Chip Patterson previews the upcoming 2023 ACC Football season

It's the Adam Gold Show. We're at ACC Football Kickoff. You recognize this guy next to me? It's Chip Patterson. We're right next to each other.

We're not looking at each other through a camera. It's very nice. Very nice. That is Chip Patterson. Alright. Let me get completely crazy. Let me get Chip a little bit more level here so we can hear Chip. You're a Hurricanes fan. What did you get for your 26th birthday?

9.75 annual average value. So the text chat, I've been telling you about my little corner of Caniacs, you know, with Dr. Dean and Brinson. And the question is, is he still going to be Joe's neighbor?

Joe Ovius. Does this mean? And I told them, I said, but his house is the crash house for the Fins. So I hope he keeps his place in North Hill, near North Hills. And then it can just be for all the newcomers, all the finished players that come in, they can crash there. And then now maybe Sebastian can get his own spot. And at 9.75 a year, I think you can afford even in today's Raleigh real estate market.

A couple homes. Does he go inside the Beltline or does he go North Raleigh? Ooh, I think that he's probably going to start sniffing. I mean, listen to me, but I mean, he's probably going to start sniffing out something near a golf course.

As I as I as would I in that similar situation. But yeah, there's, you know, we got some fine golf courses, you might need to get a little north to be able to go find that. There's, there's no question about that. All right, we're here.

Let's talk a little football. And I don't do a ton of this. Because frankly, I'm not 100%. I'm probably not the best person to ask. But the more I looked at it, the more I thought, well, Clemson looks like they have the most good players. Yes. Um, I'm not 100% sold on their quarterback. Sure. I think if I was ranking quarterbacks in the ACC, we would be near six or so before we get to K club, Nick.

Interesting, right? I think Drake Bay, Jordan Travis. I think Riley Leonard actually picked Riley Leonard. I think he's the second best quarterback in the league. He might not have the best overall, overall, you know, team around him, obviously. So it's going to be more difficult. I think if you put Riley Leonard on the Clemson Clemson Tigers, I think they would be a runaway in this league. I don't think they're going to run away. I think they're going to struggle a little bit, but I think they'll win games because they have better team better players.

So you looked at me cross side. Well, yeah. So I think that there's a real debate between Jordan Travis and Cade club, Nick. And it's a fascinating debate because Jordan Travis is arguably maxed out. He is near the end of his run. How much better is he going to get? We've seen him get better and better and better and better. And K club, Nick, he's still got a long runway ahead of him. You know, we've only seen him in a couple of games and he has made some capital B boneheaded mistakes in those games, but he was also thrown in, in very, very poor situations.

And, you know, DJ, we uncle LA in his conversations with the athletic over the summer, even talked about some of those games where, you know, he felt like the quarterback position wasn't necessarily being managed in a way where either player had a chance to be successful change at coordinator with Garrett Riley coming in. And, you know, you're bringing in because Kate club, Nick from Austin, Texas at Austin, Westlake powerhouse, high school football, and like Garrett Riley, Texas air raid routes. I just, I think that that's going to end up working out in a way where I am, if, if we're only considering what we have seen, I understand you trying to put him by six, but if I am ranking it going into the season, I think he's much closer to a top three, or are you arguably in the two, three or four spot, but I'm with you on Leonard.

I love it. Like I, like we've seen filter COVID at his best beef, very, very good. Given what we saw from Riley Leonard and given how he, from what we've heard, has even improved since the end of last season, I would take Riley Leonard over filter COVID. You know, I would, uh, I would take Riley Leonard over Brennan Armstrong. Um, but you don't have Riley Leonard second best in the league. No, I would tell you either Travis, Travis or club, Nick.

Yeah. And that's why we have you on Jordan Travis with respect from what you know, what you've done so far. Well, if club Nick has improved, then Clemson's offense should be much more dynamic. And they've been just at best an average office. They last year was, first of all, they were one of the worst offenses in the ACC two years ago. And that's startling because for seven straight years, they were number one or number two.

Right. And so even as they did take like very noticeable steps forward statistically, I think we just still had like the echoes of what had been so bad in 2021 that we, we just wanted it to go right back to the top. I just think that's a building process. And so like they, they still were able to, um, move the ball and put up enough yards and points that I think they finished around like fifth or sixth of the ACC and most offensive categories, but we want them to be one or two, especially if they're going to be a championship team.

I mean, that's what it's about, right? The ACC has a team that is going to challenge to even get into the college football playoff that they have to look the part. Yes. Right. And Clemson didn't, hasn't looked the part really the last couple of years.

Yeah. A selection committee that is only using 12 games to be able to rank you needs to just be able to see that you look good. And that's where, you know, being able to, um, have a better red zone offense. I mean, they consider the bowl game against Tennessee. That was, um, just mind numbing to watch K club Nick in that start. You're so excited for it.

He moves the ball effectively, like it's first five or six possessions, and then they just absolutely spill their food when they get into the red zone. So like, yeah, there's a lot that needs to be cleaned up. Um, you know, we'll see, are you going Clemson one as you're like order finish? Uh, yes. Actually I picked him to go 12 and oh, uh, on the, um, in our place, your bet segment yesterday. So I guess I have to, uh, you know, go with that. Yes. I picked Clemson one because I think they have the most favorable schedule among the top teams too. Oh yeah.

It's hard to stay at home. They don't play pit. They don't play Clemson.

They don't, I love doing that and strip the schedule analysis. I'm like, Hey, you know, it's really nice about Clemson schedule. They don't have to play Clemson because these other teams, they got my Clemson and Florida state and North Carolina and Louisville. We're going to talk about Duke today schedule. Yeah. Duke's got them all.

Yeah. Duke Duke has, uh, after being in the coastal division and having wake forest as your primary draw, like you were never seeing these teams, even NC state, and now they go, uh, Clemson, Florida state, Louisville, NC state, plus the wake forest game. Like those are the five most successful programs from that other side of the division that they have not been playing.

Like they would love to get an old coastal division schedule. They have pit. They have pit on the schedule in Carolina, Carolina state, right?

They play everybody. Yeah. Like if when I made a list of who I thought was the best teams in the league and Clemson and Florida state, and I have pit three, although knowing now that I looked at it, I probably should have pit two since I had pit beating Florida state.

Uh, and they're both tied at six and two in my list. So pit would go to the ACC title game. So Clemson pit, Florida state, North Carolina, like Duke plays them all. Yeah.

I think Miami too. Yes. What did Mike Elko do? Well, you win nine games in your first year at Duke and this is going to be really fun to watch because with the new scheduling model, that means that next year is easy. Does it?

Yes. Because you were going to be cycling out of Clemson and Florida state, Mike Elko and that's right. Next year currently is set up. We'll be having easier, tough year, easier, tough year.

Like you better like make sure to start it the other way this year. They just announced that contract extension. It's kind of like, he's going to get a new contract extension before all the hard years, right? He's going to win eight, nine, 10 games and be like, you know, flirting with being a top 25 team and all the easy years.

Then you're going to come back and it's going to, it's going to get a little bit tougher. They could be a better team and have a significantly worse record. 100%. But I'm also like, while we are laying that out there, they could beat Louisville, they could beat NC state. I mean, this is right. Like this is a situation where, you know, we are preparing ourselves for a correction from exceeding expectations, right? But I do believe that there's some real quality on that coaching staff. I do believe that like they don't have six defensive linemen that I think would go start a bunch of other places, but they've got a couple, you know, they, they don't have the full seven man offensive line rotation that could go start anywhere else in the ACC, but they've got an offensive lineman or two who I think other like good power five programs would have loved to, uh, come and be a part of they've got investment. Like I just, I think that while we were preparing ourselves for a drop in the wind total from nine to probably six, it's a bowl team and it's one that can get a lot of them, but they better get their non-conference wins because the conference wins are going to be tough to come by for them.

They really will be, uh, chip Patterson is here cover three podcasts, cbssports.com. The, um, I want to make the case for North Carolina. My problem with UNC, even in the Mack Brown era has been when the, when the real lights get turned on, they have not answered every single big game that they have played.

They just have not been up to it. I mean, they play a lot of big games and not to pile on here, but just like it doesn't even need to be a big game against a huge opponent. You could just be nine and one playing a night game, Georgia tech in town with an interim coach. And all you got to do is beat Georgia tech right. And in a vacuum, well, that becomes a big game that that should be able to be handled, but because it became a big game now, all of a sudden the offense gets tight and you just can't get anything going and the negativity compounds on itself.

And then everybody gets antsy and the dread kicks in. And, um, I think that there's, and I liked that Mack Brown, you know, master of talking about his football team and talking about college football. I liked that Mack Brown was like, we need to finish better. Yeah. You know, like we need to play better at the end of games and we need to play better at the end of the season. Yeah. You know, we, we like let this thing slip away. This could have been a lot better season, but, um, you're to point out the historic, you know, trends that have been there.

I just think that when you've got Drake may, you're going to be able to score more points than almost everybody that you play. Right. It's a very, very frustrating life to live, but are you saying they're a better fit for the big 12? Uh, if this North Carolina team was dropped into the big 12, that North Carolina team would be competing with Oklahoma, Kansas state, Texas tech and TCU for being the second best team in the conference behind Texas.

Yeah. Behind Texas. Wait, wait, Texas is back now.

Listen, time for some truth serum here. All right. So everyone says Texas hasn't won the conference since 2009, which is true, but you know how many times Texas has been picked in the preseason to win the conference since then?

How many? Zero. Really? Yeah. So we're talking about Texas falling short of expectations, but people in the people within the big 12 have known that Texas is basically a house of cards for the last dozen years. And these would be top 15 ish type Texas teams that, you know, were being pushed up, like, here we go, this is where it's coming back.

And then they would end up falling out top everybody desires Texas to be back. Correct. Right. But in the big 12 in the media preseason poll, Texas has not been picked to win the conference since 2009.

All right. I have not spoken at all about NC state, which has a new offensive coordinator and a quarterback who worked together to post really amazing numbers at Virginia a couple of years ago. Um, you're replacing Devin Leary, of course, Devin Leary had an injury played season last year. injury played career one.

That's true. One full season of full health. And I loved I loved Devin Leary. And I still think Devin Leary has a pro future. I think he's gonna be good at Kentucky this year.

Yeah. But talk to me about our Brendan Armstrong, and what state's offense is likely to look at because I think over the years, they have needed not necessarily better players. I think the players have been good enough. I think they have need more daring in their offense. They seem to be willing to let their defense kind of do the heavy lifting. And I think the game of college football is flipped. I think you need your offense to be great. Well, there's also like a zig zag like if we're going to be the pain in the butt team that you're going to hate playing against because we're playing rock solid defense. We're mashing you at the line of scrimmage on both sides. And yeah, we are maybe being a little more risk averse and playing a field position battle. But you know what, like coaches hate coaches hate getting the ball pinned inside their own 15 yard line and trying to figure out how to get all the way down the field that I, I see the results that Dave Dorn has put together and the level of consistency and the level of player development that he's had. I'm like, Alright, well, this is just you.

This is just what you do. Here's where the Robert and I piece comes in for me because there were times last season where and you mentioned like the players not being good enough. Well, it's also are you how good are you at doing what we're asking you to do?

Because if we are asking you to win one on one battles, then you do need to be special. And maybe there wasn't a lot of really special in that wide receiver room last year. That's when you need to take it into your hands as a coaching staff that okay, we need to make this easy for them. We need to scheme them open.

I mean, that's always the the Hugh freeze line. It's like Hugh freeze can get any group of receivers. And just because the way he runs his offense with tempo and spread things out is every place that's up somebody being wide open with no one within 20 yards of them. So instead of just keeping it more basic in terms of your route trees and the way that these different wide receivers have their assignments on any given play, like can you help them a little bit so that they don't have to get open and when one on one battles on their own this receiver room, which has seen a good bit of turnover, I am concerned that they might need some of that creativity too. And that if they're asked to just go win one on one battles, I mean, there's really good defenses and some pretty good secondaries on NC State schedule and throughout the ACC. So that's where you're excited about Robert and I bringing that creativity just because he might make life a little bit easier on some of those pass catchers. Just to clarify, I actually think that they've had I mean, they weren't an elite wide receiver core last year. And getting the tight end for a full season.

Sure, I think will will matter. But for for me, I just think that their philosophy has worked against them when it comes to winning games. I mean, they've certainly won plenty of games. I love the program.

I've been saying this for a long time. They're they usually leave a win on the table that they need to take with them. Right just about every year, they kind of average one win a year. Matter of fact, the pandemic here was the only year I would say that man they got everything they wanted to get out of that season.

Sure. Of course, it helped with Carolina was that was the Carolina meltdown in the last two minutes. That was at the following year. So that was the following year and will Brinson and I have talked about that because he said he was like, look, Clemson game could have gone the other way, right? Carolina game could have gone the other way.

We talked about Yeah, that's true. NC State and Dave Dorn differently. Yes, 2021 season doesn't have those two huge, massive like invigorating wins for the program.

But I look as a big picture. If you're a state fan, that's the program is outstanding for for honestly for historically what their level has been, which is kind of a mid, you know, a mid tier ACC club. But I think that you're in the upper part of that if if you're there 14 ACC schools, if you if you, you know, three at the top and then the middle and then with the bottom, they're toward the top of that of that second tier. And that's that's an okay spot.

And they can spike up. There's no there's I hope I'm not like, pissing people off. I say, well, gorgeous things were mid like, well, this is what NC State football has been. I mean, they've basically been seven and five.

I think I think they I think they trend better than that. Over though, you know, over the long haul with Dave Dorn, the important thing with Robert and I coming in, to my eye is that Brendan Armstrong is a bridge, you know? Oh, yeah, like, you are setting up the few you this year, you're setting up what the offense is going to be, as you ramp up to what you hope is going to be another spike. Another another time where we might be one or two games away from competing for a spot in the ACC championship game. Because that comes around for NC State every five years, every five to seven years, okay, you get you get that right?

You talk about games left on the table. You know, we go back and look at the roster, we go back and look at the results. And like a team, not that you're gonna win the ACC championship, like I'm not throwing you ahead of, you know, Jamison, Florida State or Deshaun and Trevor and those Clemson teams. But then you look at the teams that were right behind him, NC State was as good as them.

So with Robert and I with Brendan Armstrong and the familiarity, you are now creating that evolution. And you hoping to keep everything steady on the defensive side where they've just been lights out for the last two to three seasons. And that's like, that's how you do the the really hard, difficult growth of being able to move up in that middle tier of a competitive conference before we let chip Patterson go Clemson one. Clemson one is Clemson eight and Oh, one atop the league. Yeah, I've got them dropping mate like they could drop a game to Notre Dame. Well, that's not a conference game. So right, that's good. So I think I've got him a I've got him eight no and I think I've got Florida State seven and one for state seven one and beyond them.

Who's third? I would have to go look at my conference breakdowns. I was impressed you filled out your ballot. I did.

I sent my ballot sent my ballot in this morning. That's what's not even due till Friday. That's right. You're getting getting your work done. That's the way I was in school all the time. That's such a lie. That's such a lie to do Friday. I was probably doing it Friday morning on the bus. Yes, on the way to school.

That's chip Patterson. I appreciate as always, my friend with the lucky land slides. You can get lucky just about anywhere. This is your captain speaking. We've got clear runway and the weather's fine, but we're just going to circle up here a while and get lucky.

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