Week 1 starts next week for college football!

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Again, G-O-L-O.com. Week zero is this weekend. Thankfully, no ACC teams are busy in week zero because Notre Dame is not really part of this. Notre Dame will play Navy in Dublin, Ireland in week zero. We will see Navy here in week two when they travel to meet NC State. That should be fun.

Roddy Jones from ESPN is now with us on the Adam Gold Show. Week one starts next week but the hype is real for the season. We will talk about the potential for complete stupidity in conference realignment at the end of this conversation. Let's start with actual football.

Wouldn't that be nice? Yeah, it's funny because when we thought we turned the page from realignment to talk about actual football, we got stuck back in. But I'm glad to start off the conversation talking about ball because it's right around the corner.

It is. I'm going to try and keep it local to start here. North Carolina, there is a ceiling for this team that is double-digit wins. It cannot absorb a loss to South Carolina to start the season. So what are you looking for from the Tar Heels right out of the gate? Well, I want to see how they operate offensively. How much do they change with Chip Lindsey? I am curious to see how much more physical the offensive line is. That is something that I think was up and down during Phil Longo's time. Some of that was the players, but some of that was also the mentality. And even though they were good at running the ball for most of the time he was there, the offensive line still lacked a little bit of physicality.

So I'm interested to see that. And then defensively, it's going to be one of the premier matchups of quarterbacks in the country in week one with Spencer Rattler on the other side. So defensively, how far is Carolina comb? You know, is it a team that sort of picks off, picks up where they left off last year at the end of the season where they were pretty decent defense? Not great, but like purely serviceable, they were at, you know, slightly below average, which was just fine when you got a good offense.

But, but do they pick up there or is there sort of a setback to get used to still used to being in the new season? So, so those are the kind of the things that I'm looking for for Carolina and week one, Roddy Jones from ESPN is joining us here. All right. So can you be great as a football team if your defense is pretty decent? It's a great question. It depends on your definition of great. Like you're not winning a national championship. Can you win a conference?

Yeah, sure. I mean, look at TCU last year. This was ranked in the nineties. I believe at the end of last season, you go to yards per play and they're a little bit lower than that. And they made it to the national championship thing. They got Michigan in a situation where Michigan had to play, you know, basically a, a scoring set. So, so the answer is, is yes.

I would say TQ is probably the exception more than the rule. You don't want to make your hay there, but you don't have to be necessarily great. Ohio State's had some teams where the defense is, you know, top 30, top 40, but the offense is so good that it doesn't matter. And then on the other side, you got USC. So, you know, USC is not able to win the PAC 12. Why last year was because of the defense. They got, they got beat up a lot against Utah. So, so it depends on your definition of great. Is it good enough to win you the league?

Probably not, unless you have everything else go your way. Kind of like TCU did last year. No question about it. Did you have thoughts on this situation that Tez Walker, Carolina wide receiver finds himself in and the university is trying what they can. The NCAA has done nothing really for what the last two, three weeks.

Meanwhile, the opener is next Saturday night. I've got, I've got lots of thoughts on the decision itself. It is the epitome of bureaucratic idiocy for this to come down the way it has for the student athletes who transferred under the premise that the rules were going to operate one way to then have the rules changed on them after they arrived at their new destination. It's just completely ridiculous. You know, the NCAA claims to look out for student athletes.

And I think in a lot of ways they do, but in a lot of very public ways, they affect of age. They affect greatly a very small number of athletes and are very slow to come off of those positions, which I think is completely ridiculous. Charlie Baker is a former politician. I would love for someone at the NCAA to tell me what is the political loss to saying Daryl Jackson and Tez Washington can play this year.

There is not one. You could just say, Hey, look, and this goes into effect the next transfer window because these guys are grandfathered in under the, the, the guidelines that were there when they decided to transfer and when they enrolled, because it was changed days after Tez Washington, uh, Tez Walker, excuse me, enrolled at UNC. So I don't see a political loss and going back on it. I think it's ridiculous that it's taken this long and it's a complete embarrassment for an organization that is proven time and time again, that it really doesn't care.

It really doesn't operate, uh, for the things that it does and generally has no power overall, except for on these really minute high impact things that can ruin a kid's career or certainly ruin a kid's year. So, so it's just ridiculous Adam. I'm, I'm, I'm so over the NCAA. It's not even funny.

Yeah. And the fact that he's already like completed a semester at North Carolina. Well, how does that not, how does that not matter? I mean, he's gone through an entire semester of school, not to mention summer. It's not like he showed up like July 28th and just said, you know what? I feel like playing football now at North Carolina.

He's already been through a semester. Why that doesn't have a, uh, a major sway here. I don't get, let me move to NC state for Roddy Jones of ESPN. Uh, the Wolfpack had a tough offensive year. A lot of that was injury. Uh, my feeling is that the biggest thing that they can do is have a change in philosophy to make it a little bit more aggressive offensively. Cause I just don't think you can win games by allowing your defense as good as it is to do all the heavy lifting. Yeah. I would, I would be curious to see what that offense would have been curious to see what that offense would have looked like.

It's definitely stayed healthy all year. Um, because once he was out, he was the best player on that offer, but I'm not sure it was close. So once he was out for the year, it kind of became a, Hey, let's turn this into a defensive, uh, let's play defense and special teams.

Um, unfortunately sometimes that wasn't enough. He was a Syracuse game in particular. So, so the offense is, uh, the change of philosophy offensively, I do think is going to give them a little boost. I hope it doesn't come at the, um, to the detriment of the defense. I don't think it will, but, uh, those Virginia defenses weren't very good. Now, Syracuse last year did play pretty good defense.

Oh, I think overall it shouldn't, it shouldn't affect the defense all that much. My big question is, uh, who are the offensive playmakers for NC state? I think this is NC state team though does have a pretty high feeling if they're able to put it together on offense. I think the defense is going to be really good. I think they probably have a higher feeling than like a pit and maybe even higher feeling than Carolina. If they're able to put it together offensively, but that's a big gift.

They got to find some playmakers. Yeah, man. Uh, if we could, if we could just take NC state's defense and Carolina's offense, we might have, we might have a legit contender. Absolutely.

You absolutely would. Uh, but I, I do think if you think about, and I asked this of Dave Doran at ACC football kickoff, I basically phrased it, does defense win, still win championships or does offense win championships now? And he admitted that you have to score in the thirties to win.

I'm hoping that does change their philosophy. I think, I think it kind of has to, um, and he is right. Generally, especially at the better teams, you do have to score in the thirties, like very few games, unless your Iowa are being played in the single digits or the teams where you can win a game. Um, no, I do think that defense is good enough where they're not going to have to score 39.

I think 30 probably gets them to win most weeks. Sure. But, but there has, there has to have been an evolution. And I think the other thing that Dave Doran probably realized, it's really hard to turn out here at Bradbury's. It's really hard to turn out those guys in the offensive line that are good enough consistently where you can run the ball at will, unless you fully dedicate to going like Pittsburgh did last year where it's, you know, two backs and or two tight ends and you're just going to run the football and go play action off of it.

I don't think, I don't think Dave Doran wants to do that, especially with the guys and the athletes that he can recruit it at the state. So you kind of go the other way. All right, let's spread it out a little bit more. Let's throw it a little bit more. Let's be a little more creative on offense. And that can help us run the ball with an offensive line. That's not going to be one of the premier units in the ACC on a year in, year out basis. Before I get to the top of the league, let me just say, I'm going to make a statement.

You tell me if this is true or false. By the end of the season, we might say that Duke is the greatest five and seven team we've ever seen. I do not think that's outside of the realm of possibility.

I think they make a bowl, but, but I do not think that's outside of the realm of possibility. They had so much, I call it luck, but they had so much good fortune with turnovers last year. They turned the ball over a little more, create a few less turnovers, just how those things work. They played a ton of close games that could swing the other way. Now they played a close, a few close games that they lost between the other way as well. So that can normalize out, but the schedule stuff, you know, I look at, I look at a team like a Duke team, like awake, like both of those schools have tough years, have tough years ahead of them in terms of the schedule. So I think you could have better teams than their records indicate by the end of the season. I mean, Duke literally could finish five and seven.

And I think they have, they have a great team. I love their team, but the schedule is so hard. It starts with Clemson.

So let's close our conversation. Roddy Jones of ESPN on the top of the league, the two teams, Clemson and Florida state Clemson's obviously made. They might have a few more high-end players, maybe on both lines. They're better than Florida state.

But how do you shake this out? Hey, Carolina Panthers fans, Chris Lee and Dennis Cox here. We're excited to offer you all the insight information on your team with the newest member of the capital broadcasting podcast network Panthers playbook twice a week. We'll keep you updated on your Carolina Panthers.

We're talking about locker room, insight, exclusive interviews, and of course in-depth looks at all of the Panthers wins touchdown, Carolina Panthers playbook, download and subscribe today at WRL sports fan.com or wherever you discover your favorite podcasts. Well, I think, I think Clemson is being so disrespected this off season that it's, that it's kind of, I don't know if it's, if it's, you know, laughable, but, but like, I think Clemson is so disrespected this season. I think people have forgotten how dominant they were in the league last year. Like first they didn't come close to the ACC championship game last year.

They didn't come close. They lost three games in league play back to back to back. It was the three best teams they played in the league. And then they kind of ran rough shot over in the second half of the schedule against lesser teams. And some of those lesser teams were really banged up towards the end of the season, played a close game with Florida, played a close game with Oklahoma.

Both of those teams were six and 16. So, so I'm not, I'm not all in on Florida state just yet. I think they're going to be good, but it's like nine, 10 when good, not 11, 12 when good, which is a big difference. I look at Clemson and I see high end talent at every position. You can't point to a position on that team where, where I feel like they don't have high end talent.

Is it proven? No, Florida state does have more proven pieces, but the growth that Clemson can have from last year to this year on the defensive side, last year's defense was the first defense that finished outside of the top 25 for Clemson since Brent Venable took over in 2012. Is that a trend or is that something that, that corrects itself with a West Goodwin in his second year as defensive coordinator with figuring out the personnel and where they fit and not playing a guy like Trenton Simpson at will linebacker for half the year where he just looked lost for most of the year or while he was there. And so they moved him back outside with maturing at the cornerback position with Nate Wiggins being a year older and more experienced with Jayden Lucas and Toriano pride being a year older and more experienced than Sheridan Jones came back.

They've got an excellent safety group. Then you flip over to the offense and Garrett Riley. I don't think people quite realize the job that he did last year at TCU. We look at the draft picks five draft picks on that offense. One of them didn't win the starting job to start the year. Max Duggan was not the starting quarterback to start the season last year. And then you look at the rest of those guys, how many of those guys were NFL draft picks before Garrett Riley got there? I would argue that Viva Vila was the guard that went in the second round. Quentin Johnson was the receiver that went in the first round, but those two guys got elevated by Garrett Riley.

Kendra Miller, probably a borderline guy, Jerry Davis, kind of a borderline guy. And those guys were third and fourth round picks because of the system and the way they were allowed to shine. Clemson's got talent. Antonio Williams was really, really good last year. They've got talent at receiver. They've got two great backs and they've got a quarterback that has ability. So I think Clemson is going to be on a war path this year. I think they run rough shot through the league. And they get to the college football playoff if that happens as well. All right. Final thing for you, Roddy Jones.

I saved it for the end. As a guy who played his football at Georgia Tech in the ACC, your thoughts on what this conference might be doing if they add Cal, Stanford, and SMU? So I have sort of come to the conclusion that this is a money play, not for the league as a whole, but for individual schools within the league.

This is just trying to put together a package that keeps your unit together for as long as possible, especially if you think the grant of rights is under some sort of threat in the next, I don't know, seven years or so, which is the reported amount of time that SMU is willing to forego their media rights distribution. So if you're able to get Cal and Stanford at a discounted rate, ACC has a pro rata contract with ESPN. So let's just say we'll use $40 million as an even number. You get them to come in at a half share.

It just makes the numbers work out well. Half share for Cal and Stanford. It's $20 million each. So that's $40 million in a pool.

Full share for SMU. That's another $40 million in the pool that you can then divvy up. $40 million, or excuse me, yeah, $40 million a year that you can now divvy up from SMU and then $40 million from the two California schools together.

That's $80 million that you can now put in the quote success initiative. So that Florida State and Clemson and those teams that are, have been publicly and privately outspoken so that they can feel better about the big gap between them and the SEC. Outside of that, it doesn't make much sense, but if you're trying to do that or putting together a package where Notre Dame could become the richest athletic department in the country on a year in drought basis, maybe it didn't make sense from that standpoint. Like if you're going to use that money to either try and get a Notre Dame, which I don't think would happen, but you at least throw the money at them. Or keep Florida State, Clemson and Miami, Virginia, North Carolina, keep those schools happy. I can see it as a play. Outside of that, it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Yeah. It didn't work for the Big 12 when they changed the rules to make it better for Texas and Oklahoma, right? It did.

It did work initially. It kept them together a decade longer than they otherwise would have been. Texas would have been on the first thing smoking to the Pac-12.

So I would not say that that was a failure. What happened was inevitable and maybe what happened to this league is inevitable, but if you can get an extra decade out of it, who knows? It kept the Big 12 together longer. My feeling is it's time. Pay the players.

Every single one of them. Duke should be paying their fencers at this point. That's a step farther than I'm willing to take. Oh no, man. Those fencers, you don't want to mess with them.

You don't know what they could do. I don't. No, no, no. I certainly don't. I'd rather pick on some of the other sports.

Maybe the swimmers and divers. I'll pick on them. Perfect.

Roddy Jones. I appreciate your time, man. I'll be in touch. Thank you so much. You got it. Take care. Roddy Jones here on the Adam Gold Show.