What did people really think the schedule was going to be like with 17 teams??

It's time to talk to one of my favorite people ever.

He is the reason the Atlanta Coast Conference is profitable, he is the voice of the ACC, he is Wes Durham, and he joins us on the Adam Gold Show. You're also the voice of the Atlanta Falcons. Now, shake your head.

You know it's all true. Be careful. How about not associating me with the league in revenue right now, okay? How about let's just keep that.

That's okay. Look, the people complaining about the schedule, like, what did they think it was gonna be? 17 teams, man.

Mass hard. What do you want me to tell you? I mean, it's nutty. I open up Elon Musk's website, and all these people are complaining about the ACC schedule. I'm like, these are the trade-offs you make for money. Exactly. This is what you do when you expand. And, excuse me here, because I'm getting a text about potential new quarterbacks for the Minnesota Vikings who are here in Atlanta on Sunday.

My other job is kicked in here for a minute. Could be Jameis Winston, no? Could be.

Could be a lot of people. Montez went to Chicago. The commanders would not trade him to Atlanta where he's from, so Atlanta signed the former NC State star, Contavia Street, yesterday. I know, very exciting. Got him to trade.

From Philadelphia. I'm kind of excited about that, yeah, looking for that. So, I'm trying to see if the Vikings have, in fact, made a Jameis Winston move. And they said they're not trading, what, Hunter, either, the defensive end. Yeah, Danneel Hunter, they're not gonna move him.

Right. The interesting part about this NFL trade deadline has kind of become like that NBA free agency thing in July, right? It's kind of become that weird, like, nine-hour period, except there's a rush here. It's almost like, well, you know, it's like when the transfer window closes in the Premier League.

You and I always end up on Premier League. Absolutely. So, anyway, I think trade deadlines are pretty interesting, and Atlanta made the one move, I thought. Now I'm waiting to see if Minnesota makes a move ahead of their visit here Sunday, so I apologize. No, it's quite all right, man.

We all have things to do. Let me go back to the math here on the league real quick. Look, if there are two schools that ought to be sideways a little bit here, one being Georgia Tech, because they've been in the league damn near 50 years, okay?

So, and obviously I worked there for 20, 18. And to me, the Georgia Tech Clemson thing is a thing. Now, Georgia Tech without a permanent opponent, if you will, I get it, and I understand it. The math and the geography work a little different here, and we're planning this thing for seven years. We're not planning it for 30, so there is that. And actually, I'm surprised we planned it for seven. I thought we would only short-term this because... That's optimistic, given the way certain schools feel. Yeah, I mean, so with all that being said, I would offer you this. Yeah, I think there's a lot of games in this because I thought that would have been a little bit more of a generator, maybe from dollars and cents, but there's smarter people that can answer that question for me.

But I don't know. Look, Carolina, Duke, Wake, NC State all have to be relatively pleased with the way this all happened. Clemson, yeah, I think they're good playing Florida State. I've heard from some Clemson fans this morning that wanted to play Georgia Tech. It's been a good series. It's been a long series. But nonetheless, we got Virginia Tech Miami back in this, which I thought was important that we lost in the 3-5-5.

And in all honesty, I give John Wildhack and his subcommittee that have Bubba Cunningham and Carla Williams and the AD at Cal on it, I give them credit with working with Michael Strickland that you don't go to the West Coast more than three times in the first seven years. That's a pretty good trade-out. Yeah.

Given what it could have been potentially in some of the models that you just draw up on airplane napkins when you fly, but maybe that's just me. Look, again, it was always going to be hard and hopefully they'll be dealing with the same teams in this league for the next dozen years. And that would be the best case. And I know Florida State and Clemson and maybe North Carolina don't want to hear it.

I think the best place for them and their programs is right here. But they all have dollar signs and I get it. But money, well, I guess money can buy you happiness, although I've never tried it. Yeah, I haven't either yet. But willing to learn, as they say. All right. So a couple of weeks ago, it's been a while since you and I have spoken, a couple of weeks ago, we were sitting here and I'm thinking, my gosh, there's no reason why we don't get to November and North Carolina is in the top six of the college football playoff. Duke just stopped Sam Hartman on fourth and 16. Duke might have been, people think I'm nuts, Duke might have been involved in that conversation as well.

No question. And then it all fell apart. What happened to North Carolina?

That's really more troubling. You know, I'm not sure that I've got, and I've had obviously the Tar Heels Saturday night in Atlanta in Georgia Tech. And shout out to all the Carolina fans that thought I was homing for Georgia Tech. Really? I am of the belief that Carolina's defensive punch, which has been there, okay?

It's not like it's not arrived this year. I think Carolina is a little worn down on that side of the ball, Adam. Yeah. Well, they couldn't stop Virginia when it counted, nor Georgia Tech when it counted, although Georgia Tech has shown some ability to play offense. They have, but North Carolina did all the right things on offense to win the game, okay?

Yeah. But defensively, Cedric Gray, power echoes came in Rucker, good bit of that secondary. Some of those guys up front played a lot more football than I think anybody wanted them to Saturday night. Their depth on that side of the ball was troubling because those guys were out there for, what is it, 80 some plays that, that Georgia Tech ran in the game.

And when Buster Faulkner found the rhythm and the tempo, the Jackets offensive coordinator with Haynes King and certainly Dante Smith back in the lineup for the first time in four games, five games, you know, all of a sudden, Georgia Tech had some momentum. And then the one play you couldn't afford to have happen happened. The throw to Tess Walker and the hit by King and the fumble recovery by KJ Wallace was Carolina's last gasp. If Carolina goes down the field on that possession and scores, I think we have an entirely different landscape for the ending, but that didn't happen. So, you know, when the scenario played itself out that way, Carolina couldn't get the ball back because they couldn't get a stop.

Right. And so at the end of the day, you know, I hate it for Carolina that it's gone in two snaps. Now, I will say this, they play Campbell on Saturday and then they jump back in with Duke and that kind of thing, right?

I will offer you this. Carolina is still in this somehow, but they need, they don't play Louisville, but they need Louisville to lose. They need as many in the two column as they can get.

Right. And Carolina right now, you know, they had the tiebreaker on Miami. Miami's obviously in Raleigh on Saturday. Carolina will be pulling for state then.

One of those, you know, neighborhood things that happens every once in a while. They get Duke. They then get, well, they don't play Virginia Tech. They play Clemson.

Yeah, Virginia Tech's adorable. I'm just going to leave it at that. Clemson, I cannot, I can't figure that out either. Oh, I can. Well, I, yeah, I can figure it out. It's not pretty, but you can figure it out. Clemson is, Clemson is a victim of its own success.

The standard is so damn high. Clemson needed Louisville's schedule this year. They did. And Clemson also needed, Clemson also needs the same thing they needed a year ago and didn't get. And that is they need people who can make plays in the secondary. There's no difference makers. From a receiving standpoint.

There are no difference makers on the outside. That's it. I think Will Shipley is also kind of, you say Carolina's defense has worn out. I saw Shipley take so many big hits. Like, in a way, I don't know if Will Shipley was a legitimate or is a legitimate NFL prospect. But the amount of contact he has had to absorb at Clemson might have, might completely ruin his opportunity to make a living.

I mean, a really good living playing football. What did you make of Dabo's? We're going to play. For people who haven't heard it yet, Dabo did a call-in show. I can't believe that coaches take calls anymore. I can't either. I can't believe it.

Well, and I'm going to share something with you. I've been gone 10 years from Georgia Tech, okay? And we almost stopped taking calls in 2011. Yeah.

My second to last year doing the games. And at that time, there were six schools in the ACC that weren't taking calls. Now, I don't think there are, I think Dabo Swinney, of the coaches that still have shows left. I'm going to tell you this. I think Dabo Swinney may be one of three or less coaches in the ACC that take calls.

I just, why? And by the way, he is by far and away the nationally empowered five of coaches that have won 150 or more games. However many he's won. I mean, Nick Saban takes a call. He does. I think. He does. Nick Saban does take calls. He does. Yeah.

I don't know anybody. I don't why. And better still, and I will say this, and I'm okay with what Dabo said.

I want that out front too. Yeah. I'm okay with what Dabo said, and here's why, Adam. He deserves.

Any coach in this business right now with the landscape the way it is, they ought to be able to say whatever they want to say whenever they want to say it. And you know why? Because it's really hard. Yeah. It's really hard. And I don't think the fan in some cases has an inkling of how difficult it is just to win the game, let alone run the program. Second part of this is there is a theory building among coaches, Adam, that they have to make their voice heard more now because of what some believe is a bias towards certain aspects of college football right now. Meaning there's too much of a lean towards the player? Or certain conferences.

Okay, yeah. Or certain attitudes and approaches. Now I've heard people say this is the Dion Factor. I've heard people say you can add the Dion thing into it. This is layer after layer after layer after layer of what college football's been through the last four years in my opinion. Wes Durham is with us here. First of all, we're going to play the greatest hits of that Dabo response to Tyler, wherever Tyler was from Spartanburg that happened last night. But do you remember?

If he could have been from like Fairplay or 96 or Chareau, Greeleyville, any of my favorite little spots in the road that I've passed through going to play golf at the beach, any of those. My gosh. First of all, I agree with your point that Dabo can say that. The only counter to that is that beefing down is always probably better to be left alone. I used to argue all the time with my former partner that Philip Rivers screaming at fans was just a losing proposition. Just let it go.

But I understand also the human emotion of it. And Dabo started off slow and then worked his way into it, which I appreciate. And it reminded me of Dabo's Steve Spurrier rant from 2011. We're also going to play part of that because you remember Dabo tweet that. The tweet that from Dabo Sweeney towards Steve Spurrier was, I mean, chef's kiss beautiful.

Oh, yeah. We're going to play both of those coming up in about a half hour because I'm devoting an entire segment to Dabo from last night. But the reason why everybody is so mad is because Dabo went into this season basically insisting that last year was last year. We're back.

And everybody bought it. We're preseason number, what, eight in the country and eight or 10, depending on your poll. And they have a better chance of missing a bowl game than winning eight games.

That's it. I mean, and part of it is the schedule. And I mean, they lost to Duke in the opener. They have lost some games.

They probably think, well, we probably should have won. They have Notre Dame this week. They still have to play North Carolina. They're going to South Carolina at the end of the season.

I mean, this could really get bad for Dabo. Five and seven. Yeah.

Five and seven, which is remarkable to me. But that's that's the world. That's the new world of college football. How back is Florida State, Wes?

You've seen him. They're back. They're back. That was not convincing.

You didn't convince me just now. Well, they're back enough that they're going to be in the discussion all the way the end. Look, they were surgical on Saturday in Winston-Salem. They knew they were better and played like they were better. Now, are they shade tree Jones and Reynard Wilson and Andre Wadsworth and, you know, Samari rolled and all those cats and good on defense, maybe not that good. But they're pretty I mean, they're they're better than Danny Connell, Florida State. I mean, you know, Warren Dunn and I were flying together over the weekend back from Nashville after the football game.

What a player. Yeah. And Ward Dunn says, look, are you kidding me? They got as many running backs in the stable as we had. They've got there is good probably in the offensive line as a majority of those teams. And their quarterback play has been really, really good. And I think they have got the firepower and the defensive mentality to go win the thing.

And here's the deal. I think the Big 12, I guess, is still technically alive. I think Washington is the Pac-12's only hope at this point. And I think Michigan and Ohio State are going to knock one another out somehow and Florida State, if they tend to their knitting, is going to get into the playoff because I do believe Georgia and Alabama are going to end up on the SEC side with maybe Ole Miss having a chance or Tennessee having a chance. But at the end of the day, I think Florida State's a top four team and I think Florida State is going to represent the league pretty well in the championship. Now, I will say that I've teed all this up to say that anybody can beat anybody in the landscape of today's college football. Right.

Anybody. I mean, Cal damn near beat Southern California last week. Mm-hmm. No, Southern Cal still hasn't figured out the defensive part of this. Well, okay now.

I mean, I don't disagree with that either. But I think that we are in a time of cataclysmic upsets in college football and we have to understand that, that the landscape right now is pretty volatile every Saturday when they play. This actually would be a pretty good year for the 12 team playoff. I think this could be.

It'd be an excellent year. Well, the fistfight would be at the back end of the 12, which is what we're going to have anyway. Yeah. But in all reality, I think you're right. I think that in some ways, the lines here are going to get cut between one and twos and I think you'll see that tonight. The one thing, by the way, it's not going to surprise me tonight is that Georgia's not number one. Right. And Florida State's out of the top four.

That will not surprise me either way. Jerry Palm said Georgia will be number five. Five? Yep.

Wow. Okay. Where does he think Florida State will be? I think he had Florida State at four. Three or four. Okay.

And who's one? Ohio State with the two hands. Ohio State one, Michigan two, Florida State three, and I think he had Washington four.

I see. I think Oregon is still very much in play and because it's the SEC, I think whoever, like if Alabama, Georgia with one loss might still get a bid because the schedule you play only matters if you're not a Georgia or an Alabama. That's the only time it matters or Michigan for that matter. It doesn't matter that you haven't played anybody if you're one of those teams. Okay.

Let me ask you two questions then just as a general daily follower of this. If Georgia loses to one loss Alabama and Atlanta in the SEC title, do two SEC teams go? They lose to one loss Alabama, so they both end up 12 and one. There's a good chance of that.

Yes. It all depends on how it shakes out. I don't think a 13-0 Florida State team would lose out, and I don't think an undefeated Michigan or Ohio State would lose out. Yeah, I don't think they would lose out. What would happen to undefeated Washington then? Then both SEC teams wouldn't go.

Then just the champion might go in that case. But I just don't think Georgia with one loss. Could we get that moment by chance?

Could we get a moment where the Pac-12 champion goes ahead of the number two SEC team? The Sankey Entertainment Channel would be fascinating. Paul Finebaum's head would explode. Oh my God. Greenberg. How would Greenberg conduct a show? He might actually have to get somebody from the ACC network to appear on it. You might.

That's right. You're not available. You're too big for it. I'm the game caller now. Don't do a show anymore. You can dig Roddy up. Roddy would be excellent on that show. It'd be awesome. What is it Roddy Jones is good at?

Roddy Jones is good at everything. I understand. Looking forward to being in Raleigh on Saturday, by the way.

Good luck. Have fun with the Wolfpack and the Hurricanes. We are excited to be there, and I love Carter Finley at night. Last time I was at Carter Finley at night was, oh, I don't want to bring that up to the Wolfpack fans.

They might not be very friendly in the parking lot. Oh man. That was that Chuck Amato team that was going to the Fiesta Bowl. Let me just put it to you. It's the last time I was at Carter Finley at night. Wes Durham, you're the best, man. I appreciate your time.