Eric Mac Lain, ACC Network analyst, tells McElroy & Cubelic why Clemson is a Playoff contender, what he learned watching Virginia Tech this fall, and what he thinks of the ACC in 2024
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McElroy and Kublik in the morning starts now. Welcome back to McElroy and Kublik in the morning, Wednesday, August 14th, 746 a.m. right here on jocks. Ninety four five. Phil Smith, Buick GMC is the GMC dealer of the year, the seven time national champion. They've won four years in a row. Go and check them out on the short drive up to Coleman. I-65.

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You were recently, though, in Blacksburg. Before we get to Clemson, I just want one quick thought from you on Virginia Tech because I feel like the thought on the Hokies going into this season is almost all over the place. How much confidence do you have in them maybe being an ACC contender this year? Yeah, good morning, guys. Thanks for having me. Always a pleasure to jump on with you. But the Hokies look good, man. You know, when you have that much production coming back, we saw the –

you know, abilities that they were able to really unleash on offense once Kyron Drones became the guy. You know, he's been a full starter now. And, you know, Greg, you know how important that is just for leadership perspective, for someone to look to, the team to look to for an entire offseason, entire spring, fall camp. There's no questions. There's no competition. He's the guy. And

I think the biggest focal point I had for him was working on his short to intermediate and how much better could he get there. And it looked really clean. Now it's practice, and we'll see when they line up in Nashville week one. But they looked fast. They looked like they had body types. Just things that I haven't seen in Blacksburg in a handful of years now. What do you make right now of Clemson? A lot of buzz about Clemson.

The offense rolling some folks in the preseason. Not what I expected, to be honest. We thought the defense would be elite. Is this more a testament to the offense being maybe better than we thought? Or is it more concerning about potentially the lack of depth on the edges defensively and what they might have in the front seven?

Yeah, well, I'll give you a much better answer if we want to do this again Tuesday morning. I'll be with the Tigers Sunday and Monday, so I'll get to see them in person and really get a much better feel and opinion with my own kind of eyes there. Here's the deal. I think receiver has been a position that folks have been kind of clamoring for, right? Like Clemson went on such a run

of just having these monsters, you know, at the wide receiver position, first round draft picks, early second round draft picks, very impactful guys. And, you know, for, for these handful of years, kind of along with lackluster quarterback play, there's been a lot of injuries in that room and guys not being able to step up. Clemson feels like,

great right now with where they are at wide receivers. Two five-stars that came in. Think that they're going to have an impact very quickly, but Tyler Brown, Antonio Williams, you know, Stilato, these guys are all healthy and ready to go. Adam Randall, big-time guy, 6'3", 230 pounds. I mean, he's like a glorified H-back, DK Metcalf out there, you know, with his size and ability. So,

Yeah, size, man, size, body types, body types. Come on, Cole. You know, but when you look at these guys, I think the offensive line is going to be improved. I think the running game with Phil Moffa is going to be exceptional. It's just going to come down to how much growth do we see in year two of a starting quarterback in Cade Klubnick. And again, we're so quick, myself included, we're so quick to, if a guy's not an All-American his first year, start and get rid of him. You know, go on to the next. We forget that

It takes time and it's hard to immediately be put into a situation, especially quarterback and have this unbelievable, perfect success right away. I think Clemson is going to be just fine. Are we, are we putting too much on him though? And I, I mean, listen, you said Clemson with, with the wide receiver run, I'd go tight ends too, but I mean, you had Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson, like the, I mean, most teams when they get going, there's a guy pulling the trigger. That's pretty legit. But,

It feels like there's more on Klubnik than there is on a lot of quarterbacks at a lot of other places of whether or not Clemson can be in contention to go to the college football playoff. Yeah, I think it is fascinating. But that's part of Clemson's own doing, right? They had so much success at the quarterback position with really young quarterbacks kind of immediately in their careers. And so I think that's just...

You know, it's part of it when you have this unbelievable run that Clemson had there capturing, you know, two national championships and playing in a handful of others. And fair, not fair, Cole? I mean, it's never fair, right? None of the scrutiny that we put on these kids –

is ever fair, but that's kind of the world that we're getting to. And the more of a business this becomes, the more scrutiny that's going to come, the more money that's involved, all these different things. But I do think that you're right. For whatever reason, it does seem like you can look around the preseason top 15, and for whatever reason, that Tiger Paul gets the most scrutiny, and that quarterback in particular, for what he is going to and has to be responsible for.

Speaker 0 : I'm not sure Clemson gets the most scrutiny, but that's, we can, we can have that debate at another point. Speaker 2 : That's my bias. ACC Sean, Florida state gets the two, those two teams. Speaker 0 : Yeah. That's a hundred percent. Yeah. Nobody else ever falls under anyone's criticism. No one's program ever gets dismantled after a loss ever. Uh, what about Miami? Um,

I'm real bullish on them. I think if we just remove the lack of trust that they have in the court of public opinion, their roster can go with anybody. Now they got to stay healthy and they're going to get young in a hurry in certain spots, but there's a lot of reason to be optimistic. What do you think that group's going to be?

Yeah, sorry, but I don't think there's any question about that, man. And I'm bullish on them too. And having seen them in person, it makes you feel even better because it's just things that you think, things that you hear. We trust our eyes better than anybody, right? When we can see it in person, we can see what they look like, things of that nature. And I think the biggest difference for me with Miami is obviously quarterback. I mean, I think that guy's dynamic.

as they've had in a long time and what he can do with his legs, what he can do with his arms. You know, people will say Derek King, and I think he was fantastic, but this guy is smoother, faster, bigger, you know, at the end of the day. And I think that's really going to translate. But the biggest difference, you know, to me is they're going to be able to control both lines of scrimmage. And I don't know when the last time that they were able to do that. Tom...

That offensive line is massive. You're talking about average 6'5", 330. I mean, you got Francis Maui Noah at the right tackle position, 6'6", 340, 15% body fat. I mean, it's freaky when you see the size and the just NFL body types that you see offensively.

along that often to line jaylen rivers the other tackle you know six six three thirty and you have a a four pack it's just it's different you know it's different than what they've looked like in a really long time when you look at the depth at the defensive line position defense event they made some portal additions have some five stars that are just going to be sitting waiting in the wings for their opportunity uh... but i i think that's the biggest difference they're gonna be able to bloody people's noses

and really play big boy football on both the defense and offensive line. Eric, great stuff. We appreciate the time. Always good catching up, and we'll do it again soon. No doubt. Appreciate you guys. Have a great show. All right. Appreciate you. Eric McLean with the ACC Network ESPN joining us on the Buyer's Right Hotline for all your insurance, financial, HR needs. Buyer's Right Insurance, a Higginbotham partner. So Clemson will be our team of the day. We will select one team each and every day.

Going into the college football season, will they make the college football playoff? There's a lot to discuss. There's a lot of interest with sort of what they have, what they don't have, what they might have when you're talking about this Clemson football team. So we'll get to that a little bit in our next hour. First, I'll tell you about our friends at Wayne's. Obviously, you've got to have the mosquito protection this time of year. If you're going to be outside in your yard,

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Let Wayne's continue to create your happy place. When we come back, we will discuss, we'll break down the Clemson Tigers and answer the question. Will they make this year's college football playoff going to get to our top three next hour?

Got some injury news around the SEC that we need to discuss. A certain captain no longer going to be showing up. A lot to talk about the rest of the show. Keep it locked right here on jocks94.5, jocksfm.com, where you can listen online. The app is in your app store. And just tell that home smart speaker to enable the jock skill or listen to jocks.

Clemson Breakdown next on Mac and Cube in the morning. Catch up with all things McElroy and Kubrick in the morning by subscribing to the podcast. Mythically, he's grown. He's almost like a little bit bigger than a player, right? Like the myth of Bo Jackson. Like, rate, and download the show from the Jock Tap or wherever you get your podcasts.

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