, and these are some of the awkward growing pains of going through that brand evolution.

But there were some young players. Hazelton. I think it was a really good wide receiver.

I like Justin Fointe as an often of mind as a schemer and as a play caller.

And you know, obviously, what.

Five players that were on the starting defensive first team at the end of spring practice, we're not around by mid September.

Wow, And that's worth like considering.

And some of them were for off field stuff, which is not a great relection of the program. But I think that in terms of personnel, like there were second and third stringers out there by the end of the season that no one expected was going to be on the field. So I will give Virginia Tech a pass on this year. But I do think that we should not expect Virginia Tech to look like Frank Beamer's Hokies.

I like it.

I'm fine with it. And mathematically they should just be better injury wise and luck wise, everything like that should be all right, right, give me a number nine nine we are going to pay. Okay, things are getting weird now. So the only real answer to was Pitoka in twenty eighteen is.

I don't know.

Sometimes some quarters I guess, and now they lose pretty much their entire offensive production with their two thousand yards two one thousand yards rusher is gone, but they bring a new offensive coordinator at least.

Is picking to me all right next year.

I mean, just in general, I'm always sort of worried about Pitt as like a sibling that you're never like for sure confident they have their act together.

I think that it was a good reflection of paton rdoozy that in an ACC Coastal Division race that no one wanted to win, yep, the team with twenty five seniors who had all been playing for four years ran out and got it. Yeah, Like you know, I think that that's a I think that's a good reflection of Pitt football. I don't think that we should expect to be in the ACC Championship game every single year. I

And I felt like.

In ACC play once they got into late September and October that was really when they won the division. They just said, no, we're going to line up and we're gonna run right downhill at you. And they had older, bigger, stronger, and healthier teams than most defenses they lined up against. And so yeah, like that's I Yeah, there's definitely going to be a step back, and it's gonna be fascinating to see what we get in terms of the next iteration.

This coastal, well yeah we'll win the coastal.

It's not dissimilar to what the previous expectation had been for a while of Paul Johnson's Georgia Tech teams, where if no One's going to go out and win this, Georgia Tech will absolutely end up in a three way tie at five and three and somehow have the tiebreakers to be able to get into the ACC Championship game.

I think that's pitt. Yeah.

I love the Pit season just because one they win a division and two outside of Notre Dame any like pretty good defense they played, They got murdered. They lost one thy to twenty. It was just absurd and I like that they figured out that they could do that one thing running downhill pretty well and it just in the end. The more I thought about Pitt, the more I thought about like an out of shape reck league basketball player who is money from like fourteen feet, it's not gonna get you might not do.

Not give him that space or he will take sac shy. Yeah, that is Pat Nardoozy and the Pitt Panthers twenty eighteen legacy. Give me a number.

Let's see, Okay, we're going to We're going to Florida State. What a week it's been for Florida State. So after a year in which Willy Taggart and Florida State's on field problems were out there for the world to see, it's health. It's an experience, and I would say unusual dearth of talent at some spots was twenty eighteen definitively unavoidable. Gotta take your I guess inherited lumps while rebuilding kind

I think that there might be and I hope that my hope I don't missed up here. I think that there might be some serious or at least significant, irreversible damage to the collective psyche of that roster experience the end of the Jimbo Fisher era, and I wonder if it's just going to take time to get it out of there. That is just like to be sold the championship dream to coming off that twenty thirteen squad that we often associated with Jamis because Jamis was such a

You are viewing your existence on this campus.

And I just I try to, I guess, you know, sympathize or empathize like I try to understand that and say, yeah, it it might take just two years to be able to have the players cycle in and out without having whatever damage was done to the mindset of that football program from the way that things ended and even this bumpy start, you know, yeah, from the jump with the Virginia Tech game, just to this, this group has been through a bunch and.

So uh, like, I I will always, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for cam Akers because he was one of the just like exhilarating prospects to uh to come to Florida State since Dalvin Cook and you're coming right off at Dalvin Cook like that, I just saw in my mind great things and I feel like his Florida State career is going to come and go and we're not too We're not going to see all of that potential necessarily fulfilled on the field.

So yeah, I believe that we could see more examples of that damage even for another year. But it's also why I'm not going to sell on Willy Taggart as a whole.

That makes sense.

There's a lot of twenty seventeen and twenty eighteen to spray for it's multiple trips from the from the shady Van. Okay, I'm I think that's right, and I think especially if they can get quarterback in order, which it appears future wise they're not in a I don't think either one of Willy Taggart's recruiting classes had a quarterback in it.

Is that correct? I was not good because I think he lost.

I think that's not good as well, So that I think is something to pay attention to. I don't know, maybe they're going to junior college route or they're going to try to flip somebody. We're recording this about two weeks, I think, outside of the of the second signing day day of this period, so we'll see what happens.

But who knows. Where are you at with Florida State?

Okay, So I am probably the I went a little long winded on Oh you're good.

I've been thinking about that a lot, like I really really, but I want to hear what you got.

So I think Florida State it would be difficult for them not to at least get back to confidently eight or nine wins that like relatively quickly just because you should be able to recruit enough that you're out talenting basically everybody outside of Clemson and sort of Miami within the conference. So it would be very confounding if they don't get to that point. But I think quarterback is an issue. I know that they've had to make some

I think that is a value added higher.

Yes, So it would be shocking if at least they're not winning forty five forty one games relatively quickly. Right, Okay, that's where I think. And Jimbo had a rocky first couple of years. Yeah, for sure he did. It's a weird dynamic in Tallahassee where you have these crazy expectations that have been met relatively recently, but there is an immense amount of pressure without there being the year in and year out ten to eleven wins recently.

Right, So it's a strange.

Dynamic to me. N Yeah, Okay, give me a number. Let's see, have we done twelve yet?

We have not done twelve and twelve was like the feel good, cool story of the ACC season in Syracuse. Oh, that's a great way to jump off Florida State. We have cleansed.

So Syracuse actually good, right, great year in the ACC to be consistently pretty good.

Does it matter? Do you think twenty eighteen has legs? Yes?

Okay, well eighteen absolutely has legs because there were like twenty eighteen is the first year that they were good, but they were just like hanging on by a from a depth perspective, right, it's it's in the growth of the program. You know, you've you've got to have those different levels, you know, win win, small, win, big, this that or the other. But I think that this year

I'm a big believer as well. I think schematically they do interesting things. I think they have one of the very few true home field advantages in the ACC outside of perhaps Clemson, I mean definitely Clemson, but outside of consistently consistently it's basically just Clemson in terms of scary places to play in Florida State when they're good and

That's fine.

They should be top half in the divisions, that isn't I think a realistic expectation.

Okay, we're on the same page. So give me fourteen thirty, team eleven, ten, eight, five, six or one.

Have I ever played for you the Dino Drop? No, what is the Dino Drop? If you if you can play it for me, I'll listen.

Okay, let's see here. It is available if you want to google it at home. Okay, but I want to I want you to hear it. This is and just to set close your eyes to set the context here. This is at Dino Baber's opening introductory press conference. And this is and he made the entire room close their eyes.

He refused to speak. He did it like I can't remember this.

Okay, that's star all right. And then it was anyway, I'll play the Russ.

Okay, visualize this. You're in the carrier, don't the house.

This field, the feeling is electric, the noise is deafening.

You have a defense that is relentious. You have a special teams that has been well coached, well yes, that will not boddle.

And you have a game that's faster we've ever seen on turf. Will open your eyes.

That's going to be a reality, that's going to be Syracuse football. That's the Dino Draft. I'm ready. Wow, and they fit the whole marching bands on stage with him, which was so impressive. Oh no, that was me, man, I know, oh, I know you you nailed that. That got me ready to play for Syracuse.

Uh yeah, so all right, let's go to uh fourteen fourteen Virginia. So I felt like at certain points this was a feel good story and then certain points like who can't lose like that? And here we are Virginia the beginning of something dangerous as we saw dangerous in the bowl game. Shutting out South Carolina, Bryce Perkins real good or is it just the ultimate Bronco Menden Hall Pretty good? Got some issues, but pretty good team.

Man. I think that Virginia fans, first of all, I think that that South Carolina result was very very, very very important because I think Virginia fans are going to look back at this season as a big.

What if year? Right, big big what if year?

Because you know, I go back to pitt being the team that in a division race that no one wanted to win, pitt went and got it. I think Virginia was a much better football team than Pittsburgh this year.

Yeah, they lose those two what they lose their last two in overtime.

Right, They lost at Georgia Tech and then at Virginia Tech, and like that was supposed to be the first win against Virginia.

Tech in ten years. Yeah, and that stings real bad.

They lost the game against Pittsburgh on a strange Friday night game. By the way, Virginia will play three Friday night games next year, is that true?

Yes, I'm pulling up their schedule right now. It looks like Miami, Bill and Mary and then they finished for Virginia Tech obviously, right, and the last.

Is anchored to that Friday. But still the Friday Night Warriors, the Virginia Cavaliers, who would have thunk it, But they lose that game to pit They've got those two overtime losses.

Right at the end of the season.

This could have been an all time type year, Like compare yourself to old George Welsh teams in the record books, and I think that that will linger in the back of the minds of Virginia fans. But if they push past that, then it was. It was. It was an incredible team. It was the best for team that we've seen fielded in quite a while.

Yeah, and I appreciate the patience from at least the administration with Bronco Mendenhall, and he said some weird things when he got the job, saying there were only like twenty ACC caliber players on the roster or whatever, and it was definitely an adjustment for both him coming from BYU and for Virginia. But the fact of the matter is, yes, I think you're right. I mean, they are three minutes from like ten wins this year, so that what if

I need to I need to lay myself down at the pronunciation, Judge, Oh, I was on the Solid Verbal podcast and I had the wrong Alamide Zakias pronunciation.

What did you call it?

I don't remember, but I just I remember very distinctly looking that up, and I knew. I knew at some point, or I hoped, I hoped at some point you would have me back. I would make my admission and my apology to alamadaz A Kias, who's just a fantastic player. I mean, that UVA team was so so good this year.

They were There were two names, by the way, this year. It was olamidz a Chias and it was who I really did practice and nail for the Virginia preview before the season. And then it was Missou's tight end who was arguably the best tight end in the SEC. Mario earth Smith and Jay Sternberg.

Are both good, but I really could not confidently get to the point where I could not call him big Oh.

I just I had to keep going with big Oh. And I'm not even I think his first name is Josh right, Gosh, I need to look this up, but yeah, that was the that was the big name. His first name is Albert Oh. That's right, Albert big al Yeah, Albert Oh. But it's I'm looking it up right now. Miszoo fans are probably not listening because it is not it's no, not even a.

Try the GB and turn it into like a is there is there something there?

Is it? Okway? Booham? Oh? I think he got it? O kway booham Okay. That's that's as good as I'm doing, at least in late January. Yeah, that's where we are. I fell draft now or is he coming back?

No?

I think he's back. I think Albert Oh is back. Yeah, Yeah, Derek July figured out what to do with him. So he'll have a role. He's ready, give me a number. Let's see five.

Five, We're going awake. Who I mean, if you can figure out Wake, good for you.

They a coaching job of the year.

Listen, Dabbo and Dino are both like maybe outrank them, but in another season, I think Dave Clawson. I think Dave Clawson had an acc coach of the year caliber coaching season with especially with what.

They dealt with at quarterback early on and where they ended up at quarterback with Jamie Newman I think his name was. By the end of the year, they did not beat FBS teams in consecutive weeks unless you count Duke than Memphis in the bowl game. But I mean you mentioned the Dave Clausen as that dark horse guy. If not for Dino and Dabo, can we officially write down this is almost a college basketball No, it is

Why Yeah, I just I'm a believer like this. He brought most of his staff from Bowling Green and now Mike Elko, who got poached by Notre Dame and then Texas A and m backed up the Brinks truck, like, that's that's Dave's guy's reflection.

And he is.

He has continued to lose assistance. He fires his defensive coordinator in mid to late September, it was right after the Notre Dame game, and then he promotes internally and the defense loses five additional starters to injury and still

They made it with a negative point differential. I should add as well.

It's stunning. That's really amazing. That's pretty incredible. Like you can't hate on a Wake team that is at best frisky and still making a bowl And that's great, that's a good thing. I'm standing behind it as well. Give me one or six or eight, ten, eleven, thirteen, thirteen. Oh, we're talking Lolesville, which is actually a good thing to talk right now. It would not have been fun in mid November. They were completely uncompetitive. I think that's the

I don't think it has to be gutted and sprayed. I think uc it's a great reference. I hadn't thought about that as the potential. I mean going from that, I'm not expecting the Cardinals to go on a what twenty six game winning streak, but that's a very good example to hold of what how quickly you can go from bottoming out to rightening the ship?

Now? Is Scott Sadfield Scott Frost? I don't know. We'll see about that. I think that I hope I.

Get I would like to get there, and I would like to do a little bit of my own investigating. There's a chance because one of the NCAA tournament regionals are there. So if you are a Cards fan in the area and you got any recommendations.

Hit me up in March. Maybe I'm coming to your city. It's a top chef city right now.

Yeah, really, Oh yeah, it's top Chef Kentucky right now.

And they've been spending a lot of time in Louisville. Yes see.

Now all of a sudden, all of my recommendations are getting filled out as we've let Chip know. I think that I think that it was just a thing that we can look at as what it looks like when the bottom truly falls out at the power five level, like when everything has just completely fallen apart.

And it was stunning. It was.

The lack of competitiveness was amazing, and I just I don't know if we'll see it again.

How about this.

I don't think that we'll see a bottom out as bad as Louisville in the next four years.

I think it might be the worst of the five year cycle. Yeah, I think that's right.

I think that that's sort of like fourth year whatever it was into the Bobby Patrino tenure, where recruiting can fall off. Maybe his interest wanes a little bit. Maybe the coaches surrounding him just don't like coming into the office they were due for. I mean, this is a router unplugged for sure. But I think with what they've been able to do recruiting Florida, with what Scott Sadderfield has done, as like for sure not a job hopper. They're going to the complete opposite direction in terms of

He is what he is. There is no snake oil about him. He is.

He is one hundred percent what he is and getting comfortable and finding the fit within that community is only going to take time, you know, the time field relationships, the time to establish some trust.

But I would not bet against him.

I would not bet against him having the Cardinals in a bowl game. I would not bet against him doing it in.

The first two seasons. Yeah, I don't know if they would go Bowl Bowl.

It might be one of those you know, bowl season, but then maybe five and seven the next year. Yeah, I think that in the first two seasons we see the Cards in the bowl game.

Yeah, I think that's right.

I'm on board with that, just because it's a place where you can retool pretty quickly, and a solid coaching staff will only help for bowlers.

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Give me eleven, ten, eight, six or one eight. Okay, we're going eight.

We're going Boston College seven win Steve in a complimentary way.

By the way, is that a bummer or is it?

Will take it if you're a Boston College fan and you're feeling that seven win Steve is a good thing.

Right now a Boston College fan, I'm looking at the way that Boston College finished the year with the eyeball emoji. Again, I did not think they were very good. I thought they were a much better football team early in the

Yes, Clemson, Florida State, and Syracuse.

Yeah, I think that that's a I think that that's a season that you go back and you look at what the personnel is and you think, man, that that that team, that team could have been better. Now it's tough because you know, Clemson and Syracuse are great, you know, to maybe the top two teams, probably the top two teams in the ACC last season.

But I will maintain that.

Boston College was not playing great football near the end of the season, and for when you got Anthony Brown AJ Dillon, like every everything had kind of lined up for this to be a Boston College sleeper season, right, and for them to run out of steam.

Just concerning Yeah, it's like if you had told everybody before the season they beat Louisville, Miami, Virginia ack, I mean, wake but whatever, and you line up those wins like, all right, that's probably eight nine wins, and they get there and they I guess potentially could have if they actually played in a bowl game instead of us having to resort to I guess fan fiction to talk about it.

Yeah, I'll be curious to see what the Boston College does a pretty good job of providing, you know, a window into their football program, at least from the their media distribution side.

Yeah, you know, just one of those places you.

Can always expect that you're going to catch the game right up email and I like to.

I like to keep tabs on Boston College.

I will be fascinated as as spring opens up to see what kind of how Steve Dazio views this team, because he often does. He has a no frills approach and he'll he'll talk about his team very openly. He was confident going into twenty eighteen. He seemed concerned coming out of twenty eighteen. And I think that as we judge Boston College moving forward, particularly, you know, will they ever crack this seven win run, Well, I mean it's probably gonna have to take more than just the status quo.

I agree.

Here's the good news. Next year's non conference schedule. It's a Notre Dame year for Boston College. But outside of that, the three teams that they have, an FCS team in Richmond, Kansas, and Rutgers pretty good.

How you make a bowl game? How you do it? Good for BC?

Yeah, that's just that savviness coming through. Give me a number. Let's see, we've done that. We've done that, We've done that, so we got to do eleven. We have to do six, we have to do one.

Let's do eleven.

Okay, eleven. We're talking Duke all over the place. My question to you why.

Because Daniel Jones never took a step that all of us and if you were the if.

You were the Daniel Jones skeptic, Dan, then let me know.

Because I thought everybody else was on the same train as me, and we believed that Daniel Jones was going to have this this really, you know, finally back at full health, he's become the leader of this team. NFL scouts love his size and skill set, and I just I thought it was going to translate into really successful college football performance, and man, I didn't see it. I thought the strength of this Duke team was on defense.

The very strange thing is upon reflection of Duke's season is they open with three wins, where if they had lost, yeah, credible wins. If they had lost any of those games, you said, all right, in retrospect, that's reasonable because they say, what they beat Army. Then they go on the road and beat Northwestern and Baylor, and you're like, okay, these

Oh my goodness.

Year.

Yes, very strange, and but this is this is the real, uh, the the upward bounce for Duke. So I I had that the same feeling that I was thrown out about Boston College. I'm very I will be very interested to see what the response is. How people are talking right coming off that Wake Forest game, I said, I am very curious to see how Duke plays in this bowl game.

Yeah, that was nothing like what we did not expect expected.

Yeah, and David Cutcliffe, he even came out and did the like, well, I I can't, I don't have no idea. They we just got crushed and I don't. I don't know how to explain it. I didn't expect it, like he just he was so sad and down and matter of fact about the defeat that I was very curious. And look, then Duke finds itself in a high scoring shootout in the bowl game, blows him out in the second half after half adjustments lock it down on defense. So the upward bounce for Duke is as concerning as

Yeah.

And there're two like weird, really strange wins during the ACC season. It's Miami, You're like, okay, this is of the the ACC's middle class, this is the defense that's the scariest. And then at Georgia Tech, of the a CC's middle class, this is the offense that's scariest, and Duke wins them both and comfortably.

I don't know, it's I got I got nothing.

Yeah, same, Yeah. So we can go to number one or we can go to number six, and I think that's it six. Oh right, you're really we're sweating Clemson here. Georgia Tech.

I figured that you had made Clemson one.

Did go Clemson one in a in a slight nod to their season. So the Yellow Jackets, in very very tech form have a compelling case that they were basically better than every large middle class of the s ACC team. But now everything is new and we have no idea what that will look like. So in your estimation, how far away is a Paul Johnson ideal team away from looking like a Jeff Collins ideal team.

I don't put as much on the on the the idea about a physical transformation or that offensive lineman who recruited by Paul Johnson are going to be incapable of doing whatever Jeff Collins was.

I can't stand that. I really can't stand that.

I mean, it's just these are and first of all, not only are they at the offensive line, a position which has been often associated with being able to read and react, diagnose function at a high level, but it's also Georgia Tech students that we're talking about, Like they're not going to be able to learn a new scheme or a new system, process it and figure out a way to perform it at the best of their ability.

I think that the like we could.

See Georgia Tech be pretty good and they've got they've got skill players on that team that you can figure out how to put them in an offense. I think that right now, immediately, what would you assume that just I would assume that just because of the general size of the personnel on the offensive line, that we'll see something spready right, and that we'll probably try to utilize a deep group of running backs for some hey everyone's favorite word, RPOs will figure out some way to get

Yeah.

I think that's right, and I in the long run, I don't think I'm terribly worried about the defense because so much of that side of the ball is efforts and caring and motivating and building up depth, things that I think can be controlled by somebody who has had really good defensive results everywhere he's went, everywhere he's been. I am more concerned. Is there somebody on the roster who can throw the ball forward with accuracy fifteen twenty

I mean, you get enough going side to side. We really only need to get it like ten yards down right.

That's fair.

Okay, I'm curious, Yeah, I'm with you, But I've I believe that they'll they'll.

They'll figure something out.

I mean, Kelly Bryant couldn't get at thirty yards down the field, that's you're a college football playoff.

He did still make the college football playoff. So now you have to choose either between number ten or I believe now yep, number one.

I think we I guess we must have already done number ten, right, No, No ten is Miami. Oh uh, let's go out and do number one.

Okay, let's do Clemson. We'll finish out with Miami. So okay after the Alabama game. Pretty tough to ask anything of Clemson right now that hasn't been pretty emphatically answered. So is there any lurking reason deep down that there'll be anything but excellent?

Is it?

Defensive line, turnover, coaching, turnover acc getting surprisingly crazy good at the top and deep at the top. Is it Trevor Lawrence? Does he start dating Brooks Shields? What is what is piercing this pinata? If anything?

If anything?

And I do not believe that it is something that I am looking for. Right It's just complacency, Okay, that's it. I mean, everything else is in place, The personnel is in place, the coaching is in place. Everything's in place for this team to go win another national championship, and the only thing that's going to stop him is them. And I'd like, there's there's probably there could be a loss on the schedule. I don't know if they're going to go on this incredible thirty and oh run right.

So they're road games this coming season, as we you know, as one does previews the fall in January, North Carolina, Syracuse, tough road environment.

Absolutely, Louisville, it's going to be a new type of year for Louisville, NC State. Okay, and they go to South.

Carolina outside of the a SEC obviously, But other than that Texas A and M game early, there's nothing scary on that schedule, No, And like I could see Texas A and M winning that game, sure, and that and and that being the the shock to the system, the galvan you know, whatever, however you want to spin it, and you're in story style, but I do I do believe that a loss right there would quickly get the attention of a very talented team on what the task is that's ahead.

But I I.

Just the if you're talking about a lurking concern, and uh, I want I want to make sure that I hope I don't get him in trouble for this. But it's a it's a discussion that ESPN's Ryan McGee and I have. I've just sort of kicked around sometimes because we're both pretty familiar with the Clemson football program, the Clemson community, the fan base, and you see a Belt.

Bowl year is coming.

I don't know when, right, but how is Clemson going to react to Dabbo when a Belt Bowl year comes? Because Dabo's reaction is going to be this, I just want to score one more point than the opponent. You know, He's just all all I will care about my legacy is my son's like he's he really won't be phased or concerned. He will be disappointed and he will strive to get better results. But I'm I want to see how Clemson, the the school, and the fans react when

He snapped, do you remember that after the South Carolina game? I do, Yeah, that that reaction got my attention, and so I guess that's the only thing that's lurking for me in terms of like, is there is there anything negative or even like slightly shaded that you would, uh, that you would.

Say about it?

Is that I don't think it's coming in the next two seasons, but at some point a Belt Bowl year's coming, and what happens then what's the reaction because I don't I don't know if uh, I don't know how every all parties involved would handle it. Wow.

I mean I think that's right. And one of the things that's interesting to me about that sort of letdown year is is that when since Leeve and assistants say, Okay, I've ridden this wave to this point, now I'm going to cash out. Not necessarily cash out, because they're obviously paid super well, but this is a team that has retained basically since Chad Morris left for an understandable reason getting a head coaching job.

They've retained everybody.

Yeah, like Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott have each spent ten years on the staff, right, It's incredible.

Is there a specific reason why Clemson has been able to hold on to championship caliber assistance and other programs in that position have not. Is it because DAP working with Dabo is a more fun experience, Not more fun, but a more pleasant experience.

What is Yes? Yeah, absolutely, it's all Dabo.

Do you know about the This has been written about a bunch, but in covering Clemson during this postseason run, you know, as more and more players of different graduating classes continue to reference some of the same things, I'm going to determine that they are an influential part of the program.

Do you know about family dinner? I do so. Yeah. Yeah, once a week it's everybody.

It's every player, it's every coach, it's the coach's wives, it's the coach's kids, it's the support staff with their husbands or wives or kids. Like it is an across the board big family.

Tend to a table, sharing all the sides.

Like once a week, Clemson football has a big old family dinner, and that is a thing that has created a work environment that everyone would rather be a part of. Then whatever this other option is it's incredible.

Yeah, I like that.

It's just like, hey, just treat everybody like humans and include people.

Break bread with your brother and watch have some mac and cheese, have some chicken. That's cool. That's what it takes to like keep a wildly successful program running at a higher rate right now than any other programs. Family style sides on Wednesday nights.

Ye Family Style, Clemson Family Style, and I guess let's just you don't have to pick because number ten is Miami and all that I have in my brain is offense question mark as the thing that Manny Diaz now faces after the lowest of low's for Miami under a really strong offensive mind. And Mark Richt say whatever you will, it's probably correct, good or bad about Mark Rick. Offense hasn't really been a huge huge issue from Mark Rick teams.

Yes it can, Yes, yeah it can. Don't.

I don't think it happens immediately, but it absolutely can. Miami can get back to having dynamic offenses. This was just wrong staff, wrong personnel, sort of bad fit from the start.

Not to mention bad luck. Uh you know, I'm on.

Richards career ending, brutal, oh my, and he when I'm on Richards was playing on one leg. He was one of the two best wide receivers in the ACC.

He would have started. I mean I watched a lot of Oregon football. He would have started for Oregon, no question about it. On one leg.

I'm literally one.

Leg on one leg. So bad luck certainly should be mentioned as part of this. But I think it was a bad fit of just the that offensive coaching staff I think he brought. Did he bring Thomas Brown, the old Georgia running back as his offensive coordinator with him at Georgia and you know he had it was just it was a family affair and it was just a bad like whatever it was just apparently was not a

Got no help.

No, they not no help field position, They got no help on like turnovers or oh, time of possession. They for most of two years, they they have gotten no help. And so I feel for them because that had to be tough.

There was a good it was a very good year, and by good, I mean unfortunate and bad for defenses put in just terrible situations by their own life. So Michigan State, Miami Cal, I don't know who I'm forgetting TCU actually put out a pretty good defense this year with a nightmare of an offense.

And we've had this in recent years. I think it was the.

Twenty fifteen Miszoo team, which was somehow putting out an incredible defense every week with nothing, a nothing burger on offense. I always feel so bad for those guys that have to just keep jogging out like, Okay, I guess we're going to have to score, right, he did.

Yeah, I mean really did they?

They They whooped up on North Carolina on a Thursday night this year, and I think the defense outscored the offense.

God that there should be a specific in the way that the Oscars have an award for a lifetime achievement. There should be at like the I don't know where it's in Orlando, the College Football Awards. There should be outstanding achievement in the field of defense having to do everything. I would that's the that's the award. I want to pull my full energy behind.

I think I think that that's that's energy put in the right place. Okay, So yeah, I think that you know, whether it's Titmar tail or whoever, I think that dan ENO's being hired by Many Diaz and Many Diaz though he like Many Diaz, at his introductory press conference, announced that he unfortunately had to tell all these members of the offensive staff they would not be retained defensive staff.

We will be retaining some. Yeah, you guys are good. No, you guys can buy and not rent.

Good.

Yeah, you guys are good.

But to just write off the jump spig, No, this whole side of the office, y'all gotta go I think that was a good, good way to identify the biggest problem.

And so because he's not trying too hard to.

Linger on any particular aspect, whether that is the player you know, as as I guess they hope Tate Martel.

Will be able to have his eligibility waived.

I don't know it'll happen or not, but yeah, the fact that they would even put effort in supporting that venture means that he's willing to totally rethink everything on offense, and given where things had gone, that's the right decision in my book.

Yeah.

And also, if you are a head coach, get your guys in there. If you have any from day one, if you have any sort of hesitation about anything on your team, get it fixed if you are empowered to do so. Don't hesitate, don't do things because you want to be nice or you want to be fair. They'll fire you all the same. So do it your way. And I'm glad Many Diaz did that.

Absolutely agree.

All right, that's the acc Everything else, you know, what's what's on tap for the rest of the day, rest of the week, rest of the month. Are you taking a vacation at all? Are you planning a special outing.

With the misses. What's what can people look forward to in the world of Chip Patterson.

Well after this, I will be linking up with Barton Simmons, my co host of the Cover three podcast.

The Cover three Podcast.

Yes, we are putting together our coaches Megamix, where we have actually scoured through all of the introductory press conferences to identify the most ridiculous soundbites. Nice talk about them as we in a more serious manner sort of rank and review the entire coaching cycle with Rod Carey and Northern Illinois needing to make a hire. We actually just finished it, probably the longest coaching caresel we've had in some time.

And then I will be on.

CBS Sports HQ, our twenty four to seven streaming news network. I'll be on CBS Sports HQ at six o'clock on the Sports Line show picking the evenings college basketball games against the spread.

I love it, look at you all over the place. On your Twitter bio it says college football, college basketball, and golf.

Yeah, which I'll be live blogging Tiger at Torrey Pines on Thursday and Friday.

You could probably run for lieutenant governor in North Carolina and just do stump speeches talking about college sports and golf, right, you'd get fifteen percent. No, I think that I could not, Lieutenant governor. Okay, yeah, you're you're right.

I think that just based on the the overwhelming number of hot spots that I'm hitting with my general coverage. It's, uh, it runs strong. It's it's because I'm a product. I'm a product of my environment, and I just happened to be enthusiastic about it.

I'm like Will Brentson the fraud unlike him.

Hey, listen, if he wants to claim high Point Greensboro the triad all that he's he's got that, and his wife Ak's got Winston Salem on lock like they they they definitely have the triad. But he's uh, he's he's he's still he's still working up his his bio and his I t b points here in Raleigh.

All I know in North Carolina elected office adjustable, elections adjustable.

Well is it I think that? Uh, that court, I think that ends. That ninth District case is going on right now. Oh is that true?

Yeah?

Okay, which the way, if if any listeners have not looked into or caught wind of the election fraud scandal in the ninth District in North Carolina.

It's awesome. It's a doozy.

This is I don't care what your political stances are. It's incredible.

It's wild. Yes, so it's the best true crime.

We're gonna get a great podcast out of it in about a year and a half.

Oh, that's such a good point, I think. I mean, you have to stake your claim now, really for sure as that local. If there's going to be a true crime podcast about anything in North Carolina, even remotely related to competition or sports, anything that has to be you.

I will give because the who it's going to be is one of the what do they call them, the shoe shoe, leather what's the leather shoe?

What's the old reporter term.

Well, there's a gum shoe. But that's like a detective. It's like detective, right, beaten the leather. I don't know whatever I'm looking up leather shoe, I'm not seeing anything, but I'm sure you're right.

I might be mixing it up. I'm not from the I'm not from the old school. I'm no madil grind. It's gonna end up being one of the court reporters, because those are the court reporters are the ones that really get the juicy stuff because they don't have to check as many items at the courthouse, and so they can document more and sort of have a more full encompassing understanding of all the movements.

It is. It's shoe leather journalism or shoe leather reporting. There we go there.

It is walking from place to place, observing things and speaking to people. Unlike our very lazy podcasts flapping about in the wind's entertainment man entertainment entertainment. I hope everybody out there had a good drive. If you're on a road trip, if you're on a flight listening to us in airplane mode, if you're mowing the lawn, if you're doing the dishes, if you're at the gym, hopefully, at the very least we help you past time in an

That's it.

They got pod They talked about podcast on CBS Sunday Morning. We're big time now, Yes, all right. They had instruction on how you can find podcasts, like if you laugh thing, you joke, you kid, but that's an actual thing that people don't know that, Oh, podcasts are free.

Oh podcasts are already available on your phone on an app that's already there.

They said, hit the purple one. I don't think if you asked my parents, yeah, hit the purple one is not the worst way to start out. I don't know if my parents. I've been podcasting now for over ten years. My parents if put in a room with a smartphone and you said, find your son's podcast, it might be tough through an app. So they love CBS Sunday Morning.

Yeah, they've got that lesson, but.

Right yeah, Chip Patterson, thank you very much for your time. This has gone to a wonderful place and can't wait.

To have you back. Dan, thank you very much.

Boom, there it is, and to nobody's surprise at all, Chip Patterson fantastic. Go check out all of his work to cover three podcasts, all of the stuff he does for cbssports dot com and CBS Sports HQ, where you can see his bright, shining face talk about all sorts of sports, but in particular college football. Thanks again for listening. Solidverbal at gmail dot com. You can follow us, of course on Facebook or Twitter or wherever you like. To

I promise you.

We're getting all of those things in order, along with a couple of other things that we have up our sleeves that we think we are going to excite you with. I think you're going to be excited by those things. So listen, let's all listen. Hope for the best for

Go read back.

He had all sorts of really cool insights about what it is to be broadcasting huge college football games for ESPN, his path throughout his time, really exploring and growing through the industry of play by play and broadcasting. A lot of really cool thoughts about his travels and food and everything that you'd expect from our pal adam amean. So be sure to check it out. And that's it. I've rambled on for far too long. Hopefully you enjoyed this episode.