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Mac & Bone- Tom Luginbill Interview · Mac & Bone Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Our next guest, we can ask him if he thinks
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the Tar Heels will shock the world in Dublin. What
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: do we expect in that game? What do we expect
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: in state Virginia?
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: It's good.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You know, it's college football where we could chat it
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: up with our friend and awesome ESPN ACC network analyst.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: He is Tom Lugenbill, who joins us here on the
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Mac and Bone show on a football Friday.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Lugz, how you feeling, man? What's going on?
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: I'm feeling good, man. I'm glad to finally start talking
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: about actual football games instead of prognosticating all the time.
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: We really, that said, what are your thoughts on LSU
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: and Lane Kiffin right now?
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: I got a question for you guys. So T-bone, what
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: is up with this dog that you adopted? Is he
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: like part piranha? I mean, what, what is going on
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: with Murphy's?
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: Well, I'm going to say it's quiet because he listens
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: via the app while I'm gone, Tom. He's a one-year-old
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: puppy named Murphy, and I may have adopted a serial killer,
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: to be honest. This man is vicious. He's nasty. He
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: jumped on the vacuum yesterday and took it for a
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: ride while I was using it. He tried to trip
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: the maintenance guy yesterday, and he ate part of a
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: burrito I was eating yesterday, all within 45 minutes.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: What a day. That's a hat trick.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: He's a good boy. My dogs are scared. They run
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: from the vacuum. This dude just hops on top of it.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: That is remarkable. Yeah, Lugz, we will spare you the
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: injunction talk. We will spare you the temporary restraining order talk.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: And we will talk ball with you because we know
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: you do it real well. What do you think about
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: TCU and Carolina now? I mean, it's got to be
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: more competitive than last year, but do they have a
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: chance to pull the shocker?
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Can they hang in there? What do you think?
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, I think so much of it has
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: to do with what their offensive approach is going to be.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: And quite honestly and simply, you know, Bobby Petrino comes
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: in as an offensive coordinator, and everybody widely regards him
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: as being a quarterback developer and having coached great offenses.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: But at the core of the offense is running the football.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: I mean, if you look at Carolina last year, Carolina
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: could not effectively run the football consistently. But when they
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: ran the ball for 145 yards or more per game,
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: they were 3-0. Well, at Arkansas last year, there was
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: only two games where they didn't rush for at least
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: 145 yards per game. So I think you're going to
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: see a real attempt to try to maintain possession of
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: the ball, create more yards per play, And then as
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: it always does, it doesn't matter what level of football,
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: it's going to come down to what the quarterback play
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: looks like. It's Billy Edwards. Two things. Can Billy Edwards
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: stay healthy? He's been injured at Maryland. He's been injured
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: at Wisconsin. So can he stay on the field? And
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: then can they push the ball vertically coming off of
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: what I think they hope is going to be a
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: very healthy running game? Because their yards per play, third
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: down efficiency was just abysmal a year ago. That's got
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: to improve because this TCU team is going to be fast.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: They're going to be athletic. And that quarterback that they
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: got that transferred in from Harvard, Jaden Craig, he has
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: had one heck of a career to this point. I'm
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: really looking forward to seeing how he makes a jump
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: from FCS to FBS.
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: Loses UNC mucking this thing up, whether because the elements,
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: it's supposed to be in the 50s and raining. And
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: the fact that the games over there can be odd,
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: week zero can be odd. Are all those things in
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: UNC's favor that if they could try to keep this
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: thing out to a grinder, maybe that gives them a
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: semblance of a chance here in this game?
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: I think, you know, obviously the conditions are going to
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: be the same for both teams. If it's a muddy,
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: sloppy track and it's cool and you got a slick ball,
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: you know, TCU likes to amp it up. They like
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: to go fast. They want to pitch it around the lot.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: I do think that that could help maybe play into
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: the hands for UNC. I mean, personally, I'm just shocked
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: to hear that it's going to be cloudy, rainy, and
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: cold in Ireland.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Who saw that coming? That's the most predictable thing about
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: this game, I feel like. I looked it up yesterday.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: There's never been sunshine in Ireland, ever. Never once happened.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Never once happened. Tom Lugenbill is with us, ESPN, as
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: we preview the fact we got real games. We got
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: week zero tomorrow. I love this Virginia-NC State matchup. And
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: when you look at their schedules, Lugz, in conference in
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: the ACC, they're both schedules of opportunity.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: So this game... If you win this game, man.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Who's to say one of these teams doesn't put a
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: ton of wins together and make a real run at
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Charlotte here? What do you think about this matchup tomorrow?
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: Well, let's talk about those schedules because you're right. I'm
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: a big believer in who you play, when you play,
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: and where you play. All three of those things matter. Well,
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: for Virginia, they don't play Louisville, Miami, or Clemson. And
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: for NC State, they don't play SMU, Miami, or Clemson.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: which if you're going to consider both NC State and
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: Virginia potential dark horse ACC championship game contenders, which I
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: think is fair, that makes this game critical because the
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: winner of this game, if they were, let's just say,
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: assume not to go and screw something up and lose
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: to somebody you're not supposed to, you're talking about a
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: potential great run given their schedule. So going into this one,
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: I think you've got to lean towards NC State just
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: because the quarterback advantage with C.J. Bailey is so much
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: more proven than it's going to be with Virginia and
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: Bo Pribula. Now, Bo Pribula's played pretty good football, both
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: going back to Penn State and Missouri, but he's also
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: been hurt a lot. And so he doesn't have the
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: level of experience of C.J. Bailey, who I think is
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: not just one of the premier players in the ACC.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: I think he's one of the premier quarterbacks in all
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: of college football. And for NC State, they're going to
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: run the football behind Duke Scott. They got some incoming
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: transfers in at the offensive skill. The thing that I'm
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: concerned about with NC State that has to get corrected
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: from a year ago to this year is they've got
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: to come up with a way of getting off the
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: field on third down defensively and limiting defensive explosive plays.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: That was their Achilles heel a year ago on defense.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: For Virginia, the thing that's so interesting about them guys
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: is you could make an argument that nobody in college
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: football hit on a higher rate of their transfer portal
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: guys panning out than Virginia did a year ago. Now,
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: they had a great schedule last year, too, but every
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: guy they went out and targeted panned out. Can they
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: duplicate that this year? I don't want to call them
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: a flash in the pan. I don't think that's true.
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: I think they've shifted the narrative of their program. They've
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: got confidence now, and they've got access to better players.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: But they're going to have to do that again. They're
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: going to have to hit on Ja'Kale Middlebrooks coming over
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: from Middle Tennessee State, who's replacing another transfer in Jamari
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: Taylor last year at running back. I think they're going
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: to be good in the offensive line. But can Bo
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: Pribula be a difference maker for him? Because Chandler Morris
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: last year was a difference maker for Virginia. Oh, yeah.
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: They got that money donation last year and they utilize
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: it to the best as they could. So you're right
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: on that.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: So it's Wugs.
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: Obviously, Miami is at the forefront of playoff contenders for
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: the ACC. How many other teams you view as teams
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: that can be in the mix or make the college
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: football playoff from the ACC?
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: Louisville, SMU, Clemson, and probably NC State. I think all
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: of those teams are legitimate contenders. I'm, to be honest
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: with you, and I understand, you know, coming off of
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: last year and the skepticism, but you're going to tell
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: me that Clemson doesn't have top 25 talent to be
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: ranked preseason? Give me a break. Like, I mean... Clemson,
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: I think the best thing that's happened to them is
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: nobody's talking about them. Like they're just lying in the weeds.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: And so that is a reset for them. And I
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: think it's going to play in their favor. But I
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: do think, you know, Louisville, if their quarterback pans out,
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: they're going to be really good. But the thing about
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: Louisville that's interesting is for three years in a row,
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: Jeff Braum went out and got a fifth, sixth-year, and
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: seventh-year guy to play quarterback who came in with a
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: lot of experience. This year, he goes and gets the
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: Ohio State transfer in Lincoln Kienholz, who virtually has no experience.
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: So that kid's going to have to grow up fast.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: And then, of course, Kevin Jennings at SMU is special.
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: And I think they got a team that could contend
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: to get back to the ACC championship game as well.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: That battle for number two is in the ACC is
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: very interesting.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: And my God, right.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Do you think let me ask you this. Do you
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: think the ACC gets two playoff teams or are you
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: concerned that this is a one one big league this year?
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, potentially. I think so much of it depends on
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: how many teams finish with two or fewer losses. If
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: you find yourself and you're in the ACC championship game
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: and you happen to be a one-loss team or an
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: undefeated team, and the loser of that game is still
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: likely to potentially get in. And again, that's also impacted
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: by what's going on around the rest of college football.
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: And so it's going to be interesting to see how
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: it plays out. You know, is it a two-game threshold?
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: Is it a three-game threshold in terms of losses that would,
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: you know, put you in or keep you out? That's
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: what makes this 12-team playoff so interesting is it puts
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: us in a position to pay attention to games in
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: the month of November that maybe in years past you
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: wouldn't have paid much attention to.
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: Miami has a national title contender. How high up the
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: list are they of those? Most of us think seven
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: teams or so that are viewed as the main contenders.
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: How high up is Miami among those teams for you?
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: I think they're a top five to seven team. I
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: really do. My concern with Miami is if they get
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: caught up in reading the off-season press clippings, that worries
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: me a little bit. There's been a lot of attaboys,
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: a lot of pats on the back, right? You bring
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: in Darian Mensah, you bring in Cooper Barcake, you've got
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: to rebuild the offensive line to some degree and to
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: the defensive line to some degree as well. I still
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: think that their talent, when you combine their high school
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: recruiting development and the guys they've brought into the portal,
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: is top 10 overall talent nationally, regardless of conference. So
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: I think they're legitimate. If the quarterback pans out and
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: that team still has a chip and they're hungry, there's
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: no question that they could find themselves back in the mix.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Lugz, you mentioned Clemson, at least in the group, that
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: could contend for second place and a playoff in the ACC.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about their quarterback situation. Vizina is the incumbent veteran,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: but they've got this young, talented dual threat in Tate
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Reynolds who's been pushing him hard. In camp, you're a
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: recruiting guru, the recruiting authority at ESPN. So you are
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: more familiar with Tate Reynolds than the rest of us.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Do you think this is a season where Vizina can
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: start all year, or do you think at some point
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Tate Reynolds is in there?
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: What do you think?
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: Well, the fact that they have not named a starter
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: tells you how close this is. I was at their
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: practice two Fridays ago for the ACC Network. And that
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: is a very tightly contested competition. I think that Clemson
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: has been pleasantly surprised with the maturity and the mental
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: aspect of Tate Reynolds, because oftentimes that's the biggest concern
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: with freshman quarterbacks. Are they ready? Can they handle what's
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: going on? Now, if you saw him physically, he looks
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: like a redshirt junior. I mean, he is a big, athletic,
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: physical kid, can make all the throws. But the fact
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: that they haven't made a decision tells me that if
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: they go with Vizina, that kid better play really good.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: Because if he doesn't, that other kid's going to be
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: ready to take over. And listen, this is a team
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: where they've got wideouts. They're going to be good at
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: running back. That SMU transfer in Chris Johnson Jr. is
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: really explosive. You could make an argument they've got the
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: best corner, the best linebacker, and the best edge rusher
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: in the conference. And so I think that they're a
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: team that if the quarterback plays well and listen, let's
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: just call it what it is. When Clemson started to decline,
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: it was when they made errors at the quarterback position.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: And you fix that. It's kind of interesting how all
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: of a sudden that cures all woes. And so if
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: they get that right with this team, Clemson could be
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: a problem.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Lugz, real quick, I know we've got to let you go.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Gamecocks are getting a little playoff hype as a contender.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Some people think they could have a season like two
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: years ago. Are you buying that?
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: If they fix the issues in the offensive line, and
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: I think that they have, and the quarterback can get in.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: I love the quarterback system marriage. I think Kendall Briles,
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: what he brings, he's going to accentuate the strengths of
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: of Lenora Sellers, and in that offense does a nice
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: job of doing the same thing at the same time,
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: and that's mask the deficiencies. And they've got difference makers
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: in the defensive front. Schedule's brutal, of course. See, I
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: think there's a lot of teams. And in Oklahoma, there's
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: another team like this where you look at their team
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: and you're going, well, that team could be like 11-1, 10-2.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: And then you look at the schedule and you're like,
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: they could be that type of team and finish 8-4
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: or 9-3. And so I think you've got a lot
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: of teams that are going to be better than what
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: they were a year ago. How they manage the schedule
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: will determine the overall record.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: All right, Lugz, great talking to you, man. Cannot wait
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: for the real games tomorrow. Appreciate you, brother, and thanks
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: for coming on.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: As always, Lugz.
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: Have a good one, guys.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: Thanks, Lugz.