HOUR 1 | ACC football returns! Rich Clark & Dabo Swinney join Wire2Wire at ACC Kickoff. Plus, team analysis and a guest recap.

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Transcript: Wire2Wire Hour 1 (Thur 07/16/26) Host 1: And another big day it has been here at the Hilton Charlotte Uptown in Charlotte, North Carolina for ACC Kickoff, Cole. Some of the biggest dignitaries, names, coaches, players have been swirling around us here on Radio Row, and it's always a pleasure to be a part of it. It feels like college football is here, right? There's that little moment of desperation, or maybe sadness, after college baseball is done, and you're like, "Ugh, it's such a long way to football season." But this is that little injection of adrenaline that gets you going with still what, close to 45 days or so left until we uh until toe meets leather. But it's always a good time being here, day number two. Thanks to Capozzie Glass for sponsoring us here at Radio Row at ACC Kickoff, always a great time, Cole. Cole: Hey man, it's been a fun day. Um, you and I today, just to be quite transparent, haven't had a chance to breathe. When I think we done a lot of, you know, we've done a lot of shows together. This is show 564. Woo! Those kickoff shows we do for high school football, we have a lot of coaches back-to-back-to-back. It's a lot, but I don't think for any other show outside of that we've ever interviewed as many people as we have today. I mean, just to just to give you a quick update on what's coming up in the show: Rich Clark, Dabo Swinney, Sammy Brown, Will Helton, Olsen Patt Henry, Eric Mac Lain, Lance Robinson—I'm not done yet—Anthony Polano, Demetrius Samuels (Boston College), KP Price, Steve Angeli. I mean, it this is we have me and you have been sitting at this table interviewing players and coaches since 8:00 AM this morning, which is great. Host 1: Yeah, I couldn't tell you how many hands I've shook today. It's just uh it's been a wild, crazy morning here at the at the ACC Kickoff, but always a great time, Cole. And uh we we appreciate them for putting on such a great [clears throat] event here. Uh Cole, you know, we got this nice, giant schedule graphic that came out today, and it's it makes it even more real because now you see all the games laid out right there in front of you. Uh a question that I think I asked, or I'm going to ask of Michael Strickland, the ACC uh VP tomorrow when we get him on the show here, Cole, is trying to figure out where this conference now lies in the pecking order. And and that whole idea of a pecking order has kind of been turned on its head the last couple of years, right? It was the SEC and their dominant, they're going to win every national championship forever. And then the Big Ten has come in, and and Miami played for a a national championship last year. How do how are we going to be able to judge this conference towards the end of the season, right? You can't do it off a bowl record anymore, right? Because nobody goes to bowl games, or or players don't go to bowl games like the way that they used to. Fewer and fewer opportunities for big-time competition between the conferences. What are the ones that stand out to you, besides Clemson-LSU, which we've talked to talked about a lot on this show, that you can say that is a litmus test, that is how we decide: is this conference gaining ground on maybe the SEC and the Big Ten? Are they staying where they are, or are they losing ground? Cole: I just think, well, to answer your question, I think the easy answer is there's a lot of factors that go into it. First and foremost, okay, there's a lot of factors when you talk about the ACC, which I do think has gotten better in recent years. I really do. Host 1: I agree. Cole: Um, but these all there's a lot of factors that go into it. But here's what I would say is number one, from my opinion. And by the way, Tollos, you can get on get in on the conversation, as you always can, at 844-FAN-PHONE. That's F-A-N F-H-O-N-E. These all, I think I think it's the C-word. I think it's consistency. I just think, look, Miami had a great run last year. They were a heck of a ...

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