Richard and Alex preview 2025 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, discussing the league in the following order:
Clemson, now with a light sprinkling of transfers, has every ingredient
Miami’s defense should finally arrive, but will Mario Cristobal come through on the margins?
Louisville has both of us excited
SMU is graded on a different curve now, and on that curve, it has work to do
Georgia Tech is in its best spot since we started podcasting
Duke might be a better team … with a worse record
Florida State (coming off a 2-10 season with one FBS win over Cal by five points)
North Carolina is one of the ACC’s more interesting teams even before you get to the Belichick of it all
Pitt has offensive firepower, elite linebackers, and a lot to figure out anyway after sputtering to end 2024
Virginia Tech isn’t out of reasons for optimism, but it’s getting there
NC State shows worrying signs of a program in decline, but does have a QB of the future
Syracuse gets a bad schedule draw and will decline in Fran Brown’s second year
Boston College shows good and bad signs under Bill O’Brien
Virginia has certainty at QB and uncertainty at a lot of other places
Cal appears to be heading toward the end with Justin Wilcox
Wake Forest straps in for a rebuild
Stanford is interesting for the long term, but check back after 2025
Then we share our nominees for preseason awards: the SZD Dude of the Year, the Low-Key Cool Game of the Year, the Minority Coach of the Week In an Interesting Schematic Spot (of the Year), and the Coach Who’s Not Gonna Be Here Next Year. Producer: Anthony Vito.
Catch up on all of our 2025 previews
We already have previews available for the following conferences:
Thank you to our subscribers and partners
Become a paid subscriber today to get a lot more SZD, and check out www.nokiantyres.com/szd and www.homefieldapparel.com
