Talking season means football camps will open soon. And that football season is around the corner.

All of the ACC’s football coaches spoke at the ACC Kickoff event last week in Charlotte, N.C. If there’s a common theme, it’s one of optimism and a “spring training mindset” where each coach thinks his team will be good this season.

From FSU coach Mike Norvell to veteran coaches and a few first-year coaches, here is one quote from each:

FSU coach Mike Norvell

After two straight losing seasons, Norvell was asked about a message to FSU’s fans.

“In reality, the words don't matter, it's about the action. That's our focus,” Norvell said. “I could stand up here, you could say a lot of things, but it's still about what's going to show up. That's what I believe in. ...

“Yes, the last two years as college football has changed, continuing to evolve, we have to be better. This past season we showed glimpses of playing at a very high level. Big wins, some great moments, but also had some disappointing results in some close games and opportunities we did not capitalize on.”

Stanford coach Tavita Pritchard

Pritchard is in his first year at his alma mater and working with his close friend in Andrew Luck, Stanford’s general manager.

“We have a roster full of competitors. We have a building full of competitors. We have a staff full of competitors,” Pritchard said. “What I'm most excited about is attacking this season with a bunch of competitors.

“When I think about the ACC and the conference that we are in, it's going to be a challenge. We know that winning football games, period, is a challenge. It's hard. It is hard work. This will be no different. We added seven teams in the ACC last year with nine-plus wins, nine teams with eight-plus wins and 11 bowl teams.”

Virginia coach Tony Elliott

Elliott went through three losing seasons before an 11-3 run in 2025. Virginia was also very close to an ACC title, losing to Duke. He reflected on his time at Clemson as an assistant to Dabo Swinney.

“I go back to an experience that I had in 2015. I remember coming off the field in Phoenix, just lost the National Championship,” Elliott said. “I saw my mentor (Swinney) and my boss just, like, distraught, defeated. I just remember saying to him like, ‘Coach, the guys in the locker room need you. They need you.’

“And they did. I remember that. … I was pretty upbeat and positive in the locker room after the game, right, because I knew that this was going be to lead to something better in the future. I kind of flipped a switch pretty quickly.”

NC State coach Dave Doeren

You might have heard that Doeren has been at NC State a long time. He had some fun with it. “Four score and 14 years ago I got hired here,” Doeren said, drawing laughter.

He’s about to begin year 14 in Raleigh. For perspective, his old team, Northern Illinois, had just lost to FSU in the Orange Bowl to end the 2012 season.

Doeren is also known as a coach that hasn’t won big but has produced an eight-win season in seven of the last nine years.

“As media, a lot of times your job is to talk about what we don't do well. Today I get to talk about what we do do well,” Doeren said. “I think having staying power, being a consistent winner. Won the second most number of games in the ACC in the last six years. We've won the second most number of conference games and non-conference games.

“With that being said, I'm sick of being second. These guys know that. We're here to do more. That's what drives us. It's the competitive spirit of winning, the brotherhood that comes along with that that's so special.”

Louisville coach Jeff Brohm

Good for Louisville, which will play 11 teams from a power conference: Nine ACC teams plus the opener against Ole Miss (in Nashville) and the finale at Kentucky.

“We're one of a few teams that play 11 Power Four teams in our schedule. We're looking forward to that,” Brohm said. “We think that's what college football's all about. We open up with Ole Miss in Nashville on a Sunday night in game one, which will be a great test for our team to play a team that won 13 games, has a top quarterback coming back, a top running back. That will challenge our football team. Definitely what fans want to see, players and coaches want to prepare for.”

Miami coach Mario Cristobal

It has been a steady climb for Miami under Cristobal, who has won five games, then seven, 10 and 13 in 2025. Miami reached the CFP title game and will likely be the preseason favorite to win the ACC this fall.

“We've had steady progress over the last four years. It's been due to the commitment and the level of just care of these players and their coaches,” Cristobal said. “The fact that everything has been based on having a 1-0 attitude towards everything we do, every meeting, practice session, training session, just making sure we never deviate from that, never stray from that process.

“That has also led to thankfully for us some consistency in our coaching staff. We retain both coordinators. Consistency in that case is good because they have had success. They're also very adaptable, knowing with whatever schemes we do run, they have to fit the skill set of our players.”

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney

Christopher Vizzina is Clemson’s starting quarterback. Swinney reflects on Vizzina and why the coach, who famously prefers high school recruiting over transfers, have stuck by the veteran who has waited his turn and thrown just 105 college passes.

“We made a decision that, you know, we weren't going to go and get some shiny object at quarterback,” Swinney said. “Well, we understand that. If it doesn't work out, we're going to be just raked over the coals for that.

“But you got to make decisions that you believe in. You know, we always do what we think at Clemson is best for our team, for the long-term health of our team and our organization. There's a reason why we had confidence in the decision that we made. That's because we're there every day. CV has earned the opportunity to go be the starting quarterback at Clemson based on everything we've observed.”

Va. Tech coach James Franklin

Franklin was hired in Blacksburg, Va., on Nov. 17. He’s 128-60 in his career at Vanderbilt and Penn State, and Franklin takes over at a program that’s fallen on hard times. He also made an unusual move: Bringing dismissed head coach Brent Pry back as VT’s defensive coordinator. Franklin and Pry have a close relationship and will work together on the rebuild.

“We've been sprinting really since we arrived in Blacksburg. I think I would describe it as I think we have won the off-season,” Franklin said. “We've had a great off-season in terms of implementing our standards and our expectations and our culture.

“Obviously when you're able to do something unconventional like we did in hiring Coach Pry as our defensive coordinator, I think that really helped, having someone like that that really understood the challenges of the place, the strengths of the place, the institutional knowledge, the community knowledge was extremely valuable.”

Georgia Tech coach Brent Key

The Yellow Jackets have won 23 games the last three seasons under Key, who was also the interim head coach in 2022. While the Haynes King Era is over in Atlanta, Key’s teams are known for being tough and good on the lines.

“When I became the head coach three years ago, now going on my fourth year, you know, a lot of people say, ‘Well, that must be the highlight of what you've accomplished and what you've done.’ No, it's not,” Key said. “My goal wanting to be the head coach, my goal is to be the head coach of Georgia Tech and win championships. That's what our goal is.

“Our goal is to graduate players and win championships. We've done a good job of progressing each year. You know, six wins, seven wins, nine wins. All right, but the mission is to win championships. That's not changing.”

Boston College coach Bill O'Brien

BC has hired Kenyatta Watson, who spent a year at FSU in an off-field role, as its general manager. O’Brien notes he would like to have a roster full of high school prospects, but the mix on the 2026 team is far different.

“We have a brand-new team,” O’Brien said. “We have basically about 50 new players. We have about 25 guys out of the portal, 25 guys in high school recruiting. We have six new coaches, including defensive coordinator Ted Roof. We also have a new general manager in Kenyatta Watson. It's a brand-new organization, a brand-new team from last year, and we're excited about that. ...

“Moving forward I think at Boston College we always want to be primarily a high school recruiting program, right? If you put percentages on it, we would say about 75% of our roster to come through high school recruiting and 25% to come through the portal.”

SMU coach Rhett Lashlee

SMU hit the ground running in the ACC. Lashlee is an entertaining speaker, and he speaks from a place of confidence after a CFP appearance and a 20-7 mark in the last two seasons. SMU has just three losses in ACC play in its first two years in the league.

“Like I said, we've been good, but we're still in the pursuit of great,” Lashlee said. “We haven't won anything special. We haven't done anything special. We know there's a lot of hard work ahead of us. I think it just validated to everyone else and to ourselves that we are where we're supposed to be.

“We can achieve the things we want to achieve. That's what we're still working on.”

Duke coach Manny Diaz

The ACC now has a new tiebreaker rule, which was announced as part of commissioner Jim Phillips’ speech on Wednesday. Diaz is an FSU alum who spent some time early in his career working at ESPN and had a little fun with Duke going 6-2 in the ACC regular season in 2025, reaching the league’s title game and defeating Virginia.

“Been quite a week, huh? I heard we made the news,” Diaz said. “I heard we got a rule named after us. That's pretty cool, right? The Duke tiebreaker rule.

“I want to start remarks by just addressing our thoughts on that. Inherent in the narrative of changing a tiebreaker for the conference championship game is the assertion that last year's team was undeserved of being in the championship game. You hear that word that now there will be more deserved teams in the championship game. I want to push back against that narrative.

“I think it's not just false, I think it's insulting. What we're in is we're in a competition. That's what this is. ... What also is deserved is that whoever wins this competition in this league and what should be the discourse in this league is that the conference champion should go to the CFP. That should happen.”

Syracuse coach Fran Brown

A question to the Syracuse coach was framed through the lens of his faith and what his “biggest learning lessons” have been. Brown delivered quite the quip, though: "To have backup quarterbacks."

Syracuse quarterback Steve Angeli is back, and 100 percent, after an Achilles injury that sidetracked the Orange’s outlook in 2025. Syracuse has ups and downs under Brown, following up a 10-3 first year with a 3-9 mark.

“Everything we went through was lessons for us. I'm just happy I went through it with them, to be honest,” Brown said. “I'm happy we got to grow together, our relationships are stronger. Going into my third year, I'm just thankful for these dudes, that I got the right players behind me to push, to be able to go out and show who we really are.”

UNC coach Bill Belichick

The second-year UNC coach is taking a big risk, bringing in Bobby Petrino as the offensive coordinator.

“It's been great having Bobby. I've known him for a long time from the pro to college side but also when he was in Atlanta,” Belichick said. “A lot of things he does offensively are similar to what we did in New England. We've kind of been able to merge those together -- protections, routes, play actions, balanced attack, things like that. Yeah, it's been great.”

Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi

Pat Narduzzi has won eight or more games in seven of his 11 seasons at Pittsburgh. He waited a long time to be a head coach.

“To me, loyalty is everything. My dad had a piece of paper, was a loyalty quote folded up in his wallet,” Narduzzi said. “He had it there until he died back in 1988. He always talked about loyalty.

“I'm a loyal guy. I like loyal players. Loyalty is everything. I think too many guys think about where the next job is going to be, players think about their next team. I think the best thing for you to do is stay in certain places for a long time. I stayed with Mark Dantonio for 11 years. I turned down several head coaching jobs prior to taking this one because they weren't the right jobs.”

Cal coach Tosh Lupoi

Lupoi is in his first season at Cal and first as a head coach. He’s a Cal alum, coached under Nick Saban at Alabama and spent time in the NFL with Cleveland, Atlanta and Jacksonville. Lupoi also spent the last few years as Oregon’s defensive coordinator.

“This is my 20th year now in this profession, in coaching. I certainly don't have all the answers,” Lupoi said. “But it's so amazing to be able to wake up in a profession to know that you can individually improve every day, demand that amongst your staff, your players, and be a part of something together.”

Wake Forest coach Jake Dickert

The Demon Deacons were a surprise team in 2025, going 9-4 in Dickert’s first season. We didn’t see that in their matchup at FSU, a 42-9 loss at Doak, although Wake defeated SMU and Virginia.

“The one thing I've told the team that I can't recreate is last year's hunger. Those kids were sick of losing,” Dickert said. “They were sponges. They soaked up everything that they possibly could to go out there and competitively play in this league.

“There was a bunch of highs and lows, but the biggest thing that we need to be is be humble to the process. Take the habits, the energy, the connection of that football team, the way they showed up each and every day and prepared to go out there and win, right? Belief is powerful in our program. Last year we were selling belief of concept. Now we're telling our guys belief of action, and it's driven through these guys.”

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