What was Mario Cristobal thinking??

ACC still has five teams in the Associated Press top 25 because maybe they just took pity on the Miami players because the last thing you want is to be, I guess, failed by your head coach. But my gosh, what was Mario Cristobal thinking about at the end?

And I don't want Eric McLean of the ACC Network to come on here and criticize the head coach. But do you have a theory, sir, as to what Mr. Cristobal was likely thinking about when he could have just taken a knee? No, I don't. I think honestly, man, again, like you said, it's tough, right? Because you're in a spot where you have to be around this guy and talk to him. And I just don't like being super negative about people anyway. But honestly, I mean, it's one of the worst decisions I've ever seen. I mean, it's just, I don't understand it. I don't know the reasoning.

I don't know why you don't just win the game. And really, to be honest, I hadn't heard this until I was doing ACC today, this morning with Roddy Jones. We did Mondays together and I hadn't heard the presser sound from Coach Cristobal. But the way that he not deflected, but didn't fully take blame and say, this is on me, this is my fault. It was a lot of, we should have recalibrated. We should have taken a timeout.

We should have had two hands on the football. And I'm just like, what? Yeah.

What are you talking about? They should have taken a knee to play before. Right. Like the game was over. There's no question.

There's no questions about anything. It was a virtual certainty until it wasn't. Yeah. And, and look, there were, you can make an argument and I want to get to Tez Walker here, but you can make an argument that, you know what? I kind of think Cheney was down before the ball came out, but I get why they didn't overturn it because there wasn't clear cut video evidence to overturn the call on the field. Had they called it down by contact on the field, I don't think they would have reversed it to a fumble, right? It was, I think it was punishments for being silly enough to call that play.

They're like, no, you got to live with this dog. Sorry. That's exactly what I thought. I thought he was down, but that, and certainly the defensive back should have made a better play on the ball. At the very least knocked it down, should have intercepted it, but he misjudged the ball and probably jumped too early. Then it's, and then they lost, I don't know how you lose contain there, but whatever. It is what, that's why college football is maybe the greatest reality show that we have in sports because crazy dumb things happen.

All right, let's get to North Carolina continuing their undefeated season with a thorough win over Syracuse. The outcome of the game takes a back seat to the fact that Tez Walker was allowed to play. The humanity of it, for me, Eric, is that this is a kid who should have been allowed to play at the beginning of the year.

And how amped do you think he was coming onto the field? Oh man, I can't even imagine. I tried to kind of put myself in that, but I just don't have anything in life that, you know, was taken away from me the way it was like, like it was Tez and then to be given back. And a lot, like you said, like never should have ever been in this situation. And, you know, I love the, the match that the NCAA and North Carolina got in, if they would have provided, we provided everything from job.

I don't know what you're talking about. What was hilarious to me, but what a great opportunity, what an amazing feeling. And, you know, for him to be as involved as he was six catches, you know, probably could have had a couple more, but you know, it just was what it was and maybe even a couple of touchdowns. There's no question that he is elite. He's going to be a massive feature and piece of this, this offense. And, you know, it's just one of those things. It's a matter of timing now, like obviously he's been practicing, but you know, we, we know a game is so much different. So really expect his, uh, contributions, uh, pieces of this offense to only heightened, uh, you know, as this game continues and that down the field, like he was a second leading receiver and catches, um, or just, just production down the field touchdowns.

I think that's about to ramp up. Yeah. Drake may missed him on that one diagonal route across the field. He had him wide open.

He just threw a bad ball. Um, but the thing about is that he had the test because we had no idea that he would, that the NCAA was ever going to reverse course. So he had been working with the S the scout team hadn't really been catching passes from Drake the last few weeks. And my understanding was he had been destroying UNC starting defense. So I do expect at some point he is going to become the featured receiver, but man, now you've got, uh, him, you've got McCollum the tight end. Uh, you've got what JJ Jones, they've got, they've got multiple options now for may.

And by the way, they might be a better running team than they are a passing team. Right. And Oh, by the way, he uses them all. Right.

It's not one of those things where, uh, you know, he, he just goes to one or two guys. I mean, he has the full arsenal at his display. It's funny.

I was looking at the, you know, the box scores after the game and North Carolina through passes to 11 different people all while Syracuse through to four different people. I mean, that's, that's absurd. That's crazy what Drake has in his arsenal, but truly, I mean, every game that goes by, man, I just see his greatness, how good of a player he is.

And really it just solidifies to me. I think he's going to be the number one pick. I mean, I know everyone's kind of locked into the Caleb Williams, but the things that this guy shows with football IQ, identifying where the blitz is coming from, gets the ball right behind it.

They'd be awareness to, if you drop eight, I'm just going to slowly get it to my check down, let him pick up 10, 12 yards. Arm strength has always been on display. His creativity and creativity, the left-handed pass a couple of weeks ago, the pop pass to a tight end this week.

And then just his mobility. I mean, he is the total package. There's no questions about any part of his game, who he is as a person, what he can do on a football field. I mean, he's, he's the most surefire pick I think in this coming draft.

I personally think Caleb, Caleb Jones, Caleb, former hurricanes, defenseman. I, I think Caleb Williams will be the first pick, but I think Drake will be the second unless the Chicago bears keep both of their picks. In which case they probably, I shouldn't say they definitely won't because I could see the bears taking two quarterbacks just to make sure they got it right.

Cause you know, and they might both be, you know, NFL stars, but I think Williams is going to be the first pick, but I think Drake is probably going to be the second regardless whether the bears keep it or not. All right, let me get the fact that those two teams, the teams we've already talked about, they play and I, I was going to get to this with Miami. It's a good thing that Miami is really having a good year.

It probably takes some of the heat off of Mario Cristobal. The biggest part of their season I think has been their offensive line, but Carolina's defense has been really good, much better than anybody expected. How do you see that matchup? Yeah, man, I think it's, uh, we're going to obviously learn a lot about Miami quickly, right? You know, when, when you see how obviously that game went overall, I mean, they played poor, both Georgia tech and Miami played horrible.

Um, somebody had to win, they both tried to lose, but somebody had to win. Um, and you know, as it's, as it's written right now, three and a half point favorite for the Tar Heels, um, Miami is going to be pissed. Miami is going to be motivated. Miami is going to be at their a game. You're going to get the best, you know, hurricane team that you possibly can. What do you do with that?

How are you able to weather that storm? Cause for a couple of years now, you, you probably know better than I do, but North Carolina has had their number. And I mean, even when, you know, both teams are really good. I think Javante Williams just scored another rushing.

Yeah, he did. Uh, so I mean, they're comfortable in this game, right? There's no hype.

That's too much for the heels. And again, I think they're playing at such a high level at really every phase of football right now. Do we see their most complete game at a massive ranked opponent at home?

So I can't wait to see it, man. Uh, it's going to be a ton of fun prime time, seven 30 game ABC. Uh, so what an opportunity really for both teams, but I'll, I'll stray with the undefeated one in North Carolina to make a statement and to continue to, you know, garner respect and, you know, just be a force man nationally because, you know, I think 12 is nice, but I don't think there's any question that this is a top 10 team when they're playing at their, their, you know, best. Look, it's a, it's kind of a vintage, I should say vintage year for the ACC, but I don't know vintage is the right word because we haven't had a, uh, a year where we had so many good teams and the other game, the, the night game on ACC network is NC state at Duke. And I'll ask you about MJ Morris in a second, but I actually think it was good that Duke had the bi-week after the Notre Dame game, because that's one that could have lingered. I thought Duke was the better team than Notre Dame.

I really did. I thought they outplayed Notre Dame in that game and they should have won it. They kind of blew it at the end. Um, I, how do you see that game?

I, I love what, what the blue devils have done. Oh man, no question about it, but I think obviously a, you know, just a massive question mark, you know, at quarterback, you know, and, and, you know, with what we're going to see from them and how differently is it going to be? Um, you know, I, I think it's going to be just interesting. I mean, what we've seen from, you know, quarterback plays a hundred percent right when Bellin goes in the game, eight for eight, a hundred yards touchdown. I mean, looked fantastic, uh, when he got his opportunity, but when you're the guy, obviously it's a little different. Now, the other nice thing you talk about lingering and having that bi-week and having that bi-week, the other good thing is if Riley's unable to go, which I just assume, I don't know if we've seen anything official, uh, you know, he's had a week now Bellin to be the guy and to practice and to understand and go through meetings and just all these different things. But you know, Riley is the leading passer and leading rusher.

So that's a big chunk that is gone. Um, but other guys stepping up, I mean, certainly this is not a one man pony show, uh, for Duke. They're very consistent run game has been elite. Uh, offensive line is great. Hopefully Graham Barton is back. I haven't seen new news about that as well. Um, and you've got a really sweet core of receivers for Duke that I think that that makes it easier for you in a transition as well.

Those guys can really help you. Who's going to be the security blanket who gets, you know, a bulk of the passes. If things break down, I can't wait to see it. I'm so jacked up that we're there and get to see it in person, man. MJ Morris had a really good, I mean, he certainly made some mistakes against Marshall, but MJ Morris looked pretty good, but Duke, their defensive line is going to put a lot of pressure on him. Uh, I thought we saw a good things from MJ Morris. So we thought we saw good things from Casey Concepcion. I thought Timmons, uh, really showed out. Like I think, and, and they, they rediscovered the tight end, Trent Pennix.

So we hadn't really seen him much at all this season. Like there were enough good signs for NC state. That's by the way, a three and a half point line as well. I think the Wolfpack can build on what they did. I just think Duke's defense is probably too good.

Yeah. Well, the good thing again, Marshall is a heck of a defense too. So it's, it's almost like a, uh, not a warmup cause I don't want to be disrespectful, but it's a, it's a nice game to have before Duke because you're going against a very physical team with a great defensive line. I mean, they had two sacks, seven tackles for loss. Uh, Marshall has some dudes, uh, a lot of Alston. I mean, he's a guy that can really be active and get out there from the defensive line position for Marshall. So I think what you saw there was certainly nice to get prepared for this game.

Uh, but as you said, a different animal, a different group, uh, that, that you're going to have to go against and just crank that level up. You talk about the mistakes for MJ, really the picks, man. I'm obviously he threw the ball. So there's a little bit of blade, but really, I don't think any of the three were necessarily on him. I mean, the first one goes right through your guy's hands.

Right. Uh, maybe it was a little hot, maybe it was a little high, whatever people want to say, but I think you have to catch that ball. Obviously the second one, the pick six high snap to the right. He's making a blind throw to the left and guys just forget how to play football and block. And the dude jumps right into a pick six.

And then of course the third one that got tipped there as well. So he was balling man. And to be able to respond from those and to keep going, uh, and we did see increased production in the run game. So I feel like we have answers on that side. We have a big question mark of what it's going to look like on the Duke side.

So that game is very intriguing to me and I think going to come down to the wire for the first time in a long time, those two teams have played. Uh, yeah, I didn't think Porter Rooks, uh, heart was necessarily in blocking and the wide receiver screen. Uh, but there's a lot of things that could go into it.

Uh, he could have just also missed the guy. Right. Cause I think, uh, the defender, I forget his name, uh, was probably on top of him more than, uh, than he anticipated.

Uh, all right. Stop. When you throw those screens into press coverage out there, man, it's not the most ideal thing.

Look, I don't want to, I don't want to slam a kid and I loathe doing that. Uh, but it's like, Hmm, that, uh, maybe a block there, uh, real quick because, uh, as a former Clemson tiger, Eric MacLean, uh, they sort of got, got away with it, I guess, 1712 overweight forest and they've got a week off. Um, but I still think that there is good football for them. I there's no way they're not one of the top 25 teams in America. I anticipate them finishing the season in the top 25. What have you seen from them?

Yeah, man, really? I think it's, uh, a little bit disappointing because of the lack of consistency. Um, you know, and, and when I'm talking about the offensive side of the ball, you know, you kind of thought that what, what this was to me was a perfect blend of, of where they have been these last couple of weeks and the Duke game where I'm just like, what the heck am I watching?

Right. Because there was times where I'm like, Oh, okay. That was nice. It was a good pass.

It was a good throw. Like the concept, like the run. And then there's other times where I'm just like, what are we doing? Like, who's blocking who, why are you throwing a tight end screen on third and one? Like what is happening?

Uh, and it's just really weird. The lack of consistency that we've seen on that side of the ball, they averaged four and a half yards per pass. I mean, it's just not pushing the ball downfield at all.

No deep threat at all. Um, it was just weird. I inside run was very limited because of what big wake forest was doing. And you know, when short yardage, the offensive line was getting pushed back, not getting movement forward, a weird game. And then the turnover, my goodness, you know, I like thought I was in a different dimension when I saw that turnover happen when he, they just dropped the ball and it's just sitting there in a short yardage, short field. And, uh, you know, then weight force gets the ball on the 10 yard line or whatever it was, but the defense played great. I mean, they were really putting the weird adverse situations, um, again, and they just stood tall. I mean, to hold, hold the team to essentially six points outside of, you know, a touchdown and trash time there when, when they're fighting and calling. Um, I mean, those guys were elite, pushing the line backwards, got some sacks and turnover, uh, some TFLs. It's just, man, you'd love to see them get more consistent, played a high level. Cause I agree.

I mean, the flashes are there. We saw for three games straight, they looked unbelievable and that they were back to what they, we thought they could be. Um, and then you, you take a step back here. So interesting. I think the buy comes at a great time and then you have a Miami team that's either two or oh, and two, uh, or, you know, coming off a massive win and you travel down there. So you got to weather that storm will, will be fascinating. Once that game week comes around to see where each team is. Yeah. Clemson's next five games are something else at Miami at state home against Notre Dame home against Georgia tech home against North Carolina before finishing at South Carolina.

Uh, so that's, uh, that's difficult. Uh, Amelia Rose is favored by how many points? Congratulations, Eric McLean. Mommy, all of them. She's got all the favorites and just had a big birthday, turned one years old, crazy to think about. Um, man, she, she's the absolute best. She, she's pulling up, standing on everything, no walking yet. Uh, but, but she's close and she wants to, man.

She's flying around all over the place. I appreciate you asking, man. There's nothing better than fatherhood. All right, brother. I'll talk to you very soon. Eric, take care. All right, man.

I appreciate you always. You got it. Eric McLean ACC network.

Yes. Turned, uh, turn one like, uh, two weeks ago. Uh, but it's been a while since we have spoken to Eric McLean. Uh, look, the, the, the ACC is actually very good because Clemson's not ranked. Miami probably won't be ranked.

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It's unknown if so tick two has the same risks as Jack inhibitors. Call 1-888-SOTYKTU to learn more. But there's, I mean, Louisville has put themselves into a position where, I mean, they're on, they're six, they're six and oh, and we knew going into the season that Louisville's schedule was not going to beat them over the head. They drew the, and North Carolina did also, by the way, in terms of conference games, draw a pretty friendly schedule. Remember when Mac Brown was complaining about our schedule, blah, blah, blah.

I hate that they gave us all these hard games at the end. Like there's, we didn't expect Miami to be as good as Miami was. And I, again, I said this before, I actually think that North Carolina, rather Miami catches a break or Mario Cristobal catches a break because they have been very good. Of course, if they lose at North Carolina and then they lose at home to Clemson, remember all the goodwill from five and oh, it doesn't matter anymore because all of a sudden you're five and three and you gave away a win. And I'm not saying that Mario is going to get fired, but you just never want to give people a reason to create that, that groundswell, right? You don't want to give anybody a reason to erode your support.

And I know he's one of them, but the, you can't just give games away. And they absolutely gave game, gave that game to Georgia Tech away. I still can't believe what I watched. I turned it on and the worst part about it was that Miami was, it was in the middle of a drive or as it turns out the end of a drive, but they got the ball back. It was about five and a half minutes left in the game. They picked up three first downs. So it's not like, you know, they just got the ball and like, and now we're doing the math.

Nah, man, you've had plenty of time to do the math. You kept picking up first down, they picked up three. And as soon as they got that last first down, somebody should have said, all right, Georgia Tech has one time out left. So after that time out, we're good.

Kneel it out. And they ran a play on second down, which they didn't have to do. And then they ran the fateful play on third down, which they didn't have to do. So dumb. I couldn't believe it.

Yeah, I could not believe it. Steve Logan tells us two things. I love quoting Steve Logan because it's so, it's so important for football fans. One, the hardest thing to do is to win a game.

Logan used to say that all the time. People undervalue how, how hard it is to win a game. Yes, you have a 50-50 chance theoretically going in. Doesn't make it easy to do. And when you have the game given to, not given to you, but it's there, all you, and all you have to do is essentially take the snap twice and you lose that game. And you lose that game.

You just can't, you just can't do that. Coaches are supposed to put their teams in the best position to win, not take wins away. And the other thing that Logan likes to say is coaching matters, right? Jeff Brom at Louisville, coaching matters. Kyle Shanahan with the San Francisco 49ers, coaching matters.