Who might be the best in the ACC this upcoming year?

The college football season can't be far off. SEC Media Days are this week in Hoover, Alabama, suburb of Birmingham.

Next week, the ACC will convene in Charlotte, North Carolina. And one man who is synonymous, especially with the lead up to college football, Phil Steele. The college football yearbook is a, I mean, it is summer reading for diehard college football fans and he joins us on the Adam Gold show. Mr. Steele, I know your magazine, it's really more than a magazine, it's not even doing it justice to call it a magazine. In terms of brick and mortar store, Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million, otherwise, we go to what, PhilSteele.com?

That's right, Adam. PhilSteele.com to get the magazine. If you don't find it, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, those are the only two locations this year. And when you order it online at PhilSteele.com, we give you the digital magazine free. Excellent.

That is a bonus. When do you start doing this? It's a seven month process, Adam. And it starts the Sunday after Thanksgiving when some teams' seasons are complete. That's when we start the actual right through process. We do it in a three right through process. The first one is a post-season right through or a read through. Every article is written about the team during the course of the year.

Get everything fresh in our head. Write the first right through. The second right through is pre-spring. And then the third is after I talked to the head coaches. And I did talk to every single head coach in the ACC this year and go over every player on the team, all the positions.

And that's when we do the third right through. And it's very helpful to talk to the coaches in this transfer portal era. And the fact that even after the conversation, I'm getting texts like the day before the magazine goes to the press, hey, we just signed this guy. Hey, we just signed this guy.

And we're able to keep it the most up-to-date magazine out there. Phil Steel is joining us here on the Adam Gold show. We're actually headed to ACC kickoff coming up next week.

It's Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday next week. So how did the portal and all of this player movement, how did it alter the way you normally would put this magazine together? You know, probably about 10 years ago, Adam, I used to go to the press sometime in May because when spring practice was over, you knew every team's roster. This year, the portal opened up from May 1st to May 15th. And so what we did is we didn't go to the press right after the portal closed. We gave it three full weeks so that we found out where all these guys that hopped in the portal were going. And we've captured about 99% of the moves. Almost everybody did sign in the next three weeks as the schools they were going to. So we actually went to the press June 7th this year, which is later than normal and hit the newsstands later than normal on July 4th.

But it was well worth it because we were able to capture all the moves. Look, I saw on Twitter how excited people were when they picked up their magazine. It is. I've seen more pictures of the Phil Steele.

Again, it's not really a magazine, it's a yearbook, with people reading it on the beach than I have anything else. Phil Steele is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. Let's get to big picture ACC. You see this as the year that Florida State goes back where as they believe they belong.

You know, Florida State will be the preseason favorite to win the ACC this year. First of all, what a difference a year makes for Mike Norvell. Last year, coming into this point, he was off three and six and five and seven seasons.

He was on the hot seat. Then they go 10 and three with three close losses and outgained ACC foes by 165 yards per game. Arguably the best team in the ACC last year. Now this year they got 17 returning starters. Plus, Norvell brought in a bunch of transfers again like Ian Coleman, the top receiver from Michigan State.

Casey Roddick comes in on the offensive line from Colorado and numerous other players. I think when the ACC media votes the next week, you will see them the preseason favorite. However, I went with Clemson to win the ACC this year. You know, when I look at Clemson, when I talked to Coach Sweeney, he told me something interesting, Adam, and that was that I remember their 2018 defensive line, how deep and talented that was with first round draft picks. He said this year's defensive line doesn't have the star power of 2018, but it's actually deeper in talent and experience than that group was. So I made it my number one rated defensive line. They've got Carter and Trotter back at linebacker.

Cade Klubnick is back here, takes over at quarterback. They've got Shipley and Moffett running back. The thing I really like about Clemson is their schedule. They're toughest two opponents, Florida State, Notre Dame are both at home.

You know, they've lost a grand total of one home game in the last six years. That's why I went with Clemson. I've got Clemson favored in all 12 games winning the ACC and making the playoff. Making the playoff would be great for the ACC, which has been shut out in each of the last two years.

Clemson is really the only, aren't they the only school that have made the college football playoff from the ACC because Florida State's last year was, I believe, the bowl championship series at quarterback. Do you have Klubnick as the fourth best quarterback in the league? I was excited to see that you thought very highly of Riley Leonard, somebody we have looked at a lot here for Duke. We know that Drake May is the best quarterback in the league.

I think so. But Riley Leonard is very, very good. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. And some folks don't even recognize the name Riley Leonard.

I mean, not naturally, not there in North Carolina, but around the country. But I have watched Riley Leonard. And to be honest with you, I did not have huge expectations on Leonard heading into last year, but boy, did he impress me.

6'4", 212 pounds. And he's a guy who's not only a very dangerous passer. I mean, he threw for nearly 3,000 yards last year with a 20 to 6 ratio, but also a very dangerous runner. Led the team in rushing last year with 699 yards. And that's not because they didn't have running backs. They had three guys basically with 500 yards rushing.

Leonard can hurt you both ways. He's an outstanding leader. And getting Duke, he and Mike Elko deserve a lot of credit last year, taking the Duke team that I thought no way did they even make a bowl game last year, all the way up to nine wins.

It was remarkable watching him play on a weekly basis. Yeah, they will host Clemson to open up the season, which could be a sneaky good game. I think very highly of Duke, but obviously Clemson is really among the class of the league. Your thoughts beyond Drake May, and you have him, I believe, first team all ACC over Jordan Travis.

So quick thought on that and then your thoughts about the Tar Heels. Yeah, and with Drake May, you know, last year he basically had to put the team on his shoulders because the offense was almost pure pass. You look at the top running back last year, 558 yards for Elijah Green, and May was forced to put the team on his shoulders.

He won't have to do that this year. They're going to run the football more. They've got a veteran offensive line. They've got good receivers.

They added in Devonta Walker from Kent State, Nate McCollum from Georgia Tech. And so I think May is going to be right there at the top of the ACC quarterbacks this year and pilot a potent more balanced offense and defensively. They've got a lot of talent on that side of the ball. Now, Mac Brown's been bringing in the talent. He tells me each year, Hey Phil, we look pretty on that side of the ball. We got to start playing that way. I think they do start playing that way this year. They got eight starters back. And if anybody's going to get into that, what appears to be a Florida State Clemson ACC title game?

I think North Carolina's got an excellent shot at getting there. Now I'm not dissing Jordan Travis when he starts the imagination. He is one of the best quarterbacks out there. In fact, you go back to 2019, his first year, he had 79 yards passing 228 running. He was used only as a running quarterback, but since then he has improved at 55, 57, and then 62 and 64% completions. If he makes that kind of progress again, he's going to be right at the top. So ACC's got some good quarterbacks again this year.

There's no question. And NC State has an old Virginia quarterback as their quarterback this year. And Brendan Armstrong, he had a monster season a few years ago before the coaching change and kind of their offense completely changed. And now he's back with his old OC here at NC State.

Your thoughts on that? Yeah, and watching Virginia that year, Adam, which is two years ago when he had an A as the offensive coordinator, basically they didn't have great supporting talent around him. I mean, he had a good receiving core.

He threw the football. He was basically the reason Virginia had the type of season he did. I'm excited if he turns back into the Brendan Armstrong of two years ago, now that he has his offensive coordinator back, which he should. And remember with NC State, I know there was a lot of expectations on NC State coming into last year with Devin Leary, but Leary got injured. They used four different starting quarterbacks.

How many teams do that during the course of a year? So I think now having the continuity of Brendan Armstrong, along with the continuity of his offensive coordinator from two years ago, that makes this offense somewhat exciting to me. All right, final couple of things for you, and then we'll let Phil Steele go. The magazine is available at brick and mortar stores, only Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million, but you can order it online at philsteele.com. You do that.

You also get the digital version for, I guess, thrown in with it. I always look at offensive line, who's got the best offensive line. It gives you an idea of who could be really good.

Give me the top three offensive lines in the league. Number one, I'm going to start with Florida State, and they have a remarkable amount of career stars. I've never seen a number like this.

They've been doing the magazine for 29 years. They have over 200 career starts returning on the offensive line. That's an amazing number, and part of it's due to the transfer portal and not only the players that have been starting there, but they've added starters from Auburn, Colorado, UTEP to go along with the returning starters.

So that's an amazing number, and I have them number one. Number two, I've got Clemson. Clemson's offensive line was good last year, not great, but I think this year they have the opportunity of being great with Putnam, Parks, Miller, and Tate all back. They'll be an outstanding line, and then number three, I'm going with Pitt, and Pitt had high expectations on the offensive line last year.

Didn't quite live up to them, but that's because they got injury plagued during the course of the year. Coach Narduzzi told me he feels as good about this offensive line coming into the year as he did last year, and four of the five guys starting this year played in a ball. They've got Goncalves at the right tackle, Taylor at left tackle, and Cradle at center.

They appear to be in really good shape as well. So those would be my top three offensive lines this year. Feels like Pitt always has a great offense. Pitt and Boston College seem like always have great offensive linemen. And final broad question, you have Florida State, you have Clemson, North Carolina in some fashion, I guess it's Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina as your top three.

If you had to pick a dark horse, who would it be? I am going to have to say Pitt. Pitt doesn't have a lot of expectations this year. Their over-under win total is just seven in Vegas, so nobody's expecting much. But much like NC State, they've got Phil Jurkovic at quarterback and his offensive coordinator from two years ago, and Frank Signetti as the OOC.

So that could be pretty good. I think they get improved play at QB at the offensive line. They've got the run game. And defensively, it doesn't matter how many players on the defensive line they lose to the draft. Narduzzi's going to develop a defensive line.

Look at the last four years, 51, 46, 54, 48 sacks. I think Pitt could be that dark horse. And they get Florida State at home on November the 4th in some cold weather. And they do not play Clemson this year. All right, the schedule does matter. It matters for Louisville who doesn't play Florida State, Clemson, or North Carolina, I believe.

So Louisville catches a break in the schedule as well. You are a machine of information, Phil Steele. I don't know how you do it, because I know you can do it for every team and every conference in the country. Great work again. It is a rite of spring or early summer, the Phil Steele College Football Yearbook. I appreciate it. At PhilSteele042 on Twitter, PhilSteele.com online to order the magazine and the digital copy. Thank you so much. Hey Adam, a lot of fun talking football with you today. Thanks for having me on. We will do it again. Phil Steele.