Week Zero - ACC Football

welcome to ACC Nation featuring sports news and special guest interviews here's will ojin and Jim Quist this is ACC nation and that's will ojen and I'm Jim Quist time to take a look at week zero football action two games big games because we get a look at three teams in the ACC a little unusual to have two teams within the conference playing each other and in this particular instance in Dublin Ireland and then of course our newbie SMU and so we're g to start out with that big game first will let's talk a little bit about Florida state ranked number 10 against an unranked Georgia Tech Team and it was interesting our conversations that we had in previewing both teams um those guys gave us some great insight and and made us feel like well maybe this was a game we ought to be watching very closely it didn't surprise us any I mean it did but the fact I mean it didn't surprise the outcome yes surprised the fact that it was close not necessarily I mean right I I posted on Twitter I still call it Twitter I don't care what that guy says but it's still Twitter to me damn it um I said 3424 in favor of the nolles like I thought it was going to be close throughout I figured their running game was just going to overpower Georgia Tech defense because when we last Saw Georgia Tech they were they were swiss cheese on defense yep it's amazing what a competent coach will do for a program I swear and what Tyler Cuchi did with that defense and that game I he's going to be a head coach here in in a fairly short order with the next couple of years I feel if he's going to if he's going to do that I mean yeah we can also say it might be something to do with the Florida state offense but I like I I still like Florida State at least you know longer term I'm me I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say maybe maybe there's more to Georgia Tech than we think I'm G to go down that route as well I think both Florida State and Georgia Tech uh showed us who they are in a lot of different ways and to be honest with you I can't come away with too many negatives here I know everybody was jumping all over dju and I'm not so sure that's the issue that we're talking about here I think that people underestimated Georgia Tech grossly underestimated you're right you've got a coach there that can work miracles Mike Norvell has worked miracles with Florida State these are two tough teams all I'm going to say going forward if if they continue to play like that we may actually see them again in the ACC Championship now everybody's going to be sitting there going no it's gonna be this team it's gonna be this team gonna be that team I'm already hearing all of the the you know the the idiots like fine bomb um who are running their mouths about who he thinks is going to be in the ACC Championship he may not be wrong he's still an idiot uh and you know I I look at at just one game it's the beginning of the season it's week zero first game you're in Dublin it's a neutral site none of this should be surprising to anybody about how these teams performed other than I thought they played a hell of a game I was on the edge of my seat through that entire game will and it's been a long time since I've seen a game that exciting and that well executed minor problems those are the types of things that you you pick away at with looking at video and you clean them up in second week third week and then you're on a roll so overall what what do you think the weakest point of either side was in this game I have I I I would have I'd have to go back and watch again to see but I I wonder if Florida State's offensive line is not all cracked up to me you look at what they did on the ground they they they should have done a lot more you figure what the they have the good backs and everything but they average 3.2 yards for carry in the in the game yesterday not even 100 yards rushing um they had most of that they had 66 yards rushing in the first quarter so it tells you my Minnesota map tells me they had 32 yards rushing the rest of the game um it's more like that it's like they had 128 yards in the first quarter and 291 totals so I'm so close to half of it came in that first quarter when a lot of those plays were scripted um we saw on the opening drive for both teams just go right down the field on each other no problems whatsoever yeah and then when things started to settle down uh Florida State just couldn't get anything going consistently there was a stat at halftime I'm trying to think I'm just trying to it was I think at halftime DJ's air yards per attempt was negative .1 because they were just dumping off and then throwing like you know B you know throwing little screens behind the line of scrimmage and dunk they were just dinking and dunking to the to the Max and then they finally tried to stretch the field a little bit in the second half and he was he was air Mill there were a couple balls that you would have thought George marisan was was a wide receiver he' probably been the only one that could have caught him but that would you know as high as he was throwing yeah there's some there's some question there that that uh certainly needs to be looked at and whether or not he's going to be uh the the effective leader of that offense if you want to succeed and and Go the Distance uh on the other side of the the uh the ball um I thought the the Georgia Tech de defense was doing a great job penetrating and you talk about Florida State's offensive line man you want to talk about some beef on that line and experience and it just seemed to me there were times where they just weren't up to the task and I'm I don't even know how to describe that it just seemed like they were slow and uh I don't know if that's Georgia Tech being that much quicker much more effective uh using their hands more effectively uh and really getting after it um what exactly that was you know and and I tell you what we can look over all this video for the rest of the week and um you know people who do this for h a profession will come out and and and bring some solid analysis to this I could just tell tell you that um uh again don't underestimate either one of these teams I think I think that's a Fool's errand if I've ever seen one I I was that first uh offensive drive by Florida state will honestly I was at that point I was kind of going oh uh Georgia Tech's about to have some sand pounded then Georgia Tech came out and did the same thing and I'm going what's going on here and then things settled in and it was just this pounding back and forth that um was just just an amazing amazing football game uh couple people that definitely I wanna I want to shout out to here in a second so yeah I was gonna say um I I I put this out yesterday as well on the Twitter machine um you can make an argument that Bren key is just one of the best peer coaches in the ACC just from the fact that he you seen where this program has come from the time he took over to now and where the program was when they got rid of the disaster that was Jeff Collins and they they I think they were like right around 500 the last few games of his of the interim season made a bowl last year made a statement at game one this year and they I I figure I figure that I don't know if there's many more coaches that can just develop in the way him and the staff does like they don't get the elite talent but I think he gets more out of more out of his team than a lot of coaches do yeah football player coaching football players and it it dud coaching dudes yeah yeah it makes a huge difference I tell you um Hanes King to me is um did an enormous job that offense was just smoking um there were some plays there um Jamal Haynes and uh Rutherford at running back were just doing some amazing things and um you know we talked about this um on the preview um with Kelly quinland about uh about what you know Georgia Tech could do and you brought up the fact that hey this is a team that last year was Top offense producer in the ACC well um don't look now but are we gonna get a repeat this is a solid offense I was interest like intrigued by the fact I saw the stat too that I think each team only had like seven possessions in the game um because well the both teams ran the ball a lot I Georgia Tech ran the ball 36 times in the game and Florida State 31 and there was a total of you like Georgia Tech ran 52 plays in that game to Florida State's 58 so the the game kind of went by fast when you look at it that way it was just a lot lot of pounding and ground and pound with the Run game and obviously Georgia Tech had more success on it averaging over five yards per carry between Jamal Hayes and heyes King especially but the uh but Alexander also ran the ball Well Chad Alexander the other running back I'm I think the most important thing for Georgia Tech now is to not fall in their face next week yeah I me yeah it's Georgia State but you cannot have a let down I know you're you're going to be traveling back from Ireland to Georgia but and you have literally like six days to get ready where Florida state has to Labor Day night so they have a little more of a cushion to prepare for the next game you're going to have to readjust the body clock get and then get back to practice you know for for this game yeah and it it takes it takes um depending on on the person it takes a couple of days sometimes to to readjust when you're going you know west to east and east to west it just it messes with your clock and uh um until you experience that until you do it on a regular basis uh you don't fully appreciate just how much that wears you out um you know I think also special teams did a great job on both both sides I I don't I don't have anything uh like I said I don't have anything bad to say about either team here and I I was just impressed by how they got after the ball how effective they were for the most part um in stopping in a lot of instances the other side uh I I thought it was a very even sort of thing I let me just say that if you're among the fand that um that ended up getting on message boards and calling for the head of Mike norell or or dju or whomever um or the athletic director yada yada yada um go find another team seriously oh my God it's one game yes it was important but it's a it's a lesson it's it's a lesson and if Florida State comes rolling back and and wins everything else and goes to the the playoffs at that point you're you're really going to be eating a lot more than than you can swallow so yeah let me go back to something you said on talking about special teams I think it uh really says something when you're your kicker Aiden Burr you know he had one other field goal attempt ear in the game for 51 yards and he missed it and you put him in a pressure situation and wasn't the prettiest kick I thought at one point it was going to drift wide but he made it and yeah what a yeah what a shows he's got a lot of confidence in in his players at that being Bren key and you know it's it's you know we're going to we're already hearing about oh no the ACC is going to suck it's it's top team went down and well but let's let this play out we have we're we technically have you know 12 more weeks of this so a lot more or more than that really but there's 16 other teams yep yep you know um don't don't don't Crown somebody King before they earn it as as the late Dennis Green once said if you want to Crown them Crown the ass Dennis always had a nice way of putting things um uh we'll go down the schedule that's coming up because we have a Labor Day weekend full of games we'll do that in just a moment let's talk about SMU and Nevada uh oh my god um you know again first game on the road you you know um I I'm not sure what I expected but I I will just say that I expected more than what I saw you saw a glimpse of winter I did a little flurry activity there nice yes it was that was a like all those games like out in like that part of the country where if I don't know if you saw any of the game of New Mexico on Saturday where they had like really high winds like it was just messing everything up it was I think a camera fell off one of the things but they had some crazy wind in Reno too for this game it was little little chilly little chilly I think the temperatures at one point drip dipped into the 40s yeah which is very comfortable which I would find very comfortable yeah but most most everyone else would be would probably be in like six layers and that's well they had the you know most of the people in in locals had their heavy coats on and I when I first tuned in I was sort of like you know what um oh speaking of which uh CBS Sports cut off the very end of that game on their stream and um shame on you CBS I'm sure you really poed some people you got me got me I I was I was a little perturbed when I was sitting there watching and it was right at the very end of the game and suddenly poof it was into some crap that I didn't care about so that's weird I mine was normal I don't know what y'all what y'all were doing but yeah well you know it's a that's that uh that Minnesota normal versus East Coast liberal Elites so yeah anyways say so about the game yes that was yeah that was a mild surprise that a that it took the till the fourth quarter before SMU finally showed what they what they actually were I mean you look at that the early part of that game they just could not get anything going I mean Preston Stone could not get going at all in this at least in the in the first half and he was he struggled a lot I think his I think at one point he was something like one of seven to start didn't get above 50% completion until until the third quarter um and then they they also rotated in Kevin Jennings which our guests from from earlier in the week actually mentioned that that was probably going to happen and he he looked good Stone andler just couldn't find anything and then it took until that the the fourth quarter to realize hey we have this tight end that could potentially be an allamerican let's let's get him the ball what do you know it worked yes that beautiful and that and and that's the combo that I really wanted to point out Stone to Maryland that some of the most beautiful well executed pass plays uh that I have seen um in a while that game-winning touchdown was a beautiful throw gorgeous just I mean that's that's how you play football right there and and that was fun to watch the only thing I can say is that SMU is U did not strike me as multi-dimensional when it comes down to being able to to move the ball and if you only have that one combo to to Maryland then you cannot depend on that to to win all your games um the one thing that that um I I just saw too many errors and it's it's week zero it's the first game uh that'll be cleaned up rash uh Rett Lashley will clean that up and and things will run a lot smoother but they've got some work to do I think everybody understands first year in the conference you you know there's a lot of high expectations I've talked them up uh and and that's yet to be proven we'll see but you know it's certainly they they've got some work to do to to get to to Snuff and because they're going to run into teams uh you know and people people discount the ACC uh and it you you always end up uh uh eating your words when you do that you know so yeah yeah and then I and I don't expect them to get challenged much this upcoming week from Houston Christians there you know it's a matter of just getting trying to get some cotton continuity there you know you had a big game in a couple of weeks against uh BYU uh and then TCU to follow that after after with a buy sprinkled in after the Houston Christian game um this is where and this is where you need to figure start to figure things out because those two opponents BYU and TCU AR aren't slouches I mean they're they're not the top of the Big 12 necessarily but they're going to be solid teams they're going to give you give you a good a good push let's look at the schedule for this coming week week one of um college football action in the ACC we start out on Thursday the 29th so action is just around the corner North Carolina is in your backyard North Carolina takes on the Gophers Minnesota yeah this is a going to be a very interesting game I having a hard time trying to figure out how this is going to go um I know there's still no real decision on quarterback that I've seen um from North Carolina side uh and the Gophers are currently if you're looking at the point spreads a game and a or a point and a half uh leader or point and a half in front or favorite over over North Carolina um the weather I think it's supposed to when I last looked at the forecast for the Twin Cities it was supposed to rain on Thursday a chance of thunderstorm so hey maybe we have we have our good old weather delay here in Minneapolis in uh on Thursday night but I expect a close game I don't I I really have no idea what to think of Minnesota they have a uh a transfer quarterback up from the FCS level but they do have a good running game I think they're going to be solid in the trenches I just I think North Carolina's best bet to win is just run Omari and Hampton yeah well we we'll get a good look at North Carolina and what they have and what they're capable of doing and and help must determine what's going to happen in the ACC when they get into conference play other games on the schedule include Western Carolina and NC State North Carolina aent at Wake Forest that's on Thursday then on Friday the 30th it's Elon at Duke TCU at Stanford and I I think that um Stanford's going to have their hands full yeah um TCU I think is going to be better this year than they were last year and they're coming they're coming off uh Championship Game season a couple of years ago and kind of kind of struggled last year Stanford were they're still trying to build up they just don't quite have all the talent they they obviously have have some good good pieces there the quarterback situation looks good we know we we talked about in our preview of el aor uh one of the better wide receivers in the conference but their o line was was pretty rough last year um they were just really bad in the trenches to be perfectly honest with you and they they need to take a big step forward if they're going to be TCU so we have a big game on Saturday the 31st that is the afflac kickoff game in Atlanta Georgia when um Clemson takes on Georgia we've got two ranked teams there should be a battle we we don't have a really solid feel for what Clemson's going to be able to do um and at the same time I'll be frank about it we're making assumptions about Georgia um if they keep losing people to handcuffs maybe they won't have enough people to play um the this game um could be uh a a shocker just in the same fashion that Florida State and Georgia Tech was could be because we don't know exactly what Clemson's going to be able to deliver [Music] um they're being very clo keeping things close to the cuff and if and if anything's indic if anything is given me indication it looks like we will get uh cins of Aaron judges at bats during the game on Saturday as the Yankees start at one o'clock on Saturday and with him potentially chasing the Home Run Record again we'll get cut ends to his abats because that's yeah that's what ESPN does um but as far as the game goes I mean Georgia is going to be the favorite until somebody proves them otherwise they're currently a 13 and a half Point favorite and I said I just I just don't know what to think of Clemson I I think they have a good they're going to be able to run the ball well um we think kid kolnick's a good quarterback we don't know that yet we think there's more in the tank we believe but again he's got to prove it and Y you know they there's been a lot of talk about their receivers I think you know that they have to prove it as well this is it's kind of weird because I feel like this game if this game was played later in the year I'd give Clemson more of a chance but I just Georgia is more readymade for this game yeah we'll see we'll see how it all plays out as as you as you said there's question marks around a couple of uh positions skill positions there and uh we're not sure what it's going to come out to be other games on the schedule uh UC Davis at Cal uh Georgia State at Georgia Tech Austin P at Louisville Miami at Florida um Kent State at pit Houston Christian at SMU Ohio at Syracuse Richmond at Virginia and Virginia Tech at Vanderbilt the the only uh game on that the rest of that schedule that intrigues me might be be that Miami at Florida I think Miami needs to to Really prove their chops here yeah 100% if everyone wants you know wants to believe Miami again for like what the 20th straight year they better come out and and show it in this game yeah they they gota win no excuses if they lose I I don't know what to tell you they they they need to put Florida's um uh coach on the hot seat from from the get-go they need to they need to crank up the Florida message boards uh with talk of getting rid of the coach and the ad and the president of the school and whoever else they can get rid of and on Monday September second Boston College is at Florida State I would not want to be in Boston College's shoes headed to Tallahassee um this could end up being painful yeah I I I when you look at it it it feels like this is a kind of a get R game in a way for the nolles when you think you know they're coming off of a shocking loss they've got their first home game of the season against a conference opponent and they're going to be out for venance and this is they're going to have to come out and show something otherwise if they struggled again against Boston College then they're going to be some real question marks about this team yeah and rightfully so we shall see that's a look at what's coming up on week one and uh our U look back on what happened in week zero with Florida State and Georgia Tech and SMU and Nevada and um coming up this week we are going to be talking with folks from Boston College to preview their team also pit uh and Louisville and uh we'll have those available on the podcast as well so hope you'll join us for that until next time cheers cool thanks for listening to ACC Nation be sure to listen like And subscribe to our podcast Radio and YouTube channels by visiting ACC nation.net follow us on Instagram x Facebook masteron threads Blue Sky Reddit at ACC Nation [Music] [Music] ACC Nation [Music]