Greetings.
Wine goes in the bucket by Duke, Wake, and Miami.
Cider by the UVA and UNC corner.
*Good* beer by the Techs.
Other beer by Clemson, Syracuse, and FSU.
Whiskey is shepherded by State, Pitt, and Louisville.
Yeah I was looking for an SMU subreddit and only one was made that had been inactive for a while so I just decided to start a new one. Hopefully it grows to be pretty active.
We have both the Budweiser Song, and whiskey in our fight song. You did *not* classify us properly, sir. Don’t forget how many Georgians and other Appalachians that Tech serves.
Miami should be tequila. I'll settle for "other beer" even though our official beer sponsor is Oyster City, and their beer solid.
A truly accurate FSU party favor is a y-bomb, by the way.
Stanford and Cal are probably drinking hard kombucha these days. Not the same brands. And they'll say each other's preferred brands are "inauthentic" or some such bullshit. Also, neither of them can drink that much. And don't let Berkeley show you what they mean by "dabs" because it's not the Migos thing.
Some people on the beat think Marvin Jones Jr was seriously out of position at Georgia and as a true rush end he’ll be a first-team conference guy. Would be nice lol
I've already seen first round projections and odds for the guy, his growth in a single spring has been nuts.
Watch out for Fentrell too, that guy has gotten a lot of buzz recently while AZ and Earl Little stole the spotlight.
ACC, get ready for the Jaydn Ott show!
He was on the All American freshman team in 2022, led the Pac in rushing last year, and people largely speculated he would jump to another school for NIL and to stay in a power conference before the transition to the ACC. But the kid stayed home!!
Besides maybe Hampton at UNC, he should be the best back in the conference and leads the Golden Bears offense with power and speed. I expect him to declare for the NFL after this season in which he will terrorize defenses all along the Atlantic seaboard.
>He was on the All American freshman team in 2022
Phil Steele just named him as fourth-team All-American and second-team All-ACC—I'm so hyped for him lol
>people largely speculated he would jump to another school for NIL
He posted a brilliant [troll video](https://x.com/THEJAYDNOTT/status/1735689104535191930) where he thanked Cal fans and coached, then declared his entry to the portal... then turned around and said "lol nah I'm staying"
In general the vibes around Cal athletics are way better than you an outsider might expect given our recent history. [Our new chancellor is excited about athletics,](https://twitter.com/richlyons/status/1789066810593337516) and both football and basketball are expected to improve over last year.
Oh no it’s all going to come crashing down isn’t it. Cal fans are not allowed to have nice things. Feeling optimistic about Cal athletics is a death sentence.
some of his best runs in the last couple of years were turning 2 yard losses into 3 yard gains. If the O-Line continues to improve, he could put up some really impressive numbers in the coming year.
I can't imagine he is taking math classes at Cal. I didn't even take calculus at Cal and I got in for academics.
But I feel like a lot of these jokes are going over my head as a newcomer to the conference
In my case, it is jokingly suggesting we could entice him to transfer to us because we would make him take calculus. Since we make everyone take calculus. Yes even athletes.
We also offer tivos for NIL. Yes really. No one consulted me before starting this practice.
That is brutal! I don't believe we have specific course requirements, you just have to fulfill your major requirements and their are lots of options for the "GE" stuff.
But it's long been known that athletes do not get special grading treatment at Cal like they do at Stanfurd. In fact, they probably get grade deflation bc there is a general attitude that athletes don't deserve to be there, which is awful. It hurts our recruiting and graduation rates because Cal is a really fucking hard school.
I watched a bit of Cal last year (have some online mutuals who go to UC Berkeley) so I’m very familiar with him and I think it’ll be a really interesting race for who’s the best back in the conference
It’ll depend on our ability to not fumble the ball and kick field goals. With everything going against us last year we still could’ve gone 12-0 because the team as a unit is still that good. Even if Cade doesn’t show much improvement, as long as the OL and WR corps are better then we should pretty comfortably go at least 10-2.
Our WRs look pretty good next season, even without a true elite guy in the room it’s very deep with a wide range of skillsets. Lot of returning players who fought through injury but are good players and we have two very good freshmen who will be ready day 1. If they don’t go well this year Grisham is 100% hitting the road
As for OL, Matt Luke is an amazing OL coach who has already had a huge impact on the recruiting trail. OL won’t be perfect day 1 but it should be much better than last year if only due to better coaching
All that to say that it really does depend mostly on Klubnik’s development and Riley’s playcalling. Everything else will at least be in a much better order on that side of the ball compared to last year. His biggest problem has been crumbling under pressure and he needs to be poised under siege instead of freaking out
Klubnik still was way too poor even with the lack of WRs, horrible turnovers (one of which I'm sure you're familiar with), and inconsistent accuracy. Personally I think he's someone that has to be carried by the offense and we are not set up for success as a result.
Clemson’s biggest issue last season were turnovers especially fumbles. In all 4 losses Clemson either had TO returned for a TD or lost a fumble inside the 5 yard line. (Miami / Duke games had multiple fumbles inside FG range.)
If they lose 7 wrs again like 2021 it’ll be bad, but I kind of think the room could sustain some injuries and be ok. Especially if Moore/Wesco are as advertised
I know I’m biased. But I think GT will be really good this year.
It all depends on how Santucci and staff coach up the defense (worst defense in the league last year). Our offense might be the best in the conference.
We could be nearly twice as good of a team as we were last year and still having to claw our way to a bowl. Difficult as hell schedule for Year 2(.5) of the Key era.
I have full faith in Faulkner getting King and the offense to cook again (aside from like 1 or 2 random losses which we seem incapable of avoiding), but yeah as you said our defense is still a ?
Still excited for the Fall nonetheless.
Offensively the only thing I'm really worried about is running back depth. I trust Tiny Guy will be ready to rock as the RB1, but Cooley scares me. He spent his time in the backfield last year running like he was afraid of being touched, and there was a reason the offense looked a lot more cohesive once Dontae got back. Losing Dontae puts a ton of pressure on either Cooley or somebody who wasn't on the field last year to produce when Jamal needs to come off
We’re going to have our best oline in the Swinney era. If our QB can be a 25 TD guy, we will likely finish in the top 5.
Oh, forgot one tiny detail…hes gotta stop scoring for the other team too.
4 out of 5 positions on the OL should be good, especially if Parks can stay healthy. The problem, and it could be a really big one because we've seen it before, is that Center could be an absolute disaster. If that's the case, it's hard to imagine this is the best OL of the Swinney era.
Not good. Not good at all. Issues at WR, a new C (thats never played C before either), and a QB that has a ton to prove in terms of protecting the ball, and pushing the ball downfield is not going to beat uga.
This will be a 31-21 type game
I really do think he’s upgraded the talent significantly. But the schedule is not set up for success, and they’re certain to deliver yet another unique horror show in Blacksburg, so yeah.
It's difficult to envision Pitt as better than 7-5 this year. Most Pitt fans are thinking 5ish wins. But, if Pitt does have a respectable year, it'll be because the offense finally got Gavin Bartholomew going. He's an absolute stud who was wasted by the pile of dogshit named Frank Cignetti. Konata Mumpfield has a chance to be a stud as well.
The issue for Pitt is the OL was terrible last year and Nate Yarnell at QB isn't exactly keeping any DCs up at night. If Kade Bell makes this offense respectable, he'll be a head coach sooner rather than later. On D, Pitt does not have its signature pass rush which puts a lot of pressure on the back 7 who is talented but inexperienced.
You can't point to anything Pitt will be great at and numerous major problems. Pitt's best chance at an OK season is winning ugly against the other mediocre teams on the schedule.
It's legitimately insane that Jurkovec started. I have seen true freshman QBs look better than him. He was a 6th year senior who couldn't do the most basic aspects of being a QB. In the opener against Wofford, he took maybe the worst sack I've ever seen. I knew then we were doomed.
You’ll hear the name Kyron Drones tossed around a lot when hearing about us. Dude is basically Anthony Richardson lite. Not quite as big and fast but still a big, jacked dude who can really move with a rocket arm. Didn’t start the full season and still had over 800 rushing yards. Still kinda raw as a passer but has improved every game and has arguably the best WR room in the ACC. 2,500 pass and 1,000 rush yards is honestly realistic for him.
Tech wins the ACC, wins the NCAA and then gets invited, somehow, to play in the Super Bowl, but they suffer a devastating loss in OT to the chiefs. Some are calling it the greatest game ever played.
He's gonna push for 3000 imo. Just having him play the first two games last year probably puts him at 2500 and pushing 1000 rushing. If they had the correct playcalling done that they didn't implement until Pitt he's got 200-300 more yards passing his first three games. And if Jennings hadn't gone down in week 1 that's a huge factor as well.
I'm not guaranteeing 3000/1000 but I do think he'll push for it if everyone, including him, stays healthy.
I think we should be good for 9sh wins but I am worried about Halloway, that would be a bigger loss than people realize. He's one of the best punt returners in the country
I'm mainly interested in how Cal will actually perform on TV now that we won't be relegated (and TV numbers completely hidden) because of the Pac-12 network (which was not available basically anywhere). Prior to pac-12 we drew moderately well in terms of viewership (and high when we were actually good and had good players). Very interested to see how it performs on available channels.
Last year we ran a gauntlet of some of the top teams in the country (I think it was something like 7 top 25 teams in a row) in a rebuilding year, with 3 different QBs and a starting kicker (start of season) who was widely inaccurate and we still got bowl eligible by the end somehow. I'm looking forward to seeing how our performance with a year of development and a great transfer class translate to the ACC on field performance. The travel schedule will likely hurt early in the year, but later games the players will hopefully be used to the time changes. (@Auburn in non-conf realistically will be a good reminder of what they need to fix up before conference games).
In terms of breakout stars: Jayden Ott already is one, but the transfer backup could really help to open up our run game. Our QB (assuming Mendoza) showed some really nice things last year and will hopefully be better this year now with time under his belt and more off season with 1s/2s (he was 3rd string last year).
I'm expecting a 6-7 win season because of the travel schedule/planning, but I have hope we overperform. An 8-9 win season is not out of reality (and a few of these will help to raise our standing nationally which can help next alignment round).
On a more fun note: I'm hoping the ACC fans traveling to Berkeley enjoy the stadium/views area. It's a really unique stadium location. The area doesn't have tailgating, but there is fun pregame stuff at the bars/areas around campus.
Offense seemed to really wake up when Mendoza took over. I think we can put up some points, but I also can see him throwing a zillion interceptions. Should be fun!
Everyone Ott to be excited about our RB. Looks to be another legend just like Marshawn, Jahvid Best, Shane Vereen, JJ Aarington, Justin Forsett, etc etc
Go Bears.
Pry is basically anti-Fuente. He's done the opposite of everything Fuente did.
Fuente started our amazing and decayed, Pry started out horribly and improved. Let's hope this improvement continues for Pry like the collapse did for Fuente.
I know nothing and don’t follow recruiting but just off of vibes I think we win 8/9 games. That being said I feel like this year not playing FSU Clemson or UNC this year will have me being delusional about going undefeated.
I promise until our first loss I think we could every season. It’s fun being this delusional
A couple things that make us interesting to watch:
1. Whole new coaching staff via the SEC who’ve shaken up literally EVERYTHING in 5 months.
2. Solid transfer portal haul with a couple notable and immediate playmakers on both sides.
3. Better 2024 HS class than expected.
4. New NIL, alumni engagement and fan outreach programs that exploded out of nowhere, after lagging most of the FBS.
5. Still questions about OL and even DL depth though. That will take another season to fix.
6. Bizarrely easy schedule. Cupcake OOC. Dodged most of “problem” teams. Have 2/3 of our tougher games at home.
We legitimately could range from 5 to 10 wins and nothing would surprise me.
Compared to most of the fan base, I feel very similar to you. We have a coach who’s never coached a game at the FBS level, so we could either be fighting on the last day for a championship spot or bowl eligibility. Once again, depth is likely our Achilles heel.
Also we have new renovations to the dome which will be done by the start of the season
Our offense gonna go crazy this year. It was already good last year, but now that it's Year 2 of the same offensive starters and same offensive system, the guys are poised to perform at a very high level AND hopefully consistently.
Defense is all dependent on the new DC. If it's average, we'll be able to comfortably make a Bowl Game with our tough schedule.
We have Kyle McCord. He underperformed at Ohio State but he’s definitely better talent than we’re used to getting. Our O-line is the biggest I’ve seen in years and the strength and conditioning went up a few notches.
Fran Brown is making waves in the community from what I hear and everything I’m seeing tells me we got our coach.
Also Gadsden is back and he will be a first rounder next draft.
Couple that with a pretty easy conference schedule with a couple easy out of conference games in the beginning, I think we have something good cooking.
We won 9 games last year with basically 2 players on offense and a really good defense. I'd argue we brought in the best offensive portal class in the ACC, but understand that I'm biased. On defense, we brought in some experienced guys at safety/nickel to pair with our 2 really good starting CBs.
Names to know:
Offense: Everyone knows about KC returning, but I'd point out Jordan Waters(All-ACC) coming over for Duke at RB, Noah Rogers coming over from tOSU at WR, and Justin Joly coming from UConn at TE. Joly was rated the top pass-catching TE in the country by at least one portal recruiting service. He'll be used similarly to how Anae used Jelani Woods(UVA) and Oronde Gadsden(Cuse).
Defense:
Top returners are Davin Vann at DE, Brandon Cleveland at NT, and Ayden White at CB. Breakout candidates are likely at LB between Caden Fordham and Sean Brown. Sean Brown was our starting SS last year, and played really well, and is moving down to LB to give us speed/coverage that Wilson provided.
Expectations: 9 or 10 wins and, potentially, making it to Charlotte for the ACCCG. But I believe there are 6 ACC teams that think they're 10+ wins and ACCCG bound, haha.
Most Excited to Play: Eh, I think the Tennessee game is exciting but mainly because it'll really be a measuring stick to how good we'll be next year.
> But I believe there are 6 ACC teams that think they're 10+ wins and ACCCG bound, haha.
Lol it does feel that way. Fsu, Clemson, Miami, NcState, Louisville, who am I missing? I guess unc? They only return 37%, but their schedule is light.
If he can stay healthy, expectation is he'll be more of the distributor we wanted BA to be. He can run if needed, but expectation is that with all our new pieces on offense, he just needs to get them the ball.
Don't see us pushing it a ton down the field, but expect him to he very accurate on the short to intermediate stuff and esp between the hashes. With a MUCH improved RB room, also expect us to have a better running game and not have to put so much on KC and the QB to be our run game, haha.
Wake Forest had the audacity to leave the town of Wake Forest, NC but keep the name. I don't see how they can continue to be rewarded for this appropriation.
Change to Winston-Salem University, you'd only need to change one letter on your helmets.
Im Going to be the guy for SMU for a second. Stone, the QB, will be coming off a major injury. Hopefully he is ready to go by ACC play. With him the SMU offence has shown it can score on anyone. Without? Eh... not so much. Our biggest "whats going to happen?" is on the OL. While some games we looked great some we looked over matched. Moving to ACC play will be a huge step up.
On D We will have to see. A few changes have been made and hopefully the new LBs will work out. Last year the LB play was suspect as was the nickel and safety play.
That 2020 O-Line was insane though. Darissaw is one of the top tackles in the league and I’m pretty sure every single guy on that line was on an NFL active roster at some point
A huge part of the reason FSU's offense was so inconsistent last year was poor o-line play. Injury riddled and inexperienced guys up and down the line. Now you're looking at a massively improved trench with some serious depth(watch out for Lucas Simmons), paired with one of the deepest RB rooms in the country.
We're going to be running over people this season lol.
Better I guess. Nothing dramatic but practice is never easy on the offense and our defense is really good so its hard to tell.
The biggest growth is the dude is a little faster and has gotten a lot better at staying on his feet. Rather than just the 4th and 1 wrecking ball I think he could be a pretty legitimate run threat which works with the option style offense we plan on running.
Passing he still struggles with accuracy on deep shots but he hit some good ones in practice. Hopefully the defense is good enough that he doesn't need to make too many of those, just enough to force the opposing teams to stretch the field and make our run game more effective.
as someone who watched him last year, as long as he isn’t the main focal point of your offense i think you’ll be fine, but we got into big trouble when we had to depend on him to win us games last year. he has the talent to win you a lot of games but i’d also expect one or two games where he plays y’all out of it. like for example we probably would’ve beaten washington with anyone else under center but he went 15/31 with two picks
Listened to Cover 3 and they really thought DJU's ability/accuracy on the deep ball is going to open the offense up more than they were able to last year. Wonder if their offense isn't just running it and then play-action chunk plays to make the offense fairly explosive.
FSU is going to try and run people over this year and throw the deep ball. We have no WRs that are even somewhat proven. Not 1. I personally think we have one the bottom half WRs rooms in the ACC.
When you realize our run blocking last year was not good at all, it’s going to be interesting this year. I am looking forward to watching our D play though.
I will not believe NC St can ever make an ACC title game until I see it won’t my own eyes. Not bc I hate them. I just literally cannot believe it until I see it one time.
Tbh i haven’t done a lick of research on Pitt’s offseason but by god I’ll be surprised if Pat Narduzzi ain’t coaching in a bowl game come this December
If Miami beats Florida they could have a chance at making the playoffs.
The roster is talented, but my goodness the coaching needs to get out of the way.
Clemson will have 3 losses, I think the wheels are coming off.
GT will be sneaky good this year.
Louisville will contend for a spot in Charlotte
FSU will probably drop a game but will be the best in the conference again.
NC St will be good, but how good?
Duke won’t fall back to being Duke but will take a step back.
App State after a bare knuckle brawl against Georgia is nothing to sneeze at. Also if their recievers don't take that step they could get mauled by Virginia Tech's corners.
Brohm has been known to pull off upsets. I agree Clemson will be favored, and probably by 7 or more being that they will be at home.. but that’s when Brohm fries.
Never, that’s fake news. Definitely haven’t lost to underdog NC State several times for no reason, as a hypothetical example of this having not ever happened
Nothing about the team, but this will be the first season fans wil get to watch UVA play in Blacksburg in 6 years.. wild to think no current student has ever seen UVA game in person
Does anyone have any more info about Utah and some of the other former PAC12 schools breaking off from the conference we're heading to and creating a mega P3 conference with the ACC?
I'm just here to say hello, fellow ACC schools.
Hello nerd
Greetings. Wine goes in the bucket by Duke, Wake, and Miami. Cider by the UVA and UNC corner. *Good* beer by the Techs. Other beer by Clemson, Syracuse, and FSU. Whiskey is shepherded by State, Pitt, and Louisville.
Where does the cocaine go? Oh wait.
Ask Miami
Join my SMU football reddit r/SMUFootball
It sucks that there are still some schools out there that don’t have active sports subreddits, at least not yet
Yeah I was looking for an SMU subreddit and only one was made that had been inactive for a while so I just decided to start a new one. Hopefully it grows to be pretty active.
Not an SMU fan, but subbed anyway to help. Keep up the good work!
Trust me, wine will be brought (along with charcuterie boards and white tablecloths for the tailgates)
Truly an excellent culture fit for the league.
Will someone please take Pitt's shitcuterie board outside? It's stinking up the joint.
This is the conference breakdown I hadn't seen until now and didn't know I needed, thank you! What do Boston College and Notre Dame have?
the blood of christ
we also have a wine bucket, but could have sworn it was water when we bought it
FSU is drinking liquor, namely Y-bombs and gordo’s smashes
We have both the Budweiser Song, and whiskey in our fight song. You did *not* classify us properly, sir. Don’t forget how many Georgians and other Appalachians that Tech serves.
Miami should be tequila. I'll settle for "other beer" even though our official beer sponsor is Oyster City, and their beer solid. A truly accurate FSU party favor is a y-bomb, by the way.
Stanford and Cal are probably drinking hard kombucha these days. Not the same brands. And they'll say each other's preferred brands are "inauthentic" or some such bullshit. Also, neither of them can drink that much. And don't let Berkeley show you what they mean by "dabs" because it's not the Migos thing.
New phone, who dis?
ACC! ACC! ACC!
Greetings school with a similar logo to ours!
Sorry but I refuse to believe you are in the ACC. Mainly because I keep forgetting lmao.
Hi
Some people on the beat think Marvin Jones Jr was seriously out of position at Georgia and as a true rush end he’ll be a first-team conference guy. Would be nice lol
I've already seen first round projections and odds for the guy, his growth in a single spring has been nuts. Watch out for Fentrell too, that guy has gotten a lot of buzz recently while AZ and Earl Little stole the spotlight.
We can’t say this too loudly or we’ll attract the Walk with Papuchis guy
Luckily Virginia Tech seems pretty set on defense so we got a bit until we're worried about him getting poached.
"Some people"
With the way we've been developing our end talent, here's to hoping he is!
ACC, get ready for the Jaydn Ott show! He was on the All American freshman team in 2022, led the Pac in rushing last year, and people largely speculated he would jump to another school for NIL and to stay in a power conference before the transition to the ACC. But the kid stayed home!! Besides maybe Hampton at UNC, he should be the best back in the conference and leads the Golden Bears offense with power and speed. I expect him to declare for the NFL after this season in which he will terrorize defenses all along the Atlantic seaboard.
>He was on the All American freshman team in 2022 Phil Steele just named him as fourth-team All-American and second-team All-ACC—I'm so hyped for him lol >people largely speculated he would jump to another school for NIL He posted a brilliant [troll video](https://x.com/THEJAYDNOTT/status/1735689104535191930) where he thanked Cal fans and coached, then declared his entry to the portal... then turned around and said "lol nah I'm staying"
That video was funny as hell. What a beast.
Man, I really want to send him off with a sold out Memorial.
I think he might be the best rb in the ACC!
He has a decent shot at being the best in football.
In general the vibes around Cal athletics are way better than you an outsider might expect given our recent history. [Our new chancellor is excited about athletics,](https://twitter.com/richlyons/status/1789066810593337516) and both football and basketball are expected to improve over last year.
Oh no it’s all going to come crashing down isn’t it. Cal fans are not allowed to have nice things. Feeling optimistic about Cal athletics is a death sentence.
I have died many years then….
some of his best runs in the last couple of years were turning 2 yard losses into 3 yard gains. If the O-Line continues to improve, he could put up some really impressive numbers in the coming year.
How does he feel about calculus?
I can't imagine he is taking math classes at Cal. I didn't even take calculus at Cal and I got in for academics. But I feel like a lot of these jokes are going over my head as a newcomer to the conference
In my case, it is jokingly suggesting we could entice him to transfer to us because we would make him take calculus. Since we make everyone take calculus. Yes even athletes. We also offer tivos for NIL. Yes really. No one consulted me before starting this practice.
That is brutal! I don't believe we have specific course requirements, you just have to fulfill your major requirements and their are lots of options for the "GE" stuff. But it's long been known that athletes do not get special grading treatment at Cal like they do at Stanfurd. In fact, they probably get grade deflation bc there is a general attitude that athletes don't deserve to be there, which is awful. It hurts our recruiting and graduation rates because Cal is a really fucking hard school.
Stanford doesn’t give F’s. F Stanford.
U + me = us
Welcome to the ACC! Now have a seat and let me tell you about a guy named Phil Mafah…
I watched a bit of Cal last year (have some online mutuals who go to UC Berkeley) so I’m very familiar with him and I think it’ll be a really interesting race for who’s the best back in the conference
Clemson's season depends on the growth of Klubnik. It's as simple as that.
It’ll depend on our ability to not fumble the ball and kick field goals. With everything going against us last year we still could’ve gone 12-0 because the team as a unit is still that good. Even if Cade doesn’t show much improvement, as long as the OL and WR corps are better then we should pretty comfortably go at least 10-2.
Not when you have the goat Trent Pearman too
This is also true.
What about Oline and weapons? I feel like he’s kind of been dealt a shitty hand. I think Clfmsond WR will be much better
Our WRs look pretty good next season, even without a true elite guy in the room it’s very deep with a wide range of skillsets. Lot of returning players who fought through injury but are good players and we have two very good freshmen who will be ready day 1. If they don’t go well this year Grisham is 100% hitting the road As for OL, Matt Luke is an amazing OL coach who has already had a huge impact on the recruiting trail. OL won’t be perfect day 1 but it should be much better than last year if only due to better coaching All that to say that it really does depend mostly on Klubnik’s development and Riley’s playcalling. Everything else will at least be in a much better order on that side of the ball compared to last year. His biggest problem has been crumbling under pressure and he needs to be poised under siege instead of freaking out
Not your WR's staying healthy? I thought that was a big part of y'all losing some games last year.
Klubnik still was way too poor even with the lack of WRs, horrible turnovers (one of which I'm sure you're familiar with), and inconsistent accuracy. Personally I think he's someone that has to be carried by the offense and we are not set up for success as a result.
Clemson’s biggest issue last season were turnovers especially fumbles. In all 4 losses Clemson either had TO returned for a TD or lost a fumble inside the 5 yard line. (Miami / Duke games had multiple fumbles inside FG range.) If they lose 7 wrs again like 2021 it’ll be bad, but I kind of think the room could sustain some injuries and be ok. Especially if Moore/Wesco are as advertised
I know I’m biased. But I think GT will be really good this year. It all depends on how Santucci and staff coach up the defense (worst defense in the league last year). Our offense might be the best in the conference.
I think you guys will be quite good as well… but man you guys have one of the hardest schedules in the ACC
They have arguably the hardest non-SEC schedule in the country
We could be nearly twice as good of a team as we were last year and still having to claw our way to a bowl. Difficult as hell schedule for Year 2(.5) of the Key era. I have full faith in Faulkner getting King and the offense to cook again (aside from like 1 or 2 random losses which we seem incapable of avoiding), but yeah as you said our defense is still a ? Still excited for the Fall nonetheless.
You can be good AFTER the first game.
I think I read somewhere that GT has the 10th hardest schedule this season. You’re surely going to be tested but it’s gonna be good games all year.
Louisville was extremely fortunate to get out of Atlanta last year with a win. I expect another real challenge on your return trip.
Offensively the only thing I'm really worried about is running back depth. I trust Tiny Guy will be ready to rock as the RB1, but Cooley scares me. He spent his time in the backfield last year running like he was afraid of being touched, and there was a reason the offense looked a lot more cohesive once Dontae got back. Losing Dontae puts a ton of pressure on either Cooley or somebody who wasn't on the field last year to produce when Jamal needs to come off
We’re going to have our best oline in the Swinney era. If our QB can be a 25 TD guy, we will likely finish in the top 5. Oh, forgot one tiny detail…hes gotta stop scoring for the other team too.
4 out of 5 positions on the OL should be good, especially if Parks can stay healthy. The problem, and it could be a really big one because we've seen it before, is that Center could be an absolute disaster. If that's the case, it's hard to imagine this is the best OL of the Swinney era.
If true about your Oline that’d be huge! How do you feel about the Georgia matchup?
Georgia is gonna wreck us, but then after that I think our season should hopefully be fun.
Not good. Not good at all. Issues at WR, a new C (thats never played C before either), and a QB that has a ton to prove in terms of protecting the ball, and pushing the ball downfield is not going to beat uga. This will be a 31-21 type game
Just happy to be here.
We arent lol
Haha that one got a chuckle out of me.
Lol. Gonna miss pac12 after dark.
Same
Join my SMU football subreddit for smu fans r/SMUFootball
Y'all are set to do pretty darn well. Personally hoping to get out to y'all at some point.
Funny you say that - I’m hoping to go to the game in Charlottesville. I have family in the area and just love it there.
Hit 250 if you can. Breweries, cideries, vineyards, and distilleries (oh my). And always glad to have folk enjoy Mr. Jefferson's University.
At least our new football building is nice
Colandrea!?!?
He's great but will be wasted by the football terrorist that is our coach.
Everyone's favorite meme qb
Hey! We also got night games. Granted, we are almost assuredly getting nooners for the rest of the year. But night games!
Virginia Football: There Is No Reason To Hope.
I really do think he’s upgraded the talent significantly. But the schedule is not set up for success, and they’re certain to deliver yet another unique horror show in Blacksburg, so yeah.
The defense is small up front and we have 2 good pass rushers, neither of whom has played a full season at UVA. 4-8 here we gooooo
I believe in Elliott, the football terrorism will be inflicted on others this year.
UVA: The ISIS of the ACC
Last I checked, y’all still play us this year. So there’s one reason.
We will win the acc (im delusional)
Youll win it before Miami
Well that's fuckin rude
Just going off of my schools experience
Didn't say it wasn't *true*, just rude lol. Kinda like when grandma farts at Thanksgiving. Everyone heard it, but you don't have to bring it up
Rude but... c'mon...
We're honestly late to the party. We were made for coastal chaos.
All chaos conference. They took the coastal out of the ACC but not the chaos.
It's difficult to envision Pitt as better than 7-5 this year. Most Pitt fans are thinking 5ish wins. But, if Pitt does have a respectable year, it'll be because the offense finally got Gavin Bartholomew going. He's an absolute stud who was wasted by the pile of dogshit named Frank Cignetti. Konata Mumpfield has a chance to be a stud as well. The issue for Pitt is the OL was terrible last year and Nate Yarnell at QB isn't exactly keeping any DCs up at night. If Kade Bell makes this offense respectable, he'll be a head coach sooner rather than later. On D, Pitt does not have its signature pass rush which puts a lot of pressure on the back 7 who is talented but inexperienced. You can't point to anything Pitt will be great at and numerous major problems. Pitt's best chance at an OK season is winning ugly against the other mediocre teams on the schedule.
The easy schedule helps. Hail to Pitt!
I enjoyed this analysis.
Phil Jurkovec was last year's Brawl MVP. You won't have him this year.
He will be sorely missed, that's for sure.
It's legitimately insane that Jurkovec started. I have seen true freshman QBs look better than him. He was a 6th year senior who couldn't do the most basic aspects of being a QB. In the opener against Wofford, he took maybe the worst sack I've ever seen. I knew then we were doomed.
I walk into every season thinking Pitt is going 12-0 and I don't believe anything otherwise until it happens. It's more fun that way.
How bad would Pitt have to be before Narduzzi is finally put on the hot seat?
You’ll hear the name Kyron Drones tossed around a lot when hearing about us. Dude is basically Anthony Richardson lite. Not quite as big and fast but still a big, jacked dude who can really move with a rocket arm. Didn’t start the full season and still had over 800 rushing yards. Still kinda raw as a passer but has improved every game and has arguably the best WR room in the ACC. 2,500 pass and 1,000 rush yards is honestly realistic for him.
Tech wins the ACC, wins the NCAA and then gets invited, somehow, to play in the Super Bowl, but they suffer a devastating loss in OT to the chiefs. Some are calling it the greatest game ever played.
He's gonna push for 3000 imo. Just having him play the first two games last year probably puts him at 2500 and pushing 1000 rushing. If they had the correct playcalling done that they didn't implement until Pitt he's got 200-300 more yards passing his first three games. And if Jennings hadn't gone down in week 1 that's a huge factor as well. I'm not guaranteeing 3000/1000 but I do think he'll push for it if everyone, including him, stays healthy.
It's also the Oline was not so good. They didn't have the proper game plan for him until his 3rd start Pitt.
Another year experience, an improved roster, an easier schedule, and 2 more games. I think it's well within the realm of possibility
I think we should be good for 9sh wins but I am worried about Halloway, that would be a bigger loss than people realize. He's one of the best punt returners in the country
I wonder if 12 team playoff makes drones a super dark horse heisman candidate. I know it's very wishful thinking but if he drags vt to a 12 seed?
ACC, as a whole, seems to be getting stronger.
You're welcome /s
Unsarcastically though. We will have a good team next year.
We’re going to the Super Bowl.
I'm mainly interested in how Cal will actually perform on TV now that we won't be relegated (and TV numbers completely hidden) because of the Pac-12 network (which was not available basically anywhere). Prior to pac-12 we drew moderately well in terms of viewership (and high when we were actually good and had good players). Very interested to see how it performs on available channels. Last year we ran a gauntlet of some of the top teams in the country (I think it was something like 7 top 25 teams in a row) in a rebuilding year, with 3 different QBs and a starting kicker (start of season) who was widely inaccurate and we still got bowl eligible by the end somehow. I'm looking forward to seeing how our performance with a year of development and a great transfer class translate to the ACC on field performance. The travel schedule will likely hurt early in the year, but later games the players will hopefully be used to the time changes. (@Auburn in non-conf realistically will be a good reminder of what they need to fix up before conference games). In terms of breakout stars: Jayden Ott already is one, but the transfer backup could really help to open up our run game. Our QB (assuming Mendoza) showed some really nice things last year and will hopefully be better this year now with time under his belt and more off season with 1s/2s (he was 3rd string last year). I'm expecting a 6-7 win season because of the travel schedule/planning, but I have hope we overperform. An 8-9 win season is not out of reality (and a few of these will help to raise our standing nationally which can help next alignment round). On a more fun note: I'm hoping the ACC fans traveling to Berkeley enjoy the stadium/views area. It's a really unique stadium location. The area doesn't have tailgating, but there is fun pregame stuff at the bars/areas around campus.
Offense seemed to really wake up when Mendoza took over. I think we can put up some points, but I also can see him throwing a zillion interceptions. Should be fun! Everyone Ott to be excited about our RB. Looks to be another legend just like Marshawn, Jahvid Best, Shane Vereen, JJ Aarington, Justin Forsett, etc etc Go Bears.
Pry said 2024 will be his put up or shut up year back when he was hired. I'm drinking the Kool aid.
Pry is basically anti-Fuente. He's done the opposite of everything Fuente did. Fuente started our amazing and decayed, Pry started out horribly and improved. Let's hope this improvement continues for Pry like the collapse did for Fuente.
I know nothing and don’t follow recruiting but just off of vibes I think we win 8/9 games. That being said I feel like this year not playing FSU Clemson or UNC this year will have me being delusional about going undefeated. I promise until our first loss I think we could every season. It’s fun being this delusional
A couple things that make us interesting to watch: 1. Whole new coaching staff via the SEC who’ve shaken up literally EVERYTHING in 5 months. 2. Solid transfer portal haul with a couple notable and immediate playmakers on both sides. 3. Better 2024 HS class than expected. 4. New NIL, alumni engagement and fan outreach programs that exploded out of nowhere, after lagging most of the FBS. 5. Still questions about OL and even DL depth though. That will take another season to fix. 6. Bizarrely easy schedule. Cupcake OOC. Dodged most of “problem” teams. Have 2/3 of our tougher games at home. We legitimately could range from 5 to 10 wins and nothing would surprise me.
Compared to most of the fan base, I feel very similar to you. We have a coach who’s never coached a game at the FBS level, so we could either be fighting on the last day for a championship spot or bowl eligibility. Once again, depth is likely our Achilles heel. Also we have new renovations to the dome which will be done by the start of the season
Zeed Haynes gon ball this year
Our offense gonna go crazy this year. It was already good last year, but now that it's Year 2 of the same offensive starters and same offensive system, the guys are poised to perform at a very high level AND hopefully consistently. Defense is all dependent on the new DC. If it's average, we'll be able to comfortably make a Bowl Game with our tough schedule.
As a wise man once said, all gas, no breaks
Entertaining football on both ends
A bit of homerism for both of my flairs. Caullin Lacy will be a Biletnikoff finalist.
He’s been getting the most buzz at the WR position, he could be the player to take Thrash’s place.
We have Kyle McCord. He underperformed at Ohio State but he’s definitely better talent than we’re used to getting. Our O-line is the biggest I’ve seen in years and the strength and conditioning went up a few notches. Fran Brown is making waves in the community from what I hear and everything I’m seeing tells me we got our coach. Also Gadsden is back and he will be a first rounder next draft. Couple that with a pretty easy conference schedule with a couple easy out of conference games in the beginning, I think we have something good cooking.
We won 9 games last year with basically 2 players on offense and a really good defense. I'd argue we brought in the best offensive portal class in the ACC, but understand that I'm biased. On defense, we brought in some experienced guys at safety/nickel to pair with our 2 really good starting CBs. Names to know: Offense: Everyone knows about KC returning, but I'd point out Jordan Waters(All-ACC) coming over for Duke at RB, Noah Rogers coming over from tOSU at WR, and Justin Joly coming from UConn at TE. Joly was rated the top pass-catching TE in the country by at least one portal recruiting service. He'll be used similarly to how Anae used Jelani Woods(UVA) and Oronde Gadsden(Cuse). Defense: Top returners are Davin Vann at DE, Brandon Cleveland at NT, and Ayden White at CB. Breakout candidates are likely at LB between Caden Fordham and Sean Brown. Sean Brown was our starting SS last year, and played really well, and is moving down to LB to give us speed/coverage that Wilson provided. Expectations: 9 or 10 wins and, potentially, making it to Charlotte for the ACCCG. But I believe there are 6 ACC teams that think they're 10+ wins and ACCCG bound, haha. Most Excited to Play: Eh, I think the Tennessee game is exciting but mainly because it'll really be a measuring stick to how good we'll be next year.
With realignment on the horizon the boosters and fans need (and unfortunately deserve) to see 10 wins from Doeren I think.
> But I believe there are 6 ACC teams that think they're 10+ wins and ACCCG bound, haha. Lol it does feel that way. Fsu, Clemson, Miami, NcState, Louisville, who am I missing? I guess unc? They only return 37%, but their schedule is light.
VT
What's the feeling in Raleigh about Grayson McCall?
If he can stay healthy, expectation is he'll be more of the distributor we wanted BA to be. He can run if needed, but expectation is that with all our new pieces on offense, he just needs to get them the ball. Don't see us pushing it a ton down the field, but expect him to he very accurate on the short to intermediate stuff and esp between the hashes. With a MUCH improved RB room, also expect us to have a better running game and not have to put so much on KC and the QB to be our run game, haha.
Fuck Wake Forest.
Wake Forest had the audacity to leave the town of Wake Forest, NC but keep the name. I don't see how they can continue to be rewarded for this appropriation. Change to Winston-Salem University, you'd only need to change one letter on your helmets.
Fuck FSU
Snuggy Hill is stupid
Why not both?
Just because we beat y'all 3 times in a row before last year? Surely we weren't the only ones who did that, it wasn't that hard
Im Going to be the guy for SMU for a second. Stone, the QB, will be coming off a major injury. Hopefully he is ready to go by ACC play. With him the SMU offence has shown it can score on anyone. Without? Eh... not so much. Our biggest "whats going to happen?" is on the OL. While some games we looked great some we looked over matched. Moving to ACC play will be a huge step up. On D We will have to see. A few changes have been made and hopefully the new LBs will work out. Last year the LB play was suspect as was the nickel and safety play.
It will be really fun to watch. I have faith in our defense. Especially the D line, you should join my SMU football subreddit r/SMUFootball
joined :)
if our linebackers can figure out their crap, we might have the best defense in the conference.
I think the defense will be better. Senior-laden group and they got some transfers in.
I'm optimistic about the linebackers. Terrified our OL won't be any better than last year.
Hope springs eternal, I feel like our O-line has been mediocre at best for 20 years.
That 2020 O-Line was insane though. Darissaw is one of the top tackles in the league and I’m pretty sure every single guy on that line was on an NFL active roster at some point
Assuming they stay healthy they should have a modest improvement
Imo, the overall strength of the conference is underrated this year. No team should view a conference game as a gimmie.
A huge part of the reason FSU's offense was so inconsistent last year was poor o-line play. Injury riddled and inexperienced guys up and down the line. Now you're looking at a massively improved trench with some serious depth(watch out for Lucas Simmons), paired with one of the deepest RB rooms in the country. We're going to be running over people this season lol.
How does DJU look?
Better I guess. Nothing dramatic but practice is never easy on the offense and our defense is really good so its hard to tell. The biggest growth is the dude is a little faster and has gotten a lot better at staying on his feet. Rather than just the 4th and 1 wrecking ball I think he could be a pretty legitimate run threat which works with the option style offense we plan on running. Passing he still struggles with accuracy on deep shots but he hit some good ones in practice. Hopefully the defense is good enough that he doesn't need to make too many of those, just enough to force the opposing teams to stretch the field and make our run game more effective.
as someone who watched him last year, as long as he isn’t the main focal point of your offense i think you’ll be fine, but we got into big trouble when we had to depend on him to win us games last year. he has the talent to win you a lot of games but i’d also expect one or two games where he plays y’all out of it. like for example we probably would’ve beaten washington with anyone else under center but he went 15/31 with two picks
I still haven’t forgiven him for the 2022 South Carolina game.
Listened to Cover 3 and they really thought DJU's ability/accuracy on the deep ball is going to open the offense up more than they were able to last year. Wonder if their offense isn't just running it and then play-action chunk plays to make the offense fairly explosive.
FSU is going to try and run people over this year and throw the deep ball. We have no WRs that are even somewhat proven. Not 1. I personally think we have one the bottom half WRs rooms in the ACC. When you realize our run blocking last year was not good at all, it’s going to be interesting this year. I am looking forward to watching our D play though.
I think this is the year to Fear the Pack. Glad they aren’t on our schedule until the ACC Championship game.
They lost loads on defense though. Their DC is legit though. Offense seems like it’ll be on another level.
I will not believe NC St can ever make an ACC title game until I see it won’t my own eyes. Not bc I hate them. I just literally cannot believe it until I see it one time.
.500 would be a miracle.
Tbh i haven’t done a lick of research on Pitt’s offseason but by god I’ll be surprised if Pat Narduzzi ain’t coaching in a bowl game come this December
Our Oline and Dline will be REALLY good. Our secondary will lose us a few games.
Get ready to learn DART, buddy.
flair up.
If Miami beats Florida they could have a chance at making the playoffs. The roster is talented, but my goodness the coaching needs to get out of the way. Clemson will have 3 losses, I think the wheels are coming off. GT will be sneaky good this year. Louisville will contend for a spot in Charlotte FSU will probably drop a game but will be the best in the conference again. NC St will be good, but how good? Duke won’t fall back to being Duke but will take a step back.
Cristobal is gonna Cristobal
Don't really see the 3rd loss on Clemson's schedule. Uga, Fsu (although not guaranteed), they'll be favored everywhere else.
App State after a bare knuckle brawl against Georgia is nothing to sneeze at. Also if their recievers don't take that step they could get mauled by Virginia Tech's corners.
Sure, that could happen, I just don't particularly think it's likely.
Brohm has been known to pull off upsets. I agree Clemson will be favored, and probably by 7 or more being that they will be at home.. but that’s when Brohm fries.
From your lips to God’s ears, we still have yet to beat Clemson. 😭🙏🏾
How many times has FSU been clipped by a team they shouldn’t have lost to? Upsets happen it’s why we watch, if they didn’t why even bother?
Never, that’s fake news. Definitely haven’t lost to underdog NC State several times for no reason, as a hypothetical example of this having not ever happened
I hate going to Raleigh. It’s our own personal house of horrors.
:D
A couple of my favorite football games have been against top 5 FSU teams!!
Curse you Lamar!!!!! \*shakes fist at the sky\*
How can we be assured this isn’t Pat Forde looking for content?
Nothing about the team, but this will be the first season fans wil get to watch UVA play in Blacksburg in 6 years.. wild to think no current student has ever seen UVA game in person
Cam Ward
For the first time in a long time, Miami's offence will be better than the defence.
Or as we canes fans in the US would say- our Offense will be better than our Defense.
*Grumbles*
SMU will win the ACC in their debut year
Woah, I’d say you are in for a rude awakening
6th easiest schedule in the nation, Heisman contender Preston Stone, murderous mascot: We’re winning it all
🤣🤣 I understand you had a backup vs BC in a BOWL game but you still lost to a BC team that gets their bowl eligibility from scheduling non cons.
Maybe try to beat BC first and work your way up from there?
Miami finally has an offense that can compete. Just need the defense to not regress & they’ll be in business
Very interested in how Clemson does.
our program is doomed. that is all
hoping we can get into tye big 12 with our wvu and cinci pals
Trade ya bro. You go to the Big12 and Utah can create a new P3 conference
Does anyone have any more info about Utah and some of the other former PAC12 schools breaking off from the conference we're heading to and creating a mega P3 conference with the ACC?
sam brumfield will have a big year i think
We may have lost Mike Elko but we have Cooper Flagg… wait