Did questionable calls change the trajectory of where the rankings are in college football?

Roddy Jones, ESPN college football analyst, ACC Network, who occasionally actually does his job without Wes Durham next to him, which frankly makes me uncomfortable.

Roddy Jones joins us on the Adam Gold Show. How are you, sir? I am fantastic. I'm a little nervous, a little nervous with the big match coming up, but I am doing well. How about you? I'm doing very well.

I appreciate that you're dialed into this as well. I've caught World Cup fever completely. Let's talk about American football, American college football. Would I be wrong to call that a suboptimal final weekend heading into the ACC championship game? I think you'd be very kind to call it suboptimal.

For it to be characterized as anything other than a complete and utter disappointment, I think is nice. It's not just the fact that both Clemson and UNC lose. It's sort of the teams that they lost to. I mean, NC State was on their fourth string quarterback. I don't want to take anything away from the Wolfpack, but if you're representing the ACC division for the ACC championship, you can't lose to a fourth string quarterback. It just can't happen, especially at home in the way that Carolina did. And then Clemson, I've been saying all week, South Carolina didn't play especially well in the game.

It's not like they played a flawless game. Spencer Rattler threw two interceptions and gave you a safety in the end zone when he threw the ball away and got that intentional grounding. And then you had to drop passes and Clemson still lost the game again at home with an opportunity. And even if Antonio Williams doesn't fumble that football, he had to get the ball around midfield. But are we confident that Clemson could have gotten the first down to get Beachy Potter in this situation where he could even attempt a long field goal based on what I saw the past three possessions? I'm not all that confident they could have completed a pass. So the way that it happened was what certainly went into it. And then, you know, there's some other ones down the line, but yeah, it was pretty lackluster to be kind. Roddy Jones from ESPN is joining us here on the Adam Gold show.

All right. I want to focus on Clemson first, then we'll talk about Carolina and the game coming up and some other things about the league this year. For all year long, even after the loss at Notre Dame, like I thought the loss at Notre Dame and maybe for both teams that are going to be playing Saturday night in Charlotte, the loss to Notre Dame told us everything we really needed to know. I thought about how good Clemson was. That doesn't mean they still couldn't have been part of the playoff had they finished this whole thing off and gone 12 and one, they could have still been part of all of it, but it told us the difference between where Clemson is and where they needed to be. So in your opinion, where do you see the deficiencies are with Clemson?

And this is two years in a row now. So I want to start league wide actually before we dive into Clemson, because I think Notre Dame is an excellent prison into the deficiencies of the league as a whole. Notre Dame spent an entire year in this league in 2020. They obviously play five ACC schools a year and have won the last 27 in a row. And we have to ask ourselves why, like these have not been world beating Notre Dame teams.

The 2020 team was a very good team. This team is a really good team, but overall, like they have been probably top 15 ish teams, but rarely top five teams. And so I think the physicality that Notre Dame plays with, which to be quite honest is the physicality that the big 10 plays with the physicality that the Southeastern Conference plays with that physicality is something that this league lacks and struggles with. I mean, you look at Notre Dame games this year against teams in the ACC, North Carolina, Syracuse, Clemson, Boston college, like just up and down the line, they are just absolutely bludgeoning people with their offensive line and with their physicality on defense. So overall, I think Clemson is sort of in games like that.

They are subject to what they see kind of on a weekly basis. So when you get a team that is as physical, especially on the defensive line and the linebacker position as that team is, I think Clemson was a little shell shocked with it. In terms of deficiencies with Clemson, it's a few things. One, they haven't had the receiver position. It appears has not been developed the same since Jeff Scott has left. They haven't had a first round receiver since Mike Williams. T Higgins was the first pick of the second round, so I don't want to discount it as if he was way down the line. But those two guys were Jeff Scott developed.

And while T Higgins may not have been drafted while Jeff Scott was there, his time under Jeff Scott certainly influenced him. So they have to find people at the receiver position. I'm done talking about the Clemson offensive line. It has been sort of a weak point for Clemson for the better part of a decade. And they had great quarterback play to overcome it.

So there's no reason to think that's going to change. The thing is the quarterback play. So they have to find the quarterback, obviously. And I think Clemson's learning what everybody has learned at some point in time at the top level. These five star recruits at quarterback don't always end up being good.

As a matter of fact, most often they end up being average or below. And then very rarely you get the Trevor Lawrence's, the CJ Strauss, the Deshaun Watson, the Bryce Young. So they're going to have to find that or change the way they're doing things so that they can compensate for average quarterback play. And then defensively, I think Wes Goodwin's going to have to take a good hard look at why this defense underachieved this year. I thought the defensive line play was inconsistent. They were great on the inch, but the tackles were inconsistent. Some of that due to injury, I thought the linebacker play was mostly subpar and the secondary was a liability all year long. So, so I mean, other than that, they're doing fine, but there's a lot to look at. Other than that, how was the play?

Mrs. Lincoln, Ronnie Jones is joining us here. I do want to, I do want to say to the Clemson fans, like all of that is being measured to the Clemson standard and to the top teams in the country, not the rest of the league, because they run through the league every year. Yeah. There's no question that Clemson has set the standard for how we are supposed to judge Clemson. And at, at the end of the day, they were 10 and two and everybody wishes their down year was nine or 10 wins as it's been for the tigers the last couple of years, at least in the regular season, Roddy Jones is joining us, but those are all, to me, it was obvious that there was a separation between where Clemson was and where they wanted to be. I mean, the fact is that they have not been able to line up and run the ball, even going back to Trevor Lawrence's sophomore year, the last time they could really run it was his freshman year. And I would argue it was primarily because Travis Etienne was a next level type of a player. And because they didn't really block all that well, and they needed Lawrence to be part of the running equation just to give themselves a chance.

Now he was exceptional at it. So it made their running game seem so much better. DJ you wasn't great at running.

He wasn't great at the read option. So it kind of limited their running game. I don't know that they didn't waste Will Shipley this year because he's such a talented running back, but they don't block well enough upfront to, to North Carolina. If I had told Tar Heel fans before the season started that they would go nine and three and be in the ACC championship game, they'd be, they'd be turning cartwheels, but based on what we saw, and then what we saw the last couple of weeks, how should they be feeling about this season in general? I think overall Carolina should feel good about the season, maybe not the way the season ended, but like you had a magical run over the course of the year and, and coming into this year, we wondered if they were going to be able to develop the quarterback position and they, they had Drake May and Drake May will be back. You're in the ACC championship game in the last year of the coastal division. So, so I think they should feel good about the season overall.

Now, the way the season ended should make you feel disappointed. This is not a team that should have lost the Georgia tech and it's not a team that should have lost NC state. So the questions about the program and the mentality of the program, I think those are still there. We thought that those had been cured from, from two years ago to, I'm sorry, from last year to this year, there was sort of an entitlement about this team last year. The defense was abysmal, offensively, they struggled outside of Sam Howell and Ty Chandler, but this year we thought that it was cured because they could win close games on the road.

They could, uh, they, they, they had a greeting to them. They got better defensively, uh, still not great, but got better. But then in the last couple of games, the offense has gone to sleep. And I think we kind of have to ask why and why the adjustments weren't made for them offensively.

So because teams did start to play them different. I've said this a couple of times, Georgia tech is sort of an awkwardly bad matchup for Carolina, but you have to be able to find something if you're that explosive and offense, um, empty state is what is the best defense in the league. So there's no shame in struggling the way they did entirely, but if you're the best offense in the league, you've got to average more than 3.9 yards per play, despite the fact that you've scored 27 points, some of those are an overtime and you've got a field goal, but, but I think overall the disappointment, um, certainly if you were to end the regular season on that two game win streak, losing streak, lose the ACC championship game, and then potentially a bowl game, it will absolutely change the way you feel about this team. But nine wins is nothing to be ashamed about.

I just think the fact that you left two on the table that you should have had, um, yeah, you, you, you, you should ask some questions about the program and where it's at. So my, my view of the state game is that state's defense is so good and they played in many ways, the way North Carolina has played to eliminate the big plays Carolina did not have a gain for more than 20 yards against NC state. And that is exceptional defensive work.

And they have a great defense, as you said, the best in the league. Um, the, the Georgia tech loss is 100% unacceptable for North Carolina, uh, especially since they had a lead, a pretty substantial lead in the first half. So that was the real stunner for me, the rivalry game and the loss to state didn't bug me as much because I know how good state's defense is and states. I mean, it's not like state used a quarterback that can't play. Ben Finley was supposed to be able to be a good quarterback when he got here, he just got lapped. He got lapped by Devin Leary, got lapped by MJ Morris.

Uh, so he had fallen to the back of the depth chart and was running the scout team. Uh, can Carolina beat Clemson this holiday season, switch to boost mobile and get a single line unlimited plan for $25 a month and a partridge in a pear tree coverage on America's largest 5g networks. How about seven swans of swimming? No, but if you're not satisfied within the first 30 days, boost gives you your money back turtle doves, French hens, the lowest truly unlimited plan on the market. One line for $25 a month.

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No, I don't think so. And you know, they may go and surprise me and, you know, cut this off and play it as motivation. But the thing that's bothered Carolina the past two weeks against NC State and Georgia Tech is the ability to create some level of pressure with less than with four or less rushers at times doing it with three and the mixing up of coverages, you know, I found NC State did a great job of either blitzing eight or dropping eight and either want both of them work for different reasons. But but their ability to bother Drake may and then not let him get out with his legs and scramble was really impressive. The thing that Georgia Tech did well is and both of these teams did this. But Georgia Tech was able to double Josh down to basically play man to man everywhere else and say, hey, we dare you to go beat us with somebody else. Now Antoine Green didn't play in that game.

And that certainly hurt him. But he was back for the state game. And I think if you're if you're a if you're a a Carolina fan, Clemson does not have a corner that's as good as Amari Walton at Georgia Tech or Aiden White at at at NC State. But they do have guys that are more physically talented than those two. So so I think defensively Clemson has a myriad of ways they can give you they can give Carolina some trouble at Carolina offensive line, I think is like, it's honestly regressed over the course of the season. And a lot of their deficiencies have been covered up by Drake makes running ability. And the last few teams have done a really good job of not getting Carolina big plays, making them consistently drive down the field and then doubling Josh down at crucial times and taking him out.

And they haven't been able to find answers. So so I don't really see that net on the other side. I mean, Carolina's defense is what it is like, you know, they they they allowed him to stay to put together a couple of drives a lot of some big plays in that game. And I think I think Clemson should probably go full on Notre Dame and go big people and run the football on on Carolina's defense the entire game with real shippling so Martha and I think that would be enough of them to win it. I think I think Clemson might be able to pull off the run right at North Carolina all game.

I'm not 100% sure that they can, but they might be state definitely couldn't state didn't ever run a game all year long. You look, you look, you look at the entire season and most people have had a get right game against Carolina defense, maybe not to the extent like a Notre Dame game, right. But but also just have over performed against against Clemson, the against Notre Dame, excuse me, and it's Carolina's defense, at least All right, let me ask you one more question is Mike Elko, the coach of the year in the league?

Yeah, I think so. Mike Norvell should get a lot of of consideration for it as well. But with what Mike Elko did this year with that team turning them into what they are, I think it's incredibly impressive. And look, there's there's a few different reasons you can justify for their turnaround. The other part of it is I mean, they had a had a two point loss, the pit had a loss in overtime to Georgia Tech had a loss late in that game against Carolina. And this is and honestly, in two of those games, Georgia Tech and Carolina, there's a questionable calls at the very end, that that essentially took the game did not allow them to finish the game like they could have put Georgia Tech away, they could have put Carolina away, a offensive pass interference call against against Georgia Tech and then and then call against Carolina to kind of took some wind out of their sails and both of those teams had opportunities to go win it. So I think all of that together gives Mike Elko it over Mike Norvell. But what Mike Norvell did, despite that three game losing streak at the in the middle of the season, beating LSU, beating Florida, the only two wins the league. Maybe that's a good myth by itself.

But but yeah, he had a great year. I think it's my girlfriend. All right, Mike Elko though this holiday season switch to boost mobile and get a single line unlimited plan for $25 a month and a partridge in a pear tree coverage on America's largest 5g networks.

How about seven swans a swimming? No, but if you're not satisfied within the first 30 days boost gives you your money back turtle doves French hens the lowest truly unlimited plan on the market one line for $25 a month when you switch I'll take it boost mobile unleash your power limited time offer new customers only one line for $25 per month with auto pay device must be returned in like new condition monthly service refunded via gift card additional restrictions apply to your local boost mobile store for details