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FSU vs BOSTON COLLEGE PREDICTION! Can the Noles WIN Without Mike Norvell?! · FSU Football: Doak Talk

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hey, it's C.J. Wilson here with Dota. Of course, I'm
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: your host. Have another episode of Behind Enemy Lines. It's
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Boston College Week. Always a good game in the ACC,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: in my opinion, FSU and Boston College. I have A.J.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Black with me, publisher of BC Insider, a 247 affiliate,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: and also the host of Locked on BC. Friend of
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the show as well, too. A.J., how you doing, man?
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Great.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: I'm doing great. Thanks, C.J., for having me on. It's
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: been a while, and I'm looking forward to talking.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: To you again. Right.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: You know, last time we played was at 2024. You
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: guys came down here and just pretty much start the
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: downward spiral of the Mike Norvell team, to be honest
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: with you. But it's been a while, so I kind
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: of want to start there a little bit, AJ. But
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: before we get going, make sure you guys hit this
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  Speaker 1: like button and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Go ahead and hit that like button. It takes two
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: seconds of your time. And subscribe to the channel if
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: you haven't already. So FSU has been in news this week.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: As you probably heard, you know, Mike Norvell has been
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: fired by the university after just, I guess you could say,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: two and a half subpar seasons by FSU standards. First off,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I want to get your take on the firing of
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Mike Norvell and that type of deal. And also, who
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: do you think would be a good replacement in your
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: mind for FSU? I want to put you on the
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: spot a little bit.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: You know, it's interesting.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: They had... When I was thinking about Mike Norvell, it's
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: been a while that this has been brewing, and it
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: felt like it was inevitable for a long time, and
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: now it's actually happened.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: The first thing I thought of was the money.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: Obviously, it was a $ 50 million buyout, but hey, Florida
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: State wants to play with the big boys.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: This is what you're going to do if things aren't working.
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  Speaker 1: Out.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: I have flashbacks with stuff like this, because the last
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: time Florida State made a coaching change, it was firing
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: Willie Taggart.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: And who do they play that week? Boston College.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: Odell Hagans was your interim head coach. And I remember
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: covering and I'm like, oh, this is great. You know,
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: you get a team that's and then what does he do?
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: He comes down and whoops on BC. So it feels like,
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: you know, I think for BC, it would almost been
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: better if Norvell was still there because you still felt
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: like things could have been disjointed.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Now you get some life.
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  Speaker 3: Breathed into you with like a new staff and new,
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: you know, new set of eyes on things.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: So.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: That, I think, is something I'm watching for, too.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Additionally, in terms of head coaches, I think there's a
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: bunch of good ones out there. Jimbo Fisher is that
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: name that keeps popping up, but I don't know.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Obviously, he was consistent. He did a lot for Florida
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: State while he was here, so maybe he's the answer.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: There's some other coaches, if they want to spend, I
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: think would be a great fit. Manny Diaz was one.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: What he's doing at Duke is incredible. You know, Jake
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: Dickard at Wake Forest. Wow. You know, to do that
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: with the funding that they have there, that, you know,
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: give him the resources that Florida State has. That would
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: be a home run. And then Jason Eck over at
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: New Mexico. I love that guy, too. I think that
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: guy is going to be a star. So those are
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: the big ones. I mean, if you could, you know,
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  Speaker 3: the dream candidate has to be, like, can you spend
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: the money to get Bob Chesney there? But it sounds
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: like he's pretty content at ucla and they've got that
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: big 10 money so i feel like they're not gonna
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: be able to pry them pry him away but there's
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: plenty of good options i think all of those would
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: be good fits for fsu.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah real good options like you said it's going to
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: be interesting to see how what fsu's plan is as
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: far as you know how much you're willing to spend
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: do you want to you're kind of going all in
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: with mike novell with that 50 million dollars do you
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: want to continue to go all in If you have
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: the money to, say, buy out a coach, you know,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: and then give that coach a new contract and go
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: from there. Drinkwich is another one that I like at Mizzou.
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  Speaker 1: I think he would do pretty well down here at
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Florida State with the resources. He's kind of punched above
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: his weight a little bit at Mizzou, in my opinion. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it's interesting. We'll see what the plan is for FSU.
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  Speaker 1: And they also got a higher athletic director as well, too.
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  Speaker 1: So it's going to be a really interesting next month
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  Speaker 1: or so down in Tallahassee. Totally.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: Even if you're with BC not involved in it, it's
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: always fascinating to see how that carousel kind of turns
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: and how it impacts all the other teams. It'll be
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: interesting to see how one of the biggest dominoes falls there.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Right, most definitely. All right, AJ, let's kind of talk
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: about BC a little bit. 4-4 this year, going into
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: year three under Bill O'Brien. Let's talk about the vibes
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: around the program. What do you feel like as far
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: as progression during year three of the Bill O'Brien era?
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: So going into this year, it was just a weird
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: year for BC. They went 2-10 last year. Everything kind
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: of fell apart. And they basically had to hit the
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: reset button on their entire roster. Most of their coaching
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: staff is gone. They bring in 30-plus transfers, which is
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: not anything BC's ever done before. And you put together
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: a schedule that was pretty tough. You're playing three Power
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: 4 programs on the road to Cincinnati, Rutgers, and Notre Dame. And,
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: you know, you get SMU, Florida State, Duke, Miami on
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  Speaker 3: the road. You look at the schedule and you're like, wow,
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: this is going to be a tough year. So, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I think where things started for this season was about
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  Speaker 3: what I expected, right? You brought in this quarterback, Mason McKenzie,
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: out of Saginaw Valley, a D2 school. Bill O'Brien, to
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  Speaker 3: his credit, said, listen, it might take him a while
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  Speaker 3: to kind of get things settled. And he looked, you know,
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: like the lights were bright when it first started. But
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: he started to get better, and they battled hard against
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: Virginia Tech.
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  Speaker 2: That was a close game. They battled hard against SMU.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: That was a close game. Then they go out and
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: they rip off two quick wins against Pitt and Georgia Tech.
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  Speaker 3: Last week, kind of fell back down to earth. There
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: were a lot of issues in that game. They had
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: sloppy play, but more of the reason being penalties was
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: a big issue, and their offensive line got killed.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: But they lost 47-2 to Duke. So a lot of that,
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: you know, goodwill felt.
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  Speaker 3: Like it kind of fell off again because you felt
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: like maybe you just beat two really bad teams and
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: that was it. But, you know, I think you've won
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: four games, you know, for BC after winning two.
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  Speaker 2: That's progress, I guess.
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: And honestly, for BC, with the amount of bowls that are,
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: you know, they've added new ones, they're going to have
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: a really good APR.
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  Speaker 2: That's just, you know, it's an academic school, right?
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  Speaker 3: So if they win one more, they're probably going to
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: go to a bowl. So it's right there. Obviously, you're
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: on the road against Notre Dame and Miami. I've already
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: chalked those up as losses, but you play every game.
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  Speaker 3: But you beat Florida State or you beat Syracuse, you're
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  Speaker 3: going to probably get in, and that would be a
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  Speaker 3: huge boost for BC.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a very good point as well, too, as
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: far as if you are getting that fifth win and
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  Speaker 1: getting awarded that bowl. You spoke about quarterback Mason McKenzie.
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  Speaker 1: Just talk about him a little bit. He's also the
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: team leading rusher as well. Pretty dual threat type of guy.
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  Speaker 1: So let's talk about what he brings to the table.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, he is, first and foremost, he's a warrior out there.
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  Speaker 3: This is a guy that you've got to peel him
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  Speaker 3: off the ground to get him off the field.
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  Speaker 2: He'll go out there, take hits. He wants to win,
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  Speaker 2: and it's very.
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  Speaker 3: Very clear when you watch him play. This is a
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  Speaker 3: guy that has all those intangibles and that grit that
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  Speaker 3: you just love to see out of quarterbacks.
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  Speaker 2: Just winning quarterbacks do this kind of stuff. But yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it's his legs. His legs are, he's fast. He's, you know,
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  Speaker 2: against Georgia.
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  Speaker 3: Tech just two weeks ago, BC with Mason McKenzie and
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: their running back, Bo McCormick ran for 300, almost 400 yards.
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  Speaker 2: And a lot of that was Mason. They were just
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  Speaker 2: running up and down on them. He's fast. He's quick.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: He's hard to tackle.
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: And his arm is getting better. You know, there's going
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: to be moments. It happened against Pitt a couple of
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: weeks ago. It happens, you know, against Rutgers. He has
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  Speaker 3: these moments where he just throws the ball up and
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: you're like, what are you doing? Like, he just won't
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: let a play die and instead tries to make a
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: play and it kills him. Against Pitt, for instance, they
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: had the ball in the red zone and they were
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: ready for the kill shot. It was late in the
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: fourth quarter, three minutes left. They were up by six. And,
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: you know, they're at the 15-yard line of Pitt and
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: he decides to throw, which is fine. You want to
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: be aggressive, go for it. He's getting pressured and he
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: just throws it up.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Pitt picks it off. They almost lose the game because
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: of that.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: He knows that it's an issue, but that's also a
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: piece of concern about where he's kind of at, where
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: he's not a bad thrower, but sometimes his decisions, especially
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: I think it's coming up from that D2 level, where
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: he's still kind of learning some things. But he's an
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: exciting player. You know, I think the name that a
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: lot of Florida State fans will watch, and BC thought
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: it's kind of the same thing as Tommy Castellanos, kind
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: of that kind of where he just, you know, sometimes
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: he's out there and he's going to do a whole
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: lot to help you win, and that's kind of what
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: Mason does too.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Interesting. Really good point. Spoke about McCormick a little bit,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: you know, Dick's as well. Talk about the running back
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: room and I guess a combination with the offensive line
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: play as well with the running game.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: Sure. So Evan Dickens is out for the season. That's
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: their starting running back. Yep. Nope. He was, he missed
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: the last game.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: No, the last two games with, I think a knee injury,
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: but Bo McCormick, he's like, he's a local Massachusetts kid,
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: all time leading rusher in the state of Massachusetts for
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: high school. funny when i watched him last year he
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: looked like just like any you know almost like a
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: walk-on like the side like he looked like a high
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: school kid um the kid loves to work out though
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: and now he looks like a bull he looks like
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: a lot of the typical bc running backs of years
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: past not as big as aj dylan.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Or andre that gives me nightmares still man yeah.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: That guy was he's a he's a whole other he's
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: a whole other warrior. You know what I mean? Like,
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: that guy was a whole other thing. But, like, Bo
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: put the work in, and he looks like a running
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: back now.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: He's physical. He's, you know, a tough tackle. And against
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: that Georgia Tech, Georgia Tech, you know, by the end
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: of the game didn't want to tackle him. And that's
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: kind of what BC has been good at doing in
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: the past. So it was good to see that. The
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: biggest issue with BC up and down this offense is
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: their offensive line. Their offensive line has been inconsistent at
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: best and a hindrance at worst. Against Duke, they got
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: absolutely manhandled. They could not stop the pressure. They couldn't
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: get the ball running. They couldn't get Mason McKenzie out
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: of the pocket. They couldn't do anything. They've had to
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: rebuild that entire offensive line. They've got a starting tackle,
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: Christian Phillips, who is a guard at Michigan State, but
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: because of, I honestly don't know why, they pushed him
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: out to tackle, and he has really played poorly. You know,
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: he had four, he allowed four, he leads, I think
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: he was at one point the leading offensive lineman in
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: terms of pressures allowed this season.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: He kind of dropped down a little bit.
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: Their center, I don't know if he's going to play,
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: Michael Crowns, he got rolled up on for the second
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: time this year.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: He missed the first, like, five games because of it.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: Came back, and then the second game he's back, He
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: got rolled up on again, so I'm not sure what
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: is going on with him. He's still on the depth chart,
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: but we'll see what the availability report with that is.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: And they just had a bunch of penalties.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: Penalties is a huge issue with this team, which is
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: incredible that you have a former NFL head coach, and
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: they're like 125th in the country in penalties. It was
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: a nightmare against Duke last week, but it was also
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: a nightmare against Georgia Tech that first half.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: BC ended up winning that game handily.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: But they had 100 yards, I think, in penalties in
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: that first half of that. It has been an issue
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: all year long. The offensive line has been a major
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: factor in that.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: They've been probably the worst offenders of it.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: And it's going to be something that– it's one of
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: the pieces against Florida State that I'm worried about most. Like,
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: no matter if Deuce Robinson's playing or, you know, you're
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: missing your star running back, the defensive line, you've got
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: good talent up there. Against that offensive line, that could
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: just be the difference right there.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Really good point, yeah, because FSU defense line has been
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: coming on as of late. And maybe with the transition also,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: you know, defense coordinator Tony White has been let go.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Ernie Sims, former FSU linebacker, current linebacker coach, taking over
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: play calling. Could be more aggressive up front, just kind
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: of knowing the type of player Ernie Sims was himself.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Talk about the pass game a little bit with these receivers.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: I like what I saw a little bit with the
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: four guys that kind of stood out. Green, Wright, Pugh,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: and I think it was Monaco or something along those lines.
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, they've got some decent wide receivers. Not super,
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: like you don't have like the Zay Flowers type of guys.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: It all depends on how they're going to run this offense, right?
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: Like you had against Duke, you weren't able to do anything.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: The key I thought going into the season was this kid,
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: Jaden Skeet, who played the last couple years. He looks
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: great in camp. But he's kind of been in and
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: out of the doghouse with O'Brien. I don't know what's
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: going on there. But he'll play some weeks. Some weeks
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: you see him buried on the depth chart. When he plays,
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: he gets a couple good catches. I think the biggest
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: piece in terms of the passing game was Kalen Chudzinski,
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: who was a freshman All-American last year. News broke in
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: July that he had torn his Achilles during camp in
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: spring and was going to be.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: Out all year.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: Now, Bill said, You know, oh, this guy, you know,
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: he really wants to come back. And, you know, the
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: press is all going, yep, sure. And even Bill was like, yeah,
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: he's not going to be back.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Well, he's back. I don't know what the hell he did,
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: but he's back. And he played last week, had one catch.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: I don't, I'm a little hesitant to think that he's
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: going to play a huge role. But if he can play,
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: he's the best tight end wide receiver that they have
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: on this team. He can catch the ball. He's that
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: typical Bill O'Brien tight end. You know, Rob Chudzinski's son,
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: you know, he had like 30-something catches last year as
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: a true freshman. He's good. And if they get the
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: passing game going, he would be someone I would watch for.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Very interesting. We'll see how that plays out with the
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: game on Saturday. Let's transition over to the defensive side
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: of the ball. Sort of the defensive line. Boykin and
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Ballard lead the way for BC on the defensive line.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about the scheme up front and what's the
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: plan of attack for these guys.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so Ted Roof is a longtime defensive coordinator who's
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: been everywhere. Oklahoma, Georgia Tech, Duke, he's been everywhere.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: He's with BC. He's worked with Bill O'Brien in the past,
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: so he trusts him. He brought him in.
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: Now, if you look at the Duke game, you look
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: at the score, you would think the defense was terrible.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: And yeah, they went up five touchdowns to Nate Shepard,
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: but a lot of that was on short fields, penalties
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: that just drove it up into the goal line, like
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: a ton of pass interference calls. There was a lot
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: of issues with that. But for the most part, like
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: I think they went up like 330 yards and let
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: up that many points. So it's not like they got,
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: you know, boat raced on defense. It was just that
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: they were in terrible field position for most of the game. Now,
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: I think Ted Roof has done a nice job. They
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: just replaced their defensive coordinator from last year, Tim Lewis,
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: and he's aggressive. He has done a nice job of,
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: you know, changing up looks to keep defense offenses on
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: honest with them. You know, you're throwing guys like KP Price,
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: who is the star defensive back on this team. He
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: can play nickel, he can play linebacker, he can play safety,
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: and Ted Roof is fine playing him everywhere. And that
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: kind of just switching up the looks can help a lot.
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: They brought in a really good linebacker, Anthony Polano from Washington,
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: who's like second in the ACC in tackles.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: You know, he's a playmaker.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: BC hasn't had a playmaker at linebacker in years, and
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: this is a kid that's a playmaker. So a combination
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: of all of that, the aggressiveness has, you know, helped BC,
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: you know, I go to the SMU game where they
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: basically held Kevin Jennings in check for most of that game.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: You know, they lost for a few other reasons, but
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: the defense has all has been consistent for most of
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: the season. That's a huge improvement over last year where
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: it was just a mess.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: You pretty much covered the defense in a nutshell. So
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: let's go ahead and get your prediction for this game.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: What you feel like, I know you kind of, hinted at,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: you know, history of penis stuff a little bit with
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: a juiced up Florida State team coming up to BC after,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: you know, Willie Taggart firing. And honestly, it was the,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: I guess you could say the unveiling of Jordan Travis.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: That was the Jordan Travis game where, you know, you
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: first kind of figured out who was this kid and
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: the rest is history. So give us your prediction on
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: how the game would play out.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: I have been battling back and forth on this because
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: I have said all year that there have been cases
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: like 2024 where BC comes down to Florida State and wins,
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: but there have been too many in my lifetime of
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: watching Florida State just having better athletes than BC.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: And no matter how good those athletes are, they.
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: Can outspeed them, beat them down the field and become
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: a matchup problem.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: That being said... You know, Florida State's missing quite a
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: few players.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: They, you know, the changes, you know, Ashton Daniels, they've
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: done pretty decent against quarterbacks that have, you know, kind
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: of his stature. I said after watching them get pasted
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: by Duke that I wouldn't pick BC to win again
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: just because I had picked them to win twice in
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: a row, but I'm going to do it.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: I'm going to pick BC 28 to 21.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: I like it. I like it, AJ. I think in
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: speaking of how you said Duke from a defensive standpoint,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: the offensive line really didn't have a chance. It's interesting
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: to see what FSU can do up front because I
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: do feel like they do have an athletic edge at
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: that point. But it's interesting as well, too, because we
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: have Usman Kromar. He's out. We're down to our third-string
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: running back in Trey Wiseman kind of coming in. Deuce
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Robinson just announced he's out for the year now with
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: the torn ACL. So, fsu is banged up but i'm
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: gonna i'm gonna go i'm gonna go to nose i'm
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: gonna go 24 to 21 in the close one up
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: in bc fsu edges i think it's going to be
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: a renowned energy on defense with ernie simms kind of taking.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: Over yeah it could be interesting and it's interesting to
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: see too though with duke they struggled they played pitt
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: who had a really good defensive line too and they
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: were able to move the ball pretty effectively against them
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: so i Again, with BC, sometimes I have no idea.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: There's such a roll of the dice sometimes. You're just
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: curious to see what comes out. But I'll say this.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: Bill O'Brien had his weekly press conference today. Usually those
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: things go 15, 20 minutes. He spoke for two minutes.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Really?
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: If you guys want to have a fun listen, just listen.
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: Listening to a coach talk and respond with one-word answers
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: to everything tells you where things are at, right?
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Right, right, right. I like it. I need to go
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: check it out. All right, AJ, let the people know
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: where they can go find where they can follow you at.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you can follow me on Twitter at AJBlack247 or
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: at LockedOnBC. I'm on YouTube, wherever you find your podcasts.
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: Come over to the YouTube channel.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: My fans don't bite.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: We love having, you know, opposing fans in there.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: Unless you are going to come over and call me
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: a moron. Even if you're going to do that, that's fine.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: I can handle that, too. But come on over. Check
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: it out there, and... Hopefully we'll have a fun game
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: this weekend.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, most definitely. Make sure you guys check out AJ's work.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Real good stuff. again hit that like and subscribe button
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: go nose