“UNC vs USC the biggest game of the month in the ACC season?”

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State Connecticut. It's a great opening weekend of college football. Right? We've got five straight days of ACC football. Tuesday all the way through Monday where Clemson and Duke clash. Red Friedlander. Saturday road. ACC columnists will probably have to be at nine games or something over the first five day weekend of football. He joins us on the Adam Gold show.

Thank you very much my friend for doing this. But before we get to the ACC, I'm going to ask you our poll question. I don't know if you've been paying attention at all or you've followed me on Twitter. I put the poll question up.

Mike's course is already mad at me. So here's the question. With the playoff going to 12 teams after this year and us losing a power five league because the Pac-12 is dying on the vine, should it stay at six plus six, six automatic qualifiers and six at large? Should it drop to five and seven? Or should we just go the best 12 teams regardless?

That's a really good question. Part of me says we should go with the best 12 teams regardless. But what's the point of having conferences if you don't reward conference champions? So I say go to five and then add the extra at large. Actually I think it might even be easier just to stay at six and six. I don't think they will. I think they'll try to go to five and seven. But if I were the commissioner of the American or the Sunbelt or the Mountain West, I would vote for status quo because it has to be unanimous.

Any change to the current format has to be voted unanimously. You know, Mike Oresko, the American, has been advocating for years that it should be a power six. Of course he is.

He'd be right up his alley there. Right. But like most of those teams that they used to have are now in power five leagues or power four leagues.

But no, I understand. And he's advocating for his league. I know there are people who think the Sunbelt is the next best league. I think they're all pretty good leagues. And it all depends on the year which league is best.

I would advocate. Hey listen, how are we going to know what leagues are going to look like from year to year anyway, right? I'm with you. I'm with you on that. I firmly believe that we are headed to football leaving everything else behind and doing their own thing for football. And maybe we go back to more sensible sized conferences in the other sports. I think we're going five years from now we might not even recognize what college sports looks like. I agree.

And I think the next thing you see, once this particular round is done, I think you may start seeing contraction rather than additions. So I agree with you 100%. We weren't supposed to agree on this. Well you said five plus seven. Here's my argument.

I'll pretend that we're diametrically opposed. Twelve teams sounds big but it really isn't. And there's no need to have a conference champion from the no offense to the Sunbelt or the American or the Mountain West. There's no reason to have a conference champion that's nine and four playing in a college football playoff game.

There's no need for it. It's the same concept as the divisions that we just got rid of in the ACC. I mean why do you want a six and six Georgia Tech team playing a nationally ranked Florida State team which I think happened in what 2013 I think it was. Because basically what it does is Florida State wins that game but it drags them down because their strength of schedule goes to the toilet.

So yeah, I agree 100% again. I'm sorry. We gotta stop this. Brett Friedlander, ACC Saturday Road columnist.

Let's see if I can drag you into a fight somewhere else. North Carolina, South Carolina is the most important game in the first month for the ACC. No.

Absolutely not. LSU Florida State is. And the reason is because Florida State has gotten so much love in the offseason. They are the cool team. They are that team that everybody is jumping on the bandwagon.

Well, you know, go out there and prove it now because if they go lay an egg in Orlando on Sunday, on Labor Day Sunday, all of a sudden now they're going to be a fraud. And again, the ACC, even though they don't want to be in the ACC, the ACC will get dragged down with them. So I think that is by far the most important game. And I tell you what, I think the second most important game is Duke Clemson. Duke has got a real shot at winning that game. They got the more experienced team. Their offense is better than Clemson's at this point, I think.

Although it might not be at the end of the season. They're playing at home, which not necessarily an advantage, but at least they're not at Death Valley. And Clemson needs to win that game. The ACC needs Clemson and Florida State to be elite. They need them to be in the top 10 all year. They need them to play twice. And losing to Duke in that first game, while it's not an embarrassment because Duke is a very good team, just not a good look. And the ACC can't really afford that right now. So I would say those two games are even more important than South Carolina, North Carolina. Although as a graduate of the University of South Carolina, I'm probably going to be interested in that one more. Alright, now we're going to argue.

Finally, we got to this. So if Florida State loses to LSU, now if they get housed by LSU, that might be different. But if they lose to LSU and then beat Clemson, we're fine. If North Carolina loses to a mid-table team from the SEC, and that's all South Carolina is, they are just a middle-of-the-road team in the SEC. If UNC loses that game, there is no path back to respectability for the Tar Heels and, I think, tangentially, the league. I think that has greater ramifications. LSU is a top-five team.

There is no question. I think we all believe that based on the way they played at the end of last season and all of the stuff that Brian Kelly is capable of doing and has done in recruiting and all that. I think LSU is a team that probably thinks it can compete for a national championship, as Florida State does. But losing that game, I don't think crushes the league as long as Florida State goes on to have a great year, maybe beats Clemson, but has a good year. I just don't see where North Carolina saves face after losing to South Carolina. Panthers Playbook.

Download and subscribe today at WRALSportsFan.com or wherever you discover your favorite podcasts. See, I don't necessarily think North Carolina has looked that way nationally. Yeah, but they're playing for the league. Remember, I said it's the ACC important game.

Yeah, it is. It is because anytime you can beat an SEC team, whether it's a bottom-seater or a middle-of-the-road team, there's that. But I just think that North Carolina, NC State, Virginia Tech, whoever plays in that game in Charlotte every year against South Carolina always loses it. So, I mean, except for when Sam Howell pulled the rabbit out of his hat a couple of years ago.

But I mean, go back and look. I mean, they always lose that. And so I just think that it's the norm. And really, nobody's going to think twice about it because it always happens. So what you're saying, it will be an upset, Brett Friedlander, if the Tar Heels beat the Gamecocks that Saturday, that opening Saturday of college football's first full weekend. Yeah, although I do believe that the Tar Heels are going to win that game because I think Drake May is going to tear that defense apart. But yeah, I would say yeah. They'll be favored, but it will still be an upset.

And here's the thing. I understand and I agree with that line of thinking because if you look at the Tar Heels' most recent history, when it comes to winning that game, no matter what that game is, they have not done it. So it will surprise a lot of people, I think, that if North Carolina is to win that game. Alright, Florida State or Clemson, who is the winner of this league?

Clemson. And I say that because I just think that their defense is their defense. And I think Garrett Riley is going to have a major impact on the development of Cade Klubnick. Not only Cade Klubnick, but he's going to bring in that air raid offense. And you know, Clemson's receiving core has not been up to its usual standards over the last few years. But I think the steam that he's going to bring in is going to make that receiving core a lot better than it really is because they're going to have more room to operate. They're going to have more open space and I think they're going to use Will Shipley better and more in the passing game.

And I just think that entire offense is going to benefit from him being there. Florida State is very good. They've got everybody back. They've got that great transfer class coming in. But I think those six wins to end the season last year are being overvalued just a little bit. Look at who they beat. One team with a winning record and it was Syracuse and they were seven and six. So the three best teams that they played on their schedule after that ugly, sloppy LSU game to start the season, they lost two.

So they're going to be really, really good. They're going to be a national contender. But I just think Clemson's better. Well, I think Clemson probably is more talented, certainly defensively. I don't know that they have the better quarterback.

I would give Jordan Travis the edge there. I know Clemson's got Will Shipley. Florida State's got great running backs, too. And I think Florida State is better at the receiver spot. I don't think you can pretend your way to a great passing game if you don't have great wide receivers. I also don't know that we have seen Cade Klubnick as an elite level passer yet.

He's going to have to prove that to me. I have serious doubts about Clemson being a great offensive team, even with a scheme change. But I don't know. Let me ask you, speaking of scheme change, NC State's got a new offense. Do they, like in the opener against Connecticut, how do they approach that? Because my feeling is, I don't want to see razzle dazzle. I don't need to see flea flickers and all sorts of goofy looking offensive sets.

But I need to see a more aggressive attitude from their offense trying to score points, not trying to let the defense win the game for them. Because they're not beating Notre Dame by playing it close to the vest in Week 2. And I think you treat Week 1 like you have to do it to get ready for Week 2.

Yeah, but you know what? Week 1 for NC State, and again for the ACC, is really important because it's a road game and it's against a tricky opponent in that you look at UConn and you say, oh, they are the Dregs. They are terrible. They're one of the worst teams in college football, and they were about two years ago.

Two years ago. They weren't last year. They were a bowl team last year. And while they weren't world beaters and NC State should beat them, it's not a game where you can just show up. You're going to have to play pretty well and win this game.

And it'll be on Thursday nights, everybody's watching. I think the biggest thing, Adam, is to not try to do anything crazy. Just let Brennan be Brennan. I mean, just let him throw the ball downfield, let him get out in the open field and run a little bit, and just have fun. I mean, the last couple of years with Tim Beckett, it just kind of seemed like, like you said, they were just trying to do enough to win the game and let the defense take care of business.

But just go out there and play some ball. And I think that Robert and I and Brennan Armstrong have that connection where I think they can do that right away. I don't think they're going to have to, you know, like Klubnick and Riley at Clemson, I think it's going to take a little time to find a rhythm, to find an identity.

I think that's something that NC State will have right away because of that connection. Just let them wing it. Just open it up and let them throw the ball 40 times. I think you and I actually agree on that in that, especially last year, it bothered me that, and Dave Doran didn't admit to last year being a mistake, but he admitted because I asked him point blank, does offense or defense win championships now? And he understood the question in that he goes, you know, 10 years ago, you could just, you know, score in the 20s and win college football games.

He said today, you can't, you have to be in the 30s. So they too often last year just played very conservatively, field position, you know, not being daring, but I think they have to be. I think if you want to be truly good, you've got to be aggressive. And that's the thing, Adam, is Dave Doran, is he going to be able to change his attitude and his approach?

I mean, they get down, say they're playing Notre Dame in game two, and they're either in a tie game or down by a couple of points and it's four minutes to go in the game. What is he going to do? Is he going to throw those little screen passes to the running back? Is he going to play it safe?

Is he going to try to play for that field goal or is he going to let Robert and I do Robert and I things and let it happen? So it'll be interesting to see because I think last year, you know, they had the crutch of, well, we had quarterback injuries and we weren't, you know, but even before that, I mean, look at the East Carolina game. Look at the Florida State game before Leary got hurt.

I mean, they just, you know, they had this quarterback that was the preseason ACC Player of the Year and they just didn't turn him loose. Turn this guy loose. I'm with you.

I'm with you. Let Brennan Armstrong cook. Let him run. Let him throw. I mean, he threw for a boatload of yards two seasons ago. 44-19.

Two seasons ago at Virginia, threw for a boatload of yards. Let it rip. Brett Friedlander, ACC columnist, SaturdayRoad.com. Two weeks from today, my friend. It all gets underway. I'll talk to you again soon. Anytime, Adam.

You got it. Brett Friedlander here on the Adam Gold Show. And look, you got, you got Brennan Armstrong, you got MJ Morris. They, you know, and Morris looked like obviously there was something last year. And my initial thought when all of a sudden through the transfer portal, here comes Brennan Armstrong. I'm like, what does this mean for MJ? I thought MJ was going to leave. Still here.

I want to see State. And something we talked about and Brett hit on it. It's really about can Dave Doran let the rains go? So this might be taking Dave Doran out of his comfort zone. And I hope he does. I hope he allows himself to be led by the potential of a really good offense and let it rip. Hey, your defense can bail you out of bad situations. Let him do it. If some mistakes are made, so be it. I think it'll help them in the long run.