ACC Preview, Part 1: Miami vs. Everybody Else

Episode Description

In this episode, we begin our three-part 2026 ACC preview by zooming out and attempting to make sense of the conference as a whole. Miami enters the season as the clear favorite, with Darian Mensah taking over at quarterback and another roster built to reach the College Football Playoff. But can the Hurricanes finally win their first ACC championship, and would Miami fans even care about the conference crown if another deep playoff run follows?

From there, we sort the rest of the ACC into contender tiers and confront the question that defines the league this season: Who comes after Miami? We debate how much to trust Kevin Jennings and SMU, Jeff Brohm’s latest rebuild at Louisville, Clemson’s return to Chad Morris and the long list of possible challengers lurking in the conference’s crowded middle. We also examine the unusually unsettled quarterback landscape, widespread offensive line turnover, the arrival of James Franklin at Virginia Tech and the pressure facing Mike Norvell at Florida State.

Plus, we identify our ACC pet teams, search for surprise contenders and hold an entirely unnecessary conference nickname draft that gives us the After Canes Conference, the All-Cannibal Conference and several ideas that probably should not have survived the recording. Follow or subscribe for Parts 2 and 3, when we move from the big picture into individual team previews, and visit Verballers.com for early, ad-free episodes and access to the Verballerhood.

Transcript

Ty (00:18): Dan Rubenstein, it is preview season, baby. It is time to talk some ACC. How are you today?

Dan (00:24): I'm great, Ty. The ACC is one of, I don't know, my 13 or 14 favorite conferences. It's one of my favorites. I love this episode, if only because I remember the All-Costco Conference moniker that we gave it years and years ago. I think at one point we've called it the Postal and the Phatlantic. There's just something that opens up part of my cerebellum when I talk about the ACC. It fills me with joy. I have so many joyous memories of the ACC, just as a fan of television. I'm in every year on the ridiculousness of the ACC. So it's a pet-favorite conference of mine.

Ty (01:08): This is part one of a three-part ACC preview. We did this last year. It worked really well. People seemed to really get into it. The first episode is bigger picture. It's the two of us talking through our contender tiers and some of the things we're watching for in the conference. We'll debate a variety of topics. Again, it's the 30,000-foot view of the ACC. Then, next episode, we'll split the league in half, probably plus Notre Dame. We'll do Miami and Notre Dame together and include Notre Dame in the ACC team portion. Part three will cover whichever teams we don't get to in part two. We'll continue to do that for the other power conferences as well. So if you're a Big 12, Big Ten or SEC fan, it doesn't matter. Part one will be an episode like this. Parts two and three will be more team-specific stuff that you can sink your teeth into.

Dan (02:04): Look, am I going to lie and tell you that I didn't spend the majority of my time thinking of nicknames for this conference that are words starting with A and C?

Ty (02:12): All right, now hold on. Hold that thought.

Dan (02:15): I'm not going to go any further.

Ty (02:16): Hold that thought. We do not script this show. We do not script the show.

Dan (02:23): We script it insofar as we say, okay, part one is narratives, general thoughts, tiers and just vibes, right?

Ty (02:30): Yeah, we know generally, like, the walls for the show, right?

Dan (02:35): I don't have access to your thoughts. You don't have access to my thoughts. We're going to organize which teams we do on parts two and three. But that's it.

Ty (02:42): I also came up with different nicknames for the ACC. We were thinking along the same lines. Do we want to do this now? Should we use this as the table setter?

Dan (02:51): Let's get into it. Yes, absolutely.

Ty (02:52): We have called it the All-Costco Conference for years. I don't even know how far back this goes.

Dan (03:01): Colon, "Quality in bulk." Yeah.

Ty (03:03): Quality and bulk. So I have in front of me, how many do you have?

Dan (03:10): I have four.

Ty (03:12): I have six. I think we should go back and forth and decide, if only for the sake of these previews, whether we want to go in a different direction beyond All-Costco: Quality in Bulk. The impetus for me is that I don't know if that applies this year.

Dan (03:30): I don't think so either.

Ty (03:32): And that's why I started thinking along different lines.

Dan (03:35): I just like coming up with new ridiculous things. So you want my first or do you want to go first?

Ty (03:39): Let's alternate. We're doing this fantasy draft style.

Dan (03:41): All right, go for it.

Ty (03:43): I've got the Atlantic Canes Conference, Miami or Bust.

Dan (03:47): Oh, not bad. I didn't do any postcolons.

Ty (03:49): Okay.

Dan (03:50): Actually, I can come up with a couple on the fly.

Ty (03:51): Of course you can.

Dan (03:52): Relatedly, I have the After Canes Conference: Who's coming next? If we're agreeing on the top dog, After Canes Conference: Who's next?

Ty (04:03): All right, I'm going to jot that one down, and we're going to see if we can beat it. I've got the All-Cluster-F Conference: Yeah, I have no idea.

Dan (04:12): That's pretty good. I have the Altogether Competent Conference, because in terms of playing the percentages, I only count two teams, maybe, where I'm like, there's a really, really good chance they're not competitive all year. I have those as Stanford and BC. There are just limited reasons to believe this early in Stanford and what BC is going to put on the field. With Altogether Competent, you look around and say, look, they're not great, but they have things in order. They're not getting weird penalties all the time. The quarterback hasn't thrown 19 picks. The high-floor nature of the ACC jumps out sometimes.

Ty (04:57): I still prefer After Canes Conference, but that's a... I've got the Atlantic Costanza Conference.

Dan (05:00): That's okay. I think, listen, we're just whiteboarding this.

Ty (05:06): It's not a lie if you're 9-3.

Dan (05:09): It's not a lie if you're 9-3.

Ty (05:11): Yeah, it's like it's not a lie if you believe.

Dan (05:13): I understand the reference. It's not a lie if you believe, but, like...

Ty (05:15): I don't know. I just came up with that one before we hit record. That's probably not my strongest work.

Dan (05:18): Okay. My next one is open to interpretation. As it's written, it says Always Close Conference, but it could be Always Close Conference, because it seems like there are a number of teams every season where you're like, yeah, they're 7-5, but they were five points away from being 10-2.

Ty (05:37): Oh, I got a couple of those, yeah.

Dan (05:38): Right. There's a closing issue. We saw it last year with Miami, of course, but we see it every year. There's a weird result, like a 3-9 Virginia Tech team beating NC State by 15 or by two, and you're just like, you couldn't close out that game. The same thing goes for last year's Duke-Virginia championship game. It was very close-out-able for Virginia, which had already beaten Duke, and they just couldn't close it out. So it could be close, could be close.

Ty (06:07): Right. Okay.

Dan (06:10): So it's the Always Close Conference: Open to interpretation.

Ty (06:14): I don't hate that. I was also playing into the fact that we make the joke every year.

Dan (06:15): Yep.

Ty (06:19): We make the joke every year that we don't know who plays whom in the ACC on any given week. There is definitely a lot of potential for a demolition derby in the middle, with everyone beating each other. So I have the All-Cannibal Conference: Let's eat.

Dan (06:35): Oh, I don't mind that. Yeah, because now cooking is a verb, right?

Ty (06:40): Apparently.

Dan (06:40): Like Virginia Tech is cooking, or they cooked them.

Ty (06:42): That's right.

Dan (06:44): Don't hate it. My last one, I think, is the one I'm most proud of creatively, but it doesn't fit in with AC. The idea I'm going for... As people know, Ty is extraordinarily into jam bands.

Ty (06:58): Yeah, I've loved jam bands, yeah.

Dan (06:58): Yes?

Ty (07:00): But I don't know if you're going to have to. I don't either.

Dan (07:00): I know nothing about jam bands beyond the big three, or however many are big. I think it's Goose.

Ty (07:07): Is Phish a jam band?

Dan (07:08): Phish is a jam band. The Dead, and obviously the Dead has taken a number of iterations as they've lost members and added members.

Ty (07:09): They count as a jam band, okay.

Dan (07:16): And the Dead, I think, is the sort of godfather band. There's a newer one called Goose that people are getting into, not to be confused with Geese, which was accused of buying credibility or engagement.

Ty (07:27): I was going to say, which is the one that bought credibility or bought engagement?

Dan (07:31): I think that's Geese.

Ty (07:32): That's Geese.

Dan (07:33): I think the marketing thing was Geese.

Ty (07:33): Okay.

Dan (07:35): Goose, I think a lot of Phish people are into now as well. Different band. From what I know about jam bands, you're literally jamming, right? There's going to be space for the keyboard player to explore on a song. There's going to be space for a couple guitar solos, or a bass breakdown, or for the singer to do a weird harmonica part, or for the drummer to shift to the bongos and do a drum solo. In this sport, we're used to the big stories jumping through, right? Indiana, what a story. Out of nowhere, Indiana. Or realignment stuff, or a team that has been close to breaking through finally does. There's something about the ACC where it's not on a big level all the time, but there's always a, don't look now, Duke just had a pretty great year. Don't look now, Wake Forest kind of figured out defense in Year 1 of Jake Dickert. Don't look now, Virginia did really well in the portal and they're 7-1. Everybody kind of has a chance for that solo. Everybody has a chance to jam a little bit. Every year, there's a different team that gets a slightly above-average schedule, and you're like, I know they haven't played anybody, but they're 9-2. Nobody saw that coming. Good for Mike Elko and Duke. So I have them as the All-Coachella Conference: Let's jam.

Ty (09:02): That's not bad. I like that.

Dan (09:03): All-Coachella. If there is a jam band that starts with C that's more appropriate, I salute you. But that's the jam-band nature of the conference: There's room for somebody to have a crazy late September through early November and a record that makes you say, hey, good for them.

Ty (09:23): I like the cut of your jib there. I have two more.

Dan (09:26): It's a long explanation. There's a long wind up. It's a hard sell. I get it.

Ty (09:29): It's okay. These are all a hard sell, frankly. I have two more, and this is really paying homage to our audience down in the great state of Georgia. I have the Alberto Coast Conference: Football below the Mendoza Line.

Dan (09:43): "Football below..." Yeah, yeah, I like that.

Ty (09:46): And then, just for shiggles, the All-Cabello Conference: East Atlanta, ooh na-na.

Dan (09:54): How old is that song now, though?

Ty (09:55): I don't know. It's been a minute.

Dan (09:57): All respect, but Camila Cabello... yeah, is that her name?

Ty (09:58): Yeah. Yeah.

Dan (10:03): Okay.

Ty (10:04): I like After Canes. I think we go After Canes Conference.

Dan (10:07): The After Canes Conference? Okay.

Ty (10:09): Because I think that's really the general theme of the ACC this year. Miami is the clear favorite. They are No. 8 in our friend Bill Connelly's preseason SP+, by a rather wide margin. On top of what they did last year, as they were trying to construct the 2026 version, they added Darian Mensah from Duke. They brought over Cooper Barkate from Duke as well, his No. 1 receiver. Bear in mind, this is a team that loses a fair amount, and we will talk through that in much more detail once we get into the Miami team preview. Broadly speaking, if you're listening to this, you probably already know they lost a lot off that team, but they're still pretty well loaded. Even though they lost two primary edge rushers, their quarterback and a fair number of guys off the line, this is still far and away, in my opinion, the best roster in the ACC. So it's not so much a matter of whether Miami is going to take a step back. I am assuming Miami is going to make the College Football Playoff. For our purposes here, can they finally win the damn conference crown? That's what we're after as we go through these next couple episodes.

Dan (11:30): The ACC currently has how many teams that have made the College Football Playoff?

Ty (11:35): They've got Miami, SMU, Clemson and Florida State, if you want to go back.

Dan (11:37): SMU, Clemson and Florida State made the original.

Ty (11:43): Yep. But beyond that, I think that's it.

Dan (11:45): That appears to be it. So when I look at... I don't know if you want to do tiers right now, offseason changes, storylines or broader stories that interest you. We can do whatever.

Ty (11:58): I think setting the table beyond Miami would be the most instructive at this point. In all likelihood, if you downloaded this podcast episode, you already know Miami is going to be pretty good. What really gives texture to the ACC this year is the After Canes portion of that moniker. What next? Who is No. 2? These are the things I spent a lot of time trying to figure out. I don't know if I got any closer after studying this for hours on end. But for me, that is the primary thing our audience is going to be most interested in.

Dan (12:37): Yeah, I agree. The reason Miami seems to be standing alone is that, even though they do have questions, I would like to separate the word questions from concerns.

Ty (12:46): Yes. Good point.

Dan (12:48): Because yes, it is a question when you have to replace full-time starters along the lines. But in terms of how they've recruited, how they've addressed it and the guys they work into those new starting positions, they are questions, not concerns. When you look across the conference, there are pretty significant concerns, depending on what you think the intention of the season is for that specific program. Everybody has legitimate concerns outside of Miami. Whether you want to talk about potential contenders like SMU, Louisville, Clemson and Pitt, there are concerns in areas of those teams. Some were addressed via the portal or new coordinator hires. Then you look at teams starting over at head coach, like Cal and Virginia Tech. The question is more, what does it look like? The concern is that they had to hire a new coach for a very specific reason, so it's reasonable to wonder whether they've figured it out immediately. Then there are teams that didn't hire a new coach and were near the bottom of the conference last year. The concern is whether they've done enough to address what brought them to that level, whether it was bad luck, players who didn't meet the muster of that team, or coaches who were in over their heads. Miami is the one program, as far as I can tell, where you're like, all these guys are back, and this is how they addressed those questions. That makes me feel pretty good. I don't have that level of internal conversation about any other team.

Ty (14:33): My question on the Miami front, and I guess I could pose this now: Does it matter to Miami fans if they don't win the ACC? That's the talking point and the low-hanging-fruit joke people like to make. We've done it too. Miami has never won a conference championship in all this time in the ACC. Given the way this roster and schedule are set up, Miami is the top dog and the odds-on favorite to win the ACC. Look, it got crazy last year. It could get crazy again this year. Who the hell knows? I personally think it would be a stretch for them not to be in that game again this year, but this has kind of been their M.O., and that's why it's the joke. Because 12 teams now get into the playoff, and Miami had a proof of concept a year ago, made it to the national championship and wasn't that far from at least giving Indiana a run at the end, do Miami fans care about the ACC? Do they care if they win the conference? Other than the perks that come with winning a conference, which might be better seeding, better matchups or a bye week, do Miami fans actually give a rip about winning this thing?

Dan (16:09): Yeah, I don't speak for Miami fans specifically, but I think anytime you can win your conference, you feel good about that. Anytime you can check that box, it feels good. We're also in an era where the conference championship game and the idea of winning a conference have been annually devalued. Miami was able to make the national championship game without even playing for the conference championship last season because of weird, arcane tiebreakers. Miami has been in this conference for a long time, and it would be nice and fun for its fans to win it. Is it the end-all, be-all? I don't think so. Are Miami fans en masse going to travel to the conference championship game when it appears they're going to be in the College Football Playoff and would rather save money to fly to Dallas or Vegas or wherever? I think 4K TVs are great, and you can watch that game comfortably on your couch. So yes, winning the ACC Championship would be great. It's also an extra game when you could potentially have a long road in the College Football Playoff. I think it would be nice. I don't think it keeps Miami people up at night. They can say, we didn't win it last year, but everything still worked out in a way that led us to beating Ole Miss and Ohio State and nearly beating national champion Indiana.

Ty (17:43): Within the ACC, there were really only three head-coaching changes: James Franklin at Virginia Tech, Tavita Pritchard at Stanford and Tosh Lupoi taking over at Cal. There wasn't a lot of movement among head coaches. There was a lot on the coordinator front, and we can get into that in a little bit. I do think the coordinator carousel will be interesting to chart, both offensively and defensively. All that said, the real intrigue in the ACC is not so much on the team-who's-going-to-win level, or even who comes after Miami, but position group to position group. There are so many quarterback questions in the ACC this year. We talked about Darian Mensah at Miami. I think we feel pretty good about him. Kevin Jennings is back at SMU. Kevin Jennings is a proven deal. C.J. Bailey at NC State is, at a minimum, a high-end-ish returning quarterback. But beyond that, we've got a league full of new starters and unsettled quarterback rooms: Christopher Vizzina at Clemson, Lincoln Kienholz at Louisville, Ethan Grunkemeyer, who follows James Franklin from Penn State to Virginia Tech, Ashton Daniels, the transfer from Auburn who was named QB1 at Florida State, Beau Pribula, who comes to Virginia from Mizzou and was previously at Penn State, Eli Holstein, who transfers from Pitt to Virginia, Walker Eget at Duke, Gio Lopez now at Wake Forest, Billy Edwards Jr. at North Carolina, and there are probably other guys here. I'm just not going to list any more. You get the point.

Dan (19:33): Just in terms of the unsettled nature of the position, I would add Steve Angeli at Syracuse. He's coming back, flashed some good things, but it was very brief.

Ty (19:37): Steve Angeli coming back off injury. What I'm going for here is that some subset of those new quarterback situations will immediately catch fire and do well. Because there is so much clustering in the middle of this conference, one or two of these teams are going to bubble up as a result.

Dan (20:04): I agree. By the way, I would also add JKS to the settled quarterbacks.

Ty (20:07): JKS, yeah.

Dan (20:09): But there are still questions because of a new coaching staff and potentially a new offense.

Ty (20:11): This is not an exhaustive list. It's just an example.

Dan (20:13): Not an exhaustive list.

Ty (20:14): But you get the point, right? There's a lot here that I think remains up in the air.

Dan (20:18): Yes, and a lot of these quarterbacks are either starting for the first time as the no-doubt-about-it guy, or they're at a new place. There aren't many where you can say they've got the same coaches, receivers and system, and they've been at this place and know where the bathrooms are. You can't even say that about Darian Mensah. This is no different from most seasons in that quarterback is going to determine a lot within this conference, but the amount changing around those quarterbacks throws it into chaos.

Ty (20:57): There are plenty of questions about the offensive lines on these teams as well. Every plausible ACC contender has at least one offensive line question. They're different questions depending on the team. Miami still might have the best line in the league, but they are replacing four starters. Jackson Cantwell, the true freshman, figures to be the left tackle. I've heard nothing but good things about him, but you never know what happens when the rubber meets the road. Louisville lost five of the six guys who played along the line. Clemson lost a couple. Virginia is sort of an exception to that, because it returns a bunch. Offensive line, quarterback, we could shift our focus to defense, and it's much the same on that side of the ball. While Miami might be the most complete team at this juncture, there are plenty of other candidates that could bubble up if a quarterback, defense or different position group pops in a way we can't possibly see coming as we record this in July.

Dan (22:00): Yeah, I think this is sort of a new reality because offensive line is such a developmental position. Even if teams are paying top guys, as we heard Sark talk about with high school recruits, it's hard to keep those backups on campus. When one of those backups has a surefire opportunity to start somewhere else, you're going to see that position remain in flux all the time. It's hard to keep 19 offensive linemen, both with a budget and playing time. You're going to see an offensive lineman at Pitt or NC State say, I have this opportunity, I can make more money, this school isn't paying me. So you're going to have that turnover year after year unless you have unlimited funds and opportunity, which basically nobody does.

Ty (22:52): I'm curious if anything surprised you as you went through all the material trying to figure out the ACC. What surprised me, and maybe this plays back into the central theme of the conference this season, was just how tight the cluster in the middle was. I knew it was going to be there. What I don't think I appreciated was how tight it was. I genuinely did not know whom to put No. 2. Once you get past Miami, you can go pretty deep into this conference and make a case for a lot of teams potentially being Miami's opponent in the conference championship game. I knew that going in, but coming out of this, I almost felt more confused with more information.

Dan (23:48): What jumped out to me is that when you have a conference this big and start looking at the head coaches, so many of these guys are in very different stages of their timelines as ACC head coaches.

Ty (24:05): Hm, yeah, that's true.

Dan (24:07): You have the guys who are brand new to this conference and on the younger side, like Tosh Lupoi, Tavita Pritchard and Jake Dickert, who are figuring it out within this conference. You have guys who flashed a little bit early, like Manny Diaz and Brent Key. Fran Brown flashed and then had a disastrous season last year, but there were reasons. You have those young or young-ish up-and-comers trying to come into their own as ACC head coaches. Then, if Deion Sanders wants to be Coach Prime, you've got a couple Coach Past-Primes in this conference as well. The question is whether they're past their prime, with guys like Pat Narduzzi, Dave Doeren and obviously Bill Belichick. At what stage of his career, competing for playoff berths, is James Franklin? Have we seen the best of Mike Norvell? Is he past his prime, even as a young-ish dude? It's not terribly different from other conferences, but you see the stark contrast when you have 17 teams in the ACC. Bill O'Brien, has he passed his better days? Perhaps he's not old, but perhaps he has. Maybe Boston College is the job that makes it seem like you have. There are different factions of coaches, and those differences jump out. I guess when you combine all of that, you get Jeff Brohm. Maybe he's up-and-coming. Maybe he's past his prime. Maybe he's squarely in his prime. Mario Cristobal is in his prime. Could you say Dabo Swinney is past his prime? Sure. To me, those stark contrasts are interesting.

Ty (26:02): Do you have a pet team? I always have an ACC pet team. Last year mine was Pitt, and kind of Clemson too. I was way high on Clemson. That didn't work out. Do you have a pet team this year?

Dan (26:23): Maybe Wake, because it always kind of feels like Wake is playing 2002 California Angels Moneyball. What do they call it, small ball? Look, they're going to lose a lot of their best players, but they'll figure out how to replace those receiving yards. They'll figure out how to get stops on third down. They're not going to do it with a huge budget. They're getting a quarterback on his third school in Gio Lopez, from South Alabama to North Carolina and now Wake. They have a coach from across the country whose team lost a conference in the process. They quietly had a really good year last year. This year, I'm along for the ride. Maybe they're overrated going into the year based on defying early expectations last season. Their schedule kind of rules. I have a pet thing about people who have situational advantages. They're playing this team after Notre Dame, or this team before Miami. Wake kind of has that schedule this year. They always seem like an afterthought. You're like, well, Florida State lost, but they have Wake this week, so they'll be all right. Then they lose to Wake. I always kind of root for teams like that. It's the other side of the spectrum as an Oregon fan. You root for a team that keeps losing dudes in the portal and doesn't have that budget or top-team reputation, but figures out ways to use duct tape and chicken wire to get to bowl games. I like that.

Ty (27:48): I think mine is NC State.

Dan (27:50): Oh, don't do this to yourself, Ty.

Ty (27:52): I know, I know, right? I know.

Dan (27:54): What are you doing? You gonna fall for it again?

Ty (27:57): I'm not going to do what I did with Pitt last year, where I built them up to an unrealistic degree.

Dan (28:01): Okay.

Ty (28:05): When it came crashing down, I might as well have put the clown nose on. I'm not going to do that. But when I say pet team, I mean a team of interest to me, a team surprisingly of interest to me. I also had that thought: Why am I doing this to myself? But I like what I'm seeing when I look at NC State this year. We can get into that here. We'll talk about our contender tiers next.

Dan (28:30): Here's why I don't do that with NC State. They're going to finish around .500 in the conference. They're going to win some games against lower teams and lose a game or two against a team they shouldn't. Then, when you start talking yourself into them as being pretty good, they'll lose 35-7 to an actually good team, like they did last year and like they do a lot of years. You're like, oh yeah, okay.

Ty (28:55): We're back, baby.

Dan (28:56): Yeah, didn't they score seven against Miami and seven against Notre Dame last year?

Ty (29:02): I forget. I don't know.

Dan (29:03): It's something like that.

Ty (29:04): I know. Listen, I had the same thought.

Dan (29:05): Yeah, I'll look right now.

Ty (29:06): I had the same thought.

Dan (29:06): They lost 41-7 and 36-7. I can't go along for that ride and convince myself that this is going to be an actual competitive game for a stretch against Notre Dame, Miami or a good Clemson. I know they've won some of those games in years past. I just can't do it again. I can't talk myself into them again. But that's okay.

Ty (29:29): I want to go into contender tiers next. Before we do, if you made it this far and want to help support the team, please hit follow or subscribe so you do not miss any of our preview episodes, which we're going to roll out every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday until we run out of teams. Then we'll jump back in and talk about news. If you are so inclined, go to Verballers.com. That is our Patreon, where you can directly support the team by signing up to be a Certified or Premium Verballer. You can also go to SolidVerbal.com/newsletter and sign up for our newsletter. We send you free stuff every week. It's a lot of fun, and it's totally free.

Dan (30:08): Yes. Okay.

Ty (30:11): My top tier is the Miami Tier, because it's only Miami. As I said at the top, I view Miami through two distinct lenses. One is the ACC. The other is the College Football Playoff. In the conference, this is easily the best roster, in my opinion. With the exception of a road game at Clemson, this schedule is tailor-made to get them to the ACC title game. You really don't need to squint to find a very easy pathway through it. There has been a track record of Miami having the random letdown game. Can Miami get past that? Is that still going to be part of their repertoire in 2026? That remains to be seen. I hope for their sake it is not. Either way, to the point of Chris Fallica, whom we had on the show...

Dan (31:09): Fallica.

Ty (31:11): Oh my gosh.

Dan (31:11): He didn't correct us; he confirmed us.

Ty (31:12): He corrected it. He confirmed it.

Dan (31:14): Yeah.

Ty (31:14): We knew how to say it. Now I just said it wrong.

Dan (31:16): Yeah.

Ty (31:16): Perfect.

Dan (31:17): Come on.

Ty (31:18): To prove Mr. Fallica's point: He's a proud Miami grad whom we had on the show last month, and he said it would take an act of God or some kind of catastrophe to keep Miami out of the College Football Playoff. I agree. Whether or not this ACC thing matters to you, to each his own. But that is an open question: Can they finally get the job done on the ACC front? Bigger picture, I think they're in the College Football Playoff. I think Darian Mensah is an upgrade at quarterback. I think they're fine at the skill positions. They do need the line to gel. As I said, they've got some new guys they're trying to incorporate. They lose Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor off the edge, so they'll need to find other ways to create pressure. I don't know if any of this is going to be that big of a problem. I think I'm splitting hairs, and that's part of the reason Miami is in a class unto itself. But I'm open to competing ideas if you feel differently.

Dan (32:19): No, I don't think the concern is specific or direct with Miami. You can be concerned about line issues, as you've mentioned. My bigger concern would be emotional. They got a taste last year of going deep into the playoff and being on the verge of a national championship. Nobody else is built like Miami moving forward in this conference. With the exception of Notre Dame for some of these teams, Miami is fully in this conference and is the lone circle team. They're the uniquely circled team on everybody's schedule. They're not in a grouping where you're like, well, we have Miami, Clemson and Florida State, so it's going to get rocky. Everybody circles Miami in a unique way. As the sole hunted team atop the conference, this isn't the Big Ten with Ohio State, Indiana, Oregon and USC, or the Big 12 with Texas Tech and BYU these past couple seasons. It's not the SEC with a number of teams in that top grouping. Miami may have been in that group in previous seasons, but they're alone now. It's not just that they're getting everybody's best shot. Internally, there has to be pressure that anything less than winning the conference and going deep in the College Football Playoff is a disappointment. Last year, there wasn't that specific pressure to get deep in the way there is this year, given the way they've spent and built their team. Again, I looked at this almost from a Lego perspective. Miami is definitely a finished Lego project. Other teams have missing Lego pieces. Other teams have people worried about following directions three pages in. Other teams are building with pieces from different Lego sets and saying, we'll get there, we'll make this pirate ship work. The only concern with Miami is whether we're leaving this DeLorean on a shelf so low that a dog or toddler could knock it over. It's built. The concern is a brain fart.

Ty (34:35): As I look at the schedule right now, the game they clearly have circled is November 7, Week 10, which is going to be a monster college football weekend. We've said it time and again: Make sure you've got that one blocked off on your family calendar so you can be in front of a TV. That is when they are on the road against Notre Dame. That will clearly be their biggest game of the season. Otherwise, beyond a game on October 3 in Week 5, on the road at Clemson, there's not a lot that gives me the heebie-jeebies. There's a home game against Florida State. I don't know what state Florida State is going to be in. We'll talk about that.

Dan (35:11): It's always going to be emotional; it's always going to be close.

Ty (35:12): But it's a rivalry, right? It's a rivalry.

Dan (35:14): Yeah.

Ty (35:14): And they have a bye before that, which helps. There is a weird trap spot before the Notre Dame game, on Halloween, on the road at North Carolina. What do we make of North Carolina in Year 2 under Belichick? We can talk that through. Beyond that, all the teams on here are very beatable for Miami, maybe with the exception of Notre Dame. Within the conference, it figures to be a clean path if they don't have a brain fart along the way.

Dan (35:46): I would say them going 10-2 is not a failure, but it's approaching failure. I would have to know how that happened.

Ty (35:54): That's got to be the floor for this team.

Dan (35:56): It would have to be Darian Mensah getting hurt or something going completely wrong with an important position, like five dudes in the secondary getting hurt. Something crazy that we hope doesn't happen. You look at the schedule, and the only team constructed comparably is Notre Dame.

Ty (36:17): Let's talk about the next tier down. I called mine It's About Trust. The way I structured mine, I've got the Miami Tier, the It's About Trust Tier, the Trying to Earn My Trust Tier, and then just the bottom five. Who do you have in your next tier down after Miami?

Dan (36:43): After Miami, I have SMU, Louisville, Clemson, Pitt and Virginia Tech. I think that's it. Yes.

Ty (36:57): So you're in on Pitt this year. Even I don't have Pitt that high.

Dan (37:00): I'm not in on Pitt contending for the conference. You're basically asking me who can go 8-4 and, with a couple breaks, 9-3. I'm not crazy confident in any of those teams, but somebody's got to do it.

Ty (37:14): I'm not either.

Dan (37:17): Did I say Virginia? I didn't say Virginia. I put Virginia there as well.

Ty (37:21): Let's start with SMU, because I think we agree on SMU, Louisville and Clemson.

Dan (37:23): Okay.

Ty (37:28): Then it starts to come off the swivel a little bit, and we can debate that. But SMU, why SMU? I've got SMU as my number two team, and I hemmed and hawed over this one, but I ultimately settled with the Mustangs.

Dan (37:40): Rhett Lashlee basically always figures it out. They return a quarterback who is an elder-statesman type. They do a good job in that system. They have continuity, not at coordinator, but by hiring from within. If SMU keeps winning and they have maintained coaches on that staff, that does it for me. They've been very smart in the portal over the years, so I trust Rhett Lashlee and Kevin Jennings. That is a playoff duo. Track record does not necessarily indicate future results, but in a conference and a world with so much chaotic transition every season, you've got to find the islands you can anchor your boat to.

Ty (38:31): I think SMU is a real contender. At the end of the day, they were my No. 2 because of Kevin Jennings and because of the offensive line, which is really experienced.

Dan (38:40): They were the Cal game away from going to the championship game last year, right?

Ty (38:44): Yeah, it was just a Cal game.

Dan (38:44): And they went and got the running back who shredded them.

Ty (38:48): Well, right.

Dan (38:48): Kendrick Raphael, yeah.

Ty (38:49): That's a really good point. The way they went about their work in the transfer portal was very targeted. They were spearfishing. They went after their exact weak spots: running back, receiver, tight end, defensive line and secondary. Beyond that, this is a fabulous schedule. Outside of a road trip to Louisville in Week 3, I don't look at the conference slate and get too worked up. They do go to Notre Dame late in the year as well.

Dan (39:18): Won't count towards their ACC record.

Ty (39:20): Right, that's a separate issue. There are some ifs here, but I think it boils down to whether the defense is good enough not to put it all on Kevin Jennings. Is he going to be in a bunch of shootout situations?

Dan (39:35): A lot of new starting faces with a new full-time coordinator.

Ty (39:39): Ultimately, I agree with you on the trust side. I like having the quarterback in Kevin Jennings, and I like Rhett Lashlee's track record. I think it's very underreported, maybe because SMU is a relative newcomer to the Power Five, now Power Four, and specifically the ACC. But he's done a really good job there in a short amount of time.

Dan (40:04): I agree. He beat the national runner-up last year with this quarterback, who was hurt for a good chunk of the season, or beat up anyway. SMU is a no-brainer for that contending tier, but not the obvious leader-of-the-pack tier.

Ty (40:25): I originally had Louisville No. 2.

Dan (40:28): Okay. I'm just going by tiers. This is the ACC. I bunch teams together.

Ty (40:32): I did the same thing, but I'm explaining my thought process. Originally, I came into this thinking I was going to have Louisville No. 2 and SMU somewhere else in that second tier behind Miami. What I kept getting hung up on was how much of a risk it is to be too high on a team with a transfer quarterback who has virtually no sample size. Look, Jeff Brohm has been nothing if not consistent when it comes to integrating a bunch of transfers every year and winning eight or nine games. It's sort of his deal. He's very good at it. But I realized after the fact, and I didn't plan this, that when I ranked these teams, I basically ranked them by how I feel about their stability. I feel better about SMU right now than I do Louisville, even though both coaches have a good track record. Brohm's track record is solid when it comes to integrating new pieces. The schedule is also solid in that they miss Miami, Clemson and Virginia Tech. The roster has good running backs. They've got a force off the edge. I think they brought in enough reinforcements through the portal. There's a lot to like. I just keep getting hung up on Lincoln Kienholz, who's probably going to be their starting quarterback, behind a rebuilt offensive line. They've also got other new pieces, like a co-coordinator situation on defense and a rebuilt secondary. We can get into that more deeply in the Louisville team preview. I know, from looking over our inbox through the years, how many Louisville fans have written in and said, we like what they're doing, we like Jeff Brohm, but we still feel like there's a little meat on the bone, and that's frustrating. I was hesitant, maybe because of the emails and maybe because of the new pieces, especially at quarterback, to go higher than No. 3 with Louisville. If you're not doing rankings, that's fine. They're definitely in that next tier down.

Dan (42:39): The problem is that Louisville is taking on the Spoilermaker identity. They're good for that upset over Clemson. They're good for that upset over Miami. But then they lose three straight to finish out the ACC slate, including teams like last year's Cal. So I don't fully trust them. I also think it's strange that the calling card of Jeff Brohm is offense, yet their defense always feels ahead of the offense.

Ty (43:03): Right, right.

Dan (43:04): They'll be able to run the ball this year, but is Lincoln Kienholz closer to some backup quarterback with no reps who transferred somewhere and succeeded, or is he closer to what happens seemingly more often, where a big-name, blue-chip quarterback doesn't get a shot somewhere? Even in-state, think Brock Vandagriff at Kentucky a couple years ago. You're like, oh, okay, he's not the guy, and there's a reason it didn't work out at the previous place. I don't have that trust in Louisville. I trust them to be Louisville. I trust them to be fine. But I don't trust them to have pop on both sides of the ball consistently.

Ty (43:45): And that's why I put them below SMU.

Dan (43:46): Another one of those teams, by the way: Louisville scored six points against SMU to finish its ACC schedule. Six.

Ty (43:55): They beat Miami on the road and got four interceptions, and it could have been five, then couldn't do much with it.

Dan (44:04): No. Yeah, I'm out. I'm out on them as a serious contender. They're a good team.

Ty (44:11): I don't even want to lead off the conversation about Clemson, because we both have Clemson in this tier as well.

Dan (44:16): In my Lego nomenclature, they're not fully built. They have pieces. There's nothing that inspires confidence about looking backward and hiring internal guys who played for you. Tajh Boyd is now the quarterbacks coach. We like Tajh Boyd fine.

Ty (44:35): He was on our show.

Dan (44:36): But going back to Chad Morris...

Ty (44:36): We had him on the show.

Dan (44:41): I don't see where there's an actual spark. I don't see a way to be confident in this team competing against a legitimately good team. I don't have faith in the coaching staff, the evolution of this program or the offensive line. Again, it's another solid team with really good expectations.

Ty (45:03): I don't have any more sunshine left to pump on the Clemson side. I was so high on them last year. I think I need a minute over here.

Dan (45:12): That's fine.

Ty (45:12): Clemson's a top-15-caliber team.

Dan (45:15): And they have LSU on the road, Miami in the first few weeks, Cal on the road, then the back half is sort of a wild card, and they obviously finish with South Carolina. I think their absolute ceiling is 9-3.

Ty (45:29): I think they could be a top-15-caliber team, mostly because of their defense. If the offense pops, maybe we're talking about more. But I'm first focusing my glaze on the defense and what I think they have up front.

Dan (45:45): Oh, did you say glaze or gaze?

Ty (45:49): I said glaze on purpose. Did you like that turn of phrase?

Dan (45:50): Oh my god, Ty, spicy.

Ty (45:53): Thank you.

Dan (45:55): I didn't know you were out here focusing your glaze, okay?

Ty (45:57): That's right, baby. But the ceiling for me is the offense. They bring back Chad Morris. Can he build a really good offense in 2026 with these players? It's not 2012 anymore. Can they get better by going back to a former version of themselves? I don't know what that looks like. Christopher Vizzina is going to be the new starting quarterback. If he's any good, they'll be fine. As you know, we did our Sark Tank episode with Andy Staples a few months ago. He brought up Tait Reynolds, their freshman. Maybe he could be part of this conversation if it doesn't go well. Who knows what happens in the early part of that season? Who knows what happens if Florida State is any good this year, and how that could change the calculus of the schedule and make it tougher?

Dan (46:47): They weren't bad last year. They're another one of those teams that had a high floor. They weren't incompetent. They were competent all the time.

Ty (46:59): All right, so we agree on those four: Miami, SMU, Louisville and Clemson. This is where we start to go on separate paths. Next up, you've got Pitt and Virginia. I have Virginia Tech and NC State in this bracket. It didn't sound like you do. Explain why you're high on Virginia and Pitt and why you've got them one rung above me.

Dan (47:31): It's not that I'm super high on any of these teams. It's that I've watched ACC football before, and you're always going to have a couple chunks in the meaty middle. I think James Franklin is a good coach. I think there's talent on this roster. I think they're going to be significantly better at times than they were last season. They've got a good home-field advantage. I'm not high on them in a huge way in Year 1, but literally 90% of the teams in the ACC can go 7-5 or 8-4 in any given season and, with a couple breaks, even better. So I feel good about what Virginia can do on defense this season.

Ty (48:11): Virginia or Virginia Tech?

Dan (48:13): Virginia. My initial points were about Virginia Tech. Period. I also feel good about where Virginia could be on defense again this year. When I look at these teams I consider to be in that second tier of threatening eight or nine wins, I ask, what quarterbacks are they facing? If we're starting this episode with quarterback concerns, Virginia and Virginia Tech both have a good amount of quarterback concern on their schedules. Maybe Virginia has a slight advantage there in terms of the quarterbacks it's going to face. I saw the proof of concept last year that they can win close games with defense and timely offense. I'm going to lump a lot of these teams together. They're very hard to separate. They all appear able to do something pretty well, and they all have clear flaws.

Ty (49:21): Pitt.

Dan (49:22): I can be seduced by the best of Mason Heintschel. I can be seduced by having a high-floor coach and coaching staff. I know they made an internal promotion at defensive coordinator. They're very good evaluators of talent. They develop talent at Pitt. It seems like every season we're getting decent draft picks, or saying, oh yeah, this linebacker is great and he's going to Texas. They develop dudes at Pitt. They seem to win enough. They'll have seasons where they're super down and seasons where they're uncharacteristically up, but when you bet on coaching and returning upside at quarterback, nine wins seems like a stretch. Seven and a half or eight is fine. They're in that category for me.

Ty (50:14): What I'm doing now is breaking apart my tiers, and maybe yours as well. I've added a fifth tier between It's About Trust and Trying to Earn My Trust. I have a Who Knows Tier, which I'm adding Virginia and Pitt to, along with Virginia Tech and NC State, because those are the two teams we disagree on. I agree with a lot of what you said about Virginia Tech. I think Virginia Tech is damn near impossible to project this year.

Dan (50:42): Of course.

Ty (50:42): There's just too much new. We've obviously seen this before, where a new coach comes from one place and brings all his guys. It can take flight quickly. I'm of the mind that this is a solid eight-win team for Virginia Tech. If they get to nine, it's because Ethan Grunkemeyer ends up popping, or maybe Brent Pry fixes his own defense from a year ago, given some of the reinforcements they brought in. I don't think it takes much to get them to nine wins. At a minimum, if you're a Hokies fan, the days of going 3-9 are over.

Dan (51:20): I think those are over. I think the floor is considerably higher.

Ty (51:22): Those are done. The irony for James Franklin is this: He could potentially start 7-0 and then close out the year with ranked road games against Clemson, SMU and Miami. All could be pretty good, ranked and on the road. He got fired after losing some dumb games last year, but the real reason was that he couldn't beat ranked teams. He's going to have an opportunity to avenge some of those ranked losses the deeper we get into this year. It'll be interesting to see how he responds, and whether this team is built to handle one or multiple of those games.

Dan (52:01): Didn't he build the team, though he didn't coach the team, that beat Clemson in the Pinstripe Bowl? Institutional knowledge of how to beat current-day Dabo.

Ty (52:12): I don't have much to add on the Virginia and Pitt front, but let me throw NC State into this bucket as well.

Dan (52:19): Okay, that's fair.

Ty (52:22): NC State has C.J. Bailey, who I believe can make things happen. Its focus in the portal was getting protection for C.J. Bailey more than going out and getting targets for him. You can debate the philosophy behind that, but protecting your star quarterback is important. Factor that in with Jayden "Duke" Scott, who has switched his jersey and is now wearing No. 1. He very much has the profile of a bell-cow back. The schedule also avoids much of what is projected to be the ACC's top tier.

Dan (53:05): No Miami, no Notre Dame, no Clemson. It looks like no Pitt, Virginia Tech or Virginia.

Ty (53:14): It's a good schedule. It's a really good schedule.

Dan (53:16): It's a good schedule. Yeah.

Ty (53:17): The hesitation is receiver, right? You focused your resources on protecting the quarterback, maybe not giving him a little more to throw to. That's an open question. The defense doesn't bring back a lot. One of those rooms, I think linebacker, is being completely rebuilt. The pass defense last year left a lot to be desired. But eight or nine wins, with maybe a shot at more, is probably on the table. If they can find those targets and the defense gets a little better against the pass, that's why I'm higher on NC State than I expected. The schedule sets up really nicely, and it's not a stretch to think one of those two things goes well and gives them more lift.

Dan (54:05): I think they could have a very good record. I also think they could lose in the back half of their schedule to Syracuse, if Steve Angeli is back and healthy, or to Cal. I don't know whom Cal has before NC State. That's a tough stretch because they're at SMU a week before. I'm in on NC State taking advantage of a gettable schedule. I'm out on NC State being anything truly more than it has been recently.

Ty (54:34): So far, we've got the Miami Tier featuring Miami. We've got the It's About Trust Tier featuring SMU, Louisville and Clemson. We have a Who Knows Tier with Virginia, Pitt, Virginia Tech and NC State. That brings us to the bottom half of the conference, nine teams: Florida State, Georgia Tech, Cal, Duke, Wake Forest, North Carolina, Syracuse, Boston College and Stanford. How would you group those remaining teams?

Dan (55:11): I would group Duke, Wake Forest, Florida State, Cal and maybe Georgia Tech together. They're my squint-and-they've-got-a-spark teams, my jam-band teams. You're not really considering much from them this season. Georgia Tech has everything that's new. Florida State has its recent track record. Wake Forest has upside, but does it have the actual dudes on the roster? Cal has been sort of a pet team for me this season, but it's hard with a first-time head coach and very young coordinators to feel good about them big picture. I think Cal is going to be really fun for stretches. There's something about Duke and Manny Diaz that I can't get past, in a good way. They won the conference with basically no offensive line and no defense last year. They pulled rabbits out of the hat constantly, and it was a weird 0-3 nonconference year, with losses to Illinois, Tulane and UConn. That, to me, is coaching. They let their quarterback walk before the season started, got another quarterback, and he was terrific. He is finding wins at yard sales. I can't put them any lower than this tier, even though things seem to be working against them considerably. Florida State was competent enough last season. I don't feel great about them, but I don't think they're going to be catastrophic. Wake has upside because I think they're well coached, they return enough key guys on defense, and they found wins at yard sales last year. I have Cal, Florida State, Wake Forest and Duke. I'm not tempted by Georgia Tech here. I think it's going to be a down year. Brent Key is a very good coach, but I think it's going to be an adjustment season. Is there anybody else you would put in that category?

Ty (57:17): I do have Georgia Tech in there.

Dan (57:19): Okay.

Ty (57:21): I do have Georgia Tech in there, and I struggled with that one too. I think they're past the proof-of-concept stage under Brent Key. Remember when he got the job? Can he make this work? He's a Georgia Tech guy through and through, with the offensive-lineman mentality. Is it going to work? I think the time he had Haynes King and Buster Faulkner, and the system they were running, built up a lot of optimism. Now they've had three straight winning seasons. What does that look like post-Haynes King and post-Buster Faulkner? I don't know. Alberto Mendoza has gotten a lot of buzz. We've been reading about him all offseason, not just because of his brother, but because he has impressed in his short time since transferring to Georgia Tech. If he pops, maybe this is a different conversation. They also got Justice Haynes at running back. They're going to try to use him and give that offense more of the physical mentality it has had the last couple years. But I need to see it to believe it. So much of what they did was built around one guy. Now that he's gone and they have to go in a different direction, it's not concerning, but it's worth noting.

Dan (58:42): This will be Brent Key's fourth season coaching Georgia Tech, if I'm doing my math correctly. Four defensive coordinators in four years. You just can't sell me on this Georgia Tech team. I think he's done a terrific job, but it has been because of the offense. I don't know how long you can keep that up with that type of change and that search for somebody to build a foundation on defense. I thought Tyler Santucci, the Tooch, did a decent job two years ago. Blake Gideon is gone. They're starting over again on defense. I don't love starting over on defense, at quarterback and at offensive coordinator in the same year. It's rubbing me the wrong way. I'm not in right now.

Ty (59:32): Yeah, I couldn't go much higher than this, I'll tell you that.

Dan (59:34): The job he's done is undeniable. What Georgia Tech has been recently is undeniable. I just think it's difficult to keep up with those types of changes.

Ty (59:44): I agree with that, not to mention the end of their season is brutal, schedule-wise. They've got a nice little runway, but it gets real in a hurry at the end of the year.

Dan (01:00:00): Oh, yeah. I don't love this schedule. The home-road splits aren't great.

Ty (01:00:04): No.

Dan (01:00:04): They have Wake in a great sandwich spot for Wake, between a road game at Clemson and a road game against Georgia. Yeah, not ideal.

Ty (01:00:14): The only other one I wanted to call out is Florida State, because for a multitude of reasons it will be a really interesting team to follow the deeper we get into this year.

Dan (01:00:26): Oh man, this schedule though.

Ty (01:00:27): The schedule makes it really tough for Mike Norvell. I jotted down on my document: Here we go again. How many years are we going to do this? They keep Norvell. He goes out and gets Ashton Daniels, who is now going to be QB1. They announced it earlier this spring. They still have Duce Robinson, who's a really good wide receiver. Tre Wisner and Ousmane Kromah at running back should be able to carry the run game, provided the line is functional. Those guys are pretty solid. They also bring back Tony White for another crack at it on defense. But I'm not sold on Ashton Daniels. I think his physical tools are good. There's a lot to his game that needs polishing.

Dan (01:01:14): Yeah.

Ty (01:01:16): For me, we have not seen a recent body of work from Mike Norvell developing these guys. How many quarterbacks have really popped for Mike Norvell outside Jordan Travis, who was also a transfer right away when he got to Florida State? Outside him, how many quarterbacks have worked at Florida State?

Dan (01:01:37): I think it's a slightly unfair question because everybody counts on transfer quarterbacks right now. You can count on one hand, essentially, the number of internally developed quarterbacks who are going to pop this year on a huge stage, whereas the transfers...

Ty (01:01:57): How many of the ones that he's brought in have actually gotten better or lived up to the hype?

Dan (01:02:02): Not many. I'm not saying he's done a great job there, but in this era, Ohio State won a national championship with a quarterback somebody else developed. Ryan Day had Lincoln Kienholz, Air Noland, Devin Brown. You're like, what's going on with Ohio State? Nobody is saying that. Julian Sayin was technically a transfer.

Ty (01:02:33): Everybody's a transfer.

Dan (01:02:34): Yeah.

Ty (01:02:35): I want to believe Florida State has the personnel to turn this thing around. I just wonder if the constant albatross hanging around their necks with Mike Norvell's job status will become too much to bear. That's going to be the conversation starting in Week 1. Every Florida State fan knows it, and everybody who follows college football, certainly if you're listening to this show, will think of that first when they think of Florida State. This is very much a referendum on the Norvell era. He has taken the play-calling sheet back. He rebuilt the staff and personnel infrastructure and is running it back with Tony White and all that stuff. But this is not a favorable schedule. It's a schedule that will demand proof almost immediately.

Dan (01:03:26): Of the teams in this conference that we think could struggle, Boston College, maybe Duke, Stanford, probably Stanford, North Carolina, Florida State doesn't play any of them. These are the power-conference teams Florida State has on its schedule: SMU, Alabama, Virginia, Louisville, Miami, Clemson, Pitt, NC State, Florida and Boston College. BC is the one game where, at least right now, you're like, they're probably not going to be good. That's it. I'm not saying Florida State can't beat some of those teams, but the math says 6-6 or 7-5, maybe.

Ty (01:04:13): Where do we have Cal? Where do you have Cal? Did you mention Cal?

Dan (01:04:15): I have them in the wild-card tier with Wake and Duke. I have them ahead of Georgia Tech because I think their starting point at quarterback is more secure. I don't know what Alberto Mendoza is going to do for Georgia Tech. Obviously, there's reason to believe he'll have a good year. I'm not sure I love the system Georgia Tech is running or the pop in the passing game overall. With Cal, I trust that pop. I think we're going to see a nice step forward for the offense.

Ty (01:04:44): Do you think Tosh is going to be a good coach?

Dan (01:04:47): I think Tosh is better suited to be a head coach than a coordinator. I think he has the personality and is the recruiter needed at a place like Cal. Because he has coached at places where he's seen what it takes, at Alabama, Washington when it was good or at least decent, and Oregon most recently, he has seen the rhythms. I think he was with Urban Meyer in Jacksonville, so he's been around Urban Meyer, perhaps not peak Urban Meyer.

Ty (01:05:19): Yeah, strike that from the record. We'll just redact that.

Dan (01:05:23): I think he has spent enough time around success to take the proper notes on what works and what he would do once he got this opportunity. I think he has the personality to build a quality team.

Ty (01:05:41): It's a first-year head coach. They have two first-time coordinators. The line is unsettled. The backfield is rebuilt. The defense is replacing most of its production. But they retained JKS, Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, their true sophomore quarterback who had a really good freshman campaign. I'm sure plenty of teams around college football came asking to see whether JKS wanted to leave. But Tosh made it his first order of business. I believe he flew to the islands and slept on a bench.

Dan (01:06:13): He slept on a bench at the beach. It was something like he flew there, met with the family, and his flight wasn't until 6 a.m., but he didn't want to ask the family to stay over. So he said, all right, I'll figure something out.

Ty (01:06:28): Did he not have a company card at that point?

Dan (01:06:29): I think he slept on a bench. I don't know what it was. It wasn't worth finding a hotel for an hour and a half or something. I think he brought a suit and slept on a bench in a suit. I've got the story wrong, but there are grains of it that are true.

Ty (01:06:44): I love that. That would be a fun story, especially in this conference, where traveling out there gives them something of an advantage.

Dan (01:06:51): They'd better be tricky. It's a tricky schedule, but I think they can be tricky for others too. They have UCLA and Clemson, but Clemson is coming to Cal on short notice. They have one of the two Mountain West favorites in UNLV, and that's on the road in Vegas. There's a lot of quality on this schedule. Cal has Stanford, obviously, but there's not a ton else where you're like, all right, that seems like a win. There's a high floor on this schedule.

Ty (01:07:18): We've covered pretty much every team at this point, if only in passing. There are a few left. We've covered Miami, SMU, Louisville, Clemson, Virginia Tech, NC State, Virginia, Pitt, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Cal, Duke and Wake. The last four are North Carolina, Syracuse, Boston College and Stanford. Of those four, which do you feel best about?

Dan (01:07:43): I feel best about Syracuse's upside at quarterback with Steve Angeli. I don't know his current health situation.

Ty (01:07:51): He's ready to go. He says he's a full go.

Dan (01:07:53): He's okay? I like Angeli. I like the energy of Fran Brown. They play in a weird place. I guess I'll put Syracuse there. They had clearly the worst season of these teams last year. So I guess I'll go Syracuse, Stanford, North Carolina, then Boston College.

Ty (01:08:21): I've got North Carolina, Syracuse, Boston College and Stanford. I thought about putting BC last, but...

Dan (01:08:27): I guess North Carolina showed some flash near the end of last year.

Ty (01:08:30): They showed flashes, and I still think they're going to be okay with what they have on defense.

Dan (01:08:35): But they lost those dudes. Okay.

Ty (01:08:43): I was looking at Bill's SP+, and of course this isn't gospel, but he has them as a top-35 or top-40-caliber defense. There's a lot of turnover, no question. But if you've got a top-40-caliber defense, you're above those other teams we mentioned, in my opinion. So I'm a little higher on them. I don't get the whole offense thing. I guess it's going to be Billy Edwards Jr.

Dan (01:09:12): Cool.

Ty (01:09:13): Paired up with Bobby Petrino.

Dan (01:09:16): Look, Bobby Petrino is going to score points sometimes, at some places.

Ty (01:09:21): Take a look at the schedule. I'm curious to get your thoughts on the schedule.

Dan (01:09:25): The North Carolina schedule: They open with the return trip to TCU. They have Clemson on the road, Pitt on the road, Duke on the road in the rivalry and new-look UConn on the road.

Ty (01:09:36): That game is in Ireland, by the way. We should specify.

Dan (01:09:37): That should be doable. Yes. Go to Bambino's Pizza. Then Notre Dame, Miami and Louisville.

Ty (01:09:46): The end of the schedule looks like murder to me.

Dan (01:09:49): If North Carolina is going to a bowl game, it is likely through TCU, Elon, Duke, Syracuse, UConn and NC State. I don't feel great about those six wins.

Ty (01:10:07): I've got North Carolina there, above Syracuse. 'Cuse wasn't as bad as 3-9, certainly not if Steve Angeli is healthy. They're bringing over Vince Kehres, the longtime defensive coordinator at Toledo, which gives them a fresh start on defense. They have a really high overall returning-production number, especially on the defensive side of the ball, which gives them a base for everything.

Dan (01:10:35): But what's that base? This was a defense that did nothing.

Ty (01:10:40): This is the Bill Connelly thing. Just because you're returning guys, is that good? I don't know.

Dan (01:10:46): His track record is great, but if you don't have the guys, you don't have the guys. You can put Dick LeBeau on this sideline. Put Mike Macdonald there. It doesn't matter.

Ty (01:10:58): I still think Syracuse is going to find a way to get into a bowl because I believe in Fran Brown. Fran Brown knows how to motivate the troops. Provided they can stay healthy, I think this will be a team that, at a minimum, puts up some points. If they get a little better on defense, 6-6 is probably the...

Dan (01:11:12): Yeah.

Ty (01:11:17): Ceiling for me. I see Bill has it at about a 25% chance they get to six. I think that may be a little low.

Dan (01:11:25): Thank God we live in a college football universe that gives us Cal at Syracuse as a conference matchup. Cool.

Ty (01:11:36): I thought about putting Boston College last, but it does look like they're at least trying to build the roster in a serious way. Their quarterback is going to be Mason McKenzie from Saginaw Valley State.

Dan (01:11:52): Great. Great for his life.

Ty (01:11:54): He can run, and he might have to. I like that part of his game. I'm curious to see how they use it. My problem is, always and forever, Ted Roof. I just don't understand why they hired this guy. Their defense is not going to be any better with him coaching it. I'm not counting on any kind of defensive support for Boston College this year, to the point where I thought about putting them dead last.

Dan (01:12:23): I have them dead last. They finish their schedule with Pitt, Georgia Tech on the road, Duke on the road, Notre Dame on the road, Florida State sandwiched between Duke and Miami, Miami on the road, and Ted Roof being the chaperone on those trips.

Ty (01:12:40): I jotted down on my note sheet: Defense, one of the least efficient in the country... Ted Roof is going to fix that?

Dan (01:12:50): Right. Excellent.

Ty (01:12:53): And then Stanford. Look, Stanford is in full rebuild mode. I don't know what to make of the hire. Clearly, Tavita Pritchard has institutional familiarity with the Cardinal. Retention looks a little better than I expected. He was able to retain a little more, but Davis Warren is the quarterback, still playing apparently. A lot of this looks to me like a Year 0 situation.

Dan (01:13:18): Yes, Stanford is not going to be good this year, but I think they have more. Their defense, at least, got to a decent place. Look, they gave up 50 to Notre Dame at the end of the season, but the defense was quietly decent enough down the stretch that I feel good about a reset and about them getting enough stops. Stanford can recruit in a way, and this is more big picture moving forward, that I think will allow it to build better rosters than the teams we're comparing it against, like North Carolina, Boston College and Syracuse. I feel like there are slightly more vibes in Palo Alto. They also have the weird thing where everybody is flying across the country to play them. They beat Louisville a couple years ago. I don't know. They'll back into a couple wins they shouldn't, perhaps.

Ty (01:14:15): So I think this is how we've got it. Our top tier is Miami. The next one down is SMU, Louisville and Clemson. The next one is Virginia Tech, NC State, Virginia and Pitt. These are in no particular order, by the way. Then we've got Florida State, Georgia Tech, Cal, Duke and Wake in a tier. The bottom four are North Carolina, Syracuse, Boston College and Stanford. Those are 17 teams. We did not include Notre Dame in this episode. We'll do that in the next one, once we get into team previews. That's the lay of the land in the After Canes Conference, Dan.

Dan (01:14:54): The After Canes Conference. I'm trying to see if I have anything else written down. Legos, nicknames, tiers. Oh, and I had the different factions of coaches too. There we are. ACC Part 1. Can't wait.

Ty (01:15:12): ACC Part 1 is in the books. We've got Parts 2 and 3 yet to come, where we dive into questions about individual teams.

Dan (01:15:21): Yes.

Ty (01:15:21): That's a little bit deeper. We'll tell you what to look for, why to be interested and why you should care about some of these teams, even if you don't otherwise. Make sure you hit follow or subscribe so you don't miss any of those episodes. And, of course, Verballers.com, V-E-R-B-A-L-L-E-R-S.com. That is our Patreon. If you want to support the team, sign up for the Certified or Premium tier. You get access to some of the games we're going to be rolling out. We built the whole fan portal this year, Dan. You know about this already.

Dan (01:15:48): I do.

Ty (01:15:49): We built the whole fan portal. Everyone is going to be able to play the games there. It'll be a nice little community. You also get these episodes a little early and without the ads, et cetera, et cetera.

Dan (01:15:59): Ty, you also agreed, right? I don't want to speak out of turn here. You will be doing virtual personal training for new Patreon signups.

Ty (01:16:06): I absolutely will not. No.

Dan (01:16:08): Ty will help you hammer your core.

Ty (01:16:10): No. No.

Dan (01:16:11): Now, the whole thing. I'm not talking just abs, let's be clear. The whole chain: your hamstrings, your lower back, your core, your glutes.

Ty (01:16:17): I will not be doing any of this. Nope.

Dan (01:16:19): We're talking weekly 4K tutorials.

Ty (01:16:20): Nope.

Dan (01:16:23): And depending on the tier, Ty will do live sessions. I'm under that understanding. I saw that in our Google Doc.

Ty (01:16:30): Mm-hmm.

Dan (01:16:31): Is that something completely different?

Ty (01:16:32): I... you must have made that Google Doc.

Dan (01:16:33): Is that a different thing?

Ty (01:16:36): I will not be doing that. I regret to inform you.

Dan (01:16:39): I just thought, with our history with the Quadfather, you were feeling especially inspired and wanted that kinetic chain to be really thumping for our paid subscribers. No? I'm sorry. I misinterpreted that Google Doc.

Ty (01:16:54): That is your ACC Part 1 preview. Write in to solidverbal@gmail.com if you have thoughts to the contrary, want to reinforce anything we said or have thoughts otherwise. We'd love to hear from you. For that guy over there, Dan Rubenstein, and for myself over here, Ty Hildenbrandt, we'll catch you all with Part 2. Stay solid.